Time flies....and so does the crafting :)

So I've just been whittling the time away working and crafting.  Holidays happened, and they were fun.  New years happened, it was uneventful.  And so far this year we've dealt with just us being sick, and the allergies now because of the up and down of the Illinois weather not knowing what it's doing from one day to the next.

But I have made some progress on several things, and I'll share them here.

So I made some things for Christmas...
Sewed up some American Girl doll clothes to go with the new AG doll that Caim got for Christmas.

Made a Baymax which Carl just loves.

And a matching Minion hat for my brother :)

For someone else I made these gems....

Dr. Who weeping angel, anyone???


Here's a collective collage of all stuff made in 2015...

Pretty proud of myself.....I actually did quite a lot more than I had thought!


And 2016 has been pretty eventful even with all the sickness and after-holiday tireds that we all get...

Kiddo stuff...

That hat and booties are also for the doll.  She needed accessories after the holidays for Kanani (who is an old Doll of the Year, but we've been saving her for years for her to be old enough)

I have created a couple things to send off to a friend...and if she sees this, it'll ruin the surprise, but I'm proud of them.....

If you're looking for this shawl pattern, it's Fortune's Shawlette by Tamara Kelly of Moogly Blog and it's a free pattern.  I added a bead to every chain1 stitch for every other row.....420 beads in total.....and they're not really noticeable....but they are up close and I hope on a sunny day they'll add a little something.

I still have one more thing to do for her, then it'll be off in the Post for her.

I was commission to make these few things....
The hippo was actually last year, but I figured I'd put him in this section.  Isn't he cute?

Princess Leia hat for a baby, soon to be born.

And the Octopus.  Man, I'm happy with him, Octavius the Octopus, but I had a few snafus.  My Ravelry project page has them all laid out in specifics for anyone who wants to read it....but I didn't pay attention to how I put on the tentacles and I had a few that I had to flip.  It was aggravating...but a really great end product.  I think I did pretty good for modifying a free pattern I had seen and making it bigger and my own :)

So as of right now, I have to work on the Happypotamus that I started like 2 years ago for Carl....because after that Octopus, he wants his own....so I promised him.  Then I've got a puzzle ball I want to do, another animal, 2 baby blankets, and a crocheted overlay top I told a dear friend I would make for her.  So the first is the Happypotamus.  Then I think the baby blanket 1.  Then it'll be the top.  Then the other baby stuff :)
We'll see how quickly I can pump this stuff out!!
Hope everyone has a wonderful rest of your week.  And I'll try my best to update with projects a little quicker :D

Halloween and Sewing

Halloween was fun!!!  I made the costumes for the kids, which was pretty good.  I didn't sew them or anything....maybe next year :)

Caim was Rainbow Dash, a My Little Pony.  Carl was Minion Carl, of course :)

 

For anyone who is unfamiliar....This is Rainbow Dash.

I have progression photos for the hat and the wings for Rainbow Dash

I am giving credit for the hat, I used the main pattern of the Unicorn Hat by Sarah Zimmerman
And the Eyes I got it off the blog of Calleighs Clips and Crochet Creations.
She does not put up a pattern, only pictures and how she put it together...but I printed off a pic of the eyes, and counted stitches and made it work for myself.  I did write down the directions for myself for the eyes, however....

 

Left Eye ALL SC
MC 6 - black
2 in each (12) black
SC 1, SC 2 in 1 repeat (18)
Color for this row is 4 black, 12 raspberry, 1 light pink, 1 raspberry
SC 1, SC 2 in 1 repeat (27)
Color for this row is 12 stitches of black (4 into the raspberry you switch to white) Finish off the row in White (15 white)
Then Start back with the black again and go till you’re just 3 stitches into the white from the prev. row….and stop and finish off. I’m embroidering with extra yarn the 3 eye lashes.
The Right Eye is just the same as before, but backwards. so for the 2nd row it’s 1 rasp, 1 light pink, 12 raspberry, 4 black….
Goes the same for all the rows except the last partial black row. That one I SS to the prev row to minimize the effect, turned, and went the way i came until I was 3 into the white from the previous row.

Here's the Wings....

I pretty much cut a template out of a cereal box, cut out everything and hot glued it to death layer by layer.  Started with the foam on each side of the wings.  Then I did the paper to the foam.  Then I did the little wings, I used 2 layers of felt to make them fat.  Then glued the paper to the felt.  Then glued them to the bigger wings.
They were a tad heavy on her back, so I took a stapler and stapled the straps high on the upper part of the wings so the center of gravity on them would move and they'd hang against her upper back.  Then I took some felt and hot glued a strip of it to over the stapled portions of the straps for extra stability.

I will admit, they did come apart by the end of the Halloween night.  But they lasted for the parade at school and trick-or-treating....but it was a constant drizzle/mist/rain flipping between the 3, for our almost 2 hours of trick-or-treating.  So I am thinking that is a main reason they fell apart, paper and water?  Yeaaaah.

Carl I just got some blue overalls from Goodwill, really, and bought a straight yellow long-sleeved shirt online for like $5 and made the hat, which I whipped up with no pattern!  I used a pattern that I had as a reference on how it was increased and decreased.....but the rest of it I just did all on my own.  I was pretty proud of that :)

Some other projects I did in September and October....

A DNA bookmark for an Orphan Black swap.  I just kind of went with a grid pattern for the DNA strand and just made it myself.  I used a sock loom to get the tight, closeknit look that I needed, and I used intarsia knitting, so that there's not strands of yarn strung across the back of it.  I was pleased with the look of it.

Another square for the Moogly 2015 CAL afghan that we make a new square every 2 weeks....of which I am behind several.

Soft Kitty from Big Bang Theory as a gift for the Lovely Bonnie!

Another square for the CAL.....and I'll never make this square again as long as I live.  It was pretty miserable.  But it was a pattern I had never done...so I tried it.  Yep, tried it....and I'm done.

Some spider web gloves to wear on Halloween at the Halloween party that I signed up to help at for Caim's Kindergarten class.  It was quite fun :)
They played walk the plank, we did mystery boxes with noodles for brains and candy corn for teeth and all that stuff, we did a bozo buckets thing, they decorated bags for treats.  It was a really fun time :)

And then just last night I learned how to sew on a machine!  I never took Home Ec and I have no clue.  But I figured, hey, maybe I can sew a costume, my mom always did....and I am blank.  Nothing.  Zip.  Deer in headlights.
So I took a class with someone from work :)  And we made a pillowcase.

And it turns out I'm not completely inept!!  I really like it actually.  I can see making Market Bags and things as gifts.  I found on Pinterest, of course, all these free patterns for American Girl Doll clothes and leggings and market bags made out of old T-shirts....I'm so excited to start doing some stuff in this realm!!

That's about all for now.  I've got a lot of stuff lined up, hopefully, if time and energy permit, to make the kids for Christmas.  Money is always tight and we have to do what we have to do.  So hopefully I can make it work and they'll still have a good Christmas, even if half or more of it is homemade.

Have a great day!!