Monday, August 17, 2009

Another Baby Surprise Jacket

Remember the yarn talked about in a prior posting about Brenda's hand painted yarn ? No?

To recap: the yarn was hand painted by Brenda and was the foundation yarn for the sweater.
...you save your pennies and splurge on a glorious yarn, taking your time to knit an equally glorious gift from it. You try to find a yarn that, even in its natural state, whispers sweet nothings into the ears of its wearer.
It was a pleasure to work with this lovely fiber; the foundation designer yarn was combined with another mulberry colored washable wool (larger stripes) to knit up this larger version of the Baby Surprise Jacket (courtesy of Elizabeth Zimmerman's 1968 pattern):

A third pinkish-burgundy colored sock yarn was used in the edging of the jacket, finished off with an attached I cord binding and coordinating pink heart shaped buttons. Size 9 circular needles were used, and this sweater turned out to be about an 18 month size.

This is my second Ravelry sweater completed with the help of a forum on this group. Baby Ella Anne, whose mama said she likes to dress Ella in pinks and purples, should be toasty warm this winter in this little jacket made especially for her by her Auntie Nancy.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Using Vintage Crochet Today

Wonderful friend Dorothay sent me a HUGE box of vintage embroidery, crocheted collars, laces, hankies and table runners she had garnered from her late sister's priceless hand made needlework. Some pieces go back over 100 years to grandmothers and great-grandmothers on both sides of the family.

Talk about a pig in heaven ... I was thrilled!

Now what to do with this beautiful box of goodies. An internet search came up with over two million websites relating to vintage crochet. Here are a few I found especially interesting:

Craftown

vintage-crocheted-edgings

Anything with an edge is a candidate for adding some crochet to it. A nightdress with crochet edging at the Purl Bee showed this idea of using an I cord to attach a piece of crochet to fabric to create a shoulder strap. The original owner of the idea could not be tracked down (her name is Leah). So there is no website to visit for her idea, but what a cool way to create a feminine touch to any sleeveless blouse.


I am using this idea to add a unique touch to an existing ivory colored camisole. (pictures tomorrow if this works out!)

Thank you so much, Dorothy, for passing this needlework on to me.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Using Paper Doilies for Sachet Flowers

This time of year, lavender is in bloom. Gorgeous! I was fortunate enough to see fields of lavender in bloom in both the state of Hawaii and in Provence (France) while on vacations. The sight of those flowers was breathtaking with surreal colors of purple waving across cultivated fields.

One way to preserve the scent of lavender is to capture the petals between paper.
The picture of a doily sachet and information about making easy paper sachet packets was first published by All Freecrafts. Here is what you need to make the sachet from paper:

2 Round paper doilies [5 to 6 inches]
Rose pattern rubber stamp
Heart pattern rubber stamp
Gold stamping ink
Gold paint pen
Clear drying craft glue
Cotton balls
Red and green pencils

Making the sachet:

Rubber stamp images on each of the two round paper doily with gold ink. Allow the ink to dry. Using colouring pencils, colour the rose and leaf areas of the stamped images.

With wrong sides of the paper doily together, glue together around the outer edge, leaving an opening of approximately two inches. Allow the glue to dry completely. A glue stick will work for this as well as any clear drying craft glue.

Spray a few cotton balls with cologne or add a few drops of essential oil. Place the cotton balls inside the doily sachet and glue the opening closed.

Because I am now a pig in heaven with wonderfully scented Colorado lavender, courtesy of my friend Ronn, I added lavender to the sachets. They are tucked away ready to be used for little presents for friends, while currently bringing back memories of prior vistas of lavender fields.

This was a quick, easy project completed in less than an hour.