Month: April 2012

I know I said I was going to make swaddled baby dolls for all the babies my friends are having in the next year, but I could not resist this cute Lovey Dovey pattern by Abby Glassenberg at While She Naps.  Also, since I am now learning how to knit, I have visions of making tiny knit hats for the swaddled dolls, but I didn’t have time (or the skills!) to do that for the baby who arrived earlier this month.

This little bear lovey is heading all the way to New Zealand, for the new baby boy born to the pen pal I have been writing to since I was 14! Sadly neither of us is great at writing letters these days, but we are in touch a bit on Facebook … and we’ll meet again, I’m sure. (We have met twice, once when she was visiting the US and we met in New York, and once when we both happened to be in London at the same time. Someday I’ll get to NZ!)

This was a super easy pattern, using scraps of fleece and fabric I had leftover from other patterns. I’m not crazy about the way the fleece already looks a bit worn out… but I don’t think a newborn will mind!

Here’s my very first knitted item! I am taking an online course taught by Stefanie Japel at Craftsy.com, and so far, it has been really great. I really like being able to watch it at my own pace, and go back to review segments if needed. I think the only drawback compared to a real, in-person class is that if you make a mistake, there’s no one there to help you! I did make a few, and ended up having to unravel several rows of stitches at various points, but I managed to salvage the project.

I’m pretty impressed that this first project combines so many different techniques, it was a great learning experience. And I think it turned out pretty cute! If you look up close, it is a little ragged, but I was pleasantly surprised when I put it on to photograph it. Parker (age 7) told me he liked it, and then said, “But you look TOO good.” I wasn’t sure how to take that! I asked him if he meant “fancy” and he said yes. So I guess I’ll take that as a compliment?

Still not sure if I like this enough to give it to someone else… or if I should just keep it for myself and figure that I will get better with future projects. This took about a week and a half to make, just working on it for a few minutes here and there… and used just one ball of yarn (Knit Picks Comfy Worsted, $2.99/ball, 75 percent pima cotton, 25 percent acrylic).

My best friend recently took her 5-year-old daughter to Babyland General to adopt a Cabbage Patch Kid for her birthday, so I wanted to make some new clothes for the new baby doll. I borrowed my own Cabbage Patch preemie doll back from my niece and bought a 1980s-era Butterick pattern for Cabbage Patch preemie doll clothes, but it turns out the new dolls sold at Babyland General are bigger _ 17″ vs. the 13″ or 14″ old dolls. But I wasn’t sure where those extra inches were, and whether the proportions were the same. After thinking it over for a few days, I came up with a way to modify the patterns to fit the larger doll. Since I didn’t have the actual doll to measure, I went to the Cabbage Patch Kid clothing website and found a picture of both the doll and a separate picture of just a basic infant sleeper laid out flat.  I copied the pictures into Photoshop and enlarged the doll until it was 17″ and then enlarged the pajamas to fit. I then printed the pictures of the pajamas, cut them out and used that sort of as a basic shape I could use to make patterns. The little dress just has two pattern pieces, the back bodice and the overlapping front bodices, plus a rectangle for the skirt. So I used the outline of the pajamas as a guide to draw shapes similar to the smaller pattern pieces, then followed the pattern’s sewing directions. The only change I made was using a double layer of fabric for the skirt, since the fabric I used is pretty thin. This actually made it easier to sew, since I didn’t have to hem the bottom edge or sides where the dress overlaps.

For the bloomers, I just used the Butterick pattern as is, and added an extra half inch to the each leg elastic and an inch to the waist.

My friend received the outfit yesterday, and she said it fits perfectly! Yay! So now I can make variations and know that they will fit. For example, I think I could just length the legs on the bloomers pattern and get rid of the elastic around the legs to make shorts or pants. It’s tempting to make a bunch of clothes for my own (I mean, my niece’s) doll, even though I know she doesn’t really play with him much. I’m sort of embarrassed to admit how old I was when I got that doll (OK, I was 11 or 12), but it was a CRAZE. Did you have Cabbage Patch Kids? I remember we were on a waiting list for months at Toys R’ Us.

I’m glad I waited to post this today. It’s cheering me up after a very long, sad night … After working all day yesterday covering the vice president’s latest trip to New Hampshire, I spent the entire night covering a terrible police shooting. I got home at 8:30 this morning. A rough start to the weekend, but I am off next week and we are going to spend it doing home improvement projects at our camp. Hopefully I’ll have some pictures to share of that next week!

I’m so focused on looking ahead to summer and making stuff for the camp that Easter has snuck up on me and I didn’t even take out my old decorations, let alone make anything new this year. I’m in the middle of making another quilt (this one is for our bed at the camp), and cushions for all the porch furniture.

And I decided to learn how to knit, after spending way too much time analyzing it. On one hand, do I really need more hobbies? And won’t it be expensive?  And what would I even make? Scarves are always handy for New Hampshire winters… but I can’t really see myself making sweaters. I love some of the knitted stuffed animals I’ve seen, but Parker is getting older, and I don’t have a ton of toddlers on my gift list.

On the other hand, I am envisioning evenings at the camp, with no TV (not a big deal since we don’t have TV at home), no computer and no sewing machine. So knitting seemed like the perfect hobby to while away those hours … (My husband, by the way, has decided to teach himself wood carving/whittling so HE can have a camp hobby as well. You’d think we were 80 years old, rather than not-yet 40.)

My fellow crafting buddy Annmarie and I both signed up for Stephanie Japel’s Knit Lab class at Craftsy.com. (When I created an account, I got a welcome email that included any class for $25). So far, I really like her teaching style, and I think I’m starting to get the hang of it. But if anyone has any tips for beginners, I’d love to hear them. Particularly on yarn… is there a good, not-too-expensive yarn you really like? I really don’t want to spend a fortune.

Here are my Easter projects from past years, in case you need a last-minute project! (click on the pictures to go to the posts)