I found yet another sewing blog

I drool over a lot of her stuff.  Her crochet work and photos and pretty adorable kids, and some of her sewing. She's a little fussy for my taste, and likes vintage patterns.  But, I love this blanket and I am always up for a good flannel blanket pattern.  I have made dozens of the strip flannel with the frayed edge and then I moved on to the squares. Hours of cutting little tiny snips with sweaty hands in apartments with no a/c!!!! I have to say that this is my favorite creation by far.  A happy mistake that turned out cool. A little nod to argyle. I love argyle anything.

But this is adorable and just the right kind of tedious I would like and can't be more tedious than this above???.  I have a stack of flannel waiting to be used and I think I just found the project!!!!

Little shout out

One of my college roomies is having her first baby girl (second child) in 43 days (according to her baby counter on her blog!!!) She is obsessed with U2, the band.  She lived in England for a year or 2 and while she was there she basically jaunted to Ireland to stalk band members and check out local bars and U2 history spots.  She also does not want pink or anything with big flower headbands.  Just not her.  So I wanted to make her something sweet that still gave a little shout out to U2 without being to obvious.  So here is my creation: a little sun dress with little leggings to match.  This pic makes it look so long.  I imagined it to be a newborn size, I hope it's not ridiculously too long. The leggings really will only show when the baby moves, but for the pic, they hang out making it seem long.  It's hard to make clothes for something you can't model!!

 Here's a close up of my Ireland with the heart over Dublin (that's where U2 is from for those not in the know about them).  It's not a perfect match, but that country has a very jagged coastline which makes for very hard stitching!!! Philip thought maybe I should stitch the word Dublin or Ireland on it to make it more clear.  I am torn.  I kind of like the cryptic nature of this, making it an inside thing for her and her close friends.  But then again, will it be embarrassing for her to take her baby out in it and have people think she is wearing some totally horrible interpretation of a bear??  That's what Amelia was calling it. Thoughts????

 The over the shoulder bow unties completely to help it get over little heads without stretching or being too low.  I used this tutorial but wanted it to be higher on the neck, so the usable bow was a good solution for me.  It's all jersey knit tee material, so it's soft, comfy, washable and breathable.

 I was going to make the leggings ruched, but they were so tiny, it wasn't working.  So I decided to leave it raw.  I kind of love the way raw jersey curls and looks too.  Plus it's easy with no serger!!

Hopefully her little baby looks cute in it and she can get some use out of it before it gets too cold. 

My finds

I have been slacking in posting, but I figure like 3 people look at this, so whatever.  Anyway, I went to UT and got some awesome deals at the downeast clearance center. I mostly have to share with Claire who was asking me what I get there. They have all the mess ups and damaged items (and occasionally some good ones) from Potterybarn and sometimes some other retailers, but you have to dig.  I went with a mission.  A potterybarn backpack for Amelia and some sheets I could cut up to make a quilt for Ben.  I dug through the bins of backpacks and I scored these!!!

 

I was so lucky. Amelia already has a lunchbox with the same pattern, so I love that we found something to match and it only had a small "M" embroidered on it which can/will be easily covered up with an iron patch of some sort. It still had the paper inside and the tags on it. It is the smaller kindergarten version which was also really good since she is so small, all the other backpacks seems to be impossible for her to wear empty.  How could she do it with a notebook in there??

The next was Ben's.  I mean how lucky to find a simple colored one with no design with HIS name on it. Luckily he has a very common name (and I am finding Amelia's is also getting more and more common)  My only concern is it is huge and my kids are tiny.  So I hope by the time he can carry it without toppling backwards, he will not be embarrassed by the fact it screams his name. And, does anyone else find it crazy that some of these little tiny kindergarten sized backpacks have cell phone attachments and holes for headphones for your mp3 player???? 

Last, I found this one with my nephew's name on it.  He is also obsessed with sharks.  I mean how lucky is that?  I think it was worn and then returned because it has a name inside and the bottom is a little rubbed.  Nothing that wouldn't happen the first week of school, so hopefully he won't mind.  And, drumroll please, I got all 3 for the grand total of $21!!!  These typically retail close to $30 especially with the monogram.  I would have paid full price for them because they are such good bags, but it's nice to test run them at a great price so I know if I want to get them full price when it's time to replace them.  I am pretty sure I already know the answer.  I have a diaper bag that just keeps going and the kids have little mini backpacks that have been hiked with, puked on and peed on and just throw them in the wash and they are like brand new.  These are seriously some good backpacks PB!!
 

I also wanted these specific sheets with airplanes on them and turned around to look in the sheets bin and right on top was the one.  It really was my day.  I actually ended up finding some other ones that will work out better, along with a sham and a couple other sheets I liked the feel and color of.  Then I found 2 shade shirts for $5 for both.  And Ben really wanted a boy hooded towel since all of ours are girl.  Poor thing. He gets all the girl hand-me-downs. I found a super soft shark hooded towel with only 2 letters stitched on it, "NO" which I thought was funny.  It is pretty cute and has a fin.  I would totally pay full price for these too.  They are so soft and a good size.  So glad I tested them out for cheap so now I know.  This shopping trip has changed my mind about PB goods.  A little over priced, but if you get a sale, totally worth it.  Great steal and loving all of them.  So for $65 I got a ton of what I would consider fun stuff for the kids and me for projects.  Stay tuned to see the blanket I make out of my sheets.

Model

So I make a lot of projects and then mail them off to people far away and very rarely get to see it on the baby. Remember this,

I sent this to my sister to give to a friend and I got this back. Pretty adorable, right.  This baby definitely helps!!!
I have some cute projects coming up.  Anyone want to volunteer their baby to model them!?!?! 

Upcycle projects

Before and After

Here are 2 of my upcycled projects. I was totally inspired by this outfit.  I didn't take a before pic of the shirt before I started cutting and ripping it apart.  Too bad because it is such a good transformation.  It was pretty unflattering and actually in my maternity clothes because I thought maybe I could pull it off when I had a baby bump, but let's be honest, it still wouldn't have been very flattering.  It was baggy and had long turned up cuffed sleeves and a wrap around front with this tie that was literally 3 feet long.  My sister actually gave it to me because the woman who bought it had bought a bunch on sale and thought she would like some.  (That's a story in itself)  So she passed one on to me years ago and there is has sat in a box and I hate things sitting in boxes being unused.  I am a regular de-junker.  So I decided I would have a go at it and see what I could do. I altered it to actually flatter and fit my shape, made a button-up front, made the ruffles down the front and shortened the sleeves and re-cuffed them.  The material is a stretchy dress shirt fabric and was really nice and forgiving to work with.
The skirt I bought in probably 1997 from Old Navy.  Can you believe I am still hanging on to it.  Every time I wore it, I felt like I should be on an episode of 19 Kids and Counting so it has just sat in my closet unworn for too long.  I have put it in my donate pile many times but always pull it back out because it's so simple and in excellent condition and I never find something I like to replace it.  My solution, to lop off a good 20 inches or so and bring it more in the now.  Simple hem job for this but now I have a brand new outfit, tailored to me and with no shopping.  Stay tuned for what else I can manipulate into something I will actually wear.  I have about 10 shade shirts that are calling my name.  I just need to find the right project for them.

Changed my mind.....

 So I was too worried that my headbands would not be age appropriate or "cool" enough for the girls here, so I decided to go with something a little more safer and whipped up 10 of these "sailor knot"bracelets.  I used my favorite 100% cotton yarn so they are soft and totally washable and a little flexible to fit over your hand but still be snug on your wrist.  I love the white and have one for myself, and the green is nice on too.  Not a huge fan of the pink, but some girls are into pink, so I threw it in.

Great de-stash project for the ends of a yarn ball you have laying around or strips of fabric.  You could do this with really anything. (I have some leather cording I think I am going to do next and see how it is, but I kind of am in love with the white one, so it might be hard to beat)  I followed this tutorial to make the knots.  She uses cording or thin rope.  I just chain crocheted a long piece to give the yarn some substance.  I wrapped mine around a tapered glass instead of a can and it worked great to slide off and on and to make different sizes.  Here's a hint to figure out how much string or yarn you need: wrap your yarn around the object you are going to be using to make it (or your hand balled up) 7 times and that seems to be a good length. I kind of felt like a little girl making friendship bracelets again.  Amelia and I have matching ones, per her request.  She seriously loves matching and it's a little embarrassing to me, but I suck it up because she loves it so much and it makes it kind of sweet.  But these are the grown up version of friendship bracelets!!! (at least that's what I am telling myself)

Results of not checking my gauge

I have made enough botched hats to know that patterns end up way bigger than you want them to, at least for me.  I figured it would probably be a little big for a 4-8 year old like the pattern said, but I intended it to be more my size.  This was even huge on me and I even reduced it 6 rows when I started to see how it was shaping up.  Can you imagine it 2 inches longer??  It makes Ben look like a Bob Marley fan. It's still pretty cute, and the newborn size will be adorable for a little baby, but I was looking forward to a new hat. I tried felting it, but it was only 20% wool so it wouldn't felt even a little.  No biggie, we just added this to the dress up box.  It was quick and fun and can't wait to redeem myself with making the appropriate size!!

Can I make one of everything off here??

I love her quilts and lots of other stuff too. This is from V and Co.  I wish I had an orphanage (for lots of reasons) but one of them is so I could make baby quilts over and over again.  I'll take one of these,
and one of these