Baby Reindeer Hat

I know this is a bit late to post now but I wanted to share this Reindeer hat I made for baby Dustin.  I saw some pictures of baby's with similar hats on pinterest.  I thought they were so cute so I whipped one up for this sweet boy.  His mom loved it and even got his picture wearing it for their Christmas cards.

I used yarn from my stash and lined the ears with red felt.  I hand sewed the antlers out of brown felted wool.  Then I added a big red button nose and two brown button eyes.

Basket Lid Monogram

A few weeks ago I attended a county fair.  There were all kinds of businesses having free raffles and giving away things like pencils and pens and note pads and such.  Well this farm store was having a contest that I thought would be fun to try.  They gave away a basket lid like this.  The rules were to decorate it or find a unique use for it and bring it back to the store by Sept. 1.  All the entries will be judged at the store and there will be a first, second and third place.   First place = $75 gift card  Second place $50 gift card Third place $25 gift card.

My entry was turned in today.  I decided to use some of my buttons to create a monogram.  I enlarged a letter and printed it out for my pattern.  Then I just sewed the buttons on a piece of silk to fill it in completely.  I used some of my crocheted lace to give it a little more interest.  I cut a circle of foam core board to fit into the lid and I used three layers of batting to pad it out some.  Since the lid isn't perfectly round there were some spots where gaps appeared.  To make it look more finished and less like a basket lid I hot glued some ruffled eyelet around the edge.  And to finish it and fill in any more gaps I twisted a piece of this loose weave tan fabric over the eyelet and hot glued it in place.  I think it turned out pretty and I have been wanting to make a button monogram for a while now.  I wanted to tea dye the eyelet because it seemed a bit bright for the rest of more toned down vintage lace and buttons.  I didn't have time to do that and because this bright newer lace is at the back it works okay.  I tried some vintage lace that I had but that needed to have some starch to make it stand out and I didn't have any starch either.  This was definitely a project of use what you have.  Who knows maybe I will win a gift card.  I will let you know.

Butterfly Apron

Today I finished my Butterfly Apron from Crochet Adorned . I crocheted the butterfly pocket and the trim yesterday and sewed up the apron today. The directions for the apron are included in the book. It is really a basic gathered half apron so it was a quick project to sew.

I had picked out the main fabric from my stash because I liked it with the pink thread I used for the crochet. So after making the butterfly and the trim I needed to find something in my stash to use for the contrast waistband and lower band. Even though I have a huge stash it proved to be difficult to find anything that looked good with this fabric and trim.

You may ask why didn't I just go out and buy something. Well I joined





Stashbusting September at T-Shirt Diaries.




So I am not allowed to buy any new fabric or craft supplies. After rooting through several bins of unorganized fabric nothing was really looking even remotely right with what I had picked out so far. Finally I found this black and ivory gingham and I thought it gave the apron just the right vintage feel and contrast. I was thinking about giving this as a gift but once it is finished I want to keep it for myself. Maybe I will just make another one for a gift.

I am going to enter this project in the Craft Book Month Linky

Party. I might win some more goodies to add to my stash. I think that is allowed since winning isn't buying anything.

Vintage Potholders With Pattern

I picked up this vintage crochet book from Out Of The Ashes. She sells all kinds of vintage sewing pattern and a few vintage knitting and crochet books. Mine is The Magic Of Crochet (Gifts). It is copyright 1941 by the Spool Cotton Company. The price was 10 cents originally and it looks like it was resold at some point for 99 cents. I paid $4.00 for it and I thought that was a bargain. It has all kinds of cute accessories for the home and some fashion items too. There are several things I want to make. The instructions are easy to follow but you must convert the thread and needle size to a modern equivalent. This is not critical with things like place mats or pot holders as they don't need to fit anything they just need to be close. There are no gauges in the book so I just tried to find a thread that worked with the size needle suggested. Most of the patterns use a very tiny needle and thread size.

The pattern I tried first was these potholders called Ship Shape in the book. I had everything I needed around the house. I even had some tiny steel crochet hooks. I had just bought a set of vintage steel crochet hooks in a little plastic case at a flea market. This pattern used one of the medium sized hooks in the set. So I thought it was doable. I even found a couple of bone rings in my stash. I think these probably came from my grandmother's stash. I don't really think they are bone but some sort of plastic. They are quite old though. The thread was leftover from another project and it is new crochet thread. I like these a lot. They turned out bigger than I thought they would. Most of the vintage potholder patterns I have tried are a bit to small for my taste. I don't know if woman had tiny hands in the 40's or they were just trying to conserve on thread. They are a bit thin for a pot holder too but I think they would work for a stove top pot handle or a microwave dish. If nothing else they are cute decorations.

I think the copyright has expired by now so I am going to share the pattern. The pattern is for six potholders three in each color combination. I only made two of them.

Materials: J&P Coats Knit-Cro-Sheen 1 ball white or ecru (referred to in directions as "light color") and 2 balls of dark color.
Milward's Steel Crochet Hook No. 7 and 6 bone rings.

This amount is sufficient for entire set of six potholders.

With light color, work sc closely over ring. Join with a sl st to 1st sc made. 1st rnd: Ch 3 (to count as 1st dc), dc in front loop of 6 sc, ch 3, dc in front loop of next 6 sc. Turn, and working in remaining loop of same sc's, make dc in next 6 sc ch 3 dc in 5 sc. Join with sl st to top of first ch 3 made.

2nd Rnd: Ch 3 (dc in each dc across to ch 3 sp make 2 dc ch 3 and 2 dc) twice; dc in each remaining dc. Join.

Repeat last row 15 more times. Fasten off. Attach dark color and repeat 2nd row 2 more times. Fasten off. Attach light color and work 2nd row once again. Working through both thicknesses ( picking up only the center loops), make sc in each stitch and 4 sc over ch across, ch 5, turn, and make edging as follows: * Ch 4, 3 tr in base of ch 4, skip 3 sc, sc in next sc repeat from* across. Fasten off.

Make 2 more pot holders same as this. Make 3 more pot holders same as this only reversing colors.

A trio of chickens

My good friend Mary gave me this Crochet Pot Holder book for my birthday. It has a copyright from 1939. And it is just full of adorable pot holders. Each one has very simple instructions. When I spotted the chicken pot holders I knew I had to make some for Mary. She likes to collect whimsical chickens to decorate her kitchen. Maybe that was her motive in gifting me the book. LOL I don't mind as I love vintage crochet books and I plan to make myself some too.

I went through my yarn stash and found some red, yellow and orange Sugar and Cream cotton yarn. Perfect for some chickens. I also needed some felt for the combs and beaks as well as the underside of the chicken body. I had been holding on to this hideous orange wool coat for a while. I knew it would come in handy at some point. I had already felted it by throwing it into the washing machine in hot water. So now it is a nice heavy felt. I must have used some of it for another project because parts of it had already been used. I just don't remember what project. After adding some turquoise button eyes my chickens were complete. I love things that are practical as well as cute. Next maybe I will try the Three Little Maids pot holders on page 8. They are three multicultural faces with a holder. I am not sure if I feel right about putting a hot pot on a face. But they sure are cute.

I am sharing at this Link party Sunday Showcase

Some crochet

I took a little break from sewing and did some crocheting. I love crochet I taught myself when I was about 13 from a Woman's Day magazine. Well a friends mom taught me how to do the chain stitch when I was younger. But I believe I would have been able to pick that up easily by the pictures. I followed the diagrams and read what all the abbreviations meant and very soon I was able to follow a pattern. Really crochet is a variation of the same stitch (the chain stitch).

I like using cotton wash cloths and hand towels. I like making them because they are quick to finish and you can try a new stitch and make something useful. This hand towel is not a new stitch or anything fancy. It is simply single crochet with a single crochet border. I added the scalloped edge because I just thought it needed a little something. I got the pattern for the towel and the dish cloth from an older book I have called Crocheted Gifts in a Weekend. The daisy dishcloth was what the book called a pot holder. I am going to use it as a dishcloth it is not thick just one layer and a good size for a dishcloth. The pattern for the bag was a freebie I picked up in the yarn aisle at Jo-Ann. You can probably find the pattern on their web site. I used Sugar and Cream yarn for everything. All was completed in a weekend just like the book said.

Spring Flowers

I have all kinds of daffodils blooming in my yard. I decided to go out and cut a few to decorate my table. Keeping with the daffodil theme I crocheted a new dish scrubbie. I really have several knitting and crocheting projects in the works right now. I wanted to make something quick and easy. This project came from one of my new books Big Book of Dishcloths Potholders & Scrubbies . There are several other adorable flower scrubbies in there and some cute dishcloths too. I love using the cotton knit and crochet dishcloths. They are really quick to make and I can practice a new stitch on a small useful project. I know I will be making many more projects from this book. I like projects that can be finished in a short amount of time.

Some of the other projects in the works are much more time consuming. I am working on a crocheted sweater and some knitted knee socks. The sweater is actually going together pretty quickly. But the knitted knee socks are going to take a while to finish. I also have a blanket I have been working on for about a year. I haven't worked on that in quite a while. Even though I have several projects in the works I do manage to finish some of them from time to time. I guess my favorite part is starting something. I will be letting you know when I finish something else.

Valentine Garland

I finished my heart garland last night. This was
really a quick and easy project. A good project to pass the time on a cold snowy day when you just want to stay snug inside. The pattern came from http://www.skiptomylou.org/2009/01/28/crochet-heart-garland/ . Maybe I will make some more hearts to scatter around the house.

Some Dish Scrubbies

I decided I would make something to decorate for Valentines Day. I came across this crochet heart garland and thought it would be cute on my mantle. http://www.skiptomylou.org/2009/01/28/crochet-heart-garland/ Since it was cold and snowy today staying in the house was the thing to do. I started working on the hearts for the garland with yarn from my stash. The yarn is Bernat Handicrafter Holiday Sparkle. It is a Christmas yarn but it is cotton with a silver thread in it. So I think it is nice for this project. Here are the hearts I have completed so far. Since I get distracted easily I started thinking about making a new dish scrubby because the one I have is getting very worn and doesn't even work that well any more. I got it in a package of 3 along with some pink measuring cups from JoAnn's. I like those scrubbies from JoAnn's but I really don't need any more measuring cups. I have been wanting to make some scrubbies out of nylon tulle for some time now. I have had these various colors of tulle on a spool in my stash for a while now. I may as well use them. I got 20 yds by 6 inches for $.97 on the clearance rack, with the intention of making dish scrubbies.

I found this lovely bright pink tulle spool and a Pattern for Rosebud Dish Scrubbies in the book MaryJane's Stiching Room by MaryJane Butters. This book has all kinds of old fashioned crafty things inside. I have tried a few of them. So with the pink tulle and the pattern I whipped up a Rosebud Dish Scrubby in no time at all. Since the pattern called for 3 inch wide pieces of tulle I cut the whole roll in half before starting on my scrubby.

After making the rosebud I still had enough to make another one. I had this brilliant idea to make a heart shaped scrubby. I used the same pattern from Skip To My Lou for the hearts. I just used tulle strips instead of yarn. I made two hearts and crocheted them together with single crochet all the way around the hearts but only going through the back loops on each heart to join. Before stitching the last few stitches closed I stuffed the heart with the remaining tulle and finished closing it up. Now I have a cute new Valentine Dish Scrubby. And even the Rosebud Dish Scrubby will be decorating my kitchen sink for Valentines Day.