Refashioning...of Sorts...

Okay somehow we missed ANOTHER milestone around here...our last post was post 800!!! How crazy is that!

Anyway, one of the things I have always loved to do, but seldom do myself, is refashioning! I love the idea of making something new from something you already have. (I do this almost every year for my Halloween costume). My sister-in-law in France is particularly good at this and the Wardrobe Refashion blog has a ton of ideas. I have grand plans of doing this on a larger scale someday, but I don't have much space around the houseright now to keep the 'supplies' until I'm suitably inspired. (Although, given how practically every shirt I own is now stained from various baby emitting substances and we don't have any money for new clothes right now, I have a feeling you may be seeing some stain hiding refashioning sooner than later!) But in the meantime, I've completed a couple 'refashioning' of sorts projects to spiff up some previously generated projects for new recipients.

First up, I had made the Debbie Bliss Shawl-Collared Jacket from Baby Knits for Beginners as a baby gift for my niece...only at the time we didn't know if she was going to be a niece or a nephew. My sister-in-law offered to mail it back to me so that we could use it for Elliott, since my niece has long since out grown it. My niece had gotten quite a bit of wear out of it. In fact, not only had she worn it...but she had worn the buttons right off of it! I loved these little buttons. They were super cute, but (note to self) plastic novelty buttons may not always hold up to the demands of a toddler. Since its easier to get notions here (rather than in the small town in France where my niece lives), it came back with just one little button still attached. I wish I had taken a picture before I took off the button and the rest of the broken button backs. But after all I am a bad blogger, so no before shot, other than to show you what it looked like on my niece:

By the way, she may actually be the happiest child...EVER!

So my sole refashioning task was to add new buttons. But given that this was one of the first crafty things I did after giving birth, it was a large enough task at the time. I was inspired by the wood buttons Nonnahs had added to the BSJ she knit for Elliott, Pine (here), so I picked out some appropriate wooden buttons for the Grandpa Sweater (as I call it) and came up with this:

Now I am anxiously awaiting for Elliott to be big enough to wear it!

The other little 'refashioning' project I did, was to up the style factor on some burp cloths I made 'en mass' prior to Elliott's arrival. I had a couple unused pink ones that I thought might be perfect for Nonnahs' Bean. I had originally left them without any additionaly decoration, but thought Nonnahs would like a little bright ribbon accent:


So with the help of a long nap time, I was able to sew on a strip of ribbon to both sides of each cloth for a complete 'Shannonizing' of these burp cloths:

You may have noticed the colors in this ribbon are very similar to our blog colors...and that was very intentional. Originally I had planned to use a brown and pink ribbon as an accent, but the ribbon was misplaced the day I went to work on this project, so the ribbon was substituted...and I'm actually much happier with this version. Nonnahs loves bright, happy colors, so I think this color combo suits her more.

And finally, since I can't really post a crafty post without sharing a current photo of my favorite 'project' ever, here's Elliott enjoying his Baby Einstein excer-station-saucer-thing:


He's growing up so fast! He turned 16 weeks yesterday (*gasp*) and I'm amazed at his finger and hand control. (I could literally watch his hands move all day!) He is truely fascinated by the world around him and what his body can do. I've also been back to work for the last 4 weeks, which is still an adjustment, but I think its going as well as it could. Elliott spends his days with daddy (who is a student) and then I take over when I get home late afternoon. Fortunately, I'm only working 4 days a week right now (way to go bad economy! ;) so that's making it a bit easier, despite our painfully reduced income. All in all, I consider us truly blessed and I couldn't ask for anything more. Take care everyone and more projects to come!

Return to Crafting

Wow. So there was a blog silence for you! Things have certainly been busy around these parts, so unfortunately blogging has been a bit slow on all three of our ends. And we managed to miss our blogiversary yet again. I still can't believe we've been keeping this girl going for more than 4 years! But I have to say its in large part because of all of you. So thank you for stopping by and sharing your comments, experiences and lives with us over the last 4 years!

As for what I've been up to, I can finally share some of the crafting that has been taking place at my house. After Elliott's birth in February, it took me quite a while to feel adjusted enough in my new role to take on crafting projects. But things have settled in, I feel great and Elliott is an awesome little man. So beginning in the middle of April, I started up some projects. However, since they were for Nonnahs' baking-Bean, they were top secret! Well, I was able to gift the gifties last weekend and can finally share them here.

First up is a little skirt, Caiden's Skirt (Rav Link), that I started mid-January and finished up a few weeks ago.

It was a great little project. It knit up quick, on size 8 and 6 needles, and I think it is totally adorable. As soon as I saw it pop up in my Ravelry friend's activity, I knew Bean needed a little skirt. After my experience getting more than plenty of blue clothes for Elliott, I also knew that this skirt would not be pink. I happened to have a ball of Lime Cotton Ease and paired it with some left over Violet Cotton Ease I also had on hand. The little tie at the waist is optional, but I liked the stylistic detail of it. However, it looked a little lonely hanging out there once I was done. So I improved some little florets:

I made these by crocheting the contrast yarn onto the end of the tie, then chaining up about 4 or 5 stitches then reattaching the loop to the base. I repeated this about 4 or 5 times for each floret. I'm not sure what all the proper crochet terms are, but hopefully I described it well enough.

I also wanted to gift Nonnahs a set of these little Gerber long sleeve wrap shirts. I LOVED these shirts for Elliott. They are perfect for Southern California as little cardigans over onesies or other short sleeved tops, since most of the time you don't need to be bundled up, just have something on your arms to keep the breeze off. But the plain white 'cardigans' were aching for some embellishment. These took on many different incarnations in my head and ultimately I decided that some appliques were in order. I was inspired by the lady bug that Melissa did here for this one:

Elliott was kind enough to model them for me :)

Only I made it a little more stylistic using some scraps I had leftover from Nonnahs' wedding quilt. I also used some of the leftover black to make this bumble bee:

I used some yellow scraps from this quilt and repurposed a little shear scarf for the wings. They were both super fast and easy little projects and I was able to do all the applique work during one of Elliott's nice long afternoon naps. (I love when these happen! I just wish you could count on them!)

Anyway, I have a few more 'refashioned' projects to share as well as a couple new knit projects but clearly given the amount of my blog content lately, I'll be posting about those separately!