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Category Archives For Craftiness

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It is definitely looking a bit like Christmas here at the Wood Homestead, thanks to three new Christmas Garlands we’ve recently hung.

The first is a New Englandy Cranberry and Popcorn garland that adorns the front windows:

The second, a traditional construction paper Paper Chain garland. It is hung above harm’s reach in the archway between the dining room and kitchen. Catherine’s new found stapling skills were a huge help in making this garland.

And finally, a snowflakey, starry garland hung to disguise the lamp cord above the dining room table. I knit the stars using this pattern (here’s mine on Ravelry for you ravelers) and then strung them all together.

Sewing Storage

In our new and improved basement living room I have a whole corner devoted to my sewing equipment and such. There’s one large shelf on the wall and my Singer sits on a nice big desk. The desk has several big drawers. Between the shelf and the drawers I am able to store most of the things I need.

What my storage hasn’t provided, however, is protection from exploring fingers. I love for Catherine to craft with me- and often let her play with the straight pins and pincushions or cut small bits of fabric- but I don’t really want her exploring those things alone.

Last Sunday I fashioned up a little storage solution for things like pins (both straight and safety), buttons, clasps, bobbins and other bits and bobs.

I started out with the hard back piece from and Ikea ‘Clips’ photo frame. It was chosen due to its thin nature and the fact that I already had it! The jars are just a few of the breastmilk storage jars I used when Catherine was in the hospital. I put in screws from above, through the board and then through the jar lid. Then, I simply filled the jars and screwed them up into the lids. Viola! Storage that Catherine can’t break into…yet!

Sewing Patterns Courtesy of Freecycle

What is the first thing a gal should do when faced with five boxes of sewing patterns? Take pictures and post them, threadbared style, on her blog, of course!

Some that I’m keeping:

There are some really cute kids patterns. I love the simple lines of these little dresses and rompers! One of them is already in the works. Pics are soon to follow.

Some that I’m not:

Holy shoulder pads, Batman! And I’m pretty sure that’s Meg Ryan from the later portions of “French Kiss” there in the yellow pants. Not the yellow pantsuit. I think Meg had better sense than that!

Of special note:

That’s right, folks, a Snuggie. Or at least it’s older cousin.

Check out a bunch more here.

Tiny Tangerine

Per Catherine’s request, I made Esme an orange shirt just like hers. I had to do a little finagling with the pattern to make it smaller overall, but big enough to fit over her diaper. It knit up nice and quick and I think the two of them are pretty darn cute!

Tangerine Dream

This is the blog where I come clean about my Mama-crush. I’ve been following Amanda’s blog, Soulemama, for quite some time now and am so often inspired by her words and her projects and her views on life and parenting. I own a copy of her first book, The Creative Family and am eagerly anticipating her second, Handmade Home.

I was most recently inspired by this post in which she talks about a knit, spring-time top that she made for her daughter. I took one look at the top and knew I had to make one for Catherine.

The pattern is called “Girl’s Cap Sleeved Spring Top” and is available at no cost here, or for those of you on Ravelry, here. Knit seamless on circular needles it was a very fast project that yielded fantastic results. I really love the way it looks on Catherine and have plans to make a few more in different colors for the Spring and Summer.

Catherine loves it as well. She asked, almost immediately, if I would make a matching one for Esme. Call me a sucker for a cute face, but I’ve made some alterations to the pattern and a (hopefully) Esme sized top is already on the needles. I think I’ll make it a bit longer and call it a dress

[As always, click on the photos for larger versions!]

Toasty and Frosty

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I thought, despite the warmer weather we’ve had this past week, that Peter could use an additional winter hat. So I spent the last week knitting him one.

The hat was wrapped up with a little booklet of 10 free Frostys from Wendy’s. I thought it was kind of ironic to give a gift of something to keep him warm and something to cool him off. Clever me!

Christmas Crafting

I was determined to make many of our Christmas presents this year. Besides the tangible benefits- less cost, less waste, etc.- it was nice for me to have little projects to keep my fingers busy during the days. And most of them I could do right on the couch while Catherine played! It was much more relaxing that walking the mall!

Now that the surprises are no longer surprises I thought I’d share the things I made.

I was inspired by a photo online to try these Christmas cards this year. They weren’t difficult to make, but very time consuming. I definitely had fun making them and loved the way that they came out.

Knit dishcloths for my Mom and Mother-in-Law. They look really fancy, but were pretty simple to knit. I was glad to have these finished by the end of October. They set the crafting ball in motion for the rest of the season.

Not a great picture, but you can see the little pincushion that I whipped up for my Mom. All the fabrics were scraps from my fabric box!

A pair of cozy leg warmers for Catherine. These come in handy since she doesn’t always love wearing pants. Or any clothes. Sometimes she won’t keep these on either

A Pink, Orange, Purple and White quilt for Catherine. While I was making it she would come up and say, “What’cha makin, Mama? A quilt to me?” and I’d say, “yup. but, shhh, it’s a surprise”. She’d get all sneaky looking and say okay and tiptoe away. Too cute! The quilt is machine pieced and hand quilted (for those that are curious about that sort of thing)

Froggy Bean Bag Game for Catherine. (#3 seems to be missing). Frog bean bags that you toss onto the lily pads. Lots of possibilities for games to be invented. All frogs are from stash fabrics- old skirts, sheets, pj pants, etc

New Geeky Onesies ‘for’ Peter. He’s already mentioned them. Click here for their gallery and bigger pics. I had fun coming up with cute logos and such that reflect Peter’s personality and interests.

Tambourine Surgery

Catherine got a great little music set for her birthday. She loves making music and the instruments have been well loved and used over the last few months. Most of them have held up very well, the exception being the skin on the tambourine. I think she punched through it in the first week.

I made a couple attempts to repair the poor thing, mostly using clear packing tape. But, sadly, they were only stopgap measures and didn’t hold up. I brainstormed for a while and finally came up with a new solution.

First, I needed to remove the old skin. The glue holding it on was extremely good. I was really only able to remove the ‘loose’ portion. The bit around the edges would have to stay.

Next, I opened up a Tyvek mailing envelope from the USPS and cut a circle just larger than the diameter of the tambourine. A bead of Elmer’s glue on the top rim was used to affix the Tyvek. I put a couple books on top and left it to dry.

Once the top was dry I tacked down the edges. Got a little gluey and messy, but most good projects do!

Hopefully this new skin will be a bit more durable than the first, but probably won’t be worse. And if it gets broken again I know I can always repair it!

First Winter Preparation…

Have you heard that the Old Farmers Almanac is predicting a particularly cold winter this year? OFA forecasts are prepared two years in advance, which leaves a lot of room for error. In our neck of the woods, however, winter can usually be counted on to be cold.

With the cost of heating the way it is, we’re already planning for the chilly weather. I finished up a little project this weekend to help keep Catherine toasty at night: flannel sheets! Flannel sheets are always a little nicer to climb into on frosty winter nights.

I’ve mentioned before that I like to find a second hand source for the things I need/want whenever possible. This project was no different, so I paid a visit to a new store in my grocery plaza- Savers. I’ve heard tell of Savers from friends in other parts of the country, but this is the first one around here. It is sort of a nicer, more organized Thrift Shop.

I quickly came across what I needed, a queen sized flannel sheet for the low, low price of $3.99. I snatched it up and ran it through the wash. Then, using this tutorial, and some too-wide (but all I had) elastic, I set to work. I was able to get on crib sized fitted sheet and an average sized pillowcase out of the one sheet. Had I planned better and wasn’t so set on reusing the manufacturer’s hems I might have been able to get a second sheet. Next time around I think I could make due with just a full sized sheet to start out with.

All told, the cutting and sewing probably took me 2 hours. The sheets fit her little bed perfectly and I can’t wait for her to snuggle in this winter.

Summer Dress: the Sequel

The cute stripey dress I made last week (Yes, I think it is fabric from Ikea! Thanks, Kinda!) was really just a practice project for another dress that I’ve had in mind for some time now.

The story. (There’s always a story, isn’t there?) Way back in college…7 years ago… I bought a cute little skirt. I loved it and I wore it a lot and then all of a sudden I didn’t like it. I mean, I didn’t like it as a skirt anymore. I still loved the fabric and couldn’t bear to part with it.

From college, to my parents, to Beverly and finally to Danvers it traveled with no specific purpose in mind other than “someday I will use this fabric for something.” It survived massive rounds of purging and organizing and evaded many bags bound for the Salvation Army. “I will use this someday!” I continued to tell myself. The skirt’s saving grace was that it was small and light and easy to tuck into a box or drawer. By being so cute and being stealthy the skirt outlived all of its comrades.

With this dress as inspiration, I knew that my skirt was destined to become a summer dress for Catherine. Having already tested out my “trace the dress on the fabric, cut and sew” theory I went forward with confidence onto dress number two.

I was particularly careful with this dress, as I wanted to try and preserve the skirt’s original hem. I was successful and was also able to position the dress so that I could also make use of the original zipper right up the back! With this dress I only had to sew the side seams, finish the neck and arm holes and connect the shoulders. It really did work out quite nicely.

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