just in time for the weekend…

My sweet little nephew is turning one – so I thought I’d knit him a winter hat for his big, meatball head.  This pattern is by Kim Hamlin, and it is from the book Last-Minute Knitted Gifts.  The project is listed under the 2-4 Hour Projects chapter, and from the time I started to the time I wove in my last end, it ended up taking me about 6 hours to make.

I love quick projects like this!  The beauty of this hat is definitely how customizable it is…I started by adding some variegated stripes to the body, to break up what would have been a sea of navy blue.  Then, I knit the ear-flaps as written, but using the gray yarn, did a single crochet around the perimeter of each flap for contrast:

Then, I worked the gray yarn into the i-cord ties…

Finally, I attached a couple of small pom-poms to the bottom of the ties, and one large pom-pom to the top…

Here is the hat, being modeled by my beautiful niece:

I know what you’re thinking – this looks way to big for a one-year old.  Well, that one-year old has a head circumference of 20″.  The pattern sizing puts him in the ‘child‘ size bracket, which is listed as 20 1/2″.  This is why we call him meatball.  It may be a little large for him, but he will most certainly grow into it over the winter.

Here are the details:

• Pattern: Kim’s Hats by Kim Hamlin
• Source:Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, pages 61-63
• Yarn:Cascade 220 in Navy (8393) and Gray (8400), one skein each
• Needles: Size US9 16″ circulars and US9 dpns
• Size Made: Child
• Ravelry:Project Page

I will be hand-delivering the hat to him tomorrow, and I can’t wait to see him in it!  I promise to take a picture for you all…have a great weekend! ~J

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an Easter project…

Easter is tomorrow, so around here that means dress making!  The girls picked out this colorful fabric – bright aqua cotton with sparkly peep-like bunnies all over.  I’m not sure it would have been Jaime’s first choice, but sometimes it good to let the kids have a little creative control; it makes them feel like they are part of the process!  The bunnies are kind of sweet in a sugary-confection kind of way:

The pattern is from a book Mom Jodie generously sent to us from Oregon called Absolutely A-Line:

The book gives you a way to make 26 different dresses from one pattern.  Jaime kept it simple and went with a basic A-line shift – no bells, no whistles, just a simple dress for Katie to run around in and still look cute for pictures.  Not that she doesn’t always look cute in pictures:

There was a little surprise added to the dress that Katie just loved – a little carrot button and pink ribbon closure:

It was the icing on the sparkly bunny cake.  Katie got to wear her dress to school on Thursday for their Easter party, which she was pretty excited about.  I love that she gets excited about wearing homemade things to school.  She always wears her Mom’s creations proudly, which is just the sweetest.

One dress down, two more to go…We hope you all have a very Happy Easter!

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a sneak peek…

{little boy blue scarf}

Jaime and I are knitting scarves for all of the kids…this one is for Ben, and will match his big, round blue eyes.  It is knitting up quickly, which is fantastic because I have about 14 other projects I need to start and finish before Christmas!

So much to knit, so little time… ~Jenny

 

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Repurposing a beloved dress into a skirt – no pattern necessary!

Yesterday morning, Mike and I were up with the girls at 7am.  After I pulled a couple shots of espresso for some extra-hot lattes, Mike and I decided it was time to do the fall clean-out of the girls’ closets and dressers.  We usually do this ‘purge’ two or three times a year.  It feel especially important (and necessary) to do, because all of the girls will be attending school this year (in just one week!) and sorting through drawers and closets full of clothes that are either too small or out of season will likely delay the getting ready for school process.

So, THREE HOURS LATER we had pared their closets and dressers back significantly.  Erin and Meghan are sooooo tiny that at one point this morning Meghan was running around in her size 24M skirt (she’s 5) and I debated on whether or not to let her keep it or donate it.  (we wound up donating it – too short!)  As I was sorting through and deciding what to keep and what to donate, I realized that I was reluctant to give up many of the items that didn’t fit Erin and Meghan anymore because I loved the fabric so much.  That’s when I decided I would put Bernito to work!

This particular dress was a gift from my cousin Samantha for Erin and Meghan’s third birthday.  We have two – one with pink flowers and one with purple.  Both are just absolutely adorable, but are just too short for their long legs.  After taking a long hard look at it, I realized if I just took the rotary cutter to the dress right above the velvet ribbons, we just might have a very cute skirt on our hands.

I had nothing to lose (because I was going to give it away anyway, right?) so I chalked a yellow line straight across the top of the dress where I’d want the waist of the skirt.  I broke out the rotary cutter and off it came.

I pinned it on Meghan to take it in just a bit, and decided to use the button on the back of the dress as a button on the top back of the skirt.  I mimicked the pleats on the front of the dress (now skirt) on the back in the places I took it in to fit Meghan.  I also left on the sash from the dress because it makes a cute bow on the back of the skirt.

Last thing to do was to finish the raw edge on the top. Folded it over a couple of times, pressed, top stitched and voilà!  A new skirt for school.

Total cutting and sewing time – about 30 minutes.  Now I just need to figure out what to do with the pink dress …

~ Jaime

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it’s becoming habitual…

{my first dress}

You may have seen this dress before, most recently on Katie.   This is the  fifth habitual dress that has been made in the studio – the third in this exact fabric combination, but it’s the first time I’ve ever sewn a dress all by myself!  That’s right – I decided to cut, press, pin and sew (with french seams, of course) this dress all without Jaime – on the day I needed to give it as a gift, no less.

{the beautiful neckline}

Four hours after I read through the pattern, the dress was completely finished.  Surprisingly, the french seams were not as difficult as I thought they would be, and I just love the elegant way they finish the garment:

{the raw edges are completely enclosed}

The soft, dusty colors and the 1930’s feel of both of these fabrics are quite charming.   The orange thread was chosen because that is what the machine happened to be threaded with – thankfully, it matched the fabric, because I have no idea how to thread a sewing machine.  Or a bobbin…

{the sweet butterfly sash}

Overall, I am just so pleased with how this turned out!  I can’t wait to try sewing something else…

~Jenny

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And the Heather’s have it again … (Heather Ross, this time!)

After a long day of working, I sometimes like to just take a few moments and browse fabric to get some inspiration.  (which is also why I have so many projects yet to be started …)  Tonight, while browsing PurlSoho.com, I came across this amazing, beautiful, perfect-for-princess Meghan fabric by Heather Ross.  It’s her fairly new (April, I believe) line called Far, Far Away.  I just KNOW I need to get some of this fabric – the blue would look gorgeous against Meghan’s alabaster skin and shiny chestnut hair.  She would LOVE LOVE LOVE the unicorns.  But what to make?  A dress?  A top?  Hmmm … let the brainstorming begin!

maybe purple unicorns …

Well … maybe I should think about a couple yards of the mermaids as well …

decisions, decisions ...

~ Jaime

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My first skirt pattern!

almost finished!

Erin, Meghan, Jennifer and I went to our local sewing store, Hayes Sewing Machine Company, on Saturday.  We weren’t looking for anything in particular – just an afternoon out with the girls, fabric shopping.  We passed by this amazing orange fabric and just could NOT pass it up. Snagged two yards of it and went along our merry way.

Today, I decided to turn it into a skirt for Erin, since orange is her favorite color.  Did I use any of the seven hundred patterns I have in the cabinet?  No, of course not.  With five whole months of sewing under my belt, I decided to write my own.  It’s not so bad – the waistline is a little more snug than I would have liked, and somehow one side of the skirt wound up 1/2 inch longer than the other.  But, the length can be fixed in the hem, and Erin’s a skinny little thing, so no harm, no foul.  I will make two more – one for Katie and one for Meghan.  I’m even thinking about writing a pattern for it in 2T-8.  We’ll see how brave I get.

I’ll post some pics once I can try it on Erin (she’s sleeping) and get the length and waist right.  Meanwhile, here’s a sneak preview …

Might need to invest in the ruffler foot for Bernito soon ...

can't wait to see it on Berry!

~ Jaime

A few with Berry from this morning …

 

She loves it!

 

the stretch on the fabric is just wonderful

 

happy to pose for the camera 🙂

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Speaking of coordinating onesies…

Remember this cuteness?  Well, I swiped one of Jaime’s onesies and made this:

{the little pumpkin set}

I used some of the scraps from the baby quilt Jaime had made and cut out a rough pumpkin shape and a stem, then hand-stitched them to front of the onesie.  Then I used some green embroidery thread and hand-embroidered some little curliques, which are hard to see in 2am light:

{the sweet, frayed edges}

The stitching is not perfect or even, but I think that just adds to the charm of it, don’t you?  I love how this set matches the quilt, which matches the onesies and burp-cloths she made. They are just perfect for a fall baby!

We also made a onesie for the Sweet Pea hat and wellies out of some blue and green flannel. I cut out a green pea pod and some blue peas and Jaime free-hand machine quilted them to front.  She is going to get better pictures of those next weekend when she goes to visit Kristen.

Now I am thinking that we should have made some matching pants…one thing always leads to another – it never ends!

Off to work on a ‘non-baby’ project… ~Jenny

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Baby burp cloths and onesies – so easy!

Please forgive the quality of these pics – they were taken from my iPhone at 2:30am on Saturday!  But I had to share before I’ve moved on to another project.  Baby T’s pending arrival caused a flurry of activity in the studio last week (Kristen’s baby shower was on Saturday afternoon).  After such great intentions to get all of the sewing done WAY before the shower date, of course these were finished up just hours before the shower began.  They were inspired by the burp cloths that Mom Jodie made for me when my little munchkins were on their way.  I used the fabric from the quilt I made for Baby T to embellish cloth diapers as burp cloths and some simple white onesies.

On some of the burp cloths I added fabric and ricrac.  On others, I free-hand machine embroidered leaves to match the fabric.  (that was my first time – and my favorite part!)

I will take some better pics in a couple of weeks when I head up to Long Island for the next baby shower!  Kristen was just too antsy to take them home with her after her Delaware shower – and I can’t blame her 🙂

More to come soon on the quilt!

~ Jaime

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Heather Bailey fabric put to good use!

Today, after a long stretch of sewing nothing but items for Baby-T, I turned on Bernito to use some of the gorgeous fabric Mom Jodie and I found at Piece by Piece Fabric during my recent trip to Eugene, OR.  (more on Piece by Piece Fabrics later … suffice it to say I was like a kid in a candy store!)  It’s funny – they weren’t anywhere near each other in the store (fabric grouped by color), but Mom and I wound up pairing them together.  They are from the Spring Pop Garden collection by Heather Bailey for Free Spirit Fabric.  The colors are bold and bright, just perfect for a dress for Katie.  Not wanting to make something too fussy but still chic, I pulled out the trusted sundress pattern from the Habitual Blog (thanks again!).  The fabric had an odd spot on it in one place, so I stitched up some double layer lined pockets.

two pockets in one - both lined

Katie loves the dress – and though it’s a bit short (I was generous in hemming), I think it will look great for the rest of summer, and perfect for school with a pair of bright white leggings.

One down, two more to go!

~Jaime

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