Thursday, January 31, 2008

smelly sewing

my sewing machine stinks - i think i may have overworked it. i noticed the plastic-y, oily aroma when i stitched up this blanket:


i had already prepped the border material last week, but was thinking of getting nicer, more exciting fabric for the insert. today i realized that flannel wouldn't be on sale again before the baby comes, so i had better just make blankets with the material we've got!

so, i figured out a clever new way to cut the insert, by folding the fabric and measuring half the total i needed, making it easier to do on the dining room table (which is just under a yard across)! worked fine for the above, but i got dumb on the next one and mis-cut. so i had to make additional cuts to pretend it was an 'on-purpose' design thing and then patch the pieces together. hope it doesn't make your head spin!


speaking of head spinning, i'm getting away from the sewing machine. the smell only got worse with the second blanket and after i went downstairs and came back up it was even more noticeable. yuck!

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

whee!

yay! i did it! i love these!!!


look familiar, lindsay? :)

yesterday and beyond

so i'm still here, still up to stuff - just haven't gotten around to posting. partly because most of what i've done has been rather unexciting. for instance, more wipes:


finished those last thursday i think. we should now have around 50 cloth wipes! hope they hold up!

i got some yarn on friday to start making 'fingerless gloves' - potentially to try to sell online... only, the hook i had was too small (so it took longer and hurt my hands to make them!). PLUS, in my excitement i managed to make one bigger than the other. not stitch-wise, just tension. *sigh* here they are anyhow - they were made to fit marc (well, one tighter than the other), so they may end up his anyway.


finished those grey longies with my new buttonhole foot (which i am still getting the hang of - it has no 'measuring device' like the newer ones i've seen, so i just have to watch carefully - plus the wool is super thick so i end up having to feed it through by hand a little, which can be tricky...


so i forged on and did another pair - but they don't look at all proportional. i was thinking of cutting the cuffs off and sewing them on higher, so they're more like shorts, but marc suggested i wait and see how they actually fit. good idea!


these actually came out the best of all, surprisingly! i wasn't going to make them initially because there were two holes in ones of the sleeves i had to patch which i thought would be a pain - but they ended up looking super cute! (and proportional!) hooray! success at last!!!


excited by my ability on the last pair, i tried one more! which also didn't turn out too well.... and i don't even think they would ever be big enough! i'm leaving them as is & we shall see


marc got inspired by all my sweater pants and made a sweater diaper cover too! i had to share! (his also needed a little patch!)


and lastly, here's a little duckling i knitted from a library book 'knitted animals' - i may have to get my own copy, it's adorable.


i have 2 more potential sweater pants to make that perhaps i will attempt today... or i will kick back on the couch and knit!!! wish me luck!

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

beanie

i got this yarn for the 'accent' on the papoose (see previous post), and still had a ton left over. colorgrown organic cotton -> crocheted into baby hat! it's got to fit at some point, right?

flannel blanket

i ironed, measured, cut, measured - pinned & ironed seams, cut, and sewed the starry fabric yesterday. so, today i just had to iron, measure, cut, insert the yellow flannel and sew it all together. voila!

Sunday, January 20, 2008

a few more finished....nearly

i started this papoose way back in the summer and finally measured, realized it was twice the size of the pattern, adapted, and sewed it up! still need to tuck in a few yarn ends... but i will do that right now!


yesterday while marc went out and got us groceries i finished potato prints on the 0-3 m white onesies & shirts we had left. i'm so pleased with the way my otter design turned out! hee hee!


p.s. i found that if you click on the photos, a bigger one will open - so if you'd like a closer look at something, you can just click on the photo!

Thursday, January 17, 2008

baby crafting

ta-da! just wanted to share some of the things i've made so far. a few of these things i made months ago, more bit by bit, and a great many have come together just recently. i'm excited to show them all off, and excited to do more!


we got white knit from the bins and serged up ~ 2 dozen of these wipes. i've cut ~ 2 dozen more that need to be serged - if i could only thread the serger! i made the hat from the shirt sleeves of our sources & have more sleeves too!


here are some double-sided blankets and a few burp cloths i've made, inspired by another crafter at etsy. the red blanket is pretty big, but the others are quite small (i didn't get enough fabric the first go round). however, i do have a big stack of flannel waiting to become more big blankets.


i'd been planning on carving and printing ala linoleum - only with styrofoam - but hadn't gotten around to it when i got this inspiration from martha stewart - potato prints! i may do more of these, if i can come up with ideas. the animals are my favorites.


these booties are all the same pattern that assures me they will 'stay put', and i thought they had a chance with the drawstring. plus they were easy!


these green booties are another pattern that also insists it will stay on wiggly feet, but i made one bootie in sept., and the other in dec., and they are completely different from one another. heh. the blue ones are yet another pattern, and i made up matching mitts and a hat! there's another hat there too that probably won't fit til next year!


these are some "longies" i've made from recycled wool sweaters! the green ones have a little orange moon patch because there was a hole in the sweater & they have an elastic waistband. the blue ones have a drawstring (made by my handy new embellish-knit machine!), and i am just waiting on a buttonhole foot for my sewing machine to finish the grey ones...

whew! i had better get back to work!