last minute tutorial roundup

December 19, 2013December 19, 20132 Comments

hello! just popping in for any of you cramming a little extra sewing in before Christmas…i realized i’ve published a few tutorials that might help quickly knock a few gifts off your list! you know, like in case you maybe thought you’d make some amazing quilt or handmade dress or something but now you need to readjust your sewing time requirements for simpler projects because this Christmas season is way shorter than normal…?

all of these are super quick projects, probably an hour each, maybe even less.

: :

: : > > FOLDOVER CLUTCH TUTORIAL < < : :

a fun sew and easily customizable gift for moms, sisters, friends, teachers, etc. can be made in my original doily version…

or follow Cherie’s awesome supplemental tutorial to add a color blocked panel to show off a cool print! great project for fat quarters and scraps.

: :

: : > > PLEATED BUNDT PILLOW TUTORIAL < < : :

the pleats look more complicated than they really are, and the envelope closure makes this one a quickie. make in any fabric with some cool texture, stuff with a cheap down insert (try IKEA, i think they’re $7), and you’ve got a pretty gift for anyone who loves decorative pillows (and who doesn’t, really?).

: :

: : > > SUPERHERO CAPE TUTORIAL < < : :

for that super kid in your life! totally unisex and customizable depending on your fabric selection, and sized for ages 2 – 6 or so (Em still wears hers at age 5.5!).

: :

: : > > APPLIQUE BIB PATTERN AND TEMPLATES < < : :

got a baby/toddler around? pair a quick scrap-busting appliqué bib with something store-bought for an easy handmade touch. tutorial includes a free bib pattern and templates for a mustache, fox, whale, and paper airplane. you can also throw the appliqués onto store-bought onesies or shirts if that floats your boat!

okay, now GO GO GO! SEW SEW SEW!

i’ll be back after the holidays with the gifts i made – current count is 7 and i’m not quite done yet! have a very Merry Christmas!

dove gray honey cowl

December 17, 2013December 16, 201316 Comments

i finished my honey cowl and boy is it cozy!

i am a self-professed scarf addict – i have lots of them, both store-bought and handmade, and never feel like i have too many because i wear one basically every day. it did seem natural then for my first knitting class project to be a scarf…or cowl to be specific. FOR MYSELF.

and hey – my coat still (barely) buttons…or it did last week when these photos were taken. probably wouldn’t this week…

anyway. i love love love my squishy soft honey cowl. my yarn and pattern notes are here on Ravelry, which is where knitters put details about projects I’m told.

it was an easy project to knit but took longer than expected for a few reasons – one being i’m very slow (a look at my teacher’s speedy fingers and that was totally obvious), but also because this yarn/needle combo was more delicate than i’d used before, and i guess when you slip stitches it takes longer for the work to build up too. so this took me two and a half weeks of a lot of knitting time (road trip, relaxing weekend over Thanksgiving, multiple movies, etc.) but it seems that might actually be kinda fast by knitting standards? i feel like the time spent really needs to be emphasized though – this did not just come together in a weekend!

and that makes it even more special.

knitting is funny too – because i can do it in public, it opens me up to more interested glances and sweet comments from strangers, especially from older ladies, especially at the hospital lab where i had to sit and wait through the pregnant lady torture that is the 3 hour glucose tolerance test for gestational diabetes (i flunked the 1 hr test but all was fine with the 3 hr, no worries!). i even had a dad ask about it while i knitted at Em’s ballet class!

another funny thing with knitting versus sewing where i’m really fine with people knowing it’s handmade. i’m not sure what that is, but when i sew i kinda want those creations to “pass as store-bought” even if that store is a boutique or something, whereas when i knit i love if people see that i made it, that it didn’t come from a random store. it got noticed with a “did you knit that?” at a hipster craft bazaar i went to, which totally made my day. mistakes and all, i’m proud of this little cowl!

so yep, it’s warm, seems to go with everything, and i’m happy it’s off my needles and around my neck!

i’ve got a simple hat for Em going now which is knitting up much more quickly, and will be my first time using “real yarn” rather than cheap stuff – it’s from Close Knit, the cute little yarn shop where I took my class (AHEM it’s next door to Bolt) and i’m very excited about how it’s turning out. i’ve had to go into more of a sewing production mode lately as Christmas crunch time approaches, though, so we’ll see how much time i can grab for it.

are you frantically sewing/knitting for Christmas? nothing is truly “last minute” until Christmas Eve, that’s my motto.

gold dot christmas dress

December 13, 2013December 13, 201324 Comments

i realized as I was sewing this that it had been a while since I made a new dress for Em – over two months in fact! it felt sooooo good to sew a special dress for my gal!

she has a lot of fancy events coming up – dance recital, school Christmas program, mother-daughter date to The Nutcracker, plus the usual Christmas Eve festivities. and since her legs just keep getting longer and longer somehow, a new dress was definitely in order.

the pattern is Rae’s Geranium Dress, a classic, great-fitting design that can be either a nice everyday dress or go really special when sewn in a fancy fabric. it’s my third Geranium Dress (here are one and two, plus she has the tunic Delia made) but my first time sewing View A with the gathered skirt and flutter sleeves. i think those features give it just the right amount of fancy.

the bodice is a 4T and the skirt is a 5T – the other two times i made a 3T bodice with a 4T skirt length for her, but she sized up!

i wanted the skirt to be suuuuuper full, so i cut the front and back skirt pieces each selvedge to selvedge and gathered it all up. then i added a chunky 1.5” hem; which with the empire bodice and muted color scheme makes her look like a vintage doll to me.

also, TWIRL FACTOR!!!!

the skirt fabric is Confetti Sparkle in Cream, compliments of the fine people over at Dear Stella. this dress is what came to mind immediately when i first saw that gold dot fabric, it’s just so festive and beautiful! my original inspiration was this mini boden dress.

cream confetti sparkle is available online from my sponsor Drygoods Design (plus a couple other colorways), so get it while you can! did you see the navy Hanami dress that Cherie posted yesterday? SO cute.

the cream bodice is a Moda Bella solid from Bolt, and the flutter sleeve edges are finished with a double zigzag of gold metallic thread, which i also used to topstitch the neckline and button placket to bring the gold up to the bodice rather than letting the skirt have all the fun.

after getting some good advice from instagram friends, i decided to go with a “four calling birds” button motif. these perfect little birdies are by Incomparable Buttons and were were sent to me by Jess (thanks girl!). i think they have found their perfect home.

just some nice subtle details on this festive Geranium, which made it really fun to sew and hopefully fun for her to wear, too.

Christmas dress done…

now on with the festivities!

spider mittens

December 10, 2013December 10, 201318 Comments

this little guy is now three years old, and no he hasn’t taken that hoodie off since halloween!

but now he has some mittens to go with it.

he grew out of one pair of mittens and another vanished from our house, as those things often do. the weather here lately has been pretty frosty by northwest standards – we’re used to 40 degrees and rainy all winter, but it’s been in the teens and twenties and either really dry or even a bit snowy! anyway, mittens and gloves are usually optional around here, but not lately. lately they are mandatory.

i whipped these up for him as part of his birthday gifts. the pattern is from Little Things to Sew (affiliate link), and i’d almost forgotten the book included a mitten pattern even though i just did a gift idea inspiration post from the book for Oliver + S! silly me. i’d actually sewn these once before but it was a couple years ago – they come together so quickly! the part that took the longest was adding the webs to the palms – my husband’s idea when i asked what i could do to make them special and fun. boy mittens/gloves at the store are super boring, have you noticed? i tried to just buy some but they come in such boring solids and O was not thrilled about any of them. and the girl ones were all so fancy and fun! ugh. typical.

so anyway, i drew the design with water soluble marker and just stitched them on with black thread, so now he can shoot webs like Spider Man! he loves them!

the mittens are made of charcoal and white fleece in a size small, and i was going to make them double layered, but i was sewing late at night and sewed two right handed linings, so i gave up on that idea and just put the elastic casing at the wrist instead of the bias finish since i’d already committed to that. they seem to stay on him just fine!

off to cozily shoot some more webs. he thinks it’s pretty hilarious to pretend to spin people up in a web and then let us loose again.

LOOK OUT! here comes the Spider Maaaaaaan.

JOURNEY blog tour & giveaway (closed)

December 5, 2013December 10, 2013116 Comments

omigosh you guys, i’ve been bitten hard by the knitting bug, and it’s largely because of this book.

a few weeks ago, my friend Shannon asked me if i wanted to join the blog tour for JOURNEY, a beautiful new collection of knitting patterns that she co-wrote with her friend Jane.

i nearly spit out my coffee when i got Shannon’s email invitation to the tour. i mean, did she really want ME, girl who has barely knit a thing in her life, to join a tour of legit knitting blogs?

apparently so! and now i truly couldn’t be more grateful that she encouraged me to participate in this tour, because very shortly after that email came my birthday, and i took the opportunity to finally take that knitting class i’d been talking about for a long time.

my journey into knitting has now begun. like sewing, knitting has undergone a recent resurgence and i just fall in love whenever i see beautiful modern knitwear. i wish i could just KNOW how to do it RIGHT NOW, how to knit these amazing things i see, but i’m learning to slow down and pick it up over time, building my knowledge skill by skill like i’ve done with sewing over the last four years. while i first looked at a basic sewing pattern and saw gibberish, that’s how i feel now with knitting. but i know someday i will get there.

someday, i will knit some Spate mitts for myself. they look so cozy and warm and fun to wear, and they seem to be the least intimidating pattern for me to follow (meaning they take just one skein of yarn and are knit on not-so-tiny needles). a couple more projects under my belt and i think i could tackle this one.

then, i would knit a Swift hat. the lace design is gorgeous and interesting, and the project is still small enough in scope not to be super scary (important for me starting out!) but i know i would learn a lot from it. i don’t really wear hats, so i would likely knit this for one of my sisters or a good friend (or maybe i’d just start wearing hats? i feel like i might be a more selfish knitter than i am a selfish sewer).

once i felt ready for a larger scale project, i would knit an Onward shawl. this is no granny shawl – Shannon’s design is stunningly modern and a treat for the eyes. i think it would be the perfect gift for my mom, or to throw over a fancy dress, or to run errands, or to snuggle up under next to a campfire on a chilly evening…

and then, i would tackle the Climb socks. i’m totally intrigued by handknit socks. people seem to swear by them, become obsessed with them, add them to their collection bit by bit. the retro athletic styling of these is exactly up my alley – if i’m gonna knit me some socks someday, they’d be the Climbs.

once i was feeling very brave, i would tackle either of the two beautiful sweater patterns in JOURNEY – the arrow-detailed pullover Antrorse…

or the i’d-never-take-it-off Inland. i am a constant cardigan-wearer, and if i could knit my own cardigans?! watch out. i think that would make me feel unstoppable.

that is my hypothetical knitting journey through JOURNEY. in the time i’ve had the e-book in my possession, i just keep opening it up and scrolling through the patterns, searching to see which i might have the confidence to try first, hoping i feel ready sooner rather than later, deciding which skills i need to get to where i want to be.

it’s an inspirational book by two inspirational ladies, and i’m glad that for now i have something to aspire to as i learn a new craft.

> > > :: < < <

the e-book can be purchased on Marian Rae Publications or on Ravelry. a print version will also be available soon! thanks so much for having me, Shannon and Jane!

and now, giveaway time!

do you knit? do you want to learn how to knit? do you know someone who knits? then you need JOURNEY. beautiful projects, stunning photography, it’s just so inspiring.

to enter to win a copy of the e-book, please leave a comment below telling me what crafty skill you are currently working to master – sewing a zipper? baking a souffle? screen printing? knitting? i want to know!

RULES:

> ~~giveaway is open until Monday, December 9 at 8pm Pacific Time.~~ **GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED**
> winner will be selected randomly and notified via email.
> void where prohibited.

*i was provided with a copy of the JOURNEY e-book for free in exchange for this review.
** all photos in this post were taken by Nicholas Kupiak and used with permission.