Knotted Headbands and Scarf DIY Tutorial

So, this year in an effort to save some cash, but still give great and thoughtful gifts, and also try out my old re-learned skill of crochet. I learned as a child, but fell out of the craft and in the earlier part of 2012 I picked the craft back up and was making small items; i.e. washcloths, little appliques for baby clothes....things of that sort. However I wanted to try my hand a a slightly larger project, enter the scarf and headbands. It has been unseasonably freezing in SoCal this winter and thought that it would be the perfect cold weather gift! I made 5 scarves and 2 headbands. (The above photo is a headband and cowl scarf that my mom made for me. She used the same headband pattern as me but changed it up a bit....I'll explain below.)

Single Crochet Scarf

What You'll Need:

Size H or 5mm crochet hook
9 oz worsted weight yarn
Darning needle

Directions:

Chain 17. This can be adjusted narrower or wider depending on the look your going for

R1: Sc in 2nd ch from hook and in each chain across (16 sc)

R2-?: Chain 1.  Turn.  Sc in 2nd chain from hook and in each chain across (16 sc)
I kept this action going until it reached the length I desired. About 6 feet or so. You can adjust this to accommodate any length!

Take your darning needle and sew in your loose ends.

3 of the 5 colors; Burgundy, purple and med. gray

Light gray scarf with headband

Double Crochet Headband:

This gave me a little bit of trouble because I have such a small pinhead! Nothing fits my head properly! So when I followed the tutorial from All About Ami, the headband just slipped off my head. :-S So I had to super adjust the length. I will adjust her tutorial for all the small headed peeps out there...if you don't have a small head you can follow hers along as written!

What you'll need:

Size H or 5mm crochet hook
9 oz worsted weight yarn
Darning needle

Headband:

Chain55-60, I just chained along and checked the length against my head along the way to see how tight it was. For the gift ones I chained 65.

R1: Dc in 2nd ch from hook and in each chain across.

R2-6: Chain 2.  Turn.  Dc in 2nd chain from hook and in each chain across. Finished piece is about 3.4”/8.6 cm wide after six rows.  Fold the crocheted piece in half and sew the edges together with your darning needle.  To create the ruching look, pinch the middle rows of the headband  (approximately Rows 2-5) and sew them together (about 3”/7.6 cm across).  Be sure to pinch the middle rows where the ends of the headband were sewn together to conceal the seam.

Knot:
Chain 10
R1: Dc in 2nd ch from hook and in each chain across.
R2-8: Chain 2.  Turn.  Dc in 2nd chain from hook and in each chain across. 
Finished piece is about 4.6”/11.7 cm long after eight rows.  Wrap this crocheted strip around the pinched portion of the headband.  Sew the ends together with your darning needle and sew in any loose ends in the knot.

Note: my mom did a twist on the ones she made for me.  She did a half double crochet and did 9 rows instead of 6. She adjusted the knot length as well. I think I wanna try one with a puff stitch! So many options!

Here's some....ahem...bad photo's of them on my head. Please don't mind the poor quality! You can either wear the knot in the center or off to the side. I think I prefer off to the side, but to each their own! Oh and in the background you can see my new throw pillows chilling on my bed!

Twist on a standard baby bib - Denim Bib DIY!

Ever have one of those days where you feel like you should just go back to bed? My hair decided to look like the cowardly lion this morning when I blew it dry, my morning caffeine still has me feeling groggy, and when I got to work I realized I put my underwear on inside out....TMI? Well it's just been one of those Wednesdays! At least I was productive this weekend and finished a craft!

With the invention of the internet and Pinterest, having your own ideas isn't as common as it once was. While perusing the DIY and crafts section I saw this super cute twist on baby bibs from Thimbly Things. I just about died, as I had some scrap denim that has just been lying around my house waiting for a project. I figured I could make some bibs to have in my gift closet. Even after making 8 bibs I still have some leftover for some other ideas I am planning! Stay tuned for those! Anywho, without further adieu.....le tutorial:

What you'll need:
Bib Template (I printed one off the internet that was actually an infant size, oopsies! Hey it still works. You can use your own stash for templates as well)
Denim
Scissors
Pins
Quilters Cotton (16 different patterns; (2) coordinates per bib) (I made 4 boy bibs and 4 girl bibs)
Sewing Machine w/ detail stitch options
Coordinating thread

Directions:

1. First fold the denim in half lengthwise, pin the template down and cut around one side of the template. I had 4 pant legs, so I did this eight times. Actually I did each step eight times, I was tired at the end! Haha

2. Cut one fabric large enough for the back, about a 10" x 11" square in my case and cut the coordinating fabric 2" by width of bib, mine was about 9." Take your 2" strip and press a folded over 1/4" seam on both long ends to avoid frays and zig zag stitch it into place....about a third up from the bottom. Note: If you wish you can use Steam a Seam Lite to help make your pressing easier. Cut it 1-1/2" x length of fabric and press down centered inside the fabric. Fold over your 1/4" seams and press down. Then press to adhere to denim.

Select your coordinating thread to go with your patterns and sew detailed stitching on either side of the patterned fabric. Depending on the pattern this can be time consuming so choose wisely. Also my denim was a stretchy denim, so some of the more dense patterns wanted to pucker and I had to press them flat. So keep that in mind.

3. Place your bib and back fabrics right sides together, pin and trim the back fabric the same size as the bib. If you wish to re-pin for easier sewing, please do. Sew a 1/4" seam around the entire bib, leaving about a 3″ opening at the bottom of the bib for turning. Make small perpendicular clips around all your curves for easier turning, just make sure not to cut your seam. The area on my neck, where the snaps go was very small so I trimmed the edge in that area to about 1/8"

4. Gently turn bib right side out, using closed scissors or a blunt edge tool to carefully push out the narrow curves.

5. Press bib, pin your turning opening and stitch along all edges about 1/4″. You can use a decorative stitch here also. I used a wavy stitch with a denim blue color thread and a coordinating bobbin thread to the back fabric.

6. Choose a closure and attach as directed. I chose hand sewn snaps because the area where they would go was just too small for velcro, but if you have more space you can definitely use it!

Once your all done admire your new and super cute bibs! My favorite one has to be the boy one with the construction zone fabric on the front. I really like the girl bib with the ABC back and arched pink stitching on the front!

Crazy pups and Plenty of Finished Projects!

Since Christmas 2012 was with D's family, although we is see my family, we needed to make a trip up north to have a weekend to exchange our gifts and just spend time with my parents. So, this past weekend we went up and spent some time with them. We got our pups re-acquainted and they played NON STOP all weekend. My parents puppy is a 10 month old boxer and full of energy. Our 5 year old ridgeback, with a leg sprain, held her own but they wore each other out both days.

We just enjoyed each others company, exchanged gifts and visited the construction zone that is the new house to see all the progress. We always have a wonderful time, albeit on little sleep because of the pups, and was sad that we had to cut out trip short because the snow and sleet started coming down and we couldn't get stuck.

I was also able to finish a couple of projects this weekend. A quilt top for my dear friends birthday at the end of the month, although the finished photos will have to wait until he receives it. As well as some denim baby bibs! Stay tunes for a tutorial on those babies later in the week, but I'll give you a photo preview!

Happy January!

How to create a Bokeh with Manual Settings (DSLR)

I kinda like the fad of Bokeh that's all over right now. "In photography, Bokeh is the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image. Bokeh has been defined as 'the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light.'" We have all seen on Pinterest the cardboard cutout cover for your DSLR that creates a Bokeh effect, however cool this technique is for creating crazy shapes with lighting, I really wanted to try this technique using my manual settings on my Sony DSLR for my Christmas tree this year.

Roberts Donovan had a really nice tutorial on how to create this look, and he also gives you some great tips on using your DSLR as well. Unfortunately his tutorial was for a more sophisticated camera than the one we have.  Our lens' don't have a large aperture, so it wasn't as easy as I hoped it would be to create this look. Realizing quickly that the more I zoomed in the smaller my aperture was getting. So I took his advice and stepped away from my tree realizing that I could just crop my image to get my desired effect. Noting to myself to put on my Christmas list for next year a macro lens with a large aperture range!

So as I clicked away and played with my settings I eventually got a couple of shots that looked like this:

I love how our angel tree topper looks like an evil owl sitting on top of our tree. That amused me. Roberts Donovan had a good little to do list in order to to get the shot, with a couple of modifications to be able to use my own camera

1. Set your camera to Aperture Priority mode (A or Av on the program dial). (Mine was A)
2. Select the smallest possible aperture (f) number for your lens (should be ≤f/4). The smallest my lens would go was f/3.5, but I had to be zoomed completely out to achieve that so I was able to zoom in to an f/4 to achieve the look
3. Switch your camera to manual focus and manually adjust the focus to the closest setting. (The blurriest you can make it will create a soft effect!)
4. Zoom your lens to somewhere around 50mm. (Again, to get the largest aperture I was zoomed in about 20mm)
5. Find some nice points of light at a distance of 10′ or greater from the camera (your Christmas tree is the perfect subject this time of year). (I used our tree obviously, but I was about 6-8 feet away sitting in my wing chair.)
6. Fire away!

If you get a shutter speed that’s too slow (ie: less than 1/30 second), try bumping the ISO up to 400 or more. (My exposure time was 1/6 of a second and exposure compensation was -2. I'm not sure whether or not I adjusted my ISO on this shot or not. If I did I can't remember what it was set at.)

Next step for me was to crop the bad boy so you can really see the blurry effect of all those wonderful white led lights. If you have the lovely Instagram and Vintique app (iPhone) then you can play with filters and colors to create the below cropped image! I had fun and learned some new tricks for my camera!

Clickety Clack, the noises in my car send chills up my back!

I have a fairly old vehicle. She turns 10 years this year and she has over 150k miles on her. She has been a wonderful car, running like a champ my little 2-door Pontiac. Last year was the first year I dealt with a major issue with her. My fuel pump died, in the middle of the fast lane on the 210 fwy. That was scary, but I made it safely to the right side emergency lane and was able to call AAA. We fixed that and she has been purring like a kitten since.

My hvac however has been an issue for some time. Yes it works, cold air when A.C. is switched on and heat when needed, but none of my settings were working. It would never blow out onto my feet, or through the defrost areas....only through my vents. I dealt with it because really it wasn't as important to fix. Well, in Nov we had a really cold weekend and this LOUD clicking noise from behind my glove box started screaming at me. It only happened one evening and then it went away. Really strange. Well jump to last weekend and the noise started again, and never stopped.

I mean LOUD. If I was on my bluetooth the person on the other line could hear it clear as my voice. It sounded like a jack-hammer was trying to escape from my glove box! If anytime was good for road rage its when that was going on in my car. The only time it went away is when you turned the settings to recycle air....which of course wouldn't stay because of the broken dial....there was no way in hell I can drive and hold the button every time. Especially when my work commute is 45 minutes each way. I took it in, and it was the blend door actuator. 1 hour to replace, including the fact that he pulled out my dash and fixed the issue with my dial! YAY! Apparently the cable had gotten bunched up back there preventing it from working properly. However, it could bunch again and need to be fixed again, but for now I have heat to my feet, which is a blessing especially when its cold out! Oh and my defroster works too so when my windows are foggy, I can see...which I guess is important too. You know, priorities!

Bold Print Envelope Pillow DIY

I went to Joann's fabrics last week, knowing it would be the perfect time to get the background fabric for a quilt that I am making. I was also going to get some chalkboard paint so I can finish my revamped mirror but I got distracted by the clearance fabric section. I found a beautiful teal and black floral that would go perfect in our bedroom. It was in the 50% clearance section, and it was an additional 50% off! SCORE! I bought the rest of the bolt, which was only a yard and a half. I decided to recover some boring beige pillows with a simple envelope pillow case.

Seriously this is really easy! You can follow my instructions or the link above!

What you will need:
- Fabric
- Pillow Form or Old throw pillow
- Measuring Tape
- Scissors
- Pins
- Sewing Machine and thread

1. The pillow that I was recovering was an 18"x18" pillow. Cut out (1) 19"x19" size for the front and (1) 19"x24" piece for the back. Cut the back piece in half so that it measures 19"x12"

2. Hem one side of the back pieces 1/4." Since my fabric was silky, I pressed it with an iron, pinned a 1/4" and then sewed down my hem.

3. Next step is lay the front piece right side up and then place the two back pieces with the right side facing down. Line the corners and the edges up, with the back pieces overlapping at the inside hem (this will create the pillow opening). Pin along the outside edges.

4. Sew around all 4 edges. I used a 1/4" seam.

5. Clip corners if necessary, turn and iron.

6. Insert your pillow into your new cover and admire your work!

Please ignore the pile of cords!

Love the bold print!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe New Year's Eve. Ours was great and really low key. We had a quiet dinner together and then moseyed over about 20 feet to our neighbors to play some games and watch the ball drop. We played LCR and Battle of the Sexes! D actually won a game of LCR. Whoop! Of course the ladies were pulling ahead in BOTS, but as the evening grew on we all got tired and decided to call it and just watch the MTV New Years special. When the ball dropped we had our own private moments and celebrated with new friends! It was a wonderful night! May 2013 be the luckiest year to you all!

I have some craft posts in the pipeline so stay tuned for those!