Thursday, October 20, 2011

Craft Swap Goodies!

My awesome craft swap partner, Robin, has officially received her package of goodies from the Trick or Treat bag swap. That means I can post the crafty goodness on here! First off:

The most important part of the swap was to craft a really awesome bag. I happen to be well versed in the bag making, so that was pretty easy. I did have some major fabric-choosing anxiety, though, and walked around JoAnn Fabric with a completely different scheme that I didn't even like, before I went back for the plaid fabric and found the cute little vintage print hidden among the thanksgiving fabrics. This is the first time I've done a trim with a bag, and I think the little pom pom trim turned out really well. I also reinforced the handle with batting, which is my new favorite idea to keep the handle comfy and also to keep it from getting all scrunched up at the top.

Robin has two boys, Jakob and Bailey, so I couldn't leave them out of the craftiness! I made each of them a little bag with their name on it with the left over lining fabric. I free-handed their names with a bleach pen and added a little spookiness to each one.

The boys also got their own candy loot, which was a little more their speed. Skittles, Starburst, and Chocolate eyeballs. Awesome. I think much like a 7-year-old boy, so it was fun to do this for them. :)


Here is all the goodies that went inside Robin's bag all packaged up. I made four napkins out of the plaid linen fabric and used that to package everything. Below is the goodies (sans candy) all laid out:


I made that awesome potholder out of some sparkley cotton yarn I found at Hancock Fabric in Sioux Falls, SD. It was on super sale for 93 cents a skein! I had made it a while ago, not really knowing where it would end up, but it was the perfect addition to Robin's bag loot. Also, you can kind of see the rosette pin I made out of that same plaid fabric I'm obsessed with. I've tried to make rosettes out of fabric before, but haven't had much success. I threw out the rule book and tutorials I had found on-line and just made it the way I thought that it should be made, and it worked perfectly! I get a little obsessed with rules sometimes and forget the instinct part of crafting.

Finally, the piece-de-resistance was the crafted items for Robin and the boys. I purchased a candy-corn hat pattern, as she had listed one on her wist and I was dying to make one. It knit up really quickly, as it's a super thick yarn, and it's totally adorable with the little point on the head. She said she wore it out and got some great responses from people, so that's nice to hear. Also, I found a cute little batty pattern, which I love, and made one for each boy out of the remainder of the sparkley black cotton yarn from SD. I think they turned out great!


Friday, October 7, 2011

Give a Hoot.

So, at work about a week ago, I was working on one project or another, and one of my co-workers asked me if I have ever made an "animal head hat." While this seemed like a bit of a weird question, I assumed that she was getting at something, so I said that I hadn't but had seen plenty of patterns out there that I was looking to try out. One thing led to another, and she finally got to the point-- her two-year-old is going as an Owl for Halloween this year, and she was wondering if I could make him an owl head hat. She'd pay me. Well, I'll do just about anything for cash, so I hunted through patterns, piecing together what I liked from each of them and came up with this:


Turns out that Charlie is going to be a green and blue owl, so those were the colors I went with. Here is the process-- I made the chin strap and then cast on the rest of the hat in the round.

The main part of the hat was in two colors, one variegated blue and green and one light blue. Then I made a flap at the top in green and the variegated. I didn't want to finish it off in the round, because I needed some "ears" for the owl, so I left the top square and just sewed it together.


Then, after everything was sewed up, I made little tassels for the ends of the ears.


After the main part of the hat was constructed, I wove in the ends and attached a button. I found a little blue button that worked perfectly with the color of the hat.


Then I finished it off with the felt eyes and beak you saw above. It turned out so cute. I'm really happy with it, and I think little Charlie will look adorable in it. I'll see if I can get some pictures of the little guy wearing the hat to get the full affect.