Picking Up My Needles for the Ravelympics

I haven’t been knitting lately.. quite frankly I haven’t been crafting much at all lately, and it’s really starting to affect my good mood. 🙂

So, when I saw the Ravelympics on Ravelry I figured this would be a fun time to pick up my needles again.  Ravelympics (quote from Ravelry)….

Time for the next round of madness that is the Ravelympics. This time we’re “gathering” in Vancouver, Canada during Feb 12-28, 2010. Goal: 2 weeks of focused, intense personal & team challenges to tackle while watching the actual Olympics unfold before our eyes.

I’m going to be participating in the Sock Hockey event and will be challenging myself with Skew Socks.

And I will be using this beautiful yarn (Abstract Fiber SuperSock) that I picked up when I was visiting family in Portland, OR this last summer. 

I love the colors of this yarn and am excited to see what it looks like with this pattern.  I’m also excited to see how this pattern knits up. It looks very intriguing and challenging which is why I chose it for this event… it will be an olympic-sized challenge… for me. 🙂

So please wish me luck, as I undertake my personal Ravelympics challenge.

Becoming a Doll Maker (part 1 – patterns)

I suddenly have an over whelming desire to make a doll. It all started when I cleaned up and organized my craft room and found these doll clothes patterns which I have collected over the last few years.

I got them so I could makes clothes for my girls’ 18″ dolls, but I have yet to make a single outfit. So, I decided to make them some for Christmas, and I thought it would be fun to make some for my nieces as well since they are about the same age as my daughters. But, I haven’t a clue if they have an 18″ doll. That’s when I had my light-bulb moment…. I could MAKE them an 18″ doll to go with the clothes! A very adventurous idea since I’ve never made a doll before in my life, not to mention one that’ll require very specific measurements so it will fit the doll clothes.  Oh sure I could just call my sister-in-law and find out if the girls have any 18″ dolls, but where’s the fun in that?

So, what’s the first step in making a specifically sized doll? Measurements, right?!  Thankfully Sunny, Miss A’s doll, kindly allowed me to take her measurements so that I could get started on my project.

Once I had her measurements my next step was to draw out the pattern pieces. I realized then that I had NO clue how to draw a pattern that would achieve the shape I desired. So, the internet search began. I wasn’t able to find anything that was exactly what I was looking for but that’s really ok since I want to make my own pattern anyway. I did, however, find a doll named Nekomimi that is similar to what I want, so I decided to use her pattern as a sort of starting out point.

Since Nekomimi is only a 16″ doll I need to make my pattern pieces slightly larger. Also, I want my doll to have jointed limbs so I have to change the shape of some of the pieces, such as the torso, to accommodate the different style limbs. I’ve got a rough draft drawn out now and I’m hoping to make a prototype over the next couple of days.

So stay tuned.. lots more doll making craziness is on its way! 🙂

A Wonderland Halloween

Since these costumes were the first major sewing project I’ve worked on in a LONG time I thought they’d be perfect for my first post here on my new sewing/knitting/crafting blog.  I started this project on the 27th of October and worked my last stitch on Halloween.  The girls loved their costumes, and were SO excited to wear them, and I was very proud because people knew who they were. 🙂

I had tights and more costume appropriate shoes for Alice and the Mad Hatter to wear but it was 75 degrees outside and WAY too hot for tights. Thus the ugly sandals. As it was, the Cheshire Cat and the White Rabbit were sweaty bettys by the time we were done Trick-or-Treating.

Oh I almost forgot… please forgive the blurred out faces but I don’t post my kids’ faces publicly on the internet. 🙂

Alice

I created my own patterns for the dress and apron based on the amount of fabric I had available and my daughter’s size.

Supplies

~ Light Blue Floor Length Woman’s Silk Skirt (thrift store find)

~ White Lacy Girl’s Dress (thrift store find)

~ 2 White Handkerchiefs

~ Child’s Wig (on clearance!)

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Cheshire Cat

I made this costume last thinking it would be the easiest. Instead it turned out to be the most frustrating.  Originally I wanted it to have stripes going around horizontally, but getting them to line up in front, and to lay flat, was nearly impossible because of the stretchiness of the fleece.  Also, I would have had to hand sew around the sleeves and legs because they were too narrow to work easily on my machine.  If I had realized these difficulties earlier I would have just painted the stripes on but in the end I settled for sewing on a pink kitty belly.  In spite of all this I am still very pleased with the final look.

Supplies

~ Purple Pajamas  (these were my daughter’s pj’s which she’d had for awhile and they were almost too small for her! :))

~ Pink Fleece (from my fabric stash)

~ Pink and Purple Yarn for Knit I-Cord Tail ( from my yarn stash)

~ Cat Mask, Purple Craft Felt, and other Mask Pieces

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White Rabbit

I created the pattern for this costume by outlining a pair of my daughter’s pajamas, and I used the edges of the towel for the cuffs on the sleeves and pants. The vest was also a self-made pattern which I created using the white portion of the costume as a guide.  The ears were steadied on her head by being “attached” to her pony tails.

Supplies

~ Large White Towel

~ Fabric Remnant

~ Blanket Binding for the Bow Tie ( from my stash)

~ Large White Pipe Cleaner (for ears)

~ Craft Chain, Craft Wood, Clock Face, Red Ribbon (for clock)

~ Large White Pom Pom (for tail)

The Mad Hatter

The hat and the skirt are both made from a reversible brocade.  The skirt has the blue background facing out and the hat has the green background facing out. The jacket, which I cut down from a woman’s jacket to fit my daughter, is lined with the same brocade and has brocade covered buttons. The inside of the hat is lined with the same fabric as the jacket and it has two layers of heavy-duty iron-on interfacing to help it keep its shape. The patterns for the jacket, skirt and hat are all of my own design and created through trial and error. 🙂

Supplies

~ Brocade Drapes (thrift store find – from YEARS ago)

~ Woman’s Blazer (thrift store find)

~ Silk Scarf (thrift store find)

~ T-shirt and Misc Trims (from stash on hand)

~ Heavy Duty Interfacing (for the hat)

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Close up of the Hat

To top off all of the costumes I sprayed their hair with color and put make-up on their faces.

I’ve always wanted to make their Halloween costumes but this is the first year that I have, and I’m so glad that I did. I had fun making them and my efforts were well rewarded. I hope I’ll be able to make more costumes in the future and that I remember to start them earlier! 🙂