Saturday, February 13, 2016

Side Projects Part 1: Sewing

I finished the first fifth of my Design Challenge surprisingly quickly - I still had the fox hat lying around that I had knit for the craft fair, and it didn't take long to whip up a pattern by studying my sample. Because it's a rectangular hat, it also was very simple to resize, and I created a slightly larger size version of the face and ear appliques to go with the larger adult size. I sold one just a few days after posting it on Ravelry and Craftsy!

Since it was still only the end of January and I already had one published pattern in the bag for 2016, I felt comfortable taking a break to work on a few sewing projects. I had been to the craft store in mid December with Chloe and she dug a small roll of rainbow tie-dyed fleece out of the remnants bin. It was only a couple dollars, so I grabbed it for her, and was able to make her some simple pants the same day. The pattern I printed out for them wound up being so large, I had to hem something like four inches up from the bottom, but she loves the super wide leg!

Pants!

Then, on my little hiatus, I discovered I had more than enough left over to make this super fun dino/dragon/monster hat for the birthday of a friend of hers, although unlike the pants, this one came out much smaller than I expected... I may have to remake it. But if I do that, I believe I can just pull the spikes out and re-cut only enough fleece for the body of a larger hat. and reuse those same spikes that are already cut and stuffed.

Rawr! Sleeping models are SO easy to work with!
I also stole a quick bit of time to refashion a gauzy skirt I'd received in a bag of free clothing. The skirt wasn't really my style, but I loved the fabric and I didn't want to just give it up. I came across a reader submitted post on ReFashionista that turned a maxi skirt into a cute peasant dress, and I was inspired! I cut out the horribly frayed lining, kept the waistline intact as a neckline, and just slit and seamed about 8" in from both sides to create sleeves and voila! The shoulders don't always sit perfectly neat but I don't think anyone who didn't know it started life as a skirt would be able to tell! I wore it to church the day after I made it. :D




Next up: I dig out and finish an ancient WIP and join the shawl ministry at my church to do some charity knitting!

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