Christmas At My Home: Day 18

Some things are a really great idea. Like this piece of material my sister D sent me. Somehow it really feels Canadian and I don't know why. Colour? Poinsettias? Thanks again D.

Fifth Apron All Done

I found this material in my stash and thought that the colours would be OK for a fall apron.

Not wanting to use the winter ones yet, I'll use this until December. I won't make my new winter one until the end of this month. Then next month I'll probably make an apron for a gift. I have the material for it but it might not get done until the last minute!

As there are only 49 days until Christmas I thought that I should get some gifts done so I could mail them off before Christmas. For a decoration I combined mini mittens and a mini hat.

I found four more snowflake patterns, so I'm hoping to get them done soon.

Fourth Apron is for an Apron Challenge

I'm cutting it a bit close entering the tie one on challenge. I'm not quite sure if I want to use white cotton for the 'fur' or this fake fur that I have just pinned on for now. I didn't think about what I would use for buttons or a buckle, so they too, are just there temporarily.

Third Apron Done

I didn't have much trouble after replacing the sewing machine needle, other than the usual annoyances, I mean. I used one long strip for the middle and then cut a strip for each side of the apron part. I don't have a serger so I try not to leave any raw edges anywhere. The picture on the left is before sewing the pieces together. I often use a French seam because the zigzag on my machine (and the machine itself) are not worth the trouble. The pattern on the material isn't centered but it doesn't matter, does it?

Aching Hands

I have to accept that I can't knit as much as I would like to. Too much pain in my hands. I've tried doing hand and wrist stretches before and after but it hasn't really helped. I've settled on only doing one sock row (64 stitches) every hour. I'll see if I'll need to do less.

So I have to come up with some sewing. I want to make fall aprons with material that I have. I found this piece in my stash. I don't really like the pattern but the colors are fallish enough.It is just a strip of material (26 cm x 300 cm), so I will have to fiddle with it.


The fifth snowflake is done. I used this pattern. I found at least one mistake. I should make a decision on how many snowflakes I'm going to make. I've printed out 3 more patterns, so I'll at least make them.

Second Apron Completed

I was going to put off making my next apron but then I found this apron challenge at tie one on and after looking at a lot of the aprons I decided to make one after all. I had bought two pieces of this material from the charity store and I wasn't sure if I would make a purse from it, or use it to line a purse or make an apron.

I started off by cutting one of the pieces in two. I cut 4 strips from one half. Three were the same size so I could get 2 ties and the neck strap and the larger piece was to add to the other half to make it longer.

I was thinking that my sewing machine seems to give me no trouble when I'm sewing things that are not very important (like this apron because it is for me) and then this happened.




I cut a piece from the second piece of material for the bib and sewed it onto the ready bottom half. I hadn't thought to measure how long the neck strap needed to be, so of course it was too short. I turned it wrong side out again, opened both ends and added a piece to each end because the stripes were going the other way and I wanted it to look symmetrical.

Cough, cough. I hadn't thought to measure how long the neck strap needed to be, so of course it was now too long. I took one added piece off and sewed one end of the strap to the apron. Then I realized that it didn't really need the second piece either (had I shrunk since I tried the strap?) so I took it off too.

This is the completed apron. I wish I knew how to take a good picture of an apron.

First Apron Finished

I finally finished the bay pouch. I had changed to smaller needles and knit a rib cuff around the top of it but it wasn't really long enough to tighten like a longer rib would have and also it was too tight to get the phone in easily. I had been trying to think what else to do with it when it came to me that seeing I'm going to be putting the i-cord on it anyway, what if I weave it through the top. I googled for an eyelet tuturiol and then did a double yarn over eyelet.

Though yesterday was snowflake Monday, I only searched for more snowflake patterns because I wanted to get the first border row done on the Xmas lapthrow, which I did. I started SS's pj bottoms but the needle kept skipping and once again I wanted to throw the machine out of the window!

I washed and ironed the first piece of apron material to see how I could cut it so that I would get the pieces out of it that I would need. After cutting it out I decided not to put a pocket because I never use them anyway. I made two small loops for the the other end of the neck strap to go through so that it could be adjusted to the wearer. I had to sew them by hand because they were so small.

And here it is finished.

New Projects

The day after I wrote about the felt keychains, I was given this keychain from Moscow. It was a funny coincidence but I still want to make my own.




I'm changing A's project again. He wants a cloak for his larping. We have bought and preshrunk the material. It's the dark stuff under the other material. My apron has about had it. I've been using it for 15 years or so. I went to the charity store today and bought the bits and pieces that are on top of the cloak material. I'm hoping to get 4 aprons out of them but because they have been cut into, I don't know how big they will be.

I've finally got the Xmas squares crocheted together. I'm so pleased. I've almost got the first snowflake done, but I found the pattern confusing and I'm not sure if I will undo it a bit. H's sock is coming along. I've been knitting it also while I'm on the computer.



M: R's crocheted snowflakes (find new patterns, crochet)
T: D's crochet completed!
Next week: apron (wash material, find pattern, draw and cut out pattern, cut out material, sew)
W: H's socks (knit them)
T: Home - A's pjs (find pattern, draw pattern, cut out, sew)
F: Personal (decide what to do about bay pouch, make cord, finish it)
S: A's project (decide on pattern, draw pattern, cut out, sew, wash)
S: Xmas square lapthrow (crochet strips together, find a border pattern, crochet border, sew in ends)