Introducing Simply Susan...

Well, kind of. I volunteered to make a clutch for a charity auction next month. As I was planning the clutch (which I had never made before and didn't have a pattern - why do I do things like this??) I thought it would probably be good to put a label on it so it looks more "professional" ...or something. Maybe I was just getting carried away. Ok, ok I was definitely getting carried away.

Sometime while I was scheming designing the pattern and label, I came up with Simply Susan. Because, while I like things that are cute and charming, I'm not really into giant bows or hot pink ruffles (usually). I like things that are stylish and functional, but simple at the same time. The Susan part is because my name is Susan (duh).

I'm pretty happy with the label considering I have no artistic background or talent and it was created with the ultra professional paintbrush program on my mac (hah!). And now I'll stop stalling and show you the finished product (of which I am oh so proud since it involved lots of new things for me)!

This clutch is a result of looking at Etsy shops, looking at ideas/tutorials on blogs, and what I prefer in a small bag. I've recently started carrying a Very Bradley wristlet and LOVE it! I definitely could not tackle one of those at my skill level, but I tried to incorporate some of the conveniences into this. Plus this is a little bigger so you can fit more than just your phone and id/credit card (meaning, your lips don't have to suffer since your chapstick is at home and your husband isn't disappointed when you say you don't have any kleenex or a pen with you...again).

I went for snap instead of zipper because if you only have one hand free a magnetic snap is much easier. Don't worry though, your precious chapstick won't fall out because there's also a zipper pocket inside! (Also, I may be slightly addicted to Softlips.)

I was so scared of trying a zipper. The snap was surprisingly easy, but the zipper was more challenging. Would you laugh at me if I told you I was actually shaking a little bit during the zipper part because I was nervous? Maybe you wouldn't if you knew I had to Google what the zipper foot for my sewing machine looks like. Or that I looked up several zipper tutorials while trying to figure it out.

For those of you that are still scared of the zipper, don't be so afraid that you skip a project you're in love with. I tackled it and I'm no professional. I may come up with a tutorial for the zipper soon with lots o' pictures and easy easy instructions for other people like me. : ) Then maybe it won't be so scary for other people because I do think the zipper pocket takes this up a notch.

There are also two slots for an id or credit card. That little white patch is the label. I had some iron on transfer paper leftover from making a shirt in college 3 years ago, I knew there was a reason to hang onto that stuff!

Another important feature for me was that the inside was big enough for a phone to fit vertically or horizontally. I'm not sure how I got stuck on that necessity, but it is big enough for my phone and/or an iphone (I used my ipod touch to test it out) to fit in both directions. I may try to add a strap that you can tuck inside or have on the outside next time. And just to give you an idea of the size...

Anyway, I hope you like it! And more importantly, I hope other people like it so they'll bid on it! (Sorry for the marathon blog post, there were so many things I wanted to mention I had a hard time cutting things out! Thank you, thank you for sticking with me if you got this far!) I'd love to hear what you think so I can continue to improve the design!

Headband!!!

I am pumped! I just finished making this headband...

...and it's one of the few projects that turned out EXACTLY how I wanted! Oh, and did I mention it's reversible? Because it is! (prepare yourself for more exclamation points, I'm in a good mood : ) Really, look how excited I am...

...this was really easy. I'm not sure how long it took me because I fit it in on my breaks from work. It's slightly wider in the middle and tapers toward the back. It's a little snug right now, but I'm counting on the elastic stretching out a bit.

(poor picture quality compliments of photobooth, I didn't feel like busting out my camera and I was caught up in the excitement)

I found this lovely fabric on clearance a couple weeks ago. Clearance!? Usually that section is for ugly, itchy fabrics. I've been wanting to use it for something, but I'm scared to try a project with a zipper haven't had the time. Then I saw a headband on Etsy and, as is my custom, I thought I could make it myself!

I pulled out all the stops to make this (kind of). Ok, really I just mean that I traced a pattern on computer paper and actually pressed the seams, which I never do. And am I the only one who feels like I have giant fingers incapable of performing fine motor tasks when I try to press the seam right on the edge? I'm pretty bad with sewing terminology so I might not even be describing the right thing. I had already sewed around it once then turned it right side out. Then I needed to press the edges so I could sew around the whole thing again and close up the hole with the elastic.

Anyway, I managed to press the edges or whatever I was doing and finish it up. I'm definitely going to make more of these in the future!

Barnyard Finger Puppets

I finally finished my 2nd set of crocheted finger puppets! I'm noticing a trend of "finally" finishing things...so either I'm really impatient or it actually takes me a long time to finish these things. Here's a link to the patterns. I'll give the pattern for the lamb at the end of this post since I partially made that one up myself.

Now for some disclaimers about the pattern. I still consider myself somewhat of a beginner at crocheting (meaning I've completed less than 10 projects, I don't have all of the different stitches memorized, and I ALWAYS mess up at least once during a project). This pattern doesn't have any complicated stitches (thankfully), but I would be lying if I said it wasn't tedious. All those little features are fairly easy to make, but sewing them on is a drag. I get frustrated when people say things like, "this was so easy!" or "I knocked this out in an evening!" So that will not be the case with these, just being honest. Unless your evening consists of several uninterrupted hours of crocheting. But maybe I'm just slow.

Aaaanyway, the reason I still make them even though it can get tedious is they are so stinkin' cute! I mean check out these feathered friends. I LOVE the comb on the rooster's head! Comb aka red thing on top of a rooster's head - I had to look that one up on Google : )

And they all have cute little tails too!

The whole line-up.

So here's the scoop on the lamb. Last time I made the cute little piggy from the pattern. See?

Awww :) I wish you could see the cute curly tail too. But I had no pink yarn. And I already spent my crafting budget for the next two months didn't feel like buying any, so the lamb was born...er...crocheted. Kind of sad how many brown/tan/khaki/cream yarns I have.

Lamb pattern: make basic body
Muzzle: use pattern for dog muzzle
Ears: chain 4, single crochet in 2nd chain from hook, single crochet in next 2 stitches. Turn and chain 1. Next row - single crochet in 1st stitch; in next stitch do 1 half double crochet, 1 double crochet, and 1 half double crochet; single crochet in last stitch. Fasten off. Fold the ear in half and stitch together. Sew ear to the side of the head.
Face: chain 5, single crochet in 2nd chain from hook, single crochet in next 3 stitches. Turn and chain 1. Next row - 4 single crochet, then fasten off. Sew the face onto the body just above the nose, stitch around the edges of the face.

Tail: gather about 10-12 strands of yarn. Tie together in the center (leave a long tail on the knot to attach to the body), then trim to desired tail length. Fluff the tail (a lot!) to get it to be a little fluffy ball. Attach to the body near the bottom. See the diagram below for a better explanation.

Hopefully my superb drawing skills (hehe) make up for my less than stellar crochet pattern writing skills. Despite all of the griping I did about the details, I think this project is worth the time involved. Just look at their tiny cute faces!


PS - I'm very sorry for way overusing the word 'cute' in this post. But really...how else would you describe them?

Grab Ball Toy

So there's a chance this is old news to some people, but somebody recently showed me a grab ball they made. I promptly started scouring the internet to find it, and found the pattern...for free! Here's the link: Grab Ball Tutorial. The tutorial was a little confusing at some points for me, but I'm also pretty new to sewing. A little tip if you want to save time (read: you're lazy and/or some steps in sewing patterns seem pointless and time consuming) here are a couple things I skipped. I didn't press any seams, actually I rarely ever press any seams on anything. I guess it's a wonder the stuff I make even turns out. I also didn't trim any of the corners off. I mean what's the point of that really? You're going to stuff the thing, so what's a little extra fabric on the inside? I used the plump version of the pattern. Here's how mine turned out!

I used snuggle fabric, which made for a very soft and snuggly ball. It was a little harder to work with though since it was so plush. If you want to avoid extra hassle and LOTS of fuzzies everywhere on everything that even thought about being near the fabric, you should go with something else. Sorry I didn't take more pictures during the process. If you want to imagine that I did, just picture that ball, not stuffed and in pieces, and little pieces of yellow fluff eeevverrrywhere (including my hair on one occasion).

It's a good project to do if you craft in spurts because you can just finish one section and easily come back to do another one later without having to figure out where you left off. Overall though I was thrilled with how it turned out. I'm thinking the plump version might be a little more forgiving if you make minor mistakes or your seams aren't totally straight because everything ends up smooshed together. I actually liked it so much I thought about making one for me and my husband. We don't have kids, but it is pretty fun to throw around...What? We had to test it to make sure it was safe (and fun) for the baby who's getting it as a gift. :)

Socktopus

I can't remember now what exactly gave me the idea to make a socktopus for my cousin for Christmas, but at some point I decided it would be the perfect gift. You may still be thinking, "Socktopus...what in the world is that??" That's perfectly normal because I haven't seen a whole lot of socktopi floating around.

A socktopus (plural: socktopi - hey I get to create the plural form if I made it up, right?) is based on the concept of a sock monkey, but it's an octopus instead of a monkey...I'm thinking that last part might have been obvious by now, but there you have it in case you were still wondering.

I wish now I had taken pictures during the process, so I could make sort of a tutorial. Unfortunately, I can be a little overly focused when I'm making something and the fact that I might want to remember how to do it later / blog about how I made it didn't even enter my mind at the time. I started with four new pairs of socks. It was a little tricky trying to find cute knee socks in boyish colors, but it worked out in the end. I used fairly thin socks, and it might work out a little better if you can find thicker socks to use. The socktopus will probably feel sturdier with thicker socks.

Ok, now that I've started writing steps two different times and ended up erasing them I realize it's a little too complicated for a short blog post. Basically I used the tube part of all of the socks for legs - you get 2 legs per tube. For the body, I attached two feet from one pair of socks. I left one of the socks I used for the head completely intact (meaning I didn't cut the tube off, so those two legs were already attached to the body). Then I stuffed everything and attached everything. I used a book on how to make sock monsters that Hubs got me a couple years ago to figure out how to make the mouth.

So there's the very quick and dirty explanation. :) Confused? Well I would be if I hadn't made the thing! If you want to know how to make it, I can give you a more detailed explanation. It really isn't that hard because I had only used my sewing machine a few times before I did this. Hopefully everyone hasn't totally given up on me at this point because now I'll finally get around to pictures!

Just chillin' in my office chair.

Socktopus waiting to be wrapped for Christmas.

Thankfully, the present was a hit. Although I'm not sure who liked it more, my cousin or everybody else. Hard to say since he can't talk yet, but I'll take the slobbering all over socktopus' head as a good sign!