Crocheting

Well, howdy! I've got a sewing blog, don't I? Hmmm... The extent of the sewing I've done since we moved is just putting elastic in a skirt I bought at Goodwill. Not overly interesting, to say the least. However, this past week I've done an awful lot of crocheting (gotta do something while listening to boring lectures!). I thought that might not fall entirely out of the realm of this blog, so here are my projects:

Ummm.. Yeah. Not really sure what this one started out as, but it ended up as something that could be used as a doll dress, or perhaps an infant dress. I guess I was mostly just trying some new stitches I've never done before. Not bad for that sort of experiment. ;)

Okay, our camera is particularly awful at getting good pictures right now (and yes, I will blame the camera. This was a perfectly good picture before I hit the button!), so sorry 'bout that. Anyway, this poncho pattern is great! Two rectangles of equal length sewn together. I can do that! I think this one, and the next one, turned out rather cute too. They're about a size... the pattern says 12-24 months. I crochet pretty tightly though, so it might be somewhat smaller than that. This one looks a little lop-sided in the picture. It's not that bad, really; the black yarn I had on hand was a little lighter weight than the red I used. :)

I've got something against completely plain, at least for projects I'm in no hurry to finish. I couldn't stand this side of the poncho, so I decided to add a little flare. I like how it turned out! If you were going to name this poncho anything you wanted to, what would it be?

Here's the other side of that one.

Oh, and by the way, HAPPY THANKSGIVING, Y'ALL!!!

Tomboy Toddlers' Denim Jumper

Yesterday I was doing some minor repair/adjusting work on a few of my clothes. I didn't take long, so after I finished, I was dealing with some old overalls that Mama was getting rid of. I'd already taken the hardware off of them, so pretty much all that was left was the denim. I don't know about y'all, but I really can't stand getting rid of perfectly good fabric, especially if it's denim. So then I had this crazy idea: Why not make a little girls' gored skirt? I set about doing just that (terrible timing on my part; we had far too much going on for me to start an unnecessary project!). Once I'd sewn several gores together, I realized that, for the length, it was going to be pretty heavy for a little thing to keep on with only elastic. I didn't want to get into buttonholes, and all the zippers we had on hand were too long. So, I turned it into a jumper!

I was thinking of myself as a young(er) girl. I was usually tomboy, through and through. I figure I wasn't the only one out there. This jumper is for those little tomboys, and for their mothers who have to wash all their clothes. ;) It's cute in an attempt to cultivate the girl in the tomboy, but at the same time it's comfortable and hardy so as not to restrict that vigorous energy she exudes every healthy, waking moment!

Another Winnie the Pooh Toddler Dress

So, along with the two adorable Winnie the Pooh fabrics that I used on the last Winnie the Pooh toddler's dress and upper two-thirds of the tiered skirt in the previous post, I had another Pooh-themed fabric (found in the lower third of the tiered skirt). It's always fun to try to come up with the cutest possible way to use fabrics like these. This time I don't feel like I did as well as I could have, but it was fast, easy, and still turned out very cute!

For this dress, I used Butterick 4176, more or less. The biggest deviation was to add the lace around the neck edge instead of doing single-fold bias tape as they suggested. I also didn't just straight-line hem it. The machine I used has a cute stitch that almost exactly mirrors some of the design on the fabric; that was too much of a temptation NOT to do! Unfortunately the thread doesn't match as well as I thought it did when I started, but I think it still looks good. :)

With this, I think I'm finally done with all my Pooh-themed fabrics, though don't be surprised if one or more of them show up again as pockets on bags, dresses, skirts, etc.

Winnie the Pooh Tiered Skirt

I just love how fast these skirts are! I was able to use some of the scrap fabric from THIS outfit to create this adorable little tiered skirt.

I didn't have a pattern, and, to tell the truth, I didn't even measure anything. I just cut according to what seemed to make sense. Of course, I didn't do the elastic casing to what would make sense, but I was having a brainless moment when I did that. It works though, so all's good.

Matching Sister Jumpers

Well, sort of matching. I ended up having a lot more of this fabric than I thought originally, so matching jumpers immediately came to mind. I used Butterick 4842, views E and C. The little one, view E, I went along with the pattern exactly, I believe, but I experimented with the bigger one. I used bias tape around the the neck and armholes, and serged the flounces (I just couldn't bring myself to hem those two small circles!). I added the thin ribbon to both as well. They turned out cute, I think!

Winnie the Pooh Toddler Dress

I found some absolutely adorable Winnie the Pooh fabric at Sir's last year! Not only that, but I found 2 coordinating Pooh fabrics! I couldn't resist that; I just didn't know exactly what I was going to make with them. :)

Here's what finally came about, using Simplicity 2985:

Front view, including coordinating diaper cover/shorts/whatchacall'ems.

Back view.

Close-up of the cute fabrics!

Okay, the changes I made were few. The main change is the ties. The pattern has you cut out a couple pieces about as wide as the ties are now, fold 'em in half, sew a 1/4" seam, and the turn it. Uh... can you say difficult! I couldn't do it, and I didn't want to spend the time to cut out a couple more ties and top-stitch them. So, I pulled out our "Ribbons and Trims" boxes, and dug around. I kind of like what I came up with. :)

The other obvious change is the piping. Can you tell I love that stuff? It's probably my favorite type of trim! It's so quick and adds something that makes it look more finished than if you just hemmed or otherwise left it off.

The less obvious change I did was to almost entirely ignore the single-fold bias tape instructions. I used double-fold, and just did it how I wanted to. Each armscye is done different. I was experimenting, you see. :P

All in all, I think the outfit turned out very cute! I did the largest size in the pattern, which, I think, is about size 18 months. Now, on to the next thing! :D

Toile Toddler Outfit

Here's another picture of a project that I made a while back. I used THIS pattern, only adding the navy ribbon. It was a difficult pattern, but I was using heavy fabric. If I make it again, I'll probably use a light weight fabric. It turned out really cute though! I'm very willing to sell it for $50. It's about a size 2, maybe 3, and cute, cute, cute! I wish I could find a darling little girl to model it, but I can't find one willing to be photographed. :)