Just a quick reminder, if you are participating in the softie swap, your creations need to be mailed by May 21.

This post features the remains of my unloved jeans that I cut up for this bag. I’ve been toying with the idea of a recycled denim bag, but was trying to come up with a variation on the theme. So here it is, a reversible bag.

You can either display the jeans side and make a recycled fashion statement, or you can be more low key about your lifestyle, turn the whole thing inside out and display a cool lining.

The jeans pockets become practical places to stash away your phone, mp3 player, glass baby bottles, in other words, all those treasures you find in your jeans pockets every day. So before you send your denims off to the Goodwill store, take a good luck at them and consider what kind of reincarnation you could create with a sharp pair of shears.

As my handiwork attests I’m a terrible stamper. I never seem to be able to avoid getting the rim of the stamp onto the paper, the ink doesn’t distribute evenly, I could go on and on. Any hints on how this is done would be greatly appreciated. However, as a concept piece and for a birthday present for a seven-year-old, I think this works: I cut out a piece of brown wrapping paper to fit the present, and then proceeded to stamp Daniel’s name all over it. For recycling purposes a brown paper bag would work equally well, but for some reason they only do plastic in NYC.

While stamping the D-A-N was still a very Zen experience, by the time I got to the I-E-L part, I was ready to pack it up. Fortunately he didn’t have a lengthy name like Balthazar. (That would have been Elizabeth’s name if my husband had had his druthers and she had been a boy.)

The bow used to be part of an exercise video tape. I got that idea from Danny Seo.

Note to self: Don’t try to remove the ribbon from the tape case five minutes before you have to leave for the party.

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.

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 craftydaisies@gmail.com.

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!

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.

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/.

Here are a couple of projects and works-in-progress currently pending at my household:

Cashmere Sweater Blanket

This is for my grandmother for her 90th birthday. Her birthday is on March 31th. Do you think I can finish and ship it by then?

Stenciled Baby Top

I’ve been wanting to follow Joy’s stenciling instructions for a year now. Here’s the perfect project: a tiny little shirt for my friend Vanessa who is due in April.

My daughter became inspired by the whole process, although she deemed the color choices lacking, she did manage to pull together a cool design.

Another Vest

There was a time when I actually finished an entire adult sweater, usually for the boy friend de jour. Then I started making children’s sweaters, again with collars and full length sleeves. Now I can’t even be bothered to start on sleeves and Elizabeth did not want a collar, which leaves me with another vest.

Elizabeth picked the colors and decided she liked stripes. I thought stripes alone were boring and went through some knitting books to try some new patterns. Now she has a stripy sampler just in time for spring.

So, what are you working on?

I love hardware stores! I like all the little doodads and tools and whatnots you never knew existed. So here is my homage to the humble hardware store, a wrapped washer.

Materials

For this pendant you need the following materials:

• 18 gage copper wire
• 3/4″ washer
• wire cutters
• round nose pliers
• chain nose pliers
• ruler

Instructions

1. Cut four pieces of 5 3/4″ long wire and two pieces of 4″ long wire. Use a soft cloth to straighten the wire.

 



2. Bundle three of the longer wires together and wrap the one remaining longer wire four times around the center of the bundle.



3. Wrap each shorter wire three times about a 3/4″ to the left and the right of the bundle’s center wrap.



4. Here’s the tricky part: center the washer on top of the center wrap and fit the wire bundle against the washer.
5. Then secure the washer as follows: use the round nose pliers and place them in between the bottom center and the side wraps. Coax one strand of wire out of the bundle and pull it toward the center to form a sort of cage that will prevent the washer from falling out. Repeat on the other side and the back of the pendant. You should have two pulled-out strands on the front and two on the back of the pendant.



6. Okay, don’t be intimidated by this picture! You’re almost there. Now on the top of the pendant, from the left and the right side, take a center wire from the bundle and tightly twist one wire around the other three times. Snip off the end of the wrapping wire only, not the stem wire.
7. With the remaining stem wire shape a wrapped loop. Use the chain nose pliers to form a 90 degree angle right above the wrapped stem.



Insert the tip of the round nose pliers in the bend, bring the wire over the top of the pliers, and shape a loop. Reposition the pliers to form a complete loop and wrap the wire around the bottom of the pliers. Using the chain nose pliers, hold the loop with your dominant hand and wrap the wire around the stem covering the end of the previously snipped off wire. (If you’re hopelessly lost, refer to Wigjig’s wrapped loop instructions.)



8. To finish off the remaining wires, use the round nose pliers and make a small loop with one of the wire ends. Continue shaping a spiral around the loop. Once the spiral is complete, press it against the center of the washer using the chain nose pliers. Repeat this with the other wires. Use your imagination to create shapes other than spirals.

Instead of a pendant you could also fashion some earrings. Here is the pair I completed for my 99 Earrings project.