Sewing: Stylish Dress Book Dresses

In May my daughter had her confirmation and I realized afterwards that all of my girls and I were wearing dresses I had made.  These 2 dresses are dress R from the English version of "Stylish Dress Book Wear with Freedom," by Yoshiko Tsukiori.  I happened to be wearing dress E but I don't have a picture of it.  These dresses are great because they can be casual or dressy and I made them with pockets because every dress should have pockets.

Penguin wall poster

In July I was commissioned to do a wall painting for a little girl's room.  She liked penguins and picked out the picture.  It's 8' by 9'.  I'm happy it turned out so well.

Japanese Bears

Back in July my sister's friend commissioned me to make some bears from her mother's robe.  I just happened to be given a ton of this wonderful Japanese sea print that worked great color wise for their robes.  I made 2 18" bears, a 12" bear and three 5" bears out of the robe.

Zombie Felties

Here are two zombie felties from the book, "Zombie Felties How to raise 16 gruesome felt creatures from the undead," by Nicola Tedman & Sarah Skeate.  I made the Pumpkin Head Zombie and Vampire Zombie at 150% of the pattern and made them into pins.  Any are approximately 3.5".  Each one took about about an hour to make.

Pirate Party

Here's what I did for Damien's 4th birthday.  I used my cricut cutter to make the banner.  Repurposed my great-grand father's steamer trunk into a treasure chest.  The kids played out back and we had a great time.

Halloween Costume: Nerd

Ok, when Oscar told me he wanted to be a nerd for Halloween I was not thrilled.  I didn't think it was very creative so I looked up what other people did and showed him this version and he liked it.  I was given a bunch of poster board which is what the front and back are.  I used a large toilet paper box, because our family goes through cases of them, for the body. I made duct tape straps and after much cursing that I had started the front going the wrong direction and really not liking how it was looking until I added all the black line details, I'm actually pleased with how it turned out.  We were both very pleasantly surprised at people's reactions to it.  He got extra candy at the Haunt the Zoo by some nerd lovers and had a lot of high 5's from other nerd lovers.  He won "Most Creative costume" in his grade for it as well.

Duct Tape: Alice in Wonderland

Here's Teresa in her duct tape Alice in Wonderland costume.  This was the 4th time she wore it and it's held up pretty well.  Sometimes you might have places where the duct tape overlaps that can wear out where it rubs on your body.  The collar has curled more than I would like but other than that, it's been my best one yet.

Halloween Costume: Buzz Light Year

Here's Damien's Halloween costume this year, Buzz Light Year.  I actually made this costume for Max in a size 8 maybe 15 years ago!  This one is a size 4 and it's all out of felt.  The only actual material I had to get was the purple and green because I didn't have any pieces big enough.  I still have about 3 yards of white and another 2 of the grey that I didn't get into.  My sewing skills have improved from the first time I made this as I didn't do the red striping on the back pack and I didn't do the little decals before.  I do remember with Max that the costume ran long in the arms and legs and it did the same for Damien.  We went to the Haunt the Zoo here and all of the little boys kept saying, "Look, it's Buzz Light Year!" 

Sewing for Boys: 7 pj's

 

In my quest to use up my fabric, I grabbed all of my left over pieces of flannel and made Damien 7 pairs of pjs from the book, "Sewing for Boys 24 Projects to Create a Handmade Wardrobe," by Shelly Figueroa and Karen LePage.  I love this book as the designs are all good looking, practical and fun.  Damien really likes his pj's.  I've found that the length in the arms and sleeves for him are long while the body runs short.  I was able to use up all of my boy flannel fabric, yeah!

Duct Tape: Alice In Wonderland

Here's my duct tape entry that won first place. I used my cricut cutter to cut the duct tape and pretended the duct tape was paper.  I really like how this turned out.  The duct tape wanted to curl at the ends but not too badly.  I used a sharpie to add little details.  It tends to soak into the duct tape so I'm still experimenting to see what kind of marker is more permanent and gives a better result.

This is one of the pannels of the skirt.

Here's another pannel on the skirt.

Here's the last pannel on the skirt.

Here's the back of the top.

Tunisian Crochet: Scarf

This was my first Tunisian Crochet project and it received fourth place at the OK State Fair.  It is the lace pattern 22 from the book, "The New Tunisian Crochet Contemporary Designs from Time-Honored Traditions," by Dora Ohrenstein.  I really like Tunisian Crochet but I don't know why anyone came up with it.  It's not really intuitive like crochet or knitting.  The book is great in both the history of Tunisian Crochet as well as her designs and explanations.  I plan on doing several more projects from it and hopefully improving my skills.  When I finished my scarf, I noticed the right side was a little more droopy than the left.  I went back to reading the book later and found out why that happened and how to take care of it in the future.  I was just so excited to do this new to me technique.

Crochet: Serene Box Pleat Top

This was my crochet top for the OK State Fair and it came in second.  It's the Serene Box Pleat Top from the book, "Crochet So Fine, Exquisite Designs with Fine Yarns," by Kristin Omdahl.  I really like her designs and I'm very pleased with how this came out but I have decided I hate doing granny squares.  This pattern was nice because it was a join as you go.  I'm not the type of person who likes to go back and hide all my threads, I'd rather bury them as I go but that wasn't possible at times with this pattern.  Also, I was a row longer than I meant to be when I started the armholes so the top is shorter and the bottom is longer than the pattern but it's all good because I wasn't going to rip each individual square out.  The back has a pretty pannel that is different from the front. 

Knitting: India Print Henley

This was my knitted sweater for the OK State Fair and it came in first place.  It is the India Print Henley from the book, "The Knitters Handy Book of Top-Down Sweaters," by Ann Budd.  I've never done a top-down sweater before, so I of course had to pick one of the hardest ones.  I got the yarn as trade from the lady who spun the yarn for the gloves I entered.  She gave me a ton of this grey sock yarn in exchange for knitting some socks for her.  I think I got the better deal as I got a first place sweater and I just finished some knee highs from it as well.  I really like the look of this sweater but again, I made the sleeves slightly too long.  I'm really good about making long arms.

Knitting: Big Brother Octopus

Here's my knitted toy entry to the OK State Fair for this year and he got second.  This is the second big brother octopus I made and he's an improvement over my last one.  I wanted a nice one to take with me when I teach, Damien has really broken in the other one.  I love making these.

Pull Tab Purse

I won second place in the recycling category for my soda pull tab purse.  I made the two center pieces last year but couldn't figure out how I wanted to join them together.  I finally decided I would just sew them onto a round purse.  Since then, I have found several wonderful sites that show how to make round pull tab purses so I hope to greatly improve on this one for next year.  I do like wearing it as it's a great size and the strap fits at just the right height.

Knitting: Lace Gloves

These are my knitted gloves that received first place at the OK State Fair.  I met a wonderful lady there last year who was a spinner and I had her spin some roving that was given to me for my birthday a few years ago.  She did a fantastic job and this was some of the best yarn I've ever knitted with.  It's finally getting cold enough that I can wear them and I even have enough yarn left that I want to make some fingerless gloves out of them.

Crochet: Goldfish

Here is my crocheted animiguri for the OK State Fair.  This is the only entry I was bummed it didn't place higher.  There is wire in the tail to help make the fins stand out more.  It's a free pattern from the internet which I found kind of confusing but between the pictures and the instructions, I'm really happy with the result.