September is National Sewing Month

September is National Sewing Month and this year's theme is Sew a New - whether you're new to sewing, used to sew in the past or currently have a long backlog of projects like me, this is the month to indulge or rediscover your passion for sewing.

The Official Home of National Sewing Month promises articles, projects, links and more.

This year's contest is Accessorize Your Life - sew up an accessory and submit it by September 30 to win a gift certificate to JoAnn Fabric & Crafts.

Do you like giveaways? Then pop on over to the SEW-lutions blog, take a short survey and be entered to win a prize. The National Sewing Month sponsors have donated prizes that they’ll be giving away every day throughout September. The giveaway of the day will be announced on the SEW-lutions blog each day.

So - what am I planning to work on this year?  I never did get around to making the projects I wanted to work on last year during September, but I'm hoping to get at least one of them started this month - I really, really need a new bag for carrying all the 'stuff' needed for a visit to the Bark Park (or a long walk on the local bike path) with Keli and Penny. I'm planning to recycle freebie nylon bags to make something that will contain everything comfortably.

If I do manage to complete it this year, maybe I'll enter it in the Accessory contest? Hmmm......

Also on the agenda for the middle of the month is a Material Girl/DKnJ road trip to the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza XVII at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center. Last year was our first visit to this particular show and it did not disappoint! One of my stitching friends recently won first prize in the Hoffman Challenge for her doll, The Dragon Slayer which will be on display at the show; the photos are amazing, so I'm looking forward to seeing it in person.

Now - let's get sewing!

Crochet/Knitting Odds & Ends

My goodness, this blog is starting to look like a knitting and crochet blog ...  the truth is, like most sewing and craft enthusiasts, I tend to go through phases of interest and this summer was a yarn-y phase. Blame it on Stitch 'N Pitch and the Guinness World Record attempt at Citi Field last June. Anyway - I'll post this one last entry to wrap up that phase and then I'll get back on topic for September, just in time for National Sewing Month.

In my Summer Update post, I listed several projects and linked each of them to a public page on Ravelry. Since then, I've added some photos, so I'll show a few of them here.

Gentle Waves Coin Purse

from Crochet! magazine, July 2010

Amigurumi Wiener Dog
from Lion Brand Yarn free online pattern

Since I intended this to be a dog toy from the outset, I didn't make legs for this puppy, just ears and nose. The eyes were french knots in yarn ... he's already lost one, thanks to Keli. The Pesties love to rip the stuffing out of their toys, so he's filled with scraps of fleece from an old sewing project, a recycled "quacker" in the body and a squeaker in the head. (I don't know the official name of the noise making device that sounds like a duck quacking, that's why I call it a quacker.)

Felted Hedgehog

from the book, Felted Crochet by Jane Davis
This was another dog toy, filled with fleece scraps and another recycled "quacker".

Stash Basket 

from Bernat/Lily Sugar 'n Cream free online pattern
finished size is about 6x6 inches; using it to help organize my sewing room

Swirling Bag 

design by Kathy Merrick for Knitting Daily TV

free download pattern on Ravelry

Not shown anywhere is the most hideous orange mitten anyone has ever seen, LOL.  I wanted to use leftover wool yarn to knit mittens, but since I've never made mittens before, I started a sample using leftover acrylic yarn and following instructions from a book exactly as written. It turned out much too big and extremely ugly, so it's destined to be another dog toy someday. Since it was a practice piece, I experimented with various methods of increasing and decreasing so there were lots of holes in the thumb area. About halfway through, I found Knit Picks mitten class video on YouTube which was enormously helpful, so I will try again and eventually I hope to have some human sized mittens to show off.

I have one last yarn project in process - it's a knitted cardigan sweater with a shawl collar. So far, the back and right front are complete, leaving the left front (started) and sleeves to be finished. I hope I can maintain my interest until it's done ... my fascination with yarn is starting to wane a bit as autumn approaches. I have quite a long list of embroidery and sewing projects I wanted to work on this year.

To see more of my yarn-y projects, see my Crochet, Knitting & Yarn Flickr Collection

Finished: Felted Westie Sweaters

Back in June, I started this pair of felted sweaters for my Westies. The knitting pattern is from a book called Dress Your Dog - Nifty Knits for Classy Canines. One of the designs in the book is for felted sweaters, modeled by a pair of black Scotties.

The first sweater was too big for both Keli and Penny, so I used it as a guideline and made adjustments to the pattern before knitting the second sweater:

Sweater #2, before felting

I used the same process for wet-felting as for the first sweater, hand washing and agitating in hot sudsy water, then rinsing in cold water until the entire sweater was transformed from a knit to a semi-solid fabric.  The entire process took about an hour. When it was dry, I tried it on Keli and it was a very good fit.

It took me some time to get around to adding the last finishing touches to consider these complete ... first, I had to measure and cut off the excess length from the first sweater so it would fit Penny:

Sweater #1 after felting

pieces cut off of Sweater #1

The neck straps fit Penny well enough, but the belly straps needed to be trimmed.  I also trimmed and rounded the back edges of each sweater.  I was nervous about cutting into the sweater; the felted fabric gave up a few fuzzies, but didn't unravel.

Before I could declare these sweaters complete, I needed to machine stitch black velcro onto the neck and belly straps of each sweater, then get both dogs to pose for a few pictures.

Penny (left) and Keli (right)

Penny (left) and Keli (right)

Aren't they cute? It wasn't easy getting the Pesties to pose in their new sweaters, especially in August in 90 degree heat; fortunately they focus like lasers on lamb jerky treats and forget everything else.  Maybe next February we'll get pictures of them in their sweaters while running around in the snow ...

Ravelry link

Finished: Two Tone Tote

Last week, my list of projects worked on in my Summer Update included this Two Tone Tote, a free crochet pattern from Caron.  I decided to make it in Mets colors, orange and blue, as one of my crochet projects for Stitch N' Pitch at Citi Field this past June.

The yarns I used are TLC Essentials No Dye Lot worsted medium weight 100% acrylic in Persimmon and Lion Brand Jiffy bulky weight 100% acrylic in Denim. The pattern calls for using two strands of yarn for all stitches.

The crocheted handles in the original design seemed too flimsy for the size of this tote bag, so I decided to attach a pair of purchased rattan handles instead.

The lining is made from an orange cotton remnant I've had in my stash for several years. I was saving it for just the right Mets-themed project.

The lining actually has two 'right' sides - the inner part of the lining is reinforced with Decor Bond fusible interfacing to help support the pockets. The outer part of the lining faces the crochet and barely shows through the stitches. I tried machine sewing the lining into the bag, but couldn't get it to work, so it had to be attached by hand.

There are two pockets. On one side, there's a zippered patch pocket; on the other side there's a single pocket divided into narrow vertical sections for keeping crochet hooks and scissors. You can see this pocket better in the photo below:

The finished size is about 11h x 15w x 4d (inches) which is a pretty generously sized project tote.

Ravelry link

Summer Update

A butterfly in the garden

It's the dog days of summer and I just realized its been well over a month since I've posted anything here and even longer since I've shared what I'm working on. I could list the reasons why I haven't posted, but that would be boring (and just a bit whiny), so I'll just say I've been busy doing stuff instead of writing about it.

One of the excuses reasons I haven't posted is that I haven't bothered to transfer photos from my camera to the computer to Flickr. Why? Because I'm lazy and haven't taken photos of everything yet and I don't want to download/upload multiple times, and now there are so many other photos to sort through, I'd need half a day to do it in an organized manner.  And I'm still trying to eradicate the weeds in my garden and paint the kitchen before summer is over so spending half a day on photos for the blog just doesn't seem as important. See, I told you it would sound whiny.

This entry is going to be a list of sewing and crafting items I worked on this summer and hopefully I'll get my act together and write real blog entries for each one soon. The photos included in this post have nothing to do with sewing ... they're photos of my garden. I just hate blog entries that have no photos.

Let me start by mentioning this year's batch of Cool Ties for the Mahwah Marine Moms. I forget exactly when I worked on these; it was probably late June/early July. It was in between painting and weeding and other projects, but I remember I spent a couple of evenings cranking out about 30 Cool Ties. Not as many as previous years, but at least I got a few done. You can read a nice article about the Moms here: NorthJersey.com: N.J. moms have lots of love to give. I hope I'll be able to do more next year.

Planted cucumbers on either side of the white trellis this year

Remember when I was working on some crochet projects for Stitch N' Pitch back in May and June? Well, the baseball scarf is unchanged, but the two tone tote is finally finished. Then there was the La Boheme Scarf kit that I finished in May (see my Ravelry link) as well as the felted Westie sweaters - those are done, too. I just finished sewing the hook and loop closures on them over the weekend, but I'm having a hard time getting Keli and Penny to pose for pictures wearing them.  I don't really blame them; who wants to wear a wool sweater in August in 90 degree weather?

I was on a roll with yarn projects and kept going; they were mostly quick and easy projects I could work on while watching the Mets or when I was too tired to sew. Here's a list with links to their corresponding Ravelry page in case you're interested in a few more details. Some have in-progress photos and some don't:

• Gentle Waves Coin Purse
• Dog toys - Crochet Wiener Dog and Felted Crochet Hedgehog
• Crocheted Stash Basket
• Crocheted Swirling Bag
• Autumn Afternoons Cardigan - currently in progress

This year's tomato garden in May: Grape (L), Brandywine (C), Ramapo (R)

In July I ignored all my other projects and started making some shorts.  I had only one good pair of RTW shorts that fit me well enough to wear in public and I couldn't stand wearing long pants in the heat any longer. I bought McCalls 5857 last summer after reading a number of reviews on PatternReview.com that suggested this pattern would be a good fit for my shape. The reviews were right. I finished 3 pairs of shorts and planned on making 3 more, but I had a little accident that sidelined me from doing much of anything for a couple of weeks. I'm still trying to get back into shorts-sewing mode.

Before I could get back to the shorts, I started making insulated water bottle carriers. I needed one for myself and it occurred to me that they'd make good birthday gifts, so I bought a bunch of reusable water bottles and started making customized carriers. So far, I've finished 6; two are mine and 4 were gifts.  Before the year is over, I may make half a dozen more.

Last on the list are personalized beach towels for several nieces and nephews. This was a quickie; I just purchased a few towels at Bed, Bath & Beyond and embroidered names on the ends.

Almost ready Ramapo heirloom tomatoes, July 2010

That brings me up to date - thanks for hanging in there with me!