Crocheted Creche

I picked up this magazine at the store a couple days ago.

"Crochet World, December 2010"

I love it!

Creche all closed up

Closeup of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus. Aren't they cute?

Sadly, I don't think I'll have time to make it for this Christmas. I have too much to do already. I'll try to start earlier next year to make it in time.

Almost done

I'm almost done my course! Tomorrow is my last class. I'm a little sad, but also very relieved. It's taken A LOT more work than I thought it would be, however, I'm very satisfied. It was well worth the time and effort.

Tomorrow the sewing lab opens at 8am. I plan to be there as soon as possible, hopefully I can be there close to 8 - barring mommy emergencies. Then I'll have 4 hours to finish the shirt. I think I'll be cutting it a bit close, especially if I factor in time for life necessities like bathroom breaks and eating, pesky things those are when I'm trying to get something urgent done ;)

Between finishing the last 3 samples for my class, practicing for the sewing test, studying for the written test, going to my parent's for dinner and for the kids to decorate their tree, and doing laundry, I managed to start sewing some Christmas gifts. Well okay, I only sewed one, but I have some more cut out and ready to sew. Sorry, no pics until after Christmas.

Well okay, just one.

That's all you get! :D

Lost camera

I seem to have misplaced my camera, hence the lack of posts. I don't know how long it will take for me to find it, so I'll just post anyways.

I currently have lots of projects in process, none of which have changed much recently. I've made almost no progress on my cross stitch.

I bought a pattern for a crocheted creche. I'm excited about that. We used to have a tiny wooden creche when we were kids. We eventually lost the baby Jesus so we'd put the lamb in the manger instead since Jesus was the sacrificial lamb. I don't know whether I'll have time to make it before Christmas this year. Right now our house looks like a bomb went off as we box up the Halloween/autumn decorations and put up the Christmas ones. As soon as I find my camera, I'll take pictures of some of our homemade ornaments.

I hate posting without any photos so here's a photo of one of my cutest creations (okay, one of God's cutest creations ;) )

Oh, and you can kind of see one of my sewing creations in the background - the Cars backpack.

Christmas Bibs for One!

Bib under construction.

I can't get enough of those blue eyes!

One getting into my sewing supplies. Those two thread bobbins entertained him for about 1/2 hour!

I debated between making 1 red bib and 1 green bib but decided instead to make 2 bibs that are red on one side and green on the other. That way I never have to hunt for the red bib or green bib, I can just turn it around to match or contrast with his outfit. I still have some fabric left over. Enough for 2 more bibs or something else... I'm not sure yet what I'll do with it.

One's costume (more pics)

These were so cute that I had to share them. (You can see pattern details here.)

I have a secret. I forgot to remove one of the pins, in the armpit section of the costume. So every time I picked him up to reposition him, I was poking him with the pin. And I thought he was just crying because he was tired. *Mommy Fail*. I'm so sorry One. It is a testiment to your sweet disposition that we STILL got some amazing pictures.

Autumn decoration

Five and I made this decoration for the house.

I was inspired by this post. She bought packages of silk leaves from the dollar store. I couldn't find any so I bought two different coloured garlands, one green, yellow and orange and the other orange and red. I cut them all off of the garlands, cut a slit in the centre, and Five helped me to string them on. He had a hard time figuring out how to get them on, but he was really good at knowing which one came next in the pattern. We're renting so I just knotted a loop in each end and taped it to the wall.



It hangs in the doorway between the front hall and living room.



I'm already thinking I'll cut up some snowflakes and make a winter version. Then maybe some red, pink, and white hearts for Valentine's day. It's so simple to do and only costed $3 ($1 for each garland and $1 for the ribbon - also from the dollar store)! Plus I've made a memory with Five. :) I'm hoping I can get him more involved if/when I make more of these.

Anna Q

One's Halloween costume

I decided to make One's Halloween costume this year. I probably would have made Five's, but he asked me to make him an Optimus Prime costume with cardboard boxes so that he could really transform. Um, sorry dear. No can do. He got a Walmart Optimus Prime costume instead. Since One has no preference, and no say, in what he wears (hehe) I can still get away with picking out his costume. I looked through some patterns and this pumpkin costume caught my eye.

The pattern is Simplicity 2788, view D. It comes in sizes 1/2, 1, 2, 3, and 4. I made the hat in size large (It comes in small, med, and large) because he has a big head for his age, and the rest is size 2. I also used the booties from view A, done in the same fabric as the jumpsuit from view D.

I've used Simplicity patterns in the past and this one met my expectations. The directions are easy to follow and the finished costume looked quite a lot like the one pictured on the pattern envelope.

I could not find the suggested fabrics so I used fleece for the orange part and sweatpants material for the green part. The black applique is cotton flannel. The closure in the back of the jumper is a long Velcro strip. The pumpkin part also closes with Velcro at the shoulders. I did get some pumpkin buttons but forgot to sew them on. I plan to sew them on the top of the Velcro so it looks like a button closure but will actually be Velcro.

I had the misconception that sewing my kids' costumes would save me money. Hah! Between the pattern, fabrics, and notions, (Not even counting the hours and hours it took to put it together) I spent about $60 on this. Ouch! I paid $25 for Five's costume for comparison. The payoff is that this is much better made, will last for many years, and I have the satisfaction of having sewed my child's costume. I don't know what it is about that, I feel like I've passed some sort of milestone as a mother. I'm not sure I will ever do it again, but I'm glad to have sewn at least one costume for my kids.

Some major things that I learned while making this are:

1. I suck at fusing paper-backed fusible interfacing. Seriously. You get one shot at it and I failed spectacularly. It just wouldn't stick, no matter what I did. I ended up tearing the interfacing off and using a zig-sag stitch to applique the face on.
2. You CANNOT fuse onto fleece!!! It will MELT! (all over your brand new iron). Fortunately the inside and outside pieces are almost identical so I made the ruined, melted piece the inside piece. I freaked and grabbed some scrap fabric and ironed that, which got most of the still-molten fleece off of the iron and onto the fabric. After it cooled, Hubby showed me that the rest of it easily scraped off. Phew.
3. I suck at sewn-on applique. By this point I'd already failed at fusing the interfacing and ruined half of the fleece so I just did it the best that I could, wobbly lines and all.

All in all, I'm glad I did it. It will fit him for many years (Five wanted to try it on so I let him and it fit quite well!)

They can use it for dress up if they wish, and it was a great learning experience. And I have the satisfaction of being able to say that I once sewed a Halloween costume lol. Plus the jumper part can be used all winter. I think it looks very Christmas-y with red socks and maybe a red bib.

I did modify it to add snap tape to the inseam for easier diaper changes. I probably should have made it in size 3 so it will fit him longer.

Anna Q