Farm Toy Update

Today I've been busy working on my farm animals. I first put all of my patterns onto cardboard to make them sturdy enough to trace around onto the felt. They were attached to a pizza box instead of something thicker and I really like the size. Not too bulky!

I decided to start with the pig toy and pulled the templates I needed. You can see below how I wanted them to be laid out.

After a couple hours I finished my first little piggy!!

Farm Style Plushies

I've been looking through other blogs as well as Pinterest for a new style of project to work on and found Erica Catarina's blog where she creates incredible felt toys that I have decided would be perfect for my next project!

Here is the inspiration:

Tonight I was able to start my sketches and make the patterns (yes I learned from my Owl mistake) for each toy I wanted. I decided on a cow, dog, horse, sheep, pig, and goat. I'm still deciding on whether I want to try making a chicken or wait - we'll see I suppose. Here are the drawings I came up with so far. Check back soon for my progress on these little guys. 

Owl Bookends

Christmas day was pretty quiet for my husband and I. While he played his video game, I was working on finishing a set of owl bookends I've seen online somewhere before. Can't find the link again but here is what they look like all finished.

I drew the design straight onto the fabric rather than trying to make a pattern (which I know I will regret later) but here is the step-by-step of how I made these guys.

Step 1: Cut out the pieces for each end. You will need:

- canvas fabric: cut out main body form (2 per side); wings (4 per side); round base (1 per side).

- brown sturdy fabric: feet (4 per side); beak (1 per side)

- accent fabric A: Cut out stomach circle (1 per side)

- accent fabric B: Cut out wings (4 per side)

- cream felt: Cut out eyes (2 per side)

- beans or other form of weight

- stuffing

Once I drew a body that I liked, I cut out multiples and found a circle that was a nice size to use for the base. I did no measuring or calculating to determine what the best size would be. (I told you that I will regret not making a pattern with the one I made!)

I then cut out a nice sized wing that was proportionate to the body I designed. This triangle was cut in the canvas fabric as well as the accent fabric B. These fabrics were sewn together with the face fabric together leaving one end open. They were then stuffed and sewn onto the body.

The stomach fabric was attached to the owl using a zig-zag stitch. I then sewed the feet with face fabric together flipped inside out and stuffed before attaching to the edges of the stomach of the owl. Once I had the stomach piece where I wanted it I attached the beak barely above to allow plenty of room for the eyes. 

Below you can see the owl coming together with all the pieces in line. 

I attached the circle by determining the center of the owl, sewing on from the center to almost the edge of the front piece - holding back about 1/4 of an inch, then went back to the center and finished the rest of the piece. 

So you can see it was wanting to stand upright already :)

I attached the back the same way as the front, by starting in the center of the piece and working to the edge. Where it met the front piece I attached the front and back - it happened to match up perfectly. AGAIN - I should have made a pattern!!

The eyes were hand sewed on before adding the 3-4 cups of beans. I had measured out the approximate weight in dried beans in a small sandwich sized ziploc bag before pouring into my enclosed owl and filling with stuffing the rest of the way.

Ready to be closed up!

I then hand-stitched the top closed and TA-DA!!! I made the two ends at the same time to make sure they looked the same when finished, this was yet another reason why I didn't think to make a pattern.

I'm going to be drawing up the pattern if anyone would like it please message me and I can be sure that it gets to you!

All In A Day's Work

Today's project has turned out to be much faster than I expected it to be. I have this pattern that I found a few years ago but is still available on one of my favorite knitting and crocheting websites - Ravelry.

After about 3 hours total I have completed everything you see below. It's really starting to come together. I can't wait to see the finished product!!

And the finished product. He's absolutely adorable! I love that he has so much character. The hardest part was getting the eyes just right - and keeping Ringo away from it once done since he believes it was made just for him to play with. 

Sewing my fingertips off...

I found another DIY'er that has her pattern for a diaper bag available on her page and I've decided to try my hand at making one. Here is the link to the pattern. I started by getting together the supplies she listed and of course I printed the pattern she posted on the website as well. I cut out the pieces and also set aside the fabric to make an interior pocket.

As I was cutting away I decided to use some of the pattern fabric to make a few burp cloths that are shaped like a stocking enough to cover your chest a bit for the little ones that seem to bob all over as they burp. I used a brown felt as well as my pattern fabric, measured my shoulder (base of neck to arm socket) to determine the width of the burp cloth in the center and then rounded around each end to a curve that I liked.  Here's how the set turned out:

Then I got back to the bag - it took about 6 hours to complete but was a fantastic, easy, beautiful bag that I was overjoyed with. I only had one question with the pattern as I went but then I went to sleep (okay so part of the problem might be the fact it was one o'clock in the morning!) I got back to it this morning and just now put the finishing touches on it. Here is the beautiful finished product!

front of bag
farm animal print used also on the burp clothes above
*notice a particular pup's nose poking in on the left side* 

back of bag
button closure rather than velcro
(I didn't want velcro with all the knitted stuff I'm making)

inside bag
double inside pockets - smaller on top of larger, no form of closure

Holy Purl!

I've had a pretty busy week working on various projects. Finishing a few knitting projects, made a changing blanket (to keep inside the diaper bag I started last night), and of course a few more knitting projects along the way.

First I finished up an afghan that I had started last year as a baby blanket. It has been so long since I worked on this I don't even know where I got the pattern from (Lion Brand??). I will try to find it and share with you.

I made the changing blanket using 1/2 yard of fleece (cut in half) 1/2 yard backing fabric, and about 1/4 yard of edging fabric. I double stitched every location that fabrics met as well as double stitching along the top to hold the entire piece together. (See close up of the blanket)

I then worked on a hooded towel in a Bernat yarn I've had a few skeins of in a grey-blue color. This was done working from one corner to the opposite then using the same idea to make the hood. This pattern calls to K2, YO, K to the end. It is beautiful what this YO stitch does to the edging - LOVE IT! Just a note - this pattern also says to complete this process until one edge is 20 inches long - this took me about 120 stitches (equivalent of 117 rows) before I started to decrease.

I know how important it is for kids to haven sun protection - especially here in such a sunny state so hats were next on the list. This was pulled from another blogger's site. I made the first hat with the bow and decided to find a way to make it removable while still not flopping all over the hat so I have not made the bows for the other two hats. The bow pattern was a bit confusing for me so here's how I made it:
Cast on 12 sts
Row 1: Knit
Row 2: K1, YO, knit until there is 1 stitch left, YO, K1
Row 3: Knit
Row 4: K1, YO, knit until there is 1 stitch left, YO, K1
Knit until measures 1" (for me this meant only two more rows)
Row 5: K2tog, K until there are 2 stitches left, K2tog
Row 6: K2tog, K until there are 2 stitches left, K2tog
Bind off.
Wrap yarn around center, sewing through center of rectangle piece to secure it.

And then I decided to make a set of newborn finger-less mittens to keep from having too many scratches. Wow how easy was this pattern!!