Knit v. Crochet

My friend taught me how to crochet while we had time to kill at the Grand Canyon. She's good and can read patterns - I know the one pattern she taught me, and can use the basic stitch to make most things (I whipped up the pictured baby hat the other day). I recently learned to knit from my Grandma. I made the pictured dishcloth (you can tell I started in the bottom left corner, but as I kept at it I got better). Does anyone have an opinion on crochet versus knitting? My take is that crochet is easier, but you can do more (fancier patterns, stitches, etc) with knitting. Maybe knitting gets easier with more practice. Either way, it's just making loops and anyone can learn how - try it!

Flower Clips, Boutique Style

We were invited to a Flower/Bow Making get-together to celebrate back-to-school and get our girls accessorized for the upcoming year. I had never attempted Flower Clips but they were super easy and I'm sure I'll be making more. All you need are fake flowers and hairclips (we used alligator style) and hot glue (or something equivalent), oh and wire cutters or kitchen scissors. Just cut a flower head from the bunch that they come in - then remove any of the leaf parts, including the big green plastic piece under the flower - then trim the stem completely off. If the bottom flower petals come off, glue them to the next layer up. Take the flower and glue it to the clip. Voila! Here they are shown clipped in hair on the side, but they're cute over a ponytail as well. We made several sizes, but I love the big honkin' ones. You can experiment and layer different colors (just pull the petals apart) and add bling to the centers, etc.

Another repurposed shirt to dress

I love checking out crafty blogs. As I was doing so tonight, I saw a new post of a button-up shirt dress done in a way I hadn't seen before - just thought I'd pass along the link so when you start sewing yours you have lots of options to choose from: MakeitandLoveit is where I saw it - enjoy!

Oh, and now that school has started hopefully I'll be better about posting fabulous things to make.

Men's Button Shirt Into Dresses

Dig through your closets, solicit family for unwanted shirts, puruse thrift stores and garage sales - this project is SUPER EASY and SUPER CUTE - enjoy!

A couple of years ago I made a dress from an adult button shirt. Genuis!! The buttons are used on the back of the dress, so no zipper or buttons of your own are required. Easy!! I followed THIS TUTORIAL. It was so cute and easy that I decided to make another. This time I used a plain white shirt (with yucky armpits and collar - it was calling out to be repurposed!) and prettied it up with ribbon. I made it even simplier than my first one because I used ribbon straps instead of trying to sew straps/sleeves. I thought it turned out cute for a summer dress, and if it's worn with a long-sleeve shirt underneath it can be a year-round thing. (Please ignore my lack of ironing!)

Browsing crafty blogs, I saw a project where someone made a button shirt into a dress, but they used a pattern. So I tried that too. Just cut all along the seams and then use that material to lay your pattern pieces out on. I placed the back pattern piece over the buttons, but I think it would also be cute with buttons in the front. My model was playing with water and barely had time for my pics, but I hope you get the idea. I used Simplicity Pattern 5695. There wasn't quite enough fabric from the shirt to gather the bottom tier enough, but oh well, it still turned out cute. I added ric rac instead of ribbon on this one.

And side note, the PJ Pants I made out of sheets, I used It's So Easy It's Simplicity Pattern 9871 - truly EASY! I just made them fall to my knee instead of full-length. One pattern piece, cut 2 (one for each leg) - that's it!

RePurposing

It's a pretty new (but super fun) concept to me - turn clothes into something more. Instead of getting rid of an item that doesn't fit, cut the item apart and use its material as fabric for your next project. This bag was a passed-down (thanks Krista!) skirt that never fit right. It was on it's way out the door when I thought, hey, that might make a cute bag. And so here it is. Also, right where the zipper was in the skirt, I cut out a big square and sewed it together - so now it's a zippered make-up bag to match the big bag, and I didn't even put in a zipper - just used what was already put together. Genius! So start weeding through your stuff with a crafting eye. And be waiting for my next post on girls dresses you can make out of button-up shirts (a favorite project of mine)!