Scrappy Baby Bear

Isn't he cute?

I love using scraps from one project to make something else. This little baby bear was made with unused fur fabric from a Halloween costume, along with a little bit of embroidery floss and a few yards of fingering weight yarn for the scarf. That was it!

The pattern for the body came from Sew Toy's, How to Sew Quickly A Cute Little Soft Baby Teddy Bear.

Here are my production notes:

• I scaled the pattern down when printing by choosing 4" x 6" paper and "fit to printable area" in my printer settings. I really like this smaller size but the pattern can certainly be printed as is or scaled to any other size.
• I traced the pattern onto the wrong side of the fabric and stitched along that line (leaving an opening of course!) and trimmed away the excess before turning, stuffing and closing the opening.
• The eyes are six strands of DMC floss #143 which is a dark gray. Next time I'll go for a true black because the facial features tend to be obscured with the fur.
• The scarf pattern is cast on 3 stitches in a fingering weight yarn on size #1 needles and knit in garter stitch for 12". A scarf made from fleece scraps would be quicker and work just as well but I couldn't resist adding a knitted touch.

Repairing a "Blankie" -- My Stash Comes Through

A dear friend came to me and asked if I would repair the "blankie" of the grandchild of a friend of hers. She said it didn't need to be anything pretty -- "just close the hole and secure everything so the blanket could be used again".

Here's a picture of the damage:

And a close up:

I knew I could do better than whip stitching everything together. The hole looked big but it mainly involved only two rows of a fairly simple crochet pattern. Most of the yarn from the damaged area was still usable for the repair but I needed just a little bit more to complete the reconstruction. When I went to my stash -- wonder of wonders -- I found I had the exact yarn used in the blanket!

Except in the small area where the new yarn was used the repair is barely detectable.

Ready to be a blankie again!

This project was a nice exercise in picking out a crochet pattern and seamlessly repairing the damage.

However, now whenever I try to pare down my stash and get rid of yarn, I will remember this project and how an off-beat color of acrylic yarn was the PERFECT match to make a stellar repair of a blankie.

I'm doomed. My stash will only continue to grow and will never decrease.

Baby Crinkle Toy

Every blog post should start with the picture of a beautiful baby! My nephew Miles had a very tough bout of colic for the first couple of months after his birth and there were only a few toys that could diverted his attention from the discomfort. One was a simple fabric square which made a wonderful noise when crinkled and almost always brought him (and us) a few moments of relief. I loved playing with this toy too and became fascinated with making one.

The only difficult part about recreating the crinkle toy was finding the right plastic to use for the inside. The plastic needs to keep its shape after repeated crinkling and at the same time make an interesting sound. I struck gold with the outer wrapping bag used for these Kirkland (Costco brand) seaweed packages.

Here are the project details:
Materials:
2 - 6" x 6" pieces of flannel, polar fleece or other soft fabric.
1 - 6" x 6" piece of plastic whose shape will bounce back after being scrunched and makes an interesting sound.

Assembly:

Place right sides of fabric together with plastic on top and stitch all three pieces together, using a 1/4" seam allowance and leaving a 2" - 3" opening for turning.

Trim the corners and, if necessary, grade the seam allowance (I needed to do this only with the polar fleece.)

Turn right side out and stitch 1/8" from the edge all around square being careful to make sure the the opening gets closed with this stitching.

This is the simplest version and there are lots of variations to try. A few of them are:

Different shapes such as circle, rectangle, star, heart.

Sew folded bits of ribbons in the seam to add visual interest and something additional to play with.

Make small simple stuffed animals and incorporate the plastic all over or in strategic spots to be discovered.

Not only do I love this toy but the now happy (non-colic) baby Miles does too!!

The Power of Photos

Ravelry Project Page - Baby Hat

My cousin is a gifted photographer and takes exceptional portraits. A while ago she asked for knitted hats to use when photographing babies and I made a few different types. She photographed her granddaughter in them and the results are stunning!

Her photos are such a cut above my usual static shots and they certainly add polish and sophistication to the end result. I so wished she lived closer because I would beg her to photograph all my work.

Ravelry Project Page - Bumblebee Hat

Ravelry Project Page - Munchkin Hat