This Week...

Actually Laura and I will be taking our very first plane trip to go to a dear friend's wedding!

Say a prayer?

Wilson's Sweater (And a Bowtie)

{Inspired by Bentley's sweater...}

Wilson's new sweater is made from the sleeve of a felted sweater from the thrift store. The shoulder folds around his neck like a shawl collar. A section cut from the other sleeve makes the strap around his underbelly (edges covered with an overlock stitch). 

He liked it the minute the sweater came out of the scrap basket! 

Which is good...because the bowtie I was making him...didn't really show with all his fluff.

So the girls can have it.

They don't look all too thrilled about it, do they?

These canine fashions may be a bit silly, but after working on them, I am feeling much more confident that I can sew and make things fit. Maybe next, something for human proportions?

Judy Wears a Cape

To tickle Mama's fancy, I made a little cape for her Judy-dog. (Inspired by the ones from bugduds on Etsy) It took me a while to figure out the right curves for a pattern...consisting mostly of quite a few versions of newspaper and tissue paper shapes pinned around a very patient little dog's neck. Read "patient" as half asleep. Judy dogs need their beauty rest. After the fitting, she perked up and tried her very best to help, pulling out scraps and running away with the ruler. Finally, once the ruler was returned, a pattern was born, the fabrics picked and even the collar attached without too much of a to-do. I was worried about the collar...those were new for me and I could not find a tutorial or instructions online.

     So a....what do they call a draft in sewing? A proof? A 'muslin'? One of those was called for. There was some faded vintage nursery rhyme fabric in the stash downstairs that would suit just right. Whew! The seam allowances that I left were far too large! How nice to have a Bebe dog just a little bit bigger! 

Over a green knit sweater and tied with a blue grosgrain ribbon (with fashionably inconvenient length), Bebe models the Nursery Rhyme Cape.

With much smaller seam allowances, Judy wears her semi-reversible cape with a button and loop fastening over a red cable turtleneck sweater for warmth. 

And just in time. The next day....

...brought the biggest snow we've seen in a long time! 

Bit #5 - Lots of Purple Going On

My free kit (from a local group) for Project Linus was a really simple one this year.

Just purple on one side. Green on the other.

Stitched up like a big pillowcase and tied with green floss.

Bit #4 - Baby Blossom Hats

I can post this now since both hats have been recieved at their respective destinations.

This is the free pattern: Clochette. (Bless you, Knitting Pattern Central!)

(Bebe wasn't a lot of help on this photoshoot. She prefers to stay cuddled in her blankets....)

There was a video on Etsy's Storque that suggested sewing sheets of pretty paper over recycled mailing envelopes. It worked pretty well and everything got to where it was supposed to, so I guess that the post office didn't complain too much! The illustrations are from a salvaged nursery rhyme book. I love these old colors and lines...don't you?

These little blossoms remind me of Campanula flowers and were a real delight to make. (This was my first time knitting small, separate forms - like these leaves. Very fun!) The petals were a little...floppier than the picture had led me to expect. Maybe because I haven't mastered the art of weaving in ends yet. Hmm... Must knit more - to practice!

Kisses to the babies to whom they now belong!

Bit #3 - Bathroom Window Makeover

oooo....the ratty old blinds in our bathroom have been broken for a long time. Since this picture was taken, one of the lift cords shredded, rendering the whole thing lopsided if you wanted to let any light in at all. We looked around for a replacement, but the hardware store always seemed out of the right size or style, so we lived with it. 

Then I spotted this tutorial and figured "what do we have to lose"? It looked easy enough to turn our grimy, tattered blinds into a beautiful Roman Shade....

Sure, it calls for an existing lift cord, but threading a bit of yarn (yes yarn...) through the header was not TOO hard. Pulling up diagrams for the repair work made me feel like a little grease monkey! In a very, very...small, blind-repair sort of way.... sorta. We had some muslin in the stash and a new bottle of fabric glue in the drawer. A fancy new shade was done zipzipzip! (Note: fabric glue is aaaawwwwwessome.)

My triumph was short-lived. The lift cord snapped. Again. We are blaming it on some faulty rollers in the heading. 

Still, with the help of a spare piece of muslin, the desired Roman Shade was transformed into a dainty sort of ribbed valance. SO MUCH BETTER! (Excuse the cluttered toilet top - I was deciding between the wider tie or two narrow lace ones... Also - that tiny picture on the ribbon is one of my travel journals! Easy, huh?)

Bit #2

russel sprouts are love.

To look at anyway.

And then when all the little sprouts are snapped off, the most marvelous pattern is left on the stalk! Kind of like a vintage modern wallpaper print.

Bit #1 ~ Watercolor Packing List

hew! So Nanowrimo is over.... Writing 50K aside, November was a pretty creative month at our house and now is the time to share bits of it here (in no particular order).

Laura and I are going to a dear friend's wedding at the end of the month. I'm trying to figure out what to pack... (And what will fit in a carry-on!)

Doodling things out can be such a big help sometimes, don't you agree?

(NOTE: totally in love with www.dailydropcap.com!)