Foreigners

I have no idea who the Bavarians are (were?) or why they have their own crochet technique, but I thank them nonetheless.  Sure, I could Google it.  But it's late and I'm tired.

Looking for crochet inspiration last week, I wandered the crafting selections at the library.  I found a wonderful book called Learn to do Bavarian Crochet.  It uses standard universal crochet stitches, but combines them to make this unique pattern. 

It looks much more complicated than it really is.  If you can make a treble crochet stitch, you can do this.  I have four skeins of wool blend yarn leftover from baby boy #1 afghan, so I'm using it up in this fun little project.  It might be baby boy #2 afghan if it's large enough.  If not, maybe a table topper, or I'll attach a fabric back and turn it into a pillow or something.  

Here's a closer picture of the delightful textured stitch pattern.  Ignore the tails.  It's a work-in-progress and I just d-r-e-a-d sewing in tails.  Gotta put that off as long as possible.

The backside is pretty too, in flat diamond shapes.

Kudos to the Bavarians!

Slimey Sea Monster from the Green Lagoon

My 8-year-old child started feeling crummy on Sunday, with an off and on fever thing goin' on.  The school has this policy that a child must be fever-free for 24 hours before returning to school again.  Ok.  I get that.  I don't work on  Mondays so she stayed home with me.  Her fever reached 102 on Monday afternoon and then it disappeared.   She was perfectly fine all evening, slept great, and woke up Tuesday morning ready to take on the world.  But technically, I could not send her to school per the policy.  Tuesday is a work day for me.  I work from home, and brave girl that I am, I figured we could deal with this.  Lots of movies.  Have her read a big fat novel or something. 

The plan worked for most of the day.  She read.  She watched  TV.  She wrote a story.  Now, had she still been feverish and lethargic, she would have been content to do these things all day.  But....she felt wonderful and wanted to do all sorts of normalish things too.  Bike riding.  Baking cookies.  Hanging out at the mall.

Uhhhh.....Sorry little chickadee, but I'm pulling an eight-hour shift here and you need to entertain yourself for a bit longer.

So, I said to her, "Go forth and root through the crafting cabinet!  I don't care what you do or how big a mess you make (as long as you clean up afterward, of course).  Create something!"  I fired up the sewing machine and left her alone with a heap of fabric scraps, odds and ends, and an imagination as big as Jupiter (that's the biggest planet, she informed me).

She emerged awhile later.  So did Samy.

Samy the Sea Monster from the Green Lagoon.  Samy is not only cute, but extremely talented.  Here is Samy doing an interpretive dance:

I have a feeling that our house will soon be filled with lots of sea monsters, big and small.

"You made what?!?!"

That's what my husband said when I showed him these.

Ridiculous?  Yes.  Unnecessary?  Absolutely.  Crazy-cute?  You betcha.  Sure I could have just spent a dollar and bought new shoelaces.  Or I could have kept using the plain white ones that came with the shoes.  There was nothing wrong with them after all. 

But where's the fun in that?

Holy Sheet!

Every year around September, Target does an awesome clearance sale of sheets.  The ones they market for college students with the dorm setup/organization stuff.   Get your red pen and circle August 15 on your calendar.  Make a note to start stalking the clearance endcaps like the crazy crafting psycho you are.  Seriously.  Circle it.  Right now.

Good job. 

Mostly they have twin-sized sets, but that is still ample fabric yardage to make into all sorts of wonderful things.

Last Fall's sheet clearance set me up with a wonderful cotton t-shirt set in plum, with hot pink stripes and a few threads of silver glitter.  I also snagged a woven set in white with several shades of purple and pink stripes.   I paid $8 total for both sets of sheets. 

Add in a little inspiration....

Part of the knit sheets were sewn into this ultra-comfortable wrap dress.  The pattern is called Hope, and is a free download from Burda.  I still have the entire fitted sheet and pillowcase to make into something else.  Maybe a sleeveless summer sundress?  Sleep shorts?  A t-shirt?

The striped fitted sheet became these pajama pants.  They're incredibly comfortable because they feel like wonderfuly soft....sheets!   This pattern is in Betz White's book, Sewing Green.  It's full of ideas for recycling and repurposing old sweaters, sheets, and other things into clothes and accessories.

The flat sheet became a sample of Butterick 5181.  I have some expensive designer fabric that is begging to become a dress, but before hacking into it I wanted to make sure the dress pattern would actually fit.  Nothing is more frustrating than spending hours on something that is unwearable.  It's a good thing I did, too, because the bodice absolutely does not work for my body type (which is why I had to add that little butterfly-ish thingie to keep it from gaping open).  Now I know, and I can modify the pattern before cutting into that expensive fabric.  I'm only out a couple of bucks by using the sheet, and I still have a dress to wear around the house.

Fabric can be expensive, but if you keep your eyes open to other ideas, you can find large quantities of fabric in unexpected places.  Think shower curtains, tableclothes, sheets from your linen closet that have holes or stains.  The linens rack at Goodwill often has delightful vintage sheets and tableclothes.  Repurpose them!