Nesting scraptastic baskets

I made these adorable baskets the same day I saw the tutorial posted for them on Emmaline Bags.  She calls them "Scraptastic Baskets", which is hilarious because it rhymes AND has a made-up word in it.  Love it.

The tutorial includes a printable pattern (thank goodness I finally bought printer ink!), which you simply scale up or down to get different sizes.  The biggest one was the largest pattern piece printed at 100%, the middle-sized one was printed at 75%, and the baby one was printed at 50% (which is probably the smallest that would work since it gets increasingly hard to sew around the circumference of the top).  I do think I should have added a bit of height to the smaller sizes so they could have a bit more to roll down (because the cuff is key to the basket's stability and cuteness).  It worked though!

I cheated a little by using different fabrics for the interiors instead of cutting all four pieces from the same fabric, but I only did that because I had just won an amazing pack of fat quarters (26 of them!!!) from Connecting Threads and I couldn't decide which prints to use.  I hardly made a dent in the stack.

My goofy children keep stealing the baskets and nesting them inside each other.  Charlotte was calling them "Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear" and giving them voices too.  She's a strange one.

I was debating whether I should give these away as a gift, but I think I love them too much.  I think they will soon be filled with fabric scraps or other sewing supplies of some sort in my sewing room (aka the folding table set up in the bay window of my dining room, because I'm classy like that).

Petal Pockets Purse for Mia

For our sweet friend Mia's 8th birthday, I sewed her a Petal Pockets Purse, which is one of the other patterns I won from Cozy Nest Design in the Sew Like My Mom giveaway.

I have to confess that I waited until the morning of the party to even start this, so I didn't have all of the exact materials on hand that the pattern specified.  As a result, I skipped a few steps, modified one step, and still came out with an awesome bag.

The directions are written so well that I was able to figure out which steps I could skip (like making zippered pockets out of the smaller petals on one side of the bag -- I just didn't have the right size and color of zippers on hand, and I figured Mia wouldn't know what she was missing).  I can't wait to try sewing another one of these so I can include the zippered pockets, bias tape stripe on the bottom panels, etc.

I love that the smaller petals are separate from the larger ones to form two very useful pockets!  I could totally imagine slipping a cell phone in one and my keys in another.  There aren't any interior pockets (probably because of the four exterior pockets!) but that would be super simple to add.

I am very proud that I was able to overcome a shortage of bias tape with an ingenious solution.  The interior and exterior are separately constructed and edged with bias tape, and then they are sewn together along the top with the straps stuck in between.  I didn't have enough of the right color of bias tape to edge the interior panels, so I stole a facing technique from garment sewing and used some leftover scraps from the lining to create facings to finish off the edges.  This only works in the case of the lining color matching the bias tape, though, but it resulted in far less bulk than the bias tape would have.  (The lining was supposed to be purple, but I ran out and used the brown instead.)

Brad's Batman

We had a scare a little while ago....  Peter's pocket-sized Batman (styled to look like the animated Batman from the video game Gotham City Imposters) was almost kidnapped.  KIDNAPPED!  Apparently, Niki's friend, Brad, took a shine to tiny Batman and was considering taking candy from a baby Batman to be his own little friend.  Instead of allowing Brad to be sucked into a life of crime, I quickly hooked Brad his very own little Batman:

Nerdigurumi's free pattern is really interesting.....  It was a little tricky for me because most amigurumi patterns I've used have you crochet in a spiral rather than joined rounds.  But the result is so much fun, and you can't beat the cool cape pattern.  Here's proud Brad with his little pocket buddy:

Brad is seriously cool.  He is a high school science teacher and all-around awesome dude.  I am honored that he enjoyed one of my creations so much!

One funny thing to me is how much smaller Brad's Batman turned out.... See the picture below, which Niki took before she kindly cut out a bat symbol and attached it for me.  Can you see Charlotte's reflection in the toaster?  I wonder what she was eating.

When I crocheted Peter's Batman, I had just picked my crochet hooks back up after a 4-year hiatus, and I was learning the amigurumi ropes.  Previously, I had mostly crocheted afghans and doilies.  Anyway, even though I used acrylic worsted weight yarn for both Batmans, they are radically differently-sized.  The probable reasons for this are:

- I abhor when stuffing shows through in between stitches, so over the past year and a half of amigurumi crocheting, I have gravitated toward using smaller and smaller hooks (typically an F/3.75mm hook).  Peter's Batman was probably crocheted using an H or a G hook.

- It looks to me like I might have more rows in Peter's Batman's torso and head!  Did I lose count when I was crocheting his?  As far as I can tell, I followed the pattern perfectly with Brad's.

- I was pretty stressed out when I was crocheting Brad's Batman.  We were in the process of moving to Texas, so I was wound up tight.

At any rate, enjoy your Batman, Brad!  May you have many fun adventures together.

The transforming box/play mat

For Sonia's fifth birthday present, I tried out an awesome pattern that I had won a while back through the Sew Like My Mom blog giveaway from Cozy Nest Design called the "Play and Store".  It's basically a box/tote that converts to a play mat when the corners are unzipped.  So nifty!  There's nothing I love more than a clever design, with bonus points if zippers are involved.  (I have never been particularly afraid of sewing with zippers -- a fear that I have heard expressed by some sewing bloggers and commenters -- probably because ignorance is bliss.  I probably have yet to encounter a horrific zipper experience that shakes me to my core and forever scars me.  It's probably coming at some point, though.)

Here is an overhead shot:

The lining fabric is interfaced with Pellon Craft Fuse, but there are also pieces of plastic mesh canvas in there to give the box its shape.  The pattern called for "Ultra Firm Plastic Canvas" and the mesh canvas was what the Jo-Ann's employee said was the closest thing she had.  The next closest crafty fabric store is probably Hobby Lobby, and it definitely is a haul to get there -- something not easy to do when you're trying to buy fabric in time to make it back for preschool pick-up.  The grid of the mesh is more apparent than I had hoped, but that's probably because I forgot to add interfacing to the outer fabric until after I had sewn on some zippers and was way past the point of no return.  Whoops.

Each side is different.  I know I was using a directional fabric for a project that really should have used a non-directional fabric, but the abstract faces on this print looked just as neat upside down or sideways as right side up.  I figured Sonia wouldn't mind.

Two of the side zippers are pink and two are black.  I did it to make the box a little funkier.  Well, actually, I did it because there weren't four 7-inch zippers in either color and I had to mix and match if I didn't want to haul my cookies all the way to the other side of creation to the other Jo-Ann's.  If I had remember to take some swatches of the fabric to the store then I would have chosen four different colors, but the pink was the only one I was confident would match based on my memory of the fabric.

Here is a view of it when you unzip the corners and open it up to be a play mat.  It's about 27 inches square when open.  You probably couldn't use the play mat on top of a wooden table because the zippers would scratch the heck out of it, but it would work great on carpet or an upholstered coffee table/footstool (or an old table you didn't care about, I suppose!).

You could also just flip the play mat over so that the zippers faced up (though it wouldn't be as convenient because you would have to empty the bin first).

Here is a close-up of one of the corners.  It takes a teeny bit of finesse to zip (it's a long story, but it's my fault, not the pattern's!), so Erin will probably need to help Sonia at first.  [Erin -- just pinch the zipper closed with one hand, and use the other hand to zip it up.]

I didn't follow the pattern for the handles because I had a chunk of black cotton webbing that I wanted to use.  I have nothing against the way the pattern recommended making them (by sewing them from fabric and adding a bit of ribbon for detail), but this saved a bit of time.

It was so much fun to use a large chunk of the kooky, modern lightweight home décor weight fabric given to me by Corey's Aunt Martha -- it's called "GULLVI" and is sold at Ikea.  I'm in love with the colors, and I hope Sonia will like the cartoony faces.  The print is on such a scale that this fabric wasn't always appropriate for the smaller projects I tend to do, so it was awesome that this play mat could feature it in its full, goofy glory.  (Now that I think about it, this fabric would be adorable as an apron.  Hmmm . . .)

Happy birthday, Sonia!!!

Lion and Pig Loveys

This past Christmas, in anticipation of her friends gaining a couple of new grandchildren, Jenni (my mother-in-law) asked if I could crochet two loveys for her to give as baby gifts. In all the amigurumi work I've done over the past year, I hadn't made any loveys, and now I'm kicking myself for not making more because they are so much fun!  Basically, you make the head and the arms of any stuffed animal (or human character) and attach it to the middle of a small blanket.  Loveys are helpful because they don't tend to roll out of the stroller as easily as stuffed animals.

For the first lovey, which she wanted to be for a baby boy, we went with a lion.  The free pattern for Tau the crocheted lion was amazing-- perfectly written even though it used several slightly tricky techniques.  Look at his handsome little nose!

A short tangent: When I started crocheting the blanket part, I laughed-- this was the same pattern (alternating single crochet stitches and double crochet stitches) as the very first afghan I ever crocheted.  I need to take a picture of that monstrosity and post it on the blog some time because it is hilarious.  I was having trouble figuring out how to begin and end rows, and I felt there were too many stitches to count as I made each row (WHY did I choose an afghan as my very first project?!?!), so I didn't notice until about 40 rows into the afghan that I was losing a stitch or two after each row.  Also, I had mis-read the pattern, and the afghan was turning out really skinny and long.  Did I rip out the bad rows where I lost stitches at the turning point?  No.  I just then started adding stitches to try to get back to the original width.  Did I leave out rows and turn the skinny afghan into a baby blanket?  No.  I just decided I'd still make it adult afghan length but I'd have to stretch out underneath it and not move around too much.  I'm an idiot.  I still have the afghan because I can't stand to throw it out.  I still bring it out and laugh at it every once in a while.

Anyway!  Here's a bird's eye view of the lovey all spread out.  I love it!

For the other lovey, which Jenni wanted to be for a baby girl, we chose this adorable Piggy Lovey pattern.  I love the little bow on her head and the granny square blankie!  So adorable.

I went with the same colors as the pattern originally suggested except that I swapped out the beige for gray because I had a beautiful heather gray that I thought would coordinate nicely.

The granny square pattern looks like a cute little dress (well, more of a ball gown, really).  Jenni had me add a few extra rounds to increase the size of the blanket part in proportion to the piggy's head

So much fun to make!  Great pattern.

Welcome to the word, babies!

Granny's summery table runner

I whipped up a quick table runner (about 36" x 9") for Corey's Granny last weekend, again using the Robert Kaufman jelly roll.  I still have quite a bit of it left, too!  Anyway, the backing is just some royal blue Kona cotton, and I put felt inside as the batting.  You can't really see it in this horrible cell phone picture, but I quilted the top using big Xs across each of the four blocks.

Instead of binding (which I was too chicken to do on a project for an amazing quilter such as Granny!), I used piping.  Granny thought that was very fun.

The only bummer about doing everything that way is that there isn't any neat quilting to show through on the plain backing.  I suppose I could add the quilting after final assembly, but then I would have to deal with the ugly backstitches showing.  I could also add a second layer of batting to the backing and quilt it separately before assembly.  Ooh -- I'm definitely going to try that next time!

Wine glass hexagon coasters

These Honeycomb Wine Coasters look like regular old coasters at first glance, but . . .

. . . they actually fit ON to the bottom of the wine glass!  I know wine glasses don't really sweat like tumblers or highballs do, but these do protect your tabletops as well as looking hilarious.  I made the mismatched set above for my mom.  She doesn't drink wine, but she hosts book club and bunco at her house from time to time and apparently those ladies definitely love their wine!

The navy and aqua set below is for my mother-in-law.

I had fun packaging them as gifts, but I guess these ribbons could also serve the purpose of keeping the coasters together while being stored.

I had a ton of fun going through all of my scraps and making matching sets.  These were very quick to make, but it did get monotonous to make 24 of them right in a row!