May Day Giveaway

Well it’s May 1st, 2012!

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Happy May Day everyone!

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According to tradition, I would fill a basket with flowers, place it on your front step, ring your door bell and then run and hide somewhere. I would hide within view of your front door, so I could make sure that you received your May Day basket.

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This year I would like to give one dear reader a May Day basket of your very own. But I won’t be coming to your house or ringing your door bell, and I am not going to leave what is in the basket as a surprise. You will know exactly what you will be getting and when you will get it. This May Day box that you will get will contain something very dear to my heart, one Snoopy amigurumi and one Woodstock amigurumi made just for you by me.

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And I would like to give these Snoopy and Woodstock amigurumi’s to anyone who would like them.

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If you would like this May Day box of Peanuts amigurumi’s and perhaps a few other surprises too, please let me know why you think you should get them in a comment to this post. I will randomly choose one of the best comments I get on this post by the 15th of May and mail these two cute guys to you for FREE.

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Yes I will even pay for the shipping!

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How is that for the best May Day Deal EVER?!?

Bosom Buddies

Who would have thought that a dog and a bird could be such good friends for so long. Luckily for all of us, Charles M. Schulz did and the completion on my current amigurumi simply reconfirms the fact that Snoopy and Woodstock are meant to be friends forever.

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Due to my disappointment in the finished Woodstock, I almost did not finish the Snoopy pattern from the same author I had previously started before I made the Woodstock. I finally decided that it would not take much to finish Snoopy so I started crocheting. I found another error in the pattern count for a grand total of 4 miscounts I had to correct on the pattern. This really ruffled my feathers. I paid money for these patterns and expected the author to make every effort to have the counts correct.

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I would make some of the same changes to the Snoopy pattern that I would change on the Woodstock pattern. I would like his nose and arms longer. I like Snoopy’s feet much better than Woodstock’s feet, so I don’t know if I would change them as I would Woodstock’s feet. I disliked Snoopy’s neck as much as Woodstock’s neck until I attached Snoopy’s collar. Snoopy’s collar lifts up his head and hides the stitches at the neck. I thought about putting a collar on Woodstock to see if I would get a same effect, but decided that a collar on Woodstock just wouldn’t look right.

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Now that both amigurumi’s are done and they are sitting on my table side by side, I can finally say that I like my end results well enough. Alone, I do not like either pattern very well, but together they match and are very cute. The things that I see as a problem on each individually, are not there when they are posed together. I am so happy that I finished Snoopy so that Woodstock would have a friend and find his place in my heart.

Hey, Little Birdie, You Cool Cat!

I will say it up front. This is my least favorite amigurumi. Of all the amigurumi’s I have ever made, or at least that I have made recently, this one just does not appeal to me very much. I have placed this amigurumi on my desk by my computer to see if it will grow on me. It makes me sad to say this because as you can see this amigurumi is Woodstock and, as you know, I love all things regarding Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the Peanuts gang.

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I purchased Woodstock’s pattern online. The minute I saw this pattern I knew that I had to have it, as well as the other patterns for the other Peanuts characters that were for sale with it. Included in these patterns were patterns for Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Pig Pen, and Franklin. I was so excited at the time of purchase that I could not wait to get crocheting.

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I picked Woodstock to start with, but as I started to crochet his wings and feet, I was not happy with how he was turning out. After correcting a couple of errors in the pattern’s count, which really did not make me happy since I had paid money for this pattern, I continued to crochet hoping that my feelings would change as Woodstock came together. After crocheting all the pieces and starting the sewing part of the construction, I was still displeased with the results. After tying on the hair and embroidering the face, I was very disappointed with how he turned out. I tried adding more hair, removing hair, and adding it differently but it did not help.  I tried changing his smile, making it smaller, then bigger, then smaller and so on, but nothing seemed to improve my dissatisfaction with this amigurumi. I believe that the whole pattern needs a do over. Woodstock’s head needs to be bigger, his beak longer and skinnier, his neck opening decreased by a few rows and then sewn to the head. His wings need to be a little longer, and possibly his feet made a little smaller. Since I have so many patterns that I want to crochet, I don’t know that I have the desire to start playing with changes to this pattern right now. Right at this moment, I do not to want to try this pattern again or try to make any changes to it. I am just too disappointed. Maybe some day but not today.

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We were traveling when I finished the crocheting of the pieces for this Woodstock. Since I did not want to start the assembly process in the car, I started to crochet the pieces for the Snoopy pattern instead. After completing one arm and one leg and having to make 3 corrections to the pattern count, I am not sure I will finish Snoopy either at this point. I am very disappointed with Snoopy’s pattern as well. Now, I wish I had only purchased one pattern at a time from this seller. Even though I have had great success with patterns purchased online up till now, I have learned a lesson here and will be more cautious with my online purchase of patterns in the future.

What Could Be Worst Than a Fire?

You will not believe what happened to me this last week. We had a small fire in our house and my fabric stash caught on fire. I lost about 1/3 of the stash to the fire and about 1/3 of the stash to smoke damage. I am just devastated. I can’t believe that my precious fabric that took me 25 years to collect is gone. I lost all my Peanut prints, my Disney prints, most of my cottons and rayons, my collection of fabric for sleepers and most of the embroidery blanks I have purchased over the years. They are all destroyed. The only thing really left is the fleece and flannel stored outside of the closet and some larger pieces stored in a separate closet. My yarn stash ended up having the most smoke damage out of everything though. I believe I can wash some of the fabric but the yarn is just a goner. The husband tried to cheer me up by saying that this was good thing, that I could now go shopping for more fabric but right now I just don’t have the heart to shop for fabric or to joke around about fabric shopping.

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The second thing you will not believe is how the fire started. When the fire inspector came and saw my boxes of fabric, he just shook his head. He said he had only seen a fire that started this way once before in his 17 year career. The cause of the fire was the fact that I boxed flannel with its rough surface next to rayon with its smooth surface and then in a cardboard box. Something had forced the two fabrics to rub together. He said probably just the weight settling from the other boxes on top is what caused the movement. When the fabrics rubbed together, they sparked. This set the cardboard box on fire and the rest it history, including my stash.

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As much as I am totally upset, saddened and devastated, please do not send me any fabric. All I can say about all of this is that it is a good thing April 1st only comes once a year!

And Last In Box Number Three…

The contents of box number 3 is what made it easy to send a box of fabric to Good Will. Box 3 contained a lot of scraps. Although I find scraps useful to hang onto because I sew a lot of kid’s clothes, over the years I have found it easier and easier to just throw scraps away or to discern if there is any usable length to donate or use. Box 3 contained all three types of scraps, some went right to the garbage can, some went back into the stash but most had enough yardage to go into the donation pile.

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In box 3 was some useful gray fleece scraps that were just perfect for some kids sweatshirts. I love gray sweatshirts and they are also so much fun to embroider on because almost any design looks good on them. So, these scraps made it to the sew now pile.

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I laid out the gray scraps on my cutting table and then got out all my kid’s sweatshirt patterns in sizes 1 to 4. I started to arrange to pieces and quickly found that one size 1 shirt and one size 4 shirt fit the best. I cut out the pieces for them and then moved to the embroidery machine to get to work putting something fun on them.

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Since many designs would look good on the shirts, I had a difficult time picking just two designs. But, in the end, I turned back to my Peanut’s designs. I picked two designs that I had never stitched before, one for a girl and one for a boy. The gray fleece embroidered beautifully and the designs turned out great. But then again, all Snoopy designs do in my opinion.

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I then went back to the cutting table and picked colors for the ribbing which was easy after the embroidery was done. The sewing of sweatshirts went quickly and was great fun. Kid’s clothes are always fun to sew for me. They are usually simple and the results are always so cute.

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Now, as I look at the pile of scraps destined for Good Will, I begin to second guess myself. The gray scraps were transformed into such cute clothes. Couldn’t the rest of these scraps turn into the same? Yes, they could, but I think I will let someone else have the fun of making those scraps into something. And so off to Goodwill they go!

From Box Number Two…

With my first mystery box of fabric shirt done for myself, it was time to make the husband a shirt. From the second mystery box in the closet, I pulled this large piece of blue interlock knit out. Once again, I don’t know where or when I bought it, but I am sure I fell in love with it then as I have again now. It is a beautiful piece of fabric with a great soft feel and stretch.

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I cut the husband’s shirt out and then applied the interfacing to the fabric. The interfacing did not give me any hassle, which was nice. Do you think I have finally figured out the trick to applying interfacing? Or is the interfacing just teasing me, and will bubble and curl even more than normal the next time I use it?

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The sewing process for the husband’s shirt went smoothly. Before I opened up the mystery boxes from the closet, I had started a shirt for the husband but had not yet finished it. So as long as I was sewing the new blue shirt, I decided to finish up the first shirt at the same time. It is made from a ribbed green knit that has tons of stretch. Needless to say, with the stretch, the green shirt took more time to finish up than the blue one took to make. I only thought that I used a lot of pins on my shirt to keep the fabric from stretching. It was not even close to the number of pins I had to use on each seam of the husband’s green shirt to keep it from stretching too much.

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Embroidering designs on the shirts became a little more challenging than I expected, well at least on the green shirt. The only difficult part of embroidering on the blue shirt was picking the design. After looking at many designs, I returned to the my first choice, the Peanuts Snoopy as a World War I flying ace. It stitched up nicely on the shirt and it looks great. I love it, of course since it is Snoopy. Hopefully the husband will like it half as much as I do.

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The green shirt was made for the new Haunted Mansion design I had recently digitized for Halloween, but with the stretch, I just was not sure it was going to work out. Luckily over the years, I have learned and remembered some hard learned lessons, so I hooped up a scrap piece of the green fabric and tried the design out first. Due to the stretch, it did not work out. I hooped another piece of green scrap differently this time, tinkered with the design, and tried again. Still it was a No go. Disappointed, I looked though my designs and found a design I just loved, but have just never put on anything until now. So, I present to you superhero Tootsie Roll! The stretchy fabric still gave me a hassle with this design but since it was smaller, stitched from up and down rather than side to side, and had a much lower stitch count, I was able to make it work without too many problems. I think the design turned out cute and I like the chocolate buttons I chose on the shirt with the design.

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Now the dilemma, I want to finish sewing up the fabric from the boxes, but I am anxious to get into the stash and find a piece of fabric for another shirt to put the husband’s Haunted Mansion design on. So, what to do next?

Get a Job

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Since he cost me one and a half skeins of yarn and a half of a bag of stuffing to make, I told the three eyed monster that he was going to have to get a job to help pay for himself. After combing the help wanted adds and checking out a few options, Three Eyes decided that he wanted to work at Five Guy’s Burgers and Fries. He loves their hamburgers and fries as much as I do, so I agreed to help him get the job.

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To start his new job slinging burgers, Three Eyes needed an apron. This was easily made from some scraps that I found in the stash. We cut out the front of the apron, turned the edges and stitched them down. Next we made the ties and neck loop and attached them to the apron. Quickly enough, the apron was done, but it was too boring. That was when the husband stepped in. The husband designed the logo for the front of the apron and printed it out on some iron on transfer paper. Then he helped us iron the transfer on to the apron. The end result was a perfect apron for Three Eyes new job at Five Guy’s!

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Next, Three Eyes needed a hat, well, three hats really.  We tried to design baseball caps, but after checking out Five Guy’s uniforms, we decided to make sun visors instead.

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Three Eyes’ visors are made from red felt. We glued a piece of cardboard under the brim to give the felt some shape. So, that his visors didn’t just look like two pieces of felt glued together, I did some top stitching around the edges for a more professional look. Stitching cardboard is a good way to dull a needle, so now Three Eyes has to make even more money to buy me some new sewing machine needles.

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The big day finally arrived when the husband and I took Three Eyes to Five Guy’s Burgers and Fries to apply for a job. The manager thought he was very cute and decided to let him try a few different jobs at the restaurant to see how he would do.

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First, Three Eyes tried to help serve the complimentary peanuts they offer, but with no arms this was proving to be a little difficult.  Next, he tried to help at the register, but he would not stop flirting with the other register help. Working at the ketchup and mustard dispensers was his next job, and then at the soda machines, but neither of these positions were working out either. So, Three Eyes finally decided that a job at Five Guy’s was just not going to work out for him. With that decision made, Three Eyes decided he was hungry and needed some food since it was lunch time.

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Having some lunch made the pain of not getting his dream job a little less terrible as he wolfed down a delicious hamburger, fresh cut fries and a Coca Cola.

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I think Five Guys Burgers and Fries makes some of the best Burgers and Fresh Hand Cut french fries anywhere. They are one of my favorite burger joints. I love all of the great toppings they let you load up your burger with for FREE. I also enjoy Fatburger as they have some really good burgers too but their french fries are not nearly as good as Five Guys are. Steak and Shake has awesome burgers and shoestring french fries and really great shakes, but I still like the simplicity and the freshness of Five Guys food when all is said and done.

Embellishing Baby Towel Bibs – Part 2

With the first appliqued Snoopy bib completed and the end result turning out fabulous, I quickly started to embellish another bib. This time for a little girl. And so with another piece of Snoopy fabric in hand, I got started.

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This time I wanted the back ground peace signs of the fabric to be part of the embellishment. Having already done a square, I decided to try a circle. I hunted around the sewing room and the kitchen for the perfect circle but I could not find the right size. I finally remembered the circle cutter I had purchased many years ago. This is one of those craft items that you use about once every 3 years, that you really shouldn’t have taking up space in your closet but are so happy you have when you need it. I quickly cut the size of circle I wanted with the circle cutter, and then traced and cut out my fabric. Next I needed to fold and press the edges over evenly.

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I decided there was no way I could free hand the folding of the edges and get anything that still resembled a circle. So, I pulled out the seam 2 seam. I cut a smaller circle of the seam 2 seam and applied it to the back of the applique circle. I then snipped the edge of the circle and started to fold the edge over sticking it to the seam 2 seam as I went.

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This worked out fabulously!

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My end result was an almost perfect circle. I then applied the circle to the bib, holding it in place with the seam 2 seam, and stitched around the edge. I wish I had matched my thread color better to the fabric, but the stitching was very simple so it worked out ok. I stitched around the circle twice for a fun look.

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At this point the embellishment was done, but I was really not pleased with my end result. It was just a big circle on a towel. Even though it was a Snoopy in a circle on a towel, it still needed something else.

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I returned to my sewing closet and stared, hoping for inspiration, when my eye drifted to the far back corner where my old fabric paints lived. I have not used these in years. I was afraid they would be all dried up, but with a little shaking, the paint began to flow again and then the fun started. I created several peace signs in different sizes and colors with the fabric paints and they looked great!

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Adding some pink ribbing around the neck was the final touch for this bib. The end results are so cute. I can’t wait to give it to some little girl.

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As I pulled the fabric paints from the closet, ribbon, lace and various trims fell to the floor. As I picked them up, my creative mind went crazy. Pink Disney princess ribbon with pink matching lace. Disney Cars ribbon with car tracks made from fabric paint. Rainbow Snoopy ribbon with many more Snoopy appliques. A whole new use for my leftover scraps from my other sewing projects. The possibilities became endless, and I became very excited about what to make next.

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I will definitely be making more baby bibs and embellishing them with and without my embroidery machine and maybe a combination of both. Let the fun begin!

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If you want to see my original baby bib post you can find it HERE.

And I hope you all had a great Summer of LOVE and PEACE!

Outgrown

Does anyone remember the monkey applique blog post I did several months ago? Well, the mother of the little girl who received the shirt with the applique on it, told me the other day that her little girl was quite distressed because she was unable to wear the shirt any longer. She said that not only is it getting too hot to wear a sweat shirt, but that she is starting to out grow the shirt and it will definitely not fit her next year.

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It tickles me to find out that something I have made is being worn and liked, so I went home and found some fabric to make a summer monkey shirt. This yellow piece of fabric has been hanging out it the stash to be made into sleepers, but I had plenty for t-shirts as well. I cut a size larger than I think the she is but cut it a little shorter. I wanted to make sure it would fit her well.

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I chose a different monkey applique for the front of this shirt than the last one. I learned a lot from the first monkey applique I did. I applied those lessons to this applique, and then I learned a couple of more things along the way. The thing that I learned the most was that I needed to practice doing appliques, to perfect the technique. Good thing I have more monkey appliques to try it out with. The applique turned out too cute. The rest of the construction of the shirt was very straight forward and I am pleased the the results. I am so excited to give the shirt to the little neighbor girl.

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Unlike sleepers, I do believe that if you are making one kid’s t-shirt, it is just as easy to make two, so you can sew from one to the next. With that in mind, I cut and made a second yellow kid’s t-shirt. I put this Woodstock design on the second shirt because it is one of those designs I have always wanted to try but did not have anything to put it on and it is a summer design. I did not have enough ribbing for the sleeves in the particle blue color I used for the neck, so I just hemmed the sleeves instead. I wish I would have known this when I cut out the shirt. I would have just cut the sleeves a little longer for the hem. All in all, the second t-shirt is just too cute too.

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I love to sew kid’s clothes. They are just way too fun to make and I can be as creative as I want with them, plus fit is generally not as much of an issue as clothes for adults. Making these two t-shirts has me excited to sew more of them.

Amigurumi Snoopy

I found the best amigurumi pattern on eBay and just had to buy it. As you know, I have purchased several amigurumi pattern books and I’ve even purchased a couple of patterns from etsy, but I tend to just print out free patterns I find online. While checking out some of the free patterns, it lead me to eBay and the purchase of this expensive amigurumi pattern but as you can already guess, it is worth every cent to me. He is so cute!

When I got the pattern, I panicked a little. As I read through the pattern, I did not understand all the the instructions, and I figured out right away that this was not going to be a pattern I could follow while watching TV. It was going to take my full concentration. At first I pushed that pattern to the side and started to say someday, but I really wanted to make a Snoopy, so I dug it out and got started.

I started by finding my old magnetic pattern holder. Why was I not using this ages ago? It was very helpful at keeping my place on the pattern. I did not have to do quite as much counting while using it. At first, I counted each stitch very carefully as I crocheted, but as I continued to work on Snoopy’s parts I got the feel for how he was stitched together and I could finally relax and enjoy the crocheting. No, I still could not watch TV and keep up with the count, but it did become easier. I love the way his ears and feet crocheted. They turned out so cute, especially his feet.

Snoopy’s pattern started with a magic ring. I had never made one of these before. It took some study and viewing of internet tutorials to figure it out. I did several practice rings before getting a ring I was happy with, but I still need more practice before I can say I have mastered the technique.

As always, sewing the part together is a challenge for me. Although, this is the first pattern I have done that actually gave a guide for placing the parts as you sewed them together. That was nice. When I first started to stitch him together I was displeased with the results and was a little discouraged, but now that he is finished, I just love him and I think he turned out fine.

The pattern also came with a pattern to make the WWI Flying Ace cap for Snoopy. I have not been brave enough yet to start the cap, so for today, he is just Snoopy, and someday he will take on his alter egos of the Flying Ace or Joe Cool.

Much to my husband’s surprise, Snoopy is on his way to his new home. I have decided not to keep him but to make another one someday for me. I will definitely make another one for me and several more for everyone in the family.  (But truth be told, I don’t have room for even one more Snoopy. AAUUGH!)