Just call me Maria von Trapp

Or, if you’re old school, Heather vonCraft, like that one weather bunny once did on the news.  That was so funny.

I made some car trash receptacles on Wednesday, the “snow” day.  It did snow, for five or six minutes, and my big kids got to really play in it for the first time ever.  Up until now, I couldn’t afford yearly snow pants and boots, so when the hand-me-downs dried up, so did the snow play.  That, and also we haven’t gotten any decent snow in Baltimore since the blizzard.  So that was fun.

In the meantime, encouraged by my hubbyhubbers, I took over the kitchen table to do some sewing whilst he cared for the youngest babychild.  Who, by the way, gets cuter by the nanosecond.  Proof, you say?  Oh, alright.  I’ll include a poorly shot cell phone video of my baby doing almost nothing and yet cracking me up, sure.

So anyway!  I made these trash cans for the car out of some fabric.  Danny’s was made out of the bottoms of the curtains that hang in our living room and bedroom (hence the title of this here posty-poo).  I just lopped them off and re-hemmed them when I bought them (from Target), and saved the bottoms, which were medium-weight cotton.  Not quite canvas, but tough and thicker than broadcloth.

Danny’s is in his car, so maybe I’ll update the post with a photo of that one later.  But!  I couldn’t wait to show you mine!  I’m totally gonna marry it.  Before:

Oh, dear.  That was AWFUL.

AFTER!

Now, if I could just vacuum the floor, it might be presentable.  I used this tutorial for the pattern, although I made a couple of changes to this second one- Danny’s version, I followed the pattern exactly, except I sewed the lining to the outer bag after pinning it (I think the author of the tutorial might have forgotten that, or maybe I didn’t copy it into my own directions- probably the latter).  This one, I pieced the two fabrics for the front, because I only had quarter yards (skinny ones, not fat quarters), and I love them together so very much.  These were from Hobby Lobby- sidenote: Hobby Lobby has cute fabric!  Who knew?

I also changed the inner liner on both of them.  The tutorial calls for Pellon, which I didn’t have, so I used cardboard for Danny’s liner, and a manilla folder for my own.  I would have used the light cardboard for both, but we don’t really eat much food that comes in those cereal-box-weight-boxes (which, AWESOME, but no boxes like that lying about).  The folder worked great, though, I just stapled it:

Now, I have to make one for the back seat, since the kids have an awful bag-on-the-floor, too…

I do still make things…

Here’s a little  sampling of baby things I’ve made since I went on bed rest in October.

This is my version of the Puerperium- here’s the details.

Baby in the sweater (I also did this bonnet, but no pattern- I just crocheted a T shape to fit her head, then seamed the back and added a little picot border.  I need a better photo of it, then I’ll add it to Ravelry):

A teeny, sparkly hat (this one no longer fits, but it was the only one that did fit for about 2 months…):

No pattern link for that, I just measured her head and my gauge and winged it.  It’s handy to have the baby attached to you at all times for this method of hat (or any garment) making.

On to booties! Details here.

 

More recently, I’ve done this hat, from my own Mission Hat pattern.  It’s gotten loads of compliments, I just love this design.

I’m still using my old stash Mission Falls cotton for these, but I’m running out of color combos I enjoy… the company went out of business recently who made this yarn.  I’ve found blue sky alpacas organic cotton to be nice for these, but it’s definitely bigger, even though it’s technically worsted.  I had to adjust my needle size and change the pattern a little to get a similar result.  Still working on editing the pattern to include these changes.