Ezra's Hobby Horse

I was visiting at my grandson's the other day and witnessed him riding a stick.  It gave me an idea to make him a stick horse.  I knew I had a pattern for one, so I started to make it yesterday.  I cut it out and sewed it today.  I took it to him and here are some pictures to show it.

When I took it to him, he was not home, so I left it leaning on the door for him.

Later, I captured this shot of him riding his horse.  Giddy up cowboy Ezra.

I guess one day he will grow into it if he has not already wrecked it by then.  There isn't much distance between the ground and his crotch.  The poor horse's head is dragging the ground.  I had to make some quick alterations because the head kept coming off.  I was afraid that would happen.  I followed the pattern to attach it, but it didn't seem tight enough.  I finally just duct taped it on.  It shouldn't come off now.  I also had to reattach the reins because the little wire that was attached to the plastic ring came open.  I just sewed the ring to the horse instead of using the wire.  Hopefully, it will stay together now.

A Farewell to Isamu

Isamu is a Japanese exchange student who has lived with my son Marty and his family for this school year.  I decided, since he will not be with us for Christmas this year, that I wanted to make for him what I am making for everyone else in the family and give it to him as a farewell present.  I have printed shots of Isamu with Marty's family and with all my grandchildren.  I also wanted one with the whole Vieira family, but since we did not get one this year at Christmas because not everyone was here, I didn't have a current picture to put on his pillow.  I have a fun photo shop program that allows me to cut parts of a picture and insert it into another picture.  So, I found a good shot of Isamu in another picture taken on Christmas Eve.  I cut a bust of him from that picture and pasted it into our Vieira family picture that was taken in 2012. There was a very convenient gap in the family picture right next to Marty where no one was standing.  I was able to paste the bust of Isamu into that spot and it looks like he was there all along.  I had another shot when we were opening gifts on Christmas where Isamu, Marty, Dot, and Ezra were in the picture.  I wanted to put Kim and Lucy into the picture, too, so I cut them from other pictures and pasted them into that picture.  I think they look pretty much like they were in the shot to begin with. It is so fun to play around with photos this way.  After I decided on which pictures to use and adjusted the pictures to be the way I wanted them to be, I printed them onto iron on ink jet printer paper.  I also used Print Shop to make a printed message for the back of the pillow.  I transferred the pictures and message onto plain white cotton material.  I put a border around the front and back to make the pillow look like a framed picture. I have five pictures of Isamu with our families on the front of the pillow and on the back I have the printed message that says: Isamu...We love you! The Vieira Family  2013-2014.

Back of Isamu's pillow.

Front of Isamu's pillow. Can you find Isamu in the center family picture? He is wearing a red shirt and standing right under the picture that is on the wall. The picture on the bottom right has the inserted pictures of Kim (blue head band on the left) and Lucy (standing on the right). The two pictures on the top are Isamu with Marty's family and the other one on the bottom is Isamu with all of the grandchildren. I managed to get that shot without any editing.  Everyone was in the picture already.

Front of Isamu's knitted pillow cover.

Back of Isamu's knitted pillow cover.

I wanted to show a close-up of the diagonal design in the back of Isamu's pillow.

I have also finished Tony's pillow and cover just before I did Isamu's, so I want to show it now, too. I have two other covers and another five pillows finished, but I will show them when I have another complete family set finished.  I still have two covers to complete before I show them.

Front of Tony's cover.  Made to match our furniture.

Back of Tony's cover.

Close-up of the cable pattern in the back of Tony's cover.

Front of Tony's pillow.

Back of Tony's pillow.

This means that I now have completed eight covers, with twelve more to go.  I still need to sew ten more pillows.  They have all been cut, so I just need to sew on the piping, sew the sides, insert the pre-made pillows, and hand stitch the pillow shut.  It goes pretty fast when I am sewing the pillows together.  The covers are what takes the most time. I can complete one in a week if I knit quite a bit each day.  Since I am making the same basic pattern, I am trying to make it more fun by varying the stitch pattern for the backs and the borders of the fronts.  I'm trying to make sure that each cover is unique in its own way.

Cute Models for Skirts and Pajamas

I have been working at the sewing machine again.  I had orders for skirts, which I already posted, and for pajamas.  I now have some models to show styling the new attire. You can't get much cuter than these little people.

Dot wearing the cupcake skirt and Lucy in the purple tiered skirt.

Lucy showing the other tiered skirt.

Joey in one of his super heroes pajamas.

Lexi in her "Pretty in Pink" pajamas.

Joey in his other super heroes pajamas.  I guess he is shooting a web like Spiderman.

Couldn't leave out this pose.

Lexi in her purple butterflies pajamas.

Another special pose in the butterflies.

This is Joey's third pair of pajamas.  If you can't tell, it is basketballs.

Lexi's third pair of pajamas.

It is fun to see how much the kids like to show off the clothes now that I make for them.  When they were littler, it sometimes was hard to get a good picture of them wearing the clothes.  Now, they are all hams.  They love to have their picture taken.

Play Skirts for Dot and Lucy

When I went over to Marty's to deliver some slacks that he asked me to alter the hems on, Kim said she had another project for me if I was willing.  Dot and Lucy are always wearing skirts and she asked if I could make some play skirts for the summer.  Lucy's fourth birthday was last week, and when I was there for it, she was wearing a skirt that would make a great pattern for some kick around skirts.  I was already planning on making some in that style, so I borrowed the skirt to be sure they would be the same size.  I was able to make two of that style and I had another really simple pattern for another style.  I made four of them, so six skirts altogether.  Most of them are made from left over material that I used to cut the pillows from for the Christmas project I am doing for the family, so it may very well turn out that they will end up with a skirt and a pillow from the same material.

Lucy is crazy about kittens, and this was some of the material I had left over.

If you have kitties, you have to have puppies. I had to buy this material.

Ladybugs are always a hit. More pillow material.

What little girl doesn't like cupcakes, especially on pink? Also bought this material.

This is the style I had in mind of making at first, using left over pillow material.

Another pillow material skirt.

Now that I have the skirts finished, I need to make some warmer weather pajamas for Lexi and Joey.  Cheryl requested them last week when she heard I was making skirts for the other two.   I have made a lot of other clothes for them, so I told her I would see what I could do.  Of course, I have a pattern that will work, and quite a bit of material.  I can use some more of the left over material from the pillows to make at least two pairs for Lexi.  I will have to buy some for Joey, because there isn't enough of the boy material left over, and I don't really have enough in my other stash of material, either.  I will try to get to them this week.  Also, when TW came down to visit for Mother's Day, he brought three pairs of jeans that he has torn going over fences.  They are all pretty much in the crotch area.  He asked if I could mend them, so I guess I will give them a try.  He said there was no hurry since he will probably not need them until the colder weather returns.  I will try to get them done soon, however, so that I will not forget about them.

Fatima in Sweater

Fatima from the front.

Fatima from the back.

I was really happy to see that the sweater fit Fatima perfectly.  I had not taken measurements, and I was a little worried that it would be too small.  It looked small because the cables made it pull together, but when worn, it stretches out as it should look.  The color looks great on her.  She seemed to really love it.  That makes everything worthwhile. Another good thing about it is that she tried it on at church and a lot of other people saw it.  They were coming up to me asking if I could make something for them, so I may get some more business in the near future.  Thanks everyone, for buying my stuff.

Another Sweater

I just finished another sweater that I was making for my friend, Fatima.  She asked me a couple of weeks ago at church if I would make her one.  She was looking at the one I made for myself, and said that she thought it was so pretty.  She said she would love to have one.  I said I would make her one, but it wouldn't look like that one.  That was a really hard pattern and I didn't feel up to the challenge of making one like that right now.  Anyway, here is the one I did make for her.

This shows the v-neck in the front.  I think I made one button hole too many.  I'm also a little disappointed with the way it pulls up at the bottom of the band.  I think I must have bound off too tightly.  It is going to have to do.  I'm not taking it out.

From the back, you can see the horseshoe cable stitch and the regular cable stitch used in the pattern.

I met up with a little challenge with this sweater.  The pattern called for the shoulders to come down over the shoulder cap and join with the sleeve at the underarm level.  I made this sweater before for my friend, and I followed the pattern that way.  I wasn't crazy about how it looked, so I decided to put in the raglan sleeve instead.  That meant that I had to work the decreases into the cable pattern of the sweater.  I actually used the same pattern for the sweater that I did make for me to do the sleeves because it had raglan sleeves.  I just had to convert the stitch count to this sweater.  Anyway, I was really happy with the results.  Another thing that happened was what I call a "happy accident."  When I was picking up the stitches along the edge of the sweater to make the band on the front sections and the neck, I made a mistake.  The way I did it, there was a small hole where I picked up the stitch.  I thought that when I got finished, I would just sew the holes shut, but when I looked at the finished project, it looked like I had done it on purpose.  It looked natural, almost like a lace stitch.  I decided to leave it the way it is, and I think it improves the look of the sweater, overall.

One Family Finished

I just finished the first set of pillows and covers for the Christmas presents I am making for everyone for Christmas. I will be making a pillow that can be used as is, or it can be put into the knitted initial pillow cover. I am making each family set at a time.  So, one family down and three more to go, plus one for Tony.  Here are the results of the first family.

Front knitted cover for TW, Ellen, Ellis, and Portia.

Back of knitted cover for TW, Ellen, Ellis, and Portia.

Pillow front for TW, Ellen, Ellis, and Portia.

Back of pillow for TW, Ellen, Ellis, and Portia.

You can see that the pillow sizes are different.  There is a reason for this.  I started with Portia's pillow cover and decided that it would be too big to do for everyone.  I decided to downsize and I came up with the smallest size.  I was going to make all the rest of the pillows that size, but I found two pre-stuffed pillows downstairs in my supplies.   They were 16" pillows, and the smaller size was 14".  I decided to make TW's pillow as one of the 16" pillows.  I purchased fourteen of the 14" pre-stuffed pillows so it would be easier to cover them with the material that I had chosen for each person.  It would have taken so much stuffing to stuff all of them.  As it is, I had to stuff Portia's because I couldn't find an 18" pre-stuffed pillow and that is how big hers turned out being. The rest of the pillows should be the 14" size, except for three more.  I had to buy two more of the 16" and I still have one more that I already had.

Just a little on each of the pillows.  TW's cover has garter stitch borders and middle band in the back.  The rest is done in stockinette stitch.  Ellen's has chain link cable stitch for the side borders in the front and seed stitch for top and bottom borders. The center is in stockinette stitch.  The back has seed stitch borders and middle band, with the chain link cable stitch for the rest. Ellis' has basket weave for the borders and middle band.  The rest is done in stockinette stitch.  Portia's, which is as the pattern called for, has seed stitch for the borders and band and stockinette stitch for the rest.  I want to try to make each pillow cover be a little different, but with twenty to make, I may not be able to do it. The basic pattern will be the same, but with a variety of stitches, I should be able to make each pillow a little unique.  I will have to see how it goes.