A giant woolly mammoth is approaching through the winter forest.
My other travel project has been a knit cowl from the same designed who made the Christmas Mystery Knit pattern. This one is the Woolly Giants Cowl (knit) by Mary P. Hunt. I dyed some Donegal DK in a light gray and chose some undyed MCN DK to knit up this lovely creature. However, once I completed the woolly rhino section at the bottom, I decided that the original colour was much too light. The Light picture actually shows it much better than real life did. So I ripped it all out and dyed a new skein of Donegal to a darker gray. The colour difference was now quite stark and it’s a lot easier to make out the different designs.
Darker versionLight versionYarns
Knitting this was very fun. I had a print out of the design and a pen and marked off every row completed. It took me a while, mainly because it was mostly in my bag waiting for travel time. Several people along the way were impressed with how such a project is worked, which was cool too.
I feel like I am actually getting better at colour work. It seems a bit less .. lumpy than previous projects. I did make one change and omitted the triangles at the top. I thought it was already plenty high and I didn’t really like them. However, I do now believe that a little more white (or those triangles) would’ve made his head ‘end’ a little better. He’s going to be a fun neutral option, come winter.
This cross-stitch Nessie has been my travel project for the past couple of months. The hoop and associated threads were nice and small and fit perfectly in my bag. And with Pattern Keeper, I didn’t even need to bring a paper pattern. I did, however, make some changes to the original design. It’s supposed to have black back spikes, a white sail and no tail. I didn’t like the spikes so I omitted them. I stitched the sail in white, but it was invisible, so I chose a random red from the hoard. My brain also couldn’t deal with a potential plesiosaur without a tail, so I created one. I really like how it worked out and I’m quite proud of it.
I do have one regret though, and that is that I should have chosen a different colour fabric. There is a white border around the project that is only visible under certain angles. And I don’t think anyone can see the white ‘shadow’ of Wildlife. I’ll still find a place to hang it on my embroidery wall, once I’ve put up another string of hooks.
Waffle Patterns, the designer of the Penguin Bag and the Whale Bag, released two new bag patterns recently. A piggy (biggetje) and a rubber duck (eendje). I loved them, and they went on sale upon release and I couldn’t help myself. Does one need four animal bags? Probably not. Do I have them now and do they come out to play? Absolutely.
I grabbed some of the same black fabric and gray lining that I used for the Penguin and got to work. As usual with waffle pattern bags, the internal bag was a little bit too small for my liking, but I only figured that out after already cutting it out and adding a zipper to the bottom. So I performed some minor surgery and added a strip all the way around the edges so that the bag innards are now a lot bigger. The wings double as extra pockets. They are not very big, but I did put the optional snap in them for some extra closure.
Apart from that, the instructions were very good again. If I remember correctly, I followed them pretty closely. There is no nap indicated on the pattern, but my fabric has some. So I tried to think about it while cutting out the duck. That was quite helpful, and he’s very pettable now. I think only one section is upside down, but I wasn’t going to take it back out again. The beak was already quite hard to sew.
The duck has one hand strap, and it’s supposed to have a shoulder strap. I stole that one from the penguin temporarily, until I have the materials to make it its own strap. The one problem it still has is that the zipped opening is very small. Only 12-ish centimeters and my hand is not big, but it’s fairly hard to get into it. It can hold my wallet and pens, but not much else. But it wasn’t intended for a giant trek. Still, I think he’s very cute and I look forward to taking him on the go!
Ages ago, after I had found the adorable hedgehog that I gave as a gift in April, I looked at the other cross stitch patterns of the same designer and stumbled upon this one. I really loved the colour combinations of the bright orange and the blues. And I thought the fox was adorable. So after finishing all kinds of other projects, I got around to this one.
It’s tiny in real life, but the colours are really quite striking. While I did follow the instructions, I don’t think my blues were all as intended. There are bits that probably should have been darker, and one a little less bright. Really though, it doesn’t matter because this end result is still very pretty. You could also see the idea of what it was supposed to be, but the backstitch did help a lot. I really like how much detail there is.
The only downside is that it doesn’t work with pattern keeper, and keeping track from paper is harder then when stitches just light up in bright green on an app. That is what it is. I do notice that it holds me back from purchasing some more adorable patterns from this shop (this racoon and this tree owl for example). But who knows, I might just be swayed.
My friend had her birthday in April this year, but the celebration was a bit impromptu and I had to show up without a gift. I got some really lovely hummingbird cake, so I couldn’t leave it be. I asked her if she was interested in getting a piece of embroidery, perhaps in the style of old-school Winnie the Pooh? She has some vintage Pooh prints on the wall already. It was agreed that that would be a lovely idea. So we settled on a design, that I then promptly ignored because I found one that fits her even better.
I enjoyed working on this one. The text is very cute, the Pooh is very Pooh, and Piglet is very pink. I have all the supplies for the other Pooh, so that might still materialize in the future. For now, this Pooh will grace a lovely wall and the sentiment is being appreciated too.
When someone who has built a hedgehog house in the garden has a birthday, the only appropriate gift is hedgehog embroidery, right? At least, that was what I thought back in February. So I set out to find a cute hedgehog and managed to do so in the patterns of OwlAndThread. There is a lot of backstitch in this thing, but it ends up being so cute!
After completing the stitching, it needed to be ‘kept’ somehow. First, I found some dark green paper in the hoard and made a little frame. Realistically, it was too much fabric in too small a frame. So in the end, I went out to get some different paper and made a bigger frame. I used my embossing machine to cut out some balloons and wrote a message on the back. I really enjoyed working on this, even if it was not able to be uploaded into Pattern Keeper. Old-School counting all the way.
As usual around this time of year, there was a large event looming and I wanted a new outfit. My recent Simplicity sewing magazines had asymmetrical dress patterns and they spoke to me. They were Simplicity Naaimode 72, model 24-26, which is the equivalent of Simplicity 9886 (and the plus size version: Simplicity Naaimode 74, model 28-30, aka Simplicity 9887). They also spoke to my stash of 10 lengths of 1 meter of Scuba Crepe Jersey Fabrics that came in a Surprise Box in 2022. Since I hoped I could combine three of those fabrics to make a nice dress.
I started by copying the pattern and cutting it out in a dark grey, lighter grey and light blue fabric. I made two alterations to the original version. 1) I didn’t put in a zipper, since this is all stretch fabric. 2) I cut the light grey back pieces in one since I didn’t have to accommodate the zipper. As you can see, this one was just too big, especially in the back. I pinched out around four centimeters on the side and that was a lot better, but the pockets were also way too low, the colours seemed a bit muted for a fun occasion and I was just unhappy with it.
Then came the most complex alteration I’ve ever done in my life. Trying to make this thing smaller along strategic points instead of just the side seams. In the end: I took out 2 cm along center front and center back, tapered the side seams in from 1-ish cm to nothing in the waist, removed the pointy bit around the center back because there was still no zipper, took in the darts and princess seams by a cm, raised the pockets by about 5 cm and made them bigger, shortened the sleeves and scooped out the neckline. I made adjustments to every paper pattern piece there was, and some are a little bit fudged, but it fits so much better!
These pockets are at a much more comfortable height and the back fits so much smoother than the original version. I just turned the neckline under once and stitched it down, and same with the hem. The hem was with coordinating thread colours and I’m quite proud of it. It looks very neat. I also added some belt loops to the sides that almost disappear into the fabric, which is nice.
While working on the pockets, they gaped a little bit more than I would have liked, so the inside of the fully blue pocket was visible on that side. This bugged me so much that I ripped part of it out, added a patch of the light blue, and sewed it all back together again. So much better! The pockets also really wanted to just float around anywhere, so I anchored them with little straps to the approximate center front of the dress. Now they never end up on the back of my hips and I can put stuff in there, it’s supported and basically invisible.
I like this dress, it’s appropriately swooshy and has pockets and this colour combination is so much better for me than the original. I felt I learnt a lot with the alteration and now I’ve at least used some of that mystery box fabric!
Another colleague of mine decided to pursue her dreams and is leaving my work soon. For the goodbye party, I wanted to stitch a cute little something so that she can feel motivated. I chose this adorable bear that originally said ‘Yes I can’ in the bottom. I changed it to ‘Go get it’ because she should reach for the stars and she’ll grasp them. It was a fun quick stitch with a lot of backstitching.
I really love how this one turned out and I can absolutely see myself making it again for a different occasion. She said that she really liked it and that it had sentimental value for her too, so my goal was achieved. She’ll go get it too!
As part of my Kingfisher purchase, I also got a free manatee embroidery pattern that used colours that were also used in the Kingfisher. There were very few stitches so who was I to ignore this cute face. He’s tiny and quick and it was lovely to just sit down and sew some brown.
I made another iteration of the Ophelia Overalls from Decades of Style (previous versions here and here). This time, I used a ‘fine rib cord with cat print’ from a shop called babystofjes.nl (baby fabrics). I am not a baby, but I thought it was cute so I decided to go for it.
I made some changes to the pattern; I eliminated the buttons and flaps along the side, added an extra d-ring to the front pocket and the side, fully lined the front bib and made some adjustments to the facings of the back, and I cut it a little longer. Then I started thinking about wearing it with the straps down and what to do with them. The ochre version has shown me that it’s a little tight if I keep them attached to the bib. So, I improvised some ‘stap holders’ that attach with snaps at the pockets. This seems to work quite well.
The one down side I’ve experienced so far is that the side straps are a bit slippy, so I tends to loosen a bit over time. If it turns out to be a massive problem, I’ll figure out a solution in due course. Probably more snaps..
I do think these are adorable though. The fabric is quite soft, doesn’t fray and is very light weight. Other people also seem to like them, so that’s fun. They are mostly for the hotter months though, I think a breeze would blow straight through.
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