The Infinite Power of Hope

A little something to share.  I just needed a little perspective and peace today.  This was just the ticket.  Hope you enjoy!

OH NO!!!!!

So on blogger you can look at your posts in list form.

You also can start a post and at random times while writing it blogger will save it for you.  If you don't finish before closing it, it becomes a draft.

Occasionally I will just write another post rather than coming back to my draft.

And today while looking at my list I thought I had several "drafts" of posts I have written recently.

So I started deleting them all.

Then I realized I was deleting not only drafts, but actual posts!

So I have deleted so many posts from recently!

Sigh...

All those posts gone...

I am feeling rather silly.

Not that I think I have a lot of readers, but I know there was one post I shared with another craft blogger about my black lace dress.

And, well... I accidentally deleted it.

So I am sorry if you come here from Merrick's Art looking for it.  It's not here.  Sigh.  I will try and get another post up sometime in the next little while...

I am going to have to rewrite it or perhaps share a tutorial.

However right now, I am just going to sign out, and go spend the rest of my beautiful Easter Sunday with my family.  :)

Happy Easter!

For My Teachers

I am going to be crafting today. I just don't know if I will get a post with pictures today up. So I am writing a picture-less post today. I just wanted to write a post thanking all the crafty people who have taught and inspired me to learn to be crafty.

First I have to thank a lady named Roberta. She worked with my dad. When I was about 8 years old she had my family over for dinner. She was really good to my dad at work, she was probably in her fifties and was not married but sweet as can be. So she liked our family. So I remember going to her house and she fed us chicken and while we were there she taught me how to chain stitch crochet! I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I ended up thinking it was so cool to make a bunch of what I call "snakes". I think she even taught me how to make chains with just my fingers.

Then I was at a Relief Society homemaking night once. I was actually there to babysit for the sisters with kids, but all the kids had gone home and my mom was Relief Society president at the time. So I was just waiting around for her to finish helping clean up before we could leave. I went in where all the ladies were still crafting, and my mom told me my former primary teacher Corrianne could teach me how to crochet a granny square if I wanted. Uh yeah! I think she knew I had an interest in crochet and knew Corrianne was a pro crocheter. I think Corrianne even won awards at the state fair and stuff. She is good!

So Corrianne taught me that night how to crochet a granny square. I practiced and practiced until I had it right. She was a great teacher because I wasn't that old and I never forgot how to make granny squares. Later for my next birthday my mom picked out this really cool yarn, it was all soft and purple and pink, and my own crochet hook to surprise me with so I could make something. I probably made about a million granny squares. Corrianne did teach me how to sew them all together with a yarn needle but for some reason I just never did. I just ended up with these cute little granny squares that always ended up floating all over the house.

Eventually a couple of years ago I decided I wanted to try making a hat. I went to a specialty yarn store and decided to get some yarn and a pattern. I had never used a pattern before, I only ever had people there to show me how to do something, but I was able to make my first hat and learned to crochet in the round. It helped me feel more confident and now I am able to follow patterns and make cute little animals for my nieces and nephews. Thanks Roberta and Corrianne!

Crocheting got me interested in learning how to knit. My mom has a pair of my great grandma's knitting needles that have floated around our house for years. I decided since we already had a pair of needles I wanted to try it. So I went to the library and got on youtube and taught myself the basic knitting stitch. Then it was time to pull in a pro. My aunt Laurie. I called her and she came out to my house and spent a couple of days or evenings showing me how to read a knitting pattern, slip stitches, fix mistakes and even helped make up part of a sweater for me! She is seriously a crafting QUEEN! My mom says she was a Home Ec major. I am convinced there is nothing crafty she can't already do or at least learn to do. And she has taught me a lot. So thanks Aunt Laurie!

Laurie also taught me how to work with polymer clay. I have a project in mind for a necklace made out of simple beads I plan to make and blog about. She took me to a class once to learn how to make a flower cane (polymer clay cane you slice to get a flat disc with a flower in the middle) and invited a friend to go with me. I still play with clay every once in a while too. So thanks again Laurie!

Well I of course have to thank my mom a million times over for teaching me to love to sew. She is the one who encouraged me too with my craftiness. So I want to thank her. She gave me my first sewing machine and encouraged me to buy the second one after my first croaked from over use. (It probably would have lasted longer had I gotten it serviced...) Now she and I enjoy sewing together in our cute little craft room watching movies. Thanks Mom!

Saturday's Project Finished Today

I was hoping to get this post up by midnight. I only have twelve minutes though so I am not sure I will make it to a post today (Jan 2nd) but I wanted to post my latest project.

This is it!

I have this sweater vest I usually wear over a long sleeve tee shirt. I really like it. I have also told myself I need to use up the material I have been slowly gathering before I go buy more. I had about 3 yards of some rusty red/orange rayon blend knit. It is great fabric I found yet again at Walmart on their $1.50 table! So I decided to make a pattern off the sweater vest with it.

Every once in a while when I make a Walmart run with my sister to pick up shampoo or whatever and I drag her to the discount fabric table and if I'm lucky I find gems like this knit that usually sells for like $12.99 a yard. So I buy it thinking it will make something great.

Well this fabric sat in my stash for a couple of years. I pulled it out Saturday determined to use it. So saturday I decided to try my hand at making a pattern from existing clothing. I read a tutorial recently on pinterest and wanted to see how it would work. I figured I would only be out $1.50 if I ruined it, and if I didn't I'd have a new shirt.

Well it worked! I am really happy with how my shirt turned out. I have to say, if you are a beginner sewer I don't think this project is a good one to take on alone. The "ribbing" is the hardest part. I just made my own from the fabric. Ribbing is the edging along the sleeves and neckline, as well as the band at the bottom of the shirt.

Not to mention, you have to stretch the fabric as you sew or your stitching will pop in your seams when you try and put the clothing on. (Because the fabric wants to stretch but the thread doesn't... I hope that makes sense...) You also are supposed to use a needle specific for knits. That isn't hard but sewing on knit is just challenging, more than I remembered. Not the easiest of fabrics for sure. If you have tried it before or if you feel pretty confident, you are probably good to go. If you are a beginner that just started sewing last week you might want to pull in some help.

I will just say, I started it Saturday before heading out for the New Year thinking I could finish it to wear to a party and ended up having to finish it today. I think it only took me no more than four hours. I still felt like the same shirt in a non-stretch fabric would have only taken me an hour, after making a few minor mistakes and having to carefully stretch and pin and sew.

I also changed a few things about the shirt and didn't document them very well. Just the length of the sleeves and the length of the band across the bottom and I added an inch or two across where it goes across my stomach because of the different natures of the fabrics.

Sure the color is more a fall color, but a new shirt for $1.50 means I won't complain. Here is a few pics of how I did it. I have to apologize again. I made this in two evenings which makes for bad lighting for pics.

I laid out the sweater I like on my folded fabric. (The fabric is folded just like it comes off the bolt, nothing special just so when I cut it out I have two identical pieces.)

I took some chalk to trace the white sweater. Chalk just falls out of the fabric. It doesn't stay or stain on the fabric and shows up really well to aid cutting it out. I had a fabulous sewing teacher teach me this.

I traced the outside edge of the sweater with plenty of room for a seam allowance for sewing the two sides together. I probably made room for a 1 inch seam allowance.

I cut out what I had traced.

Here is where I should have taken more pictures, but I sewed the shoulders and sides together. Then I started putting on the ribbing and the 3 inch band at the bottom of the shirt. I then serged all my edges. I serged in white, since no one will see the inside while I wear it.

Laying on the table right side out after it's finished.

The band around the bottom.

Here it is on me all finished.

The only thing I would change is I forgot to lower the neckline just a little. I feel like the look is softened though with the necklaces. It is just like right up at my neck. I still think it's cute but when I make another I am going to lower the neck maybe two inches.

The finished product! Yay! It looks better in person.

As is probably obvious I have some room for improvement on my photography skills so I hope it doesn't take away too much from my post. I just wanted to get up a post tonight to keep up with my goal before I get back to school. I will be posting again tomorrow! Or I guess it's so late it will be later today...

Aprons

So this year for Christmas we had the nice surprise of having everyone in town to celebrate. Originally one of my brothers and his family who live out of state, weren't going to make it.

Then to our delight and surprise they surprised everyone by "coming home for the Holidays"! It made our Christmas to have everyone there. Christmas is just ten times better with kids and their reaction to Santa Clause.

We just draw names in my family so it isn't like we give everyone something, but this year I just really felt like I wanted to do something special for everyone. So I made these:

Only for the girls of course.

The boys got a case of soda. With the understanding that they wouldn't have to share with anyone. The only exception was my nephew. He told me he wanted one to wear like his sister does when she makes stuff in the kitchen with Grammy. So I made him one too. Of course it was plain, dinosaur green and (don't tell him I said this, he hates to be "cute") so cute. None of the sissy black and yellow stuff for him. :)

Just a close up of the embroidered edge.

Originally we bought this fabric a while ago excited to make skirts for all the girls. I made myself a dress first though. The top was black the bottom made of the yellow from the pictures. At first I put so much effort into making my own pattern for it, I just wore it. I only wore it like twice though because it just didn't look right. It was kind of frumpy or something. We just couldn't think of how to get it to look right in a skirt. It was the problem of having a black top with the mustard yellow bottom just looked funny. I don't know what it was. So we didn't make them.

So I was really glad I had this already on hand. Then I was able to make something and didn't spend much of anything on the girls. I did buy the black fabric but it didn't cost much at all. I felt like I could give the girls something "nicer" they could use and still not spend a ton.

I would have put a little more detail in them but as I knew I had so many to make and I wanted to get them done quick as I could so I just made them a basic apron with a gathered skirt. Not my best work but aprons are just functional anyways. They don't have to be perfect to keep your clothes clean when you cook. In all I ended up making 8 aprons. So I also needed to streamline them so I especially didn't have the time to be putting frills and pockets as I was also on a time constraint.

I was just so glad this Christmas I got to spend so much time with my family. :)

Stay Tuned

See this fabric right here?

It's ruffle fabric!

My mom gave it to me for Christmas along with this elastic.

See this jet set knit? I got it for $1.50/yd at Walmart a while back.

All of these things are going to make me up a cute new pencil skirt. My wonderful mom gave me the blue fabric and the cream elastic to make it for Christmas. The $1.50 a yard fabric is an ugly shade of peachy/pinky/cream knit fabric. But I knew when I saw it, I couldn't pass up $1.50 a yard because I could use it to line clothing with. Turns out I was right! I am using it for this skirt and I know I will have other projects it will work great on.

I think I must have seen this idea first on pinterest. So I am not going to try and take credit for this idea. But I will be taking pictures of the steps I take in the making of this skirt and hope to share them so check back! I am also going to try and make it a little more "pencil skirt" like instead of just a gathered skirt. So it will be almost the same as the picture I saw, but just not quite. I am excited!

Upcoming Projects!

So I decided I just wanted to get up some more craft ideas today while I had the time. So here is one more I have been working on lately. Actually I started this in the fall this year some time. I don't remember when but I bought a pattern from an etsy seller and decided to give it a go.

Here it is without the sleeves and collar.

Just to give you an idea of how CHUNKY this yarn is. I am hoping it will be cute. My brother thought it was "cool" yarn that must count for something. I think it's cute so we will see. :)

I started it this fall and seriously since you knit it in super bulky weight yarn it works up SUPER quick. I even had the body done (I hadn't put the ribbing on) and found I had missed picking up one stitch for one of the arms so I ended up unraveling the WHOLE thing. So I just knitted it back up again. I don't remember exactly how long it took me. I just know it wasn't more than a couple of days. (That translates to evenings because I obviously can't knit all day long with school and everything else. I just remember knitting while watching TV until late at night determined to FIX the sweater and get it back to where it was before I had to unravel the WHOLE thing!) I love top down knitting and raglan sleeves. It was so easy!

I just don't have it done right now mostly because I haven't had time with school and Christmas. And also because I am going to have to find some double point needles in a size 17 (17!). Those are some big knitting needles in case you were wondering.

When I have it all done I hope to post some more pictures!