Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Week: 3 Embroidered Baby Clothes


The word under the rabbit is Turkish.  That’s why you can’t read it.
There’s something about baby clothes that just makes my uterus ache, my voice squeaky, and my husband’s eyes roll.  Must be magic. 

These one-pieces are so easy, and so versatile.  Use whatever fabrics, shapes, colors, and words you want to add a special touch to your baby clothes.

I just bought plain white one-pieces, and used extra fabric scraps I had in my bag-o-scraps, and embroidery floss.  You’ll also want to buy some iron-on fabric adhesive from your local craft store.
Needles (in my super cute owl pin cushion), iron-on adhesive, hoop, scissors, embroidery floss, fabric scraps. (Not pictured: one-piece)

Draw your idea out on paper, and then pencil it in on the one-pieces too!
Pencil any fabric shapes you want onto the paper side of the iron on transfer.  Cut a rectangle around the shapes, but don’t cut the shapes out.  Iron the other side of adhesive onto the fabric.  Cut the shapes out.  Peel paper off, and iron onto the one-pieces.

Use a hoop to hold the workspace on your one-pieces flat, then stitch around edges of fabric shapes, and over your pencil marks. 

I used a running stitch for the words, the outside of the rabbit’s face, and to go around the edge of the fabric shapes.  

The rabbit’s facial features were made with a back stitch.


This little butt heart was made with a overcast stitch.
overcast or whip stitch




* Click on the link below the pictures to get a basic stitch tutorial.  If your looking for step by step instructions of fun stitches check out this link.



As always,  Happy crafting!

Hoot Hoot! Owl Beanies!

I came across the cutest owl beanie pattern a few months ago while searching for free animal beanie patterns. 
 I found it on one of my favorite craft blogs: Happy Together.  Check her out, she's too cute.

 She actually got the pattern from this blog though, so check her out too!  Daisy Cottage Designs.


You know what is becoming exceedingly obvious to me?  I need a baby  to model these beanies.  My husband wont let me have one though.  So April? Necan? Nicole?  Will you please send me pictures of your darling little pumpkins modeling the hats and other things I sent you?  Pretty please?

Week 4: Lovely Valentines Day Bunting


My mom came for a visit!  One of my favorite things about having guests is decorating their rooms to make them feel welcome.  (OK OK it is my secret goal that they will at some point during their stay refer to me as an even-better-than-Martha hostess.)

Because the room was set up with Christmas decorations from our last visitors, and because my mom would be here for the very start of February, I decided to go with some hearts.

I found this darling, and oh-so-easy crochet heart bunting pattern from Simple Beans.

And added some white every-day bunting that I came up with.  
I discovered this super easy and fun to make Itty-bitty-bunting while trying to make monster teeth.  After I got done squealing over it's cuteness, I spent a week or so thinking of something I might use it for.  Thank goodness my mom decided to come for a visit!

Here's the pattern:

Happy Crafting!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Week 2: Flowery Headband

Floral loveliness

A dear friend of mine, and the florist from my wedding is having a baby girl soon! Yea!  So I figured her little girl needed something flowery from me.  I love big blossoms on tiny headbands, so I figured that was where we would head.

First, check out some of the LOVELY blooms April put together for our wedding...



OK OK, so this one highlights my dress, too.  And my husband.




Feeling inspired?  Me too!  If you want more of April, check out her blog.

************************

It's a super easy and super adaptable project that can be completed in no time, and with bits of yarn left-overs.

Materials:
  • yarn (any kind)
  • hook (again, pretty much any size)
Stitches used:
  • Ch: Chain
  • HDC:  Half double 
  • Sl st: Slip stitch
Using band color:

Row 1:  Chain 7. Turn.
Row 2: HDC in second chain from hook. One HDC in each stitch across.  (Turn)
Row 3- last row: Ch 2 (turning chain), HDC in each chain across. (Turn)

Continue on until your band is the right length. (Measure circumference of head, subtract 2 inches for stretchiness.)  Common head measurements: Newborn: 13"-14", Toddler: 18"-20", Child: 19"-21", Teen: 21"-22", Adult: 22"-23".

Slip stitch ends of band together.  Fasten off, and weave ends.

Now the fun part!  Flowers!

There are so many flower patters out there it is just silly to try and reinvent the wheel.  I used the six petal flowers, but here are some others.  Click the link to view the patterns.

Six petal flowers: Attic 24

 Roses: pompom emporium

 Radiant flower: crochet mania

  Lotus: Crochet mania

Pansys: crochet mania




Note:  This pattern (if you can even call it that) is totally free.  You can use it to crochet gifts as well as headbands to sell.  If you post it in your own blog, please link back to this post!
Also send pictures of your own lovely headbands! I would be happy to feature them in a post!


Thursday, January 19, 2012

Week 1: Beard Beanies

Beard Beanies!  Made for Bryan and Alan on New Year's Eve.

I found what seems to be the ONLY FREE BEARD BEANIE PATTERN IN THE WORLD (here).  Thank you, Gumbo, for your pattern, your ideas and your generosity. Her blog "Gumbo Soul"  has these beards attached to Viking beanies.  SO cool.  Check her out!

Unfortunately, she changed the pattern after I finished Alan's and I can't really make sense of it anymore.  Luckily, her example, and my memory of Alan's were enough for me to make Bryan's on my own.  So I figured I'd write up my own pattern and now there will be two free patterns available out there!   Woo-hoo! 

Food for thought: Beards come in all colours, thicknesses, and textures.  So should beard beanies! I did Alan's thick and bushy (like a Leprechan's) with a bobble stitch, but I did Bryan's a little flatter and scruffier, with a crazy stitch.  I've seen them done more simply with a half-double, but I didn't really feel like that looked.... authentic...? (Authenticity: that's what we're going for with the beards made of yarn that attach to a beanie.)
crazy stitch


Bobble Stitch










*Crazy Stitch Tangent:  Does anyone know the correct way to decrease stitches when using something like a Crazy or Scallop stitch?  I ended up just Slip stitching from the top of one to the top of another without making the actual stitch in between.  It worked out just fine, but can that be right?*




Anyway, play around a little bit online, until you find a stitch that you think looks like a beard. 

Do the same at the yarn store.  I used sport weight yarn and a 5.00mm hook, for these, but you could use a much thicker, fluffier yarn, or one of those fuzzy, feathery, eyelashy yarns, to make it look more like real hair.

This does pose a slight pattern writing problem, because all of your different yarns, hooks, and stitch types are going to make for infinite possibilities in number of stitches.  But that's OK, because all of our faces are different too! And who says babies, with their teeny, tiny faces don't need beard beanies too?

Cus they can't even grow real ones.

Babies may need these most of all.

Also, girls can wear beard beanies too, even if my husband thinks it looks WAY too realistic for comfort.

Back to the point though, I am going to attempt to make a pattern that will work for ANYONE, regardless of face size, yarn type, hook size, and stitch choice.  I shoot high, what can I say?

 Warning #1: I have never written a crochet pattern before, so I apologize if this is confusing.  

Warning #2: I'm going to try and make these size variations using an Excel Spreadsheet.  Something   else I have NO experience with.

Due to Warnings #1 and #2, please let me know if this pattern and attached spread sheet work, or don't work for you.  I would love to make them better. 

About this pattern:

  • Skill level: medium. If you can read a pattern, and know how to do different stitches, this project is SO easy, and can be completed during your favorite episode of Big Bang Theory (doesn't this seem like something Sheldon would wear?). If you'r new to crochet, learning the different stitches and following the pattern might take some more time.  But you can do it!
  • This pattern is really only for the beard, works with any beanie pattern. 
  • The other patterns out there have you stitch the beard directly to your beanie, which you could totally do.  I figured I might want to wear my beard with all sorts of beanies though, or possibly interchange a few beards too.  I didn't want anything permanent.  Luckily, most crochet and knit beanies have big enough gaps between the stitches that you can squeeze a button right through.  So I just sewed some buttons on the top corners of mine for easy attaching and detaching. This will mean that you can see the buttons on the outside of your beanie, but I think that's cute. Hopefully no one will guess based on your buttons that your beard is less than real. :).
  • Abreviations: 
    • Ch: chain
    • t-ch: turning chain
    • HDC: Half Double Crochet
    • Sl st : Slip stitch
    • 2tog: stitch two stitches together. aka: decrease. 
    • SoC: Stitch of choice.  I made this one up.  It's just the stitch you choose to work your beard in. 
    • CrzyStch: Crazy Stitch (what my beard is worked in)
  • Materials: yarn, hook, (both your choice), needle, thread, buttons (2 or 4), scissors. 

Download now!

Can you say pitiful?!
Sad hudband of etsy?
If you end up making a beard, please let me know how it turned out.  Send me a picture even (erinmoschetti@gmailcom), and I can feature it on the blog.  Feel free to use the pattern to make your own beards for personal use, or to sell.  Please refer back to my blog if you feature your beard on your own.  Thanks so much!  
Happy crafting.