Artisanal Burp Cloths

There’s a story there. Of course there is.
I made burp cloths as a baby shower gift for a coworker of my husband’s. I showed him the finished product and he declared it amazing.

 

Um, it’s a burp cloth.

 

“It’s an artisanal burp cloth! You could sell it to a hipster for $40!”

 

I needed to make a few more and, since I hadn’t bothered to write down how big I made the last set, I couldn’t remember. (I do this all the time. I figure I’ll remember details about a project and then I don’t. Which usually doesn’t matter…a lot of the things I make are one-offs because they’re for specific people. But sometimes it does.)

 

So! This is more of a reminder than a tutorial.

 

-flannel

-towel in coordinating color

-sewing stuff

 

1. Cut the flannel to 9″ x 15″.
2. Cut the towel to be a bit larger. (It doesn’t need to be exact or even particularly straight.)
3. Pin. (Yes, I know you hate pinning. Do it anyway.)

Cutting the towel bigger accomplishes two things. You don’t have to measure/cut exactly (I don’t have a rotary cutter and mat, so cutting precisely is a bit of a pain) and if the fabric slides around on you a bit (yes, it’s pinned, but it still happens), no worries.

4. Sew.

5. Realize the hand wheel is greasy because your kid was messing with it.

6. Swear you will make a cover for your sewing machine

7. Sew for real this time.

8. Trim the towel and clip the corners.

 

 

9. Turn right side out.

10. Top stitch all the way around.

11. Sew across (middle and the middle of each half)

12. Curse the towel fuzzies that are now covering everything.

13. Admire the artisanal burp cloths.

 

 

Also it’s more efficient to assembly line this if you’re making several at a time.

 

 

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New Item and Custom Makes

After finishing all the custom orders I had on my list before Christmas, I took a bit of a break from crafting. Partly to do Christmas with my family and partly because I was a little over sitting in front of my sewing machine.
But!

 

I’m back in the saddle.

 

This plaid flannel infinity scarf is a pretty classic red and black plaid.

 

I showed you this infinity scarf in an earlier post…

 

I had a few other custom orders for the holidays. This ‘mommy & me’ set…

 

 

This one was tough to make (the fabric was soooo silky and I had to match up those stripes!) but I was proud of how it turned out (I matched up those stripes!)…

 

And this one is just lovely. The material was soft and turned out to be a beautiful scarf. I think it’s a bit heavy for accessory wear, but perfect for a winter scarf.

 

Yesterday a friend and I made 4 car seat ponchos, but that’s another post for another day!

 

 

Last Christmas Make

I had a bunch of things to finish for others to give as gifts, which meant hard deadlines. The only other project I wanted to finish for my own gifting was an apron for my son. And now it’s finished! I’m so pleased with how it turned out.

 

I wanted a pocket on the front but didn’t like the way it looked when I laid out just the same fabric. I didn’t have any scraps of red in my stash that were quite the right shade so I went with some grey jersey. Cotton probably would have been better, but I think the jersey is fine and I was determined to use what I had on hand.

 

As for the other details, I finished the ends of red grosgrain ribbon. I didn’t want it unraveling and looking ratty.

 

J has been interested in helping in the kitchen and is getting to the point where he’s more helpful than not. I want both my kids to learn to cook and bake…so far they’re both interested and enjoy it. It’s all part of my master plan…I figure they can eventually be responsible for dinner one night a week, not to mention being able to feed themselves once they leave the house.

Crossing Things Off the List

I love crossing things off a list.

 

My current projects (a pullover sweater-type thing for myself and a blanket for my daughter) are on hold until I get the projects on my list (mostly things people are buying; one thing I’m making as a gift) finished. This past weekend I crossed a TON of stuff off! I was thrilled to have so much crafting time on Saturday.

Christmas Crafting

I can tell you that I’m planning on making an apron for my son for Christmas, because he won’t read this. 🙂 I picked out some fabric with friendly-looking whales on it. I thought about getting sharks, which I know he’d like, but he’d probably also declare it ‘too scary, mama’.
I don’t typically sell my crocheted items; I prefer to give them as gifts since the time I put into them is part of the gift. And honestly people won’t be willing to pay for the work I put into, say, a blanket. But this year I agreed to crochet hats for the kids of a close friend because I like her, I like her kids, and I felt like I had the time. I’m about midway through hat #2 (out of 3). None of them are overly complicated, so I’m not worried about finishing in time.
I’m also working on a custom scarf order. I have a friend who wanted to purchase scarves for a couple of coworkers but didn’t see anything in the shop that would exactly fit the bill, so we went fabric shopping. There are worse ways to spend a Monday night than fabric shopping with a friend. She ended up ordering 3 more scarves, so I’ll be busy between now and Christmas!
I also have to keep going to work and making dinner and all those other real life things, so I’ve been squeezing in a round here and a round there whenever I can.
I need to update my master list…I have finished one hat so far, so I can cross that off. I do like crossing things off lists.

Recharging

My day job involves making decisions all day. Probably thousands of decisions a day, honestly. It can be very tiring. I think it’s that, combined with the joy of creating a tangible thing out of raw materials, that is appealing to me about crafting.

 

I spent a large part of my weekend crafting and baking and it was lovely. I don’t know that I’d call it relaxing, exactly, but it scratches that itch to produce something. And really, there aren’t that many decisions to be made. I have a recipe, I have a plan. The mental heavy lifting is done.

 

I made two scarves…

this blackwatch plaid and

 

this buffalo plaid.

 

I also made peanut butter pie with a brownie crust, lemon shortbread, lemon curd whipped cream, and raspberry whipped cream.

 

The recipe for the peanut butter pie is here…my only modification is that I make a brownie crust. I also cut the brownie into small squares before adding the peanut butter layer so I can scoop it out easily rather than trying to cut it.

I use the Tartine shortbread recipe…here it is. As for the whipped cream, well. If you haven’t combined lemon curd and whipped cream, you absolutely should. I make my whipped cream with 8 oz. heavy whipping cream, 2 T. of sugar, and 1 t. of vanilla. I also tried raspberry whipped cream for the first time. I didn’t make the entire batch in the food processor…rather I processed the freeze dried raspberries and then folded them into the whipped cream I had ready in the mixer.

 

Now that we all need a snack…

Plaid Flannel!

The weather this November has been pretty mild, but that hasn’t stopped me from buying flannel! I have yet to work with the monkeys or the bananas…

…but hopefully soon! 

I love this red, cream, and green plaid. And it’s so soft!

This material is a bit thicker, making this scarf incredibly cozy. 
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