James needed a coat for winter because it’s quite a bit colder this year and his other jackets aren’t cutting it.
(*James edit* he does have a jacket that is really warm, a military jacket with some patina, but Violet say it makes him look destitute.)
(*Violet edit* That’s not what I said at all! I said that it probably wasn’t appropriate to wear a 40yr old military jacket that your Russian teacher wore in an actual war and I’ve had to repair so many times because it’s falling apart to dinner!)
(*James edit* Nuhuh! It’s a perfectly fine jacket. The holes give it more character! Military jacket for the win!)
(*Violet edit* You’re a stupid military jacket)
(*James edit* Your face is a military jacket)
(*Violet edit* I’ll military jacket you. Sigh -_-‘)
Anyway he didn’t want to buy one so last time we were in Brisbane his Dad gave us one of his old wool/cashmere jackets from Russia. It didn’t fit him but was super warm so he asked me to rework it to make it fit him.
Before and after.
Nowhere near perfect but it’s definitely an improvement!
First thing I did was pin it up to the length he wanted it.
I pinned the whole bottom edge…
Cut it along the fold…
Bam, shorter jacket.
I put it back on him and pinned up the back so it was fitted. It was double breasted but that didn’t look so good so we decided to change it to single. I pinned it shut where I was planning to move the buttons.
To give it shape and definition and decided to take in the 3 back seams…
After I took it off of him I fixed the pinned seams to make them straight. Most people do this step with the item of clothing inside out so the can sew straight from there but I don’t like sewing with pins in and I find it easier to see the finished product when it’s right way out.
So I snipped the extra fabric from the seams…
I cut straight up the back seam and two darts up the sides and into the sleeves. Next I overlocked the back seam and tacked the sides in place so he could try it on before I sewed properly.
The darts and bottom needed a bit more fitting before the final sewing. Definitely an improvement though!
Re-cutting and re-pinning the darts!
Stitch stitch stitch…
Snipped off all of the buttons and restitched them in place. We decided rather than to redesign the front he liked it with off centre buttons. I added a snap closure at the top button to avoid having to make another button hole XD I think looking at the photos I will probably move the bottom button to the right side and make it decoration too because he never bothers to close it.
I still want to make a lot of adjustments to make it better but as a quick fit I think this went down pretty well. At least he won’t be cold anymore and he likes it so that’s the important part!
What time is it? Sexy time! Oh that’s right XD
Finally crossed something off my to-craft list, yay!
Funny coincidence that the bunny won the knitting/crochet poll right when I was busy crocheting another bunny! The lovely BittenBefore came to visit in Melbourne a few weeks ago and we’d been chatting online for quite some time as well as having a lot of real life mutual friends so we all went out for dinner 😀
We exchanged gifts and part of what she brought me was this super cute jute knitting kit:
Of course what’s actually in the project photos and instructions above is crochet haha! The included projects were a pot holder and basket but I decided to be adventurous and come up with something myself. What I ended up with was a little bunny shaped scent pouch to hold potpourri or nice smelling oils and be kept in a sock or underwear drawer.
Pretty cute huh?What you need:
Jute or yarn for the middle part
Strips of rose fabric or contrasting yarn for the outside
A crochet hook of corresponding size to your yarn
Scissors
Potpourri or scented oil etc
Cast on a stitch…
And form a foundation ring of around 5 stitches. Chain one and then single crochet into the next. We’re creating a big spiral which forms a circle. To get there you want to double up stitches on every 3rd stitch as you go around.
It should look something like this…
When you get to the size you want your bunny’s head tie off. I made mine around 8cm in diameter.
Repeat, making another circle. This time add 2 long ears out of chain.
These are the pieces you should have now:
Now fit the two sides together and if you feel you need it, pin the middles so they don’t move around.
To join them we will use the floral fabric strips to crochet the two halves together.
Basically using the fabric as yarn you want to pick up a loop from either piece and treat them as one loop.
Single crochet around the outside of the whole thing.
Should look something like this…
When you get to the ears keep going up and around them. The extra bulk will give them ore shape. You may need to crochet twice into the tops of the ears to give them that curved shape.
And finished…
You can see that at the top behind the ears the back piece isn’t joined so it’s formed a little opening making it like a bag. If you’re going to add in potpourri this is where to do it
I decided to use perfume oil instead of potpourri. I was gifted this delicious smelling cake oil from Epically Epic Soap co. by SheFallsSoftly and it’s soooo good. Seriously the most realistic cake fragrance ever.
The jute holds scents really well so I just rubbed the perfume oil around the inside…
… and popped it in my stockings drawer!
Done! If I had actually sat down and done it in one siting it would probably have taken around an hour and a half. This blog is turning into a crochet bunny spree hahaha XD
Following on from yesterday’s post on Summer tutorials here is a selected collection of Wintery ones (some old, some recent) for those who haven’t been reading for long 😀
A lot of my older ones would probably work in Winter but weren’t specifically themed for Winter so I left them out. Hope you found something you hadn’t seen before!
Quick note first, I’ve finally gotten around to setting up a new Deviant Art account so if you’re on there let me know your username so I can add you! Mine is: http://violetlebeaux.deviantart.com/
I get a lot of comments from people up in the Northern Hemisphere saying they are going to save my tutorials for later when they actually reach the season I’m writing about and with the number of posts that have piled up in the tutorials page I imagine it’s probably a little annoying to try to find things XD I know a lot of you are coming into Summer and are probably sick of all the talk of Winter here, so for your convenience here is a selected list of Summer friendly tutorials!
Deco project time 😀 For my birthday my Dad bought me a stylus for my iPad so I could use it for illustration work. You’ve already seen some of the drawings I’ve done with it but here’s the project I did with the stylus itself.
The stylus looks like a really fat, blunt, aluminium pencil which is pretty cute but I wanted to personalise it a bit more. I settled on adding charms to the top, a dangle and some diamantes fading from that.
What you need:
Stylus
Epoxy glue
Charms for the top
Stick to mix everything
Diamantes
Pliers
First thing I did was remove all the hardware and cellphone attachments for the charm I’m using at the top.
I then used epoxy to glue it in place to the very top of the stylus. It’s a little pink lucky poop I got somewhere in Japan. It had an irritating bell inside which I glued in place too.
Once that was completely dry I made 3 rows of diamantes underneath it.
Then to create a fading pattern I continued down in rows leaving a gap every now and then. The further I went the more gaps I left. This is a nice alternative to a straight finish.
Last I added some dangly charm to the hook at the top and it was finished! Very simple project but it makes a big difference to the end product. And with poop guarding it, no one will ever steal my damn pens again!!! Hahaha!
Now if only I could work out a way to make it self heating >_< Because it’s aluminium to work with the screen it’s freezing to use in Winter *_* At the moment I have been heating it up on the back of my laptop before using hahaha!
I’m on a cleaning kick with my craft stuff so I’m looking at ways to use up old supplies! Extra lace? Extra ribbon? Random pompoms? Time to make a cute Wintery hair band 😀
Finished project:
You need:
Eyelet lace
Thin ribbon
Needle, thread, scissors
Pompoms
Normally I’m not a fan of cheap non-cotton lace but this roll was especially pretty so I’ve kept it waiting for the right project and this is where it ended up XD
Take a length of ribbon long enough to go around your head. Then tie it at the back and thread it through the eyelet’s in the middle of the lace. You need to have enough lace so that when it’s bunched up it will go from ear to ear.
Stitch the ends in place on the ribbon…
Cut two more lengths of ribbon around 20cm each. Cut the ends of one into points.
Fold the ends of the top piece of lace in to the center.
Stitch it in place. Fold the other piece in half on an angle so it forms the tail of the bow like this:
Stitch that in place too.
Wrap the thread around the center of the bow a few times so it bunches in.
Cut the tails of the pompoms to slightly different lengths:
Stitch them to the back of the bow:
And sew the whole thing on to the end of the bunched ribbon. Done!
Pretty 😀 I really like how this turned out, it’s so simple but really pretty. It actually reminds me a bit of mori girl fashion which I have a bit of a love for at the moment.
As I go through and clean out my scraps I think there will be more hair accessories because they are such a great way to use up little pieces 😀
Illustrator. Strong tea, knitting, watercolours, and making a video game called Moonlight in Garland. Living with her adorable husband Jimmy, fluffy puppy Miss Lottie and Bergamot Bunny in Melbourne, Australia.
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