I have one last FYDP accomplishment.

• Made rainbow soap. It may be weird colors that look more like an unappetizing jello mold than soap, but it’s rainbow soap.

We trimmed the edges off after I took this picture, which helped a bit.

Total accomplished projects:

1. Mending: 7
2. Non-mend sewing: 5
3. Elimination: 11
4. Website updates: 6
5. Crochet: 3
6. Other crafts: 1

Before starting FYDP, I made a long list of projects that were lingering. Here’s the breakdown of items that haven’t been crossed off that list.

Total remaining on list:

1. Mending: 5
2. Non-mend sewing: 4
3. Website updates: 4
4. Crochet: 2
5. Other crafts: 1

I am very happy to see that, even ignoring eliminated projects, each category’s “accomplished” number is at least as high as its “remaining” number. Total totals: 33 accomplished, 16 left on list. Two-thirds taken care of.

What did I learn? That having a time set to be mindful of lingering projects skyrockets the probability I’ll finish them, as does public accountability. That counting elimination as an accomplishment helps greatly in making it happen. That sustaining momentum for a project over three months is nigh-on impossible.

I hope this was a productive period for all of you. Maybe we’ll do it again sometime.

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There will be one final roundup in April — I’ll do it in a week if all projects for FYDP that I intend to blog have appeared, and otherwise I’ll delay until that’s happened. I hope this was a productive period for you! I am glad to look at my list of totals and see, especially, the high number after “elimination.”

FYDP achieved its main goal: counteract my tendency to just sit on things. While I certainly didn’t finish my list (we’ll discuss that in the final roundup as well), I made a much bigger dent than I would have if left to my own devices.

Totals:

1. Mending: 7
2. Non-mend sewing: 5
3. Elimination: 11
4. Website updates: 6
5. Crochet: 3

The post FYDP Roundup 12 appeared first on ReveDreams.com.

A small number of items this week, but accounting for a lot of work.

• Finished the Embroidery on Crochet series I’ve been intending for a long time, and with that, the Learn Crochet pages count as “finished.” Of course I will continue to add to and revise them as I find (and create) more resources and learn more about crochet myself, but I’ve met my personal criteria to count the series as finished: the pages are all present, fleshed out, and interlinked, and there are at least two practice patterns available for every skill in the first six lessons. It is now a source for complete instruction in the basics of crochet, and a launch pad for more advanced topics (currently nine of them, plus amigurumi). Huzzah!
   
• The second project was also a long time coming: finishing and releasing the Big and Little Pi pattern.

Totals:

1. Mending: 7
2. Non-mend sewing: 5
3. Elimination: 11
4. Website updates: 6
5. Crochet: 3

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Big and Little Pi Pattern

You saw a Pi and pi I made for my sister back in late 2012, with the pattern for little Big Pi. That version of big little pi required sewing to shape the curved foot. (The little Big Pi shown also had one leg longer than the other, due to a counting error.)

This version is sewing-free! The pointed foot and “horn” of the top bar curve through a combination of increasing/decreasing and a method I developed to collapse pairs of rounds into single rounds on the inside of the curve. The stitching takes some paying attention, but it isn’t difficult and all stitches are common (very common, in fact: slip stitch and single crochet).

But enough about that. I was fortunate enough to capture some pictures of Pi and pi in their usual haunts…

They love the soothing motion.

I think they’re gambling?

Where they go to relax!

Their individual beauty shots are on the pattern page.

The post Pi for Pi Day appeared first on ReveDreams.com.

Totals:

1. Mending: 7
2. Non-mend sewing: 5
3. Elimination: 11
4. Website updates: 5
5. Crochet: 1

The post FYDP Roundup 10 appeared first on ReveDreams.com.

I am very excited to announce a blog post series I have been wanting to do for quite some time: an in depth study of embroidering on crochet. In particular, we’ll discuss embroidery on closed crochet pieces such as amigurumi, where you don’t have access to the interior of the piece.

The series will be in four parts, two in the next few days and two in a week, divided as so:

	1. Basics and freehand stitching. Covers securing ends, working on crochet fabric, running stitch, backstitch, cross stitch, satin stitch, and freehand weaving.
	2. Separated stitches. Covers lazy daisy, fly stitch, French knot, bullion knot, and some variations.
	3. Linked stitches. Covers chain stitch, blanket stitch, feather stitch, and some variations.
	4. Weaving, whipping, and couching. Covers threaded and whipped backstitch, Pekinese stitch, spider wheels, couching, and detached woven picots.

There will be many progress photos, links to alternate instructions for various stitches, and all the tips I can muster about neat and easy embroidery on crochet. Please do let me know if you have questions or would like to see more details or additional variations. Until tomorrow — happy stitching!

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• Refashioned a denim shirt bought late last summer.
• Made a bolster pillow from an embroidery piece done two and a half years ago (!).
• Mended three pairs of jeans that had been sitting half-finished for a long time (I’ll call this one mend, especially as the jeans I was wearing while mending replaced these pairs in the to-mend queue).
• Went through my bag of socks to darn. Threw out most of them. Tried to fix two pair with needle felting, per Ayala Talpai (formerly under “Tips and Tricks”). Unfortunately without a styrofoam ball or egg, I resorted to a small vase, felting over the opening. I did a pair of the hubs’ socks with wool crewel yarn, which may or may not stay put with wear (jury’s still out), and a pair of my socks with llama fleece. That pair have since joined the rest in the trash, as the llama fleece is too slick to felt well on its own, and even after two rounds of re-felting by needle during the day it was shaggy and peeling. Oh well. The sock of the pair that had the smaller hole did better, so the trick is probably staying on top of it.
• Turned my Cake or Pi? shirt (from shirt.woot!) into an apron.

Totals:

1. Mending: 7
2. Non-mend sewing: 5
3. Elimination: 11
4. Website updates: 5
5. Crochet: 1

The post FYDP Roundup 9 appeared first on ReveDreams.com.

I didn’t take any process photos, but here’s how I did it:

1. Since the accent color of the graphic is blue, I bought matching blue ribbon in two widths and did all stitching in blue thread.
    
2. The graphic was already more than 12 inches wide, which is wide for an apron top. I basically made the apron as narrow as possible while still preserving the entire image plus a little margin.
    
3. The graphic was also pretty high. I cut across just under the collar, stitched, and after turning right-side-out to check I stitched diagonally across the corners to cut off as much as possible without crowding the image on the side where it was closer to the corner.
    
4. This image is properly centered not by taking the full painted region’s width and halving it, but by shifting that toward the larger part of the image. The way it is centered on the apron is not quite right (and I do wish I’d just let the slice’s shadow be cut off). Anyway, that meant the wider part of the apron was limited by the distance to the closer side edge of the t-shirt. I stitched just inside that edge (which was the full distance rounded down to the nearest half inch) and at a matching distance on the opposite side.
    
5. I chose where the apron got wider by seeing how high I could make the wider part without it becoming unreasonably high. To connect the widths I stitched a perpendicular connecting line. I clipped all the corners, pressed the seam allowances open, and turned it right-side-out. I topstitched around the entire apron, which closed the turning opening (the entire bottom of the apron).
    
6. After cutting the top of the apron I cut the sleeves out just inside their seams. I laid them right sides together, trimmed the curved edges to match, and cut the sides to square them off. I stitched them together on the non-hem sides, clipped the curves, pressed, and turned. To close the hem-edge opening I topstitched. After consideration, I added another line of stitching up the center of the pocket.
    
7. T-shirt fabric isn’t the most stable, which is why I stitched the ribbons and pocket through both layers of the apron. My original thought was to have both neck tie and waist tie stitched across the front of the apron, but there wasn’t enough space between the graphic and the top edge to do that. I did stitch the waist tie across the front of the apron, but the neck tie goes across the back (it is still a single length of ribbon, for stability).

That’s it! You can get this apron in my Etsy shop, should you so desire.

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A bolster pillow! As well as my first invisible zipper. It’s not so invisible because of the pull on the fabric (or maybe because I don’t own an invisible zipper foot), but it’s still better looking than a standard zipper would be.

Sneaking a look inside you’ll find this:

A roll of quilt batting, two kinds, that had been sitting on a high closet shelf for nearly as long as the embroidery had been waiting to be made into something. I interleaved the types (the one I had less of, which is completely hidden, was puffier than what you can see), rolled them up, and used an upholstery needle to stitch the edge lightly so it stays put. That made inserting it into the pillowcase easier and means the case can be removed for cleaning if necessary.

The pillow is a bit more than 20 inches long and a bit less than 6 inches across. It will be good for lumbar support or for my husband to put under his knees when he’s napping on his back.

This was a nice stashbuster! There’s leftover fabric in my fabric stash, but I used about half of the remnant for this, and all of the two pieces of batting. I had to buy a pack of 7 specialty needles to get an upholstery needle, but I’ll have sails to mend soon, right?

The post Finally pillowfied appeared first on ReveDreams.com.

Something about the artist smock styling drew me in; periodically I decide I want a denim layer, and the price, while not ten cents, was right, so I bought it. However, it’s just not quite…. just not quite. Its sleeves are too short to be full-length and too long to be three-quarter length. It’s not remotely fitted but not loose enough to count as A-line or even just flowy. And there’s just something meh about it style-wise. Bordering on schlumpy, even.

I don’t typically go in for three-quarter-length sleeves, but they are more appropriate for an artist’s smock, so I folded the sleeves up to gauge a good length and cut them off. After picking a fabric out of my stash to make all my adjustments, I covered the cut edge of each sleeve with a band of fabric. Better.

To move the shirt from “awkwardly loose” to “intentionally loose” I remembered the bell-bottom trick of inserting a triangular panel into a seam and did so with each of the side seams. Not too much; hopefully just enough to keep the shirt from hanging up on my behind all the time.

I didn’t plan ahead past this point; I had some ideas for other alterations but figured I would see how it looked before making any decisions. And it looked pretty good! I was much happier with the silhouette.

However, something was still missing. I thought about doing something to the pockets, adding a strip of my fabric just outside the button placket on each side, doing something up at the yoke… but I didn’t want it to be too flashy or busy. Then it came to me: buttons!

Finding new buttons turned out to be a big job. The hubs came to help and we found a bunch we liked pretty well – but had at most 6 in stock, while I needed 7. I could have made 5 work with different buttons on the pockets, but nothing seemed to go together well enough for that. Finally after going up and down the button aisle repeatedly I pulled a few different styles off the rack and we chose some shiny black ones with silver paint spatters of a sort. Except better and less ’80s than that description makes them sound. Take a look:

And they were just what the doctor ordered. I had to open up the buttonholes a little, but I happened to have matching thread in my stash to finish the edges, so that was straightforward. I did the button sewing by machine, actually; pulled the top threads through to the inside afterward, tied them in a square knot with the bottom threads and wound them around the stitching and between the layers of fabric a ways.

But without further ado, the finished product!

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