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book review: crochet embellishments

crochet embellishments leisure arts jean leinhauser

I’ve seen this book around the blogosphere, but nowhere nearby to take a closer look. I had to get it through interlibrary loan and it’s now on my wish list.

crochet embellishments leisure arts jean leinhauser

The book design isn’t the most spectacular. In fact, it looks a little dated. The content is pretty amazing, though. You’ll find “borders and decorative bands, dimensional flowers from life-like roses to dainty daisies, elegant tassels, charming beads, all types of fringes, versatile cords and braids, ruffles and curls.”

crochet embellishments leisure arts jean leinhauser

You can definitely find a lot of these patterns in other places, but it’s nice to have them all in one book. If you are beginning your library of crochet references, this is good place to start.

review: Crochet Embellishments by Jean Leinhauser. There are quite a few sample pages in amazon.com if you “click to look inside.”

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thrifty thursday: metallic flats

zipper fabric bible cover

I’ve been watching a lot of What Not to Wear lately. Stacey and Clinton have got me thinking about my refashioning. I need to start picking items that are both easy to alter and will look good on my body shape.

One thing they recommend for my shape is a pointy toe shoe, which lengthens the leg line. They’ve also declared metallic shoes the new neutral and ok for daytime.

So of course when I saw these puppies in my size I had to get them. They look fabulous with my dark denim jeans.

thrifting: Church rummage sale.

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my creative space

zipper fabric bible cover

In my creative space today I finished up the zippered book cover from last week. I snapped this pic before I sewed in the book flaps.*

zipper fabric bible cover

They were a little tricky and if I make another one, I’d do them differently. They made my seams a little wonky.

My friend loved it, though, and that’s what’s most important, isn’t it?

*It’s getting dark earlier and I’m losing my evening photo opportunities. Pretty soon I’ll be taking them in the afternoon with my four-year old assistant. Don’t be surprised if you see a waving hand in the background. She’s just saying hello to the blogosphere.

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homemade granola!

homemade granola

Wow, just wow. Homemade granola tastes awesome. I adapted a recipe that my daughter brought home from Cooking Camp this summer. I need to do a little bit more fiddling with it to get the calorie count down, but this is definitely going to become a staple in our house. Right now I’m sprinkling it over my morning oatmeal. Delish!

reuse: Did you notice the mason jar? Classico pasta sauce comes in jars that are great for reusing as storage. Their organic pasta sauce is pretty tasty, too.

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reusable fabric snack bags

fabric snack bag amy karol angry chicken

Ever since Amy posted a tutorial for fabric snack bags on her blog, I’ve been itching to make some. I took the photo after three were finished because I was losing daylight, but I made a total of nine. I easily got three bags out of a each fat quarter of fabric. Serging made this a super fast project, but I don’t think it would take too long with a sewing machine and some pinking shears.

reuse: I’m slowly reducing the plastic bag consumption in our household. The fabric is left over from the toy storage bags I made a few years ago.

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how to: crochet jar cover in 3 easy steps

quick jar cover

This is what’s left of my outdoor garden. We did not have very good luck this year: no tomatoes and only one cucumber. My petunias were doing great until a big storm almost blew them out of the pot. Sadly, I didn’t notice the roots were above the soil until the whole thing was turning brown.

You know what is growing? My daughter’s little grass pot. She made this in summer camp and it’s the greenest, healthiest plant of the summer. The container is just a recycled plastic jar and I figured after almost two months, it finally deserved a proper cover.

How to Crochet a Jar Cover in 3 Easy Steps

Materials
worsted weight yarn
size G hook

Gauge is not important for this project.
Adjust your hook size for different yarn weight.

Step 1
Chain enough stitches so that the chain fits snugly around the jar. Join to make a circle.

Step 2
Single crochet around and around until you’ve got the height you want.

Step 3
You’re going to want an even top edge, so we’re going to pick a spot to start the top row. (You can use the tail as a guide and follow the line of stitches up if you want to be precise.) Slip stitch, chain one and single crochet around until you reach the chain one. Slip stitch into the chain one and finish off.

When you weave in your ends, use the tails to even up the bottom and top edges. You can see in the picture that my bottom edge isn’t perfect. Oh, well.

stash: This is a great project for using up leftover yarn. Because the rows spiral up, it’s not great for stripes. You’ll get a “jog” when you change colors.

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thrifty thursday: mmm-mmm-mmm good

retro campbell's soup thermos

I’ve been looking for a Campbell’s soup thermos for a few months. Every once and awhile I’ll run across one, but it’s either too expensive or not in the greatest condition. I was so excited to find these very clean ones while shopping the east campus garage sales.

Now that the cooler weather has arrived, we’ve been doing a lot of picnic lunches. I had this idyllic vision of my daughter and I sitting on a blanket eating homemade soup and watching the leaves fall. In reality, she doesn’t like soup, so she eats her pb+j and I have an Amy’s burrito (which fits in the thermos perfectly, by the way).

thrifting: I find that just around the time I give up hope finding an item, the thrifty fairies drop one in my path.

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project finished: recycled sweater blanket

turn a sweater into a blanket

I finished the petite afghan today and oh my is it ever thick and warm! I started with a large women’s bulky knit sweater and ended up with a 30 x 30 inch granny square.

The yarn was eleven untwisted plies and I used a K-10.5-6.5mm hook. The border is a round of half double crochets with three stitches in each corner.

turn a sweater into a blanket

I can’t decide if this is going on etsy or in my holiday gift pile. It would nice to have one finished gift to cross of my list!

project info: Original sweater and pattern details.

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wardrobe refashion: simple knit jersey skirt hem

wardrobe refashion hem jersey skirt easy

So far this has been the easiest refashion ever. The original skirt was ankle length and had these weird suspender-like ties sewn inside the waist. I’m leaving the bottom edge unfinished to see if it adds a little interest to the plainness of the solid, straight style.

wardrobe refashion hem jersey skirt easy

Just in case it doesn’t turn out as I hope, I left myself an inch at the bottom to clean up and hem. So the top chalk line is where I want it to hit my leg and the bottom chalk line is my cut line. I simply cut at the bottom line and put it on to wear. That’s it. Oh, and I snipped those silly suspender things off.

I’ll keep you posted how the edge turns out after a few washes and if I decide to do a clean hem instead.

thrifted: another 99 cent sale skirt transformation