I love making something new from something old. We found this dress in Jen’s attic in her husbands costume collection. I loved the green and said it would make a great bag. Donnie (her husband) just mentioned joking that her birthday was coming up. So I decided to make her a bag.

I just love the detail in the top part of the dress. I decided to use the elastic section at the top of the dress and just detach the sleeves. The dress was so long i used the rest of it to line the bag and one of the sleeves for a pocket on the inside. It turned out pretty cool. I loved it. I’ve got some of the dress left over I might just make one for myself. It seems all i want to make from old clothes are bags. What have you made from old clothes?

Since I’ve really been bitten by the crafting bug, I thought I would show you around my crafting space and things I’m going to be working on.

What is this, you say? Just a beautiful piece of furniture?

Not just that - it’s my new sewing table!

(oooooooooooh……..ahhhhhhhhhh………)

I was so excited to pick this up and actually have a space to craft from now on. We can now resume using our dining room table to eat on (who knew?!).

And now, you can see my new sewing machine, out of the box and ready to be utilized.

Look at that big knob - what does it do? And where the needle is…it looks a little intimidating. But I’ve got two new sewing books with some great starter projects so hopefully that’ll get me going in the right direction.

And my first sewing project will be new curtains for the dining room.

Isn’t this fabric gorgeous? I bought it for $5 a yard and it’s a nice canvas material. Granted, I will have to paint the dining room to make them really work, but it’ll be worth it. Am I the only one who does this? Picks up an accent *something* for a room and then changes the paint color just to match that one *thing*? C’mon, fess up.

This is my felt addiction pile. I’m telling you, if there was a felt shortage in the continental US, I fear I may be to blame. I can’t stop buying this stuff. Fourty sheets I have, plus six different yards of the yummy, delightful fabric. Such fun colors and great projects for so cheap!

And finally, my next knitting project, a baby blanket.

I found this yarn for $4 a skein and it’s so yummy, so I thought I would double the strands and knit a blanket. I’ve never used circular needles before and I must admit, I’m a little scared. Anyone who knows me, knows I’m not that into knitting. Like, hardly at all. So if this doesn’t go well, I fear I may give up on knitting all together.

So that’s just a peek into my crafting space. My birthday wish is to have an actual craft studio by finishing part of our basement, so I’m hoping that can be made a reality. Because I really feel that would be the best gift ever!

Felting has been the perfect discovery for me as a knitter. It hides your mistakes and holds the element of surprise. I normally am afraid of patterns and love to knit mindlessly, so I don’t enjoy it if I have to concentrate too much. Now that I have gained a little confidence and the knowledge of a few techniques I am brave enough to try and make up my own patterns. Felting seems to be a great method when you are winging it, especially if you are like me and don’t really mind what size it turns out. The mystery is all part of the fun!

This pattern is loosely written because you can adjust to make it any size you want. One of the reasons I like felting and making up my own pattern, is that I love throwing it into the washing machine and waiting expectantly for the buzzer to sound! So knit this pattern as long and wide as you like, fold it over and picture what it will look like, keeping in mind that it may lose about 1/3 of its original size.

So here’s what I did: Cast On 40 stitches, double stranded, size 11 needles (straight or circular, but do not knit in the round). You will need wool, feltable yarn.

1. Stockinette stitch (knit row, purl row, repeat) about 88 rows, fold from the bottom up to decide what size you want the body of the bag to be.

2. When you get the body the size that you desire, tie a piece of scrap yarn in the end of your row to mark your place, and knit, purl a few more rows. This will allow more room to cover your contents when you fold the flap over.

3. To begin the triangular flap, start on a knit row, knit two onto the second needle and then bind off the first stitch as if you are finishing your knitting. Knit the rest of the row and bind off last stitch.

Purl the next row, without any decreasing. Repeat directions until the flap is as narrow as you desire. (I stopped when there was only 4 left.)

4. With a large needle, sew up the sides of the bag and tuck in any ends. Fold as if you are making your own envelope.

5. Knit an I-Cord for the strap. Using same size double pointed needles, knit 3, slide stitches to end and knit 3 until desired length. Do not turn over your knitting. I love this simple method and the results. Keep in mind when you throw the cord over you shoulder to preview how it will look, that the strap will be quite shorter after you felt it. Sew strap inside the bag along your side seams and tuck in ends.

6. Felting, finally! Wash in hot water with another sturdy item (I use jeans). Bite your nails and wait anxiously…then take out and lay flat to dry. If you are not happy with the size, you may repeat. My final product was 12″ wide, 6″ deep (with flap folded) so I thought it was a perfect small bag. You may also want to clip off the fuzz with scissors.

This only took a little more than a 3 1/2 oz. skein and a weekend (and I have a busy one year old!) Hope you are happy with your results!

*You could also make this bag with a straight flap instead of triangular. It would look just like knitting a wide scarf and sewing up the sides. Too easy!! Any other ideas on how to modify this? Also, I haven’t decided yet if I should add a button loop and button at the end of the flap to finish it off. Any suggestions?

We just moved into a new place, and my decorating is pretty much non-existent. I’ve always had the “poor-student- misc-junk-thrown-together” look but now that I’m an adult and we have a nice place, I want that to change. One of the things that I wanted to do was frame and hang up some professional photos that we got taken when Elizabeth was a newborn. However, I cannot find the perfect frames that would go with our color scheme and look unique at the same time. So why not make them?

I found unfinished wooden frames at Ikea for super cheap (3 frames for $1.99), the fact that they are unfinished allows someone to finish them as they want. I dug through my scrapbooking supplies and found some beautiful paper that was the style I was looking for, plus it was quite unique. I cut strips of the paper to match the width of the front of the frame, plus allowed extra to wrap around the sides of the frame. I then folded the bottoms of the strips to match the angles of the frame’s corners. My next step was to adhere the paper to the frame using Modge Podge.

I found the Modge Podge worked great for adhering the paper to the wood, and it adhered really fast. To make the picture frame unique, I found some coordinating embellishments and adhered them to the frame. I added some buttons and ribbon for a 3D additions, which looks very different but beautiful at the same time. One last thin coat of Modge Podge over the entire frame for protection, and I ended up with a beautiful frame that you’ll never find in stores, matches our decor and taste perfectly, and took only 45 minutes to complete from start to finish.

I have been working on a sweater for my niece Kara. I started it approximately 10 days before Christmas. I had picked up a pattern to make a sweater for Lucy and I wanted to see how hard it was and decided to make one for Kara too.

I had some yarn left from the blanket I made Lucy. My mom brought me some yarn from Chile when she returned from one of her trips and the skein was huge! This whole sweater was knit with 1 skein. It was a thin yarn tho, like for socks and I don’t enjoy knitting on tiny needles. So I put 3 strands together (using 3 skeins) to make it closer to worsted weight. I used the pattern for a 6 mos old.

This sweater is knit from the top down. Starting with the neck line I just continued increasing for the raglan sleeves, then divided the stitches for the sleeves and put them on a stitch holder. Continuing with the body switching to smaller needles when you do the edge. Instructions called for 1×1 rib but I prefer the seed stitch. It just gives it a polished look.

To complete the sleeves I picked up the stitches in the arm hole and the rest of the live stitches, doing a ssk decrease to form the sleeves finishing with seed stitch. The neck was also done in seed stitch after I picked up the stitches. The bands in the front were difficult cause I had chosen seed and the instructions were for rib. I had a hard time knowing how many stitches to pick up. The first time I didn’t pick up enough and the bands were gathered in the front. The second time I picked up too many.. I left it alone. It was Christmas Eve and she’ll never know. Hopefully it will shrink a little in the wash so it will be fine.

I added a fun little fromjoy tag I stenciled on some fabric tape. My sister-in-law loved it and it fit her so well!! yay!