Twig & Tale Upcycle Tour

As you may know, I love a good upcycle challenge. It's so rewarding to give old, worn-out clothes a new life, especially when you have worn these clothes with love. I bought these red corduroy pants when I was a student and used to wear them a lot, but some years ago I decided that it was time to move them to my stash pile.

They have been there for quite a while, waiting for the right moment to make their reappearance. And that moment finally came when I was asked to participate in the upcycle blog tour of Twig and Tale.

Twig and Tale is the New Zealand based pattern company of Lisa Spearman, who designs whimsical, nature-inspired, easy-to-sew children's clothes. In her pattern instructions she pays special attention to which materials are suitable to upcycle for the different parts of the garment.  

Since I was short on time for this tour, I chose a quick project: the Wild Things Hooded Scarf. This is a hat and scarf combined in one, with ears! The pattern comes with a whole menagerie of animals to choose from; zebra, fox, bear, lion, cat, bunny, yes even a giraffe! I wanted to have a fur-lined hood, so I chose the lion.

I happened to have some colourful plaid cotton in my stash that matched nicely with the red corduroy, and therefore could be used as lining fabric. I didn't have any fur though, so I went to the fabric market where I found a whole bin of fur remnants in all colours. This orange-blue fur matched perfectly with the lining fabric.

Next up, cutting the pattern pieces. When upcycling old garments, this is always a puzzle. In this case, the front legs were pretty worn out, so I cut the long scarf pattern parts from the back legs. There was still enough usable fabric on the front legs to cut the hood parts.

The hood originally consists of three parts but since my fur was very thick, I split the front band into two narrower bands (with added seam allowance), the back part in the main/lining fabric, and the front part in fur.

Then it was just a matter of following the pattern instructions, which were clear and straightforward.

My son is almost 4, so I made him a size 3-5 yr. It's a bit big on him, and the long fur gets into his eyes and mouth. But when he's wearing it on top of his wool hat, the fur doesn't bother him. I might be biased but think he looks so cute in it. A mix between a lion and an inuit boy.

Be sure to visit the other participants on the blog tour, there is more eye candy waiting for you!

Go here for the blog tour overview page.

Rafflecopter: a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blog Line up:

Day one: Sew Shelly Sew - Handmade Boy -Nap time Creations - Boevenbende
Day two: Stylin Stacy - The Craftingfiend - Gaafmachine -While she was sleeping
Day three: Huisje Boompje Boefjes -Life in our busy household - The Crazy Tailor - Sew Sophie Lynn
Day four: Crafty like a Rox - The Wolf and the Tree - NZ Green Buttons -Vera Luna - Paisley Roots

Wild things

Tomorrow, another Kids Clothes Week starts. This season's theme is a fun one: Wild Things. I'm always in for some animal inspiration, and already have a few projects in mind, so stay tuned. To warm up, I have been sewing some fun and simple eared hats for my kids. They love to dress up, and these hats boost their imaginative play.

It all started around Easter when my son's teacher asked for 30 bunny hats for all the kids in her class. Searching for a simple and quick pattern, I came across this free pattern from the Purl Bee. 

The original pattern was sized for babies and included lamb ears. so I enlarged the pattern and added bunny ears. After sewing a couple of bunny hats (fortunately, I didn't have to sew all 30 of them), I wanted to try out some other animals.
Enter the panther!

And the fox!

The pattern is really easy and versatile, and has a great fit. You could line the hat, as I did with the panther version, but if you use fleece, there is no need to line them or finish the edges. I think it looks really cute on my 2-year old, but it's also a great pattern to create dress up hats for older kids. In fact, the fox hat was made for a school play of my eldest. After figuring out the right shape and position of the fox ears, I could whip them up in half an hour.

Are you interested in the enlarged pattern and instructions for sewing on the different ears? Let me know, and I will do a tutorial soon!

A Frozen hat

The result of my experiment! A wintery hat for M. As soon as she put it on, she burst into singing "Let it go! Let it go!" Indeed, it does remind of the movie Frozen!

M loves it. She couldn't wait until it was finished (which is why it is a bit on the small side - it's hard to keep adding rows when an impatient 6-year old asks you every five minutes "When are you finished Mum?"). She put it on as soon as it came of the needles and has worn it non stop since then (yes, even indoors).

Inspiration came from this pin. I love how the pattern slowly fades away into the white. In hindsight, I should have used finer yarn, in order to let the pattern come out better. O well, that's a good reason to dye some more yarn....

A big fat pom pom tops the hat like a giant snowball. I used up half a ball of wool for it, but it's worth it!

Below you find the pattern that I used.
The hat is 96 stitches in the round, which results in 6 repetitions of the pattern.

Experimenting...

It's been very quiet here on the blog. That usually signifies that real life is not so quiet. Indeed, life has been very busy lately and I haven't had any time to sew, let alone to blog.
Unfortunately, this situation is going to last a while. We're going to renovate the attic to create three bed rooms for our kids. Currently, it is used as our office, sewing room and storage space. We're in the middle of sorting stuff, getting rid of the things we don't need anymore (which is A LOT), and storing everything else -including my sewing necessities- elsewhere in the house.
I don't know how long it will take before I can set up my new sewing room. I guess at least a month or two. In the meantime, I'll resort to an other medium: knitting!

For my latest knitting project, I did a fun experiment in the kitchen. At least, I thought it was fun! My husband did not!
I hand dyed some wool; using food coloring, vinegar and a microwave. As you can imagine, the latter combination was NOT appreciated by my husband! I must admit, it looked and smelled as if I was brewing some toxic concoction. At some point during my experiment there even was a small explosion in the microwave, covering its whole inside in blue spatters. But really, it was a super cool, simple and satisfying experiment.

There are a lot of tutorials on wool dyeing on the internet. Since they are all slightly different, I decided to wing it and follow the instructions loosely. I soaked the (pure wool) yarn, put it in a bowl with water, food coloring and a few spoons of vinegar, put the stuff in the microwave, and let it simmer for a few minutes, until the water looked quite clear (or, in one case, the stuff exploded - probably because I used too little water). Then I rinsed the yarn, and hung it out to dry. Only a few hours later, the first stitches of my new hat were on put on the needles...

Curious about the end result? Stay tuned!

Autumn colors

We are currently having the most beautiful Indian Summer here in the Netherlands. If not for the changing colors and crisp mornings, you could think that it's the end of summer instead of fall. So it's not really time for hats yet. Nevertheless, I wanted to share this hat that I knitted last year, if only for it's beautiful autumn colors.

This is the Luuk hat, a free and simple pattern found on Ravelry. By alternating rows of knitting and purling, you get this fun ribbed hat. It has a lot of stretch, so it fits all of the kids, and even fits me. Let's see who will grab it most often this winter.

I used multicolored yarn, turning from magenta to green, teal and gold, with a deep blue undertone. 

Similar colors as these autumn flowers (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides) that brighten up our garden these days...

Knitting time

Fall is in the air, so that means that I feel like knitting again.

This hat is for a little newborn girl. It's the aviatrix again, a free pattern which you can find here. Even though it looks quite complex, it's actually very simple. A very satisfying little project!

Koolhaas hat

Last winter I discovered knitting. 

For me, it provides the perfect activity to do when my kids are around. It requires some attention, but just so much that I can still keep an eye on them, answer their questions, and give them the feeling that I'm there while still doing something for myself.

 

It is also easy to take along to the playground or in the train. And moreover, knitting goes at a slower pace than sewing. Which is a good thing, since otherwise I would produce more than my kids' wardrobes could handle...

 

Nevertheless, after I got smitten with the virus, within a few weeks I had knitted hats for both kids, my husband, and even for the baby that was still residing snugly within my belly.... So I needed a challenging project, which would keep me busy a bit longer. I found the Koolhaas pattern from Jared Flood on Ravelry, and loved it. Especially the crown, which reminds me of a sunflower.

 

The hat was originally intended for myself, but my son confiscated it. And I must say, it fits him better than me. At least, now I get to enjoy the view of the top of this hat way more often than I would if I had worn it myself...  

And even though this is a knitting project I'm nevertheless linking this post to Sew All 26 at No Big Dill:

Aviatrix

It's september and the first chilly mornings have arrived. So, this Aviatrix hat will keep Jonatan's head warm during the bike ride to daycare. I was super productive during our holiday, so after finishing Jonatan's Aviatrix, I just continued knitting. I made a newborn size for our little nephew, who has arrived in the meantime.  

The Aviatrix pattern can be freely downloaded from Ravelry. I love this pattern! Although it looks quite complicated, it's actually rather simple. This was the second knitting project I tackled (the first was a straight scarf!), and once I had figured out the instructions, it went very smoothly. 

Fortunately for me, yet another small baby has arrived, so I'm allowed to knit another one of these cute hats!