catch up post #2! atcs, a dress and a cropped hoodie, a christmas garland and a baby's 1st "gothmas" ornament

a few more atcs...

these were "angel" cards for the Y and Z atc swap on craftster that i made the first set for. (angel cards are needed when someone flakes on a swap)

a pale yellow doily coaster from daiso, recycled japanese paper from daiso, a yellow brad and some yellow star grommets, yellow DYMO tape (!!), and a piece of yellow tape measure ribbon.
i like it a lot. and i hate yellow!


i wrote up a page of Zs in word, then photocopied it in reverse. i cut out a ATC sized piece out of each, and printed out a zebra print design from google. i made a sort of stencil from the design, carefully drawing it onto the back of the black background Zs, then cut them out and glued them onto the white background, to reproduce the zebra print. then i decided it needed some colour, so i added the red square with a z, and the brads just for fun. the zebra in the upper corner is actually from one of my scans of vintage wallpaper.

some clothes i've made (these were christmas presents)

just a simple dress with a very deep v (you have to wear a shirt under it) made of a heavier weight fuscia jersey. it'll look lovely on her, the pink is perfect for her colouring.


and a plaid cropped hoodie made of vintage (new/old stock) plaid poly jersey




the material is sooo cool, it's 70s poly knit that was new/old stock at the fabric store, only $3 a yard (i still have multiple yards left, i love it!). just a simple cropped hoodie with puffed 3/4 length sleeves and buttons up the front.

i made myself one as well, but with different buttons. i love how the plaid works in these hoodies, it just looks so sharp!

my massage therapist kicks ass. he's understanding when i don't have the energy to drive all the way to his office, or when i've had a crappy night and sleep through my appointment (oops!) and he understands that i'm living on a pretty limited income at the moment and is cool with me paying him when i can. i met him years ago when i did community theatre with his wife, and my whole family's been referring to him as "dr dave" ever since. i see him twice a week, so really, i see him more than any of my friends!

he always decorates his office hardcore at christmas, so i decided to make him something to put up (i made him a halloween wreath in october and he loved it).

i fell in love with this fabric (and not just with the price - 50% off, huraay- but also with the fun designs!) and bought way more than i actually needed for it!

but i'll find a use for it, i'm sure!






i cut the fabric into 7" strips with my rotary cutter, then cut the strips into pendant shapes based on the pattern i drew up. i typed up "christmas" in word using 160 point font or something like that and printed it out. i traced the letters backwards onto wonderunder (oh wonder under how i adore thee...), then ironed them onto felt and cut them out. peeled off the paper backing, ironed them onto the fabric pendants, and stitched around all the edges.

i basted the rickrack around the two longer edges of half the pendant pieces, then laid them right sides together with the other half of the pieces. stitched just a teensy bit inside my basting, turned them inside out, pressed them, and then sewed them onto bias tape!

all in all, it took between 2 and 3 hours, and it turned out super cute!


and on the entirely other side of the spectrum, here's the baby's first gothmas ornament i made for torrin!

i decided that torrin really needed a "baby's 1st gothmas" ornament to go with the standard "baby's 1st christmas" ornament my mom gave them.


i went to micheals and found plain glass ornaments. instead of balls i got flattened balls (is there a word for that shape?) and i was super happy to realize that the ornaments i bought were WAY stronger than ones i've bought in the past that seemed to be thinner than a sheet of paper!

while i was there, i also picked up a fancy black paint pen, which they promised me would work on the glass.

i went to the scrapbooking store, and found a sheet of acetate with a cool black design on it and cut the insert out of the acetate, centering the design at the top. i used the fancy black pen to write on the acetate, and while i was waiting for it to dry, i decorated the top of the glass ornament with little bats on polka dots.

once everything was dry, i very carefully rolled up the acetate and slipped it into the ornament, then added black glitter (black glitter makes every project better!). unfortunately, the glitter had a few coloured ones mixed in, which were VERY obvious once they were in the ball, and i managed to get them out, but the writing on the acetate scraped off a teensy bit. i'm kinda disapointed, but oh well. it's still fabulous!

i filled the top with gluegun glue before putting the piece onto the ball, so that should stop the glitter from escaping. i topped it off with this FABULOUS black velvet rickrack i found at the scrapbooking store (MUST buy more!), and the ornament was finished!

very simple, but i love how it turned out.


(i also got him this AMAZING book, and they only had one copy, and i'm sooo sad! i want one too!)

catch up time! atcs, postcards, crocheted baby goodies, onesie, pj pants and christmas wreath

hopefully i remember everything....

fabric halloween atcs and postcards



bigger pics, though keep in mind that the colours are as shown in the group photos, i don't know why my scanner hates orange so much!















they were all made using this tutorial.
they're halloween fabrics that i pieced together and then quilted (they all have a layer of batting and black backing fabric). i zigzagged all the edges, then i used black pigment ink to stamp a bunch of my halloween stamps onto cardstock. after they dried, i cut them out and sewed them onto the mini-quilts. and i added halloween ribbon to most of them, and a few halloween charms to the ones that felt kinda empty.

and i made a few paper based halloween atcs as well, since i didn't have enough of the fabric ones for the swap i was in.




crocheted baby goodies

the pattern is "baby it's cold outside" from crochetme, but i changed it up a bit, because i'm apparently incapable of following a pattern completely.

the yarn is "sean sheep darwin" that i bought at walmart, they just started carrying it in stores here, and the 275m ball was $6 or something like that. i still have a TON left. i picked it cause it was kinda chunky, and because i thought the colours were fun, in a non-gendered-colour kinda way! (and cause i'm broke, so the price was good)

i used a 5.5mm(I) hook, and i'm still not sure why. the pattern calls for a 6.5mm(K) hook and the yarn calls for 7mm knitting needles (which doesn't exist in crochet hooks). it worked well actually, the 6.5 might have been a bit loose, but i'm still confused as to why i picked up that hook in the first place!

i fudged the pattern a bit. once i'd finished the basic portion, everyone told me that it looked too short. that's entirely possible, since i neglected to check the gauge at any point....

so i added 4 more rows to the front and back. the front ones were easy, just adding on, but for the back i had to crochet a strip and whipstitch it on. luckily, the varigated yarn covered it nicely!



the contrast trim is red heart soft touch, which i chose entirely due to the colour match. the trim seemed to take forever - i had it completely done, ends hidden and everything, and i decided to rip it out and start over. the first time i did it, i did the single crochet too close together, and it buckled the fabric of the body, so when i redid it, i spaced them much bigger. that meant i didn't follow the instructions for the button holes exactly - i only skipped one stitch, and crocheted a chain of two, instead of skipping two stitches and crocheting a chain of three. i also did two single crochet between the buttons instead of one, and i did three rows around, because i wanted the buttons to show up better and to add more of the lime green. oh, and i did the trim all at once, instead of doing the front and neck seperate from the bottom.



the buttons aren't sewn on yet, so maybe i shouldn't actually call it completed, but i was just so happy, i couldn't wait to take pictures of it!

you may have also noticed that the sweater is a mirror image of the pattern sample. that my friends, is why you shouldn't do the seaming while carrying on a passionate phone rant with the mother-to-be. i sewed it together wrong sides together! oops! luckily, the difference between the right and wrong side is pretty much nonexistant, it just meant that the overlap is on the other side.

all in all, i'm pretty damn happy with it!

i also made a matching hat, using a pattern from crochet today that showed an example done in a blegh pastely minty green and white, in that truly nasty terry yarn that you just KNOW is going to look like crap within a month. luckily, i looked beyond the blandness!





and then i also made baby "chucks", using this pattern

i fell in love with the lime green i used on the sweater, so i used it for the sneakers as well.



i modified the pattern quite a bit, because everyone kept telling me that the soles were too narrow, and babies usually have chubby little feet. once i had the base a better shape, i followed the instructions for the top, though i think i'll change them up a bit next time - add a bit more white to the upper toe, and make the tongue longer - it was way too short in my opinion!

(and i left the circle off the side because neither the mom-to-be nor i are big fans of the politics of nike, as much as we love the look of cons, and i figured they already looked recognizable enough, it didn't need any further advertising!)

and then i still had some yarn, and i was amazed at how quickly the first hat had whipped up, so i made another! this one ended up smaller, but that's okay, it's still super cute! and he'll need a small hat at first anyway.



and i also sewed him a striped baby onesie and matching hat (which turned out MUCH bigger than the onesie! syupid one-size-fits-all hat pattern!)

this was made on December 7, 2007. i know that because as soon as my best friend called to say she was in labour, i started pre-shrinking the fabric and sewing it! torrin x arrived at 10:45pm!


lots and lots of pj pants!
my grandparents visited for 2.5 weeks at the beginning of december (one of the many reasons i'm so far behind!) and somehow (don't ask me how, i still can't figure it out), my offer to help my grandmother make one vest turned into me sewing umpteen million pairs of pj pants for her to give as christmas gifts!




some of the ones pictured were mine - like the owls at the top of the last pic! i love that fabric, i made two pairs, one for a friend and one for me (i'm wearing them now!)

i also made a wreath - much more sedate than the halloween ones, but it was for my parents, not me.


i wasn't able to find the wreath forms i used at halloween, so i bought one of those twisted branch style wreaths and wrapped the garland around it. the red berries came from micheals last year after christmas (i tore apart the bundles) and the little bells are from daiso i think.

i am a terrible blogger, i know.

i have a ton of pictures to post and projects to talk about, i promise i'll update soon.