Christmas Stuff

I said there would be more after Christmas... Some Christmas cards for Jessica and Kristen. These are probably going to be my last post on cardmaking....I think you get the idea.

Mom's dress!

Vogue 8613

Stretch fabric from Joann

I haven't used stretch fabric in a long time, but now that I have a serger my relationship with it has improved. I still had to hand stitch the sleeve and skirt hem since I'm not a fan of rolled hems and normal stitching on jersey looks gross to me.

I deleted the wrong image on my camera, so you don't get to see the length. But, mom, if you want to take some pictures of you having fun in the dress, feel free to add :-)

Close up of the collar.

I think it turned out pretty well. The collar could have been better, but that's something I need more practice in anyway.

Dad's socks!

Pattern from The Sock Knitting Kit

Rowan Felted Tween Aran yarn in Sage, from Hilltop Yarn

Easy pair of ribbed socks. And they only took me a month (instead of three months, like Mom's socks last spring). Dad almost got one normal sock and one pedicure sock, but luckily Hilltop had one more ball of this yarn so I could finish the toe on the 2nd sock.

I practiced some Fair Isle knitting yesterday, I haven't knit anything for myself this year (except for scarves, those don't count), so maybe that's up for 2010.

Yay For Teabag Folding!

I took my 2nd cardmaking class from Nichole this week and it's Teabag folding. This one was a bit more complicated than Iris folding, but still easy. All you use is square pieces of paper and glue.

This was my first one. It's made with origami paper and post-its. If someone told me they made a card out of post-its, I might gag, but post-its turn out pretty nice when teabag-folded.

My 2nd one (see how the center fits together nicer than the first).

The cool thing about these cards is that they can be two-sided, so you have something to look at when you open the card.
Yay! I love these cards.

Wow! I went through this whole post without making any dirty jokes about teabagging!

Swedish Dress

McCalls 5972

Fabric from Stockholm

I was so excited to use my Swedish fabric. And a bit nervous, especially when I started to have some fitting issues. I wish I had it in me to make a practice dress out of muslin every time I sew. That's so boring, though.

If you didn't notice it the first time, look at how perfectly I cut out the plaid. That was the good part. The bad part is that I have problems with straight skirts because my waist-to-hip ratio makes me two different sizes on the top and bottom. So at first the skirt just fit, but the top was actually sagging over the waist seam. A little perseverance and four-letter words got me through it. Even on the simplest dresses I have problems somewhere.

And please note the cute little collar.

More stuff coming, but not until after Christmas ;-)

Iris Folding, it's so exciting!

I took the Iris Folding class at work last week with the bubbly Nichole. And I didn't believe it when Nichole told me, but

IT'S SO EASY!

This was the first one I made. Photography is once again bad, I know (maybe I need a new camera). But, it's actually amazing. I was not saying that about the first thing I knitted.

These cards are made with just a template, paper, glue and tape. I just used an old card for the center of this one. Nichole has made some out of Post-Its. An image search on Google brings up a bunch of Iris Folding templates.

I made this one on my own a couple nights ago for Leah's birthday. I haven't really gotten into any new crafts lately, I just try something out and think "Oh, that was fun" and that's it. I like this a lot so far, though. Simple and relaxing (and a little dorky). I'm taking another folding class next week and will post what I make.

Katie's Birthday Necklace

Ring Hammered in Thailand, from Fusion Beads, red bead from Alexander's Bead Bazaar

Sometimes it's hard to give things away. I like how the chain looks like it goes through the ring, but it's just attached with jumprings.

I work with a woman who designs her own jewelry (hammers the metal and everything), and when I showed this to some people at work, they were like "Oh, is that one of Christy's?", so I feel a little like a plagiarizer. Once I can remember the name of her line, I'll link it. [EDIT: It's C-Lee design, can't find a website]

I can't have a post without a little modeling.