Android Coffee Sleeves

It's no secret that we like Droid. For Christmas I customized some of my felt coffee sleeves/mug cozies with adorable Droids. Of course they are each holding a steaming cup of coffee... or tea... or hot chocolate. Whichever you like. :)

Here you can see the details. If you're interested in making your own, I followed the same procedure as in the above link to make coffee sleeves, but before I sewed the outer and inner pieces together I hand sewed little Droid parts that I'd cut from felt. His eyes are little french knots. Don't forget to stiffen the fragile pieces of felt before sewing them in place. That also is described in the above link.

It was easiest to make a little Droid on graph paper, then cut that out and hold each piece on top of felt to cut out the right shape and size.

Assembly line style. Lots of people I know like Android! The button loops are hair elastics that will be sewn on!

Bachelor Pads

The men in my family are always the hardest to shop for. Luckily for me, this year both of my brothers just moved into new apartments and one of them got really into cooking. I gave sort of a hybrid humorous housewarming and Christmas present. Camo colored hot pad holders. My mother came up with the idea for hot pad holders, I thought making them camouflage colored would make them manly, and my sister came up with the name "Bachelor Pads" for them. We work well together.

These take me way back because when I was a girl, this was the pattern I learned to crochet with. So, obviously it's not my pattern, but it's hard to track down where it originated. Here's how to do what some people call the "Origami Hot pad" because of the neat folding trick at the end that makes a diagonal, double sided, thick hot pad.

I used some Sugar and Cream yarn because I wanted them to be cotton for cleaning. Each little skein made 1 hot pad (if you chain 35 to start it.) I also made a larger and smaller one (one by chaining 40 in the beginning and the other by chaining 30) and together they took 2 skeins. I've also seen some classic camo looking yarn that is acrylic by red heart.

Bachelor Pads


Chain 35 (Or whatever number you want. This will be the diagonal width of your finished square.)
Row 1: Turn and sc in 2nd from the hook and each stitch after that. At the end of the chain turn your work and sc down the chain again. By this I mean that you probably just sc'd in both the top loops of each chain... now you will sc in each of the spine loops of the chain. Hope that makes sense!
Row 2-? sc in first sc of Row 1 and each after. Keep sc'ing until the height of your piece equals 1/2 of the width. You can test this by doing the fold below and seeing if your fabric comes together at the end seam or if there's still a gap. You want to end 1/4 or 3/4 the way through a row. You'll see why below. It just positions your tail at a corner after the fold.

The Fold:

My hands are not that little/the hot pads aren't that big! :) This is my little helper illustrating while I photograph.

1. You can see that I ended in the middle of one side which works out to 1/4 or 3/4 of a row.
2. If you open it up you can see it's like a pocket.
3. Grab the pocket in the middle of each side (at that 1/4 and 3/4 places so one of your hands will be on the tail.)
4. Pull out opening up the pocket...
5. Keep pulling at those two spots and push down...
6. It just kinda comes together as you keep pulling.
7. Flatten it down. If there's still a gap you need to work another row or so. If there's an overlap, you need to take some out. Now you'll notice the tail is in one of the corners.
8. You did it! Not hard, right?
9. Sew it up with the tail. You'll use the tail for the loop too so don't chop it off yet.

The Loop:
I used the rest of the tail of yarn from sewing the seam and joined it to the corner with a sl st. Then I chained till I thought it looked good, joined it back to the corner with another sl st and turned to sl st'd back over the chain... and then of course sl st'd it back to the corner and finished off.

Crochet Hook Organizer

This fun little crochet hook book was my first hook/needle organizer ever. See the others I've made plus tutorials HERE and HERE. I made this birdie one back in April for a friend's birthday and somehow it never ended up on my blog. I got inspiration (and basically followed the tutorial that I found) from Sew Can Do blog. But I changed the measurements some to make it shorter and wider.

These pictures still make me smile. I love the blue, the birds, and my patch tree, and the stitching. It was a very fun project!

Snoopy's Scarf

I've had questions about this little guy's scarf so thought I'd share the pattern.

This is a perfect little itty-bitty knitting project for me. It was done really quickly and turned out really cute. It also demonstrates a great knit scarf technique that is perfect for a reversible knit scarf with stripes. It works perfectly on color changes. (You can just go back and forth between colors without having to sew in tons of ends.)

Maybe I'll make scarfs for more of my little creatures. It is a cold dark rainy winter day here.

Or maybe not... Though Droid is pretty handsome in a scarf.

 Here's scarf that I have a love-hate relationship with that uses this technique. I love it because of its simple and cute stripes. I hate it because I've been (not) working on it forever. It's hard for me to work on a project when I can only get about an inch of it done in a sitting. I don't have a lot of sittings. Still I haven't frogged it. I do hope it gets done. Maybe before next winter? Maybe blogging about it will get me motivated?

Anyway, here's Snoopy's scarf and the general pattern for a k1, p1, slip sides scarf!

Snoopy's Scarf

Sugar and Cream worsted weight 100% cotton yarn
size 6 knitting needles

Cast on 6 (or if you're making a scarf for you, cast on any even number of stitches)
Row 1: p1, k1 across
Row 2: slip first stitch, k1, p1 across (ends with a k1)
Repeat Row 2 until at desired length
Bind off

For Snoopy's scarf I did 42  rows

In case you don't know how to do fringe:

Cut little pieces of yarn (about 10 pieces, 2 1/2" long each) for the fringe. Fold a one in half and pull the middle of it through the edge of the scarf. Pull the ends of yarn through the little loop and tighten by pulling on both ends at once. Repeat. (I did it 5 times for each end.) When you like how much fringe there it, trim it all even.

Shorts Bag

BAG

from

SHORTS

So. These shorts have a story. (Not an interesting one. Sorry. So I'll make it short at least.) They are too small. I bought them "knowing" they would fit me, but they never did. And thus they were in the giveaway pile. But they are cute. So I randomly decided to make them into a bag for my sister thinking that they looked Anna-ish.

I made them into a project bag that matched the knitting needle organizer I gave her. It is a really great size and shape for some yarn and all the other little things you need when creating. With all the pockets it's a very handy thing! It could make a great casual purse too.

And here's about how it went in case you'd like to make a pair into a bag.

First, I cut off the top of the pants.

I noticed the bit below the fly stuck out so I turned the shorts inside out, pinned the area and sewed it up and trimmed it.

Then I measured how wide the bottom of it was.

 I cut up one seam of each leg, laid the two pieces flat (right sides together) and sewed them together to make one big piece of fabric that I could cut the bottom of the bag out of.

I kinda winged this next part. I wanted a nice shape for the bottom. I used two plates and spaced them until I got the measurement around them the same as the measurement around the bottom of the bag. I'd imagine you could use bowls or anything handy with a nice curve.

I marked out the shape with chalk and cut it out.

I laid the top part on a double thickness of the liner fabric and cut out, leaving extra for seam allowances. (To the right where you don't see extra left is the fold of the liner fabric.)

I also used my "bottom of the bag" shape as a template to cut out the same shape in the liner fabric.

Here's a random picture of the two pieces next to each other. Nice, eh? I'm in a weird mood... forgive the silly comments if they don't translate well over the internet. Haha.

I turned the bag inside out and pinned and sewed right sides together.

I cut off the seams at the bottom of each leg and used them for straps. I cut strips of the liner fabric, folded over the edges of these, pinned them together, and sewed.

The rectangle is to make some additional pockets that will be great for pencils, pens, crochet hooks, or dpn knitting needles. I folded under and pressed with steam iron 3 sides of it. Sew the top hem. I left the two sides and bottom until I sewed it on the bag.

Then I pinned the straps in place and sewed them on.

Next I pinned that pocket on the liner.

So, while that was on one side of the liner, I pinned the extra pocket from each leg on the other side of the liner. (Who can ever have enough pockets?!) These were basically centered on half of the liner... taking into account the seam allowance.

Sewed in place...

I sewed some straight lines to make these nice pencil, scissor, dpn, hook, whatever else you can think of to put in the pockets.

I hemmed the top of the liner and sewed the two sides of it together. Then I sewed the bottom to the liner the same way I had done with the bag.

Right before sewing the lining into the bag I decided to cut a piece of sturdy cardboard to place in the bottom of the bag to make it less flimsy.

And, very last step, I placed the liner into the bag and sewed around the top of it.

I'm not really saying I did this "THE" way it should be done. There is probably a better way. But I was proud that I got it done in the end. I'd never done a bag with liner before. And I'm happy that those shorts will finally get some use. :)

Bird Decorations

After drawing a simple bird shape last year at Christmas to put on my hand made gift tags, I got a little obsessed with it. I think it took me so long to get it just right that I really loved it in the end and am still using it a year later. The shape is based on the shape of a chickadee. See it? I like birds and chickadees are especially adorable I think.

I'm not usually one for nick-nacks being minimalist by nature. And (though I'd like to change this) not a lot of my crafts make my home prettier. These were a special little work of love though that me and Drew made for Christmas presents. It kinda feels like I'm giving a piece if myself when I give handcrafted gifts. And I liked them so much that a pair of these birds is up on my bookshelf now (the top two.)

Stitching...

It was fun to use mostly what I had on hand for all these! I only had to buy a few of the embroidery hoops (the hoops are about 4 1/4".). We up-cycled some linen fabric from a shirt that was in a giveaway pile for the background. The gold thread was a double thickness of jean sewing thread I had and the birds were cut from fabric scraps and appliqued on.

It helped to pencil in what I wanted to write first. If a little pencil showed later it erased easily with a good quality eraser. At the end I used my glue gun to glue down the fabric ends on the back. Then I glued on a circle of cardboard (cut from cereal box.) We also tied on some gold ribbon so they can be hung.

Hope you enjoy them and are a little inspired. I'm beginning to like embroidery more and more.

Circular Knitting Needles Case

For my mom's birthday this year I sewed her a beautiful needle and hook organizer. It was so much fun finding a fabric that reminded me so much of her and making a little bird on the outside of it. And it holds tons of knitting needles, crochet hooks, and other accessories.

There was only one problem. My mom also has tons of circular knitting needles and flexible knitting needles. I had in my mind a way to make the rest of "her" fabric into an organizer with bigger pockets. I made it and gave it to her for Christmas.

If you want to make one, look below for how I did!

Circular/Flexible Knitting Needle Organizer

Fabric pieces and measurements:
Lining, top, and bottom pockets (Made from one piece. The blue fabric) 20" by 32"
Middle pockets (I used canvas) 20" by 9"
Top flap (I used canvas) 20" by 3 1/2"
Back (I used canvas) 20 inch by 15 1/2 inch (wait to cut until step 6)
Binding
Yarn for tie
Scraps and fusible web for bird detail

1. Round the edges of your top flap. You don't really have to do this but i like the look and it was simple to do. I grabbed a little round baby toy and placed it at the bottom 2 corners, traced the curve and cut it.

2. Sew binding across the top of the middle pocket fabric and along 3 sides of the top flap.

3. Fold the liner fabric to form the bottom and top rows of pockets. 

Top pockets: Fold the top of the fabric back (away from you and underneath) at 10 inches from the top of the fabric. Next fold 6" of the top of the fabric back up. You should have a 4" pocket across the top, with 2" extra at the top of the pocket. Look at the pictures for any of this to make sense!

Bottom pockets: From the bottom, fold up 9" then fold down 4 1/2" of the fabric. This makes a 4 1/2" pocket along the bottom.

Iron the to crease the folds. I also pinned them in place at the edges

4. Tuck the the middle pocket fabric behind the bottom pocket. See picture. Pin  it in place then sew it.. I sewed it just below the top of the bottom pocket so it wouldn't show.

See where I sewed it down?

But with the bottom pocket back in place it covers the seam.

5. Sew the pockets. I used my quilting attachment, but if you don't have one you can measure it out with a ruler and trace lines. Sew the pockets from the bottom of the fabric to the top of the top pockets. Back-tack at the end of each to secure. I sewed 2- 1" spaces to make sure none of the knitting needle wires get kinked when folding up the case. Here are the widths of the pockets and extra spaces.

3", 3", 1", 3", 3", 1", 3", 3"

Using the arm of my quilting attachment (lined up with the straight fabric edge)

Using the last stitched line as a guide to sew a 3" pocket.

Sewing a 1" space.

6. Cut out the fabric you want to use for the back. Use the liner as a pattern so they match up exactly.

7. Stack the backing and liner together and sew binding on the sides and bottom. Then lie the top flap on the top and sew the binding across the top.

8. I braided some yarn and cut out and appliqued a shape (bird) to the outside corner. Done! Now, go knit! :)