I finally found the time to make this skirt from this pattern:

Farbenmix is a German company, thus the European sizing. Their patterns are pretty straightforward and leave you with lots of room to personalize the finished piece. You can access step-by-step, illustrated instructions in English for many of the models. They also feature examples of many variations for each pattern to inspire your inner designer. And, for all you craft fair participants and etsy shop owners, they allow you to sell your finished piece based on their pattern as long as you are selling individual items and not churning out mass produced clothing. This is a list of their retail partners including some American online shops.

P.S. No, this is not a paid endorsement, I just like their stuff.

This is my first, simple attempt at “quilting”. Using only 1 yard each of 2 fabrics I made a lightweight summer toddler quilt.

Now that I have done this once, I think I can seriously do it in half an hour (and you can too!) For the front I used 1 yard of nice cotton fabric- I love this series of prints from “The Hungry Caterpillar” books. The backing is 1 yard of lightweight cozy quilting fleece, a marbled red.

1) Line up fabrics wrong sides together and sew around 3 sides. I used a serger on all 3 sides but you could use a regular sewing machine too.

2) Turn fabric so it is right-side out and press neatly around all 3 sewn sides. Fold 4th side under and sew across the edge, starting and stopping just short of each corner.

3) Lastly, starting with the 4th edge just sewn, sew on top of the fabric around right-side edge, turning just short of each corner. This will hold the 2 pieces together. I could have also sewn across the blue stripes for added accent since this fabric is patterned this way (but before sewing around right-side edge). You could also sew a pattern on top, or around the characters on the fabric.

Very quick, easy and inexpensive! Great for summer traveling, picnics, for a crib or pack n’ play!

I picked up these for cheap at my favorite antique store to stack in my craft room. I am alway needing more bins to put my fabric and supplies in and know these will travel! My favorite part is the inside because you don’t expect this bright apple green lining.

I filled the smallest suitcase with my wool yarn. The second with scraps and smaller pieces of fabric. And the largest with fabric I know I have at least 1 yard. This helps to keep me organized and to know where to go when I am looking for a new idea, and easy to travel to another room to work. Plus I like buying something that is multi-purposed; if I get tired of them in my craft room I could always use them for luggage!

As of 4/25/08 1:42 p.m. EST all swap slots have been taken. But don’t despair, we’ll have another one soon.

FYI, as of this morning there are three more slots left for the softie swap.

Some more tutorials:

Gecko Girl’s Cherry Amigurumi

Jhoanna’s very cute Ruby Doll

Darncat’s Pandy Bear

Announcing another Crafty Daisies Swap. After our successful Summer, Tea Towel, and Bookmark swaps, we continue with our tradition and introduce the Softie Swap. For this swap you are invited to fashion a softie. This can be an animal, a doll, or an item; you can knit it, sew it, crochet it, or felt it, in short it’s up to you.

Sign Up

To enter, email your full name, web or blog address (if you have one), shipping information, and whether you would ship internationally to [email protected].

Dates

The sign up closes on Wednesday, April 30th and is limited to the first 20 emails we receive. On May 1st we will notify you of your swap partner. Your softie has to be mailed by May 21st.

Important

If you sign up you must complete the swap or you will not be eligible for participation in future swaps. If you are unable to send your softie by May 21st, for whatever reason, you must contact your swap partner and the swap admin (Simone) as soon as possible. Please be mindful that this needs to be reciprocal – if you sign up, please follow through. Please note however, we at Crafty Daisies will not be responsible for items not shipped.

Inspiration

For ideas of what you might want to make, check out these sites:

• Softies Central, a blog devoted to softies
• Softies, of course there has to be a Flickr group for this sort of stuff

For tutorials follow these links:

• A scotty dog
• A teapot
• A Super Sock Pig
• A Sea Nettle

The Softie Flickr group also has a tutorial discussion thread.

Let the Swap Begin!

I really should learn better how to conserve my fabric and cut things out better because I am always left with these skinny fabric strips leftover. Am I really going to use it if I keep it? Should I get rid of them? …This debate gets me at the end of every project because I hate wasting fabric! But this bag turned out pretty cute so I think I am going to rummage through that bag of scraps that yes, I did keep and see what I can salvage.

I love this fabric and went back to buy it numerous times until one day it was gone forever. I had a request for another bag out of it and only had 2 long, skinny strips left. I don’t like to sew a seam across the middle of a bag so I used extra wide grosgrain ribbon to hide where I sewed the 2 strips together. With fabrics wrong side, I lined up my 2 strips and inserted the ribbon in to sew between. I used this kind of ribbon for the handle too and like the layered look that the ribbon gave to the body of the bag. You could try this obviously with skinnier ribbon or with multiple rows if you have several strips you want to use up. I am excited to revisit some scraps I had doomed to the attic!

Magically this lined up almost perfectly, which I didn’t notice until I took the pictures!

Lately, I’ve been lurking on German crafting blogs; maybe a little homesick, looking for some inspiration for the next great project. In my browsing I was impressed by the number of multi-lingual blogs out there offering glimpses into someone’s life who strickt, tricot, or het breien instead of knits.

Here is a very abbreviated list of some of the blogs I came across; there are many countries, cultures, and languages that will not be included and I apologize to anyone I left out. If you have other suggestions please add them in your comments. I think it would be exciting for all of us to learn about fellow crafters around the globe.

Germany

Okay, Simone started it all for me so she will be the first one in the line-up. I think I discovered her through a comment she left. She writes her blog www.seemownay.de in German and English and shares her family life and crafting explorations. She is especially known for her clever geese.

Next is Katharina. She recently started blogging in English as well as German and maintains a blog called Nähsucht (Sewing Addiction). She loves fabric. You have to check out her awesome Amy Butler Flower Bag.

Finland

Hanne writes in Finnish and English on Väkerrellen. Her motto is the “Thinner the Yarn, better the Knit.” Sadly, WordPress recently ate her older posts, but you can check out her amazing yarn stash if you follow her links to her Flickr profile. (Note to self: always back up.)

Belgium

Isabel lives in Belgium and blogs at Tarte Tatin in: Dutch, French and English! She has great pictures of her projects, purchases, and just sundries around her house.

England

Florence blogs at Flossie Teacakes about her musings, projects, the Zebra Girl and Dinosaur-Boy. Reading her blog always makes me want to make myself a nice cup of tea to sip while I accompany her on her day.

Portugal

Manuela has this wonderful blog at Macati. She writes in Portuguese and English about her crafts, swaps, You Tube finds and other things that move her.

Australia

Di has been blogging at Clementine’s Shoes since September 2, 2004. How’s that for endurance. She’s a prolific knitter and seamstress and has some fun patterns to share. Right now she’s in the middle of a bathroom renovation project.

I hope you enjoyed this roundup. Maybe you rediscovered some old favorites or found some new talented people you’d like to read about. And please, if you have links to other international blogs share them with us.

Tada! This is the beautiful serger that I got for Christmas! (Thanks family, I am finally using it!) It was intimidating to even get it out of the box but I am hoping that it will really make my sewing look more professional and many projects much quicker, so it’s plugged in now!

One of the first uses I had for it was hemming a pair of jeans. Apparently alterations are a dying art and everyone that enters my house and sees my machine ends up coming back with pants to shorten. I hate turning denim over twice and breaking multiple needles trying to get over the side seams, so I let the serger cut the fabric and edge the bottom of the jeans. Then I just had to turn them under once and sew the hem on my regular sewing machine. It went really quickly so bring them on friends, I’m equipped now!

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Remember Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder? While I was making this afghan I was reminded of all the craft projects described in that book. I thought that this would be the sort of thing that Laura’s mother would put together for her girls as a Christmas present (except it wouldn’t be cashmere, and the sweaters wouldn’t have originated in China, and [fill in the blank]).

So, these are the steps I followed to put the blanket together:

Materials

• 3 sweaters — The final product measured 42″ x 52 1/2″. You could felt the sweaters, but I wanted to maintain the light, airy feel of the original knit.
• Bias tape or scrap fabric to make your own tape
• 8 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ template to cut out the squares. (Guess why it’s that size )
• Lots of thread (zigzagging takes way more thread than I had anticipated)

Step One

Cut out 30 squares. I wanted to show off some of the details of the sweaters. Consequently, I included side seams, shoulder seams, ribbing, and pockets in the squares.

Also, don’t forget that the “wrong” side may end up being the “right side.

Step Two

Lay out your design.

Step Three

Sew. Using a zigzag stitch at the widest setting, sew together strips of 6 squares each abutting the edges. You could also overlap the edges, whatever technique you prefer.

Next, put the 5 strips together by first joining the “intersections” of the squares and then sewing down the length of the strip. You now have a 5 x 6 square blanket.

Step Four

Finish the edges. Originally, I intended to blanket stitch around the whole thing. Then I watched Amy Karol’s Bias Tape tutorial, read about this nifty tool on Alicia Paulson’s blog Posie gets Cozy and decided to make my own tape.

This is a 1/2″ tape maker. They come in different sizes, but this is the only one they had at my corner store. You cut up your fabric to the requisite width, feed it through the tape maker and it comes out perfectly folded on the other side. You then fold the tape in half and iron it flat.

Next, you open up your store bought or home made tape (see Amy’s tutorial for the finer points of sewing on store bought tape) and align the edge of the tape to the edge of the blanket. Sew along the line created by the fold closest to the edge.

For instructions on how to create mitered corners, follow Alicia’s tutorial.

Once you’ve attached the binding to the edge, flip the binding over to the other side and top stitch alongside the folded edge.

That’s it.

You can add an appliqué or two if you wish or just leave it as it is.

I’ve set up a Flickr group where you can share your creations at www.flickr.com/groups/sweaterblankets/.