Wardrobe Refashion – for Riah

The other day Riley cleaned out her closet and I kept some of her shirts. The rest we FreeCycled. I knew I could refashion them into a cute little dress for Riah!
Here is the Before and After!


I think it turned out pretty cute. Of course, with the snowfall today, she won’t be able to wear it soon – but warmer weather is coming, I know!

Weather on the first day of Spring – SNOW

Yes, we have snow It’s still snowing and supposed to continue until tomorrow. oh well, I’m sure it’s beautiful somewhere! And since we have no spring outside, I made some spring for indoors.
I crocheted some flower strings, and hung them up between the living room and dining room. These are so easy, just crochet any kind of flower, and then keep chaining until you feel like adding another flower!

Picture Update

Update #1 – Blue shirt, sewn by hand. I have finished this shirt, and I’m wearing it today for the 2nd time. It is completely sewn by hand, except I did use my machine to put on the sleeves. By then, I was over it!
The white trim around the neckline and the sleeves were taken off another blouse. Sheer, rayon fabric, that goes well with the blue cotton.
Update#2 – Project Yarnway March. I dyed the strips. Originally intended to be a bathmat, it  hops back and forth between – the bathmat and a tablerunner (ish) type of thing. I did dye my strips with KoolAid and it turned out wonderful!  I have 3 colors – blue, green and super light green mottled. Most strips I put in the dye pots loose. But one length of strip, i rolled into a ball, rubber banded and just let it sink to the bottom and sit. Turned out great!

I didn’t intend to make green but it turned out pretty good I ‘thought’ Lemon Lime would be YELLOW…. and put it in the pot with a package of Orange. NOT. it’s GREEN!!!!!! lol you know what Orange and Green look like mixed together? MUD!
Luckily I also happened to have several packages of Lemonade which IS yellow…and I opened those and put them all in. It lightened it enough that the green became a lovely shade and I lucked out!

Note to self: Color of package IS color of KoolAid!!!!!
The strips did not want to be knit, they wanted to crocheted. I think it’s pretty, but it’s killing my shoulder, so I’m not at all sure this will be completed. Anyone want strips?
New Project – Wine Silk Blouse. This is my new ‘blouse in progress’. Red Wine colored silk, with cream sleeves and trim. The cream color is darker than what shows in the picture. In real life it doesn’t look so ‘red and white’ which I would not have liked!

The neckline is too low, so I’m experimenting with ‘fillers’ I’m leaning toward the shawl collar on the left. Thoughts?
The cream fabric is polyester, found in the remnant bin. It’s sheer and good for sleeves. The trim around the neckline – I sewed a 2” strip of fabric into a tube, and then sewed 1 line of gathering stitch down the center. Once pinned in place, I did a narrow zig zag to attach it to the blouse.
And then started adding beads over the zig zag – I’m liking it!

New Project – Freeform Crochet/Knitting. Well, I’m having an eye opening moment. I’ve never been a huge fan of crochet. That’s not to say I don’t adore a vintage doily or bedspread, and have in fact, crocheted a few doilies in my life.
But I have recently seen some crocheted tops and dresses that just took my breath away!
I found Antonina’s projects on Ravelry, but she also has a Flickr group you can see, if you’re not a Raveler
And Miraslava’s projects – oh my!
And there are many more, but you get the idea! So, I had to get out my crochet hook and a bit of cotton -

So… are you impressed with my creativity in crochet yet? lol… it was fun and I don’t see that it would be that hard to connect all the flowers and leaves together, she says innocently.
And the cutest things are in the Japanese magazines -

On the Ravelry boards, they’ve said if you can read a chart, you can make the things in the Japanese magazines. I’m sure that’s true, but they don’t have this magazine at my Barnes and Noble I’m sure I could get my hands on it if I really wanted to!
So, that’s what I’ve been up to. What are you all doing?

Silver Wire

I’ve always loved wire work jewelry, and the combination of wire and beads. Over the past few years, I’ve bought some wire, some different wire working pliers and a magazine with lots of good instructions. I’ve tried it here and there, but you know, it takes a lot of practice and a special touch. Most of what I managed to make was … well, it was awful
Finally, today, I managed to make an S clasp that is lovely.
After I finished forming it, I hammered it flat. They said it made it stronger, but I also love the look of hammered silver.
So, there is my first piece of wire work. I’m so proud of it I have absolutely no idea what I’ll do with it, but I love it!

Project Yarnway – Month 2

Hello again, designers! I hope you enjoyed your first challenge. Everyone settling in? Good.
The name of this challenge is Innovation.
(groans from the crowd)
Come on, you knew this was coming! It’s Project Yarnway! You may make any design of any type you like, but for your materials, you must use something not sold for the purpose of knitting or crocheting. Be creative. Look around. (Some materials are more easily adapted for these crafts than others, but as long as it is not sold to knit or crochet with, it is allowed.) The news is not all bad, though – around twenty percent of your design may be made with conventional materials AKA yarn.
Please consider this thread the workroom for both the professional and amateur designers. Share your ideas, progress, setbacks, blog posts – everything but the finished design.
Designs are due on the runway March 31st. If you tag your projects projectyarnway and mar2010yarnway then people will be able to find them!

That was the message that met me on Mar 1 after checking in on Ravelry, the Project Yarnway group. I found it near the end of Feb, and hurriedly made some ruffled wrist warmers -
Last time I checked (about 5 min ago), 3 people had voted for my project!!!! YIPPEE!!!
So, this month – I have to be innovative! I immediately thought of the set of old sheets that are no longer usable as sheets – but they would make an awesome bathmat!
Hearing that noise? That’s me…thinking.

Girl Scout Cookies

We had to go to Walmart yesterday for a variety of things. And there, at the front door – was the Girl Scout table, selling cookies. Well, Mike says it’s the Law – Girl Scout cookies MUST be purchased! Did you know that a $20 bill buys 5 boxes exactly? Do I have to go into the details here? Ok… 2 Lemonades, Peanut Butter Patties, Thin Mints, and Caramel ‘somethings’. Enuff said.