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Sale at my Ravelry store. Buy 2 get the third pattern free. Use coupon code JUSTBECAUSE. Hurry up because the offer is valid until May 31st only.
I could never make two of the same thing until I started knitting socks. You finish the first sock and then you need to make an exact same one in the same size, pattern and color.
So on Friday after I had made a quick dress, I felt the need to make another one.
Technically it is still a WIP because I am working on some embellishments.
And remember the blue yarn from Wednesday?
It is another Princess Peplums Cardigan but with short sleeves and in fingering weight instead of sport weight. It is blocking right now and I like how it turned out.
But one thing is for sure, sock knitting teaches you discipline or else you are plagued with second sock syndrome.
 Just like every Friday my daughter woke up really early (Friday is the first day of the weekend here) and we did a little bit of painting and playing. I have totally given up on sleeping in on any day of the week. She is an early riser and so am I, so we just get up and play. It is much easier to enjoy our time than to plead to get some more sleep.
She was the one who suggested painting. She even said she would ‘tidy up’ after herself. But we all know what that means when it comes from the mouth of a 4 year old. In all fairness she did try cleaning up but probably caused an even bigger mess. Thankfully this time she didn’t try to finger paint with the water color. She usually paints her fingers with the brush then goes all crazy with her hands. She definitely showed more restraint. Not that I try to stop her when she finger paints anyway. Painting is messy, so she might as well have as much fun as she wants.
It was a lot of fun, I think I going to buy a set of brushes for myself and a big set of watercolors.
We go through a lot of arts and crafts supplies in this household. I have some of her older paintings and it is sweet how you can see improvement. At first it was just putting colored water on paper, now it is more about painting ‘things’ even if they don’t really look like the things.
And then after we were all done, I decided to pull out my fabric stash because I have been wanting to sew her a dress all week but couldn’t make it to the fabric stores. I thought it might be a nice idea to make her a wearable muslin. I found this striped fabric and thought it would make a nice dress. I also had a chance to clean out my stash, I threw away the absolutely unusable scraps, ironed and folded the rest and organized them neatly.
I am quite pleased with how it turned out, even though it is quite short. My little one does not sit down and when she does she usually pulls her dress up, so short dresses are not smart. She decided it is her ‘at home’ dress anyway and is now pretending to have tea parties. So I guess it is a winner.
I remembered why I love sewing. It probably took 2 hours from start to cleanup to get this done which is nothing compared to knitting or even its slightly faster cousin crochet.
I think my sewing machine has been sad for weeks. I might have used it slightly but no big projects recently at all. Winter is near so I decided the little one needed a new jacket. I used the same pattern from last year, only a size bigger. I even let the little one help me 
She wouldn’t stand still long enough for me to take a decent picture, and the weather isn’t cool enough for us to take it and play outside yet. Oh and she’s wearing the jacket at home because she’s waiting for it to rain (inside) and tights, yeah because that’s how we roll around here.
With the left over fabric we made a little camera bag for her little camera
This time I actually let her do the sewing with me, she pressed the foot pedal thingy while I maneuvered the fabric, she loved it.
I also made another bag from Ithinksew’s Lindsay Bag, but it is too small for what I had in mind for it, but since I got the combo pattern I am going to make the Melanie one soon too. The pattern itself is really nice and if you are comfortable sewing without instructions then get the sewer friendly version. I need a large knitting bag, with lots of pockets and space for my camera and an A4 sized clipboard. Maybe I need a closet and not a bag.
 7 layers of pink tulle an elastic waistband encased in deep pink linen and you have a tutu fit for a princess. It was a normal Saturday morning and I had promised the little one a tutu. She wants to be a ballerina. She puts on her slippers and butterfly wings and pretends to be a flying ballerina with wings and I like to indulge and humor her childish fantasies. She picked out the tulle herself and proudly told the sales man that it was for her
 She sat very quietly while I cut the tulle, then used her own safety scissors to cut the scraps which she then tried stapling together. She fell asleep in the middle and decided to take a nap. I put it on her which she was still asleep and she was so excited when she woke up and put it to the test by jumping on the bed. Our bed, which is already creaking and squeaking from all the jumping she does every day.
After she exhausted herself she looked at me and asked me to make another one, a blue one for me so we could both be ballerinas.
I used the Arinda pattern from IthinkSew, this is the second one I’ve made, my sister took the first one . It is a really big bag measuring 21 inches across
I love the braided handles
And the funky polka dot lining
I already have my eye on the Juliana Clutch pattern for my next bag
My daughter came home today with a note from her nursery that tomorrow is funny or strange shoes day. I thought bunnies would be a funny idea, only they sort of came out naughty devilish bunny looking so they could also fall under the strange category. I used this tutorial from an Igloo.
 The tutorial is fantastic but sewing through all these layers of felt did make my machine curse at me once or twice.
One of the most search terms I get is ‘how to add a zipper to crochet or knit’ I already have a quick and dirty method for that. I was working on a lacy motif clutch design that had to be lined, so I wrote a tutorial how to make a single layer lining or a double layer (with no visible seams for openwork)
The tutorial is in pdf form which you can download ZipperedLiningTutorial or click the image to get.
I made some stuff this week
I am trying to destash so I used leftover blue linen and the rainbow fabric and made a pencil case
I’ve been wanting to make a motif clutch for ages. So I designed one. I made the lining using beige linen and a red zipper, turned out much nicer than I was expecting
I was experimenting with different stitches to c reate a ruffled or ruched look, hence the above pattern
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