Leaves Headband

The Urban Outfitters inspired Floral Headband that I made long ago was one that I wanted to revisit, but upon many tries at learning crochet I find that I'm an exception to the rule that crochet is supposed to be easier than knitting. Maybe it is all those terms. I don't understand why there should be a 'single crochet' and a 'half double crochet'...shouldn't those equal the same thing? So since there is nary a good knit flower pattern to be found, I decided to switch from a flower to...leaves! Three leaves of slightly different sizes got sewn onto the headband for something else that could frame the face a little. My first item that was intended to be sold before I began making it.

Finally have pictures of the Granville St. dress are finally up. A little wrinkled at the time the pics were taker, but it'll do.

The Saga of Aunt Mary's Hat

My husband has a relative going through chemotherapy right now, and some of us crafty girls in the family were tapped to come up with some head coverings to make up a little for the scalp side effects that go along with that treatment. When I took this on I thought 'A hat should be easy. If I make dresses a hat should be a breeze.' Wrong. Very wrong. I had never made a hat before and this has been a huge learning process.

My goals for what to make were these:
[a] a color that would bring out some color in the cheeks, rather than drowning out what little color is left in someone who is ill
--> I hear teal is a universally flattering color because it is supposed to bring out rosiness in cheeks
[b] a shape that would frame the face well, since usually we depend on hair to do that
--> I thought a 20's style cloche would do that since those always look so flattering to me
[c] try to hid as much of the hairline areas that would make it obvious hair was absent

After I got a confirmation of her head measurements I started making this hat from Weekend Designer. I thought that should work out well and I imagined that I would be done with it in no time. First off, I don't know if it was me or the design that was at fault, but it did not work out. It took forever to sew 90% through this pattern, and by the time I got that far and was able to try it on to see how it was going I discovered that it looked ridiculous. The brim was way too long and misshaped, and in order to fix that I would have to tear out 2/3 or my work and redesign it. This was a painful realization being that I hand-stitch everything and thick layers of materials like this are particularly painful on the fingers. But I finally sucked it up and tore out all of the work. Then I had to redesign it in order to not have to tear back even further. What I came up with still in the spirit of a 20's cloche, but much more asymmetrical and edgy. Hopefully not too edgy for her.

back, left

front, right

I haven't sewn the lining for the hat yet, but I'm so close to being done I can taste it. It has been a fairly disheartening process being that I've been working on this hat for...two and a half months! How can that be? I took a break and made a dress to reassure myself that I could still sew. I hand sewed that whole stinking dress in two and a half days...and this hat has taken me two and a half months! That's ridiculous.

Anyway, I will try to finish up the lining and get it mailed out to her as soon as possible. And I'll hope to get finished photos of that 2.5 day dress soon.

more bits and a new dress

I forgot about a few other little things that I made. The first were some ballet flats socks. I'm tired of sweaty feet inside my everyday shoe wear and I don't anticipate regular socks in these becoming kosher... ever. This was also my first ever 'socks' that I knit. That was a big step. I had to learn a few new skills for these.




Next were some fun flower hair clips that I made for my dear friend Kat's birthday. Birthday gifts on a budget can be tough, but these were what I came up with. For the teal ones I used some lining fabric that I held over a flame to shape and singe. The others were fancy silk samples of fabric I'd gotten. I used pearls from an old family heirloom necklace that had broken and wasn't worth re-stringing.



Now this is my little pet project that I started. I was walking down Granville St. near the theatre that I work at and there was a window display of a dress with this really fun sewn down pleats over the waist with topstitching on them. I loved that idea and stole it, but changed everything else about the dress. I know that I need to make some dresses with long sleeve since the winter weather will be here before you know it and I am the human popsicle. I found a lovely wool blend fabric in the bargain section of Dresses that I figured would work nicely for it. It was called 'cadet blue' but in many kinds of light it appears half way between navy blue and a deep purple. I really like that. The fabric is wonderful to work with and I did so much in one afternoon that I'm hopeful I may finish this in time to wear for my headshots photo time next month. It is tricksy business picking out a top for those things. Oh yes, and my hair is red again. I missed it.

Catching up...

Considering how many things I've made this summer, prior to starting this blog, perhaps I should do a little show and tell recap.


First, researched my husband's family crest and embroidered it to add onto a tshirt for his birthday.














Then I made a maxi dress out of a bit of scrap material from ages ago and a beach cover up wrap that my sis-in-law was going to throw away at Christmas time. If it is decent material I will always find something to make out of it. I decided to leave the little fringe tassle things on the outside for an interesting look. I don't have a good detail shot of the back, but I also added a bunch of pleats along the back which gives it nice movement and the feel of a train, even if there isn't really one. This has got to be the easiest thing I've ever sewn and yet it gets the most compliments.

After giving into a slight Regency inspiration for that maxi dress, I decided to design a dress that was based more heavily off of a Regency bodiced petticoat I saw. This was my first time ever creating a proper pattern. So much math, but at least now I have a pattern that I can alter to different sizes to make for others.
After that came a little black dress. I'd been wanting to make a LBD for a while. When a pattern came up on Burda Style that I kinda liked, I realized I didn't like the details on it, and instead used the pattern for the dress lining as a basis for my own design. It ended up having a very early 60's feel to it. My first attempt at hand stitching in an invisible zipper after many years of avoiding them with buttons.

And finally, I knit a camera sock for our first ever camera! As a joint birthday pressie, we got given a digital camera. This is a big deal for us. Neither of us have ever owned a camera before, so we bought a disposable for our honeymoon, thinking we ought to get some pics....we still haven't gotten it developed. Without this fun new gifty, I wouldn't have any of the above pictures. It is a snazzy red camera, so I knit up a matching red cover.
That pretty much covers the summer.

Experiment

I thought it might be nice to collect all of the things I might post, including theater stuff and all of my crafty creation, in just one place. So this is it, unless I fail to make this work. I'm not a writer, so this is a big stretch for me. We'll see what happens.