Without Further Ado, I Present the Slit Plackets

First the good news! The slit placket on the last green kid’s shirt that I made came out of the washer and dryer with flying colors. It did not fall apart like the first one did. The fabric, the slit placket, and the interfacing did just great. The next step was to complete the shirt. But before I could do that I had to decide what design I wanted to embroidery on the shirt. It wasn’t so much my decision but the husband’s. I needed the husband to decided what design he wanted on his shirt, and then I would know what design to put on the kid’s shirt. If the husband picked a design I needed to try it out first before embroidering in on his shirt, and so the kid’s shirt became the best place to try a sample.

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The husband narrowed his choices down to two designs, a panda bear and a tiger. Since the tiger design was too large for the kids shirt, I decided to just put the panda on it and see how it turned out. When I finished embroidering the panda design, the husband like the design on the green fabric enough to pick the panda design without trying the tiger design first.

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After completing the husband’s shirt and the green kid’s shirt, I decided to go back to the first shirt with the placket that fell apart in the washer and see if it could be salvaged. With a little skill and a lot of luck, I was able to restitch the placket and get something useable from it. Since I had been viewing several panda designs, it was easy to pick a design for this shirt.

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After the husband’s shirt, the kid’s shirt and the trial and error samples with the green fabric, there were only scraps left, but enough to make a size 1 t-shirt with long sleeves. So, rather than putting the scraps back into the stash, I decided to just whip up this little t-shirt instead, and since all the embroidery thread and supplies were out I decided to try a design that was up for consideration on the kid’s green placket shirt. I like the design quite a bit and plan to use it again.

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Now that the my slit placket adventure is over, I am glad I went through it. I learned a lot and improved my skill of sewing slit plackets quite a bit. But, I am ready to move on and sew something else besides green fabric and slit plackets.

Meng Long – The Fierce Dragon Panda Bear

After perusing my usual crocheting web sites, I noticed that many people were crocheting amigurumi panda bears in various shapes, styles, and sizes. All the panda’s looked so cute that I decided I wanted to make one too. So, this is Meng Long. His name means fierce dragon but I don’t really find anything fierce about him. I think he turned out super cute, and is just adorable.

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Meng Long’s pattern came from the book Amigurumi Two by Ana Paula Rimoli. I used the “toys in pajamas” pattern. I have made this pattern a couple of times and just love it. It crochets up quickly and easily and the end results are  always cute. I really like the shaping on the hands and feet of this pattern.

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The time limiting factor in Meng Long’s construction was the details on his face. Did I want to use felt or crochet rounds for the black of his eyes? Did I want to add white felt to the eyes as well? Did I want to crochet him a muzzle or just use felt for his nose and mouth? If I crocheted a muzzle, did I want to use a plastic nose or embroider a nose to the muzzle? I finally decided to stop asking questions and just try a few things out. So, with that, I got started.

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I liked the felt on the eyes better than the crocheted rounds right off. And I decided on blue eyes early in the process even though I know that pandas do not really have blue eyes naturally. The white felt on the eyes was a must. It took a long time, with lots of trimming, and several tries to get the felt shapes I wanted for the eyes, but the end result was worth the time and effort. I crocheted a muzzle but it took only a couple of minutes to decide that I did not like it with the muzzle. I decided I wanted him to be cartoonish cute, and not look very realistic in the end. I embroidered  his nose square, but the husband said to add the point at the top of the square. After adding the point, I agreed with the husband. It looked better that way. The crooked smile I made him with was my idea though.

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After the face was designed,  Meng Long just needed to be stitched together. The stitching together of the parts went smoothly. I did not rush the process. I took my time to do it right, which kind of made it fun to see him come together. I decided to stitch his arms and legs closed and then stitch them to his body. This way he can sit down, but it is harder for him to stand. This is ok because I designed him as a toy to be  played with, and not a decoration to be displayed.

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Meng Long is having a great time in the sewing room playing with Sarah and the other amigurumi’s hanging out in there, but he needs a home of his own where he will be loved and played with.

Mixed Up Monkey

I found this monkey pattern on Ravelry.com and fell in love with it. I printed out the pattern and it quickly made its way to the top of my to do list.

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Excited about crocheting this monkey, I went to the yarn stash but could not find the correct brown colored yarn that I had pictured in my mind for this monkey. Flustered, I checked out the local places I have to buy yarn but I really did not find what I was looking for. Then I ran across this variegated yarn and decided it would work ok. I was not thrilled about it, but it was better than anything else I had found. For the accents, I picked the cheap tan brown yarn I had used to make Calli the bear,  a while back. I did remember that I really did not like this yarn as it has no stretch, but decided to use it anyway. Boy, I could not have picked two different acting yarns. The variegated Vanna’s Choice yarn stretched quite a bit as I crocheted, and the cheap tan yarn did not give at all. In fact, the variegated yarn gave too much. When I stuffed the monkey, the variegated yarn showed larger holes in the crocheting than I like.

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As far as the pattern goes, it is very well written. I had no problems following the instructions, and the body parts turned out just like the picture showed. I did make one modification to the pattern. Row 1 started with 8 sc in the ring. I knew this was going to make a large hole at the start of each body part, as I learned from Blue, the giraffe. So, I made the first row 4 sc in the ring and row two 8 sc, increasing each body part by one row. I am pleased with the end results using this technique and will try to remember this lesson on other amigurumi’s I make later.

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I think I overstuffed this monkey though. As I crocheted the body parts, I pictured this monkey being a rag doll monkey, his body hanging in a floppy lump as he is carried by his arm. I stuffed the body and the head firmly but only stuffed the arms and legs at the base. I got the effect I was looking for from the arms and legs but the body and head is too full to hang flopply as I had envisioned.

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As usual, I was not happy with the results as I sewed the parts together, partly because of the stuffing problem, but as he reached completion, he turned out as cute as could be. His ears made all the difference. When I attached the ears, he took on his own personality and his cuteness really popped. I want to make another monkey though and see if I can get the rag doll look I was going for. This monkey’s pattern came with a banana pattern. I have not tried it yet but I will. He needs a banana. He also needs a name and a home. Any suggestions?

$0.25 Apiece

It was time to make a couple of baby sleepers for gifts. As I dug through the stash for just the right piece of fabric for the sleepers, I came across a nice piece of gray velour. This piece was purchased from JoMar’s $0.50/yard table in Philadelphia. The edge was stained from the machine that rolled it on the bolt. When I saw and felt the piece I knew it would make beautiful sleepers. I was not really sure about the stain or just how much room I had in my suitcase to take home fabric for sleepers, so I only purchased 1 yard.

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My first step was to wash the fabric. Before washing, I pretreated the stain just to see if it would come out. After pretreating, the stain still would not come out making my next step to cut off about 6 inches along the edge where the stain was. I knew there would still be enough fabric for at least one sleeper, so I started to cut. I cut out a size 0-3 month.

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When I finished cutting the first sleeper, I noticed that I still had plenty of fabric remaining. As I laid out the pattern pieces to cut a second sleeper, I noticed that I would still have plenty of fabric left after cutting out that sleeper too! Wow, maybe this piece of fabric grew in the washer! Since I had enough fabric, I decided to make a size 3-6 month sleeper for the last one. This finally left me with just scraps.

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The sleepers sewed up fairly easily. The zippers and the velour wanted to fight a little, so that required some patience and time to get right. I hate to unpick, but I did on part of one of the zippers to try and get a better look from it. The embroidery designs were easy to pick. The gray velour was perfect for a mostly white design, and that made it easy to pick white for the ribbing and zipper.

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The polar bear design slipped a little while stitching it but a hot iron helped to fix that problem and it washed ok, but it still bugs me as a seamstress when I look at it since it isn’t perfect. I then used some of the web knit on the back of the designs so it was soft for the babies skin and it seemed to help the problem as well. It is just so vexing when your sewing projects don’t work just the way you envisioned them to.

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Even though these are not my most favorite sleepers  that I have ever made, they sure are cute enough. Plus I think any baby would be happy to wear them and any parent happy to have their child wear them. What do you think of them?

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Brownie The Bear

I have got to start reading patterns more closely. I found this free bear pattern by my favorite author on the internet and thought it was just the cutest bear. With that thought in mind, I put all my other crocheting aside and started making one right away.  After crocheting the body and the legs, I became quite disappointed. The bear was not turning out the way I had imagine.  I had expected a bigger bear. If I had read the pattern, I would have known the finished size of the bear was very small.

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I felt like I had too many pieces of the bear finished to abandon the project, so I continued to crochet. After completing the crocheting and sewing the parts together, I was disappointed once again. The bear is not nearly as cute as the picture. Where did I go wrong? To me, he looks more like a fox than a bear. If I had just made him out of red, he would be really cute. Looking at the picture, I have decided that his eyes are too small and too high on his head. I am about to give up on crocheting bears. I have not found a pattern that I really like yet. The other animals that I crochet turn out so much cuter than the bears that I am going to stick with them.

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My husband said I am too hard on the little bear and named him Brownie. He says he is cute, but agrees that he is not quite like the picture on the pattern but doesn’t need to be. He keeps reminding me that even misfit toys need love too. I know this and Brownie is starting to grow on me, but I am moving on to different animals in the future.

Ninja #5: Half Complete

Hawk, ninja #5 in the husbands army, is a stealth fighting machine as he battles evil doers with his sleek nun-chucks.

Hawk comes from the teddy bear pattern found in Amigurumi World by Ana Paula Rimoli, minus the ears of course. The husband said to try and make bigger ninjas for the next ones, so I returned to the regular teddy bear patterns. Hawk is the largest ninja of the group so far. I was going to make him solid gray, but while looking at the yarn at Walmart, I found this new Fiesta yarn from Red Heart and just had to try it. I love the color of the yarn and I think it crocheted up into a nice looking ninja. I made him a felt face like Tiny Bears instead of a crocheted one like Roja’s and I like it much better. Because he is bigger, I decided to stitch his face down. The husband picked black floss to sew the face on with. I was not sure about the using the black floss on the felt but tried it anyway. After completing the face it reminded me of a hawk, thus this ninja’s name. Once again I crocheted his ties from the pattern in my Creepy Cute Crochet book.

The nun-chucks are a whole other story. I had to make the pattern for them myself. I used a size E hook and black 4 ply yarn to make two tiny handles. I then crocheted a small chain out of gray yarn and tried to attach the chain to the handles. This was not as easy as it sounds. I did a lot of knotting, pulling and cussing when the knots pulled through the handles. It seemed like it took me longer to make his nun-chucks than it did to make Hawk himself. When the nun-chucks were finally complete, I knew they would not take a lot of abuse so I carefully glued them tightly to Hawks body. I hope this will protect the nun-chucks if Hawk is every played with as a toy. The nun-chucks look good, but I don’t know if any of the other ninja in the army will have a pair. Stars and Swords were much easier to crochet.

So now the army is half complete. Even though the husband likes the looks of Hawk, minus the Fiesta gray yarn, the husband said to go ahead and try other patterns to complete his army.

P.S. We saw the movie Despicable Me, and now the husband thinks he needs a minion of minions. I told him not until the ninja army was complete.

Ninja #3: The army grows!

Beware the ninja called Tiny Bear. He is fearless as he fights his enemies with his silver star. He is the third ninja in the husbands ninja army.

Upon completing Yin and Yang, the husband thought they were fine ninja, but he had envisioned his army a little differently than just 4 more Yins and 4 more Yangs. With this, the search started to find a different ninja pattern. Not really having any luck finding a ninja pattern, I decided to make one up. Digging through the patterns I already have, I ran across the tiny bear pattern from Amigurumi World by Ana Paula Rimoli. If you remember in a past post I had made the tiny bear and he liked to play with alligator. That was before he went to live with my nephew. I decided that by leaving the ears off of the tiny bear pattern, I could make him into a fine ninja.

I followed the pattern for tiny bear and made this red ninja from that pattern, then I went back to the Creepy Cute Crochet book and made him a star and a belt like Yin and Yang’s. When the husband saw Tiny Bear (which I named him), he thought Tiny Bear was a fine ninja and would serve his army well, but still not quite what he had in mind. (I think it is because I made him in red or because of his big head.)

So, the search for the perfect ninja pattern continues.

Made from England

Not in but from England. This teddy bear is constructed from the yarn and eyes that I transported half way around the world a year ago this last November.

I chose a pattern from the free patterns on the Lion Brand Yarn Company’s web site. The pattern’s picture was of a white Christmas teddy bear. I did not want a Christmas bear so I did not make him a scarf. This is the first time I have crocheted with suede yarn. I enjoyed working with the yarn. It crocheted very smoothly with no splitting of the yarn’s threads. I did have to be careful when making knots or undoing stitches not to pull the fuzzy part off the yarn, leaving me with a just a thread. The eyes and nose were simple to put on making the face no problem to put together. The pattern did not call for a mouth so I didn’t add one. I have not decided if that is the right decision or not.  He may get a mouth yet. Sewing this teddy bear’s parts together went smoothly as well, but is still not my favorite part of the construction. The black suede yarn was nice though. It hid a lot of the constructions stitches. All in all, this teddy bear stitched up rather quickly and easily.

I don’t know what to think about this teddy bear now that he is complete. He is not as soft as I expected him to be compared to the yarn. (He is certainly softer than any other amigurumi I have made.) Compared to the picture on the pattern, he did not turn out correctly at all. I don’t know if it is the difference between the yarns used or the black and white colors, or just me. I have sat him on my sewing table so I can stare at him and see if he will grow on me, like the snowman did, but he has not. This is the only thing that makes me like him because he is somewhat of a misfit in my opinion and who doesn’t love a misfit.

So, Mr Teddy is looking for a good home. Does anyone want to provide him with one?

No More Pointy Heads

I think I have figured out why my amigurumi creatures always had such pointy heads and how to fix it. I am crocheting them inside out. I will try to explain what I was doing wrong and what I am doing to fix the problem.

I’ve started on my 3rd animal, an elephant. I started with the body and finished with a pointy butt. Next, I started making the head and the pointy head appeared right away. Frustrated, I started to study the pictures in the book and play with the pieces I had crocheted. I found that if I turned the body and the part of the head that I had started inside out, the point was greatly decreased, but then the pieces had ridges. Thinking that turning the pieces inside out was the answer, I started on the legs. This is where I learned the errors of my ways. On row 4 of the elephants feet, the pattern said to stitch in the back loop only to make a ridge around the bottom of his feet. What? I stitch in the back loop exclusively.  Then the bells started to ring. I was suppose to be inserting my hook into both loops. This explained the ridges and the added length in the pieces, why such long face on my animals and the long arms on the monkey. Then more bells started to ring. Previously, when I started the circle I let it fold so that I was crocheting inside the forming cup, inserting my hook inside the cup outward. It finally dawned on me to do the opposite, working the circle so it folds the other way and so now I am inserting my hook from outside the cup inward. Excited with everything I had figured out, I pushed the elephant to the side and started on another animal.

Wanting to see if my theories were correct, I picked a tiny amigurumi to do next. Meet the tiniest bear ever (not really). Crocheting opposite of how I previously had, I did not get a pointed head or ridges. Plus my rows of stitches look more like the pictures in the book. I am pleased with the end results and I think I have solved the pointy problem, plus this was the first time I have crocheted with such a small hook. Although the hook was only one size smaller, it was interesting to work the smaller stitches. I only put a felt face on the little bear because I was not sure how he was going to turn out. All in all though I think he is cute as is.

Looking back at my table covered in elephant parts, I decided to go ahead and finish the elephant. So, I would also like you to meet Ridgie, the elephant. He is a combination of my old and new methods of crocheting amigurumi. As you can see, he has some ridges on his head and body from being turned inside out. I left a couple of rows out of the head to help decrease the length of the face due to the incorrect back loop stitching. In the learning process, I had stitched a couple of the legs, stitching in the front loop on the 4th row to get the ridge, and thinking I would turn them inside out. As mentioned earlier, turning the parts inside out was not the right answer. Since I already had the two legs done, I decided to just do the other two legs the same way so they all matched. Also, I did not spend a lot of time on his face not knowing how he would turn out. All in all though, I think he turned out pretty cute too. I did not crochet his tail. With him being such an odd ball, I gave him a little braided tail instead.

Now, I just need to find homes for a misfit elephant and a tiny bear.