Say Hello to the Evil Plumber!

This week has been a super busy week for me!  I have had a blast making some fun aprons for all the cool kids out there!  I started this week making an Evil Plumber apron.  If you aren't familiar with him, he is the nemesis of The Plumber and the Green Plumber.  This apron is made with twill and all the top-stitching is purple to add a subtle pop of color on the pockets and belt.  Because he is evil, my sewing machine threw some fits while I worked on him, but we powered through :-) 

Fleece Viking Helmet? Sure! Why not?

The idea for these hats came from a high school friend whose son enjoyed the movie "How to Train your Dragon."  (If you haven't seen it, you might have guessed, there are vikings in it!)  I loved the idea of this hat because in my head it seemed like such a fun project!  I made a couple hats and did some experimenting to try to figure out exactly how to make this work.  I still think there is a better way to do it, but I'll save that for another day.  These hats are made entirely of fleece (and stuffing).  They consist of a basic fleece hat with an embellished center seam and band.  The center seam and hat band have "rivets" on them that are fleece circles I stuffed to give the hat a sort of 3-D look.  The horns were attached by hand-sewing the base of them to a circle of fleece, then attaching this circle to the hat.  These were a bit of a pain to figure out!  I originally was going to make ear flaps so that these would be really warm and winter-ready but the first one I made was long enough to cover my daughter's ears by itself, so I left the ear flaps off.  The second one was a bit smaller and would be better suited for a younger child.  The inside of these hats is "unfinished," meaning that they are not lined, but they are still really warm.

Eleanor's Crocheted Butterfly Beanie

 I actually made this hat a couple weeks ago and my daughter really loves it.  This was a simple concept that began as a plain old yellow beanie.  For instructions on how to make a simple crocheted beanie, I found this link to be pretty good:  How to Crochet a Beanie

It was too boring so I added a couple rows of seed stitching to the bottom in hot pink.  I use a lot of seed stitching in my projects to add decorative texture to things.  The seed stitch is a very simple stitch since it is just basic stitches being alternated. You simply single crochet, then double crochet, then single crochet, etc...  When you reach the end of the row you turn it around and double crochet on the single crochets and single crochet on the double crochets from the previous row.  You could also do triple/treble crochets instead of double crochets for even more texture.

Here is a great page I've bookmarked on how to do a variety of fun stitches: Crochet Stitches and How to Make Them  (Although seed stitch isn't on this list, which is why I explained that one!)


Even with the pink border I thought this hat was too boring for my little girl, which is when I had this vision of it covered in colorful butterflies.  So I went on the hunt for a simple butterfly pattern and found this one: Crocheted Sass-Butterfly Pattern

These butterflies were quick and easy to make so I made several and just tied them on the hat with yarn.  I can see myself making lots of other butterflies in the future for various projects to use as embellishments.

Turning gloves into Chipmunks...or Squirrels.

This is what you need: Thread, A Glove, Scissors, A Fabric Pen, a Needle, and Stuffing.  You will also need this tutorial:

How to make a Chipmunk Softie out of a Recycled Glove

I love this project so I had to try it out for myself.  I was sent this idea by a friend.  I simply followed the instructions provided by the link above and ta-da!  A chipmunk...that looks kind of like a squirrel.  My daughter called it a skunk.  I didn't make him exactly right, but I'm going to try again with the other glove since it now doesn't have a mate!

The Plumber--Because the Peachy Princess shouldn't be all alone!

 Today I finished the the Plumber apron that is to accompany yesterday's Peachy Princess apron.  This was a lot of fun to make because I haven't made as many aprons for men.  It was a nice change of pace!  Designing this one took some creativity because I wanted it to look like overalls, but still have the red shirt feel even if the wearer wasn't wearing a red shirt.  This is why it is lined in red underneath the overalls bib.  I like the way it ended up looking, and although different from the original character.  I had some oversized yellow buttons that worked well to complete the top and keep it looking somewhat cartoonish!

This apron is on my female mannequin, which is a very petite young lady, so it is a bit large for her, but it should fit a strapping gentlemen quite well.  I'm in love with this apron!

The Peachy Princess can be found here.
Pretty as a Daisy can be found here.
The Green Plumber can be found here.

My newest character--The Peachy Princess!!

This princess is an apron I've wanted to make for a long time, so when I got a request for it I jumped all over it.  One of the hardest parts was just picking out the right shade of gold and blue for the medallion applique on the bib.

The skirt wasn't too hard, but positioning the pockets was more challenging than normal because they needed to be on top of the overskirt for functionality, so I couldn't put them where I usually do so far as dimensions from the top and bottom.  They are set wider apart and a little higher.

 The picture to the left was taken on my web cam because I thought it might be nice to see the apron pulled out.  I really enjoy this apron.  It's really girly and looks cute.

Coming up next:  The Plumber!  This apron will be a men's style chef apron.  I've already started this and should be done really soon!

Recently added to the collection: Pretty as a Daisy!