Mermaid Tail Blankets

I've been able to squeeze a little more sewing in lately, and here's what I've been up to:

Fleece Mermaid Tail Blankets!  They are so much fun to make.  I've been shopping sales since fleece can be pricey.  My favorite is when JoAnn's has extra-wide fleece on 50% off, you get a lot more bang for your buck that way.  Better yet if you have an additional coupon to top it all off.

The dark green mermaid tail blanket pictured above is an adult size, and the others are smaller.  I've been experimenting with patterned fleece too, which I think is a fun twist.

I've been crocheting a bit too, but will probably switch over to making jewelry again soon.  Need to stock up on necklaces to sell at our booth.

DIY burlap ruffled tree skirt

Slightly off season, but I was going through some old photos and remembered I never posted about our new tree skirt!  I have been wanting to make a ruffled burlap skirt for some time now... and my lovely dogs gave me a reason to go ahead and do so after they chewed a hole in our other tree skirt.

Bummer about the old skirt, but I may make some adjustments to it so it's good as new (they chewed the edges and last time I sewed it up it had a couple "scallops" to it)

Anyways, I started by cutting the largest circle I could with a base layer of white cotton fabric.

DIY tree skirt

Then I cut my burlap into long strips (I believe I had 2-2.5 yards of burlap)  I was SO excited about the burlap, because it had some metallic gold colored threads mixed in with it.

DIY tree skirt

Then I pinned the strips of burlap onto the cotton fabric and sewed each row on to form the ruffled look.  Of course the cat had to "help".  (he had to leave the room when I was using pins)

DIY tree skirt

I used the selvage edge of the burlap for the outer most layer of ruffles and thought it added a cute, slightly different border.

Burlap ruffled tree skirt

After repeating row, after row, after row of placing burlap and stitching it on, the tree skirt was complete!  I really like how it turned out (and the animals do too... they love to lay on it).  If I were to make another one, I would make it larger, by stitching panels of cotton together for the base layer rather than just using the size of the fabric from the bolt.

Also, due to the nature of burlap, it does fray a lot, and with 3 animals that love to roll around under the tree, I don't think this tree skirt will last very long...  I'll probably make a more durable skirt to rotate with this one in the future.

Scrub cap!

Here is one of the scrub caps I made for school, as modeled by my lovely assistant :)

 

 

This same lovely assistant destroyed the pattern that I was planning to use to make the scrub cap.... so I had to wing it a little.

Baby Sushi bodysuit!

When I saw this Sushi Baby Costume  on Martha Stewart's website, which was made by Carolynn Caffelle I could not resist making one for my niece/nephew-to be for Christmas a couple years ago.

 

 

 

There are templates to make either tuna or shrimp (<-- the one I chose).

 

It was a lot of fun to make, and got quite a few smiles when it was done :)

 

My brother & sister-in-law took some adorable pictures of my niece wearing this, where they had chopsticks in the forefront of the picture and it looked like they were "picking up the sushi" hahaha.

 



crocheted market bag

Now I'm ready for the beach or the market, with this simple crocheted market bag!

 

 

I single crocheted the base of the bag, into a circle, double crocheted the height of the bag, and single crocheted the handle.

 

Back to class tomorrow!  I can't believe how fast winter break went... Hopefully I'll get a chance to share some of the crafting & sewing projects I did over break with you soon :)

Sea themed Fabric book! (pg 9 & 10)

In case you missed it:

Sea themed fabric book! (pg 1 & 2)

Sea themed fabric book! (pg 3 & 4)

Sea themed fabric book! (pg 5 & 6)
Sea themed fabric book! (pg 7 & 8)

Here it is, the end of the fabric book!  For pages 9 & 10 the shapes were attached to the pages using iron on adhesive, and the eye details and words were done in puffy paint.


Starfish - page 9
 

sea themed fabric book - starfish

Angel fish - page 10

 



sea themed fabric book - angel fish

 

I stitched 3 buttons on this page to look like bubbles, and to give a different texture.

Knit mug koozie!

I just love knitting projects that you can complete in a short time & don't require too much thought.  (as opposed to the baby blanket I have been working on for.... YEARS haha, that's another story) Last year I was really into making these while watching TV at night.  They go pretty quick! 

 

knit koozie

 

 

This was my first time doing a cable stitch, and it was not as scary as I thought it would be :)

Sea themed Fabric book! (pg 7 & 8)

In case you missed it:

Sea themed fabric book! (pg 1 & 2)

Sea themed fabric book! (pg 3 & 4)

Sea themed fabric book! (pg 5 & 6)
Sea themed fabric book! (pg 9 & 10)

 

Here are pages 7 & 8!  (next week I will post the final 2 pages, so be sure to come back to check it out!)

 

Page 7 - the Seahorse

 

Sea horse - sea themed fabric book

 

 The scrap fabrics I used on the seahorse were from: this spring jacket, and this pirate costume skirt, and the other fabric is from a pair of pajama pants I made.

 

All of the shapes making up the sea horse were attached to each other and then to the page with iron on adhesive.

 

 

Page 8 - the Stingray

 

stingray - sea themed fabric book

This gray material has gotten a lot of use!  I can't remember how many yards of it I bought but I made this fleece pullover, this fleece jacket and this cat bed.  I still have a lot of scraps from this fabric left, so I imagine you will see it pop up again :)

 

The flannel material used to make the pages was leftover fabric from this cut chenille blanket

 

 

Sea themed Fabric Book! (pg 5 & 6)

Check out pages 1 & 2 of the cloth book, pages 3 & 4 of the cloth book
**update: pages 7 & 8 of the book here, pages 9 & 10 of the book**

 

Page 5 - the Crab

 

fabric texture book - crab

 

Does the red fabric look familiar?  It's a scrap piece from Hubby's Prince William costume from Halloween a couple years ago!

 

 

 Page 6 - the Octopus!

fabric texture book - octopus

Fabric scraps from a dress I made way back when

 

It's so much fun actually getting to use scrap fabric for a project, I love going through and remembering all the projects I've worked on in the past :)

 

Pages 6 & 7 will be posted soon!



Crocheted hats!

I've been crocheting on my study breaks lately, & here are 3 of my most recent projects!

 

I'm probably going to add cute faces/designs onto the ear flap hats when I get home from school (aka when I have access to different colors of yarn)

 

crocheted hats!

 

 

More crochet projects to come!

Burlap & Lace Wreath

I've been wanting to make a burlap wreath for so long!  But always forget about them when I actually get to the store, so it was perfect that I nearly walked into everything I needed for the project as it was set up on a cute display in the center of the aisle :)

 

burlap & lace wreath

 

I wasn't quite sure how to wrap the burlap, but thanks to the internet, found lots of helpful instructions.  I bought a medium sized wire frame for the wreath, and one roll of the burlap which had an overlay of lace attached to it.  I can't remember how long the rolls were... but it turns out I needed 2.  You could easily cut your own strips of burlap instead of using the rolls of it, which I may do in the future.

 

After securing the burlap, I attached a couple silk flowers to the wreath and that was it!  Super quick project, it took about 10-15 minutes to make. 

Last minute pirate Halloween costume!

Other Halloween costume ideas & tutorials: Thing 1 & Thing 2, Royal wedding style William & Kate, DIY petticoat, more pirate or witch costume pieces, (more mix & match pirate costume pieces), & Dorothy & the Lion

----------------------------------------------------------

 

 

This pirate costume is so simple to make and can be done very last minute!

 

I just made a basic skirt (with an elastic waistband), grabbed a tank top from my closet, and cut a sash from some scrap fabric and left the edges raw.  Then, I took a couple long strands of hemp and tied knots (maybe every 10 inches or so) and added beads & fake coins to it, and tied that over the other sash.

Simple & comfortable DIY pirate costume

 

That's all. You can easily pair this with an eye patch or bandana, or other accessories

 

 

Doily garland!

Last winter, I helped make decorations for my friends baby shower :)  Her nursery colors were blue & orange, and let me tell you, I found it pretty tricky to get orange decorations at the store.  So, I bought some white paper doilies and some orange Rit dye and made my own.  I poured enough of the dye in the bottom of my pot (that I use only for craft projects) and added water to it, so it was probably about a 50:50 solution.

 

Mixed that all together, then added each doily individually into the mixture, making sure they were covered with the dye on both sides, and were not touching each other.  (I could dye about 3 at a time in my container) 

 

GLOVES came in handy :)  Though I do believe I still had an orange finger in the end.

 

Each doily was probably only in the dye about 5-10 seconds, then I took them out and set them on a stack of old rags so they could air dry.

 

Once they were dry, I cut a long piece of kite string and strung the doilies onto it.  After the spacing looked OK, I added scotch tape to the back of the doily (over the string) to keep it all in place.

 

DIY Orange doily garland!

 

It was so much fun to make :)

 

Didn't get a picture of them hanging on the wall though, oh well.

cloth towel "wet bin"

Hubby & I have been using cloth "paper towels" lately and cloth napkins.  To avoid having to run to the laundry bin after each meal, we now have a wet bin under our kitchen sink.  I empty this out whenever I do laundry, or if it gets full.

 

I used a plastic coffee container, and Mod Podge to add a strip of fabric for a little more decorative look, and also to easily identify the bin.

Crocheted face scrubbies!

I am obsessed with face scrubbies now!  I absolutely hate it when you go to wash your face and the washcloth smells like mildew because it didn't dry out... after only one use. 

 

 

These little crocheted face scrubbies are the best thing ever.  They are about 3 inches in diameter, made from 100% cotton yarn.  They are super quick and easy to crochet, & take up less space than washcloths.  Plus, when you wash these, no folding is required :)

 

Also, they only take about 5 minutes to make one, so it's a perfect little study break craft for me!

 

Crocheted dish cloth

This dishcloth was quick and easy to make.  I just chained 30 or so, then the rest is rows of half double crochet.

 

Quick & Easy Crocheted dish cloth!

 

I am so excited for the weekend, and am so tired from classes.  This past Monday morning, while walking to my first lab, I was excited that it was Friday.... yeah, it was destined to be a long week! 

 

I found some sea glass at the beach a couple weeks ago, and am so excited to make something out of it this summer!  I LOVE sea glass :)  Unfortunately I didn't bring any jewelry making supplies here, so knitting and crocheting will have to do for now.

Crocheted slippers: Complete!

I am SO happy to have knitting and crocheting supplies with me at school.  I've been going through my yarn quicker than I thought I would though.  I'm not sure if/where you can get things like yarn here, so fortunately one of my classmates is in the States this weekend & she's bringing me back some!  Classwork will be getting crazier with each passing day, so who knows if my craft time will continue... but hopefully!  It's how I unwind :)

 

 

Crocheted ballet style slippers

 

Here are my completed crocheted slippers!  They are pretty nice to wear during lectures in our cold classrooms :)  I told hubby I made myself some slippers, his response?  "Are you making me some next?"  How cute :)  I had no idea he'd want a pair.  Obviously his won't be Mary Jane or ballet slipper style, I'll have to find a more manly pattern.

 

Update: Check out hubby's crocheted slippers!

Crocheted slippers!

My 1st week of the semester is almost to an end, and I luckily had some time to crochet!  The classroom we're in this term is super cold, but since it's really hot outside, I always wear flip flops.  So, I crocheted some slippers to wear during lecture :)  It took me two evenings worth of study breaks to make them.  I'll post pictures of the final products soon, but here is the base of it!

 

Crocheted slippers in progress

 

I wore the slippers in class today, and they helped a little bit.  I'm currently working on knitting some fingerless glove type things, so hopefully I can add that to my classroom attire soon!  (maybe a hat and scarf too haha, we'll see)

 

Tomorrow, I may bring my fleece blanket.

Christmas pajamas pt 2

More Christmas pajamas for the special little ones in our lives!

 

I made this outfit for my little niece.  To make the candy cane on the shirt, I used red rick rack (the same as on the pants) and twisted sparkly white/clear ribbon around it.  I then pinned the ribbons onto the shirt in the shape of a candy cane, and stitched down the center of the ribbons to connect it to the shirt.

Candy cane pajama top and bottoms

 

 

This is the outfit I made for our handsome little Godson.  To make the onesie I appliqued logos that I cut from the same fabric as the pants.

Appliqued Packer bodysuit and pajama pants

 

Check out the other Christmas pajamas I made this year!

Christmas pajamas pt 1

I made pajamas for Hubby's niece and nephew for Christmas.  Hubby picked out the materials and ribbon, and was a great sport on our multiple trips to the craft store :)

 

I bought a plain white top and appliqued three owls from the pajama pant fabric onto it.

 

Appliqued owl top

 

I can't remember off hand which pattern I used for the baby/toddler pajamas I made this year, but will look it up and write a review in the future.  I used this pattern for 3 of the 4 pajamas I made this year... but likely won't use it again, at least not without changes.

Owl fabric toddler pajamas

 

I liked the pattern I used for the boys pajama pants, but, of course, my dog literally ate my pattern.  Thankfully it was after my pieces were cut!  I'll look up the information and post a pattern review for it in the future too.

Penguin fabric boys pajama pants

 

Check out the rest of the Christmas pajamas I made this year!