I've got baby leg warmers coming out the wazoo. Pictured above are 14 pairs of babylegs. Granted, some of them were ones I made earlier this year, but I also left out 6 new pairs that I sold/gifted. Oh and one Halloween pair that I obviously dropped the ball on. Oops. I really had to force myself to get through these and I'm thinking I may never make them again. Well, except for the two pairs of socks that I specifically bought for E. And maybe if I see some really cute Christmas-y ones. Argh, I suck!I actually managed to be fairly productive this past weekend though. Besides the babylegs marathon, I also managed to get some knitting done. So I'm slowly but surely making a dent in my huge to-do list.
My case of burnout lasted a lot longer than I thought it would. Especially when it comes to sewing. I finally got going on some baby leg warmers this week and realized that it had been a LONG time since I'd sewn anything! I think the last thing I made was that doll for E. But since cool weather is finally upon us and the holidays are coming up, I really need to get my butt in gear. And what better way to motivate myself than with shame? So here's a list of all my current projects, both partially finished, and things I've promised to people that I haven't even started. I'll try to do this chronologically, but I make no promises. And some of these are probably repeats from a old post on WIPs.The first thing that jumps to mind is a knitted sleeveless top that I started as a birthday gift for my mom...4 years ago. I honestly don't know what my problem is with this project except that I'm a bit bored by it. It's more than half done, and not a hard project by any means (almost all stockinette), but I haven't touched it in ages.
Bah, screw chronology. I'm just going to go in order of whatever my addled brain comes up with. Right now, more than anything, I need to work on stock for my Etsy store. I need to make more fruit & veggies, as well as some more breakfast sets. I also have been wanting to do some cupcakes and other sweets. I'd also like to work out a few different hat patterns. Oh, and I have a custom hat that I need to get going on too. I had originally planned on making a few hats as gifts, but not so sure I'll get to them in time. I also have been working on felt alphabet letters, but it is slow going. And I was contemplating making some silly stuffed animals too, but it's probably too much.I have a whole bunch of stuff that I've promised to make for my friend Meighan. There's a couple of bibs from this very cute flannel kitty fabric. Then there's a tank dress from some knit kitty fabric (yes, her daughter likes kitties). A doll similar to the one I made for E. Some baby leg warmers. And probably a few other things that I'm forgetting. Then there's the giant list of stuff for E, some of which I've stalled so long that there's almost no point in making them anymore. I have some really cute Halloween fabric that I was going to make into a dress...um, I guess for next year. Oops. And some other cute fall-ish fabric that I was going to make a pillowcase dress out of, but now I may wait until spring. I keep seeing such cute fabric and patterns, but I've finally come to grips with the fact that I cannot buy anything else until I finish some other stuff first. I know, it sounds pretty common sense to most people, but I have a problem with acquiring things. I've successfully stayed out of the fabric store for almost a month now! Woohoo!I'm currently in the middle of knitting a matching cable-knit hat for E, to go with the one I made myself. I'm dying to knit a little sweater dress for E too, ever since I saw this adorable cable-knit Ralph Lauren one at Nordstrom Rack when I was in Chicago. And yes, I realize it would be cheaper to buy the dress than to make it, and I would have (even though it was overpriced) but they didn't have her size. So now I'm going to attempt to recreate it. Yes, I'm currently obsessed with cabling.I'm also way way behind on all of my digital scrapbooking and crap. I had intended on making a book or calendar for the grandparents for Christmas, but not sure how far I'm going to get now. I'm starting to see why those ones you can order at Walgreens or wherever are appealing, even if they are kind of chincy.On the plus side, I did get a bunch of baby leg warmers done this week, some of which I already mailed off without taking pictures. I should have taken a picture of the mountain of socks I had on my worktable, but again, I forgot.But I'm going to really start cranking now. For realsies. Stay tuned for pictures of actual finished items!
Now that it's October and Fall is finally upon us here in Texas (that is, if you think of 85 degrees as fall weather), I thought it was time to crank out a new batch of baby leg warmers! Actually, a request from a friend is what got me started thinking about it, so I'll kick it off with a pic of the adorable Halloween legs that I made for baby M.
The only real struggle I'm going to have with this is forcing myself to sell them instead of keeping them all for E. Never mind that she still has the dozen or so pairs that I made her last year, all of which are still perfectly fine. In fact, I can't help but show off the cute outfit she wore some with just yesterday.
Between playdates and travel, the last few weeks have been very very busy, so I've been on a bit of a crafting hiatus. But T was out of town this weekend which actually gave me the opportunity to haul the sewing machine again after I put E to bed. I started off with some more babylegs, made by request for a mom from local mom's board. I love the patterns - they're so cute. Now that E is walking, I'm actually a little bummed that I don't have an excuse to put any babylegs on her until the weather gets cold again. (Forgive the crappy quality of the picture. I was in a bit of a hurry.)
I also finally got around to working on a sundress for E. It's a pretty easy project because the material is already smocked when you buy it, so all you have to do is sew a seam up the back and add straps. I'm still pretty proud of myself though, since it's the first garment that I've ever sewn for E. Next up, I'm going to try to make a pillowcase dress, or some version of one. I'm also going to a sewing night next weekend where I'm (hopefully) going to learn how to make an appliquéd tee.
I ordered a whole bunch of knee socks last month so that I could make a batch of babylegs to sell. Man, I really did not know what I was getting myself into. I think this may be the first and last time I try to do something like this for money. I've been sewing on and off, working at them sporadically for the past few weeks, but today I finally got a bug in my butt about it so I spent most of the day sewing, and finally have the last pair almost done. The worst part is, I've been waiting to put them up for sale until they're ALL done, so they've been sitting here, cluttering up my table, and just generally in my way and taunting me. Now onto the selling, which I should note that I'm terrible at. I have a really hard time being all rah-rah, especially about my own stuff, because I'm so incredibly anal retentive that I get all worked up that people are going to notice every tiny little defect. *sigh* I think I should stick to knitting.
In all the years that I've been making stuff, I've gifted or given away plenty, but I don't think that I've ever sold anything for money. Well, slap my pappy and call me Sally, I finally sold something! Even more surprising is that fact that it was my sewing, not knitting.
This past week, I made some babylegs on request for a friend who offered to pay me. And being the crazy, overboard person that I am, I made way more than necessary. And yes, this was during the same time that I was baking up a couple hundred cookies and making birthday dinners. Apparently, this is my week of domestic diva-dom.
In any case, I just thought I'd share, because some of the babylegs were pretty freaking cute. In the pic above, E is wearing a pair of holiday babylegs that have furry Santa tops.
More Christmas themed ones:
Stripes and dots:
And last, but not least, black with white polka dots and blue stripes:
After I got the felting going last weekend, I also dusted off the sewing machine and finally got around to finishing up some more baby leg warmers that I'd started a while back. I don't know why I was being such a procrastinator. They've been sitting there, all cut and ready to rock for over a month now. I think the headache of dealing with stripes turned me off. So I forgot how much easier it is to work with solids! I stitched three pairs up in no time at all! Even the argyle ones, which lined up just the way I wanted.
It's kind of hard to tell, but the ones in the middle have rows of tiny skulls along the band at the top (see slightly crappy picture at left). They were part of the same set as the pink ones with skulls that I made earlier (see this post). The skull argyle is probably my favorite. Even though this is a bit embarrassing to admit, I actually found these at Hot Topic and totally paid too much money for them. I'm sure they thought I was a crazy person, wandering around in there with E in my ringsling, twice as old as everyone else.
So this brings the number of babylegs I've made for E up to 8-9. In my own defense, she's actually managing to wear through some of them already. She's been doing a LOT of crawling around the house, and the berber carpet in our living room is pretty hard on them. Also, once my cousin found out I was making these for E, she sent me a couple pairs of cute socks that she came across (including the very cute black and white argyles above).
I almost forgot. Two small things I recently finished/adjusted. One is this pink ribbon-y hat that I finished a while back. Since it was so short on E and I still had a lot of yarn leftover (but of course, not enough to make anything else), I decided to crochet a brim. It looks a little rough, but at least it fits E's head now. Or at least, it does when she deigns to wear it. She kept pulling it off while I was trying to take this picture.
I also finished another pair of babylegs a while back. I actually had several pairs all cut and ready to be sewn, just sitting around. I did sew one, but the stripes didn't match up, which drives me crazy (yes, I have some kind of OCD about it), so I spent a long time contemplating whether to rip them out and do them over. I decided it wasn't worth the time since you can't really see how bad it is when they're on. I have a love-hate relationship with the stripes. I love them because they are so cute! But I hate how hard it is for me to get them matched up just right. I'd say that's the number one reason why I haven't tried sewing some to sell.
I think that skull hat really burned me out on knitting. I've been trying very half-heartedly to start a few new projects (I really wanted to make a "cupcake" hat), but they don't seem to be going anywhere. And this is even after I just bought some gorgeous Jaeger yarn for 75% off (shh...don't tell T). Not to mention that my hands have been hurting too from working with such small needles and fine yarn. So I think I'm going to put the knitting aside for a while - so much for selling hats - and move back to sewing. Sorry Amber, looks like you won't be getting those skull mittens anytime soon.
Part of my renewed interest in sewing also comes from the fact that I've been thinking a lot lately about felting. I got a bunch of wool yarn on sale last week, and was thinking about making this skull bag, but then I got to thinking that you know, it's a lot of work to knit something and then felt it too. I could easily skip the most time-consuming aspect (the knitting) and skip right to the felting if I found some old wool sweaters. So off to the Salvation Army store I went. And not only did I find a good number of 100% wool sweaters, but they were all 50% off, so I ended up with a five sweaters for under $15. I had to resist the urge to buy every single one I could find, but if these first few projects go well, then I'll definitely be heading back on the next 50% off day and cleaning them out. Oh, and I also found a wool sweater in T's closet that had a few holes in it and convinced him that it was time to retire it. So make that six sweaters.
The problem is, once I got all these sweaters home, I realized that I didn't really know what I was going to do with them all. I mean, how many tote bags does a girl need? Even a super crafty bag-addicted girl like myself can only use one at a time. I did some googling, and found this really cool idea from Martha Stewart. And I even found a great handknit cabled/textured sweater (pictured, right) that I could use. But now I'm kind of toying with the idea of unravelling the sweater so I can repurpose the yarn. I know, it's crazy. But it does seem like really nice yarn. And I could even dye it. Ack, what am I saying?!
I also ended up getting a couple good project ideas from a moms board that I'm on. One is to take the sleeves and make them into little wool pants for E (commonly known as "longies" in the world of cloth diapering). I love this idea! Although, it's really going to put my sewing skills to the test. I've never sewn any kind of garment before, baby or otherwise. And then someone else mentioned making a baby sweater out of the adult sweater, and then adding needle felted embellishments (also a Martha project). I actually really love this idea too. The sweaters are too cute. But it requires me to delve into a whole other hobby - needle felting. This means buying new supplies like needles, roving and foam pads. I can already see it getting out of hand. But I'm so tempted.
To be continued...
I knocked out four pairs of leg warmers last night! My friend Meighan gave me two pairs to convert for her daughter, Sofia. Those are pictured at left. And then the other two were, of course, for E. She now officially has more leg warmers than she could possibly ever need, but I couldn't resist the urge to try and have some different colors and styles to go with different outfits. I also really really wanted to find some with skulls on them. I absolutely love the ones on the left with the little pink skulls. They are too funny. 
In fact, I have to confess that I bought a three-pack of socks (from Sears, of all places) just to get that specific pair pictured. I also may have ventured into Hot Topic to find some skull socks. And yes, I was definitely the only person over the age of 20. Not one of my finer moments, but hey, at least I wasn't buying the Hello Kitty bra and panties. But I digress. In any case, now that I've made SIX pairs for E and still have two or three more waiting in the wings, I suppose I'll have to lay off for a while. Although I'm still looking for red socks. Why does no one carry red knee socks? And then I'm done. No, really. Meighan has suggested that I start making them for money, but I'm not sure I'm up for it. I'm too much of a perfectionist and I'd feel bad charging money for something that wasn't absolutely professional-looking.Oh and here's a picture of E wearing one each of the last batch. I definitely have a newfound love for argyle!
I'm starting to get better at whipping these out. The solid ones are definitely easier (and faster) to do. The argyle ones were a little harder. I had to give up on matching up the pattern. And somehow, one ended up slightly shorter than the other. I may have to go back and try to fix that...maybe. I'm really starting to hate ripping out stitches. It takes forever and I end up covered in tiny little bits of thread.Next up: I have one more pair of socks to do. Pink stripey ones! I may have to make another trip to the store tomorrow... Yes, I know that I'm crazy.
The relative success of my first pair of homemade leg warmers got me all excited to make more. So I ran back to Target over the weekend to check out their selection of knee socks. Who knew that knee socks were making such a comeback? In any case, I ended up purchasing four more pairs, although I had to restrain myself to even that many because there were so many cute styles, especially stripey ones. Have I mentioned that I'm kind of obsessed lately with stripey leggings?
Anyways, this is my second effort. These were technically Halloween socks, but E will be wearing them long after Halloween if I have anything to say about it. I did actually narrow the cuff this time, which I think looks nicer and will stay on her legs better, although it did make it more difficult to sew because of the gathering on the 'tube' part. I'm also still having trouble with keeping the stripes even, even after I ripped and re-did one of them. I realize now that I probably should have started with non-stripey socks to get my technique down. More to come...
For some time, I've been coveting a few different styles of baby leg warmers (Babylegs & Huggalugs). But I was also too much of a cheapskate to pay $12-$15/pair, especially when I wasn't sure how they'd fit or even if E would wear them. So I started searching around on Ebay for used ones and discovered that there were a lot of people selling what seemed to be homemade versions. At first, I was confused. They were obviously not handknit, but they were being sold as homemade. I almost bought a pair of Halloween striped legwarmers, but still balked at paying the $10.A few days later, I was at Target and saw women's knee socks that were the exact same patterns as a lot of the ones I'd seen on Ebay, and a lightbulb went off. Of course! I could just cut off the foot and make my own. I searched around online for directions, but didn't find anything detailed enough. I figured, screw it, I'll just give it a shot and if it doesn't work, I'm only out four bucks. Here is my first effort:
Not exactly professional looking. I'll admit though, I pretty much did it the laziest and most generic way possible. I cut off the foot, just above the heel, folded it over twice, and then did a zigzag stitch around. I discovered that it's pretty freaking hard to keep your seam allowance even when you're trying to sew in a teeny tiny circle. Also, because of where I cut the leg, there was a little bit of flare which became more pronounced after I sewed it down, and they ended up being pretty wide. After trying them on E, I realized that even with her fat little thighs, there was no way they were going to stay up. I thought about just cutting them again beneath the flare, but I worried that then they'd be too short.
Then by coincidence I came across these instructions on a moms board that I'm on, which are absolutely fantastic. This method uses the discarded foot to make an actual cuff, which ends up being the bottom instead of the top. And being the anal retentive person that I am, I of course took out the trusty old seam ripper, spent waaaayyy too much time undoing my work, and tried again. The second try is pictured at left. They're still not as perfect as I'd like (not that anything ever is) as again, it was really 
hard to keep the seams straight. But the stripes match up for the most part, so I'm happy enough with it. Oh, I should note thought that I did take another lazy shortcut, and instead of cutting the foot and re-sewing it to make the cuff more narrow, I just left it as is. When I tried this new and improved version on E, I did notice that when she's standing, they have a tendency to slip down over her feet. But she still seems to like them.Ta-daa!
Then based off of a post on my mom's board, I got on a crazy kick of making little sock creatures. Here's the first one I tried, and I have a couple more waiting in the wings. 
They're surprisingly easy and fun to make, even though they do require a bit of hand-stitching. I think I may have to make an army of them to guard the house...or maybe to give as little gifts.
