Back off Vacation!

Okay alright, I actually came back over a month ago but have had so much going on that I took an extended vacation from the blog. I may be taking a bit of a hiatus from blogging about sewing and crafting because everything will be soon put in boxes to be moved overseas! We found out that Kev's next assignment is in The Netherlands, we are very excited to be moving and closer to some of my family that lives in Europe.

Now onto the sewing. :)

(okay according to the order of uploads I have not blogged about these yet sorry if any are a repeat.)

Nice summer top using the sewmamasew spring ruffle top tute, only I am lazy lazy seamstress and gathered the front and back instead of the pleats.

A retro mini dress using the same pattern. My orange fabric wasn't quite wide enough so I added the flower panel to make it work. I mean to add a style element.

Reversible skirt with comfy waistband.

The reverse. Notice anything? Look close. Yup those are suppose to be dandelion puffs but they are growing upside down. At least I cut both pieces upside down!


Uncut cord trousers from a Woman's Ottobre. Not sure which one off the top of my head, will look it up and add later. Oh but these actually fit and I had to very little modifying, just take in about an inch in the center back seam.

The waistband. I felt quite clever using the cotton for the waist facing, it really cuts down on the bulkiness of the waistband and adds a little extra cute. The pockets are lined with the same fabric.

Newest knitting:

Beanpole beanie in dream in color classy midnight derby. I so enjoyed making this hat! The bobbles are really fun and surprisingly easy.


Rani cuff (from knitty.com) in leftover dream in color smooshy in chinatown apple. This is my first beaded knitted item, I need to make the second cuff but it requires stringing 300 some beads, which is best done without little helpers.

That is all I have pictures of for now! Hope everyone enjoyed summer, I know we did and we are definitely enjoying somewhat cooler weather ans starting on fall crafting and sewing.

Love Annmarie

Work In Progress: Summer Play

Hello All
Halfway through May and the lovely weather is here to stay! Yipee! I love spring and summer, we spend loads of time outside so I don't do as much sewing but I do have a few projects to share. :)


The big work in progress: a play tent for the boys. It's made out of larger scraps of fabric and has wooden dowels and pvc joints. We were checking out the size here.

Uh oh! Mama there's no door! ;)

Almost done here. adding ties on the inside and had to run out to get more dowels and pvc joints for support.

Gardening apron and knee pads. We had loads of rocks along the garden beds, so I needed a bit of cush. Little i insisted on taking the picture.



Layered knit skirt, I cut an a-line skirt a size smaller than I normally wear and it fits very nicely. The waist is fold over elastic (foe) and I gathered at one hip with clear elastic. First time successfully doing that technique!


Frenchy Bag pattern by Amy Butler. I made up the shoulder bag, which is the bigger of the two patterns. Really fun pattern to sew and I had loads of fun appliqueing the print fabric to the bag, but unfortunately, it is not big enough to carry all the stuff we currently need. The cloth diapers can be a bit bulk and they don't fit very well. It will be a nice size for when I don't need extra diapering stuff though.


Another work in progress, but almost done! A one skein stole, using really fun zauberball yarn. A very easy knit and quick too. It's currently blocking and I need to weave in the ends.

Hopefully more projects soon!

Annmarie

A few random projects

Haven't really been doing much sewing, we've been taking turns being sick this past month. But I finally finished up a few projects so I thought I would share.



Pair of wide leg lounge pants. I had initially made a regular elastic encased waistband, but got some cotton/lycra fabric in the mail and decided that a yoga style waist would be fun to try. I now have 2 more pairs of pants in the mending pile to convert to yoga style waistband. No idea what took me so long to try it!


A raglan style night dress to try out a new pattern. (it's new look but i don't have the number off the top of my head)


A fun springy top also to try out a new pattern, I really like this one! (also new look, i think...)



The back. The pattern called for the back to be cut in two pieces but i was feeling very very lazy so I cut on the fold and just cut the slit down to the notch for the keyhole opening and finished the edge like the pattern directions.


finished up the froggy socks for baby n. I was being to think this yarn didn't want to become socks (or the kid didn't want it too) cause the boys frogged it too many times to count. Broken needles. Cast on the wrong size. You name it, it's gone wrong. Anyway, finally just sat down and worked on them (it had been sitting in my diaper bag) and I think they are really cute!



A solo sock for me. I had every intention of making a second sock but the second skein of yarn has gone MIA. So I am off onto a new project, maybe I will make mismatch for this one some day.


We finally had a nice day (with no one sick) so I dyed up a skein of sock yarn. I was going for a deep indigo, but I quite like the result and I think it will make a fun pair of socks. (It looks a bit washed out in the pic it's about 2 shades darker.)



I liked the color in the dye pot so much that I got out the wool/silk shawl that I had half dyed a while back. I couldn't decided on a color for the cream side so I had left it for a while and decided on a whim that this blue would be perfect! I love how it turned out! Totally different than anything else i have. :)


Attempting to take a picture with the wind blowing, lol, didn't turn out well. In case ya can't tell it's gradation dyed (darker at the edge gradually fading to the cream in the center.)

I am doing a bit of mending/altering right now and working on my first Cookie A sock pattern! Oh and I got all of my fat quarters from the sewmamasew swap! I need to take pictures and share all of the wonderful goodies and notes.

Take care,
Annmarie

Wardrobe Starter

I've started working on little i's wardrobe. Got 5 raglan sleeve tees done over the past 2 day and made a nice dent in that stack of fabric he had picked out.

I modified the pattern I had used for the boys' Christmas jammies so it's longer in the body and a bit slimmer.
I decided to start with 2 long sleeved and 3 short. Totally awesome apple print (c &c) with some heathered grey, lime striped sleeves.

This one is a cute dog print (from JOANNS!! why doesn't my joanns carry cute cotton knits?!?! pouts.) that I got in a trade. I am really glad I did contrasting sleeves as baby n looked very pitiful when he saw that the doggies were for little i, I have enough left over to work the print into a top for baby n too!


The rest of the tops. The skulls on the right are a thermal with grey/black stripes and bright green topstitching.


Closer up of the prints. I was so excited to be able to get the robot one on the left, it had been out of print and crazy hard (and expensive) to get so I was jumping up and down excited when I found out it was being reprinted. :D

Managed to finagle baby n into his hudson hat. He decided to ham it up for the camera last night.



What a squishy tassel!



I can do it by. my. self.

Gotta go the boys are watering the plants for me...

Annmarie

It's all a work in progress

I was hoping to have a finished project to post this week but I haven't finished anything. My winter coat is kicking my booty. I had to take a break (and it's 50 degrees again, not feeling so urgent to finish it) as the hem has me all frustrated. Topstitching has been a beast on this coat, my presser foot and the material are not getting along. Anyway, here's a work in progress pic for the coat:


I decided work on my sew along apron instead last night, here's a little sneak peek:


And I've been knitting another Hudson Hat; it's about 80% done and I actually used up some scraps! Guess I better find another biggish project :)



I thought I'd add a fun pic of the boys. They think popsicles are a year round treat; I think they are an outside only summer treat. Our compromise is in the wintertime they are eaten in the bathtub as they are sticky and gross to clean up :D.



Take care, hope everyone is enjoying the new year.
Love
Annmarie

A Birthday Gift

I can finally share the gifts I've made! This set is for my Mom, she recently picked up knitting and is sitting waiting to close on their new house, so she is a bit bored. So I put together a little knitting kit for her.


Big project bag, small project bag, double point needle holder, a pouch for extras and stitch markers.



The bag all loaded up read to go! I did the pocket on the inside the same as the pocket on the ella carryall, makes a nice big pocket for bulky stuff.



And lastly, some handdyed sock yarn. This was my first attempt at kettle dyeing, I did it in cold water, just cause, and doesn't have a lot of variation, but just a little to make it interesting.

That's all I am going to post today, I got the Christmas packages out late so I am not sure they have arrived to the recipients yet :). Oh! and I haven't uploaded the boys' Christmas pjs yet!

Love
Annmarie

What's with all the knitting?

What's up with all of the knitting you say? Well I have been sewing but I can't share just yet, those pics will have to wait until 26 December ;)

But in the mean time... more knit hats!

Little i declared once again that he needed a hat. No yellow, no purple, RED is the color of the week, so he decided we had to go to the yarn store as i didn't have any red yarn. (He was actually right on this one, i didn't have any red yarn!)




I got a new pattern I wanted to try: the knox hood by plumknit. Easy to follow directions although my pom pomy bit is a bit...erm... limp.


Reminds me of Dr Suess' Who's. (I had to bribe him to get this picture.)


And a great fun hat to knit: The Hudson Hat by Ky Baby Knits. The pattern uses scrap yarn and was great fun to pick all the different colorways to go in the hat. (earflaps are a little curly as I hadn't blocked it yet.)


oopps bit blurry, the boys were fighting over this one so I think i better make another. I gotta say this is not the hat to make if you don't like weaving in ends there are loads of em!

My first (properly) kettle dyed yarn. I really like how this one turned out! Paton's Natural Marl never looked so good! LOL :)

Love
Annmarie

Uugly Hats

Little i informed me that the boys need some hats. Yes, we have a basket full of hats but he needed a knit one, 'from you know, yarn mama!" He also decided that it needed to be purple and yellow. So I got out my dyes and bulky yarn and set to work. The results were, well, ugly. I had added a little blue to the mix which blended nicely with the yellow and the purple, but the purple and yellow did not play nice together. They made an uggglllyy gross color of brown.


As you can see the brown is smack dab in the middle of the yellow so it really stands out. I decided to try again and overdyed it with green. The results are better but a little of the ugly brown is still there.



It's not quite as horrid once knit up :) this is another earthly fae pixie hat.



Super cute on...and lost already! LOL so is life with little ones. :)




Another hat from a One Skein Wonder books, Little i decided to walk around for the morning with only one earflap done- and I forgot to take a picture! It was really cute.

Well, I have projects in process, but I can't post them just yet as they are Birthday and Christmas presents and well the recipients read the blog! Maybe I will take some pictures of past projects. :D

Love
Annmarie

oh! I almost forgot! I opened up the comments so anyone can leave a comment (I didn't realize I had it set otherwise-opps), yes Mom that means you too :)

Please don't make me wear it!

Please? I mean come on mama; who wants to wear an adorable hand knit sweater? Not ME!

:sigh: well I got the vest done and he hates it. bummer. no surprise really the more excited he is about a work in progress the more he seems to dislike the finished product. Maybe he will like it next week.



Better pic of the vest. I added two extra rows at the shoulder as some of the comments said the head opening was too small.

Vest pattern is from warm woolies


A pixie hat to match. Baby n was not the intended recipient by he was willing to sit for pictures.


pattern is super super easy! from earthly fae

I still have yarn left from this project! hmm maybe i will tackle some little mittens!

I forgot to take pictures of Little i's trousers again! Maybe tomorrow :)

Love
Annmarie