Stitch Rabbit

Easy As Pie Knitted Basket

 

The knitted basket. Cute? Stylish? Quirky? My husband isn't a fan, but then he does not know the soothing wave of calm that comes over those who need to organize, when they put stuff in stuff. I love putting stuff in other stuff. Baskets, pails, fabric containers, drawers and boxes - everything has somewhere to go. Right? So the knitted basket is truly functional, not just adorable.

An easy project worked entirely in seed stitch, this is a great project for the beginner knitter who's working on her bag of stitches and sick of the faithful scarf. This time you'll be making a large block, a swatch really, and simply seaming up a side and pulling the bottom together in a drawstring closure. Let's give it go.

 

I used a chunky yarn, Lion Brand Thick and Quick and I used two strands for added thickness and stand up ability. Pair this with size 15 (10mm) needles and you're stoked. Cast on 41 stitches and work in seed stitch. Using two skeins of yarn, I just knit my little heart out until the yarn was done. Bind off.

Fold your knitting in half from side to side. Your cast on row will be the bottom of your basket and your bind off row will be the top.

Now you're going to seam up that side with a mattress stitch.

Now thread a strand of yarn through each stitch of your bottom row, leaving enough tail to use both ends as a drawstring when they meet up. Pull your strands until the bottom closes up. You can also thread and tie a few strands across the closure for added strength.

Finally, flip your knitting right side out and fold over a few rows and there you go! Stuff your basket with whatever you want and call it a day.

 

 

 

 

 

Paper Piecing Is So Much Fun.

Eeeee! I'm so happy with how this turned out! I've been working away every night at this rose using the English Paper Piecing method. So much fun. While hand stitching takes a LONG TIME, it's a perfect project to do on those nights when you want to sew, but you don't feel like sitting at your machine. Because you've recently become obsessed with Friday Night Lights. Which is weird, because it's a show about high school football. So hand stitching becomes your friend, your football-watching friend.

I saw something similar to this over at Oh Frannson (who's quilts and color choices are amazing, check out her echino quilt) and thought I'd give it a try. I used some of that great Ruby Star Rising fabric for the middle and stuck to bright Kona solids for the rest. I am going to finish it with a few more pieces to square it off into a 22 by 22" block, and then get started on some more. Eventually I will have enough to make a quilt.

If you want to try something like this it is REALLY not hard. I'll tell you what I did. I wanted the shape of a rose cut into geometrical pieces. I started by using a ruler and a pencil and drawing out the outer lines first. I used a thick sheet of poster board, paper is WAY too flimsy. From there I started connecting corners with my ruler to create shapes within the rose. Once I was happy with the way it looked I numbered the pieces before cutting, going around clockwise from the middle.

Then I cut em, and then I pinned them to a thick piece of white cardboard so that I could work more easily with layout and color decisions.

Once I decided on the fabric I wanted for my middle piece and next piece I placed the two poster board pieces on their coordinating fabrics, right side down. Fabric glue. I cut leaving a seam allowance of about 1/4 inch, but whatever you want to do is fine, as long as you have enough extra fabric on all sides to fold over.

Folding over the joining edges of my two pieces I held them together, right sides facing each other and joined them with a running stitch.

Bingo, first pieces joined together. I did this for a few hours a night while watching American football dramas and before I knew it I had a paper pieced rose and a new-found love for high school jocks and cheerleaders. Go Panthers!!

Now, I know that some of you paper piecing sticklers are yelling at the computer right now saying "Baste your pieces - don't glue them!" And you're right, traditionally, little English grannies did not glue, maybe glue had not even been invented, but I found gluing faster and easier for me which are key words in a modern day sewing mother's language. Nevertheless, here is a great tutorial from Sunshine's Creations on English Paper Piecing, and another great paper piecing tutorial with PDF hexagon downloadables from Snippets and Blabbery. Hexie flowers are adorable and a great introduction to paper piecing!

Like I said, this block was SO much fun to make and I will be making more and more. To recap, for the rose I will urge you to definitely pin your cut pieces onto something so that they stay in order and you have an idea of what colors you want to use for your pieces. I found this essential. If you haven't done paper piecing before, give it a go! Start with a hexagon flower and you'll soon see the possibilities are endless!

 

 

 

Cowl Girl Fabric Cowl Tutorial

Feeling ready for something fresh around your neck? I whipped up this light and airy spring weather cowl yesterday. It's simple and fast and pretty darn cute hangin' round yer neck.  Here's my tutorial so you can whip one up too:

 

COWGIRL FABRIC COWL TUTORIAL

 

Materials:

2 pieces of cotton or voile fabric 10" wide by 36" long

2 no-sew capped snaps

1 sew-in snap (meant to be a hidden snap)

 

Cut your two pieces of fabric for your cowl, one as the outside piece, one as the inside. I chose a lightweight floral voile for the outside and a soft lightweight cotton for the inside.

Line the pieces up right sides together, pin and sew. Leave an opening about 4 inches at one of the ends.

Cut your four corners to and flip your cowl right side out. Poke your corners out with a chopstick and press all sides.

 

SNAP PLACEMENT

Okay - on to the snaps! Lay your fabric cowl out flat, right side down and measure where the inside sew-in snap fastener will go. From the left corner, measure in 19" and mark the spot. Sew your fastener piece here. This snap is on the inside of your cowl and will keep it wrapped snugly around your neck.

Sew your other piece of the snap to the RIGHT SIDE of that left corner.

The finished effect, when the snap is connected, should look like this:

Now it's time to place your final two snaps. These are on the outside of your cowl, so choose some cute ones! Lay your cowl down again, right side down. From the left again, measure and mark about 12.5". When putting in your snap, remember this is where the socket piece of your snap goes, facing the RIGHT SIDE of the material. Here, it shows you the inside of that snap placement:

Place your next snap about 4" below the first one.

Finally, place your last two snaps (the stud sides) on the far right side of your cowl, cap on the right side of the material, stud on the inside of your cowl, about 1/2" in from the edge and 4" apart.

 

You're done! Wrap that cowl around your neck, call yerself a cowgirl and go! YeeHaw!!

 

 

 

 

Tiny House Hot Pad Tutorial

I did it!! I made my very first tutorial!! I sewed and took notes and documented it all on camera! I wrote it out! I may have missed a step! I hope not! So here it is. If any of the instructions are unclear, please email me so I can fix it to be better understood.  I hope you enjoy!

 

Download Tiny House Hot Pad Tutorial