Hexagon Baby Sweater

A few weeks ago, I ran across a hexagon baby sweater on someone's blog. Needless to say I was intrigued. I followed the link to the YouTube video and watched a lady crochet as she spoke Portugese describing what she was doing. I had no chance of understanding the spoken language, but I could understand the hook language. So after watching all 4 parts several times, I started my own.

After joining the hexagons, this is what I had. One hexagon is made with one less round than the other. They are joined at the center back working the last round on the smaller one and joining it to the larger one simultaneously. I was skeptical, but it really worked.

An amorphous blob.

With some careful folding, much like Zimmermann's knitted BSJ, it became this:

After adding a collar and trimming, I have a cute sweater:

I did a different trim than shown on the video. Next time I think I might do the ribbing on the bottom as well. Now I just need to add a hat and booties to it for a cute set.

I need to measure it to see what size it is. I think it may need fewer rounds next time and more worked on the bottom and center front like the BSJ. I also would like to try a more solid version as this one will not keep baby very warm in cold climates.

As I was getting ready to post, I discovered that there are entries at crochetville.org also. This link will take you to one.

More quilts

Our "Caring for Cooper group" learned this week that Cooper Hospital in Camden is expecting 3 sets of triplets soon. One set has already made their arrival. I'm trying to get some quilts made. I still have many of the tops left from January, but most remaining sets are gender-specific. So, I made a new non-specific set pictured above. It's red, white and blue with cute sheep and stars. All from stash (aged for at least a few years)! Another 6 yds. gone! Yeah! The other picture is a scrap quilt. The pieced blocks are the "trimmings" from the January quilt tops. I simply sewed them together, then cut blocks. The extra squares are leftovers from my sons' curtains and a remnant piece. Although it's not very big, it's one of my favorite!

BSJ: Baby Surprise Jacket

The Baby Surprise Jacket (BSJ) is a famous pattern by knitter Elizabeth Zimmermann. It's really great because the only seams to sew are the two shoulder/sleeve seams at the top. This design is pure engineering genius and requires some origami-type folding at the end. This one is made with Patons Kroy Socks Jacquards yarn in the hip hop colorway (3 skeins, although there's some left of the last. A hat, maybe??). The edging is a heather gray Red Heart Super Saver, only because it happend to be close by and looked like it would make a nice finished edge. The buttons are years old. Thank you stash! And now for the real surprise...this is done with CROCHET! Yes, this is a crocheted BSJ! I pretty much followed the EZ pattern using single crochet and skipping the knit only rows. I think I ended up with about 60 rows. Although I can crochet other baby sweaters faster, I do like this one and will make more. I'm already planning my next one. ☺

Bevy of Baby Quilt Tops

A few weeks ago, a friend posted a link to make a Super-Sized Nine Patch baby quilts on our charity crafting group. http://quiltmaker.com/patterns/patt230.pdf I was sold from the minute I opened the link and knew it was something that I'd try someday.

Walking through Wal-Mart on Tuesday, I saw some coordinating fabrics on clearance and knew it was time. I bought enough for 3 sets of quilts and even found some 1 yd and larger pieces in the remanent bin for the backs of a few. Here's the beginning of my addiction:

These fabric sets were bought for this purpose. The first is two Boyd's bear prints and a blue w/white polka dot. The next is two car/truck prints with a small black on yellow print. Then, I bought an animal print and put it with a mottled yellow and blue calico-like print. I had also bought a remanent piece of white with the word "moo" written allover. I had thought to use it to back one of the quilts.

While I was ironing the fabric, I remembered I had several yards of "cow spot" print that never made it into Christmas pageant costumes. If I could find it and a John Deere print I'd be able to make another set.

I didn't find John Deere, but I found wonderful pasture scene that I'd bought several years ago from Fabric.com. Turns out it is a Michael Miller print. Although the pictures don't justice to any of the sets, this one is especially cute! I have enough spots to back all three quilts.

This set is some retro prints that have been aging in my stash for a year or more. I had bought them to make a boutique-y dress from daughter, but hasn't happened so I decided I should use them. The colors are actually turquoise, pink, orange, and lime green. I have one more piece that coordinates to back one of the quilts.

Now I need to scour my stash for some more backing fabrics. I think that means this has turned into a stashing busting experience! Hip-hip hooray!

I hope to post some finished products before too long. I have enough batting here for 3 quilts, I think. More is on the way from Joann.com. Hope it travels quickly!

Thanks for looking!

Crossover Diaper Bag Tutorial

I have had requests for the tutorial of the bag I finished over the weekend. Click here: Crossover Diaper Bag Tutorial and you should find it I hope! It is a PDF document, so you will need Adobe Acrobat to open it. It is very image heavy, so give it some time to download. I think (hope!) it makes sense. I tried not to leave out even the littlest of steps.

This is a larger picture of the pattern than the PDF shows. It's still hard to see what I wrote, though. If you right click and save it to your computer, you can zoom in some with a photo imaging program. It's all in the tutorial, I just thought it might helpful for those of us that are visual learners to see a picture!


This is a good stash reduction project as it uses nearly 4 yards of fabric. For the one I made, I used 2 yards of 1 fabric and 1 yard of 2 fabrics. One of the best things about making bags is that they don't have to "fit" per se. If your fabric is a little shorter or narrow, make the bag a little shorter or narrower or not as deep.

Enjoy using the directions for your own personal use and charity purposes, but please do not sell the bags you make.

Enjoy!

Crossover Diaper Bag

I finished my crossover diaper bag. I made it larger than the test piece I posted the other day. It's about 19"wide, 15" high (not including handle) and 5" deep. It's also lined which makes for bulky seam allowances, but I think it turned out nice. I hope to make a bunch of these for the monthly projects of the yahoo group All Crafts for Charity and reduce my stash at the same time. Although it seems I keep buying more fabric with these bags in mind! :)

This the front:


This is the back. I thought it would be fun to mix fabrics.


Here it is filled with lots of stuff. Boy it will hold a lot! A blanket, changes of clothes, diapers & wipes...it'll all fit.


And, it will even stay somewhat organized thanks to the three inside pockets!


I love it! It would even make a good crafting bag for knitters and crocheters. I have a tutorial written. I'll be posting it somewhere soon.

St. Patrick's Sewing

My daughter is still at the age where she likes Mommy to make her a dress for the holidays. I offered to make one for St. Patrick's Day and she jumped at the offer. She picked the fabric out on Saturday at Joann Fabrics. I thought I had some green at home for the bodice, but a trip to Wal-Mart before I even checked my stash netted a perfect green polo on clearance.

The colors are much brighter than they appear. Of course, if you have a new dress, you need a new bag. I got busy making one that will be her new lunch bag. She's really rough on lunch bags and backpacks (she's on her 4th backpack this school year!) and has been carrying her lunch in plastic grocery bags for about a month. Today she had a cute one from The Children's Place and she actually brought it home to reuse. I was able to cut out a bag (no pattern...I made it up on the fly based on the size of the scraps I had left and the size I thought the finished bag should be) while visiting my folks today. I even interlined it with some canvas Mom had leftover from another project. This is the first time I've used the canvas interlining and I think it's a great technique. Here it is:



Cute, huh? I even put a zippered pocket inside for milk money when I'm out of drinks. I had thought the zipper application through and was happy when I came home and a search at http://www.craftster.org/ came up with the same method.



Here's the whole ensemble that a happy 2nd grader will get to use tomorrow:


Now, if the weatherman wasn't predicting 4-8 inches of snow we'd be all set! She was balking at the idea of needing to wear leggings and dress boots with this.

Update: There is a little snow and freezing rain outside with much more snow on the way. That all translates to a school cancellation....much to a certain girl's disappointment. It kind of makes Mommy feel good that the snow day was met with jeers, not cheers! The boys have planned a Veggie Tales movie day since it was going to be movie night anyway.

My Crossover Bag

I love sewing bags! Here's my latest:



I fashioned this after Four Corner Designs The X Bag. I've never seen the pattern except for photos of the cover on the web, so I have no idea if my way is the way they make their bag. This was a test so it is not lined. I wasn't sure if it would work like I thought and didn't want to waste the effort of lining it. I am happy with the results and plan to modify the pattern just a bit so the bag is wider. Then I can make a slew as diaper bags for charity. I definitely have the stash for it!


This is an attempt to show the 3 pockets made by the crossover.


I finished the raw edges and seam allowances with pink FOE (fold-over elastic). I love that stuff!

I look forward to tweaking the pattern and sewing these up.