more christmas gift tutorial ideas

Thanksgiving break was great. I finished two knits. But still have no fotos. Hopefully, I will by the end of this week.

So onward with the tutorials.
Here is the second installation:

tissue holder by Is It Naptime Yet?

(There are about a gizillion of these out there, but I

used this one last Christmas.)

car litter bag by finnyknits

(Again I have two of these tutorials saved. But

this one looked the best.)

hanging book display by ohdeeoh.com

(I would love to have one of these. But I don't have the wall space.)


Family Summer Center by Bernadette Noll and Kathie Sever at Craftzine.com
(Absolutely love this. But can't see myself actually making one.)

tea wallet by Craftapalooza

(I think these are pretty cool.)

Christmas idea tutorials

As we all know, Christmas is coming. And we, being the crafty people that we are, want to make things for the people that we love.

I was looking over my bookmarks and I have a ton of tutorials saved. So I figured that over the next month I would share with you some of my favorites and maybe you will find something cool to make someone that you love. I know that I will be.

Here is the first installation:

messenger bag from //between the lines//

door organizer from Design*Sponge

moleskine cover from Keyka Lou

scrap savvy bookmark from 7 LAYER STUDIO

shrinky dink trinkets from How about orange...

Ok. I just looked up shrinky dinks. Expensive!!!

So I found a cool how to on how to make them! Go here.

a last minute addition

Marie-Jolie over at Permission to Unwind sent me this link for a baby gown. I know that I have seen the entry before but had completely forgotten about it. So once she directed me there again, I just had to make one. So I rummaged through the Goodwill T stash and found the perfect t. Unfortunately the day I made it it was cloudy and the T is black (never good for photography!).

I love this. I wish my boys were babies again. I would make a ton of these. Super easy and fairly quick considering I sew by hand (still no sewing machine here in sneezerville). The sleeves are from a second T because the T that I used was just a small; not enough left over for the sleeves. But I really like the two toned look!!

I put some recycled elastic in the bottom to cinch it in.

I didn't bother to hem the sleeves. Let's face it, with t-shirt material you don't have to. It is not going anywhere.

Now this is what you can't see and it is my favorite part. Check out the pattern. The shoulder area kind of overlaps and curves which make for this great way for the baby's head to fit through. LOVE IT. I want to make myself a neckline like that on a T. one day maybe.

My second favorite part. All of the cool pictures on the front of this T!!

What is your favorite recycled project??

baby shower gifts

I have to go to a baby shower this coming weekend for the wife of a cousin of my husband. I know confusing... Anyway, I made some gifts this weekend.
These came from the book, Generation T: Beyond Fashion: 120 New Ways to Transform a T-shirt by Megan Nicolay. She has two of these books. I love them both. You should really check them out.

These are the 0 - 6 month baby booties. These are made from an old rummage sale onezie that I liked the design of.

And then I made burb clothes. Or as the boys like to say barf clothes. Three different rummage sale t's with cool desings.

You shape them with indents in the middle so that they lay better on your shoulder. Stitch a running stitch around the outer edge. Then stitch two vertical rows about 4 inches apart down the middle.

I love the designs on these ts.

And the colors are more for boys. so maybe the hubby will use these clothes more than wifey poo.

then i cut up another onesie to make a little bag for them. Simple cut off the bottom of the onesie and the sleeves. sew along bottom edge. voila. bag. then i don't have to wrap anything.

all material from rummage sale goodies. all extra cool. all super cheap. thank god for thriftying!!

Everybody is Doing It why not me?

This is the EDI (Everybody is Doing It) cowl from presents knits. She has some really cute designs. If you haven't checked out her site yet, you should.

This is made with 2 skeins of LionBrand Thick and Chunky in charcoal.

On size US 13 needles. The pattern called for size 15 needles but I didn't have those. 13's worked fine.

It could stand to be a little wider. So 2.5 skeins would have been better. But I was trying to work with what I had.

It is soft and extremely warm. It can be pulled over the shoulders, scrunched up around the neck or...

pulled up over your noggin.

And this is my latest WIP, Rosamund's Cardigan by Andrea Pomerantz from the fall 2009 Interweave Knits. I am doing this with some recycled sweater yarn.

addiction / obsession

I am an addict.

I can't get enough. I just want to recycle every cheapo sweater out there I can find. It is fun and soothing to unravel some machines hard work. My boys even love it.

So here is another sweater that bit the dust.

A $0.50 rummage sale sweater of 100% cotton. very soft stuff.

These balls are small sections of reds, greys, greens, golds, and dark blue that made up the striped section of the original sweater.

These following balls are the dark blue main sections of the sweater. love this dark color.

the next yarns are from a trade on ravelry. the other thing that i love doing. trading something i am not using for something else super cool.

like these, hand dyed beauties.

and some malabrigo. love malabrigo. destined for another foliage so that maybe i can keep the other one!!

lastly, my mother-in-law is addicted to buying me buttons. so here are some that she picked up from JoAnn Fabrics.