Crafts - Monthly Update

I'm working on several long standing projects. Trying to get some things crossed off the long "list of things to complete".

Cross stitch Christmas gift

Last month I said I had "finished" it because I had taken it out of the hoop. But once I did, I realized two things. 1) It was incredibly dirty. I had traveled multiple times with it, including two times to the beach, so there a build up of grime. And 2) I had missed a couple of bits. The hands on the clock face. What?!? And my signature...

Granted, I hadn't designed a signature when I finished the piece, but I took some time the other day and thought one up. In order to get the letters to stand out from each other, I intend to stitch each in a different color pulled from the stitched design. My application of this to the gift wasn't as successful as I had hoped. I was worried about scale and did it as small as possible. This didn't end up working with the scale of the design.

You live and you learn. I intend to do it bigger possibly all the time, unless I do one of those micro hoops.

Unselfish sewing

There isn't a current sewing project, though my husband has been on me to replace the zipper on his winter coat. I have never done a zipper before, so I'm a bit hesitant. But I did agree to it, so I might attempt it this weekend.

Once I do that, I can start on a blouse I've had in a project bag for a couple months. And I also have a dress that has fallen apart on me (Forever21, should I be surprised?) that I want to remake into a work top. It was the dress I wore to my Polterabend so it has a bit of sentiment attached.

Patch up a knit sweater

Now I don't knit. There's something about the two needles that I have great difficulty with. But, I purchased a Theory cashmere sweater from swap.com (I highly recommend it, though make sure to look at the "condition".) and decided that the fit didn't quite work for me. The sweater has a cowl neck with the buttons at the shoulder, and two buttons wasn't enough coverage and three buttons was too much coverage. So I decided to stitch a line between the two. That was the easy part. The sweater also draped really wide at the bottom (at the hips, I don't know what the designer was thinking), so I picked the stitching from the side. (The thread is also cashmere. Had to save it.) Now I need to restitch the side into a straight down seam. This requires a very small crochet hook and lots of patience. I started to have a go at it over Thanksgiving weekend, but have since let it wallow in a project bag by my bed. If I don't finish it soon, winter will be over and I will have no chance to wear it.

Crochet a winter hat

Over the summer, I picked up two skeins of a beautiful dark teal yarn in Germany, knowing full well that I wanted to make a hat with it. About two months ago, I found a basket-weave hat pattern on Red Heart. Once I figured out how to start in the round, it was good going until I realized it looked more like I was making a flat doily instead of a hat. Plus I wasn't sure if it was going to be the right size! I used a yarn that is bigger than the recommended, but I also did fewer stitches. Road block! I need to take a moment and figure out if someone has a solution online. Maybe when I am done writing this.

Cross stitching my Christmas cards

The best idea I ever had!!!

NOT!!!

I had a grand idea that I should cross stitch 2" by 2" sized winter animals and machine stitch the panel onto my Christmas cards. Trust me, they would have been adorable! But, I had the idea in June. Bought the supplies in October. Started the stitching beginning of November. Not enough time to stitch 40+ animals, then assemble the cards, for the December 9th international mailing date. Should have started stitching in June, but that's also when I had the idea for my friend's gift and that seemed more important.

The solution is - I took the animal designs fleshed them out in Photoshop so they look like actual stitches and not like colored squares with symbols in them. I will print these out high quality onto the blank cards with a greeting underneath. These will be my Christmas cards. Not nearly as handy, but lovely non-the-less. Though I haven't actually tried to print the design on cardstock yet. Biting of fingernails is commencing. Ugh...