Some craftiness.

Just some things I've made over the past couple of weeks that weren't big enough for a post of their own. :)

I've been meaning to make a mini-sewing kit to keep in my bag for a while now. I haven't needed to make any clothing repairs on the go yet, but several times I've found myself wishing I had a needle or a little pair of scissors with me. When I saw this tutorial, I decided to try it out. The inside was perfect, but I didn't especially like the outside. So I sort of did my own thing with the front. :)

I like the way cross stitching looks on felt, so I stitched a little heart. And the light blue felt pieces were just scraps I had left over from the inside that were so cute and rickrackish that I couldn't throw them away.

The back, with a button closure.

Yes, I know my light blue squares are a little crooked. :) They were too big so I had to trim them down, and apparently it's hard for me to cut in a straight line with pinking shears.

There's room for everything you could need...thread, needles, pins, scissors, and a little pocket for buttons and safety pins.

This is one of my mom's favorite blogs, and she has been hinting around for one of these soap dispensers made from a blue canning jar for a while now. So I made her one for Mother's Day. We had the jar and the lid here at the house already, so I just had to buy the pump at Hobby Lobby for about $1. The tutorial is here.

I also stitched her this embroidery piece from a vintage pattern (have you ever seen this group on Flickr? Tons of adorable free vintage embroidery patterns! There are so many there I want to make). It was my first time using a vintage pattern. My mom loves birds, especially bluebirds, and pink. :) I'm not much of a bird person, myself (thanks a lot, Mr. Hitchcock). Or a pink person. It was interesting stitching up something that I wouldn't necessarily make for myself, and I'm happy with how it turned out.

I've had the knitting itch lately. Very inconvenient, because I can't really use or wear anything that I knit for months. :) I've been working on some dishclothes. I decided to try to make some sort of cozy for my camera, just to protect it from getting scratched up in my bag. So I did my own thing with some pretty yarn I had.

I cast on about twenty-five stitches (on size 5 needles) and did the stockinette stitch for about 12 or 13 inches, making a button hole about an inch from one end. Then I folded up the other end enough to cover my chunky camera and stitched up those seams. Then I sewed on a button from my stash.

It's not the most beautiful or well-planned out thing ever. But it does protect my camera. :) I knew that stockinette stitch rolls up, and I didn't do anything about it, which is why the little flap is curled up on the end.

This was my first time making a buttonhole in knitting, and my first time sewing up seams (though I did it in a sloppy way...I tried watching Youtube videos about how to sew up the sides without the seam being visible, but it wasn't working. So I just did like a backstitch with the yarn. It was also my first time knitting something without a pattern or instructions.

And finally, I did some cleaning and reorganizing in the craft area a few weeks ago. I bought a fabric cube from Target to hide some of the stuff on my shelves. I moved my craft books around (which gives the illusion that I don't have quite as many. It must have even made me believe that I don't have a craft book addiction because I just ordered three new ones from Amazon. Hm.).

I also had the idea to use fabric to cover up some of my junk. I had just got a huge box of new shipping envelopes for the Etsy shop, and no matter how I arranged everything, my pile of packing supplies still looked messy. So I took some inspiration from Kate's scathingly brilliant work area. :) I didn't have a piece of cotton big enough to cover it, so I bought about 2 1/4 yards of some that was on sale.

I wanted it full, but didn't want to bother with gathers. So I basically just made a big pleat. I hemmed up the bottom about 2 inches, and the top about five inches (I didn't want to bother with trimming up the fabric, either), and the sides about 1 inch. Then I did some math to figure out how to get the pleat even and then just used flat tacks along the top to hang it on my cutting area.

Here's what is hiding behind the curtain. Scary, huh?

Until next time,