Refashion Weekend

This weekend, I have been spending my free time refashioning some of my too-big clothes. I made this little teaser graphic for you to enjoy. I will have pictures of the finished products, references to tutorials online if they are out there, and maybe a tutorial or two from me.

Let's see how it goes!

Pattern Review: Pieces of My Heart

 

I used Melissa Mall's Pieces of My Heart crochet pattern to make this pink and green pillow, modeled by my boyfriend, Ian. See, he even showed us that the pillow is fully-functioning!

 Thank you, sweetheart.

As far as patterns go, this one was quick and easy. The heart is made up of three parts, two half circles and a square, all seamed together. The sides are just straight lines of single crochet that you seam to the sides of the two hearts. You stuff the heart with Fiberfil, not a pillow form so it is up to you to make the pillow shaping work.

Love the Art Work, Hun!

 
I just wanted to give you a little peek of how the canvas I made for my sweetie looks on our bedroom wall. He came home and noticed it right away, bless his heart. I am an awkward present-giver so I went ahead and had it on the wall before he even came home. No unwrapping-- easy peasy. AND it gave me an excuse to hang up the mini canvases we made as presents for each other a few years ago. The idea was we made a canvas about ourselves and a canvas about each other.

Valentine's Day Canvas Tutorial

A couple of notes for advice:
1. Use card stock if you are going to make your own stencils. That will help you avoid bleeding. Also, try to match the card stock near/close to the color you are painting with. The edges of my letters dried into the paint. I used sharp-edged tweezers to remove these little paper pieces but had I used white paper, this would not have been a noticeable issue.
2. I stippled my painting to avoid obsessing over perfect paint coverage. I made a nice mix of red, white, and pink which works well for the look I was going for.
3. I used my Gypsy to meld together the letters in the words that I made larger for emphasis. That made it alot easier to lay out the letters and make it work.

How I Spent my Winter Vacation

So, things were happening too fast and too furious during the Christmas season in December for me to be a very effective blogger. What that means now is I keep thinking about all of the cute projects and presents I gave away without a peep on the blog (or in some cases without even a photo snapped for prosperity).

You see here, I crocheted the little tree using a Lion Brand pattern available on their site. I made the people-shaped crayons in the upper right using veggie spray, a silicon muffin tin, and broken crayons from the dollar store. Next down on the left, I made cute little wristlets for all the ladies in my life. The one shown there I made for my boyfriend's brother's girlfriend, Erin. She loved it, which was very rewarding.

Below that, I made 11 new stockings for all of the newer members of my family that didn't have one yet at my mom's house. It was great to have a stocking for everyone-- they turned out really cute AND I made it off the top of my head with no formal pattern. All the nephews, brother-in-laws, and girlfriends now have an important piece of Christmas at mom's. She has always made our stockings when we were children herself so I know it really meant alot to her to have the handmade holiday decor.

On the right in the middle is a gift card monster. I made a couple of these cute little guys to hold gift cards for my 3 nephews and a present for a co-worker. I thought that it would be a cute side present in addition to the gift cards. I'm not usually one for giving gift cards as a present but all of their mom's kept saying that they didn't need anything right away so... gift cards for when they do!

Moving to the bottom row on the left, I made a viking hat for Lucas (my youngest nephew) using crochet again. I made it from my own head without a pattern-- it still needs some work. It turned out a little short for his skull. It can be really hard to make something for someone when you don't have accurate measurements!  I wanted to surprise his mama and daddy so I didn't want to obviously size him while I was working on the hat. This is the result of that (lol). Oh well, imperfect makes it homemade!

And finally, the bottom right picture is of my boyfriend, Ian, in a Charlie Brown scarf. To my disappointment, I have not seen him wearing it outside of our house, but that isn't too suprising. He isn't really a scarf-wearer. So why did I make it then? The idea just came to me suddenly-- He loves Charlie Brown and while looking at a chevron pattern for a blanket, I thought of how great this scarf would look. I love it, anyway, and that is what is important. I also sewed him slippers with Charlie Brown fleece to wear around the house. They turned out cute. He wears those much more than the scarf so win on that front.

And there you have it, a few more of the projects I worked on. There are still a number of other projects I tackled in December that I haven't shared. Maybe I'll get around to it soon :-)

As Promised-- Photos!

I *finally* got the camera situation under control! Also, I bought Photoshop!! I used to have it back in college but that was many versions ago. Ian bought me a laptop for Christmas so I have a new machine and new new Photoshop.

As promised, here are the pictures from the two purses I made as presents last week.

As I had mentioned before, I used the Buttercup purse pattern by Rae. The black, white, and grey purse with the sunken zipper was made for my boyfriend's mother (as a Pollyanna Christmas present). I gave it to her at Christmas part 4 this past Sunday. She loved it and so did our cousins and aunt. I see some more purse-making in my future.

The orange lined glitter-fest I made for my friend Sam. She was super-great to me two weekends ago when I really needed a friend and she totally deserves a surprise. I hope she likes it.