While I was away for a month...

Whoa! It's real long since I blogged anything here. But I have been doing things all along. I didn't click any pics and kept postponing it. That is the sole reason why I have not been blogging anything till now. Even now I haven't clicked any pics. Thought I'll just update you guys on what all I have done till now.

I made a big crochet granny square. The colours are maroon and green. It looks like an accessory for Christmas. Well, I made it atleast a month back and it now is in place for where it was created - on my fridge. I'll click a pic and post it soooooon!

Next were my experiments with my lovely sewing machine. So pathetic of me that I have not clicked a pic of my sewing machine yet. Anyways, the first few days I used it to learn and refresh my sewing lessons. Straight lines, curves, zig zags, and on it went for a few days. Then I sewed up a hand clutch. Yes, I did it! Though not a perfect one, I just loved it.

Then I sewed and sewed and tried to learn stitching necks for dresses. It took me a while to learn it. And once I learnt it, I jumped on to a kurta project, for me. I cut an old big dupatta and within a few hours, my first kurta was ready :-) It is not fit to be worn out because it is a bit crumply at places owing to the nature of the cloth material. But yes, I am wearing it at home :-)

Later I had the courage to create a kurta from a lovely FabIndia cotton dupatta I had for some time now. It did not take me long to finish it and the end result was really pretty. And I wore it out as well. Few said it was nice, though nobody knew I had stitched it ;-) I was thrilled with the result.

After the success of the FabIndia dupatta-kurta, I have now another on In Progress. It is a lovely orange shaded fabric. Only the neck needs to be completed and a little bit of shaping up. Then the kurta will be done!

On the crochet space, I did have some green, yellow, and off-white yarn left from this project. I started making granny squares out of it to make a small throw for the winter coming up. But I am out of yarn now. So I have gone back to my old Big Pink Blanket again. I completed 3 more rows of shell stitched on it yesterday. It is almost over 2 years since I started on the project. I don't know how many more months or years I'll take to finish it. Being a long item, it is a bit difficult to sit on the chair and sew. Let's see how it goes.

New Tote

I finally completed something which was on my list for a very looooong while. I had started this project way back in July last year. I had blogged about it here. It is a tote and was almost done, but not complete until two days back.

For the body of the tote I used thick maroon yarn. I did the modified shell stitch (as in my Big Pink Blanket). This stitch gives the bag a chunky look.

For the mouth of the tote, I used thin black yarn and single crochet stitches to make it firm and strong.

For the handle of the tote, I used it from an old handbag and did spaced single crochet stitches way around the belt.

I took the tote out with me over the weekend and am extremely pleased with the result. I may add a zipper or button to the tote mouth some time later.

New Obsession!!!

Last weekend when we went shopping, I found this.

When I picked it up, my hubby was like, "What is it for? Your yarns??" I nodded positively.

Hubby: You just bought a big one. So why this now?

Then I started wondering whether I am getting obsessed with these. Somehow, I was able to overcome those thoughts and put it in our shopping cart.

Doesn't it look cute? It holds all my small supplies for a smaller project well.

Unlike the blue bucket, this is very much smaller. See it is just the size of my palm and fingers together.

Like you, even I am thinking why I bought a blue again. There were other colours as well. But I instantly picked this one. May I am shifting from pink to blue ;-) I am currently making a small hand clutch and this blue basket is really good to hold the small project - yarn ball, crochet purse, scissors, needle and thread, thimble, and the lining fabric.

I am very delighted on this purchase!

Busy Bee!

I was a busy bee over the last weekend. I actually completed some projects over the last two days. Like to see them?

Does it ring any bells? If you remember, in one of my earlier posts, I mentioned about making a small itty bitty purse for myself. Well, here it is.

I have put in a small pouch to hold my cellphone. And in the main space I can stuff in some money, my cards, hairbands, clips, my lipbalm, and a small notepad. I actually took out all these things in my purse last Sunday when we went out. I felt sooo happy!

If you noticed, I have used two types of closures for this purse. One is a snap button and another one is a button and crochet fastener. I didn't intend to do it that way initially. But when I did it, I feel it looks great. Or am I being too obsessed with my creation? ;-)

Well, the button closes perfectly and doesn't let any of my cards or money slip out. The button and fastener keeps my cellphone in place and is easy to take out the phone quickly. You see, CONVENIENCE.

The button is from a jacket of mine. I just loved it when I put the button against the yarn. The flower embellishment took me just five minutes to make. And I really love it when the fastener is left open. It looks like the leaf of the flower. Don't believe? Scroll up and see again.

Let's move on!

Remember this fabric? Yes, I wanted to do a chair makeover with it. Our chairs looked like this or rather the seat cover was this.

Pretty huh? It was indeed but always looked dusty :-( So I have transformed it like this now.

Seems good? One more pic because I am totally in love with the makeover.

I really enjoyed this makeover. One time consuming part about this makeover was the sewing. Actually I don't have a gunstaple. So I had to sew in all sides of the fabric to the existing cover. Luckily my Mom's old thimble helped me a lot in the process. I have changed the table cloth also to the matching fabric and put on a transparent plastic table coat.

There is one more thing I want to show you. My new kitchen window curtain!

I loved the fabric the moment I saw it. When touched, it felt even better. It is kind of see-through fabric. So it does let the light into my kitchen but still blocks of the direct rays falling on to the fridge.

It took me just an hour or so to make it. And yes, I hand stitched it. I was so happy with the result that I made one more for the entrance to the kitchen. Unfortunately I didn't photograph it. The second curtain is a bit more bigger. Measures something around 85" x 38".

Did you notice the money plants on either sides of the window? These have been with me from the past two years. The small one had stopped growing. But now its showing signs of greens again :-) My brother asked me to throw it away when we were shifting. But I was so attached to these small lovelies. Now they are along with me here also :-)

Planning what to do next over this weekend. Happy weekend all! :-)

Sewing & Crocheting

I know, I have not been posting anything recently. That is just because I am not doing anything seriously for some time now :-) But as I mentioned in my previous post, I do have some WIP projects. And may be more than what I listed there. So you wanna know what all I have been doing?

Well, now I intend to tell you what each of these cluttered things or rather projects are. Hope I am not boring you!

This pile of yarn was presented to me by someone :-) I have already used up more than half of what I got. So its really less number of bundles in this picture. Guessing who gifted me this? None other than my husband :-) And you know what, he gave me these on the day of our marriage, after I reached his home. I was feeling all jitters and nervous being in the company of all unknown people and at a new place. Thats when he took me to our room and showed me a draw full of lovely, colourful yarn. I was so thrilled and happy! :-) That's my yarn story.

Now want to know what I used most of this yarn for? Well, its for this.

In my previous post, I did mention about a chair makeover. It is rather a stool makeover. I didn't take a picture of the stool but can tell you that it is in a pretty bad state. It is a sleek stool, an adorable red one. But recently the seat cover was spoiled. So I am working on this crocheted cover for this little stool.

See this now!

We went shopping last week and I bought this fabric. Wondering for what? Well, when we shifted to the new place we bought a small dining set. But the seat cover of the chairs get dusty soon as the fabric is sort of felt type. So I am planning to upholster our seats with covers of this fabric.

What I want to show you next is this.

Bought this fabric also from Commercial Street. I intend to make a curtain for my kitchen window out of this. The fridge is just by the window and the morning sunlight falls directly onto it. This fabric is extremely soft and light. This will cut off the direct rays yet allow lots of light in the kitchen.

Next is a project which I started working on before my marriage. But somehow did not find enough time to complete it and it got postponed.

It is a purse. I don't like carrying my bag around everytime I go out but still need important things like my cellphone, money, and Identity cards. So I thought that a small purse is a good idea. For this I am using the yarn leftover from my bag project. Does it seem very monotonous with that single color? Well, I intend to embellish it with something. Let me see what I can come up with.

And now stars!

This is another old project on hold. I want to make may be a table cloth or stole out of this. But keeping it aside for the time being.

And the last one is a stitching project.

It is a stitch cloth with a design of the Caspian Sea on it. I have to follow the colours and outlines as in the stitch kit and complete it. Wanna see a closer view of the stitches? Here it is!

Hope you all enjoyed my showcasing! :-)

Inspired

I was inspired by one of the Itty-Bitty bag crafts on Burdastyle. I don't have the url to the exact post now.

Out of that inspiration, I created an Itty Bitty bag for myself. Want to see it? Here it is.



I made it out of my brother's old denim. He was generous enough to give it to me for my experiment. I followed the instructions and made some customizations as well. Bought a zipper and attached it to the purse. I don't have a sewing machine. My mom has an electronic 24 stitch one from Janome though. But I didn't have it then in Bangalore. So had to hand stitch the whole creation. At places hand stitching was a bit difficult as the denim material had folds and was hard for the needle to go in.

You see the flower in the centre? Does it seem pretty to you? It was my first fabric flower. I made it out of an old garment which I no longer use. More apt would be that I made the decision right then that I won't use it anymore for the sake of making that pretty debutant flower!





The centre portion is made out of the denim itself.

I took around the whole of an evening to make it. I got stuck at places while adding the lining. Had to redo the stitches. And morover, sewing is something what I like but am not good at it. So it took me a lot of time also.

Now this bag rests in my cupboard and holds my itty bitty things ;-)

Craft Stylishly

Have you people come across the website CraftStylish? I know most of you would have. But if you still haven't, browse through from here. There are different categories like crochet, sewing, paper craft, jewellery making, and the like. The members on the site are increasing each day. And I also became a CraftStylish member recently. And my first post is there today :-) Read it - How to Crochet a Cellphone Pouch.

I might keep posting if I do something creative :-)

By the way, I have started joining my crochet flowers.

Happy Crocheting!

Red and Greenish Brown!

Does the title sound like a good colour combination to you? Well it doesn't sound nice to me either. But I have done a project with that combination because it looked good together :-)

Looks good, rt? Well, for the love of it, I made one more. I know it looks prettier! I was confused what to make out of the two pieces. Still kept on making the second one the same size as the first. And then, I thought of doing this:

And finally it became this pretty cross bag or satchel, as you wish to call it.

The thing I liked particularly about this bag is the shell edging I gave. Somehow I am so delighted to see my crochet bag hanging like this :-)