Crocheted Pinafore and Diaper Cover

Since I have a baby girl coming shortly, I grabbed some pastel yarn I had in my basement and decided that rather than buying a cutsie outfit to bring her home in, I would make one. The beauty of baby clothes is that they are small, so whipping out something to fit a newborn isn't a super time-consuming project! I scoured the Internet for a girly, lacy, outfit that looked doable for my summer baby, and this pattern was perfect.

The Angel Wings Pinafore pattern is a lot easier than it looks. I would rate it an intermediate skill level. The lacy texture and ruffled sleeves make it look more complicated than it really is. I followed the pattern pretty much exactly, using sport weight yarn and a size H hook. It is crocheted in one piece, and I was able to complete it in one day.

Once this was done I really wanted to make a diaper cover to match and I came across this Newborn Diaper Cover pattern. I didn't follow the pattern exactly, but used it as a general guideline for my own cover. I "frilled" it up by going around the edges with picot stitches to create a ruffled edge. I think in retrospect the cover could have been wider in the straps and the backside, but overall I'm pretty happy with it.

Need to Recover a Square Lampshade? Here's How!

Recovering a round lampshade is a little easier than a square or rectangle one, but the process is the same. The difference is that you will have a seam for every angle instead of one seam in the back. I'm having a baby girl and this gold shade just didn't work in her room. Rather than buy a new one, I got some scrap fabric from my stash and decided free is better!

1. Cut out your fabric. I like my projects to be really low maintenance, so I just laid my fabric on one side of my lampshade and cut out the general shape, leaving a pretty generous seam allowance on all four sides. I then used this piece as a template to cut out three more for a total of four pieces. Your pieces in no way have to be perfect because you will shape them in the next step. They just need to be big enough.

2. Pin your pieces around the lampshade, right-sides together, fitting them to the sides as closely as you can. You may go back and tighten it or loosen it in places to get as good of a fit as you can. You should have fabric sticking out from the top and bottom of the shade to fold over the edges later.

3. Slide the fabric off the shade. If you want, you can use tailor's chalk (or whatever!) to draw a line along your pins. This shade has a fluted shape, so my pins reflect the curve.

4. Sew the edges together on all four sides. If you cut your fabric to be a lot bigger than your shade, you can trim the seam allowance down at this time. If your lampshade has a substantial curve to it, you may want to clip the seam allowance. It will look like this when it is done, still wrong-side out. I placed it back on the shade and checked to make sure I was happy with the fit of the seams. You can always go back and tighten them up in places--I did!

5. Iron your seams out. It will look a lot better if you do this!

6. Fit your new shade over your old one. Once again, check the fit and make sure you are happy with it. At this point you can still adjust your seams.

7. Hot glue the excess fabric over the top and bottom edges of the shade. I'm sure there is other glue that would work, but I used hot glue. Fold the corners over as cleanly as you can. It's okay if the edges are a little uneven because you can over those up in the next step.

8. If you want a cleaner look on the inside, cover the raw edges. I used some bias tape for this purpose. Ribbon would also work.

 9. Enjoy your new-old lampshade!

This frog lamp doesn't really match the new pink lampshade yet, but we plan on painting the frogs to match as well. There's always another project waiting to happen!

Another Baby!

I have disappeared it seems, but that isn't really so. I haven't been crafting much recently due to what we recently found out is our soon to arrive daughter! Here she is on the left! We are thrilled to have this new addition join our growing family. My son is now nearly 2 and is unaware of the changes coming his way. He is just now starting to talk so I'm sure I'll hear all about it when the time comes. My daughter, Eleanor, is a full-fledged Scottish highland dancer, so I see more kilt projects in my future. She is very excited to have a sister on the way after suffering the tragedy of having a brother last time (she has since agreed that Arthur is a delight and loves him very much!)

We are also selling a house and buying a house and moving, so I haven't had time to do much sewing or crocheting lately, but I hope to eventually get back into the swing of things!

Make an Easy Bustle with no Sewing Machine

This bustle was a super easy project that I completed in one afternoon, so if you are still looking for a last minute bustle for your steampunk Halloween party or your Victorian Tea, don't fret!  

Here are the supplies you need:

2 floor length skirts. 1 is for you to wear as a skirt, and 1 is to make the bustle with.

Needle and Thread to match

1 Pillow (optional)

Safety pins and/or other pins

I am fortunate to have a mannequin to do this on, but if you don't, you can either use a friend or simply try the skirt on several times throughout the process.

1. Put both skirts on your mannequin. I started with the skirt that was to be my main skirt, the copper one, and then put the black skirt over it. The black skirt will be the bustle.

 

2. Cut the top skirt up the center front, stopping in the center of the pelvis area. Do not cut it all the way!

3. If you are using a bustle pillow (or any kind of padding), insert it now. I pinned mine in with safety pins so that it would be removable.

4. Start pinning up your bustle. Most bustles have multiple layers they are gathered in. I created 3 main rows of gathering, then went back to fine-tune it.


5. Pull back the sides of your overskirt, taking care to pin them back in a way that keeps your pillow/padding hidden.









 
6. After pinning, hand-sew the points you pinned, taking care to sew them well since you don't want them to rip out. And that is really all there is to it!

I later decided I didn't want the bustle pillow because it got in the way of some other accessories I was using, so I took it out. I pulled the front of the bustle up tigher around my waist to make up for the lack of padding.

It was easy to do and added some fun contrast to the copper skirt. I got both the skirts at a thrift store (as well as a lot of the other things you see in these pictures!)

Eleanor's Lacy Crochet Ruffle Skirt--Tutorial

I had a vision of making a cute skirt to be worn over leggings, and after searching the Internet for inspiration, and finding the perfect stitch to start it with, I came up with this! I wanted something open and lacy, not just because it is pretty, but because it works up quickly. The ruffle has lots of "flounce" to it!

Supplies: I used a J/10 hook and worsted weight yarn (I believe it was Red Heart) Less than 1 skein of each color.

Eleanor's Lacy Crochet Ruffle Skirt:

Chain the width of your child's waist, making sure it is in a multiple of 11 + 1 Chain. (For my daughter, who is an average sized 5 year old, I chained 66 + 1 for a total of 67 chains)

If your child is like mine, a multiple of 11 probably won't fit her exactly--that's okay! Pick the multiple of 11 that is as close as possible without being to big--you can extend the skirt width later.

Rows 1-10: Follow the pattern for the "Fans Lacy Stitch" through to row 10. The pattern is available here, and includes photos and diagrams. This will complete the "yoke" of your skirt. (You can go through the pattern for additional rows if you want the yoke to be longer)

Note: Any rectangle of crochet can be the yoke of your skirt--this is just the pattern I used to make mine look lacy--don't be intimidated by it!



Rows 11-12: Complete a row of DC around both the top and the bottom of your skirt. To do this at the bottom, complete 4 DC's in each 4ch space and 1 DC in the top of each DC of the previous row.  

If your work fits your child well, whip stitch it up the back to form your skirt and skip the width extension. 

If your work fits too snugly around your child, as mine did, continue from here:


Skirt Width Extension (Optional): Cont. from last DC by turning work to the short end of your "rectangle." Chain 3 and do 1 DC around the post of the last DC you worked before turning your work and continuing working DC's into the side until you reach the end.

(Work 2 DC's in each Row of your Fans Lacy Stitch pattern. So if you stopped at row 10, you should have 20 stitches plus 2 on each end for a total of 24 DCs, but note that it doesn't matter how many you do on the short ends as long as your work lays flat and you do the same number on the other side).

Fasten yarn off, and complete an equal row of DC's along the other short side. Whip-stitch your skirt together. This adds a couple inches as pictured here. If you need more width, just keeping working rows of DC's until it fits your child's waist. 

The Ruffle:

The ruffle is a Bethany Sew-&-Sew Original and creates a very full, twirly skirt. My daughter calls is "Hula-ish." :-)

Row 1: Fasten yarn to a DC at the bottom of the center back of your skirt. * Chain 5 and SC in the next stitch. Repeat from the * all the way around, ending with a slip stitch where you originally fastened on your yarn.

Row 2: Slip stitch into the the next Chain-5 loop, Chain 3, and DC twice into the same chain-5 loop, Chain 1, * 3 DC into the next chain-5 loop, chain 1. Continue from the * all the way around ending with a chain 1 and slip stitch to join the round.

Row 3: Slip stitch into the next DC, Chain 4 (counts as DC plus 1 chain), * DC in next chain-1 space, Chain 1, skip next DC, DC, chain 1. Continue from * all the way around ending with a chain 1 and slip stitch to join.

Row 4: Chain 4 (counts as DC plus 1 chain), DC in same stitch, * skip chain-1 space, DC in next DC, chain 1, DC in same stitch (create a V-stitch). Cont. from * all the way around, slip stitch to join.

Row 5: (Color Change) Slip stitch into the center of the next V-stitch. SC in same space. * Work 5 DC's in the following V-stitch. SC in next V-stich. Cont. from * all the way around, join with slip stitch.

Row 6: Chain 6 (counts as DC plus 3 chains), SC in center of next shell. * Chain 3, DC in next SC, Chain 3, SC in center of next shell. Cont. from * all the way around, join with slip stitch.

Finish with a row of SC in your contrasting color around the top.  If the skirt is too big, or slides down, you can add a ribbon belt to it by weaving it in around the waist.