Petal Peasant Top and Ruffled Halter

I had originally set out to make a top like this, but got distracted on the way by this super-cute idea.  I merged the two and made a peasant top with the flower petal embellishment.  And I must have followed the peasant top tutorial too closely, because I, too, made the shirt too short with the necessity to add length.

The flowers are so much fun!  Since I didn’t use a knit, like the original tutorial, I ironed some interfacing on the flowers before I cut them out.  I hope they make it through a couple of laundry cycles before fraying into oblivion.

My plan was to make the girls matching shirts, but I want more variety in my life.  I had plenty of the fabric for two shirts (which was on clearance at fabric.com) so I decided make a coordinating shirt and use a different silhouette. 

And I love ruffles on the little Miss, so when I found this pattern, I knew it was the one! 

In order to be really fancy, I cut the ruffles so the stripes would go in alternating directions.  (The original pattern suggests that I should cut the fabric on the bias, but I didn’t do that and hemmed each ruffle instead.)

The other change I made is that I was too lazy to cut and sew a tie out of my fabric, so I just used bias tape and zigzagged it together.

Hook, Line, and Sinker

The idea of hanging dress-up dresses on hooks in a little girl’s room is nothing new or overly creative.  In fact, I didn’t really make anything in this post—so not craftycraftyjulie, but craftycraftyhubby.  I couldn’t find a long enough hook rail that had the types of hooks I wanted (and the longer the rail, the more pricey the item), so I purchased a nice board and some hooks.  I did all of the math by myself and figured out the spacing of the hooks, but left the routering to the husband.  I’ve used the router before, and things didn’t turn out awfully, but it was just easier this way.  I did drill some pilot holes myself, but those were terrible.  I didn’t “let the drill do the work,” according to hubby, and I chipped a couple of places on the board.  Oops.

The Peanut has several dresses (and more clothes that I stashed away in the interest of keeping her room easier to clean).  The very best part, though, is that after her first day of playing with these dresses, I asked her to hang them all back up and She Did and Did It Without Any Help At All.  Success!

Ooh!  Fancy edges! 

(And a really mediocre paint job.  I hate semi-gloss.)

The Pants of the Family

This month is “Celebrate the Boy” month on a couple of my favorite craft blogs.  I don’t have any little boys to sew for (and the big boy who lives here would rather be nude than wear something homemade by me), but I found a pattern that I had to make anyway.

I am often frustrated with the narrowness of little girl pants—even when the pants themselves flare at the bottom, the thighs are sometimes in disagreement with the thighs of my daughter.

So I took the pattern, made a couple of edits (the original size is a 3T) and made pants for the Little Miss.   I chose a lightweight, fine whale corduroy and made a pair of loose-enough, elastic waist pants.  They’re as comfortable as her knit pants (I imagine—I mean, I don’t really fit into 18/24 months clothing) but are a bit nicer-looking.

They move with her, which is great because her 15-month-old self is interested in climbing *everything* these days.

 

And they even are great for an adventure outside, in which she tries to decipher whether or not she likes walking on grass.

(The jury is still out on the grass).

So I compared the pattern to a pair of existing pants of hers that fit well.  I know, in theory, that I could draft my own pattern, but I tried that with something else pants-related and it did not turn out as nicely as I imagined it would.  Anyway, I ended up taking about an inch off of each side, and some off the bottom, and they’re great!

I don’t foresee making all of my girls’ pants from this point forward, mostly because fabric always ends up being more expensive than I wish it was…

…which leads to the best part of these pants.  I had the thread and elastic on hand (yes, I asked for—and received—elastic for Christmas), but I purchased the fabric for a whopping 35 cents at JoAnn!  I had a coupon for $5 off a purchase of $5 or more.  The corduroy I used was $7.99 a yard, and I purchased 2/3 yard.  I was thrilled!

Too Pretty for Dishes

Since the first dishcloths I crocheted entered the service rotation before I could photograph them, here are the next two dishcloths I made.  Don’t worry, gentle reader.  These are the first—and last—dishcloth pictures I’ll post.  I assume that there are more in my future, but cannot imagine there is anything to be gained by chronicling each one.

Since the edges never turn out quite as nicely as I hope they might (or as they do when knitting), I made up a little boarder.  It’s a little bit ruffly.  It might have a name, but since I just tried something random in hopes it would turn out, I do not know that name.

One is for a friend, thus the fancy ribbon.

Also, I realized I don’t actually know how to stop crocheting (not in the grand sense of the word; I simply don’t know what to do when I get to the end of a project).  Help?

Hat Trick

After admiring a hat one of my friends had crocheted, I forced her to teach me.  I brought to the table a slight amount of yarn experience—I can knit a dishcloth over the course of several weeks, and I made some crochet chains when I was in middle school.  She promised me it was easy and I would be able to learn.

She was right.

It really makes a lot of sense, and once you get the hang of it, it goes fairly quickly.  I only spent a couple of days making this hat for the Peanut.  Of course, I didn’t eat or sleep during those 48 hours, but it only took me two days.

I even figured out how to make a (somewhat special-looking) flower, and my friend taught me this neat-o trim.

Since the first hat attempt was successful, I made a second.  This was I made in reverse colors for the Little Miss.

I used a different pattern for the flower and a fun vintage button I swiped from my mom’s jar of antique buttons.

The Little Miss doesn’t love to wear it, but is oh so cute in it!

Her big sister is a fan, though.

Since I was on a roll, I made a bitty hat for my friend’s sweet newborn!

I also made a couple of dishcloths, but those were called into service before they could be photographed.