Slipper City

Are these cool, or what? I finally made a pair of Pitter Patters for myself. I used some of the canvas knitting camo fabric that I designed through Spoonflower for the uppers, fuzzy stuff for the lining, and Jiffy Grip for the soles. As I suspected, this pattern runs toward the Narrow Foot spectrum (not a pattern problem, I am descended from Wide Feeted Peoples). Luckily, the pattern is multi-sized- as in it fits infants through adult men- so it was easy enough to use the Large Adult pattern, and then just shorten the heel by about an inch. There's enough overlap in the uppers (they're Velcro adjustable) for many foot widths.

The slippers are cozy and comfy. I don't suppose they'll hold up to long-term wear, but for fun (and for travel), they're perfect. The only change I made in the pattern was to sew the bias tape binding to the bottom of the slipper sole and hand stitch it down on the top (rather than the other way around- there is no way that I could hand sew through the Jiffy Grip, and I didn't trust my machine seaming to look neat enough if I tried to do it that way).

I also made a small zipper box-bag from the same fabric (tutorial here). I dug through my collection of fat quarters and found this one for the lining. I thought it was  pretty enough to show you.

Here's the bag from the outside. I still have a hard time getting my corner seams straight, but that doesn't matter much. I altered the pattern without realizing it- the handle is supposed to go from corner to corner, but I put it at the top by the zipper. I actually like it better there, and it's much easier to sew in. I also added a tag at the bottom of the zipper to make it easier to close the bag. I used some heavy duty interfacing, and the bag stands up by itself very nicely.

It's the perfect size for toting around Socks in Progress.

After Christmas, I can show you pics of some of the other slipper/box sets I made. And I still have a few more to sew and the calendar is ticking, so I'd best get busy.

Any Old Port in a storm

Note: Oops, I forgot it was Thursday. I'll post the Thursday Tab paper doll tomorrow. Sorry.

Remember the huge section of patchwork quilt top that I got at my friend Lorah's auction (the same one where I got the horse quilt)? Well, I decided to see how it would perform, cut up and sewn like regular fabric.

I'd say it performs just fine.

Inspired by my friend Mary, I bought a couple of old sheets at the Salvation Army store, and used one for the lining (though I didn't find any nice flowered sheets, just white and off-white- $1.50 for enough fabric to line 10 bags... not a bad bargain). This Old Port Carryall bag isn't quite as self-supporting as the first one I made from the Spoonflower What Knitting Needles? fabric, but that's because the outer shell isn't canvas. That said, it's sturdy, and pretty, and certainly practical. I especially like the bias pockets.

Speaking of Spoonflower (as I often do, these days)

My sample swatch of the primary colorway of the What Knitting Needles? camo fabric arrived. Once again, my reds turned into oranges.This looks fine, but it's not what I had in mind. I'm going to have to ask the Spoonflower folks for a formula for a red that prints true so I can use that in my designs. This fabric is available for ordering now, but be aware that the reds that show on the file won't print out red.

What knitting needles bag?

In anticipation of the delivery of the What Knitting Needles? fabric from Spoonflower, I ordered the Aunties Two Old Port Carryall bag pattern, along with some other patterns, from  Keepsake Quilting (who delivered my order in pretty much record time).

I had to take the Fearless Fair Isle galley proofs to the FedEx office in Aberdeen yesterday, so I ran a few errands while I was up there, including picking out a lining fabric for the knitting camo (I could easily have designed and ordered coordinating quilting weight cotton fabric from Spoonflower, but that would have taken another 2 weeks for delivery, and though I am batty about Spoonflower, I am not so batty that I want to use $18 @ yard fabric as lining). I found this fantastic stripe which is part of the Sedona collection, by Laura Berringer, for Marcus Brothers, at the quilting/fabric/sewing machine store. It doesn't have all of the camo colors in it, but it matches well enough.

It's a little brighter in tone than the camo, but overall, is an excellent match.

I didn't take pictures of the bag construction, because those processes belong to the pattern instructions, but it was an interesting project- fiddly, and certainly not a quick-sew (it took me all afternoon and most of the evening and one broken needle, to assemble the bag, ). And since I used fabrics and batting (instructions for that method included), rather than pre-quilted fabric, it took even longer- not to mention that the canvas twill camo is heavy, making assembly an even slower process. But...

It's beautiful, no?

The bag is quite sturdy- it stands up without support, and is about 15" x 13", with 4 nice deep outer pockets (it was supposed to have inside pockets as well, but I didn't want to have to sew through all that extra bulk).

The handle construction is interesting (cotton cord inside a cloth tube, though I used several pieces of clothesline because I couldn't find the right size of cotton cord), and I'm not entirely sure that I attached them to the bag correctly (there was handsewing involved). Another photo or two of that step would have been helpful in the pattern. But overall, the bag went together very well, and I am extremely happy with it.

It's fully lined, with no raw edges showing inside or out. BTW- the matchy matchy striping there was purely accidental. The other side didn't line up at all.

And it's about 5" wide, which means there is plenty of room for whatever knitting project I want to carry.

And I made it.

More for Nancy

How's this?

I would definitely want to order a sample swatch first- last time I did orange and red, they both came out orange. I wouldn't want to order a larger piece without making sure that the colors are true.

Just for you, Nancy

Blog Poster Nancy said that she'd like to see the knitting needle camo print in bright, primary colors.

I live to serve.

What needles?

This week's Spoonflower design contest is for camouflage fabrics. I had a fun idea:

It's called "What knitting needles?"

I'm getting better with Adobe Illustrator- this is my first seamless fabric repeat (without obvious divisions between the motifs). I started out with a solid background, and then I added earth-tone rectangles on the edges, lined up (for the seamless repeat), and ellipses in the middle. After that, I used a couple of the AI tools to push and pull the shapes all camo-like, and then I added assorted knitting needles (also arranged off the edges for a seamless repeat). I love how it came out, so I ordered a full yard (58" x 36") of the canvas twill fabric for bags, and maybe an apron.

Speaking of knitting needles, I played a bit with the yard of green Knit 2 Together quilting weight cotton this weekend, and made

A sock needle holder,

which came out just fine

except that the ties are a bit long, and I might make the next one just a tinch wider (the two outside pockets are not quite 1" wide- I forgot to take the side seam into consideration when I cut them out). It's an original pattern, so I'll probably post the instructions here soonish. I'm going to make a straight needle holder as well, and probably one for longer dpns (the above case is specifically designed for the 6" sock needles). I might be able to get all three projects from the single yard of fabric, but if not, I have a yard of the peach colorway too.

And here's something for all those soon-to-be carefully stored needles.

422 yards, 10.12 ozs, 2 ply, definitely worsted weight yarn from the hand-dyed Decadent Fibers Jelly Roll. I have probably 1/3-1/4 of the batt left to spin. This yarn is crying out to be heavy, winter socks (maybe even long boot socks, since there will be plenty of yarn), and I am just the person to oblige.