FO: Christmas Dresses 2022

This was actually a project I took over from my mom from 2021. My mom decided she wanted to make my girls Christmas dresses that year and she grabbed the remainder of this adorable Riley Blake cotton print for the job. She didn't have a pattern at the time, so we raided my stash and came up with Simplicity 1208. Then we had disaster strike in our family and the dresses never got made. This past Christmas, we both thought of the fabric and pulled it all out. At first my mom was going to make them, but time passed and she never started them. I had no other dresses for my girls (and Christmas dresses are a tradition in my family), so I grabbed all the materials and decided to make them myself.

I managed to whip both of these up in just a few nights - which was good because it was the week before Christmas so we only had a few days to take my girls to see Santa and we always have them wear their dresses for pictures. We had just enough of the quilting cotton for the dresses - like literally just barely enough. She had bought some coral pink solid cotton for the lining, which was good because we wanted to do the tie sleeve option.

Word to the wise - don't make the tie sleeves when you're on a time crunch. It wasn't hard, but it was very time consuming to sew these sleeves and I had to make 4 of them. I spent one whole evening just sewing the sleeves, but they did turn out adorable.

Thankfully my mom happened to have buttons that looked great already on hand, so I was able to just plow through making these two dresses and they went together mostly without any issues.

When the dresses were done, they were cute, but they just felt like the needed something to make them really pop. I went to Hobby Lobby and laid lots of different ribbons at the waist to see what looked best, and I eventually settled on this bright green poly satin ribbon. It was Christmasy and it elevated the look of the whole dress in my opinion. It took them from looking homemade to looking professional.

With a few store-bought red bows in their hair and some white tights, we were ready to see the man in red :)

The girls loved their dresses and they loved telling people that I made them, which is always nice. They wore the dresses to Santa and then wore them to church on Christmas day, so we looked very cute. I always wish I could make more things for my kids, but the fac that I have to make 2 of each and that they grow so fast makes it a little more of a task to do. I'm glad I made it happen for these dresses though :) 

Summary:

Fabric: Riley Blake quilting cotton, pink quilting cotton lining

Pattern: Simplicity 1209

Notions: Green ribbon, 6 pink buttons

FO: Creeper Beanies

This past Christmas, I really wanted to make things for my boyfriend and his son. I had previously made his son Minecraft Animals for Christmas and his birthday, so continuing on that theme I decided to make him a creeper beanie as soon as I saw this pattern. At first I was just going to make the hat in crochet, but in my experience crochet isn't as stretchy as knitting and since I didn't know his head size, I decided to just knit a basic beanie instead.

I started out with this picture of a creeper face. The nice thing with knitting an 8 bit character is that the pixelation translates perfectly to knit stitches. I used this as a template when I added the face later. I tried for a while to find the perfect green variegated yarn, but no one near me had anything remotely close. In the end, I had this Red Heart Super Saver in Spring Green leftover in my stash and decided to use that.

I used my old reliable Basic Hat pattern by Ooo Baby Knits to knit a basic adult sized beanie - I seriously have no idea how many times I've used this pattern by now. Over 10. It's a free one and so simple - I definitely recommend it :)

So I knit a plain green beanie that fit my own head knowing he could grow into it and have it for a long time that way. Then I grabbed some black super saver yarn and made the face with duplicate stitch. There was a definitely learning curve there because it's been YEARS since I did duplicate stitch, but it turned out pretty good.

I made this in the second week of December, giving it just enough time to get to North Carolina before Christmas. The recipient was very happy with his new hat, so that's all that matters :)

While I was making the first hat, my nephew saw it and requested one for himself too. I was in the Christmas spirit, I guess, because I made him one as well and finished it on Christmas afternoon before giving it to him.

Both my Minecraft enthusiasts were very happy with their new hats, so I count this as a successful gift indeed. If you ever have a simple character to make on a hat, I highly recommend doing it this way. It's quick to whip up and the pattern is free :)
 

FO: Christmas Sweater at Long Last

What a saga this sweater has been, lol. Back in October of 2020, I decided I would make myself a Christmas sweater. I cast on and knit the entire thing except finishing off the sleeves... and it was too big. Comically so. I looked like a puffed sleeved line backer. The yoke was about 1.5 inches too wide on each side and then the puffed sleeves just accentuated that. I never finished it and it just sat for months until I finally accepted defeat and unraveled THE ENTIRE THING. This past Christmas I decided it was time to get it made in a smaller size, so I took what I learned the first time and sailed right through.

This is the Betty & Judy Lodge Sweater by Poison Grrls. It's a vintage style novelty sweater knit in worsted weight yarn, so it's fairly quick to make. When I decided to make this in 2020, it was partly because I love the pattern and partly because I was given a huge amount of red, white, and black Vanna's Choice yarn. Normally I'm not a big fan of acrylic yarn sweaters - I use it all the time for other things, it's just too hot to wear here in Florida - but given that this is a holiday only sweater (and one worn in a colder month) I thought it was a great fit. So despite my snobby yarn wearing sensibilities, I cast on.

The sweater is made from the top down, seamless, with a keyhole opening at the back since the neckline is so high. This time I stopped after I finished the colorwork yolk just to make sure I didn't have the same problem as last time, and it was all looking to be the right size, so I just kept knitting. I managed to finish this by December 4th - plenty of time to wear it for Christmas all month.

The only part I don't love is the sleeve - it has a puff, which was much more pronounced in my first iteration. I'm not sure if it's because I gained weight and now this was tighter than planned, or if it was just a case of my shoulders being a different size than my actual arms, but the puff is so small it's almost silly. Now that I've lost some of the weight I had at Christmas, I'll have to try it on again and see if that makes a difference. Also since I was working with the yarn I was given, I could only make the sleeves the length you see. I always prefer a true 3/4 sleeve, but I think it still looks fine in this length. I also skimped a bit on the length of the body because I wanted to make the sleeves as long as possible, which makes this hit me exactly at my natural waist. It's fine as long as I wear a dress underneath the sweater - I just wore it with my black Pippi Pinafore, which worked a treat.

I was really pleased with how the colorwork turned out, but just don't ask to see the inside of it! lol I did this as a combo of intarsia and stranding, which I've done before, but I'm just not great at keeping things super even looking on the back. I do love the speckled border on the yoke and sleeves though. 

Since I finished this at the beginning of the month, I was able to wear it to several events and to work, starting with my singing group's Christmas concert. It was a big hit and I didn't *quite* die of heat stoke under the stage lights, lol.

This was what I wore to church on Christmas day and my girls wore their dresses that I frantically sewed for them to see Santa the week of Christmas. We looked cute, I must say. I'm so thrilled to a) have a Christmas sweater I made, b) that it fits, and c) that this yarn is now used up and out of my stash.  It feels like this was a long time coming and I'm very happy to have something to show for all that work now.

Summary:

Yarn: Vanna's Choice - 7.55 skeins in Scarlet, 0.67 skeins in White; Scraps of Loops and Threads Impeccable in Kelly Green - Free

Pattern: Betty & Judy Lodge Sweater by Poison Grrls - $10.60

Notions: 1 Button, thread - Free

Time: 1 month

Total Cost: $10.60