Baby Booties

On Wednesday Craftzine posted about a Baby Bootie contest and inserted a few adorable pictures of booties as in inspiration. I was in awe. Some of them are so darling and I’m sure they take up just tiny bits of fabric (which I have a lot of!)

Following the link to flicker to all photos tagged Baby Booties I was in bootie heaven and found a few to die for booties from sellers on Etsy. One of my favorites has got to be Funky Shapes. Go check out the shop! You’ll be ohh-ing and ahh-ing at every little pair.

A while back I bookmarked a tutorial from BareMaked on how to make reversible baby booties thinking someday I’d want to make them. I think this weekend is that day! Another pattern I just found is from Stardust Shoes. They look pretty similar, but the construction might be a bit different. I haven’t looked closely at the patterns yet.

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On another note, knitting/crocheting has been pretty scarce (hence the lack of posts). I did just receive my order from Knitpicks and plan to start on (another!) pair of fingerless gloves for my mom. The weather is getting warmer these days so I hope she can get some wear out of them yet. Hopefully these will retain their shape better since the yarn has a bit of elastic in it. But more lamenting on the need for multiple pairs later when they’re finished!

Fabrics, oh my!

Most of my sewing projects are real instant gratification projects. Things that can be done in a day or a few hours, like purses! It’s a wonder I spend more time knitting then sewing because of this.

My biggest dilemma is choosing the right fabrics. Is it the right texture? Do the colors match? Will it go with the rest of my wardrobe? I always get so overwhelmed when going to the fabric store because of all the choices.

What’s brought about this topic? Well, Purlbee.com just debuted their first line of fabrics this week, Cake Rock Beach, and I really really like the Fire and Water collection (pictured below.)

And that led to my browsing all the online stores I’ve got bookmarked and came across a few others that I’m drawn to. The image below are fabrics from RetroDepot’s Folklore collection. Green, brown and pink is becoming one of my favorite color combinations.

And finally, I’m really drawn to the greens (it screams SPRING!) and love the punch of pink from Joel Dewberry’s Ginseng Collection.

I wonder if I can start a fabric budget in addition to my yarn budget.

Expanding the library

Since we didn’t really have Christmas with the family this year (most were in Vietnam) I treated myself to a non-knitting book:

Bend-the-rules Sewing by Amy Karol

I was drawn to this book because of the great intro chapters for beginning/novice sewers. She’s got great tips on sewing in general and then tips on the projects themselves. The projects also seemed practical and simple to make. Plus the variety of the patterns is great.

I’ve been a follower of Amy Karol’s blog angry chicken for awhile so I already admired her work. This book is no exception. I can only hope to make such beautiful creative things, but this book seems to be a great start for me.

Check it out…

These are all variations of the No Cash Wallet. They were quite easy to make and modify. I’ve been using the small wallet for a few weeks now and really like it. The DS case turned out a bit shorter then I’d like (the top flap doesn’t quite reach to the middle) but it’s still nice. The zipper pocket took a bit of fiddling with but it was worth it to have the closed pocket for carrying multiple games.

My Semi Wasp Bag

On a shopping spree I bought a dress jacket that in theory looked amazing. On me, well it made me look pregnant. I bought it anyway because I loved the fabric. After one wearing I thought it might look better (and be worn more often!) if it were a cropped jacket. It went in the closet for consideration since I’m not too experienced with tailoring. When I was out to dinner with a few friends one who had seen me in the jacket asked if I was expecting. (Eeek!) That same weekend it was converted, experience or not. And for the record I was wrong, it hasn’t been worn more often, but I blame that on the cold weather.

I wondered what I would do with the remaining fabric. I thought maybe a skirt but I knew it wouldn’t be worn often enough so it went in the storage bin until I saw the Wasp Bag from Machen/Machen. It hit me that this was the pattern it was waiting for.

As the second bag I’ve made it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I wasn’t sure if the fabric would be sturdy enough but I think it turned out quite nice. I really wanted to make the teardrop handles but I didn’t have enough fabric to make two so I ended up using an old belt that was too thin for the teardrop. I also cheated a little on the inside pocket and used part of one from the jacket. It was nicely curved and had a trim on it already. Whohoo for shortcuts.

I threw in a decorative button on one side of the bag to give it a little character. (There’s a closeup of it on Flickr.) I found the button at a fabric store closing a few months ago. At the time I wasn’t sure what I would use it for but I was really drawn to it. It was on sale so it went into the cart.

The main thing I would change if I make this again is the pleats in the lining. I would probably cut the lining to fit the outside and leave off the pleats. It was a bit tedious to redo the lining pleats to fit in the outside. I had enough problems redoing the outside pleats to fit the top portions! I also might add a zipper to the pocket to secure the items in the pocket.

No More Knitting Mess

The bucket was pretty easy to put together. I had to make it a bit exciting by adding a few pockets inside and a loop for scissors. Also it wasn’t holding itself up well and needed a bit of reinforcement on the lining, but it’s not bad for a first.

The fabric was left over from a cover I made for our papasan and a few pillows. I couldn’t resist using a bit of hot pink to give it a girly feel. When I find some time I may make a few patches to decorate the outside. It looks a little plain sitting all by it’s lonesome.

If I make another I probably would try to make it more rectangular in shape and not so tall. That way it can fit on the bottom shelf of the coffee table. Maybe even make a small lid for it for when guests come over.

Link to tutorial for the Square-Bottom Canvas Bucket on Craftster.

Meet Blueberries

Strawberries is no longer lonely!

He definitely looks much more polished then Strawberries. His shell doesn’t have holes and the stripes are more even (not spirals like hers). Although I see that multi-color crochet in the round makes the same jagged color changing edges as knitting.

I added an extra round on the shell to make him taller and then somehow unintentionally made his head bigger too. But I do like that he’s a tiny bit bigger then her since he is the male.

One can only hope that someday they can create beautiful amigurumi like Owly. Practice make perfect I suppose.

Although I’m beginning to wonder about my attention span. I’ve been eying this Square-Bottom Canvas Bucket on Craftster. It would be a great storage solution for my current knitting/crocheting projects. Usually I overtake the coffee table with needles, yarn, sissors, books, pens…. I think adding a few inside pockets would help sort the tools from the yarn and also give me a place to put everything I need for a project. No more running around to my knitting bag to grab a stitch marker or tapestry needle. This might just be my weekend project!

*Bucket image from Kargrrl on Craftster