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bee’s knees denim knee patch

denim flower patch applique

A few weeks ago, my daughter fell and skinned her knee. Her knee healed fine, but her pants not so much. We love these jeans. They fit her really well, which is rare. She asked me to fix them, so I put them in the pile for the craft retreat. I was planning a boring patch, but the collection of creative minds turned it into something special and cute.

me: I’m just going to do a patch with some denim and heat-n-bond.
crafty friend #1: Why not cut some cute shapes with the BIGkick?
me: Hmm… that would be cool.
crafty friend #2: Are you going to stitch around the edges?
me: I don’t think so. How would I get it under the presser foot?
crafty friend #3: Open up the side seam and it will fit easily over your sewing arm. Then re-stitch and re-serge the seam.
me: Y’all are brilliant!

refashion: Mended clothes don’t have to look boring. This patch turned out most excellent! I’ll definitely be saving my denim scraps for future repairs.

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another successful flower appliqué

flower for spring hat

My daughter doesn’t really like wearing hats, unless it’s her Nebraska Husker hat. I bought this little bucket hat at Neat Repeatz, long before it would ever fit her. I just fell in love with the denim and unfinished edges. It finally fits, but I knew I’d have to come up with something special to get her to wear it.

I asked her if she’d like me to crochet a flower for it. Yes! What colors would she like? Red and white! (Husker colors, of course.) Would she like to pick out the flower pattern? Yes! Yes!

I whipped this up Sunday morning and she wore it to the zoo on Monday. I’d say she had it on about 95% of the time — a definite success!

wardrobe refashion, stash and pattern: Cotton yarn from my stash, left over from knitting baby bibs. Pattern from Crochet Adorned, which I received via Swaptree.com.

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another garden scarf!

birthday garden scarf

This was a gift for one of my daughter’s friends. The colors are so beautiful, it was hard not to keep it for myself! I decided to make it out of cotton because Spring is right around the corner. (Really! It is!) I hope she gets a lot of wear out of it before the weather turns warm.

birthday garden scarf

I’m still addicted to crocheting flowers, so I went through my stash and put all of my odds and ends in one bag for easy access. There were some colors that looked beautiful together, but I didn’t have enough for the whole scarf. I grabbed some natural cotton to help stretch the colors a little further.

stash: Just like a white t-shirt is to your wardrobe, natural colored yarn is a stash staple. It goes with everything, and you can dress it up or down, depending on your project.

pattern: I’ve had so many requests for this pattern. Sorry I forgot the link! It’s the Garden Scarf from Stitch ‘N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker.

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flower pins for haiti, doctors without borders

crochet flower brooch

As soon as I hit “publish” last week on my flower pin post I decided to donate all of the proceeds from my flower pins to Doctors Without Borders. I figured I needed a few more in my shop, though. There are currently four, but I plan to make more. I’ve also created a special section for them in my shop.

recycle: These pins are crocheted from unraveled sweater wool. Remember these balls of yarn?

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crochet flower pins in the shop

crochet flower brooch

I tried really hard to write about fabric gift bags last night, but it seems so trivial right now with everything that’s going on in the world. I’ve got a lot of nervous energy to burn. Today I finished a blanket and crocheted more flowers. I can’t stitch flowers to everything in my daughter’s wardrobe, so I made a few into pins. They are in my shop. A cute alternative to hearts for Valentine’s Day, don’t you think?

etsy: Red flower here, pink flower here.

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garden scarf

birthday garden scarf

Have I mentioned that I’m addicted to crochet flowers? I made this as a gift for a friend’s daughter and it was so much fun. What a perfect pattern for little girls. My daughter loves it! I think I’ll be making a lot of these this year.

handmade crochet flower scarf

I love these colors together, but I think it’s time to add some new colors to my stash of acrylic yarns.

project notes: Pattern is the Garden Scarf from The Happy Hooker. This book is a really great resource for crocheters, especially beginners. Thrifted yarn from my stash.

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the flower appliqué experiment

My daughter is a little heater. She takes after her father, who wears shorts in the winter. She’s never cold. She just wants one small blanket when she sleeps and she refuses to wear sweaters.

hand knit sweater with crochet flower applique

Her Grandmom loves to knit her sweaters, the warmer the better. Every time we talk, she expresses concern over my daughter not wearing her sweaters. I’m not sure if it’s because she’s afraid our child is really cold or she’s disappointed that all of her hard work isn’t getting worn.

hand knit sweater with crochet flower applique

I decided to do a little experiment and crocheted a flower appliqué for her pink fuzzy sweater. My daughter LOVES the flower, but when I asked her if she wanted to wear the sweater, she said no. Meanwhile, I’m wearing a sweater and bundled up in a blanket by the fireplace. Just looking at her makes me cold! I’m going to keep trying, though.

hand knit sweater with crochet flower applique

The only pink yarn in my stash was wool, so I had to make the applique easy to remove for washing. I stitched the petals on with a large piece of yarn and tied a bow in the back. It will also be easy to move to other sweaters in the future.

flower details: Flower is an Irish rose and the middle is a vintage button.

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cheery flower brooch

attic 24 flower brooch pin

Yep, I’m still crafting over here. Now that the holiday pressure is off, I’m doing some fun small projects. Last Spring I became a little obsessed with crochet flowers and I’m at it again. They are so quick to whip up and are a great way to use up odd bits of yarn. I’m thinking these would be nice to send to someone instead of sending actual flowers. They’d last longer and can be pinned to almost anything. They definitely bring good cheer!

stash: Thrifted yarn from my amigurumi stash. Brooch pattern from Attic24.

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i have this little sister lola…

Actually, I have this little “niece” in Florida. She just turned eight and I know she used to like Charlie and Lola when she was younger. We’ve just recently discovered Charlie and Lola. I checked out some paperbacks from the library, but my daughter’s favorite is this pop-up book from her “Aunt Lisa.”

I made a Formula One t-shirt for my “nephew” last spring and wanted to do something similar for his sister. I absolutely adore Lauren Child’s illustration style, but was worried that it might be too young for a grown up eight-year-old. I decided to create my own applique flower and add two small Lola-like butterflies.

charlie and lola applique t-shirt

I really love how this turned out. I hope she does, too.

refashion: Scrap fabric and heat-n-bond is from my stash. You can download a pdf file of my flower pattern here.