Category Archives: Sewing

Petite purls!

Posted in Kids, Knitting, Recycled materials, Sewing, Stuff to make by

I am so excited to have discovered the lovely online magazine petite purls (thanks to the oliver + s blog). It is a treasure trove of free knitting patterns for kids with a few sewing patterns. Meg, I thought these mittens would be a great use for your upcycled sweaters. I made some felt mittens for Betty using a similar pattern that I painstakingly resized for her little hands from a pattern for adult fleece mittens. This pattern looks much easier! I might add a soft cotton lining if I made these in wool–just tuck the lining inside the mittens and bind the tops together. I love the ’70s style racing stripes.

Albers quilt

Posted in Sewing, Stuff to make by

Remember when I wanted to make a Josef Albers inspired quilt? Well, I didn’t but Heather Jones at the Modern Quilt Guild did, and it’s just lovely. I ended up starting a quilt with eight-point stars–I’m still working on the top. Sigh. I really like how this quilter adapted the Albers square by leaving off the bottom. It feels a little lighter and works so nicely with the dimensions of the quilt.

Upcycled Wool Mittens

Posted in Recycled materials, Sewing, Stuff to make by

This no-knit shortcut to making mittens is so preposterously easy (and somehow ridiculous) that it makes me giddy. To prep, toss an old sweater into the hot cycle of your washing machine and shrink it to kid-size. The finished cuffs of the sweater sleeves make excellent cuffs for mittens.

Constructing the mittens takes about 10 minutes. First, I turned the sweater sleeves inside out and lay them flat, using the existing sleeve seam. I traced my hand with pencil and sewed around the top and thumb. Turned right side out and that’s it: new stripey mitts!

This was my first foray with felted sweater wool–I’d like to collect enough sweaters to make a blanket, like this one from the Better Homes and Gardens blog.

Canopy Studio fabric

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I was so excited to see this post on design*sponge about Canopy Studio‘s upholstery weight fabric. Have I mentioned how much I love Etsy for unique fabrics? My brother was kind enough to give me an Amy Butler Weekender Bag pattern for Christmas and I’ve been poking around looking for the right fabric. I am thinking either the blue or green with a solid hot pink for the trim and lining would be jaunty and fun. I think the blue has something of a Lily Pulitzer vibe to it. If only I could order the fabric and whip this up before my trip to the beach this weekend!

Denyse Schmidt’s new book

Posted in Sewing, Stuff to make by

 

Denyse Schmidt’s new book Modern Quilts, Traditional Inspiration doesn’t come out until April (which happens to be the month of my birthday, fancy that) but I’ve already looked through the picture gallery on Melanie Falick‘s site (um) several times.

Denyse’s first book is really wonderful, and first got me interested in quilting. This next installment looks to be just as inspiring, so–in case you need something to look forward to after the holidays–take a sneak peak and mark your calendar for April.