I learned how to make popcorn stitches already and PJ Punla shall be pleased when I show her the beanie I made out of the Cotton Ease yarn she sold me. A new pink hat for me! A beanie this time.

My current flickr set of crocheted projects should be enough to show you that I am addicted to crochet. However, I originally started learning knitting from the awesome Jonette Valenciano first and what mainly put me off was frogging. It was too intimidating. She’s awesome so she could pull it off but I really can’t. So I got myself 2 books yesterday. Knitty Gritty and Knit & Stitch. Both of them are aimed towards beginners.

So in the coming months expect gifts made out of yarn.

I’ve made 3 variations of the Ethan cap already. The first one I gave to JM but because my crocheting skills were still very much ‘raw’ at that point, it was a bit too tight. I modified the pattern so that it could fit his head. A bit too snug but not so bad. The second one followed the pattern to the letter. And I used Red Heart acrylic yarn for it. I am glad that the particular variant of Red Heart I got for that was quite soft. So it’s ok. That beanie is going to Carl as a late birthday gift. Evelyn liked the texture of the Ethan cap so I made it in some funky old rose yarn.

I didn’t really have pictures of the first one. In any case, I thought of removing one row from Evelyn’s hat as I think she doesn’t have such a big head. This used practically only one 50g skein of yarn. If ever this becomes a hit, I might consider selling it. I’d either use Red Heart or the funky yarns I saw in Dreams. It’s just that Red Heart is a cheaper brand and I could make more yarns from each skein. If ever, please let me know if you’d be interested in an Ethan cap for yourself. I’d be willing to sell you one.

There are so many interesting patterns out there. I actually have several PDFs of patterns I want to make. But I don’t have enough yarn or I don’t understand the patterns that well yet. I want to learn more stitches actually. If you’re also into crochet like PJ and Jonette, maybe we could share stories re: how we learn new stitches, and so on.

I want to share more crochet stories but I should be sleeping soon. I’ve got work after all.

the hat – a work in progress picture

top view of the hat (when worn)

top view of the hat (upclose)

side view of the hat

me wearing my own hat

So despite me screwing up with the instructions — that or my stitches are that bad — it turned out ok, as far as I am concerned as it’s something I could wear anyway. My first project! Yay!

The first one was to basically practice the single crochet stitch and a bit of slip stitch.

It’s a very basic headband. Just a lot of rows of the single crochet stitch, over and over and over and over again. I just measured the headband against my head to determine when to end it

The second headband I made is based on the pattern I saw on another craft blog. She calls it the simple crochet headband. I like the fact that it’s basically just chains and single crochet stitches put together. Its’s 3 layers which all meet together at the ends. It’s all twisted when not worn though.

See how twisted the ends are?

This is what it looks like when worn. Sorry I couldn’t take better pictures because I took it in front of the bathroom mirror only.

This crocheting bug is brought to you by Jonette who has taught me how to knit and who has shown me bigger crochet hooks which didn’t intimidate me.

I like doodling and crafting as stress relievers. Aside from getting a chance to do something good with my hands instead of typing long dramatic blog entries, I end up with something positive.

So this mini top hat is one of them stress relievers. One of my co-workers wanted to borrow a headdress from me but I thought that a mini top hat suits her outfit. I offered to make her one and I am not even sure if she thought I was serious about it. (lol) Anyway, I was glad I did offer to make her one and because sewing up one will take too long and I didn’t have my sewing kit with me, I decided to get some scrapbooking stuff and other supplies from the nearby bookstore.

How did I make this hat?

1. I drew 3 circles on the black cartolina. 2 big ones and a small one. The 2 big ones are for the brim and the other is for the top part of the hat. I also cut a 2.5 in high rectangle. This is the main body of the hat.
2. I cut all these pieces. I also cut several strips of cartolina. I used those other strips to make connecting pieces from the body to the top and from the body to the rim of the hat.
3. Putting them together wasn’t too hard. I made a cylinder from the rectangle. Big enough to go around the smaller circle. I glued together the top part with 4 small strips of cartolina then glued them to the body of the hat. I used 3 big strips to connect to the body of the hat to one of the bigger circles.
4. I decorated the hat with the ribbons and flowers.
5. On the other bigger circle, I made some slits where the long black ribbon passed through. The slits are in the center. I attached that other circle to the main hat.

It was quick and easy! Especially because I used Mighty Bond. (lol) That was really fun. I feel like pushing through with my beret project. And the newsie too.

Making Chu by hand wasn’t easy. I only had the felt my sister got. It was too stiff. Sewing it was tough and I didn’t have a thimble when I sewed it. Also, making the pattern bigger was tough because I didn’t have a pantograph. I will invest in one because it’s nifty. Anyway, I was somehow able to make the plushie. Instead of the usual plushie stuffing I had to use cotton because I forgot to bring some of that kind of filling with me when I went to Makati. As for the legs, I realized that fuzzy scrapbooking/crafting wire is too soft. If I get the chance to make this again, I will use the fuzzy wire but will twist tougher wire with it. The bird’s beak is from a barbeque stick It was sharpened and stuck on the face of the little bird. (Sounds painful right? Sorry!)

So yeah, this is the finished product:

The back view of the green skirt.

This is my first time to make a skirt with a curved hemline. It’s more difficult to sew because I had to stop at certain points to make sure the stitches curve. There was also a whole of cloth involved in the process because I followed the guide I saw on the EGL community on how to make a flared skirt.

New things I learned:

• Iron settings. My cloth had to be ironed with a setting of at least ‘4′ on it. I think that’s quite hot, literally. If it’s not hot enough, the fold won’t stay at all. I tried it with the hem and failed. I think it was because I used the wrong setting. It was too cool so it kept unfolding. When I sewed the waistaband it wasn’t too bad anymore.
• How to put the zipper foot. I think what we got on our Brother XL 2230 is a general zipper foot. I will take pictures of it next time. The zipper foot we have at home didn’t look like any of those on the videos I found online. So I had to read the manual. I had to put the zipper foot on while reading the manual because I couldn’t understand it. My imagination wasn’t enough. Anyhow, it works!
• How to use the zipper foot. Because it looked different from the online tutorials I saw, I had to figure it out with the help of the manual. Again, I must take pictures so people will understand what I want to say about the zipper foot.
• Cutting makes an entire difference. There was one piece which I cut smaller than the rest. So it affected how I was going to make them all fit at the waist. Also I should’ve cut the waistband piece first because it was a rectangular piece compared to the rest.
• I learned that I have yet to learn how to determine which is the wrong side and the right side of the cloth. And that I should mark them accordingly. Plain cloth such as this and tetoron make me confused as to which side is right and which side is wrong.

Because of this list of things I learned, I now have a better idea of what kinds of projects I want to make so I could improve. I know I still have my apron, blouse, petticoat and bloomers to make but I’d spend Friday and Saturday for most of them. I might outsource the blouse though. It’s just too difficult for me.

I want to make another skirt. Maybe out of a certain pair of old jeans or something. Also, a skort is tempting. Really. I used to have skirt/skort. Its zipper in front made it into a skirt. That skirt/skort was something I had when I was 10 or 11 years old. Should be interesting to make one this time around.

In Progress:

• Chibitalia skirt – Start date: 08 August 2009

Done:

Wishlist:

• Chibitalia blouse
• Chibitalia apron
• a reversible bag
• a flared skirt
• a wrap-around skirt
• drawstring pants
• drive-in pants/thai pants
• pajamas
• curtains for my room
• pillowcases
• change the collars on my tees
• plushies

As for wrist cuffs, it’s a bit harder. Designing one isn’t so difficult especially when it comes to something relatively simple. But… It’s not so easy looking for good lace ;_;

Will post pictures another time

Materials:
straw hat
crimson wide ribbon – shiny, gauzy
crimson not-so-wide ribbon – opaque, satin
white lace
synthetic flower
thread
needle

I basically just decorated a straw hat. I had to cut up the gauzy ribbon so that it will go around the hat. Then I sewed it up so that it will be a band. I added white lace to the band. After that I made a bow with the gauzy ribbon and pinned it to the band using the flower. I cut two ribbons so that I could sew them to the inner part of the hat. The ribbons will be used to tie it under the wearer’s chin or the nape.

It’s so fun decorating hats! I sewed up the stuff by hand