Hedgehog Bags & Cage Liners

This is a project that was a LONG time coming.  I made hedgehog cage liners and fleece bags for DH's hedgehog about a year ago.  Shortly after that one of his friends also got a hedgehog and asked if I would make some liners and bags for her as well...IN NOVEMBER.  I said that I was happy to but in all honestly the process was complicated by the fact that I didn't really know how to sew.  The hedgehog supplies that I made for DH were my first sewing project.  A few months passed during which I forgot how to wind a bobbin and adjust the sewing machine tension...and so I procrastinated.With the wedding and moving and my qualifier done, I finally got around to pulling out my sewing machine.  Motivated by my desire to fix my bowl chair, I retaught myself some basic sewing skills and FINALLY got around to completing this project for my friend.  If she ever reads this:  I am sorry that it took me so long.

I found sewing instructions for a reversible hedgehog cuddle bag here.

1)  Cut 4 pieces of 10" x 12" squares of fleece

2)  Pin and sew two pieces of the same color fleece together along THREE SIDES (leaving one of the short sides un-sewn.

3)  Repeat step (2) with the other two pieces of fleece

4)  Turn one of the bags right-side-out and place it inside of the other bag as shown below.  You now have the "right sides" of each bag facing the other bag 

5)  Sew the two bags together around the opening of the bag, leaving about 3 inches.

6)  Pull all of the fabric through that hole to turn the entire bag right-side-out and sew up the hole.

The fleece cage liners were simply made by folding over, pinning, and sewing a 1-inch border to the appropriate size of fleece.

Bowl Chair Repair

I have an old bowl chair that I got when I was about 12.  We bought it from Wegmans and I was very excited about it.  It has since traveled with me from apartment to apartment, partially because of its light weight for transport and partially because I didn't own much furniture.  About a year ago, my roommate's cat had trouble getting to its new litter box location and set up using my bowl chair instead.  Sadly, we didn't notice for a couple of days and try though I might, I could not get the thing clean through washing or scrubbing.  The pillow to my bowl chair has therefore been sitting unused in the corner, waiting to be fixed.



Well apparently with all of the excitement of moving DH in and setting up the apartment, yesterday was the day.  It took me about 7 hours, but I think a good 2-2.5 of those hours was spent standing in Joann Fabric trying to pick a material.  Does this happen to anyone else?? I really think that the hardest part of most of my projects is picking a pattern/yarn/fabric that I know I will be stuck with.  These were my top two choices:

After talking to DH, I ended up going with the more colorful fabric.  It is technically an outdoor fabric and I like the idea that if we ever have a porch, we might end up using it out there. There were other fabrics that I liked better but they were significantly more expensive for the volume of fabric that I needed.  This fabric was 54" wide and only $20 a yard (compared to a lot of the upholstery fabric selling for $35-$40).  It was on a 50% off sale and I used an extra 20% off student discount.  So it only ended up costing me about $28 for over 3 yards!

Rip the seam apart to separate the material.  

Place the two pieces of fabric down - right-side-together - and place the old piece on top as a template.  

Trace the outline, pin the pieces together and cut off the extra material in the corners.  Sew around your traced outline, leaving about a 10 inch gap.  

Pull the material through the gap so that the material is right-side out.  Ta-da!

Now for the long part.  Sort out all of the stuffing that is bad and throw it away.  Pull apart all of the good stuffing into small fluffy pieces and stick them inside of the pillow.  Add additional stuffing that I had lying around.  This part took about 2-3 times as long as the actual sewing but if you do not pull all of the stuffing apart it will be lumpy and uncomfortable.  Finally, fold the open ends in and CAREFULLY sew the pillow closed right along the outside edge.

The finished product:

So glad it's done! The pillow ended up a little larger than I expected but its very fluffy and I'm glad to have my reading chair back.  The original pillow had a bunch of spots where the pillow top and bottom were sewn together.  I haven't decided whether I want to add those to this pillow or not. 

Afghan Crocheting

In light of all of the baby gift posts, I thought that I would add a general post about crocheting for anyone who may be interested in learning to crochet.  There are a lot of different things that you can make, but I have always preferred making afghans.  I taught myself how to crochet from a book when I was 13.  It can be time consuming and more expensive than you may realize, but I really love the afghans that I have made.  All but 1 (which I kept for myself) has been given as gifts to my family members or my then boyfriend (now DH).  And everyone has told me that they love them.  Several have asked for one specifically.  I know many people who have heirloom afghans from their grandmothers or great-grandmothers and I hope that some of mine become that eventually. 

Some of the blankets I've made so far (in the order that I made them): 

For My Brother:

For Me:





































For My Mom:




















For DH:

























For My Dad:




















For My Sister-in-Law:

























For DH's Sister:

For My Niece:

























I normally crochet a blanket - which takes me between 6 months and 1 year - and then not crochet again for a year or two...and then pick my needle back up and make another blanket.  They are very time consuming, especially if (like me) you make gigantic blankets that can cover a queen sized bed.  DH calls them 2 person blankets : ) 

In all honesty, it is easy to get a bit bored of them towards the end of a blanket, but I'm always excited to start a new project.  I have trouble sitting still when I am stressed, and I find that having something like this to keep my hands busy while I relax really helps.  

SO...some thoughts:

• Do not be intimidated to learn on your own if you don't have someone to teach you.  I think that it's actually much easier to teach yourself from a book that to learn from someone else, though admittedly it is nice to have someone to ask when you don't understand the instructions.  There are tons of instructional books.  I find the ones with cartoon pictures, like this, easier to understand that the instructions with actual photographs.  There are also a lot of youtube videos to watch if you get confused, but I wouldn't recommend learning from videos only.
• The yarn will feel differently when its a blanket than it does in the skein.  Make sure you like how it feels/how soft it is when it is crocheted into a pattern before you buy $100 worth of yarn to make a giant afghan.  Also, try not to get half way through an afghan before you realize you don't like how the yarn feels.  How soft the yarn is makes a big difference in whether or not people will actually use and love the finished product.  I made this mistake with my first few blankets.  SO...there are often little crocheted or knitted swatches on the yarn isle to let you see how the yarn looks and feels when used.  Pay attention to these.  You can also buy a single skein to practice on and check to see how it feels when you use it.  Find a brand or two that you like and stick to it.  I've used a brand called Simply Soft on a lot of my afghans.  It is not super bulky or warm and does not hold patterns as obviously as other yarns but it's very soft and silky in blanket form, has a nice color selection, and holds up well when the blanket is washed in the washing machine.
• Depending on how long it takes you to finish your project, it may be difficult to match the color of yarn when you go to buy it a second or third time.  I normally buy all of the yarn required for a project at the beginning to avoid this frustration.  Also pay attention to if the yarn has a "dye lot".  This is the batch of yarn that was dyed together.  For some yarn brands, if you do not get skeins from the same dye lot then the colors may not match perfectly.  I have never had this problem with Simply Soft.
• Make sure you like the color choices and pattern. This may be obvious, but it's really disheartening to get to the end of an afghan and not love it.  Take time when choosing your yarn and pattern.
• Weave in yarn ends as you go. This one isn't necessary but will save you a lot of headache.  When you end or start a new piece of yarn, take a couple minutes to weave the ends in.  If you do not, on some patterns you will "finish" your afghan only to realize that you have 5 or more hours of yarn weaving to do before you're actually finished.
• On your first afghan, choose an interesting pattern.  I know many people choose to do something very simple, like a wave pattern on their first big project.  You can probably handle a pattern slightly more difficult than you think that you can.  Almost all crocheting is various combinations of three steps:  insert the hook, yarn over, and pull through.  Most of the complicated patterns come from various combinations of these three things and the hard part is normally just reading the directions for the first time.  Remember, you will be working on the project for a long time.  Choose something that you won't get bored with and that you will like when you finish...that's what makes crocheting fun after all.
• Be wary of blankets that work in panels.  How big or small your project ends up is dependent on the type of yarn, the size hook, and also how tightly you hold the yarn.  Often, new crocheters struggle with keeping a consistent amount of tension on the yarn.  This means that if you work a blanket that is separate sections and are later sewn together, those sections may end up being different lengths.
• Do not pick fancy lacy yarn with all sorts of fuzz or baubles hanging off.  They are a pain to work with.  I suggest starting with a normal sport weight or worsted weight yarn.

Have Fun!

Baby Blanket Update

With life so busy, it took me longer than expected to finish but the baby blanket is done with about 3 weeks to spare.

Final Product:

Crochet Baby Blanket

My newest project (currently in progress) is a blanket for my niece-to-be.  Like the crochet gift that I posted about earlier, I am making this blanket from the same yarn that I used for the blanket that I made for her mom.  This has a few advantages (1) you already know what the yarn will feel like in its final form (2) save money by starting with the yarn left over from the previous blanket (3) save time by not obsessing about which colors to use or trying to pick colors that look nice together (4) everything ends up matching adorably.

The down side is that if you do not have enough yarn to finish the blanket, you may have trouble matching certain colors depending on how long ago you bought them.

The leftover yarn and my initial plan for color order:

I have been told that the baby's room is being decorated in pinks and greens.  My main concerns with yarn for the baby blanket were that it would be soft on the baby's skin, that it wasn't wool (allergies), and that the material and colors would be machine washable and not show stains easily.  I like this pattern (http://www.favecrafts.com/Crochet-Afghans/Bavarian-Rainbow-Afghan) because it seems bright and interesting and durable.  A lacy baby blanket with lots of wholes seems impractical to me.  If you are interested in working "in the round", this is a relatively easy and interesting pattern that consists mainly of triple crochets.

First two rows:

The point at which I ran out of dark green yarn (approximately 20 inches in diameter):

Unable to match the dark green yarn color from several years ago, I rip out the stitches : (

I have 4 or 5 more rows to go.  I will update with a picture of the final product when I am done.

Crochet Gift

This week I am working on a crocheted gift for my niece-to-be.  My brother and sister-in-law are expecting a little baby girl (the first baby for my siblings) and asked if I would make them a baby blanket.  I learned to crochet when I was 13 and have made several large intricate blankets for myself and family members.  I decided that this time I would to try to make a snuggly stuffed animal/security blanket instead.  Enter this pattern.  It's adorable, it's pink, and my sister-in-law loved the idea.  Having never made a stuffed animal before or worked with so small of a hook, I have to admit that it was a little harder than it looked.  

In progress:

The final product:

I think it turned out ok!  I ran out of pink yarn so I couldn't do the outside row in pink like I wanted to initially.  If I make another one, I will change a few parts of the pattern.  I do not like that with the current pattern there are sc2tog stitches on the front of the face.  While reducing stitches are necessary to make the bottom part of the face curve in to close, I think that having such stitches on the front of the face are noticeable.  I would have preferred to hide them a bit better.

The stuffing is inside a cotton fabric lining so that the baby can't pull any out to eat, it is machine washable, and the face is made with yarn instead of buttons so that nothing can be eaten.  Hopefully they like it!