Puppy!

Alyssa's mom made Puppy while she was pregnant with Alyssa. When Alyssa was old enough to stand (a bit) but not yet old enough to talk, she woke up in her crib and starting howling. She was inconsolable, and kept pointing to the shelf above her crib, where her toys were. Her mom started handing her toys, trying to figure out what Alyssa wanted. When she handed her Puppy, Alyssa stopped crying. From that point forward, Alyssa and Puppy were inseparable. Puppy was the kind of toy that, if accidentally left behind, had to be retrieved even if it meant driving all the way home again.

Alyssa's mom died of breast cancer ten years ago. Now that Alyssa is pregnant with her first child, she decided she wanted a Puppy for her yet-to-be-born. Unfortunately, she doesn't crochet. So she put out a request on Facebook to see if any of her friends could crochet Puppy for her. I volunteered, along with one or two other friends. Since I actually live near Alyssa, rather than several states away, I got first whack at it. Alyssa kept saying that if it was too complicated, she'd have someone else do it - that I didn't have to finish it if I couldn't. It made me a bit worried that the instructions would be incredibly difficult. She managed, by the way, to find the pattern book online. The wonders of the interwebz!

Happily, the pattern turned out to be incredibly easy. I whipped up Puppy and put him on Alyssa's desk to greet her when she came into the office.

Alyssa seemed very happy with Puppy. And I was thrilled to be able to continue the tradition for her. The dark teal yarn was a different brand, slightly thinner, so it gave a different gauge. I tried to make it as loose as possible, but I wasn't able to prevent it from spacing out enough to show the fiberfill between the stitches. Alyssa pointed out, though, that Puppy will soon get dirty. Very dirty.

It felt great to be able to complete the project before Alyssa graduated and moved on to her post-doc at NASA.








Here's original Puppy along with the larger, newer version.

Stealing other people's ideas

Sisters4saymoreismore showed a great redesign of a cardigan by embellishing with flowers made of T-shirts.
















First curve one corner.


They used about 34 flowers, which sounded like a great deal of cutting. However, I figured out how to do it fairly simply and quickly.




What usually slows me down is cutting from the upper or left-hand side, because I'm right-handed.









Cut in the top side of the first petal, then curve
the next corner.


So I did all the cuts in one direction, flipped the flower, and then made the other cuts. Here's what it looks like in progress.















After making all the cuts, flip it over.















Then make the other cuts of the petals, going in the correct direction once again.

Dang my lack of HTML skillz! I can't figure out how to a) move the pictures around to where I want them, and b) line up the captions correctly. Grrr.

Second time around

The first time I did Weight Watchers, the weight came off fairly easily and steadily. Though I kept most of it off for a couple of years, I stopped exercising regularly, and went back to eating comfort foods such as risotto and my favorite chocolate boba smoothie.

So now I'm back on the wagon. This time, I need to do it differently. I need to learn how to lose (and maintain) weight without relying on an intense exercise regime. I need to learn how to incorporate eating out, cake, risotto, and decadence without being "off plan." I thought that if I was having a square of dark chocolate, or a chocolate pudding cup, I was indulging, and meeting my cravings. But those aren't my downfall. I can have a square of chocolate and stop at one. I can rarely, though, stop at one serving of risotto.

I think I felt virtuous (and was smug) about losing weight before. Now I'm going into it with my eyes wide open, knowing a bit better what I need to learn.

And a year later...

Meanwhile, Baby Girl has grown a bit while I've been ignoring my blog. "A bit" being, of course, a euphemism for doubling in size. Fortunately, she was able to wear the baseball dress again this year. As a shirt.

Dressing appropriately

I made up a dress for Baby Girl's first game of the season (Indians v. A's, of course). I used McCall's 5416 and just guessed at the size. I was fairly proud of the pockets because I did them freehand, though you'll notice that the pocket on her right has the stitches going in the same direction both times. She did look fierce.

Indispensable Ridicule

I found a gold jacquard chair cover at the Mega Thrift, and promptly set to cannibalizing it. I used the reticule (ridicule, indispensable) pattern from La Mode Bagatelle. The fringe was already part of the chair cover, so that was easy to remove and reposition. The gold beads look as cheap as they really are, but I didn't want to spend more on something that would look way more fabulous, and then end up sitting on a chair all evening while I dance. So, cheapness reigns.

I like the way the Jacobean flower design turned out. I pretty much like everything about it (note that I'm not quite done; I'm still adding pearl beads to the lower trim). And I especially like the contrast between the pearls at the top opening and the darker gold lining fabric. What I hadn't counted on, though, was the fact that the design on the front got smooshed when I pulled the drawstrings. Makes perfect sense, but not necessarily what one is thinking about when one is in raptures over finding the perfect embroidery pattern. *sigh* Lesson learned. And yes, I only did the flower on one side. I'm way too impatient to do both front and back.

Regency bonnet, nee flowerpot

Because I have the largest head in North America, it's difficult to find a hat that fits. And because I'm a crafty gal and would rather frankenstein some bits together than create something painstakingly complete and historically accurate, I recently decided to make a Regency bonnet from a flowerpot.

The inspiration was a Shipwreck Ball, three months from now. While at my local Mega Thrift, I found a flowerpot basket with shells glued to the side in a lovely floral pattern. "What ho!," thought I. It is, of course, too small to actually fit upon my head as is, but has tremendous potential to become a bonnet which will fit. Fortunately, Regency-era headgear needed to cover a large amount of hair in an updo, so they had some pretty large and funky shapes to their hats.

First step at home was to unpick the stitches which held the plastic liner in place. Then I brushed out the loose dirt and gave it a gentle scrubbing with soap, water, and a nail brush. I put a large can inside the pot while it dried to hold its shape. Once it dried, I cut it apart where the rim flared out.

Next I used the rim piece as a template to cut a pattern for the buckram which would extend the rim out far enough to cover my XXXXL head. I traced it onto a brown paper shopping bag, because I'm cheap and they're plentiful (and on hand). Originally I cut an arc, but then realized that I needed to push the sides of the rim up higher, in order to get the rim to stand up away from my face. I added corners to the front of the arc, and then cut it out of buckram. You'll notice in the photo below where I added the corners (they're in a different shade of brown).

Before sewing the buckram to the basket, I ran a bit of Fray-check around the cut edges of the basket. I don't expect it to fray, but I figured it wouldn't hurt and might prevent potential problems. I seamed the buckram up the back, then sewed the buckram to the inside of the flowerpot.


Coming soon: covering the buckram.