Crocheted rug

After admiring my new back door rug for a couple days, I noticed just how dingy my bathroom rug had gotten. After all, it wasn’t new to me: I’m pretty sure it is the rug Mom gave, already used, when I went to college and it has been in use ever since. The kids were surprised when I told them the rug is was pink and blue; it’s been white for as long as they can remember.

Some time ago I had purchased a jumbo crochet hook with the idea of making an area rug and I decided this was the perfect time to finally use it! I found several coordinating remnants in my stash, leftover bits as well as short yardages that the kids outgrew before I got them sewn. I used knits but wovens should work as well.

The first step was to create a continuous 1″ wide strip from each fabric. I cut some fabrics with and some across the grain; in general I found it easier to crochet the strips that were cut with the grain even if that meant more “corners.” I laid out the fabric with the fold perpendicular to my cuts, and cut through the fold but leaving about 1″ uncut on the opposite side.

I then turned this into a continuous strip by cutting through every other uncut bit with my scissors. I suspect there is a cleverer way to accomplish this but it eluded me.

I started by making a chain roughly half the length I wanted the finished rug. I then made rounds in single crochet, adding stitches as needed to make an oval shape that would lay flat. On the first few stripes, I did this by making two single crochet in one stitch; later I decided I preferred the look of chaining one wherever I needed to increase. Once I had crocheted the first couple stripes, I found it easiest to work while standing at my cutting table. The rug quickly got too heavy (and hot!) for my lap, and laying it flat made it easier for me to ensure that I was adding only enough stitches to keep it flat.

Because this rug is for my own bathroom, I did not worry when I did not have enough of a particular fabric to finish a round; you can see how some of the stripes are uneven if you look closely. On the backside, I trimmed the ends of each strip, turned them under, and secured with a bit of hand stitching. I hope that holds up in the wash, because my little boys seem to enjoy tracking dirt onto my nice new rug!

From inside to outside: striped jersey left from a Baby Boy romper, yellow rib knit that was too stretchy for sew, birds on white jersey remnant from a Sew Baby bundle, blue jersey left from coordinating sibling outfits 5 years ago, yellow floral jersey left from a nursing top for me, mint pointelle remnant from Sew Baby, and dolls on blue interlock left from a tiny Twirly Girl nightgown.

Summer blouse

I can’t remember how many summers I’ve had this piece of tan gingham stretch shirting in my stash, but I do remember that I’ve always intended to make it into a short sleeved blouse. I finally did it! Part of the procrastination had to do with not wanting it to be a maternity or nursing blouse, but a lot of it had to do with not being able to decide on a pattern. I played with my Boutique software several times, but never hit on the right design.

Finally, I decided that the “vintage blouse” (#1) from Ottobre 5/2007 was close enough. I traced off a size 38, shortening it 2″. This pattern has long sleeves, so I substituted the short sleeve pattern from the linen blouse I made from 5/2008. The sleeve caps weren’t a perfect match, but since both had some gathering/easing I was able to make it fit. The main change I made, however, was to replace each of the four waist darts with a trio of pin tucks (matching the center tuck to the center of that dart). I like this placement on the back of the blouse; I wonder if I should have moved the front pleats a bit closer to the center front. I do wish I had tried my blouse on before making buttonholes. The top button seems a bit high on me, but it must be buttoned unless I am wearing a camisole.

Hopefully you can see enough of my blouse to get the general idea! Baby Boy woke up unhappy, and I figured it was better to pick him up than have him wiping his eyes on my skirt. I’m especially happy with the fabric; I needed to iron my blouse after machine washing and line drying, but it doesn’t wrinkle at all while being worn.

Colonial penmanship

Some time ago, one of Twirly Girl’s Cowgirl friends gave her a feather. In looking through an out of print Felicity craft book, she found directions for making a quill pen and berry ink. Larry helped her trim her feather into a pen, and I found some red raspberries on sale for her ink.

She kept at it, but she found that dipping her pen in ink made writing much more tedious than using a pencil or a modern gel pen.

Jam!

Larry loves blueberries, but sadly they didn’t grow in Iowa and evidently they don’t grow in Wyoming, either. So last week when he was in Casper for work, he stopped at Sam’s Club and bought a case with a dozen 2# boxes of blueberries. Yum! I put most of them in the freezer for later; they were cheaper than the little bags of frozen berries at the grocery. I baked some into a pie for the 4th of July, and we ate some more on cereal and in pancakes.

On Monday, we made two batches of blueberry jam. Yum! It had been a few years since I last made jam and I learned a few things. For starters, it’s a lot easier to make blueberry jam when you’re not already tired from picking the berries earlier that day. Also, it takes twice as long to process the jars at my current altitude as it did in the Midwest. I have usually canned jam with Mom; since she wasn’t here to help, I trained some new helpers.

Boy Genius helped sort and wash the berries, and mashed enough for the first batch. . .then he disappeared. I take that back. He did stick around long enough to wipe rims and put lids on the first batch of jars as I filled them.

Twirly Girl took over berry mashing for the second batch, and also helped with other tasks such as measuring sugar and wiping rims.

The fruits of our labors were so tempting to behold that the next morning I baked whole wheat biscuits just so we could have something on which to spread our freshly made jam.

Simply sweet

Twirly Girl is working a skirt for her 4-H project. She will need to model it later this month, so I thought she might like to applique a shirt to match. Of course the sensible thing would be to buy a white t-shirt for this project, but instead I found some soft white interlock in my stash and turned to Ottobre. After all, it would be easier for her to applique a flat piece than an already constructed top! My first inclination was to grab the tried & true t-shirt patterns from 1/2003, but instead I picked up this summer’s issue, 3/2009, and decided to try #29 (the yellow t-shirt with button “necklace” pictured on the front cover).

This is a size 122 with no alterations. Hems are all lettuce hems using the serger, and instead of the buttons Twirly Girl appliqued a square of her skirt fabric near the hem. I probably would have put it front and center, but this is her project. I love how the bound neckline and puffed sleeves elevate the simple t-shirt to a sweet, girly top.

Edited to add: I realized I did not clarify, I made the shirt and Twirly Girl did the applique. She’s a decent seamstress for a 9 year old, but she’s not ready to tackle knits yet.

Stars and. . .Stars

During Dad and Mom’s recent visit, we three “girls” went to the grand opening for the new owner of the local quilt store. One of my purchases was red, white, and blue fabric for a new apron. Once home, it took me a few days to decide that I didn’t have the right pattern in my sewing room; I browsed patterns online briefly, but decided I could draft my own pattern for the idea in my mind. Except for the skirt, all the pieces were rotary cut with a ruler.

I love the way this apron feels on me! In fact, I like it enough I’m actually considering making a few modifications with an eye towards making it available as an e-pattern. For one thing, I forgot to put pockets on this apron. I also think I will try a wider waistband in front. And while I like front tying aprons (keeps me from dipping the ties in the loo), I think back tying might look better in larger sizes. What do you think?

Have a safe and happy 4th of July!

Four generations

For anyone who has ever thought that I don’t look my age. . .it simply can’t be helped! The picture below was taken on my trip to Indiana this past January.

L-R: Baby Boy, Angie, Mimi, and Mom. And yes, that is our natural hair color. . .we all have a handful of gray hairs to prove it. Ironically, we all think gray hair is pretty and wish we had more! Twenty years ago, when I got my first driver’s license, all 3 of our licenses said 5′1″ and 110#. . .as you can see, some of us are shorter now (and some of us weigh more!).

June sewing

Are you ready to be underwhelmed?

• 2 tablecloths

Yes, that’s all. . .and if you haven’t seen my tablecloths, I just set up the serger for a rolled hem and off I go, trimming off the selvages and evening up the cut ends as I hem. I would say that it takes longer to thread the serger than to do the hemming, but that wouldn’t be entirely true since these were about 48″ wide by 108″ long.

Thankfully, July looks to be a bit more productive in the sewing room! I finished up a new apron yesterday and immediately started on a knit top for Twirly Girl. However, I am not sure how long this will last. Our county fair is at the end of the month and I suspect that supervising kid projects will  eat into my sewing time.

Sugar buzz

Pictures of the latest round of cake decorating efforts, from Monday night’s meeting (a lesson in shaped cakes) and from Twirly Girl’s trial runs of her fair cake ideas. Once again, she fell apart during the meeting but did a great job finishing at home the next day. Who can know the mind of a 9 year old girl. . .

Boy Genius’s train:

Twirly Girl’s bunnies:

And Twirly Girl’s fair ideas. I think these are both trees: one in summer and one in autumn. I assume she’ll use brown for the trunk on her cake for fair.

Wordless Wednesday (July 4, 2000)

Drama Boy, Boy Genius, Nanna, & Twirly Girl