Mittens

This sweet pair of mittens is off to a fourth grade friend. I have made a couple pairs for her mom over the years and she always takes them during our cold winter months to warm her hands. So her mom asked if I would make a pair just for her.

These are slightly different - they don't have the rolled cuff - but they are buttery soft with purple lambswool on the palms and polar fleece linings. I used the ribbed edges of the sweaters for all the pieces so they were already nicely finished at the lower edges.

I used upcycled silver buttons from the original thrifted vest to keep the two layers together. They add a nice surprise and fancy touch I think.

Upcycled Mittens

Early this summer a bag full of lovely sweaters showed up on my doorstep.  They were amazing sweaters - but, they had some challenges and couldn't be worn any longer.  Two had gone through the wash/dry and the third had stains and a couple holes.  But I knew that my friend had left them with me to give them a second chance.




















To get me in the groove for making Halloween costumes (ahem...dusting off that sewing machine) I put together this pair to gift back to her.  I found a brown cashmere sweater at the thrift store for a cozy lining and the exterior of the mittens is from her three sweaters.  The cables were too delicious to not make the centerpiece of the mittens.

As always, I relied on the fabulous pattern by Five Green Acres, but improvised the cuff using the intact sleeves from a thrifted sweater.

I dropped them off to her last week and by all accounts she loves them.  I usually finish off these mittens with a button on the cuff, but I left he exterior and lining separate to make sure the fit was good for her first.

I have just enough left over to make another pair for someone else - the gift-giving holidays are coming up!

Dispatch from the workshop, Part 1 (Sewing)

Matchy-matchy mittens

Did I say something about matching mother-daughter mittens awhile back?  Well that thought, originally written in jest, wouldn't leave me alone.  I had dreams about them.  So I dove in head first and made four pair.  One for me, and one for each of my older girls. The baby is still too little to get a pair of mittens, but I have extra materials to make her a pair in a couple years.  And my husband, as the father to four girls, can certainly appreciate a rainbow, but passed on having a pair of rainbow mittens for himself.  Understandable.

The fabric for these is entirely upcycled clothing - a striped, cotton sweater for the mitten back, turquoise polar fleece for the palm, and black polar fleece for the lining.  Two fabrics came from sweaters at the thrift store, and the third from my closet (no, not the sweater thankfully - I could never pull something that bold off!)  They are not windproof, or waterproof, so will only work for winter car trips and early fall weather, but damn they turned out cute.

They came together in two days - cutting on one day and sewing/assembly on the other.  Easy peasy.  I plan to slip these under the tree for the girls to find Christmas morning.

As the title notes, this is the first of a few posts that I will dedicate to highlighting the ways we (my husband and I) made this a special handmade holiday for our family and friends.  Stay tuned - there's woodworking, knitting, drawing and sewing coming your way!

Now, where did I put those mitten clips?

Upcycled Mittens



check. this. out.



Last weekend my Mom took a fantastic mitten making class with the extremely talented and witty Mary Jo, from Five Green Acres.  She showed me her mittens-in-progress and I decided on the spot that I needed a pair of my own.

I have actually been coveting the pair that Mary Jo uses in her tutorial photo.  And over the past year I have casually shopped our thrift stores for a sweater that would make a similar pair.  About two months ago I spied a teeny-tiny 100% wool sweater in the children's section.  It used to be a women's medium, before someone accidentally ran it through the washing machine.  For 30 seconds I felt bad about buying something that a child could use to keep warm, but I know that my own kids protest at wearing felted wool, saying it is too stiff and scratchy.  With this in mind I snatched up that sweater, brought it home, (eventually) cut it up and paired it with some polar fleece from my stash = new mittens for me for this winter.

The sweater provided precious little yardage, so maybe I can make one more pair of adult-sized mittens.  Or definitely a kids pair for one of my littles.  Is it time for mother-daughter matchiness?  Maybe.  Or maybe I should head back to the thrift store in search of sweaters big enough to make matching pairs for the whole family!!  Yes!!  That's the ticket. 

The pattern and tutorial are straightforward and easy to follow, even for a beginning sewist.  The only tricky part is sewing the lining to the outer mitten, and like Mary Jo says, just take your time.  Seriously, once you have the materials on-hand (haha) it only takes 1 or 2 evenings of actual cutting and sewing to make a whole pile of mittens.  You also don't need to have felted wool to make these mittens - Mary Jo provides ideas for many different kinds of materials to use for making warm, soft, winter mittens.

What to make your own pair(s)?

Go Here!



Also if you are in the Madison, WI area check out Mary Jo's other classes too! 

Happy Halloween!



Gecko lizard, black dog, and black bat

This year I managed to sew something for one older girl and my middle girl.  My other older girl wanted to be a dog, again.

Making the lizard went really well.  At first I was brainstorming all sorts of ideas for attached scales, but when I pulled out the old pattern I used for the dog costumes there were directions for making a dragon/lizard too.  Away I went with pre-printed polyester fabric and gold accents.

The bat wings I made from scratch.  I wanted something small, sized just to her, and understated.  I didn't want to make her a long cape, or a hood, or something that would get her confused as batman, the character. 

Using black flannel, I traced the neckline of these capes, and then added a basic triangle (traced from a folded sheet of newspaper) with scalloped edges.  I added quilted lines on the wings, but you can't really see them and they don't actually make much of a difference in wearing.  I sewed one hair band at each of the wing tips so she could thread her hands through and she didn't have to grasp the fabric all the time.  This way they attached (and unattached!) to her easily - and became part of her arms as she flew around.

Overall this Halloween was a success for the handmade.  My youngest went as a gray kitten with a thrifted baby costume.  However, she has a whole wardrobe of mama-made costumes to look forward to in the years to come.

The girls ate their fill of candy tonight and are looking forward to the candy buy-back program this weekend.  In fact they already separated what they want to keep from what they want to sell back.  I am amazed to report that 90% of our candy will be sold back!

Re-Cap: kcwc

In my last moments of kcwc I managed to squeak out this skirt. I picked it up at a clothing swap (free!) knowing full well it didn't fit me, but it held promise as a skirt that could be re-fitted for the younger set. I cut out the zipper from the back, resewed it together, and then shortened the skirt by 4 inches from the top. With an elastic casing waistband the project came together rather quickly on Saturday morning.

I had grand hopes of making a skirt from this pattern, but it will have to wait for another day (solid pink and peace fabric). Here are my leftovers, staring at me longingly after a good week of sewing. They will get their day to shine soon. Not sure what will become of the blue floral - maybe outdoor dining napkins for the summer?



I gained back a bit of sewing mojo this past week. I look forward to keeping it up, and the fact I got Scandinavian Stitches at the library yesterday will help! I am going to take some time to plan out a few special projects for the fall challenge, I think that I am ready for something a bit more complicated (oliver + s, Leila & Ben, and Carefree Clothes for Girls are some possibilities...) The challenge also added a new filter to my brain for when I go to the thrift store/garage sales - if something is too small for me, could it be re-fitted for my girls?

Mid-week report: kcwc

As we approached the middle of the week I accomplished two more items for my younger girls. First up is a pair of baby leggings. They are really the simplest of projects; I'm embarrassed that I didn't make other pairs for my older girls when they were itty-bitty. It will be a few months before the baby is big enough for these, but they should be perfect for covering her delicate knees in the fall and following spring.

I've seen project tutorials for these around the blogosphere for awhile, but I didn't rely on any particular one for these. My directions were: Take a pair of unused thrifted women's knee high socks, cut the feet off, and hem the bottom edges. Done and done.



The second project is a pair of cropped pants for my 3.5 yo. I tried making something like this earlier in the week with some scrap cotton that I had in my stash. I failed miserably. First I took a pair of jersey cotton pants that fit her tush perfectly and did what many others have done: traced, cut and sew. But they did not turn out at all. They were too small (narrow) and had no give at all. So I decided to put those pants, unfinished, aside and instead sought out advice from an expert.

Heather Ross came to my rescue. I pulled my copy of Weekend Sewing off the shelf and found the pattern for the Huck Finn pants. I followed the pattern for the 2T, but added an extra 3.5 inches to the length of the pants. And what do you know? They fit her!

The material is from an upcycled linen skirt that I had set aside, and to punch them up (c'mon, what little girl is excited about brown pants?) I added a faux knee patch featuring her favorite character: Scooby Doo. We don't normally go for commercial characters or name brands, but Scooby just makes her, so...well, happy. Thankfully she l-o-v-e-s these pants. And they look darn cute on her too.

Last on the sewing list for this week are two skirts. One twirly, one upcycled.

Marketplace barter received!

Look at what arrived in the mail for me last week!! It was a package full of goodies from my barter buddy over at This is Marzipan. In exchange for an earflap hat, she made me a lovely pair of felt baby booties. She also generously included a few other goodies: tea, thrifted yarn, a sachet. And just look at her embroidery! It's perfect in every way. Thank you so much!



Speaking of hand embroidery, I also scored an amazing strawberry tablecloth at a trash-and-treasure sale at our local church. It looks perfect on the backyard table - where we eat breakfast, lunch and dinner every chance we get in the summer months.



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If you are interested in participating in a barter check here. I'll be posting my next round of items tomorrow.

Grocery Bags - a new favorite!

I found the tutorial for these tote bags at Sew, Mama, Sew! for their Summer Sewing Month. Created by Irene, they are a true classic. Perfect in every respect if you ask me. I did a quick test one from my fabric stash, utilizing an old curtain remnant from Ikea and part of a thrifted, vintage table cloth for the pocket. I was very happy with the results, but realized that cotton home decor weight fabric (as noted in the pattern) would probably work best. So far I've made the following three with seven more piles of fabric ready to be cut and sewn. Ten bags should keep our family safely away from "paper, or plastic, ma'am?" for awhile. I also have enough fabric to make a pair for my mother-in-law. As I was sewing I got to thinking that a set of these would make a great wedding or shower gift for that thrifty, environmentally friendly couple in your life too.

Thrift store fabric

My friends over at Capers and Olives and Tigerlily Tinkering inspired me to take a quick stop at the local thrift store for some fabric hunting. I came away with alot more than that - yes, one piece of cotton fabric (perfect for a crib quilt back, no?), but 15 kids books, trivial pursuit, a magnetic calendar board for the older girls and a new shirt for me sealed the deal!