A spring sweater

There's a pattern I've been drooling over for a long time on ravelry, a spring sweater called the Liesl by Ysola Teague. I finally started it this month with leftover yarn from my stash for Savannah.

It was such a quick knit, I can't believe how long I put it off thinking it would be more difficult or time consuming. I'm very happy with the yarn as well, which is Moda Dea bamboo wool, a discontinued yarn with excellent drape, stitch definition, and color. Even though it's impossible to see from these pictures, the blue velvet yarn actually has two thin strands of purple woven through it, giving it a beautiful sheen close up.

I've ordered a special clasp button for the top of the sweater. I like the idea of something you can just throw over your shoulders when a spring breeze picks up or to dress up a summer outfit.

Apparently, so does my little model, who is eager to wear this at the beach. I have banned her from climbing trees with this sweater on though, because of the lacework, which shows best in the photo below.

Next on my list, is a Liesl for me in much nicer yarn of course, but in a color not quite as pretty as my daughter's.

Heart Potholders

For Valentine's Day this year we had a "crafternoon", where we got together with some friends and made Valentine's. For the moms, who never get enough appreciation for the hard work they do, I made a batch of heart potholders in pinks and reds. Here is the one I made for my kitchen, in my signature blue colors.

I have found that if I use double or triple batting quilted together, my potholders last for a long time and don't result in burnt hands. When we get sick of them, our kids can use them in their play kitchens.

This is a great project to use up leftover fabric scraps as each potholder requires less than a fat quarter of fabric to make. I made a heart template that I liked out of newspaper, and cut it out of my fabric on the fold (the same way you'd cut a heart from folded paper). I liked this heart shape for its wide design. (I didn't want a pointy heart for a potholder.)

Then I layered two or three layers of warm and natural cotton batting behind it, pinned the layers and quilted them together. After quilting, I trimmed the batting neatly to match the edges of my fabric heart, then pinned the backing to it and sewed on my trim. Voilà! A little love and country charm for my kitchen.

What's old is new

Two years ago, someone sent Savannah this cute dress that has been well loved.

She's outgrown it but instead of passing it on, we decided to recreate the dress as a skirt so she can enjoy it even longer. I've been meaning to spend more time creating clothes for the kids from things that I have outgrown, stained, or worn through, so why not recreate from her own wardrobe?

By cutting off the straps and the top seam, and adding a 3/4" non-roll elastic waist band, voila, the dress is now a skirt. Something new from something old and all we had to do was sew in a few straight lines. With all the snow we have on the ground right now, it probably seems silly to be sewing a cotton skirt like this but soon we'll take our winter escape vacation to Florida where she can prance around the sandy beaches with her new skirt.

I can hardly wait!

Mending

To mend (verb used with object): to make (something broken, worn, torn, or otherwise damaged) whole, sound, or usable by repairing

Even though I'm often sewing new things out of new fabric, which can be fun and exciting, I think it's important to spend time mending the things we already own. It may not feel glamorous to have a pile of clothing in want of a button or needing a seam restitched or a pocket hole repaired, but it saves so much. It saves the item of clothing from the trash heap, it saves money, not having to replace something that has use left, and it saves us the time we spend shopping for the right thing to replace what we lose. I also find it humbling to repair the old instead of running out to grab the next new thing off the shelf without much thought to the life cycle of these items and how their life cycles affect future generations.

Today I mended clothing, most of them needing small repairs, one by hand, four on my machine. It took little time really. One was my husband's favorite pair of sweatpants from college (they've seen repairs in prior years!). Another was a good work shirt that cost a surprising amount of money. Then there were the leather gloves, sweater, buttons and a patch for my daughter's clothes. Each one a simple fix that I was glad to do, even though I'd put it off for a few weeks.

I hope you use your sewing talents for mending too when the occasion presents. What a worthy use of time to take something broken and make it whole and usable again.

Dresses (and shorts) for Africa

In my last post, I invited you to join me in sewing for this great charity, Little Dresses for Africa. When I read through the charity's website, I found they need shorts for boys just as much as dresses for girls. At my local library, where a sewing group is collecting the dresses to be shipped at the end of this month, I counted 21 dresses, but no shorts. So I had to get to work making a bit of both, shorts with fabrics that I had a small amount of, and dresses when I had a larger quantity needing a purpose.

Here are some of the works I'll be contributing this year.

I went through my fabric stash, which needs some TLC, and pulled out all the fabrics I hadn't used in over a year and didn't think I would find a good use for. This was about a dozen fabrics! I quickly cut out shorts in various sizes, using a template I made up. I surged the crotch and the inner seams between the legs, where the fabric is the most likely to come undone from use and play, then used straight seams on the rest.

Here's a size medium (ages 5-7) being modeled by my daughter. I like them so much on her I think I'll use some more of my fabrics in February to make her some quick cotton shorts for the summer or a much needed trip to Florida (it was -10F this morning!). The shorts have either 3/4" or 1/2" non-roll elastic in the waist bands. Even though they say they're non-roll, my experience is that will roll, a constant annoyance  for the wearer (or her mother!). I sew over the elastic in the front and the back of the shorts where there is a natural seam, stitching in the ditch, as the technique is called to prevent this.

This was my first "pillowcase dress" and I used all the fabric I had left in this print to make it. It's a size small (age 2-4). I made a pocket on the front from the extra fabric from the arm shaping. In case you haven't seen Garnett Hill's catalog this year, these are "in" at $78 each. Yikes!

Here's the same dress on my little model who would have preferred to spend the time writing on my walls with marker!

At home, these sew up quickly in half an hour - including using my serger for some of the seams, so no way could I pay $78 for one, even lining it wouldn't take that much more time.

My design wall filled up.

I love this pair! I could never think of how to use this fabric in one of my quilts, but I think this is perfect.

Some have pockets.

Katie jump rope fabric - loved it but had too much of it on hand.

Fourth of July shorts in size small and mellow yellow in medium.

More Katie Jump fabric to use up. Hope someone appreciates the bright colors!

Kaffe Fasset fabric.

This dress in size medium is one of my favorites. I used non-roll elastic to make the ruffle at the neckline and double-fold bias tape for the top of the pleated pocket and straps. This one is really cute!

The last dress! All in all three dresses, and seven pairs of shorts, a lighter fabric stash for me and now I really know how to sew shorts. I wish I could see them on their recipients but I'll just have to imagine these bright prints given life by the beautiful brown bodies who will receive them. I hope the children enjoy them.

Little Dresses for Africa

So last year I made some lofty quilting resolutions. Lofty because I had no idea how much time and energy one little toddler boy could consume. I hardly had the chance to work on any of them but now I know! If I can complete all of my work this month, there's a charity that I really want to sew for. The dresses can be made at any time but my local sewing group is collecting them by the end of the month to deliver in person and a little deadline to heat the underside of your pants never hurt.

Here's one of the cute dresses from the Little Dresses for Africa website of a girl who received a re-purposed pillow case dress and the girl who made it for her.

So, I'm spreading the word for anyone else who may have extra fabric lying around that needs a new home - say on a little girl or boy in Africa, who would be much obliged to have something new and clean and colorful to wear. There is a pattern supplied for your convenience but any dress pattern is welcomed (or shorts for boys!) because this project is really about love, not sewing perfection. I hope to minimize some of my fabric stash with a few of these, and if I don't meet the end of January deadline, I can always make them year round to donate. I hope you make one too!

Sara's Workshop

I don't know how the elves at the North Pole are doing, but my workshop is in full swing! Thanks to Ana White from Knock-off Wood, I've created this for the special little girl in my life (who will be receiving a special doll this Christmas from her Nana).

Savannah's doll bed for her special Christmas gift, Julie (an American Girl doll).

I modified the plans a bit: I made the bed longer to accommodate an American Girl doll and instead of using 5 1x3s for the head and foot boards, I used 6 1x2s, so mine is more narrow like a regular full size bed, only doll sized. We worked on the quilt together and I sewed the pillow and pillowcase while my daughter's sweet little head was brimming with sugar plums. The quilt is her design and she approved the prototype. The fabric is leftover from a log cabin style quilt that I made for her. I couldn't resist sewing a mini European-style pillow sham for the bed.

The bed is a farmhouse style bed, the second one I've built. I painted it this afternoon in Divine White, a Sherwin-Williams Duration paint (ie, low-VOC). I wish I had a picture for you of her doll in the bed for size. For now, this is the best I can do. Since Julie has a rabbit in her stories, she will have a rabbit doll of her own to snuggle with in her new bed.

I can't wait to give this to my daughter on Christmas morning. She's going to be the happiest little girl in the house! Plus, I built the entire bed out of scrap lumber that I had lying around in my scrap bin in the garage, painted it with leftover paint, and used fabric scraps from my bin, so it cost me close to zero.

"Real" pillow and pillowcase. My daughter is in charge of all stuffing so she stuffed the pillow herself with her nimble little fingers.

What's going on in your workshop?

Winter jumper

Just because it's 18 degrees outside, doesn't mean that your daughter wants to stop wearing dresses. Using the tutorial for the Bubblegum Jumper at From An Igloo (if you haven't scooted over to this blog for great tutorials and ideas, click on it now!), I decided to make my daughter a winter dress.  I purchased fabric from Fabric.com where I was already buying fabric to make something for William's Christmas present, to be revealed soon enough. I used a rich purple corduroy fabric.

I hope you can see the rich colors and textures of this fabric.

Because I had to sew the dress in time for her piano recital, I didn't use the button hole design from the tutorial. Rather, I sewed the back straight up to the chest piece, which I lengthened to 4.5 inches, and used hook and loop closures, which are not permanent, unlike button holes, and can be adjusted as she grows. The dress is also double-hemmed, meaning that when she grows another few inches, I can let out the current hemline to reveal another hemline beneath it that is 2.5 inches longer.

The dress isn't perfect, I have to re-position one of the straps, but she looks really cute in it and it has great texture and warmth. She can wear it with a turtle neck and it will fit her again next year. Overall, a very simple dress pattern for any little girl needing a dress in a jiffy and adaptable to many different types of fabric. I might even make a doll-size one with the leftover fabric for Savannah's favorite new doll for Christmas.

Fingerless mitts and pattern for toddlers

We girls aren't the only ones in need of fingerless mittens. Even toddler-sized boys deserve a pair so they can get into mischief with those agile fingers without totally freezing.

I decided to create a pair for my 18 month old toddler. They are knit with double-ribbing so they are stretchy and have a long enough cuff to help them stay on.

He actually likes to wear them so I must've done something right.

Here's the easy pattern:


Use a medium weight yarn, such as one that calls for size 7 or 8 needles, and a set of double-pointed size 5 or 6 needles.

Cast on 24 stitches.
Arrange 8 stitches on each needle and join in the round working in double ribbing.
Continue double ribbing pattern for 14 rows (or desired cuff length).
Begin knitting back and forth to leave an opening for the thumb continuing the double ribbing pattern. Knit 4 rows back and forth before rejoining and knitting in the round for 4 to 6 more rows.
Bind off and weave in loose ends.

More socks for William

During the fall I like to spend as much time as possible outdoors; picking apples, walking down the road, and jumping in leaf piles. Well, I rake the leaves while the kids spend time flattening the leaf piles back out.

William in leaf pile bliss.

This is why one pair of cool weather socks is never enough. So using my favorite easy sock pattern, I knitted a second pair of socks for William, this time in Debbie Bliss cashmerino chocolate. If you've never tried sock knitting before, I highly recommend using this pattern as your introduction. It is simple and clear and produces excellent results each time (and did I mention free?!@#*). It's also very quick because it uses a thicker yarn than most sock patterns call for. I can often knit one child size sock while watching a Netflix movie after the kids are in bed and the second sock the following evening.

North Country Baby Socks in chocolate for my little guy to enjoy the cool weather. The yarn is a blend of merino wool, microfiber and cashmere.

Now there's more time for this:

in between changing out wet socks to dry and shaking the leaf particles and twiggy bits off.