Gnome Hat & Tawashis

I was recently part of the Givers & Needers swap round 10 on craftster.

I sent supplies to two lovely folks who both handcrafted me thank you gifts.

I also received supplies from two very generous women, and I made thank you gifts for them. For the amazing rlynn, I crocheted her young daughter a gnome hat, inspired by the amazing April Draven, and some Tawashis.

Here are a coupld shots of her daughter wearing the hat - how cute!

MIA

I have not been posting, because I have been busy crafting!

Just wait - I have tons of new handmade items of all kinds to post! As well as some new cute hat designs.

I am still trying to figure out how to add a marketplace to my blog...any tips?

Also, Christmas orders out the wazoo! I might be able to fit in a couple more, but it's getting tight...

Fabric Destash!

"What is Craftster?" you may ask. Well, it's only the most kick-@$$ craft-sharing website on the entire interwebs!

"What is a swap?" you may ask. BLASPHEMER!!! Swaps through Craftster are amazing, and that is all you really need, right?

So, if you don't know Craftster, or swapping, I highly suggest getting your deprived butt on over to that website, checking out the awesome & joining up. If you are really super-awesome & crafty, you might feel inclined to look into swapping.

The point is to destash a bit, and send supplies that are not useful to me on to those that CAN make use of them. One of my partners has requested fabrics as part of her supplies, and since I am unable to email her due to the size of the file, I am making a blog post.
Right now, I'm taking part in the Givers & Needers Swap Round 10. I offered up 2 givers packages, and one needers package. Turns out I'm doing 2 of each, which is making me a light

Don't want to read? That's fine, you can skip this one, and I won't even hold it against you. anxious, but I am working towards getting the right stuff to the right people.

Ok, so, here's the pictures of the fabrics I have up for grabs:

Miscellaneous Fabrics

*beige pleather – large irregular scrap

*burgundy velour – irregular scrap

*cream fur (not sure what this is) – irregular scrap

*burgundy faux suede with black embroidery – large irregular scrap

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Miscellaneous Fabric

*navy (not sure either, feels like a prom dress) – 60” wide x 4.5yds

*blue sparkly fabric – 60” wide x 15"

*black floral (this is very see-through) – 45” wide x 1yd

*brown stretch with purple/green pattern & gold sparkle – 60” wide x 19”

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Silky Plaids/Stripes

*brown/white irregular stripe – 60” wide x 23”

*purple/white irregular stripe – 60” wide x 18”

*blue/white/red plaid – 60” wide x 1.2yds

*blue/white/silver stripe – 2 pieces, 32” x 23”

*salmon/white/silver stripe – 2 pieces, 32” x 23”

*magenta/white/silver stripe – 2 pieces, 32” x 23”

*silver stripe – 2 pieces, 30” x 24”

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Silky Patterns

*white with rainbow irregular stripes – 4yds x 19”*white/navy stripe – 45” wide x 14”

*silver/pastel plaid – 60” wide x 34”

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Flannels

*dark red/tan plaid – 45” wide x 1.7yds

*blue/green plaid – 2 pieces, 60” wide x 20”

*light pink solid – 2 pieces, 36” wide x 29”

*light pink floral – 90” wide x 16”

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Fleeces

*blue polar fleece – irregular scrap
*red polar fleece – irregular scrap

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Christmas Cotton Broadcloth

*green with white hearts & holly/red bow – 2 pieces, 40” wide x 52” (one piece has small cut out on end)

*red with white stars – 40” wide x 4+yds

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Cotton Broadcloth

*blue plaid (not broadcloth) – 45” wide x 30”

*brown leaf print – 45” wide x 1.7yds

*blue/green plaid – irregular scrap

*white with black polka dots – 45” wide x 32”

*brown paisley – 40” wide x 2.1yds (this has some damage along the selvedge)

*cream with brown flowers – small scrap

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Cotton Broadcloth

*large brown/orange/yellow/white plaid – 45” wide x 3.5yds

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Fabric by the Bolt

not willing to part with all of any of these, just some of each

*gray ribbed knit tube

*red cotton broadcloth

*red/blue plaid cotton broadcloth

Forgotten

I finished off my good friend Rebekah's starghan a couple weeks ago, but I completely forgot to take pictures & ship it!

It has been sitting in my pile of FOs. I went through that pile tonight & found it sitting there neatly folded, patiently waiting...for something.

I think I was waiting to get my labels made up so I could attach one, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen any time soon, so here are some pics of the custom starghan she won in the benefit auction:

Basic Children's Bat Wing Tutorial

Remember the wings I made for DS's halloween costume?

Well, I promised a tutorial. Here it is, in all it's picture-y glory, including my terrible MS Paint skills applied.

Materials:

• 2 wire coat hangers
• wire cutters
• pliers (2 pairs makes some things easier)
• electrical tape
• fabric of your choice (I chose a navy upholstery suede that I had lying around & no use for)
• coordinating thread
• tailor's chalk
• scissors
• straight pins
• sewing machine
• Elastic

Instructions:

1. Grab your wire cutters, and cut the hanging portion off your hangers at the bend. One of your hangers then needs to be cut into 4 (fairly) equal lengths. Here's an MS Paint mock-up:

2. Bend your hangers. For the first hanger, bend in half on the long (bottom) piece, then extend the angles until it resembles a wide "W" For the second hanger, try to straighten out any bends that are left behind. Another MS Paint diagram, with fancy arrows:

3. Wrap the ends of all your cut hanger pieces in electrical tape to cover any sharp ends & prevent them from poking your little one or coming out of the channels we will make later.

4. Place your fabric, right sides together on a flat surface (like my thread & lint-covered floor). Lie your "W" out upside down, and place your short pieces inside the points like boning in a bat's wing, like so:

5. Trace a wing shape around your wires , remove the wires, pin & cut out. Leave a 1/4" - 1/2" seam allowance.

6. With right sides still together, sew along the top of the wings. Clip the curves, trim any excess & turn right side out. Place the "W" inside the new seam, and pin in place securely. With the wire on the right of your machine, move your needle to the right. Sew a straight line along the length of the "W", creating a channel. Remember to close the ends of the channels so the wire doesn't pop/fall out.

7. Place your straight pieces, pin & sew channels, moving your needle from left to right as necessary, keeping it on the side closest to the wires. Remember to close the channels & encase the wire. Do this for all 4 pieces.

8. Measure the child's arms over the shoulder, & cut 2 pieces of elastic. Sew into loops & attach to the center back.

9. Put them on, wear them, love them, but remember to make scary faces!

If you find them a little floppy, you can throw a couple more stitches in the elastic at the top of the wings.

There are a few more steps to finish this set off to make it flow with his costume, but this should be easily altered & elaborated upon to suit your needs :)

Happy Halloween!

Worth it's own Post

I'm not big on the link-love posts. Generally, I try to post either WIPs or FOs that have links to patterns or tutorials that I used or inspired me.

HOWEVER, today, the wonderful ladies over at Prudent Baby posted what is one of the most useful tips I have ever seen in my life. A concise, comprehensive, easy-to-understand tutorial specifically for sewing knits (without a serger)! I have sewn with knits many times, both with & without a serger, but there were some things I didn't know or hadn't tried.

Please, please PLEASE if you feel intimidated by sewing knits, go read this post! You won't regret it.

Halloween is Coming!

know I have a lot of projects on the go, and a lot of things that I need to complete, but in case you didn't know, Halloween is right around the corner! A month and a half until all the awesome costumes & an excuse to go a little crazy!

DS & I have sat down & discussed costume ideas for this year, and he wants to be scary. A scary monster.

We had written down all of the components that his costume must have, and drawn a little sketch. When he added one more element, I had an "AHA!" moment & showed him some pictures from Google. He loved them! So, costume decision for him is finalized.

Today, he & I sat down to start the first piece - the wings!

A tutorial will follow, but for now, here is a couple cute shots:

There are some things left to do, of course. First, we need to figure out something to stop them from flopping around so much, and changing the colours to something more suiting & authentic.