A Blue Hat On Purpose By Mistake

Sigh. 

When will I ever learn that the weight of yarn affects the size of the finished product?

DuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUhhhhh.uh.

A couple Christmases ago, my mother knit my Sweet Babboo a great sailor-style black hat.  I swipe it daily.  Figured I ought to just knit myself one to ease my conscience.

So I used the same pattern she’d used, but chose yarn that we already owned.  Sort of forgot to check the weight.  Halfway through the cuff, I realized it was going to fit a walrus.

But I LIKE cuffs!  That’s a good thing, considering my blundering idiocy.

Therefore, I purposely-accidentally changed the pattern and made a slouch hat that is 3/4 cuff and 1/4 body.  I’m wearing it right now.  Lovin’ it!

Turns out, however, that if you knit a gigantic hat with a large cuff, it will stretch miraculously upon your noggin as you break it in.  I’m going to have to find a way to creatively “take it in” in the back.  See how it’s rolled up?  Needs a little Weight Watchers For Hats.

Buttons, maybe.

Is anyone interested in the pattern?  I’ll post it if you like, complete with the recommended yarn weight.  🙂

Happy knitting.

A Dreamy Space

When we lived in our first home together, a small apartment, Jon and I were squished.  Delightfully squished.  Some people said we just had way too much stuff, but we knew that our hobbies were simply the type that require some space.

(And I was also majorly pack-ratting at the time.  Every single item that came through the door, even garbage, was a potential art tool. 

I was into assemblage, collage, and bookmaking.  Since then I’ve given my involvement in those art forms a temporary mental funeral.  There’s just no room here; and quite frankly, I have no mental room left either. 

Shel Silverstein would draw mountainous piles of ideas, spilling ratty papers out the sides, if he could see how many painting, drawing, sewing, and music projects are on the back burners right now.  Of several stoves.

So no assemblage.)

(random picture of our very small kitchen and my very full belly back then)

Anyhoo, we were surrounded in that first home with movies galore, history books, acrylic and oil paints, canvases, notebooks, musical instruments, and the like.  And so was each person who ventured within for a squishy meal in our studio/library/dining room over the noisy one-way street.

Here in our “for real” house, we have quite a bit more room.  Plus, having fired the pack rat, there is some sort of organizational sense to the place.  I think.

Thus, I actually have room, blessedly, wonderfully, to set up a dreamy sewing space in our basement.

Jon practically begged me not to do so in “the dungeon.”  I think he felt bad, like I would be suffering down there.

But I’m a little bit like Jo from Little Women.  I like a good cobwebbed space, a few exposed beams, a little sawdust on the floor, and room to dream things up.  If I get paint on the floor, it’s no big deal.  And the washer, dryer, and ironing board, all integral parts of the sewing process, are RIGHT THERE.

Best of all, I can leave sewing and painting projects lying around and no chubby little fingers will get pricked or painted by accident.  🙂

So this is where I work (when I’m not working), where I invest time in future projects, in Christmas gifts, in mending, ironing, extending, and saving wads of cash (I hope) for the good and glory of my family.

(dreaming things up) (I have man hands in this photo)

I’m so thankful to have the space for this now, as I know many women don’t.  If that’s you, hang in there.  You never know what little nook will turn up, or what idea might pop into your head unannounced – a dream of a dreamy space, perhaps.

Big Ol’ Feety Pajamas – FINISHED!

Two weeks ago I posted a project called Big Ol’ Feety Pajamas.  This is the conclusion: It is possible to extend the life of a pair of pj’s without cutting off the feet!  Hooray!  They look pretty darn cool, too.

Of course, by the time I finished making the adjustments, Riley had grown so fast again that he’s exceeding the length all. over. again.  Oh well!  It was fun.  🙂

Here’s how the project wrapped up:

“So that’s where these big ol’ feety pajamas are right now – hanging out the side of the machine in our basement, in my little studio space.”

I serged the edge of the pj’s to the blue extension.  There were 4 edges to serge – 2 on each foot.

Next I turned them right-side-out to see if the lengths matched.  A snip here and there made them quite close enough.

Here I decided how long I wanted the toes, turned the feet inside-out again, and used a simple stitch to make the new line, joining the front and back (or top and bottom) together.

Just a double-check:

Since I liked what I saw, I trimmed off the excess and serged the new toe edges. 

Not perfect, but functional.

Not too shabby!

I really like the new look.  But he’s already outgrown them again!!!  See?

Oh well.  It was a fun project and now I know how to do it.  🙂

Hope you have a creative and productive day.

Big Ol’ Feety Pajamas

Today I thought I’d show you what’s on my sewing table: feety pajamas that are getting a “lift and tuck.”  I’m making them longer to suit my long and strong little boy.  There’s no sense in packing away perfectly good pj’s just because he’s growing fast and has to curl his little toes up to fit in his clothes.

Here’s the plan so far:

One pair of perfectly cute pj’s that just aren’t long enough.

Removed the toe seams with a seam ripper.

Selected a particularly non-useful running tank top to cut up.  Ask me how often I run.

Traced the tops and bottoms of the separated toe sections onto the now-useful tank top:

Used regular chalk.  I’m all fancy over here.

Reminded myself which was the bottom (“B”) and which was the top (“T”) since one is slightly longer than the other.  I drew a second, longer curve above the traced lines.  This is because I want to extend, not copy, the toe line.  He needs room to grow.

Cut out the new toe shapes along the extended lines:

There’s now a set of top-and-bottom shapes for each foot. 

Next I held up the new shapes to the old feety pj’s and compared, to see if what I had cut out would fit once it was sewn on.

Lookin’ good.

I love hands.

The next step was to pin the pieces together.  The blue needed to be tucked in along the sides and held still with a pin in the middle so that it wouldn’t rotate during the sewing process.

The whole project could really be done by hand easily, but I love the serging I can do with my machine.  So that’s where these big ol’ feety pajamas are right now – hanging out the side of the machine in our basement, in my little studio space. 

Next Tuesday, I’ll show you the serged edges and hopefully the finished product.  And maybe a picture or two of the sewing table.  It used to be storage space for bulk flour, sugar, and oats.  I much prefer it now!

(And yes, I’m nuts.  Someone reminded me that all I really needed to do was to cut off the toes or feet of the pj’s and have the child wear socks.  Oh well.  Where’s the fun in that?!  I needed a project.)

Finally! An Adequate Nursing Shawl

Many breastfeeding Moms will tell you: nursing shawls can be less than modest, especially if you have a feisty, flailing little one.  I found an easy pattern online for a BIG nursing shawl, and whipped it up in no time.  Keep in mind – I’m a beginner.  You can do it!

I can hardly wait to use this one!  Come wind or waving arms, I’ll be covered.  🙂  The best part is, it saves us money.  Most things you make yourself will do that.  Have you seen some of the exorbitant prices companies charge online for a simple square piece of fabric?  As we say in my family, “Good NIGHT!”

The pattern comes from Lindsay, the Mom who writes Passionate Homemaking, one of my favorite blogs.  I’ll add the link to her sewing instructions at the bottom of this post.  My version will show a general glimpse of the process plus my alterations.  Lindsay’s pattern will be more thorough, if you’re looking to sew this.  Give her whole site a browse while you’re at it.  She does a great job!

The project begins with measuring and cutting your favorite lightweight cloth into an almost-square.  It will look huge.  That’s the point.  I chose a feminine pattern that works for nursing a boy but helps me still feel girly.

Yep, that’s my high-tech straight-edge system.  Pot holders.

I have this nice remnant from the fabric now.  Any ideas what to do with it?  It MIGHT be long enough for a cloth belt if I shrink a LOT after the baby’s born…

Lindsay’s instructions include cutting off a long, narrow strip to be used later for the neck strap.  Using a zigzag stitch, the large remaining piece is finished on both sides and the bottom, leaving the top edge unfinished for now.

You’ll have cut off an 8-inch piece of the neck strap for the small loop, where you can attach D-rings.  I say can because I didn’t like them and ended up doing something different.  The neck strap itself is simply sewn together inside out, turned right-side-out, and pressed flat.

Easy so far!

Lindsay’s pattern calls for a piece of boning, so that while you’re nursing your little bambino, you can peek in at his or her sweet face (or flailing arms as the case may be – and if that’s you, don’t give up!  It is absolutely possible to nurse a feisty baby when your own body is not cooperating either.  Maybe I should write a post about that.)

There’s the boning, with a pin to mark the exact middle.  The same is done on the top edge of the shawl, and both are pinned together:

The whole thing fit together wonderfully – better than I imagined.  After pinning the top edge over the boning, the neck strap is pinned to one end of the boning, and the 8-inch loop to the other end of it.  Both pieces are tucked underneath the boning for added security.  I’m sorry I forgot to take a picture of that.

Now you’re free to finish the whole top edge, all the way across, adding an extra line of stitching to the neck strap and adjustable loop to help keep them in place.

As for that loop…  Lindsay’s pattern, like most, requires D-rings to secure the neck strap.  I did put these on at first.  For some reason, mine did NOT want to hold the cloth in place.  I think I bought the wrong size.  My super-strong hunking husband bent the D-rings for me and took them off so that I didn’t have to do any seam ripping and re-sewing.  Thanks, sweetie.  🙂

I already know how I like a nursing shawl to fit, so I just tied a fashionable knot in the loop and neck strap.  Ta-da!  Done!  Thank you Lindsay for posting such a useful project.  I’m looking forward to nursing baby #2 in complete peace and privacy. 

To follow more exact and detailed instructions, please click on this link for Lindsay’s version:

http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2011/05/make-your-own-nursing-cover.html

Happy sewing and thank you for reading The Full Vine!

Sew Sticky

A common sight in our house during the afternoon:

Sewing and stickiness.  I love a good apple and the peace and quiet of nap time.  Give me a few moments alone, a sewing machine, and a munchie, and I’ll give you a productive and refreshed Momma.

The Half-Hour Headband

Short hair is easy to care for, but difficult to accessorize.  After buying 5 wide headbands from Target, I discovered that they made me look like a crazed aerobics instructor from the 80’s.  Or a cockatoo.  Out of sheer frustration, I improvised and discovered how easily a shirt sleeve can be recycled into the perfect headband.

It only takes half an hour (or less, for you sewing geniuses).  And headbands look great on ANY head shape, hair color, length, or cut.  The best part about sewing one yourself is that you dictate exactly how it fits in the end, whether it’s for you or a gift for someone else.

And it’s FREEEEE!  A frugal choice – much better than giving in to my “I feel like shopping today” instinct, which seems to be slowly dying back the less I indulge it.  Sweet.

The Half-Hour Headband

Step 1: Choose what you will cut to shreds (or what’s already in shreds that needs a-fixin’).  Here you decide color, pattern, texture – have a picture in mind if possible of your finished product.  There should be an adult sleeve-worth of material.

Step 2: Make sure your thread of choice is ready to go in your machine.

Step 3: Set your stitch type to zigzag.  You can do serging, but zigzag was faster and just as effective for me.

Step 4: If your material is still in the form of something like a sleeve, cackle wickedly, brandish your scissors, and cut out a shape that looks like a skinny bugle:

(For the light blue headband, I did not round the wide ends.  They were square and pointy and that’s what gave me the idea for the random, overlapping stitching.  I was in a hurry, so there are no pictures of that process.  My apologies.)

Step 5: Trace a second shape, identical to the one you just cut out.  Cut this second shape out as well.  (Or use the lazy way, my way, and cut them both out at once, just because you can.)  Lay the two pieces across each other so that the wide ends are in the middle,  overlapping.  The photo below shows my experiment with folding the ends before overlapping. 

Step 6: This is your creative moment to shine.  The extra wide ends can be folded over any way you like to create random shapes stitched on to the top of your head (so to speak)!  If your vision is for a cleaner look, you could easily just attach the two pieces. 

I wanted to see randomness with zigzag, so that’s what I did. 

Step 7: Once I figured out how I wanted the extra material to lie, I pinned the two pieces together. 

After you do the pinning, zigzag right over the edges of the headband, all the way around.

(For Pete’s sake, go slower than I did so yours comes out better!)

Step 8: Begin stitching each layer of your middle, wide ends on to the headband, starting with the lowest/bottom layer.  Lay the next one down and stitch around it, and so on.

(I added a couple of swirls as a distraction from the occasional zigzag slip-up…)

Step 9: Trim off the threads and check your handiwork by putting on the headband! 

Step 10: Take a picture of yourself modeling the Half-Hour Headband, and post it on your blog or Facebook!  And if you’re feeling really generous, please give a shout-out to The Full Vine.  I’d love to see your finished project!

Have a great day,

Heidi

Cloth Nursing Pads

Webster’s Dictionary defines frugal:  “characterized by or reflecting ECONOMY in the use of resources.”  Our nation’s economy is in trouble.  My wallet doesn’t have to be if I choose wisely and with economy.

Last Tuesday I wrote about sewing, cleaning, and storing cloth napkins.  Many readers were excited about that topic, so I thought I’d follow up with another “cloth something” post.

One of the best gifts I ever received was a sewing machine, followed by lots of good advice on how to use it.  Many thanks to my mother- and father-in-law for the machine, and to both moms for their expert advice! 

WARNING!  This post is completely girly, if the title didn’t give it away.  If you’re one of the guys who might be reading this, don’t worry.  There aren’t any gory details – just how to sew circles together. 

Riley nursed happily for 9 1/2 months before self-weaning when he was good and ready (he’s always had his own time table for progress).  Those months taught me valuable lessons which I’m excited to use with Baby #2 in a few months. 

I learned that disposable nursing pads, while convenient and thin, are potentially hazardous to a woman’s health.  The companies that profit from our love of convenience are hardly going to be the ones to say, “HEY LISTEN UP!  If you wear our products you can more easily develop sores and breast infections!  Yee HA!”  (oh yeah, sorry – no gory details.  That wasn’t too bad, was it?)

Thank you to Gayle, the incredible nurse who taught me this fact.

Right at my fingertips were these little treasures that I could use, throw in my regular laundry, and reuse as often as necessary.  I’m really not a hippie.  I just like to find the highest quality option at the best price, and that often means ignoring advertising.

My first time through breastfeeding, I used store-bought cloth nursing pads, white handkerchiefs (a personal favorite), and flour sack towels, cut into strips and folded to size.

The flour sack towels, which can be purchased super cheap at Walmart or similar stores, made the best homemade nursing pads.  Old white T-shirts from my hubby’s stash were a close second, although they didn’t lie flat as easily.  Too stretchy.

Here’s the process I tried.  May yours be shorter if you’re in the market for these things:

1. Tried cutting strips out of men’s white T’s.

2. Folded them down to size and pinned them together.

3. Sewed several together before realizing they’d be pretty visible through clothing, given their shape.  These will be good for night time 🙂  Hacked several into circles and serged them together.  These looked much better.

Starting over…

1. Decided to move on to the flour sack towels (hereafter known as FST’s).

2. Spent time folding and sewing like before…until I realized all I had to do was cut out several circles and stitch them together.  Duh.

(Should have used a brown paper cut-out, but used a pre-made nursing pad instead.  It is now covered in Sharpie.  Learn from my mistakes, readers.)

3. Created large stacks of FST circles, leaving behind scrappy remnants.  Anyone have ideas for how to use these?

4. Tried both a zigzag stitch and serging, trying to get these crazy things to lie flat.  Zigzag worked/looked fine, but serging created a more thorough finish.

5. In the end, the very simple process went as follows:

Put together 6 FST circles.

Use a straight stitch all the way around, about 1/4″ in from the edge.

Serge (or zigzag) all the way around, attempting to line up the stitching.

Done!  Toss it in your collection and make another one!

My goal was to have a nice finished collection before the baby was born.  Go me!

From left: hankies, homemade round pads, homemade square pads, store-bought pads.

Hopefully this will free up a little more time in my day, as I won’t have to fold ratty-looking FST strips every time I have to change pads.

They may be a mish-mash of styles and material, but who cares?  They’ll be hidden! Many of them were free and upcycled (recycled into something of greater value rather than getting tossed in the trash).  And my body won’t be prone to infection by wearing what some big company said I “have to have.” 

Cloth nursing pads get softer and better with age.  They’re like the fine wine of breastfeeding.  🙂  Whether you sew your own or buy them pre-made, I encourage you to make the investment for your own sake, or for someone you know who could use them.

Check: One Converse shoebox full of ready-to-wear nursing pads.  Bring on the baby!

Cloth Napkins: Never Old-Fashioned

Think of the feeling you get when you sit down at a fancy restaurant for a special meal, and the table is set with china on fine white linens…  It makes you sit up straighter, dust off ye old manners, and savor each sip, slurp, or bite like it was meant to be enjoyed slowly.

The elegance and charm of a good “old-fashioned” cloth napkin is hard to deny.  It says, “This meal matters.  It was prepared FOR YOU.”  Every meal should feel like that! 

When we were first married, we used paper napkins at every meal (and often paper plates for at least one meal a day).  Then the waste and dollar cost became evident, and I started looking around for cloth napkins.

Our first batch came from Savers, a huge thrift store like Salvation Army.  They were white, mismatched, and exactly what I was looking for. 

As we got used to using them, I realized how often we’d used napkins without needing to, and then thrown them away.  How much $$$ were we spending on flimsy, scratchy paper squares that ended up in the garbage, along with the plastic wrap that would not decompose in a landfill within our lifetime?

It was a GREAT, easy, and frugal change to make.  Now that I have more time for sewing, I’ve been making all kinds of napkins and having so much fun doing it!  We’re saving quite a bit of money by doing this (especially by using gift cards and coupons for fabric).  And our table setting looks BEAUTIFUL, even if all I’m serving is eggs.

The easiest have been self-finishing: types of cloth that will fray right down to the stitching, which means I don’t have to carefully pin, iron, and hem the edges.  Here they are, pre-trimming:

A little lazy to do self-fraying?  You bet! 

A little extra work beyond throwing a big plastic package in the shopping cart?  Yup.  But I want to have things around the house that were built to last.  This is not a thing of the past.

Now I have the chance to hone a skill that should NOT become a lost art form. 

Even I, the queen of squiggly lines, can sew – and the more I make, the better I get at it.

My goal is to have an enormous collection that gets used at every meal, all year round, with special fabrics for holidays, seasons, and even birthdays.  It’s an economical way to decorate and a space-saver for those who can’t stash away lots of holiday decorations.

These are pasta napkins.

I sewed them after I heard several people say “I CAN’T WIPE MY MOUTH WITH that!” when I presented them with a crisp white cloth napkin and a steaming plate of pasta and bright red sauce.  Understandable. 

And these are so country-ish it’s awesome.  Makes me want steak and eggs.

The best part?  Freedom and creativity!  There’s no limit!  No art teacher telling you which colors are “right” – your table, your imagination, your picnics, your feasts.

Our napkins even get used at the end of the meal for wiping a small mouth and hands before they can smear food on our shoulders.

If you don’t sew, or the idea of buying cloth anything from a thrift/second-hand store makes you gulp loudly, I’d be willing to bet you would still save money by purchasing a set from Target, Walmart, etc.  Do the math: Compare your one-time purchase of a few yards of fabric or a set of ready-mades to the cost of buying paper napkins for a year. 

You’re on the hunt!  There’s so many options out there.  Have fun 🙂

Send an invitation without saying a word: Home matters, and you’re part of it.  Come sit, linger, and savor.

Have you made the switch from paper to cloth, or are you considering it?  Please comment!

Cloth Produce Bags

I’m FED UP with plastic bags!  I stood in the produce section of Stop & Shop, stuffing another filmy bag with fresh veggies, and staring in dismay at my cart-full of plastic.  These are just going to end up in the landfill (visions of Wall-E started flashing in my eyes as I did the math – how many of these things did I use and toss without thinking every year?)…  I have a sewing machine – can’t I DO something about this?!

I did!

I brought my curtains to the grocery store – their remains, that is.  Our first home was an apartment that came to us rather devoid of any personal feminine touch.  Naturally I bought the softest, cutest white curtains I could find, picturing them blowing gently in a summer breeze on a warm evening as my husband and I murmured romantical sentiments over homemade ice cream and blaaah… blaaaahhhh… blaaaaahhhhhhhh…..  Now they’re bumping around in my shopping cart and I love it! 

There are many ways to reuse plastic bags.  Our ever-expanding landfill would like to put in a good word of agreement: “SHE’S RIGHT!  HELP ME OUT!”  But I’d rather go a step further and reduce the demand for plastic in the first place.

I’ll go into more detail about how to make these Produce Bags in an upcoming Studio Tuesday post.  Stay tuned!  For today, let’s just say I lopped off and hemmed the bottom of each Walmart curtain (they were much too long, thank goodness), cut out random squares and rectangles from the extra material, gave each shape a nice stout cuff, and stitched them into individual pouches of various sizes.  It took very little time or effort.

Want to know the best parts?

These bags are light.  I don’t want to pay for bag when it’s already costing me life, limb, and luxury to feed my small family fresh fruits and vegetables.  So if you’re picking fabric to make these, pick something light.  I’d also recommend a color other than white.  It’s what I had, but it stains quickly.  I’ll be making more soon and will probably use some old T-shirt material.

These bags are FREE.  I always feel like I’m stickin-it-to-the-man when I make something at home that big companies are selling as “the only product to use.”

These bags are washable, stylish, and unique.  Almost every time I shop, a cashier will comment, “I’ve never seen anything like these before!”  And I blurt out like a four year-old, “That’s cuz they’re CURTAINS!!!”

I’m beginning to see that most of our family needs can be met from within our home.  And that is a very satisfying thought.