I dug one of my favorite old sweaters out of the basement the other day...
I put it on and realized that it has totally lost its appeal. The poor thing is just stretched out, pilling, scratchy, and out of style. I wouldn't even bother sending it to the thrift store. It's perfect for chopping up though! I would feel weird about cutting up a perfectly good sweater for leg warmers, but this things really has outlived its goodness. So, away we go!
This is possibly the easiest thing ever. Plus, I needed a pair since my only favorite black leggings are capri length, and I hate hate hate wearing socks.
Turn sweater inside out.
Cut off sleeves.
Cut sleeves so they are even.
Fold the edge under, pin and sew.
You're done!
Now my legs are warm! Mission accomplished!
On a side note, my MOPS craft debut went pretty well!
Here are some of my favorite ladies working on their bows :) I'm excited to do some more craft work with the group, and hopefully teach them some new tricks!
Amidst the madness of this weekend, I forgot that I did actually make something. I fell victim to the cute How To Sew Your Own Sock Monkey (By Craftpassion) pin on Pinterest.
I'm not a monkey person. Monkeys freak me out in a big way, and as far as I know (according to Hollywood) they are going to take over the world someday. Not cool, Monkeys of the world, NOT cool!
Sock monkeys, on the other hand, are OK. Mostly because they are not real... and if they took over the world, it wouldn't be so bad. I think I could take down a sock, no problem.
...Anyway...
I grabbed the only socks I could find that were cute, and not currently in circulation. (Dom's old 3-6 month old socks) The tutorial is great, and I think he came out pretty cute. So definitely check that out!
Otherwise, I've been working on a craft for our local MOPS (Moms Of Pre-Schoolers) group. I'm heading up the craft department this season, and I'm excited! Also terrified! I'm a born follower, my heart jumps into my throat when I talk in front of more than 2 people at once, and I've never been in charge of anything before! I think this will be a great experience for me, to get wayyyy out of my comfort zone, and possibly become less awkward... We'll see about that last one.
Our first mini craft is going to be felt bow name tags. I assembled probably twice as many "bow kits" than we actually need. I have scraps and felt fuzz and pin backs coming out of my ears! Not to mention I have a wrist cramp from pattern punching card stock. Seriously, that stuff is tough! So hopefully, I can guide our ladies in making these guys tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!
A lot happened over the weekend! Well, A lot for me anyhow.
Friday morning, bright and early, my husband participated in the Army Substance Abuse Program (ASAP) Honey Badger Challenge.
Educate yourself about the honey badger:
*WARNING STRONG LANGUAGE*
(in case you're offended by stuff like that)
So he ran this cool obstacle course, annddd I didn't get any great pictures because trying to keep a 3 year old in tow with a bunch of slip&slides that he isn't allowed to play on all around... was... tough. A challenge unto me as well.
After that, errands were ran, and we got back home in time to jump on a bus to go paint ceramics. Dom made a messy coaster that I somehow managed to keep him from making into a splotchy brown mess. I'm excited to see how it comes out.
AFTER THAT, we went to the fall carnival at the local elementary school. Where I spent the entire time on various lines to purchase food.
Long bus ride home, night night.
Saturday I spent the whole day with a headache, cleaned the house, and was gifted some super-awesome fabric from my neighbor!
Sunday: Football. So, up until about 3AM.
Woke up this morning at 9.
Am I tired? Sure, but I feel like I haven't done anything over the past few days... craft-related. So I think I might go on a crafty tear today.
My neighbor has the most incredible decorations for Halloween that I have ever seen. I have...nothing. : / So I HAD TO make something to bring the festiveness to our place. Pumpkins are the easy answer. What's better than regular pumpkins? Cute teensie tiny baby pumpkins, of course! Pumpkins made of felt, that will never rot into a stinky puddle of mush on your doorstep! Ew, right?!
Awwwwwwww.
You will need:
A sheet of felt (to make 4 pumpkins, an 8x3 piece if you want to make one)
Embroidery floss (a piece at least 18" long per pumpkin)
Poly Fill
Glue
A stick (or other stem-like device)
Fold your felt piece (along the long edge) so that the folded portion measures 4". Trim off the excess, and sew along the open edge. I used the sewing machine for this. Measure and mark four, three inch sections on your felt tube. Cut along the lines.
Take one of the pieces, and turn it right side out.
Starting at the seam edge, running stitch all the way around the circle. Use small, even stitches.
Pull the thread tight, like a drawstring, and knot off the end. Without cutting your thread, pull the needle through the center hole of your gathers.
On the second side, running stitch the edge like the first side, but make alternating long-short-long stitches.
You can see a little better what I mean here. Once you get all the way around, fill with poly fill, pull it tight, and knot.
Still without cutting the thread, start making loops from the top hole to the bottom hole. These will be the creases in the pumpkin.
Go all the way around. The number of loops you will make depends on how many large stitches you made while gathering the top portion. mine had eight. Once you make all of your creases, knot off the end.
You will have to fluff and shape it up a bit. I use my needle to pull out the dents in the top so they look smooth.
For the stem, snap off a 1-1.5 inch piece of twig, luckily I had one lying around the house that Dom dragged in the other day, put a drop of glue in the top hole...
...and stick and twist your stem stick on in there.
All done! Aren't they cute? I think they would make great place card holders for Thanksgiving dinner or a fall wedding!
Due to recent unforeseen busyness, I haven't accomplished much in the world of craftyness. By not much, I mean I only made this scarf in the past 2 days. My sewing machine is feeling slighted, and I have a felt pile that is calling my name. Sigh . On a very happy note, my scarf is fabulous. It's soft and pretty, and I can pull it up over my head in case I have the sudden need to hide from a predator or play a quick game of peek-a-boo.
So a BIG thanks to my super awesome Grandma, for hooking me up with fancy yarn and hours of entertainment! :) I still have more left over! So there may be scarfs in the works for a couple little girls I know!
I never really had the desire to knit, until I met German Winter. Crafts that keep me from freezing to death?! Sign me up! I got some yarn, I had some needles from my Grandma, annnddd I was horrible at it. Everyone told me to start with "regular" yarn, which is small.... and it takes forever to accomplish anything... and I am so very impatient that I couldn't handle it.
Then I saw Wool and The Gang. They made knitting simple, and obvious that I should be knitting with the fattest yarn possible so I can finish a whole scarf in a day! I am no expert knitter now, but last year I made three scarfs!
Over the summer my grandma sent me SIX skeins of yarn that she wasn't using. I drooled over it, but packed it up for this very occasion.
Isn't it lovely?
So check out Wool and The Gang, get yourself some fat yarn, and knit fearlessly into the night!
In my pre-blog days (a few weeks ago) I didn't accessorize much. On a good day I would wear shoes that matched my "outfit." It's just that accessories aren't cheap. You see, I have the problem that a lot of mothers have where, for about the first 3 years of your child's life, you feel super-guilty doing anything except bending over backwards for them. Every time I have a want, I think about how the money could be better spent on Dom.
Then I realized that he had a much nicer wardrobe than me .
I'm slowly getting over it. I'm proud to say that I've bought a few pairs of jeans recently to replace the one's I've been wearing since high school.
But accessories are still too expensive to me. I don't like spending more on the little details of an outfit than the major components! It's nuts! Scarfs are super trendy now, I like them, and they're easy and CHEAP to make! Double win!
We all have tops that are clinging around our drawers (or hanging out at the thrift store) that we love, but refuse to get rid of. They don't fit, and they're never going to fit... but but but.....
Hi, I'm too short.
Too revealing.
Too much... stuff.
The process is pretty much the same for all of these:
Chop the top. For the jersey knit tops, this is all you have to do. Since this one is cotton, there's an extra step.
Rake your nail along the edge, to give it that frayed-fringy look.
Taa-daa!
If you shirt isn't wide enough to wrap around your neck twice, it helps to make it look fuller by sewing it into a trapezoid shape. Like so:
My dotted line is just accentuating my trapezoid, you would only sew the sides, not the top and bottom.
Three new scarfs for under a dollar! I can live with that :)
As I mentioned yesterday, it's just about sweater season here in Germany. This morning I pulled out my only favorite cardigan. I've had it for years. I wore it a lot during the brisk Florida "winters." Sadly, the years have not been kind to my dear cardigan. It's stretched out in weird ways, and either the sleeves shrunk or my arms got longer.
It needs some love. You can see on the left side (my right) how saggy the shoulder has gotten from hanging on a hanger for many years, thus making the sleeve a weird length for me. It looks ok when my arms are down, but in any other position, it's in this mid-forearm-wrist area...anyway they look to short. Also, I have to point out the very unattractive armpit crease thing going on.
On the right side I folded up the cuff to where I think it would look good, and clipped the width of the sleeve as well. I like to give myself a visual before I get to sewing, and safety pinning with one hand is not fun.
These guys work great. Did you ever notice on Say Yes To The Dress, when the dressed are too big, they don't pin them, they clamp them! It works!
First, I will shorten the sleeves. With the cardi right side out, fold the cuffs up as far as you want them shortened (everything to the outside of the original cuff will be cut off, and the original cuff will stay intact) Stitch around the sleeve, over the existing cuff seam.
After I cut off the excess from the cuffs, I turned the Cardigan inside out, then measured and pinned how much I wanted to take the sleeves in.
I stitched them up and chopped the excess.
Now my good 'ol cardigan looks cute and fitted, rather than baggy and sloppy!
I'm so happy I was able to extend the life of this piece!
If there's one thing I truly enjoy about Germany, it is seasons. They change!
I lived in Florida for the overwhelming majority of my life. I thought Florida had four seasons. That's what my kindergarten teacher said at least! In the spring there's flowers... ok, well there are flowers all rear round, but they're there for spring. Then there's summer, check, Florida has summer, no doubt. Fall... when the leaves change color... and... um we had a combination of pine trees and palmetto... they only change colors when there's a brush fire. AND winter! I wore sweaters every year, when the thermometer hit 60°. That was winter.
Enter Germany, with the most magnificent dramatic season changing magic act I've ever seen. Winter is the most grueling, freezing, dark five months you could imagine. Then everything comes back to life, overnight! Spring is flowery! Flowers that I would buy at a garden center of Lowes just spring up on the side of the road. Summer is largely the same as summer in Florida, except it lasts about a week. Then comes fall. I experienced my first REAL fall last year. Leaves rain down from the trees. Everything is colorful, the weather is nice, and there is a pumpkin fest!
So here we are, over a week from the official beginning of fall, and I'm already getting pumpkin crazy. This begins the slippery slope to getting Christmas crazy...
Deep Breath
To keep myself in the fall spirit, so I can squeeze every bit of joy out of it before I hibernate until April, I am testing bat and pumpkin patterns. Since it's hard to make a tutorial for something you haven't made before, that is still to come. I was pretty happy with my first-off though. I introduce to you, Baby Bat. Sorry, I don't have a cooler name.
He's teeny tiny, about 4" wide, and wired up so you can flex and fold him. Here you can see how I just start with a sketch, and figure it out from there.
I've also been toying with tiny pumpkins, they are super easy to make, so I'll have the pattern and tutorial up for those really soon!
