KnitWits

Last week, we went to Las Vegas for a concert. While we were there, we stopped in at FAO Schwarz in the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace. Take a guess at what they are selling. Yep, stupid sock monsters. I couldn't believe it. They are called KnitWits and cost $25 apiece. At first, I was disappointed to see that the sock monsters were being mass produced and sold in a retail store, but then I got excited by the many ideas they inspired. I am particularly excited about how these sock monsters were given eyes and lips. I am also going to make my ears or horns longer like the KnitWits, and I think displaying them from a clothes line with a clothes pin is so cute and a fabulous idea. I am excited to incorporate these ideas into my monsters. I wish I had the same source of socks that the KnitWit makers have. They have fun socks and great ideas for their monsters.

Temporary Delay in Construction

When the package said razor edge, it meant it. I bought a new pair of scissors, and they are wonderful. I have had no trouble cutting anything including my finger. I had cut a small piece of fleece and left some fussies on the scissors, so I just slid the blade between my two pinched fingers. With that little move, I filet my finger open, luckily on my left hand, unluckily right on the pad of the finger. So, for a little while, I am functioning with one less finger.

The Tiered Dress

Two or Three tiers? I saw a little girl wearing a cute three tiered knit dress, and decided I wanted to make one. I figured it would not be too hard to modify the t-shirt knit dress pattern that I have made before. It did take a lot of thought, but I finally came up a pattern. Pictured is my end result. In the construction process, I decided to try just two tiers instead of three, but after seeing the finished result, I want to make another dress with three tiers. With just two tiers, the tiers are too long, but it turned out cute anyway. Just to show that I can't follow good advise, I did not try the ribbon idea on the gathers. I did the gathers the old way with large stitches and pulling the threads. I am going try the ribbon idea on the three tier dress. I believe it will be easier to keep the gathers gathered. I will be able to pin the ribbon in place and hopefully have a little more control of the gathers. I will let you know how it goes. By the way, I was just told last night, that Alec has made another sock monster. Good Job, Alec!

Sew News

I enjoy reading this magazine. I have subscribed to it for several years now. It is full of tips and ideas. This last issue showed up just in time to answer some sewing questions, how to determine the right side of a piece of interlock knit, (stretch the fabric and it will roll to the right side), and a great tip on gathering (zig zag 1/8 inch ribbons to your piece and use the ribbon to gather instead of a thread). The section on the basics is always informative, and even the advertisement are fun, a way to keep up with the latest and greatest. When I first subscribed to Sew News, I did not keep the magazine after I read it. I know now that that was a mistake. Now I post-it mark the pages that I think I will need to refer back to at a later date for help or an idea.

Alec & Zagit

Alec lives next door. He is in high school and is currently learning to sew in home ec. Alec was over last Saturday talking computers with my husband when he saw the sock monsters, and asked if he could make one. I was surprised that Alec really wanted to spend his Saturday sewing and even more surprised at how much Alec knew about sewing and how much he seemed to be enjoying what he was doing.

Alec picked out the pattern and socks he wanted. He did all the machine sewing and hand sewing. He also picked out the eyes and the name. He even stuffed the monster himself, which is the part I like least. So, say hello to Zagit. I think he turned out great and that Alec did a super job sewing Zagit together. Good job Alec.

Purple and White

My husband was in need of a new shirt. This piece of purple fabric was lying on top of the my stash so, it was picked as his next shirt. The problem that I ran into was I had no matching thread. I dug though my box of thread and picked out all the purples I could find. When I showed the spools to my husband, who is my color coordinator, he picked white, bearing in mind that white was not one of his choices. I tried to talk him out of white, but he insisted. So, I started construction of his purple shirt with white thread. The more I sewed the more I liked the white on the purple, and after embroidering the white apple logo and sewing on the clear buttons, I liked the contrast even more. As you can guess, the moral of this blog enter is try an idea even if you just know it will look awful.

Sewing with Blanks

I purchased these little tank tops last fall on clearance, $0.50 a piece. Once again my husband thought I was crazy, but when I saw the tops, I knew they were good blanks, a purchased item that I can just embroidery on. The tops have such cute detail with the back straps looped together and the little piece of lace sewn it the front. I had to remove the applique from thefront of each shirt,
but that only took a second to unpick. It is very rewarding to work with blanks because it take so much less time to a completed project. I will confess though that one disadvantage to sew on a blank is hooping, especially with blanks for toddlers. Hooping your item for embroidery is so much easier when the item is only partially construction, instead of completed.