Patchwork Skirts! And a Tutorial!

I'm nearly done with the 9 (!) patchwork skirts I'm making for my daughters and nieces.  Whew!  Here's how my first one turned out:

And I've posted the tutorial on how to make these as a page here on my blog.  You can see it at the top of the blog, right under my header.  Or follow this link.

These skirts are lots of fun to make, and they're such a great way to use up extra fabric scraps.  They go with almost any top if you use a variety of colors like I did, or you could pick one color scheme (All greens?  Red, white, and blue?  Rainbow?) and go with that.

Gotta go!  Hope you're enjoying your summer as much as we are.

Patchwork Skirt -- A Quick Peek

I'm nearly finished with my daughter's patchwork skirt!  Taking me forever, as my sewing machine is up in my bedroom, on the same floor as their rooms, so my best times to work on it (ie, when they're asleep) are kind of a no-go.  But I'm really close to finishing it, and then I'll be writing up a tutorial so you can make your own if you think they're nifty.  

Meanwhile, here are a couple of photos from the whole process.

Pile of scraps turned into skirt blocks

Three long strips of blocks sewn together

Putting it all together

And Somehow, It's July

How is it July already?  Goodness gracious me, this summer is flying by.  Probably because I've been crazybusy.  The kids have been playing with squirt guns a lot in this hot weather, which leads to sopping wet and muddy clothing, which leads to extra laundry.  There are days when the only thing I accomplish besides getting meals on and off the table is laundry.

But I've been working on several projects too, as usual.  I finally decided that I could wait no longer to get my sewing machine out, so instead of finishing actually cleaning up my entire crafting nook, I just cleaned off the table.  Here's how it looks:

As soon as I got it set up, I sewed a ring sling for my sis-in-law -- I'd promised to do that almost three months ago, sigh.  Anyway, that pile of fabric at the very right of the photo is for my latest project:  patchwork skirts.  Another sis-in-law found one online she thought would be super cute for her daughter, and she shared the photo with me.  I said, "That is super cute -- I could do that!"  Except, being me, I've decided to just do it myself without buying a pattern, so we'll see how it turns out.  I'm about half done cutting squares, then there's just pinning and sewing and ironing and more pinning and more sewing and inserting elastic... let's hope I finish them by the end of the summer!  Our daughters are about the same age, and there are two more girl cousins that age too, so if I get really ambitious, I might make matching skirts for all four of them.  If they turn out well, I'll try to put up a tutorial here on how to make them.

I'm also working on a second dress for my pixie doll, but that's been derailed by me remembering I need to crochet a baby blanket for yet another sis-in-law, so I'm concentrating on that for right now and letting my other crochet patterns slide, as the baby is due next month.

What's everyone else up to?  Taking it easy?  That sounds like a good plan to me!

First Peek at My Pixie Doll!

I've finished my pixie doll and her first dress!  Here she is:

This is the Spring dress -- I've got designs in mind for one for each season.  And my son wants me to make a boy pixie too, so we shall see what I can come up with.  Meanwhile, this is all finished except for a button on the back, and then I'll be doing better photos and writing up the pattern, etc.

Resurfacing

I dropped off the grid for a while -- sorry about that.  We went to my parents' house, the kids and I were sick for a week, and then I had to dig myself out from under a mountain of laundry... I've barely had time to check my email and keep up with pattern sales, much less do some real blogging. 

But right now, I have a few quiet minutes, and thought I'd do a catch-up post here.  I just finished playing The Game of Life with my son, and he's now playing with the cars and little peg people, racing them around the board and telling little stories.  Both girls are napping, and outside it looks like a rainstorm might be scudding our way.

Remember how I said I wanted to have my creative nook totally reorganized by the end of May?  I failed.  It doesn't look much different than it did three weeks ago, except that I've emptied out one of the grey plastic tubs and cleared a couple things off my sewing table.  Sigh.  At this rate, it'll be the end of summer before I even manage to haul out my sewing machine, and those skirts I wanted to make the girls for this summer will have to be fall skirts instead.  Grr.

On a good note, I've finished my fairy/sprite/pixie doll, and the first dress for her!  I need to get some photos of her the next time it's sunny, and then I'll post them here and show her off.  And get the patterns in my store!  I'm hoping to accomplish that by the end of this week, we shall see.

I've also been working on a watercolor poster thing (I'm so descriptive today!) for the baby's room -- I'll post pics of that when it's finished too.  And I'm more than half done with the first knitted storage box for the shelves in my creative nook.  Haven't had a lot of crafting time lately -- did I mention the mountain of laundry? -- but I do what I can, when I can.

Okay, that's all for today.  Hoping to post more soon!

Is it a Sprite? Or a Fairy?

So, know that Secret Project I mentioned a couple times, the one inspired by the beautiful green sock yarn from Six Skeins that I won a couple weeks ago?  I'm mostly done with the first part and ready to share a peek!

I was originally thinking this would be a fairy, with outfits that reflect the four seasons.  But wings are puzzling me.  Are there wingless fairies?  Or should I call it a sprite?  She doesn't have hair yet, but I really wanted to share right now cuz I'm so excited to have the body done -- it's my first time designing a doll crochet pattern -- a full-body one, I mean -- and after lots of experimenting, it finally came out satisfactorily.


So, I got the amazing green sock yarn from Six Skeins wound into two small cakes, and I also wound up three sock yarn mini skeins I got from Wullenstudio.  Have to have yarn for the other three seasons, not just green for spring!  Though I think the green will be my starting point for the clothes.  Each outfit will be designed to reflect the season, and come with a hat too.  I already have the basic look for each one figured out (maybe one day I'll sketch out my designs so I don't forget them, but right now, all my pattern ideas are stored in my head), I just need to make them.

(My yarn cakes are a little messy because when I wound them, I had two small helpers who are possessed of more enthusiasm than exactness.  They had lots of fun!)

Back. Again.

Since the last time I blogged, we've moved, we're mostly unpacked, and I'm starting to get back into crafting. At last! Which means I'm also getting back to my blog :-)

I just listed this sweet hat in my shop:


It's a 6-12 month hat I made from 100% merino wool. Divinely soft! And I love the happy, springy colors, don't you?

Here's my current project:


Yes, I'm knitting! Crazy, I know. I realized I'd pretty much forgotten the little I'd learned about knitting, so I decided to jog my memory and use up a bit of left-over yarn and make something small for Mercy -- I was thinking a Barbie blanket for her to play with when she's older, but I think I'm going to run out of yarn before I make a whole blanket, so it'll be more like a Barbie throw or rug or something. But again, don't you love these colors? Bright and cheery, and I love them!

And finally, my friend Julie from This Cosy Life gave me this gorgeous yarn as an early birthday gift:


It's hand-dyed cotton chenille from Etsy shop Crochet 4 U 2 Dye 4. I'm going to make Mercy a sun hat from it as soon as I finish my little knitting project. Fun, fun, fun!

Yarn, Glorious Yarn!

I took Mom (and my kids) to the local yarn store today, A Stitch in Time. What bliss, what joy! I bought a yarn winder and swift! And also a bunch of yarn, including this really interesting kind made from corn fibers. It's really soft -- I can't wait to use it to make some things for my shop!


I also bought yarn for a custom order for a baby hat, which is what you see on my swift and winder here. It's a lovely super-wash merino, with pretty pinks ranging from dusty rose to delicate pink. I'm going to start that hat as soon as I've posted this and linked to it on my Facebook page.

Easy-Peasey Glue Batik

A month or so ago, I read a post on That Artist Woman's blog about doing batik with kids. I'd actually never heard of batik before, but it looked fun. Instead of using hot wax to create designs like classic batik, That Artist Woman used Elmer's Washable School Glue Gel. I thought maybe I'd try it sometime. Well, Danol spilled orange juice all over a plain white shirt one morning last week, and it didn't all come out in the wash, so I thought, why not try that batik thing with it?

So, armed with blue glue gel, watered-down acrylic paint, Dano's shirt, a body suit for Mercy, and one of my hubby's old undershirts for me, I embarked upon my batik experience. That Artist Woman said it would take 12 hours for the designs I drew with the glue to dry, so I did that Thursday night. I did a train for Dano, autumn leaves for Mercy, and for my shirt I wrote "Make a joyful noise unto the LORD" (Psalm 98:4) and surrounded it with music notes and symbols.

I learned a few things. If you do big, filled-in shapes with the glue, like the smokestack on the train or the bottoms of the music notes, they'll take longer than 12 hours to dry. And if you try to do a lot of little lines together, they'll probably all run together. If you're doing shirts like this, definitely put waxed paper between the front and back of your shirt or your design with go all the way through and your shirt will glue itself to itself. Which didn't happen to me, but with as much as they stuck to the waxed paper, I know it would.

But eventually, the glue was dry, so on Friday afternoon, we took our shirts out to the balcony and painted them. I'd mixed up acrylic paint with water in squeezey bottles, which made painting the shirts really easy, especially for Dano. I learned some things here too. Putting down plastic garbage bags under what you're painting is good (I did, and got very little paint on the balcony). Also, prewashing your garments if they're new is good. I didn't prewash Mercy's body suit, it was brand-new, and the paint did NOT want to soak into it. With Dano's and my shirts, the paint soaked in where we squirted it. But I had to rub and pat it into Mercy's body suit, and it didn't soak in as well or dye it as brightly.

I also learned that little boys who are not yet 3 years old can be awesome at this! Dano's shirt turned out the best of all, I think. He was super-careful and thoughtful about where to put each squirt of color. He would put one color over another, which made his shirt look beautiful and artistic, while my shirt looks blobby and blotchy because I was trying not to let them bleed together very much.

I think this would make a really cool craft project for Vacation Bible School, a summer camp -- anything where you can take multiple days to make it. Because after the paint dries, you have to soak the shirts to get the glue out, then let them dry again. So it's at least a two-day project, maybe three. Read That Artist Woman's post here for all the details on how to do this.

I've washed our shirts in the washer, and they've retained their colors quite nicely, so I'd say this craft project was a rousing success!

A First

If you're wondering what I've been up to for the past couple weeks, wonder no more. A good deal of my time was spent crocheting this dress for Mercy. I bought a couple hundred yards of divine hand-dyed yarn from my friend Julie back in June -- it's the same as this yarn she's selling in her shop, ThisCosyLife. I knew I wanted to use it on something special for my baby girl, but I just couldn't decide on a project. I wanted to try making her a dress or other piece of clothing... but I've never crocheted clothing before. I felt daunted by the idea.

But I started looking at crochet patterns for baby dresses. I couldn't find any I really liked -- they were all too complicated or too frilly or just not what I wanted. I wanted a simple, sweet sundress she could wear to church or the mall or whatever.

Then I said to myself, hey, I know what I want -- why don't I just make up my own pattern? I make up patterns all the time! What's the worst that can happen -- I have to unravel it and start over. Big deal. I knew my 200 yards of yarn from Julie wouldn't be enough for a whole dress, but I had some wool yarn left over from another project that was a lovely peach and just matched one of the colors in Julie's yarn. I figured between the two, I'd have enough.

So, after much trial and error, ripping out stitches and redoing, I have the sundress I wanted. Simple, colorful, and feminine without being fussy and frilly. I even had enough of Julie's yarn left to make a matching diaper cover! I found these perfect buttons at the craft store, and my first attempt at crocheting clothing was complete!

I plan to offer my original pattern for this dress in my shop soon -- I just have to write it up first :-) And now that the dress is done, I can get back to blogging and post about the two books and three recipes I've been meaning to share.

The Ladybug Dress

Voila! If you've been wondering what I've been working on lately, here it is: the Ladybug Dress.

Nope, it's not for Mercedes, it's for a friend's daughter who will turn five next month. I'm hoping to make a little handbag to match it, we'll see.

This is the first garment I have sewn since I was... twelve? I think so. And the first time I've followed a dress pattern by myself. So I'm really proud of it, even though it's a frightfully easy pattern. I did have to use bias tape, so it wasn't all straight hems and stuff. I love the ribbon sleeves too -- I'm totally making a smaller version of this dress when Mercedes is two or so.

And I love this fabric! It's a cotton seersucker, very breathable. And so cheerful! My friend happens to love ladybugs, so I had to get this and make something from it for her little girl. I actually bought more and made a sling for Mercedes from it because it's so cute!

The North Wind Doth Blow

It's snowing! It's not sticking, of course, but still, it's snowing! In honor of our first snow for the season, I thought I'd highlight some of the new winter hats I've been adding to my shop lately.

For adults, I just added this groovy hat. I call it the Purple Waves hat, not just because the yarn is purple and the pattern is wavy, but as a reference to one of my favorite books ever, The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. I crocheted this hat from a wool/acrylic blend that has a handspun texture, which means it has "slubs," or thicker parts in the yarn. That gives this hat a nobbly aspect that I think is extra fun.

Another adult hat I added recently is this black and burgundy cloche. A cloche is a close-fitting women's hat that's sort of shaped like a bell. They were really popular back in the Roaring Twenties. I made this one from satin-finish acrylic yarn, so it's extra soft. And it matches a pair of mittens that I made a couple months ago. Both mittens and hat are done in single crochet for maximum warmth.

And I'm adding some children's sizes to my shop! My first is this Jack-o'-lantern hat that's actually a larger size of the baby ones I already offer. This is big enough for a toddler up to about a ten-year-old. (I offer the pattern for the baby sizes here.) I'm going to be adding a snowman hat soon -- I made one as a custom order and it turned out so cute, I'm going to make more for my shop. In fact, I've got one started already. More about that when I list it!

Withdrawl

I know I spend a lot of time on the computer, but I didn't realize just how much until our modem died on Tuesday morning. Suddenly, I couldn't check my email, I couldn't do anything with my Etsy shop, I couldn't blog, I couldn't check my Facebook... and what was worse, Daniel couldn't talk to his grandparents on Skype or watch an occasional Veggie Tales silly song on YouTube.

By the time we finally got a new modem hooked up and were back online Wednesday night, I felt like I'd been trying to quit caffeine or something. My husband and I had to take turns catching up on our internet lives after Daniel went to bed, and our own bedtime was rather later than usual.

But while I was without internet access for two days, I got an astounding number of other things done. I finished crocheting little flowers for a scarf I'm making for a custom order. I crocheted almost a dozen new scrunchies. I picked all the dead blossoms and leaves off the flowers we have hanging on our balcony. I did laundry. I fixed a toy for Daniel. I wrote up some episode reviews of my favorite TV show, Combat!, to be posted soon on the Fruit Salad fansite a friend and I have created. I worked on a story I've been revising lately. In short, I was very productive when deprived of my internet.

So I'm thinking I need to scale back on some of what I do online. Do I need to belong to quite so many Etsy teams? Maybe not. Do I need to spend quite so much time online promoting my shop when I could be making new items for it instead? Maybe not. Do I need to take quite so many fun quizzes on Facebook? Maybe not. I'm definitely going to be giving this a lot of thought. But I'm really glad I'm back online anyway :-D

Milestones and a Weekend Recap

I made my tenth sale yesterday! Sold my baby sun hat pattern again. I'm thinking offering a few more patterns might be a good plan. For my finger puppets, maybe? I'm working on some new ones, and have a set almost ready for a photo shoot.

The weekend was awesome. Saturday, I got to meet one of my favorite authors, Laurie R. King. She writes great mysteries, and has a whole series about Sherlock Holmes and a character she created named Mary Russell. They're my faves, though I've read a bunch of her other books and like them too. If you want, you can read about my experience at her book tour here, on my other blog, "Inscriptions."

Saturday night, we hung out at our local library for a while, listening to a Beatles tribute band. While my hubby and Daniel were off running around, I got hit on by a guy almost as old as my dad. I'm still not sure if I should be flattered or frightened....

And on Sunday, I went to see Wolverine with a friend. I loved it. I want to see it again. Before it leaves theaters. Enough said. Mmmmmmmm. Posting a random pic from it just because that means I'll get to gaze at it every time I bring my blog up for a week or so.

And finally, I just found out that one of my favorite current TV shows, NCIS, is spinning off a new show (as yet unnamed). And that new show will star... Chris O'Donnell. Yes. The same Chris O'Donnell I have been madly in love with since, what, 1995? A really long time. Here's a pic from the recent NCIS eps that set off the spinoff, because that means I get to gaze at Chris (and Mark Harmon) for a while too. As do you.

Oh, one last thing. Happy birthday, Rudolph Valentino!

A Fistful of Fun

I'm adding a new line to my shop, cute little crocheted finger puppets. So far I've listed a puppy and a kitten, and I have a little white bunny ready to take pictures of too -- I hope to list it tomorrow.

I'm actually making up my own pattern for these, as none of the patterns I've found are quite what I want. They're either too big or too complex or too floofy -- I just want plain, sturdy little puppets that allow for imaginative play. So I've made these. Dano gets to keep my first attempts at each different puppet, and I make new ones to sell. He loves them! I have lots of ideas for more, so keep an eye on my shop to see what else I come up with.

"Christy"

I picked up Christy: The Complete Series on dvd a few weeks ago, but didn't get a chance to start watching any of it until today. I put on the pilot episode as soon as the boyo was down for his nap, and pulled out some craft projects to work on while I watched.

I'd forgotton how good this series is! And how much I like Dr. Neil MacNeill (Stewart Finlay-McLennan). And how, the first time I saw Sarah Michelle Gellar on TV, she reminded me of Kellie Martin. I'd watched most of this series when it was on TV 15 years ago, and while my little brother wasn't much of a fan, Mom and I dug it.

Sadly, the pilot lasted longer than Daniel's nap, so I'll have to finish it tomorrow. But I did finish pinning together some little reversible purses I'm experimenting with. Now I just need to find time to pin them together. Two of them are made from this lovely springtime fabric, and I can't wait to see how they turn out!