Christmas FO: The Pierced Eyebrow of the Republican Party

Oh my gosh you guys - I lied! I'm sorry, lol. I forgot one of the gifts that I made this year. I swear this is the last one though, so don't worry. Though I can completely see why I forgot about this gift...

My husband made a passing comment back in December that he would like to try wearing bow ties. I already had other things planned for his gift, but I thought that a few handmade bow ties wouldn't be too much trouble. I had him look through my stash with me and pick a few fabrics that he would like to wear. I made no promises as to when the ties would materialize, I just knew what to make them out of and what his taste would be. I ended up making them that same weekend. I searched pinterest for a pattern and came across See Kate Sew's free bow tie pattern. You just print it out and tape all 2 pages together, cut out your ties, interface one side, sew around the edge, flip it right side out, sew the hole shut and press. Super easy. 

Confession: I learned how to tie a bow tie just to take these photos, lol. I now understand why stores usually only have them in slick fabrics - these were not easy to tie! All of these fabrics were thrifted :) The stripes (my favorite) is a cotton seersucker, the check is a poly rayon of some kind, and the blue tiny checks is a thick 70s polyester. That thick polyester one was near impossible to tie. Maybe it will just take some practice. For the David Sedaris fans among you, the title of the post comes from one of his stories about when he decided to wear bow ties. It was so spot on that I always think of that phrase when I see a bow tie, lol.

Those are all the photos I have of these, and I know I won't be getting any modeled shots. Sadly my husband and I are separating. It's a pretty crappy time, and I'm not looking for sympathy by posting about it here, I've just been meaning to say something about it for a while and didn't know how to begin. My life has become incredibly crazy, filled with unfortunate tasks like sorting through old junk and divvying things, cleaning and repairing things around the house to prepare it for sale, gathering things for a yard sale, trying to sell things online, etc. Lots to do. I will say that I am fine with it all - it's my decision and I know it is justified so I will leave it there for now. That does make it easier to summon the motivation to do all these annoying tasks though. I will still be posting projects, but definitely with less frequency as I sort everything out. I guess now you can see why I forgot about making these bow ties though.

So that's OFFICIALLY the last Christmas gift I made this past year and normal projects will commence soon. If you find yourself needing a bow tie pattern, I would absolutely recommend this one. It was easy and free - can't really beat that! It also comes several sizes, so it's sure to fit the bill. Thanks for hanging in there with me and giving me a little happy place to come to. I try to keep my blog upbeat to drown out the drama of real life, and it makes it so much better to know that there are real people out there who read my posts. Thanks for reading :) It means more than you can know.

Christmas FO: Reflective Sweatbands

Believe it or not this is my final Christmas project to post about! It only took over a month to post them all, but By Golly I did it, lol. So endure this final small project and you will be rewarded with non-Christmas sewing soon :)

My brother-in-law, Nick, was a bit of a mystery when it came to figuring out something I could make for him. He's a fairly no-nonsense guy and he lives in a warm climate. My sister didn't think he would really use a hat, so we both deliberated and came up with a kind of silly idea: Reflective Sweatbands.

Hear me out now - Nick is somewhat of a runner and he occasionally will do that running when the sun is not out. He wears a reflective vest at such times, so I thought he might like to accessorize. I've had this reflective yarn in my stash for months and I could never figure out anything to use it for, so this fit the bill perfectly. Instead of looking for a pattern on these, I just used my go-to hat pattern (Basic Hat by Ooo Baby Knits - a free pattern) and I cast on the number of stitches for the largest size hat and only knitted the ribbing. I believe I did 4 rows of black with 8 rows of yellow and another 4 rows of black all in k2p2 rib - super easy. For the wristbands, I just took the finished headband and stretched it around my hand to see what was comfy - I believe it was something like 40 stitches with getting over the hand - and did the same thing so they would all match.

The finished products were well received for their humor as well as their usefulness. Nick decided to immediately model them and he wore the headband most of the night. Check out how that yarn lights up with the flash from the camera! Isn't that cool?! lol I'm easily amused. The black yarn was just some worsted weight acrylic I got at a thrift store and the yellow is I Love This Yarn Reflective in Yellow Glow from Hobby Lobby (I grabbed a few skeins when they were being discontinued this summer).

Luke was thrilled by his dad's gift as well and wanted to try out the wristbands. He put them on and immediately started dancing. I guess wristbands just give a party type vibe...

I'm told that Luke will still occasionally put on the set and wear them around the house to play, lol. Who knew a toddler would love a sweatband set, amiright?

So there you have it - my entirely me-made Christmas gift collection from 2015. None of the gifts were very complicated, but I can't help but feel proud of what I was able to produce :) And it doesn't hurt that the recipients were all pleased with their presents too. It's really nice to see the items you spend your time making get used in the real world by someone other than yourself, you know?

Anyway, I promise that the next project post will NOT be Christmas related, lol.

Christmas FO: Ginger Bearded Beanie

My brother and i Have a sort of un-official Christmas tradition that I make him some type of ridiculous hat. I always ask him what he would like, and he always says a hat, and occasionally he has specific requests. This year he first told me he wanted a plain beanie in purple (his school color). After that was made, he requested another beard like his previous gift so that he could interchange different colors and "accessorize", lol. 

I knit the beanie with my standby pattern, basic hat by Ooo Baby Knits (a free pattern). I made it the largest size and it fits him great. Before the beard request, I was trying to fancy it up by duplicate stitching a gray letter V (his team is called the Vipers), but it just wasn't coming out well. I'm one who really needs a chart for any type of color work and I was just winging it. When the beard was added to the order, I happily took out the V, lol.

So, here's just the hat by itself :) I used Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn in Grape from my stash and it's so wonderfully soft. The color worked out perfectly too - he can wear it with his basketball jersey if he wants.

The beard is crocheted and I used another free pattern - Bobble Bearded Beanie by Ashlee Prisbee. This is the same pattern I used last time and it worked out great. I made the largest size and used Vanna's Choice yarn in Terra Cotta from my stash for it. This is one of those odd colors that I tend to use all the time. You wouldn't think you'd need that much bright orange yarn, but I've gone through many skeins now so I try to keep it in my stash all the time. To make the hat and beard connect, I added buttons (2 on each side) so the beard can button on and off.

So now Briggs can truly accessorize his previous green hat and brown beard by swapping them out :) His hat was quite the hit on Christmas day, and everyone had to try it on. We had a lot of fun. Merry Christmas, Briggs! I hope it keeps your head and face warm :)

Christmas FO: Black Sequin Striped Shirt

My sister, Kelly, requested that I sew her a t-shirt for Christmas - which I was more than happy to oblige since I so enjoy sewing them :) The request got pretty specific - she wanted me to recreate a shirt that she liked the fit of, but in black rayon jersey. "No problem," I thought. I'd just have to find some rayon jersey that wasn't too expensive. Then one day I came across a perfect refashioning specimen at the thrift store...

Sorry for the terrible picture, but it was dark out and I had to get sewing it so this is all I have of what it once looked like. The shirt was a size 2X faux-twin-set by INC. It was designed to look like a sequined striped tank top with a drapey shirt over top, but the tank top was actually just the front of the shirt and it was all sewn as one. Surely this would be enough fabric to make Kelly's shirt, and it would be much cooler than just a boring black top! I tried to feel her out about the sequins and decided to just go with it in the end. So I got to cutting!

I traced off Kelly's beloved shirt and made a pattern, then cut apart the thrifted top. This is where the changes started occurring, lol. Kelly's shirt was a boatneck, and I hoped that since it was such a large size that I would be able to still make the higher neckline happen. Sadly, the scoop was just too far and since Kelly wanted me to make this new shirt longer, I couldn't do the boat neck :( Womp womp. So the shirt that I set out to make "to order" is now nothing like what she requested, lol. I just used the existing scoop neckline and recut the front and back pieces, then I opened up the sleeves and recut them as well. I used the existing hem on all of those pieces as well as the scoop front neck band - the only finishing I had to do was to add a makeshift neckband piece to the back of the neckline, and I cut that piece out of the scraps. I still have the two drapey pieces from this project that I didn't manage to use.

I have to say that I am quite pleased with how this refashion turned out :) As in I borderline wanted to keep this shirt and make her a different one, lol. It was ridiculously difficult to photograph those sequins, but they are a nice little touch that makes the piece look more ready-to-wear in my opinion. As someone who has correctly sewn knit tops, I will confess that it does bug me that the hem and neckbands don't enclose the side seams as they should - but I'm not hung up on that and absolutely no one notices that there is anything different about it. My sister has worn the shirt very frequently and she says she gets compliments on it all the time :)

A little better view of the sequins for you :) I had hoped to get pictures of Kelly wearing the shirt, but we are all busy people and I didn't want to put off posting this forever. To anyone concerned about sewing with sequins - don't be. I did nothing special to work with this fabric. The original shirt had the sequins stop before the side seams, but I just sewed right through them as I took the shirt in and I had zero issues. Kelly says the shirt is comfy and she loves it. Definitely a successful Christmas gift!

Summary:
Fabric: thrifted INC black with sequins shirt - $3.00
Pattern: copied from RTW shirt - free
Notions: knit stay tape - $0.50, thread - stash
Hours: 2 to 3
Total Cost: $3.50

Christmas FO: The Mounted Bass

Another project I had to really do some hard thinking on was what to make for my father-in-law. He's a big fisherman, so my husband said I should make him a bass, but I couldn't see him just having a stuffed animal around. I half-heartedly searched Ravelry for patterns and when I saw this one I knew it was meant to be.

This is the Mounted Bass pattern by Amanda Lang. I had seen the faux taxidermy craze with other animals, but I never thought of doing a fish the same way! I had almost all the colors in my stash, and I knew I could slap this out quick enough to get it ready in time. I even had a wood plaque hanging around from my photography days as well as wood-plaque-colored spray paint. This project really just fell into place at the right time :)

That doesn't mean the project was completely easy. I must confess that I am spoiled by the quality and detail given in FreshStitches amigurumi patterns. It's not that I need someone to hold my hand - I've made enough animals by now to know how to put things together and what stitches to use - what  I missed in this pattern were the specific spots to attach the extremities. I take that kind of info for granted when it's available and only seem to notice when it's not there, and that's only because it takes so. much. longer. Seriously, it's much quicker to count out stitches and put things on a certain row than to look back and forth at the example photos and your project to see if you put the piece in the right spot. To me, it all goes back with giving as much info as possible to make sure that customer ends up with a finished item that looks as close to the original as possible - that's why people buy patterns, right? Anyway, this isn't to say that the pattern is bad at all - I still ended up with a passable bass and everyone liked him. This extra info just would've ensured the result and saved me time.

Anyway, I used Vanna's Choice yarn in Olive and White as well as Caron Simply Soft in Dark Sage to make this. Since I planned to mount him to the plaque all along, I only made one side fin and only attached one eye, lol. I kind of wish I had added the second eye now, but it's too late now. He's still cute :) Getting the mouth to lay smooth with the body shape was a challenge, but we got there in the end. I also kind of wish my plaque had been a little bigger, but I'm not worried about it. Again, he's still cute.

So there you have it - a mounted bass! I think it's a really cute idea for fishermen - imagine all the other fish options. You could make a mounted Nemo and really freak a kid out, lol. I'm glad it turned out so cute and my father-in-law liked it :)

Christmas FO: Lukey's Lizard PJs

I've made my nephew all kinds of toys and whatnot over his 3 years, so I really had a hankering to make him something different. My sister used a PJ onesie that already fit him to make a pattern for his Halloween costume in October (he was Curious George), and I had picked up a large piece of this super cute lizard print knit at a thrift store this summer so I decided to make him some fun pjs :)

So the pattern my sister gave me was just for the body and sleeves and I had to make my own gusset - I've never sewn a true gusset before, but after a little internet learning I was good to go. It's not really that hard, you just need to take your time. The fabric is a knit, but it isn't incredibly stretchy. I believe it's a polyester blend French terry because it has a loopy texture on the wrong side. It makes it nice and snuggly though.

I was going full stash on this project, so I dug through my box of thrifted zippers and found a bright green one that matched the green lizards = perfect! Luke really likes doing zippers up himself, and I likes that this one is colorful.

Details! Here you can see the crotch gusset and the color of the zipper. I did stabilize the zipper opening with knit stay tape, but that was the only precaution I took. Everything else was just sewn with a lightning bolt stitch. The neckline was just turned over and stitched with a straight stitch, while the hems on the sleeves and legs were stitched with a twin needle.

All in all this was such a simple project and Luke really likes them :) As soon as he opened his present, he asked if he could put them on. I was worried I would be "that relative" who gave him clothes, but he was really excited about his lizard pjs. The only fit issue is at the sleeves - I may borrow these and add a gusset at the sleeve hem because they're just barely big enough, so they are a smidge tight when he tries to get them off. That didn't deter him though :)

So, I've officially made toddler pjs :) He was dancing around and spinning on the floor (they made for a great slick texture on the tile), and he loved that he could get in and out of it by himself (he's potty training so this is very important, lol). I'm so glad he liked them so much and now I have the confidence to make him more clothes in the future. Merry Christmas, Lukey!

Summary:
Fabric: 1 odd cut yard of poly blend French terry lizard print knit - $0.25
Pattern: copied from rtw
Notions: 18" zipper - $0.10, knit stay tape - $0.15, thread - stash
Hours: 2
Total Cost: $0.50