Hot Pads

I finally got tired of my ratty hot pads that needed to be thrown away.  Instead of buying new ones, I decided it would be fun to make them.  I downloaded a free hot pad pattern from www.youcanmakethis.com and got started. 
The only thing I needed to buy was the cotton batting and the Insul Brite (non conductive material), which were both available at Joann's.  I already had some floral cotton fabric languishing in my stash to use for the pads and some mostly white cotton leftover from a tie dyeing project from college to use for the bias binding. 
I didn't follow the instructions completely.  I cut the squares 7" around instead of the 9".  That enabled me to make more hot pads.  The 7" squares were more than adequate for a regular hot pad.  I also didn't add the corner loop to the pads, since I never use them. 
I made sure I used a walking foot to feed all the layers evenly while sewing.  It does make a difference.  I also sewed with a denim needle because of the thickness of the layers.
Making the binding was a little time consuming but worth it.  Don't bother making it without a rotary cutter, quilting ruler, and mat, though.  Those items make cutting the bias strips easy.  After that, there's a lot of sewing of the strips together and finally all the pressing of the folds to complete the binding.
I made a total of 15 hot pads, 7 of which I gave to my mother-in-law.  It made a nice gift for her, because she's hard to get gifts for, and I knew it was something she'd use.

Resized Oliver + S Bucket Hat

I enjoyed making my son's bucket hat so much that I decided to make one for myself.  I wanted to use the Oliver + S Bucket Hat pattern since I liked the pattern, but it wasn't scaled to fit an adult's head.  I decided to make the pattern larger to see if I could get it to work for me.  I needed to enlarge the circumference by at least an inch to make it fit me, so I just played around with the pattern pieces increasing the overall size of each pattern piece.  I tryed to follow the sizing lines as a guide, but for the most part I winged it.  I did make sure the brim was a bit wider/longer, because I wanted to really keep the sun out of my eyes.
I didn't care if my hat was reversible, but I still wanted the inside of the hat to be finished nicely.  Therefore, I used some white cotton for the inner cap and white twill for the outer hat cap and both the inner and outer brims.

Since I was able to successfully alter the pattern and make an adult sized hat, I now have to make one for my father and father-in-law.  I think I'll be getting to use some more of those scrap pant legs!

Oliver + S Bucket Hat

My son needed another bucket hat for summer since he'd outgrown his previous one.  Instead of buying one I decided to make one, especially after finding the free Oliver + S reversible bucket hat pattern.  The hat is sized up to a 6-8 year old's head, which was exactly what I needed.

I was able to be somewhat thrifty with this hat. For one side of the hat I got a chance to use some twill material taken from leftover pant legs from my husband's old Dockers after I had turned them into shorts. I had kept the pant legs way before I had decided what to do with them. I knew eventually I'd find a purpose for them!

For the other side of the hat I used some Disney Cars fabric.  That worked out perfectly since my son was going to wear the hat to Disney World.  To tie both sides together I cut out some of the characters from the print and appliqued them onto the twill side. 
The hat went together well.  The only problem I had was attaching the top part of the Cars print hat to the brim.  I really had to stretch the twill sides to get the caps to fit together properly while stitching the print cap to the brim, which caused the vertical seams to shift and end up staggered.  Ugh!  Fortunately it's not as noticible as it would have been had I shifted the seams on the solid twill side.

Kitchen Nook Skirt

We finally finished off our butler's pantry area between our kitchen and dining room.  My husband patched the walls so that I could add the same decorative paint finish I put on our kitchen walls about 7 years earlier.  Fortunately, I still had the proper paint colors and remembered how to do it!  Then he mounted a shelf under a set of cabinets to use for coffee cups and accessories above his coffee station.  We still had an unsightly mess of shelves underneath my baking nook that couldn't be covered with doors due to the dining room door frame trim being butted up against the counter.  I decided to make two curtains to hide the stuff on the shelves and add a little bit of color to the area.
My husband mounted the dowel for the curtains, and then I got to work on them.  I used a full width of home decor fabric for each curtain, which was roughly double the width of the area.  I hemmed the sides and bottom of the curtains.  Lastly, I made a pocket for the dowel to go through at the top by folding down the top portion of the fabric and stitching across.
What a difference the finished skirt makes!  As an added bonus, my daughter no longer has any interest in what's on the shelves--out of sight, out of mind!

Pettiskirt

I made this skirt for my princess' 3rd birthday last year.  I used the instructions from Make It-Love It as my guide.  The instructions say that the skirt is a size 3T/4T, but I would say it would fit a child up to 6 or even 7 easily.  The yoke was just way too wide at 40 inches, and when I make another one, I'll size the yoke down for a better fit.

The pettiskirt involved a lot of ruffling of fabric (2 30-yard ruffles!).  Fortunately the instructions tell you how to ruffle using your sewing machine by setting the stitch length to the longest length and upping the tension to the highest number.  It worked like a charm!
I bought my nylon chiffon (non-fraying) in rolls from AFC-Express, just like the instructions recommended.  Their prices are quite reasonable, and they offer the nylon chiffon on rolls so that you don't have to cut and piece together yards of rectangles.  That is definitely the way to go!
I differed from the pattern in that I didn't use interfacing to stabilize the satin yoke seams.  I serged them instead.  I also discovered that for me it was easier not to pin the chiffon tiers together before sewing because the pinning ended up taking way too long and was off anyway by the time I sewed it together.
I've got plans to make different styles of pettiskirts to see how they turn out.  If all goes well, I may just start selling some e-patterns of my designs.  I have some non-pettiskirt skirts I've made for my daughter that I think will make great patterns, too.  Stay tuned.

Tulle Skirt

I made this skirt for a friend's daughter's 10th birthday.  I made the standard pettiskirt yoke with 2 layers of ruffled tulle attached to the outer yoke and a lining attached to the inner yoke.  I didn't make the lining as full as the tulle overskirt but I think it turned out okay anyway.

Embroidered Blanket

Here is an easy to make embroidered baby blanket I made as a gift for a friend's baby.  I used white fleece and pink striped flannel from my stash each cut to 32 inches by 32 inches.  I embroidered a butterfly design that I had on one of my Janome embroidery CDs onto the fleece.  Then I sewed the fabrics right sides together leaving a 4" opening for turning right side out.  After turning I hand-stitched the opening closed and topstitched all the way around the edge of the blanket.

This was also economical for me because I used fabric from my stash!

Baby Gifts

My brother and his wife had another baby boy last spring.  At the time I made pants and booties for him using the leftover Colts material from the blanket I made for their first boy.

I used a Simplicity pattern to make the pants. The booties were made from a pattern I found here.

Thrifty PJ Shorts

My daughter needed PJ shorts for the summer, and I wanted to see if I could repurpose some of fabric/clothes that I had to make them.  It turns out that I was getting ready to get rid of some receiving blankets since my kids are no longer babies.  It occurred to me that those blankets were just like cuts of fabric, albeit smaller ones, that I could use for the shorts.

Shorts from a sheet (left); shorts from a baby sling (right)

I also had a worn crib sheet and a baby sling that I took apart, which gave me 2 more yards of fabric to use for PJs.  Between the blankets, sheet, and wrap, I now have plenty of fabric to use for PJ shorts for a while.

Girls' Skirt from Jeans

My mother bought my daughter a pair of thrift store jeans that had a huge crotch in them that would never fit her.  I decided to cut the legs off and make them into a skirt. 
I used the pant legs to create the bottom ruffle and cut two additional strips of fabric for the other two ruffles I had planned.

I gathered each one of the strips to form the ruffles.  First I added the denim ruffle, sewing right sides together to the bottom and then topstitched it.  Then I added the tulle ruffle, and finally the fabric ruffle sewing the wrong sides to the right sides of the skirt.  I made sure each ruffle overlapped the other.  I then used the ribbon to finish off the top edge of the fabric ruffle.

 Now my daughter has a cute skirt she loves to wear instead of an ill-fitting pair of pants!

Insa Skirt

Well, I may not have been blogging, but I that doesn't mean I haven't been making things.  I've just been more motivated to create than to take pictures and write about it. 
One of my recent completed projects is the Insa Skirt from Sewing Clothes Kids Love.  The 2-layer, 4-gore skirt is adorable and can potentially be made with many more fabrics instead of just the 3 I chose.  I made the 3/4T size and substituted a waistband for the yoke the pattern called for since I didn't need the extra length as I was making it for my 2 1/2 year-old girl and didn't want to make the 18M/2T size.

As for Sewing Clothes Kids Love, let me tell you I love this book!  The patterns are unique and offer so many design options, you're really only limited by your creativity.  There are 2 dresses, a skirt, shrug, leggings, jacket, trousers, and tank top for girls and unisex shirt and jacket for both boys and girls.  The patterns range from size 18 months to 12, so you can get lots of use out them.  The book offers lots of ideas for customizing and embellishing the patterns as well.  This is one pattern book I'll be using again and again!

Embroidered Hoodie

I embroidered this hoodie for my stepdaughter for her birthday. I found a peace sign graphic and digitized it with my Digitizer Pro software. It turned out well for the most part.

Another Kids' Club Skirt

I made a Kids' Club Skirt for my daughter that I had started before she was born. I finally got around to finishing it. It was supposed to be a size 12 months, but I think it'll fit her until she's 3 because the waist stretches so much. I just used acrylic and eyelash yarns from my stash since it'll get a lot of wear and tear and will need to be washed frequently. I really like the color combination.

Scrubbies

I made these scrubbie face cloths for my SIL. She really enjoyed the first one I made for her a few years ago. I somehow lost the pattern and couldn't find it again even though it was a free internet pattern. Fortunately, my neighbor located her copy again so I was able to make 3 more in no time flat.

Transformers Hat with Charted Autobot Symbol

I'm really having fun knitting basic hats and adding a charted design with duplicate stitch. This time it's an Autobot symbol hat that I created for my son. He loves Transformers! He was quite happy that I finished his hat now that winter is approaching.

I've included the chart I used below in case anyone else wants to create an Autobot hat. I'll probably type up the simple hat pattern soon I've been using for these hats so that others can create these hats, too.

Colts Baby Hat with Charted Horseshoe

I had previously knit a Colts hat for my brother last year. Now that he has a son, I wanted to knit him a hat, too. Since a 12 month old's hat would be way too small for the original chart, I decided to go back to the drawing board and design a smaller horseshoe.

I knit this hat in the round, and used duplicate stitch to add the smaller horseshoe just like I did with the original hat. Since the hat is a gift, I tried it on my daughter's head to make sure it fit properly. I think it turned out well, so I've included this littler charted horseshoe, too.

Birthday Shrug

I whipped up this shrug for my friend's daughter's 6th birthday. I used a pattern that I found on the DIY website from the show Uncommon Threads. The episode was entitled Hooked on Shrugs. I used one skein of Lion Brand Colorwaves and some Patons Allure, both from my stash. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

Freeform Sweater Close-Ups

Here are the close-up views of the freeform sweater with links to larger pictures.

Fronts
Back
Right Sleeve
Left Sleeve

Juice Pouch Bag

I whipped up this bag for a friend. I made her another one with juice pouch straps, but it didn't hold up. I substituted the straps this time around and made the bag 1 row of pouches wider.

My First Freeform Garment

I finally finished my first freeform garment--a cropped sweater for my infant daughter Keira in size 12 months. It should fit her in a few months when she turns 1. I started the sweater before Keira was born, took a break from it, and then went full-speed ahead until I finished it.

I drew out a template for the sleeves, fronts, and back based on a knitting schematic so I'd get the correct sizing. I had to make the sweater a little wider and the sleeves a little shorter in the end to make sure it would fit my daughter. It was easy to do since all I did was add some freeform bits to the width of the sides in front and back after I had already sewn the sleeves on. That widened the body and shortened the sleeves at the same time. After seaming up the sides, I added a sc border to the sleeves and sweater edge, which added a nice finishing touch. It also gave me an opportunity to add a buttonhole for a button I had in my stash.

I'd say I gravitate towards the circular shapes, shells, and garter stitch shapes the most in my freeform, probably because they're easy, quick, and look good. I also love to throw in bullions here and there, too. I tend to overthink the color and texture blending while freeforming, which slows me down, so it's good that I can at least make up some motifs quickly once I finally decide on the yarn to use.
I'll have to post more pictures of it being worn once my daughter is big enough for it.