DIY Crochet Hook Clutch

I crochet.
Didn't know that?
Well, I haven't showcased many of my projects yet on this blog,
but I have been crocheting since about 10 years of age,
and have crafted a myriad of projects.

I have my mother to thank for teaching me the craft,
and this Christmas I wanted to give something back to her,
which is why I decided to sew her a clutch case for her various crochet hooks!
This was one of the projects I was really excited about making,
but couldn't share with you back in November.

Through, where else, but Pinterest,
I found this wonderful tutorial from  Little Birdie Secrets.
All the measurements are there for you,
even a breakdown of pocket spacing for each hook size.

My Changes:
-I did make my pocket size for G and H a mite smaller,
going just under 1/2 inch.

-I made my clutch a tri-fold.
 I liked the size better and felt it helped to cocoon the hooks in more securely.
This does affect the placement of the button,
so bear that in mind when considering which version you want to make.


I used leftovers fabric from this project and a multi-colored striped shirt in my refashion pile
to craft my version of this hook case.

See those lovely colors?

I knew this would partner well with the coral and robin's -egg- blue of this gorgeous floral print.

It lends a bit of whimsicality, don't you think?

The stripped fabric became the sheaths for the hooks.

Following along with the instructions,

it came together very nicely.

You can see here that my button placement is different than the original.

Just fold your case over as many times as you would like, in this 'case' (sorry), 

I folded mine over twice, then the rounded part folds downward. 

How you fold it will determine where the button and closure fall.

Doesn't this button match perfectly?!

Would you believe it was the original button from the huge coral blazer I refashioned?

It is hard to tell in this picture,

but it just so happened that many of the lines I stitched to create

the hook pockets correlated with the pattern stripes!

At any rate, they made excellent guides for a straight stitch.

Here it is all finished!

The biggest problem I had?

Sewing this darling up without mom knowing!

My sewing area is in the middle of the house, a high traffic area,

so there is no hiding what you are making...unless..yes...that was it!

I would make it in one morning while mom was away at Bible study!!

It was perfect...she would never know...I'd clean up every trace of evidence...

there wouldn't be a single thread on the floor...the perfect crime surprise...mwahaha!!!

No joke. 

That's just how I felt.

Like some mad scientist whipping up an end of the world concoction in his lab,

I was giddy with delight that I pulled it off, a complete and utter surprise!

"I've done it!! I've created a masterpiece!"

It still gives me thrills just thinking about it.

And she was...

completely surprised.

DIY Disney Silhoutte Wallhangings

I'm sure you've seen the Disney silhouette cutouts on Pinterest and around the web, right?

Just in case you haven't,

here are a couple examples...

 

 Apparently,
you could take the easy route and order these from Etsy,
they are all over the place in various shops,
but I decided to make my own as a Christmas present to my little sister!


I made a few design changes to mine, however
Wanna see?

When selecting my cutout images, 

I kept in mind what posters and pictures my little sister didn't have,

and tried to fill in the gaps.

 No princess room is complete without a castle!

I decided to cut mine from a patterned scrapbook piece,

 and I love the way it turned out!

For this silhouette, 

I simply printed the image on the back of patterned scrapbook card stock

 (cut down to fit in the printer) then cut the shape out.

My next set of cutouts were done differently.

What I Did:

-First I found an image in one of our various coloring books

-Second, I laid a piece of scrapbook paper, printed side down,

underneath the page with my chosen picture.

-Next, using a pointed instrument, like a pencil without the led tip,

a chopstick etc. (just so long as you aren't actually writing on the surface)

I traced around the outline of the image, being sure to apply a decent amount of pressure.

This resulted in the outline being pressed into the scrapbook paper underneath,

and, if the coloring page on the reverse side had any crayon on it,

that color was also transferred into the indented outline.

-Now cut along the traced lines, and you have your silhouette!

Using a glue stick, secure it to a blank sheet of your choosing, and frame.

.

As an added element,

I chose phrases from the movie of my characters

and wrote them in easy, flowing calligraphy on a blank sheet, 

which became the backdrop.

I love the detail it adds!

Ariel's background phrases were written straight across,

but for the cutout of Rapunzel and Flynn,

I chose to slant the words starting in the corner,

and start them mid phrase of mid word so it looked as if it continued off the page.

I discovered afterwords that I misspelled Flynn's name, but oh well!
These received lots of 'oohs' and 'ahhs' from the little princess!

The frames were purchased at a dollar store for a total of $6
while the rest of the supplies were already on hand,
making this a very inexpensive gift!
Combined with the approval of my sister, that makes this project a big success!

DIY Basic Boy's Wallet

Remember when I shared with you

a list of projects I intended I make as Christmas gifts?

Well, today I will share with you my version of the 

Basic Boy's Wallet.

As soon as I stumbled upon this clear, easy to replicate tutorial from Noodlehead, 

I knew I needed to create my own version as a gift for my baby brother.

For my wallet,

 I used a scrap piece of denim from a refashion project,

and cut the remaining pieces from a plaid shirt.

 Ahh, look at those lines, all matching...*sigh*...it does my OCD good.

Oh, um, moving on...

Using the basic tutorial instructions,

I folded and pinned the card pockets.

Before sewing these up, 

I inserted a card, testing the depth of each pocket,

to insure I had them right.

In place of leather accents, as used in the tutorial,

I opted for a simpler version.

Snipping a blue 'J' out of a piece of felt really personalized this wallet, 

perfect for the six-year old stage of life where ownership is key.

Not to mention blue is my little brother's favorite color.

Stitching around the outside edges,

I had my initial secured lickety-split.

The rest was fairly simple,

I sewed up the edges, turned the whole thing inside out

and finished with some top stitching!

I will admit though, the edges of all my pieces weren't perfectly aligned, 

which caused some frustrations...

but nothing some trimming and increased seam allowances didn't fix.

And just like that I had created a cute little wallet.

Throw a couple of $1 bills in there, and it was a hit with the little man!

If I were to change to a few things,

I would certainly have used a webbing on the plaid pieces inside,

the material is very soft and thus a bit floppy.

Alas, I didn't have any on hand and needed to get this finished.

Also,as an afterthought, 

it dawned on me that a six year old really hasn't much use

for the card pockets but would much more have benefited

from sort of zippered or pocketed compartment for change!

Oh well, he loved it, and that is all that matters in the end!

Top 5 of 2013 Hits

 Hello my dear faithful-even-when-I-don't-post-for-a-month followers!

I don't know about you, but this past month was so busy

 that blog posts were the last thing I was worried about. 

I'll admit, I did worry about it a wee bit, but hey, the reality is I have a life, you have a life, 

and that life won't end if I don't post anything on my little blog.

Aside from being busy completing a large order of my mermaid crochet dolls, 

making some (though sadly not all) of these DIY Christmas gifts,

 I also dealt with an illness immediately following Thanksgiving 

that could have landed me in the hospital. 

I still have a few issues that I need to deal with, 

but I was able to get my body back up to relative health.

Anyway...
As things have settled down a bit,
I have been doing some catching up on my blog reading, another thing that didn't happen over the holidays, and I have been seeing the Top 5 of 2013 posts at several blogs I frequent.
It sounds like a fun idea, so I thought I would hop on the last passing wagon!

Here is my list for...

 Top 5 of 2013: Hits

 

5. Minty Teal Shirt Refashion



This was a pretty easy refashion, more of a fitting job, really, than an overhaul.
But with a few little fitting tweaks and by taking off the collar,
I completely changed the fit and style of this shirt.
It quickly became one of my favorite wardrobe pieces!

4. Bubble Hem Denim Maxi Skirt Refashion



Again,
this was a pretty simple refashion.
By combining a too-small pair of jeans and a hardly-worn skirt,
I created a fun maxi skirt that I absolutely fell in love with.
All of the extra width of the skirt was gathered at the front by using a box pleat,
and this created a flowing, draped effect at the front of the skirt.
This was in strong rotation during the warmer months of summer,
and I can't wait to pull it out next season!


3. Peplum Jacket Refashion



Those of you who followed me
during the Refashion Runway challenges will remember this jacket.
 I am super proud of how it turned out, and I love all of the little details...
lightly puffed sleeves, pin tucked seams in front and back, extra buttons
and lovely metallic and burgundy thread stitching detail.
Plus, as a budding seamstress, this held many firsts, including drafting
my own peplum pattern.

2. Medieval Costume



My first real refashion challenge this past year
came when one my younger brothers needed a medieval costume
as part of his camp counselor outfit for their weekly medieval banquet.
After a thrifting trip, we came up with just the right pieces
and I was able to make a shirt, vest, cape, hat, leg wraps,
 and even the cape clasp from thrifted items!
His outfit was a hit and I was more than thrilled with the final results.

And now, for my most favorite refashion and sewing project from this year...
I give you ...

1. The Jane Costume 



Also another project from the Refashion Runway Season 2,
this is for certain my crowning achievement of 2013!
In the midst of this project, I was under pressure and a bit stressed,
but looking back, I had lots of fun putting together the details and seeing things take shape.
The best part of course was seeing the finished costume and dressing up for a fun photo shoot.


And there you have it,
my top five hits from this past year!

When I take into account that I haven't yet been sewing for a complete year,
I am so excited and pleased to look back and track my progress.
I can't wait to see what this coming year has in store!

I would like to thank Gillian over at Crafting a Rainbow
for coming up this great year end review idea!

It's Coming, It's Coming!

Hello, friends!

I'm sorry things have been so quiet around here since the end of RR,

but I just have one thing to say to that.

Christmas is coming!!!

 

Do you know what this means?!

 

This means I have less than 34 days to make all my gifts,

AND fill an order for eight of my crocheted mermaid dolls!

On top of that, I've returned to serving as my dad's carpenter assistant,

so that makes for long days, which means even less time to make everything!

 

But don't worry,

I'm a chronic procrastinator (for evidence there is this post, and this post, AND this post).

but if there is one thing I've learned, it is that I work best with the panic of an impending deadline!

 

That means things will be kind of slow here on the blog for a season,

but I know you all have your own busy holidays to tackle,

so maybe one less post to read will be good for your schedule as well.

 

I would love to share with you my finished products,

but there are several people who read my blog that I will making things for,

so those will just have to wait until after Christmas.

 

Here are a few projects I intend to tackle that I can show you!

Isn't this darling?!

I have a little brother who needs one of these.

Whenever he wants to go out and spend his hard earned chore money,

he brings his entire, jangling money tin.

I think the little man needs a wallet of his own.

This great tutorial can be found here.

Little sister. Pink princess cutouts, framed.

Need I say more?

Here is another project I'm considering recreating for my little sister.

There are no directions with this Pinterest link, but I think with some tinkering I can figure it out.

 

 

Homemade Lemon Salt Scrub.

All natural, easy to throw together, and a great pampering gift!

I plan to make several jars of these.

Along the same lines,

I found this pin on making your own lip gloss.

This would be a great stocking stuffer or part of a spa gift package for the ladies.

 

 

That's all I can share with you for now,

which is sad, because the projects I'm most excited about making I can't show you yet!

 

Isn't it wonderful that Christmas gives you an excuse to actually make

some of those amazing pins you been stockpiling?

 

Are you making your own gifts this season?

Where do get your inspiration and ideas?

I'd love to know!

Behind the 'Seams' of Refashion Runway, a Look Back

At the beginning of Refashion Runway,

I purposed to at least make it to the Peplum challenge.

But God gave me the continued grace and inspiration to far exceed those expectations!

 

  I was SO ecstatic when I first found out Beth from Renegade Seamstress

had selected me to be a part of the second season of Refashion Runway!
Little did I know I would make it to the final round and place Fourth Overall!

There wasn't a single week in this competition that I didn't do something I hadn't done before.

As a result, I feel my skills have more than doubled since I first started.
 

Here is a little look back at each one of the six challenges,
and a little 'behind the scenes' info you didn't get in the previous blog posts.

 

 

Week 1, Plaid
 

I was running off of pure adrenaline for this project!

On Friday I got word that I had been accepted into the contest, and my project was done by Sunday.

I already had a piece on hand to refashion, which made it that much quicker.
And honestly, it was not cool enough to be wearing these boots...I was baking!
This is Texas after all.
 

 

Week 2, Emerald Green

This one took me the longest out of all six projects to complete.

I just couldn't get a vision for this piece.

I started working on it still in the first week of competition, and I didn't get it finished

until the following Wednesday, so about nine days!

A lot of that time, it just sat there and I wondered what to do with it.

It is the piece I least like of all my RR projects.

This one came together through prayer and encouragement.

I dubbed it The Green Monster.
 

 

Week 3, Peplum
 

This was only the second peplum I've made,

and really, I was NOT impressed with the first one.

But it gave me a clear vision on what I DIDN'T like about peplums,

so I was able to change up the look for this RR project and up with something I did like.

This was a pretty smooth project, I didn't have any bumps or setbacks with this one.

As far as trying new things went, this one probably ranked up at the top.

This was really the first time I had drafted a pattern before.

I also had never sewn a button hole the right way with my machine,

AND I had never used bias tape to finish off inside seams (similar to a Hong Kong seam).

When it was finished, I felt pretty proud, it was one of the most classy pieces I've made so far.
And it was in one of my favorite colors.

 

Week 4, Leather
 

This one scared me.

At the onset of the competition, I knew this one would be a biggy!

I tried to focus on one week at a time, not thinking ahead until I was finished with the present job.

But this one kept sneaking into my thoughts.

Honestly, I wasn't sure that I would make it to this round when I began the competition,

so it required a special thrift store trip to find a leather piece to work with.

If the Emerald challenge was the hardest inspirationally, the leather one was the hardest technically.

It nearly got the better of me, but I told myself that if others could sew on leather, so could I!

It took a lot of research and some special tricks, but in the end I got it.
 

 

Week 5, Halloween
 

Coming off the leather project,
 I was going into the costume challenge with less than a full tank of emotional energy.
I had a hard time deciding on what I wanted to make,

and when I made the first of four thrift store stops, I had three different projects in my head.

I actually broke down into tears at Goodwill after more than an hour with still no clear direction.

I was still buying pieces on Monday, just four days before it was due!
 

Despite the bumpy start, I was able to settle on an idea, find what I needed, and get the project done.

There were more tears involved when I thought I had broken a zipper after three tries to get it sewn in, and there was more than once that I had to ask God for help. But it got done!

Up to this point, this was the latest I had worked into the week to complete my project,

finishing up on Thursday night!

I was still stressed though because we were supposed to get a bunch of rain the next day,

and I was worried about getting the pictures done.

As it turns out, the pictures I was most worried about turned out to be the most fun I had taking pictures! We got up early and had a great time freezing our hands off in the chilly dampness for a great shoot!
God is funny that way, isn't He?

 

 

Week 6, Winter White
 

 

Putting all niceties aside, this was kind of like my week of hell.

I had pushed long and hard with my costume project, and by this point, I was pretty much exhausted.

I got started late in the week (Tuesday, four days before deadline) because I was so worn out.

When I finally set myself to the task, I realized I had picked a very difficult fabric to work with.

What I wanted to do seemed pretty straight forward,
but the fabric made it three times harder and five times longer to get done.

The entire week I took two steps forward, one step back.

There were lots of tears. Lots of chocolate. And LOTS of support from my family.

But this week was honestly fueled by prayer and the shear grace of God.

I probably prayed hourly asking for clarity of mind
(I was making so many uncharacteristic mistakes), strength and support.
There was more than one day I was ready to give up and I seriously doubted

having a completed project to submit by the deadline.

On top of all that, I was getting sick with a cold my last two days of sewing.

But it happened.

I actually finished and God even gave me a wave of strength to cross over the finish line with a smile to show in the 'after' photos.
This top was pretty much my miracle piece!
 

 Finally, finally, I was finished with it.

Completely finished. No more projects to submit.

I had made it through the complete season of Refashion Runway!
 

Honestly, it didn't matter a whit what place I got, the real accomplishment was that

I had given my best, conquered every challenge and held my own amongst the company of

some extraordinarily talented women, all of whom had been doing this a lot longer than me!

 

And on top of that,

I met all of you!

 

Thank you to everyone who left comments, voted, and generally encouraged me each week!
 

Honestly, without my supportive family
and my very talented, patient brother who took all of the amazing photos,

AND without everyone's encouragement and comments

I would not have been able to make it as far as I did.

So here is to a very successful and unforgettable second season of Refashion Runway.
We did it, y'all!



Refashion Runway 2: Winter White

It is hard to believe this is the last week of Refashion Runway,

or as my family has dubbed it, ‘Runaway’, challenge!

 It is true, during this competition it was easy to let an idea runaway with me!

 

And that was certainly the case with this week’s Winter White project.

Let’s just say, I almost bit off more than I could chew and nearly chocked!

As a pretty new sewist (sewer…? seamstress…?),

I had never worked with silky fabrics before…until this week when I picked up

a huge blue top and a lovely cream blouse which was busting buttons at the bosom.

 I also had a 100% wool pleated skirt which I planned to spice up.

 

 

 

Just a heads up,

this was a very difficult project for me, I was pretty exhausted from pushing so hard last week,

and to top it off, I was fighting off a little cold/allergies.

Translated, this means there aren't very many process pictures.

I was rushing against time and really just wanted to get it done!

Plus I was making it up as I went along!

Not to mention that everything that could possibly go wrong, did.

 

 

I had a vision for a two toned sort of illusion top,

 so I set to work tearing apart my shirts.

 

 

 

 

One of the shoulders was open, so I took off the buttons...

 

 

 

 

and the tie collar...

 

 

 

 

and the bottom hem, which had a small strip of elastic at one side,

and more buttons on the other.

 

 

 

 

Then I removed the sleeves and collar from the cream shirt.

 

 

 

And separated the front from the back.

 

 

 

 

Some experimenting followed, resulting in a curvy silhouette pattern piece.

I folded my shirt piece in half, laid the pattern on the fold

and cut along the outside curved edge.

 

 

 

 

After cutting, this is what I had.

 

 

 

Returning to my blue top, I sliced it up the middle.

This shirt was made with two layers,

 so I basted them along the cut edges in an attempt to try and keep things all together.

 

 



 

 

I know there was some math and figuring involved at this point,

but honestly, it is all a blur.

I basically laid the cream piece over one side of the blue top...

 

 

...then traced the line where I wanted to connect it.

 

 



 

 

This material was fray ca-raaazy! This meant I needed to do French seams on everything.

So, I pinned my pieces together, with the seam on the outside.

 

 

After sewing that first seam, trimming the edge,

then folding over and sewing again, this is what one completed side looked this.

 

This basic process was repeated for the other side.

 

 



 

 

At this point, I was still working with a very large shirt,

so I pinned on the sleeves (which fit) so I could see where they ended.

This gave me the guideline for how much I needed to take in at the sides.

 

 

 

 

Even after taking in the sides,

there was still a lot of extra bulk in the back on account of the gathered neckline.

I resolved this by adding a series of pleats in the small of the back.

 

 

 

 

I also pinned and sewed the shoulders together.

 

 

 

 

This made the neckline in the front a little too high,

so I measured, chopped some off,

then covered it with bias tape.

 

 

 

 

This was concealed under the blue tie collar that I reattached.

(This process was tricky, frustrating and involved, so I'll spare you the details.)

 

 

 

 

After all the fitting changes were made,

it was time to connect the sleeves in earnest.

 

 

Because the sleeves were also attached with a French seam,

they ended up a little shorter than they ought to be.

The shirt was a little too stuffy with long sleeves anyway,

so I chopped off some length and made them 3/4 sleeves.

 

 

 

 

This of course left a raw edge,

with I trimmed with some of the blue scrap which

I collected from the hem of the shirt.

 

 

 

 

I attached the blue strip just like you would attach bias tape.

 

Once my shirt was finally done (!!!)

I turned my attention to the cream skirt.

 

 

 

To spruce up my skirt,

I simply straight stitched about a dozen rows around the bottom of the hem in deep blue thread,

varying the distance between each to create the appearance of bands.

I measured how far up I wanted my stitching to start, in my case it was 3 inches.

Then I made tiny marks all the way around so I had a guide for my fist row of stitches.

 

This was the same stitching method I used on my peplum top.

I really like it, I think it adds so much to a piece!

I'm tempted to go through my closet and do this to all my skirts!

 

And here it is finished up and paired together!

 

 

 

Here is the back.

 

 

With the shirt untucked, here is a better view of the pleats.

 

 In this photo shoot,

I have the shirt tucked in because it looked better that way with the skirt.

But I made sure to keep the length of the shirt a bit longer, since I have a long torso.

This top would also look great untucked with a pair of jeans or nice slacks!

 

 I really like how the sleeves turned out, trimmed in blue.

I'm really glad too that I shortened the length.

 

 

And here is close up of the hem stitching on the skirt.



 

 

 

Believe it or not, this outfit took all…stinking…week!
I seriously underestimated working with this silky polyester fabric,

which had me scurrying frantically to finish up what I thought was going to be a simple project.

 All in all, I really like the way my outfit turned out,

and I’m more than thrilled that I still have my sanity intact!

 

Now, head on over to The Renegade Seamstress

and vote for your favorite Winter White refashion!

 

The overall winner and final placement of all four remaining

women will be determined by this week's scores and votes,

which will be announcement this Saturday!