Craft Hope for Haiti

If you have wondered what you can do to help out the Haitian people during this difficult time, please visit Craft Hope's Etsy shop which was created solely for helping Haiti get through the devastating earthquake and after shocks. Not only will you be able to donate money to this effort you will get a very cool handmade article of your choosing. Please visit Craft Hope Etsy shop, Craft Hope for Haiti.



Credo,

Lisa

Toddler's Apron

My 2 yr old got a kitchen for Christmas and loves to pretend cook. No surprise that I felt she must have an apron. Let me tell you it was tough just to stop at one apron. Using this pattern, I could of easily of made her a dozen very quickly. The apron requires a minimal amount of fabric, it's lined and I like that she can put it on with no assistance from me. The directions state that the apron is best suited for 3 - 6 year olds but my 2 yr old has had no problems putting it on and taking it off herself. I also did NOT adjust the pattern to make it smaller. My daughter is a bit on the petite side but it still fits her well enough and there is room for growth.

The fabric is brown with pink polka dots.

This is the back of the apron. I was a little worried that the neck strap would not fit my daughter properly or that it would not stretch enough but it was perfect. Meg McElwee from SewLiberated.typepad.com did a great job with her pattern. Thanks for sharing Meg!

Mr. Potato Head

I loved Mr. Potato Head when I was a kid. When I saw this post, I knew I my 2 yr. old had to have one! I ended up making a few of these for Christmas gifts. This is the 1st one I made, the prototype. I worked on the eyes (because the 1st set came out a little too goofy looking), ladies hat (because my daughter kept calling it a boat as she held it upside down), and mustache a bit more for the other potato heads. The prototype I made out of all felt but all the other potato bodies I made out of fleece (body parts were still out of felt).  Since I put the scratchy velcro on the body parts, this allows my 2 yr old to put the body parts ANYWHERE on the potato body because the scratchy part will stick to the felt body. Since she's only 2, I thought this would give her more enjoyment putting the body parts anywhere and she's not restricted to just attaching it to the velcro sections. The downside is that the felt is getting pretty beat up with pulls and snags. I had a feeling this might happen and that's why I made all the rest of the potato bodies out of fleece. I could of put the scratchy part of the velcro on the potato body but I had visions of my 2yr old trying to tuck Mr. Potato under her arm and getting scratched by the velcro. 

Mrs. Potato Head, the prototype...

 Placement of the soft side of the velcro (the front of the potato head)..

 Mr. Potato Head

The body parts:

As suggested, I did make the back pocket with a pleat to hold the body parts easily. If you decide to switch over to fleece for the body, I cut my pocket flap a little shorter because the fleece gives a lot more than the felt. For the prototype, I added about 4 extra inches to make my pleats for the pocket. My felt pocket flap was 3" tall and 5.25" wide and my fleece pocket flaps were only 2.5" tall.

And this is the way my daughter likes to see her Potato Head!

Here's a variation on Ashley's Potato Head by Jessica at Running With Scissors.

The unManly Birthday Scarf

For my husband's birthday, I wanted to make him something. As usual, time was short and I needed a quick project (I mean VERY quick). I thought I could whip up some pajama bottoms using some flannel fabric I had already washed. I had an idea floating in my head to dress up a plain black t-shirt that matched the flannel fabric. The only problem is I can NOT find the flannel!!! I know it's somewhere but where??? While I was procastinating  trying to figure out where that fabric was hiding, I checked out Make It and Love It blog and saw this great gathered flannel scarf. I thought... "Quick and Easy". I can do that!!! Plus the directions from Ashley at  Make It and Love It were very easy to follow! If you have never gone over to Ashley's site, you've been missing out! Well.... I quickly went to my stash looking for black flannel which, of course, I had but it was too short. I needed at least 2 yards. The manliest color I could find was dark brown. I also had this paisley fabric which matched the brown. I thought "what a perfect way to make this scarf more manly.... let's add the paisley!" With excitement, I quickly whipped up the scarf. From start to finish, it was 1 hour and 15 minutes. I quickly wrapped it and had our baby girl give her daddy the gift. When he opened it and put it around his neck, we both agreed that it was the most UNmanly scarf ever! Good grief!!! Sorry, honey. I promise to make you a solid black one with no paisley!  It was the thought that counted, right?

The unmanly paisley...

 
 

The scarf

 

BTW, we both liked the scarf but thought it was better suited for me. Looks like I made myself a new scarf with out even knowing it!

Twirl, girl! from A is for Apron - 25 Fresh and Flirty Designs

Down below is a photo of the apron I made for my sister-in-law for Christmas. It wasn't the one I wanted to make her but I ran out time. I will eventually make the one originally intended for her because I do like it. This apron, Twirl, girl!, is a pattern from a book, A is for Apron. I absolutely love the aprons is this book. If you even remotely like aprons, you should check out this book by Nathalie Mornu. There are vintage aprons, as well as updated aprons. All gorgeous, in my opinion.

On to the construction of Twirl, girl!... All the patterns in this book need to be blown up and that may be a bit of an inconvenience for some. I just photocopied the patterns on my home copier. I tried to fit as many pattern pieces onto one 8.5x11 sheet. My thinking was that I might be able to save a little on the copy/enlargement cost at the copy store, if I had more pattern pieces on one sheet. I'm not sure if that helped on the cost or not but I headed over to Staples and had them enlarge the pattern for me. For every 8.5x11 sheet, they printed me a jumbo size sheet. I think I paid about $2 for every jumbo sheet. Here are some of the issues I had when following the directions for this apron. Step 1 - Cutting out the pattern pieces. Be careful NOT to fold your fabric in half to cut out the front or hem pieces to save time. Because these pattern pieces are angled, they all must go in the same direction and if you fold your fabric to cut out 2 pieces at the same time, you will get 2 pieces going in opposite directions. Not what you want! Cut out one piece at a time or you can cut squares which are larger than your pattern pieces and stack them so that each layer is facing the same way up (meaning... all right sides up) and then you can cut mulitple pieces at once. To sew my front and hem pieces, I serged them. I think it looks more finished since the back (and stitching) is exposed in this apron. The apron does go together quite quickly and that's good if you are in a hurry (like I was!). The next issue I had was with the waistband instructions. From the diagram (Figure 3, page 103), it looks like the waistband is sitting on top of the apron front. This would leave the top of the apron exposed to the back side. Seems like the apron top edge should of been sandwiched in between the waistband to hide the seam. After I finished the apron (and got some much needed sleep!),  I went back and reread the instructions. They still do not seem clear but I think I know understand Figure 3. It looks like you are just using the width of the apron to determine the width of your waistband and where you should sew on your ties. You're not actually sewing anything to the apron front on Step 10. However, Step 11 (attaching the waistband to the apron) still is not crystal clear to me. I ended up sewing the ties and the waistband to the apron in a different manner. If you understand the directions, PLEASE enlighten me! If you've already made this apron, I loved to hear how you attached the waistband/ties to the apron front. I completely forgot to take a photo of it before I wrapped it and my SIL was kind enough to photograph it for me.

SIL in apron

and now the apron front...

Blog Background

Like the new background for my blog??? I think it's great and it was FREEEeeee! I got it from Karen over at Background Fairy.  Thanks, Karen!

The Stitched Christmas

For Christmas this year, I decided to indulge my latest sewing obession...APRONS!!! I absolutely love them. There are so many variations. The vintage ones are my favorite. Love the ones made out of old hankies or with hand embordiered designs. Those hand embroidered designs remind me of when my grandmother was teaching me how to hand embroider. I believe the lesson started so that I could earn one of my girl scout badges. Turned out that I really enjoyed working on those projects. Just as I finished one, she'd show up with another preprinted piece of white cotton for me to work on. I loved the little french knots she taught me. I still have all those samples.... somewhere. Sorry, got a little side tracked. Back to the aprons. I sewed aprons for my sister-in-laws and one neice (who enjoys being in the kitchen). I THINK they liked them. I sewed 4 aprons from a book called A is for Apron. I absolutely LOVE all the aprons in this book. However, I was NOT happy with the instructions in this book or the way some of the apron seemed to leave some seams unfinished. The 1st apron I made, Cosmopolitan, turned out great but I did not like the way the directions called for leaving the middle inside seam exposed by just trimming it down. Seems to me that it would of unraveled when washed. I ended up folding the seam over and stitching it down so that it looked neater. Also, this apron needed a very good pressing. When I sewed the seam binding around all the edges, the ties seemed to bow up quite a bit. I honestly didn't think that pressing it was going to lay it flat but much to my delight it did! My favorite apron turned out to be the Lorelei. I think I liked it the best because of the fabric I selected. I'll post photos soon.

Here's the Lorelei apron I made for my SIL... sorry, I don't have a detailed photo of the arpon but I didn't get my new camera until Christmas and all the gifts were already wrapped.