Fun with scraps

I was messing around with scraps from other projects and came up with a cute new dress:


Look! It goes with the pants I made last night.


I'm not sure what to do with it yet. I think my friend who receives most of my baby sewing isn't quite into this style.

Fun with pants

Ever since I made the little supergrrl diaper, I've had a pair of pink sleeves sitting around my sewing room. I was scared to work on them, worried that I'd "ruin" them. This weekend I got over my worries and started cutting. I used a homesewn pair of pants my daughter wore as a toddler for my guide.


The results? Pants!


And... Ever since sewing up my quickie mittens, I've had a sweater body sitting around my sewing room. Last night I similarly mustered my courage and started cutting. I used the template created by cutting out the pink pants.



I actually couldn't cut them the way I normally would, with the bum waistband higher than the front waistband, because of the stripes.


The results are a little awkward, and it remains to see if they'll fit a real live baby. If so, they should be good over a cloth diaper, being 100% felted wool.

Acquisitions

Seems like there's a lot of raw materials coming into my house today. I have lots of things to work with!!

The first time I bought GothSocks was, apparently, before Madrona. Madrona being some famous yarn event? Ever since then, Gothsocks have been in high demand. Shop updates sell out in mere minutes.

I was actually able to buy some brilliant pink sock yarn called Disco Dollies without fighting for it. This arrived a week ago or so, but I never made the time to photograph it. Then on Monday, I stalked the etsy cart for her updates, and I scored some Dripping Rubies with real silver thread in it, and a skein of BarbiGoth. The latter two arrived today. I really do adore the GothSocks colours!

What she found

Today, after all her Saturday obligations, my #1grrl, aka MiniMe, arrived home wanting to enjoy the many yard sales she'd seen out there. She grabbed her bike and headed out to see what she could find. I told her that if she saw any tank tops--and showed her an example--for 25 cents, to grab them for me. She found a camisole for 50 cents and brought it home.

Although it doesn't suit my original purpose, it has a nice row of pale green stretch lace. Thing is, stretch lace has suddenly become hard to get. None of the local (chain) fabric stores are carrying it. I'm baffled by this. Earlier this spring, I made her a pair of green leggings. Sadly, they're way too big and won't fit for a year or two. The good news is, I can recycle the stretch lace from the above top to the cuffs of these leggings. Hooray!

It's a beautiful day in the neighbourhood...

It's one of those Saturdays where it's impossible to do anything but be outside. The sun's out, but it still feels like spring here, so we're not overbaking outside, yet. I jumped on my bike, and with the newspaper garage sale map as my guide, explored the winding streets east of us and found some people getting rid of junk. The first sale was overpriced. Shirts cost more than they do at Thrift Town, and a single button-up shirt cost $10! No way. I'm after shirts for a quarter.

The next three yard sales I found all had shirts for a quarter. I dug through to find the 100% cotton stuff I long to cut up. I made a haul! For four bucks total, I brought home 16 shirts. I'd better get sewing!

sewing with scraps

Sometimes, when I'm all done sewing a diaper, I still have lots of fabric left. I can't help but thinking of those scraps as useful.
I use the few remaining baby clothes about the house to draft a pattern.


Cut them so efficiently that there might be enough left for another.


Baby clothes take so little fabric!


...and we have a bodice! This is the back.



And this is the back of the dress. I cut the skirt from the t-shirt's sleeves.



And look! It matches the shorties just like I'd hoped.

Contest

Yes, this is a knitting blog, not a diaper blog, but I have been sewing lots of diapers lately. I don't have anybody in this house wearing diapers, but I am keeping my school chum well stocked with diaper paraphanalia. I know she could put these bags to good use. Check it out. If you win, I won't. :)

More results from the sewing room.

Back into the sewing room after more than a month, and guess what? I make another diaper. This one's all buttery soft and brilliantly yellow, cut from recycled t-shirts. It doesn't have snaps, yet.



The best part is the message on the butt.

Greenies, finished

The shorts I started Saturday morning were finished promptly Sunday evening. I'm very pleased with how they turned out. I wish I had access to the baby herself so I could see how things fit. Oh well!

I used the itchy fingers longies pattern, doing the math using the numbers provided for a "small".

Saturday Sky

Oooh la la--double rainbow plus a quadruple rainbow.

 

Short on the shorties

On Saturday morning, I awoke thinking of knitting. I think this happens on the weekends because I have the luxury of waking up slowly. Instead of being yanked from a deep sleep directly into the morning's preparatory activities, I can lie there for a bit. And naturally, my thoughts turn to yarn.

On the day I dyed the volcano pants, I also dyed the leftover blank yarn in the sink. The results didn't look like I expected, and I was disappointed. I balled up the yarn and forgot about it. Now, almost 3 months later, I can look at the yarn and see it for what it is, rather than for what it is not. There were exactly 40 grams of it, so I decided to combine it with some green Cascade and make some shorties. I did a descending pattern of 6 rows colour A, 6 rows colour B, 5 rows colour A, 5 rows colour B, etc. I had the pattern pretty well calculated, but I forgot to take into account the extra yarn the short rows use up.

The following picture shows exactly where I ran out of yarn. I was on the final row of the pattern, the part where there was one row of each colour. I ran out of yarn 26 stitches shy of finishing the last row. Sigh.