BrambleStitches

I don’t usually get into making things that are for
decorative purposes only, but before Christmas I bought a pound of lavender
buds for the express purpose of making sachets. I chose lavender because it is
supposed to keep moths and other greedy bugs away from wool, and since I seem
to have an abundance of that, due to my own woolie greediness, I figured that
even if I didn’t sell a single sachet, I’d still be able to use them around the
house. I really wanted to have them available in my store at Christmas time,
but I just couldn’t figure out what to do. I looked at other people’s sachets
on the internet, I fiddled around with my fabric scraps, and I looked through
my old potpourri book, but nothing really inspired me. So the lavender sat,
unopened, all alone. (Thankfully, lavender has a remarkably long shelf life. This stuff smells heavenly!)

Yesterday, while Little G was napping, Miss O and I
thumbed through some of my little fabric scraps and picked out a few pretty
things to practice with. I made a few rather goofy looking things before I saw
our heart-shaped Valentines chocolates, and then it hit me. I used some of my
teeny tiny rick rack for hanging loops, and raided my button jars.

It was very fun.

Sewing

I had a fairly productive weekend. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to use some of my novelty fat quarter cuts, and finally I decided to make baby bibs. Most of the fabrics don’t coordinate with anything else in my stash, so turning them into a quilt wouldn’t have worked unless I went out and bought a whole mess of new fabric (mess being the key word).

I’ve put a layer of “warm & natural” batting inside, and the back is a white chenile bedspread that was damaged. I’ll put pearl snaps on all of them, but I need to put in a big snap order first. These will be for sale soon on my BLOG (not on Etsy) so check back often.

I’ve also made a new batch of cloth menstrual pads. These also use some leftover flannel bits from sewing diapers. All they need are some snaps.

Cloth Diapers, Sewing

I’m so proud of myself. I’m finishing projects! (Hey, Mom!
Did you hear that? I’m FINISHING stuff! Isn’t that exciting?)

This week I:

Finished two custom-ordered baby girl sweaters. They came
out beautiful! I couldn’t find suitable buttons for them, so I decided to knit
some buttons, and they are just perfect. Blocked them, made pretty tags, and
packaged them up for two very special January babies.

Made a custom-ordered pair of baby shoes.

Knit a few dishcloths (including the “ball-band dishcloth”
featured in Mason-Dixon Knitting), and crocheted three new potholders for us. I
was given a lovely set of these potholders as a bridal shower gift, and always
intended to figure out the pattern. Finally did! Used up about one pound of
Peaches & Crème yarn. (Still have almost two pounds to go.)

Reattached a button to my favorite dress, which has been
languishing on the mending pile for two years. (TWO years—for ONE button…
sigh.)

Undid the crocheted seams of a baby sweater I knit before I
was married, then re-did them properly using mattress stitch. Removed the too-small
buttons, and replaced them with a larger set. Now the sweater is blocking on
the ironing board.

Finished frogging a handknit thrifted sweater. The yarn is
beautiful peach mercerized cotton, about dk or light worsted weight.

Also frogged a half-knitted garter stitch blanket, after I
realized I had mixed dyelots. I never really liked it anyway.

Finished two “heartbreakingly cute” baby sweaters featured
in Mason-Dixon Knitting. I started them sometime in the fall. Both are cotton
(one knit from the above mentioned cotton). Knit a little hat to go with one.

Crocheted a fluffy scarf using the biggest crochet hook I’ve
ever seen in my life. Used up several odd-ball skeins of Lion Brand “Jiffy”
yarn that I’ve had for ages. Some of it was leftover from a lap blanket I made
for The Man when we were dating, some was my Baba’s, and one skein I recognize
as the leftovers from a sweater Grandma Kathy knit for my middle brother.

Made 14 cloth menstrual pads using the incredibly excellent
pattern and directions from Adahy (http://shewhorunsintheforest.googlepages.com),
and by so doing, reduced my flannel stash a bit. Also gave the snap press a
little exercise. These are great! I love them. And anyone who is suffering under the delusion of ickyness–I’ve been cloth diapering for almost three years, now. This is way less gross.

Boxed up a bunch of hand-knitted hats to send to the Dulaan Project. More about that here: http://www.fireprojects.org/dulaan.htm

Cut out a bunch of new shoes for the shop. Look how cute!

Whew! Time for a hot tea break.

Cloth Diapers, Knitting, Sewing, Shop updates

My second attempt at making some fabric brooches turned out 47 billion* times better. This may have had something to do with the fact that I actually attempted to pick coordinating fabrics before I started. You know, rather than make a bunch of parts, then try to make them look nice together (I’ll beat you with the snap press if you don’t settle down and look pretty!). Newsflash: Even Erik thinks these are cool. Wow!

I picked up some pinbacks today on our way thru town, so tomorrow I’ll be stitching these up and tossing them in the craft fair basket. I pulled out some other fabric this morning to make some patriotic pins in the same style. Seems like a good idea, since the fair will be held on the Marine base. I think maybe some stars and stripes pincushions are in order, as well. By the way, you can make your own brooches, too. This is Molly Chicken’s tutorial: http://mollychicken.blogs.com/my_weblog/2005/12/last_minute_thi.html

*actual statistic

Sewing

I made a big basket-full of pincushions for the fair coming up next Saturday. I used some of the hundreds of thousands of six-inch cotton squares that threaten our very lives every time we venture into the garage. Each "pyn pillow" has two vintage (or at least grubby) buttons. When Erik came home to see me working on these, I know I saw him shake his head and mutter something like "…totally lost it, now." I’m just not sure ONE basket of these is enough. What do you think?

I finally got around to making Gavin a new Mei Tai, like I’ve been promising for ages. I got some wonderful fabric from Fabric.com for this. The kids’ room is decorated with cowboys and farm animals, so I thought it was just perfect. The cowboy fabric is a wonderf ul quality quilting cotton from Alexander Henry. The back and straps are a medium weight cotton twill. I made up my own pattern after looking at a bunch of Mei Tais on various websites. My old Mei Tai was way too big; this one is about 15 inches wide and 18 inches tall. The long straps are about 55 inches long. I was worried that they’d be too short for Erik, but they seem to be right for him, too. Not that he’ll ever use this. But, you know.. just in case. (The one time I asked him to wear Gavin in public he made such a huge fuss about it that I will never–NEVER–ask him to do it again. But if he ever offers, this one is nice and plain and brown on the reverse. He won’t be able to complain quite so vehemently.)

This pin just didn’t turn out right. I think I’m going to clip off the buttons and put some different ones on. I used one of Molly Chicken’s wonderful tutorials for last-minute brooches. I want to make a bunch of little brooches for the fair, but I am not very good at these little things.

Sewing, Shop updates

I’m getting ready to exhibit at my first craft fair in two weeks. I’m starting to get nervous. I know I don’t have enough inventory yet, so I’ve been very busy making goodies. It’s been fun. I did a mock set up last night on our dinner table with all of my things, and I think it will look really good. I have two tablecloths, one red and one orange, that I’ll use, and I think they’ll really stand out. Erik doesn’t think there will be many "shoppers" there, since it will be on base. I think it will be okay, even if it’s just an opportunity to hand out my business cards.

I had some wonderful pocket mirrors and bottle opener keychains made up especially for this event. Kate at badbuttons.com made these for me. She did an awesome job, and I highly reccommend her. Her turnaround is faster than lightning. I wanted to make some vintage military buttons, and ended up at the Library of Congress website and found all these wonderful campaign posters from WWI. They’re all in the public domain, now, so I could use them. There are six images, for now, but I can’t wait to do more.

I’ve also been making a bunch of my soft cloth baby shoes. They’re coming out so cute! I’m doing all one size right now, but I’ve been getting a bunch of requests for larger sizes, so I’ll do them soon, too. Here are a couple pairs I’ve sold recently.

I have a couple purses made up, too. I have a ton more upholstery fabric, and I’ve been debating whether or not to make more. This has a lining of some wild vintage kitchen fabric. It still had the selvedges on it, but it reminded me of curtains or sheets from the seventies. It was way cool.

Then of course there are all of the baby clothes I have in my shop. These will all be coming, too.

I also want to make:

4 or 5 Mei Tais. I’ll be wearing Gavin in mine all day, and I always get lots of questions about them.

Pillowcase dresses. They’re just so cute!

Bibs–but I think these will have to wait.

Can I do all this in two weeks? What would YOU want to see?

Sewing, Shop updates

I have been sewing non-stop this month. I’ve made a bunch of little dresses to sell, and a few cute things for Miss O, too. I’ve even finished a few un-finished-objects that were languishing in the garage. I broke down and brought my sewing table back into the living room. (I put in in the garage a couple months ago, after finding Miss O on top of it with my sewing pins arranged artfully in her lap.) I really can’t live without it, so I just put all my tools back in the garage when I’m finished. The reclamation of my sewing spot seems to have sparked my creativity, and I’ve been going like mad. I think I’m going to take a sewing break this evening, though, and do some knitting. It’s almost that time of year, after all.

Take a peek below at some of the things I’ve made this month.

Sewing, Shop updates

I finished two more UFOs this afternoon. Earlier this summer I cut out matching tshirts for Miss O and myself, but never sewed them up. I can’t even remember why not. The fabric is a fun lime green tropical print, 100% cotton jersey, from Fabric.com. I used an excellent pattern from Jalie, #2005 "Choice of Tshirts."

Sewing