Repairing elastic in Smartipants

We all know that I use cloth diapers, and I love them.  But after so many washings and tons of abuse elastic can begin to wear out, just like any article of clothing.  I searched the web for a tutorial for repairing Smartipants (my favorite brand and the majority of my stash) elastic but couldn't find one, so I'm making one!

Now before you proceed...  following these steps WILL DESTROY YOUR WARRENTY! So if you still have your warranty contact Smartipants FIRST!  If, like me, it was already shot due to using baking soda or something in the wash, then continue.  Or, if you don't care about destroying your warranty and just want it fixed today. 

DIY Camera softie

No I did not create the original tutorial.  I found it here at Pink stitches which I found at Craft Gossip... If you don't know about Craft Gossip, you should!  And yes... you may just hate me for showing you.

I made this little orange camera for my niece's 3rd birthday gift.  My sister (her mother) is a professional photographer.  Her response on seeing the camera?  "It says Canon on it because it is well made!"  :P    Can you tell what brand all her cameras are?  :P

DIY Extreme Wet Bag

Our old wetbag. Great single pouch wet bag.

As I have said before... we use cloth diapers.  When you use cloth then you become introduced to SOOO many other neat things..  One of which is the "Wet Bag", which is basically a carry all for wet/dirty things.   I suggest one to any parent, even the 'sposie using ones.    They can be used to carry dirty cloth diapers, wet swim suits, dirty outfits of a potty-training toddler, etc.  home to be washed.

One year old! Both ways!

My big boy :)

Today Christopher is One year old gestationally.  June 17 was my due date.  He was born 15 months ago so he has been a "one year old" for 3 months now. Now when people ask me how old he is I can just say "one year" instead of " __ months old and __ months gestational"  and then have to go into the whole 1 trimester short explanation.

DIY baby food grinder case

Finished bag. Wait till you see all the features!

Lil'C has a Kidco Baby food grinder (edited to update link to new version by the same brand).  It works pretty good, but I dropped it the other day at church and snapped the latch on the case.  I decided I needed a working case, since we usually use it when out and about.   So, to the sewing room I went. 

DIY Nursing Necklace

I have been coveting some nursing necklaces since Lil'C has gotten REALLY REALLY good at removing my glasses.  I have such bad eye sight that I do actually walk into walls/poles/chairs/stairs/etc. without them, and he can remove my glasses in about 10 seconds flat.   That can become really dangerous.

I dream of...

Hopefully my mannequin won't be ruined in storage...

A full sewing space!
As I posted the other day.. we are currently staying with my parents until Big C can find a better job... (I wonder how many families are doing that right now...)  In our last house (rental) I had a room just for my sewing/crafts... I miss it..

Flats Challenge

We only partally praticipated in the challenge.  Lil' C did get some flats in his rotation.. Well .. flannel blanket "flats".

DIY babywearing sling

It's fun!

Monday I posted about Babywearing.  I have a tutorial for ya'll!! :D   DIY baby sling!

Flats Challenge

Lot's of wiggling going on

Next week is the DDL Flats Hand-washing Challenge.   For me it could not have come at a better time.  Lil' C is cutting teeth.  How does cutting teeth and a hand-washing challenge have anything to do with one another?  More than you would expect.  Cutting teeth causes ALOT of drool... Which in turn causes diarrhea... which causes some BAD diaper rash..  (Seriously... the last time his bum looked like this was when he had to wear Pampers Ultra Dry in the hospital).

Pin-stripe Jumper Tutorial!

I made a little pin-stripe jumper for Lil'C to wear for Easter.  The coolest thing about it?  It's reversible :D

To get the pattern for this jumper check out last week's post :D

"I need a pattern!" tutorial :)

Have you ever had one of those moments were your like.. "oh that is so cute!  If I only had the pattern..."  Well... If your creative, you don't necessarily have to have one!  :)  Granted I do suggest having a good sewing How-to book (This is the one I suggest, It's what I use!) since you won't have pattern instructions, and you may want to have a good seam ripper... Cuz you'll use it...

Gather your supplies :)

T-Shirt Skirts!

Finally a tutorial right???

I caught a sale at hobby lobby on T-shirts and loaded up (I couldn't even buy the amount of fabric in the shirts for the price I got!! Somewhere around $1.. ) and I have been planing on making  a T-shrit dress and a skirt for me..  Well the T-shirt dress was a massive fail...  I tried to get creative with the top and used one of my current tops to size for it... the only problem is that the shirt I used is a little high in the bust.. and with the loose back of the T-shirt.. oh .. just so much fail... So the Dress ended up becoming 2 skirts.  :)  So, I ended up making 3 out of the deal.

Knit Headband & Scarf

So I have been trying to get this project & pattern up since Christmas...  Yeah it's been fun..

The scarf & headband were a gift for my Lil'Bro's GF.

Pattern!
Headband:
1 Lyon Brand Homespun Yarn- CandyApple
(it's Bulky 5 185yrds, 6oz if you wanna use a different yarn)

Size 7 needles

Pattern:
R1- P across, Turn
R2-K across, Turn
R3-P across, Turn

cast on 12
Pattern 4 times
Earmuffs:
*R1- P, M1, P10, M1, P1
R2- K, M1, K12, M1, K1
R3- P, M1, P14, M1, P1
Pattern 7 times
Decrease
R1- P1, P2Tog, P14, P2Tog, P1
R2- K1, K2Tog, K12, K2Tog, K1
R3- P1, P2Tog, P10, P2Tog, P2*

Pattern 17 7 (oops!) Times

Repeat **

Pattern 4 Times
finish off & sew ends together.

Short & sweet huh?
Close up of Earmuffs:

Scarf:  Cast on 24, Pattern till your happy with the length.  Wah La!

Baby Update:  It's a BOY!!  I'm getting bigger & he loves to move around.  I'm now 20 weeks and to the halfway point!   I hope ya'll enjoy the pattern! :)

Jedi Bath Robe

For Christmas I made my DH a Jedi Bath Robe. I found the pattern on instructables.com
although I did make a few adjustments.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Sewing_a_JEDI_or_Harry_Potter_Robe_or_Cloak/
I got 4 yards of fabric... well my DH is not a small man.. I should have gotten 5. Because of this I had to make the hood in 3 parts. Each side & the front band (6" wide for 16" folded in half) I used a 1/2" hem all around.

The fun part of the project was getting the measurements... like I said it was a Christmas gift... I used one of hubby's dress shirts to get most of the measurements. I used my younger brother's head for hood measurements.
The biggest problem was getting the "top of shoulder to floor" & "underarm to floor" I enlisted the help of my father for that one. He was gonna kinna stand by hubby & "eyeball" where those spots fell on him so I could measure him instead. But instead of that... Hubby ended up coming inside & hugging me... so I kinna snuggled up to him & measured it on me :P apparently his underarm is right at my top shoulder height & the top of his shoulder is right under my chin.
Then I had to lock him out of the room to be able to sew it. I had to use my poor brother again to hem the bottom. It was pretty funny.. Hubby is 5'10", Brother is 6'2". Hubby is built like a football player... brother is built like a basket ball player... it was SOOOOOO funny to see him in the robe. I had to squish the shoulders us so that the hem fell flat.

Something that I had found out a few weeks ago... my thigh is the same around as my hubbys upper arm! Guess how I measured the fit of the arm holes :P yep.. wore the thing like pants. :P

I also added loops for the belt (added along the hemline)

and after all this... he figured out what it was before he opened it... *sigh* oh well. He LOVES the thing. It's very warm. I made it out of "No Pill Fleece" which I got at 50% off from Joanns (WOOTTT!!!)

Now hubby wants me to make another one... for the baby. I think I may just make a hooded towel.. 17 weeks down 23 weeks to go..

Kitty Ears Hat

:updated 3/22/2011
 This is a project I have been working on for a little bit. It is actually for my niece for Christmas (she's a toddler, hence why the hat looks streched, it's not supposed to go on an adult)
Pattern (only my 2nd so critiques welcome)
Notations: size 7 Circular Needles or Double points... whatever your most comfortable with.
Cast on 32 30 apparently I miscounted.. I created the pattern after the hat was completed.
Join (it's made from the top down)
Knit in Round for 6"

Ribbing Pattern: K3, P3
Pattern around for 1"
Stay with pattern. (Mark Direction)(You will be making short rows.. it is confusing.  This or this should help)
Pattern for 3 sections, Turn
^Pattern for 6 sections, Turn (ignore all other sections, leave on needles "Reserved Stitches")
*Pattern till end, Move 1 stitch to reserved, Turn, pattern 1 stitch, remove to reserved stitches*
Repeat ** until only 1 stitch is left^
Continue pattern in original direction until 3 sections after center of opposite side, Repeat ^^,
Continue pattern in original direction for 2 rows, Bind off.
Sew Top Closed.
Satin Stitch Triangles in pink yarn for ears (see Pic), Sew ears closed (see pic), adjust ear "height" based on head size.
Cut 24" strips of yarn (about 6 per side) pull halfway through ear flap points (see pic), Braid, Knot off, trim Tuft ends and fluff.







In other news. I'm 10 weeks as of yesterday. I'm getting a cute little bump :)

Completed Mario Stars!!

Ok so the Mario stars are finished!! FINALLY!! WHOOOO... so here is a pic :)
as you can see: blanket, hat and pacifier leash for instructions Click Here!
I can't wait to see what she says when I give them to her this weekend.
Oh I finished the Tetris quilt last night and it is taking a ride in the washing machine this morning to get rid of all the marking pencil marks. Kinna funny that I get to give them their baby and wedding gifts on the same weekend. :P

In other news.. Fertility Friend finally gave me an ovulation day YEAHHHHHH!!! I was more excited about that than finishing both projects! so FF believes I'm 3DPO(days past ovulation) Dr says I get to test on the on my 30 day i.e. next Friday. So we'll see what happens...

Geek Baby Hat

I finished a cute little hat for a co-worker of mine. Her baby shower is this weekend. She's having a boy, but I randomly found the pattern on Rav (see fav links --->) It took me two days to finish it. which isn't bad. I ended up playing around with the pattern a bit.
It seems like right now that there are a lot of baby showers. Three chics in my age group from church and at least the one coworker are all at least in the 2nd trimester. I'll post pics soon of the gift for one of the other girls, I also finished it this weekend. I really had a crafty weekend. Finished a hat, a stuffed animal and actually got to go to hobby lobby for the supplies for a baby afghan for yet another preg friend. So I should actually be updating soon!

The Tribble

My father says they look like Star Trek Tribbles. If you make yours into a purse you will have people petting your purse (yes, I’m serious.)
I have made MANY of these. VERY easy! This works up extremely quickly. I can make 1 in 2 hours.

for those who need a good pattern…
here is a simple hat pattern.
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/childs-striped-ca...

for the brave: (my 1st time to write down a pattern, so qritiques welcome)

Supplies: 1 skein Lyon Brand Fun Fur. (color of your choice, this one is the green/blue, whites, blacks and browns end up looking the most like tribbles)
K Hook
Tapestry needle (Ball only)
needle and tread (for purse only)

Gauge: 1 stitch per inch
stitches are supposed to be loose. when working the dcs don't put your hook under the "v" just go through the big part in the stitch.
row 1: c6, join to 1st c.
row 2: c3, dc11 in ring.
body of tribble: increase 6 dc every row. it does not have to be exact. when you feel that it is big enough (I usually check to make sure it can fit on my head) stop inc and just put dc even.
continue until your 1 skein runs out of yarn.
yes, use the ENTIRE skein.

Hat: leave it there and you have a hat.
Ball: stuff with fiberfill and run yarn end through the top stitches, cinch and tie off, and you have a ball. to make different size balls increase less and don't used as much of the skein.

Purse: weave ribbon (or a long c of the same or contrasting yarn) through the top row and sew the ends to one of the dc posts and you have a purse.

as a purse it can hold ALOT!! (no I do not normally carry a wii remotes just wanted to show some of what it can hold.) I have carried books in some of them.

I made 32 of the balls in diffrent sizes and diffrent colors for a sculpture project once, I used clear sewing tread to hang them from the ceiling at diffrent heights. when the wind blowed they would sway. It look really neat, but I do not have pictures as this was years ago and I gave away most of them.