Jack's Christmas stocking

I forgot to post about Jack's Christmas stocking last year.  poor guy has just slipped through the cracks ;)  but I did make it in time for his first Christmas.
I decided I didn't like the fabric I chose after I finished it, but I'm used to it now.  I think it makes the colored felt pop a little more.

  

he of course got a Jackalope, I put a xylophone on it to remember one of the first Christmas gifts we gave him, and his snowman is a cowboy.

I was on the fence about putting "Jackers" on it, but since that silly name has followed him beyond the family (and it'll probably stick until he's old enough to tell us to stop calling him that) I went ahead and did it.  he might not even notice.  I didn't notice mine said Candi until I was in highschool!

I loved seeing all our matching stockings out growing up, and hearing the jingle bells when they moved - such a simple but fond memory of Christmas as a kid.  it's something that I'm glad I carried over to our family :)  I'm already gathering ideas for the stocking I will be making next year!

pillowcase dresses

I helped make pillowcase dresses that went to Colombia earlier this week.  we completed 84 - yay us!  these are very simple to make and super cute. Hobby Lobby has an easy to follow video on making these, and a size chart for size 2T up to 8.

I surged the raw edges and turned them under instead of using bias tape under the arms because I wanted to crank out as many as possible.  don't panic if it looks bunched up and funny after sewing the fabric under the arms - once it's ironed it lays flat and it's fine.

  

something else I do different than the pattern is making the ties come out the center back of the casing instead of tying at the shoulder.  I thought it'd be harder for the younger ones to try to pull at the bow if they couldn't easily reach it, but the strap can be shifted to tie at the shoulder for the older ones that dress themselves.

the deal was cookies for a picture, and to not tell daddy what we did that afternoon!

I iron down the top edge 1", open it up and mark two lines within the casing, and sew a rectangle in the back seam making sure to reinforce at the top and bottom so the seam doesn't come undone.

  

I separate the seam and clip the stitches within the rectangle I just sewed to make the opening for the strap ends to come out of, then stitch the casing down.

  

these are the cute projects I miss out on when only having boys, so hopefully there are some girls in our future so I don't scar my sons with memories of trying on girlie things...even if it is for a good cause ;)

crazy quilt

I was asked to make a quilt with a bunch of random fabric for a charity sewing group I'm in, so I thought the best way to make all the fabric work together and use up as many scraps as I could was to make it totally unorganized and mismatched - I even turned some of the fabrics the wrong side up - I know, I went a little crazy on my crazy quilt!  I love how I could just throw stuff together and really didn't have to worry about anything except making straight cuts.  I even staggered the rows so I didn't have to match the blocks up O:)

I did some free motion quilting with my new darning foot and just doodled away with a multi-colored thread.  it really popped against the black sashing and really tied the blocks together.  this took a while, but it also went kinda quick because I enjoyed doing it - it passed the time, and the more I did the more inspired I was to finish.

I don't know if I could do one like this every month, but sewing for the past couple of weeks has made me want to sew some more between the crocheting I've been doing for the group.  I saw a video for quilting as you go that I really wanna try next time!

granny squares pillow

for my mother-in-law's birthday I made up a bunch of granny squares and tacked them to a pillow I made.

I used this pattern with a 3.25mm hook and doubled embroidery floss.

I made the pillow from a couple of dinner napkins and did a blanket stitch around the edge.  it was a little time consuming but I'm happy how it came out :)

I liked using the embroidery floss for this because I could get so many different colors and I only needed a little for each square so it didn't cost a lot to have a variety of colors.  the strands would separate once in a while, so I wasn't able to crochet as fast as I normally would and needed to really pay attention so I didn't pull up a strand from the wrong loop, but other than that it was pretty easy to do.

for a wee Scot

I made a kilt for my friend's baby, Jude.  I did one for her husband years ago when they got married, so I thought their son should have a cute matching one :)

I've made 4 in the past 8 years so I figured I'd just wing it... but after looking at photos of the first one I did it came back to me how much was involved and I decided to look for a little help online.  I basically needed a picture to see the inside and refresh me a little, so I scanned through this site to jog my memory.  I looked at a lot of pictures of baby kilts, too, to get an idea of length and inspire me.  I used one of Leo's little onesies and took some measurements and sorta just guessed at the size since not all babies come in the same size and shape!

 

I put velcro at the waist, so it should be adjustable for a little while.

I figured it'd be easy enough to find a white collared shirt onesie, but I feel like that was the hardest part of the outfit to acquire!  I finally found a little suit at Burlington Coat Factory that came with a regular dress shirt, so I just grabbed a white onesie from the sale rack at Kohl's and attached it to the bottom using this tutorial.

I found these cute shoes at Payless that I paired with some longer white socks from Carters - also another hard find!

 

I used some leather scraps and rabbit fur I had to make a tiny little sporran that I attached to small pieces of double sided velcro to sandwich in the waist overlap, which I think really finished it off nicely :) 

t-shirt refashion how-to

I got this shirt a few years ago with the intention of making it over.  after wearing it as-is for a while I finally changed it up, and it was so simple I wish I had done it forever ago!

supplies needed:

• 2 t-shirts (or 1 t-shirt and scrap fabric of the same or similar fabric type)
• sewing machine
• scissors

lay the shirt flat, line up the seams at the shoulders and smooth down to the under arms. cut through both layers following the curve of the sleeve and taper in toward the neckline. cut the shoulders apart, fold the front down and re-cut the back so it's more narrow than the front.

pull the top part back up and trim the front so that it follows the back angle if you want to use the neckband as your casing, but I didn't like how it gathered so I cut off the neck band from the front and back making the front more of a straight line.

sew a hem on both sides going from the front to the back (or just leave it unfinished), then fold over 1/2" on the front and sew that down to make the front casing.

 

for the back casing cut a scrap of fabric to the same width as the back of the unfinished part of the top of the shirt (remember to add some for the seam allowances) and twice as wide as you want your casing to be.  if you want the back of the shirt higher make the casing long, and if you want it lower in back make the casing shorter. hem the sides of the scrap and fold in half.  with the unfinished edges together, line up with the raw edge of the shirt and sew across (I don't have a picture of that - sorry!) then flatten out the seam and sew across so that it lays flat.

braid 3 straps of the scrap together, sewing across the ends and cutting them straight.  put a safety pin on one end and fish it through the casing on the front and back of the shirt (no pic for this either) and mark where to cut it so the straps are the right length. straighten out the braid so it's not twisted and stitch both ends together so they're flat, and pull it back through the front casing to hide the join.

this step is optional:  take more scrap fabric and make a band for the bottom by cutting two rectangles that measure half of your hips (or wherever the shirt hits you) plus 1/2" for seam allowance, and twice as wide as you want the band to be.  put the rectangles right sides together (I used the wrong side of the fabric for mine) and sew along the short sides, then turn the tube down in half to make the folded edge.

insert the shirt into the tube so that the raw edges of the band line up with the bottom of the shirt, pin at the side seams and find the halfway points of the front and back on the band and the shirt and pin those spots together. stretch the band as you sew to make the fabric line up, then turn the band down.

I love the design of this shirt and will be making more of these for the summer :)

hook roll tutorial

I made this crochet hook roll from a place mat I found at World Market and some leftover bias tape I had. it was easy to do and came out exactly how I wanted.

you'll need:
- place mat
- bias tape twice as long as the width of your place mat (optional)
- sewing machine
- matching thread(s)

open up the bias tape and fold it backwards in half, sew from the middle to the folded edge only and trim the corners so it can fold back up and not be too bulky.

place the finished edge of the bias tape over the corner of the place mat and sew from that corner all the way down the length of the rest of the bias tape, finishing off the other edge by folding it under before sewing it down.
if you don't want to use bias tape, you can just stitch some ribbon to one edge of the place mat to tie it off.

fold up the bottom edge as high as you need it (I measured based on the length of my hooks), line up the edges, pin, and sew down both sides.

measure the opening between the lines stitched down the sides and divide it up how you want it for the size hooks or whatever you'll put in it.

you can mark the lines with a fabric pen or chalk. I just pinned each spot and creased the fabric line at a time with my straight edge before I sewed each one. you can also eye-ball it if you can sew a good straight line.

this one was for my mother-in-law so I'll definitely be making another for myself!