mending

Two weeks ago, my (one and only) fitting pair of maternity jeans started to slowly rip right next to the back pocket. It looked totally fine when they were off me, but the rip was pretty obvious when they were on me. I had hoped to make it to capri-pants season without having to purchase another pair of jeans, but in this case - with my unmentionables peeking through - I went and bought a new pair.
Once again properly attired, I started to think about what I'd do with the old pair. I remembered seeing a tutorial on messy jean-patching on some blog somewhere (of course I can't find the link now) and figured I'd give it a try. Basically, you sew a patch behind the rip and sew some crazy zig-zags to attach it. Messy and fun.

inside

outside

on my backside

It was quick and easy AND it gave my pants new life! I'm pretty pleased with myself. I now sort of wish I had used a differently-colored thread so the mending would be more visible. Maybe next time...

crafties

I've been doing some knitting. This cap (still needs to have the ends woven in and ties added, but let's call it finished just for now) was one of those troubled projects... first, I had to do all sorts of fancy math to get the gauge right. Then, I made a mistake and decided to start over (but that happened all of 15 rows into it, so it wasn't such a grave loss). Then I made another mistake later that required some really focused thinking to figure out how to repair. Then I took the whole project to San Diego with me, only to discover that one of my double-pointed needles was missing. Once I found that needle (after some semi-desperate searching and frantic emailing pleading with people to look for my needle at their houses), I finished the rest of the hat without incident. Yay!
Except - that's supposed to be sized for a 6-months-old and it's almost big enough for my 3-year-old to wear.
I like the pattern so much, however, that I've decided to keep trying to recreate it smaller. Knitting goes well with watching Downton Abbey, so I've been rather productive on that front - I think the one I started this weekend will be a good newborn size.

A friend of mine is having a second baby - a baby doctors told her she would probably never have, which... yay! For her baby shower, I decided to get a little something off the registry and add in a few little handmade things. I always have the compulsion to give something I made, but I always doubt that it's "good enough." It's kind of silly - people are usually impressed (or pretend really well that they are) when I give them something I made... I should really get over it.
So - I made a cute little owl onesie (the shower had an owl theme, and there were tons of owly items on the registry, so I decided to go with it). I couldn't find cute owl fabric to sew something from, so I bought an iron-on transfer instead and ironed it onto a onesie. To go with that, I made a cute little pair of shorts out of some knit fabric I had in my stash. To top it off, I added a teeny pilot cap I knitted a while ago. It's mercerized cotton yarn (fair trade organic, blah blah blah), so it should be just right for a California spring baby - not too hot. Cute, no?!

This is crafting-unrelated, but cute. My most recent photo trick is to tell Noah that he CANNOT be in the photo. "NO!" I tell him. "Go over there! You can't be in this picture! What... NOAH! Get out of my way!" I get the best photos of mischievous giggles this way.

fabric buckets

When I need a birthday gift for a small person, I usually end up asking the parents for gift inspiration. It makes my life easier, but it also ensures that the gift is something the child will like and be able to use.

Next week, I'm going to a first birthday party for a friend's son, and she said that they could really use some fabric storage bins for their legos.
Voila!
(I used this tutorial for inspiration, but modified it quite a bit, both because of the pieces of denim available to me and because I have a compulsion to do my own thing.)

crafty laughs

Source

I just spent a good 10 minutes giggling about Handmade Ryan Gosling, and, well, I figured I should share. Ryan Gosling UNDERSTANDS! Hilariously.

some knitting

I've been doing some knitting.

I saw this slouchy hat in the "First Fall" issue of knitty and knew I had to have/knit it. It was so much fun to work with the Noro yarn! The colors are beautiful, and the color transitions are just gorgeous. I accidentally altered the pattern a wee bit (how you do). I read "seed stitch rib" in the pattern and interpreted that to mean... what you see up there on the hat. It wasn't until much later that I saw the actual instructions in the pattern, and by then there was no way I was unraveling the whole hat just to fix a cosmetic issue.
When my hat was done, I had some yarn left over, so I made a stripey stocking cap for Noah.

He doesn't like it all that much. I'm not a huge fan of the shaping, and it is a little on the large side:

He's been playing with it, though, so perhaps he'll get used to it. Either way, I had fun making it.

Noah's train party

Read all about Noah's 3rd birthday party here!

my new skirt

www.bethanyactually.com took this photo of me - thanks, Bethany!

I'm being silly here, but I thought it showed the skirt I made myself last week pretty well.
I found this tutorial and was inspired to dust off my serger, thread it (!!!), and get to work. I had bought some striped knit fabric a while ago thinking that it'd be perfect for a skirt, so I used that. And because I have trouble following directions (I can, I just don't want to), I decided to alter the pattern a little. Instead of tracing and cutting a second circle to make the skirt round, I just cut one circle for the waist and left the rest of my fabric-rectangle intact. I really like how that turned out.



Of course, this being me, I also made a mistake. The piece of fabric I had wasn't huge, so I cut the strip for the waistband from the length of the fabric rather than the width of the fabric (since that would have made the skirt too short for my taste). I didn't think anything of it, but when I tried on the finished skirt, I realized that it was way too big in the waist. I retraced my steps, thinking that I had measured my waist wrong, but my measurements were accurate. Finally, I realized that my waistband stretches really nicely up and down, but not left and right. FAIL!
I thought about abandoning ship, but realized that I could sew a fold into the waist band to sort of gather the skirt in one place. I removed about 3 inches from the waistband, which greatly improved the fit of the skirt. It also added some cool, asymmetrical interest to my skirt, which I dig.



It fits really well when it first comes out of the dryer. Shrinking FTW!
(PS: linked up to show and share day!)