Mend it Better

I am so excited to announce that I am in a book! Mend it Better by Kristin Roach came out in February, and I was thrilled to be a contributor.




I have been a long time reader of Kristin's blog, Craft Leftovers, so when she put out a call for submissions for her book I was very excited.




I originally blogged about this sweater project on my old blog here, but the short version is that I found a gorgeous cashmere sweater at a thrift store for a couple of bucks. When I got home, I realized that there were a few small holes. Luckily they were in inconspicuous places and I decided to do buttonhole stitch around the holes, so they wouldn't get any bigger. Then I sewed beads around the holes to look like flowers and stems.

There are a number of great projects and step-by-step techniques included in this book. I love that there are both specific projects and great inspiration for mending anything. As someone who shops at thrift stores a lot I think this book is indispensable.

Thanks to Kristin and the staff at Storey for including my sweater! To read more about the book, visit the Mend It Better website, and be sure to visit the Storey Publishing Facebook page as well. Storey is even offering a giveaway here and on the other sites of the blog tour--leave a comment by 8:00 pm Eastern on March 18th and you could win a free copy of Mend It Better!

Thanks to all who entered the contest! The random number generator came up with number 3, NL Clark! Congratulations!

Spur-of-the-Moment Cell Phone Case

This past fall I downgraded my cell phone from a smartphone to just a regular old cell phone. Partly because I was tired of paying the data fees when I didn't use enough data to make it worth it, and partly because I don't need the distraction of a smartphone. My new phone has a large touch screen, and I wanted to protect it, not to mention be able to find my phone quickly in the black hole that is my bag.



A few months later, I finally got around to making one. I briefly looked for a pattern but didn't find one, so I just played it by ear. My perfectionist tendencies almost got the better of me (when you wing it things don't usually work out perfectly), but I kept going and after about half an hour I called it good and threw it in my bag. And really, the more I see it, the more I love it. Sometimes I need to use things for a bit to realize how much I like them.



I have a bag of wool fabric scraps that I purchased at the NH Wool Arts Tour a few years ago (I've been making a braided rug with most of them). I found one wide enough to cover my phone and folded up the bottom edge, leaving enough fabric at the top for a flap, and sewed the sides together to form the base. Then I hemmed the edges and bottom of the flap.



My husband had told me that it was bad for wool to have direct contact with electronics, because of static electricity, so I knew I needed a lining. I had a packet of fabric squares from a 1930s fabric collection, so I sewed two together with the right sides facing, and hemmed the top edge. Then I carefully sewed the lining into the case by hand. It's slightly visible on the outside but not enough that it bothers me.


I picked out a button from my button jars, sewed it on, and snipped a slit large enough for the button. Even though it's wool and partially felted, I decided to blanket stitch around the opening to make it more secure. I couldn't find embroidery thread so I just used regular sewing thread. Lastly, I sewed on some felt flowers I bought a few years ago. It looks a little wonky but it does a great job, and I can always find my phone easily. Even though I got a little frustrated at times, sometimes just going for it and using what I have on hand is the best way to go.

Autumn Leaves Stitching

I started this embroidery project last fall with my stitching group, and I finished it up and had it framed this summer. I currently have this embroidery for fall, and my "Smells Like Snow" embroidery for winter. Eventually I'd like to have one for each season.



This was an interesting project. We collected leaves from our yards (I ended up taking some of my mom's leaves, from the Japanese maple in her front yard), and traced around three of them on the congress cloth. Then we took those same three leaves and rolled paint on them to print the full leaf near the traced leaves. We used hand-dyed thread to work blackwork stitches inside the traced leaves, then metallic copper thread to outline all of the leaves and their veins. It was a great introduction to some of the blackwork stitches and a fun project.

Happy Fall!

Catch Up

I have been trying to clean out my old projects and organize the ones I'd like to work on next. I have a box in my craft room that holds WIPs and materials for upcoming projects that I went through yesterday. I found a couple of items that were completely done, they just needed to be blogged.

First up is a little pouch made from a Japanese crochet and embroidery kit that I got from Kpixie for Christmas a couple of years ago:


I'm really happy with how it came out, although it's smaller than I expected (it could probably hold my lip balm and not much else). Oh well. I think it will be really cute hanging in my craft room, and it was good to learn how to hand-sew a circle to a round tube.



The top is crocheted, the felt pieces are embroidered, and the strap is sewn on with buttons at the end. Very cute. It was fun to try a Japanese kit--it wasn't as difficult as I expected.



This was a great stash-busting project from Kristin over at Craft Leftovers. It's the Springy Headwrap, which she generously offers as a free pattern:


It's really cute and it goes together in less than an hour. I made one for a friend last spring and I liked it so much I made one for me. I used some leftover Rowan Tapestry yarn and the recommended G hook. This would be a great Christmas present because it doesn't require much time or yarn.



I have a few more projects to finish up from the box. Sometimes i just get stuck with the finishing aspects, even if it's not anything difficult. I also frogged some projects that just weren't working but that I didn't have the heart to tackle before. There were a couple of socks that I unraveled, which was a little hard, but it feels freeing to have the yarn back again. I hope to do a little more cleaning out and finishing up of old projects this weekend. Hope you get a chance to do what you'd like this weekend, too!