Holey Jeans

A's been wearing his jeans with huge large holes in the back. I was saying that his underwear was quite noticeable but it didn't bother him. (No he doesn't wear this colour underwear but I wanted something that would show the holes clearly.) But then one day he said that maybe the holes were a bit big.

So I suggested that I could try to repair them. I took his jeans to the charity store and tried to match up the colour even though I was hoping that it wouldn't show through. I put some paper behind the holes and poked a needle through to get the outline, drew around the outline and then used it as a template.

I think that they turned out OK and he put them on this morning to go to school, so I suppose he was satisfied.

Refashioning

I've had these two well worn 100% cotton tops in the cupboard and when I came across them a few weeks ago I wondered if I could combine them into a sleeveless dress that I could wear around the house this summer. I started by choosing the purple as the skirt part because an underarm was ripped. I just cut across below the tear and sewed it onto the bottom of the green top. Then I took the sleeves off the green and just doubled folded the edge before sewing them.

After I took the collar off I was left with a folded stripe of material sewn around the edge. I put the project away for awhile because I couldn't decide whether to leave it there and just sew the edges together because then all of the raw edges would be contained inside or take it off and double fold the edge and just sew it.

In the end I decided to leave it on and see how it feels that way. I can always take it off later. I haven't decided either about taking the button strip off or not. Of course now the weather has gotten cooler and I'm back to wearing shorts and a top but it's ready for warmer days!


My Tour de France project is coming along well. It's more of a stop, try on, knit, repeat kind of a piece but hopefully I won't have to undo it. I had my son try the glove on last night just before he went to sleep so I could knit in the morning before he woke up. Then I had to ask him to wait before leaving to his friend's so I could get to the first row after the gusset stitches were put on a piece of yarn. It seems to be long enough but I guess we won't know until the first two fingers are done and it will sit in its proper place.

Resurfacing

I really have no other reason why I haven't been crafting other than I haven't felt like it / been in the mood / gotten around to it. I was brave and contacted someone whom I'd never met but I've read her blog. She lives in the same city as I do and I asked if she was going to knit in public on June 9. She was going to be doing something else at the local market but knitting outside anyway. So I joined her and stayed for a while.

I've almost finished N's first sock. Her mother thinks the toe shape won't be suitable for her daughter's foot, so I think I'm going to attempt a kitchener toe. Ha. Well, I will when the other sock needs a toe too. Then I'll put it off for awhile as I don't think it will snow yet. Then I'll have to find out how to do the toe. I think she wants to give them as a Christmas present, so they should be done by then.

My sister D sent me a pants/shorts pattern so I bought a piece of orange material from the charity store to make a pair of summer pj bottoms and try out the pattern. I think they turned out fine. OK I know that the white thread is a bit obvious, but who cares?


These are sleeves from a housedress I'm going to attempt to refashion into a summer dress. I've taken the sleeves off and sewed them together to make a knitting sock bag for the sofa. I didn't undo the underarm seam but I just swung the other sleeve around and sewed the two sleeve caps together. Then I undid one of the and sewed it closed. The shape's a bit strange but it serves its purpose.

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.

Shortening My Jeans

I was turning up my jeans but I felt that I was too old for that look. I knew my sewing machine wouldn't agree to sew through 3 layers of jean material if I cut and hemmed them, so I looked for some other way and came across this link to a tutorial at figandplum.com.

Basically you measure how much you want to take up, divide that by half, make a fold with that measurement just above the hem stitching line and sew it so that the original hem stitching is still showing. I used my zipper foot so that I could get close to the original hem. I sewed my extra fabric to the jeans because I didn't want it to hang down below the cuff nor did I want to cut it. It is a bit noticable but maybe only to me – who else would be looking at it?

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.

A New Start

Not much done this week. My son larps and he needed a new outfit for his new character but as I'm not willing to make clothes that will be worn for just one afternoon, he had to put up with his jerkin from last time, though I changed the buttons from black to silver. I bought a pair of pants from the flea market because they had a cuff and looked like they may be long enough after taking down the cuff. So I took down the cuff and then we decided to try to make them even longer. When I started to undo the stitching I realized that it was not factory sewn. So I was just undoing whatever the previous owner had had done to them.

I've been thinking of why I find it so hard to get my crafts started or completed and I think that it might be because I have so many of them to do, so I just don't bother. (Sound like a good excuse ?) I read about cross stitchers who do rotation and I thought that I might try that. So here's what I was thinking:

M: D's crochet (compare yarn size, choose hook size, crochet bookmark, find suitable ribbon)
T: H's socks (decide on # of stitches and size of needles, knit them)
W: A's Xmas gift (dig out pattern, find what size material needed, get material, get threads, complete, find frame)
T: Home – A's pjs?, cushion covers
F: Personal (decide what to do about bay pouch, make cord, finish it)
S: R's snowflakes (ask how many she wants, can there be repeats, find new patterns, crochet)
S: UFO: Xmas square lapthrow (decide how many stitches on chain, sew in ends, crochet strips together, find a border pattern, crochet border, sew in ends)

If, for some reason, I can't work on something on a certain day, then it will get worked on the next week (I suppose). As each gets finished I'll add something to replace it.