Crochet Swim Suit for 18-inch Journey Girl Doll

When you have a name like clever, crafty, cookin' mama... you really should live up to your name.  I realized the other day that I had been posting a little bit of "clever", a little bit of "cookin", but not a lot whole of "crafty".  This is not to say that I haven't been crafty, I've actually been cranking out a ton of crafts, I've just had not a ton of time to post about them.  I thought I would give you a sneak peek of something I whipped up two days ago.  Two out of my three girls now have Journey Dolls (from Toys-R-Us), which is the thrifty, economical (and might I add pretty adorable) solution to the much more over pricey American Girl Dolls.  With a full week of blue sky and sunshine around here, my daughter's thoughts have suddenly turned to darting through sprinklers and plummeting down slip n' slides.  Of course their dolls need some swimwear as well, to watch all the festivities in, right?

Journey Girl crochet swimsuit

So I went looking for some free swim suit patterns, only most of them were for the 18-inch American Girl doll size.  The only trouble with that was, the America Girl's are built like defensive linebackers in the neck and shoulder area.  The Journey girls, on the other hand, are pretty slender throughout their frame.  I decided to create a pattern specifically for this type of doll.  That's right. No pattern, just flying by the seat of my pants.  This aqua blue suit above was my first attempt!  Not too shabby, eh?  Last night I went ahead and tried to recreate the same pattern for my second daughter, who thought her doll needed a green suit.

Swimsuits for Journey Girl dolls

I was able to tweak a couple elements of where the center ruffle was, and smoothed out some of the between the leg area.  I think this turned out rather nice.  I didn't really see the need to add straps to the shoulder area, as this would make it a lot harder for the girls to put the suits on their dolls.  I am busy testing this pattern for a third time tonight, then I am thinking about sharing it or selling a pdf file of it for any of those of you who are interested.  Just thought I'd give you a little sneak peak.  

Super cute doll suit!

No worries, more crafts are coming soon!  Stay tuned...

The weirdest Christmas gift request

Wanna hear about possibly the weirdest Christmas gift request I have ever received?

Well then first I have to tell you about my nephew.  He's 9, has got the biggest brown eyes you ever saw, and freckles and dimples that go on for miles.  He is the middle child of three, and much like my middle child, is a very deep thinker.  We are talking DEEP.  He is completely filled to the brim with facts.  At any given moment he might rattle off to you some of these trivial tidbits that make you stop, cock your head to the side and say, "wow, I did not know that, Jacob, thank-you so very much".

When this picture was taken I am 99.98% sure he was telling me facts about turkeys

He's a funny thing too.  The other day, I am told that his mom was asking all three kids what they wanted to be when they grew up.  Gabe, the oldest and lover of legos, wanted to be a train conductor like his daddy.  Mackenzie, the only girl and baby of the family wanted what every girl wants: A mani/pedi chair and servants (Nice, I think she got that love from her mama).  Jacob was asked the same question and he says, "I want to work where you have those gray walls".  His mom wonders, gray walls??  He goes on, "You know, where you pop your head up over the top and look around?" 

 She stares blankly for a minute... 

"YOU MEAN A CUBICLE?!".  Yes, he says firmly. 

Just typing this story makes me laugh so hard. You've got to love him.  He is totally an out of the box thinker, or wait, I take that back, is he a way "IN" the box thinker, as in WAY INSIDE a cubicle box. What kid says when I grow up I want to be an office cog just so I can imitate a prairie dog?

THIS KID!

Fast forward onto Christmas gifts.  Now I crochet.  Once I started crocheting I went way past blankets and hats, I started doing amigurumi, which is a Japanese term where you make three dimensional, stuffed objects that have a lot of realistic detail.  I got pretty good at it, heck I even made some amazing character dolls such as Mario, Luigi, the whole Mario brothers gang actually. 

I made these for my daughter's Super Mario Brothers birthday party a few years back

All of my nephews loved my work.  So I asked little 9-year-old Jacob about what he might like for Christmas, totally expecting he would list one of my Mario guys.  Not even close.  Not even REMOTELY close.  Without even pausing, without even looking up to the ceiling and pondering.  It's like he had this object on his mind already and I had just happened to ask him the correct time.  He simply said, 

"Can you make me a giant macaroni noodle out of yarn?"

Me:  Stunned silence.

Me: Um, macaroni... noodle??

Jacob: Yes.  A big one.

Me: Blinking

Then he walks off. 

Me: Hmmmmmm.

Okay.  How can you disappoint a face like this??:

This boy loves his pasta apparently!

So I went a searching the interwebs high and low for a 3-D noodle pattern.  Guess what people.  Almost impossible to find.  Turns out crocheting a circular curved tube that keeps it's dimensions throughout is plum near impossible.  Let me just break out my M.I.T. degree in advanced engineering and summon all the powers of physics for this one tiny Christmas crochet project.  Goodness!  Literally it was bugging me for weeks.  No matter where I searched for tips or patterns, I couldn't find one that might actually work.  I thought about enlarging a flattened rainbow arch pattern, but I really wanted that curved noodle look.  Finally, I was walking through a store when I stopped dead in my tracks.  There, in front of me, with a heavenly light shining down all around it, was a soft stuffed travel neck pillow.  Curved.  Tube.  I didn't have to figure out as much how to make and stuff a crocheted tube curve correctly, as I had to figure out how to cover an already existing shape! Christmas wishes from a 9-year-old are saved!!

First thing I did was take the cover off the neck pillow.  It was a nice, soft, zippable one.  Hey I realized, this is not only going to be fulfilling the macaroni dreams of a kid, it was at the very least going to be a FUNCTIONAL neck pillow!

I did not have a pattern, I just started a crochet circle with some extra thick, extra yellow, lion heart brand hometown USA yarn.   I kept eye-balling it around until it was wide enough to fit over the bottom of the pillow "leg".

To get the yard to turn 90º I single crocheted in the back loops only for two rows.

 
Once the yarn was turning "up" I started single crocheting again through both loops, which created a "bowl" that the bottom of the noodle could rest in

After that I slipped it off the noodle, kept doing single crochet around, then pausing so often to try and slip it over the leg of the noodle to see if it would fit.

Then I would slip it back off and work more rounds.

Soon I was at the top of the arch... and it was getting harder to pull the tube on the pillow.  From now on I would have to do the remaining stitches ON the pillow form.  This got a bit tricky and cumbersome at times, but I just kept working at it.

Now, in hindsight, I should have started the process over on the other leg and sewed them together at the top of the "noodle".  However, I was getting some bunches in the first "leg" near the curve and thought I could try and eliminate those. Also I did not want a seam in the middle of my noodle.  So now here is where I tried to get creative. Trying to make a "wedge" shape I stopped stitching in the round and went back and forth just on the top 3/4 of the noodle, turned and came back the other way.  Because it was curved, I could join the circle back up after a few rows.

It took a bit of trial an error, remember I had never done anything like this before.  But as I came to the end, I reversed what I had done on the first leg of the noodle, to give it that finished look.

You can see my wedge shape going over the right hand arch is not perfect, but it did not turn out half bad for a first try.  To a 9-year-old boy I am hoping and praying it looks like a giant cheesy macaroni noodle to him.  My girls, who have never had a neck pillow around until now, have been walking around with this thing around their neck at all times of the day.  So I am thinking that if Jacob doesn't like his miraculous noodle, the girls will adopt it back.

Needless to say, this little request is right up there with one of the STRANGEST, weirdest, most challenging things I have ever been asked to make out of yarn.  This tricky little curved, tubed, arched, stuffed, three-dimensional shape was quite the bear to pull off.  I'm just hoping he LOVES it.  Like I'm his favorite auntie of all time LOVES it. Like years from now, when he grows up and is working in his grey office cubicle, he thinks of me. I hope that when he pops his head up like an over-sized prairie dog and gazes at the other gray people, in their tiny, drab squares, he will still be wearing this bright yellow macaroni noodle, and it might just bring a little ray of comfort and sunshine to the whole office!

I will keep you posted on his reaction on Christmas day and post pictures here.  Stay tuned...

Pink Giraffe Earflap Hat

Baby girl things are cute.  Baby girl things inspire me.  Sometimes I am sad I only learned to crochet two years ago, because I could of decked out all three of my girls in the cutest handmade stuff!  Something like this:

My latest crochet creation - the snuggly, warm, baby pink giraffe earflap hat

Isn't that the sweetest thing?  I just made this last week.

Come to think of it, the little girls born in the last few years are so lucky too, with the influx of feminine baby things.  I know it was only 8 short years ago, but I was hard pressed to find any pink baby gear back in 2004.  No pink pack-n-plays, no pink car seats, no pink exersausers nada. We ended up getting dark blue and green plaid everything.  Now I look around and there are pink zebra potty chairs and lavender strollers. What?  Why did manufacturers only realize in 2010 that 50% of the population might want butterflies and flowers on their baby things?  Boo.  Hey, speaking of zebras, have you noticed animal prints are a super hot baby trend? Zebra, Giraffes, Monkeys, and Elephants are everywhere!  I went to the store to find a gift for a friend of mine having a baby girl and I fell in love with the cute Giraffe themed baby clothes... 

I was especially inspired by this adorable wrap blanket...

How cute are those little pink giraffes?  So sweet!!

I only had a day before the baby shower but I thought to myself, I want to make one of my earflap hats, but I want to try and make it a baby pink giraffe!

close up of the tiny giraffe face

I used extra soft pink yarn.  The ear flap pattern I got for free online (the website I used is no longer there, I was going to link to it - I may have to revamp my changes and print up my own version of an ear flap hat, if you are interested).  I did not have a pattern for the giraffe features, so I went searching online for images to inspire me.  I had to hunt around for some rounded ears and I made up the horns.  For the braids I used the two main yarn colors (white and pink) plus added a rose colored darker strand for a braid contrast.  I'm not sure how size translates in these pictures, but this is so small, about a 3-6 month baby head.

This turned out so cute, I almost didn't want to give it away

Once finished it matched the other gift items pretty well.

Baby pink giraffes - stinkin' adorable.

The gift went over well at the baby shower!  There were many "ooo's and ahhh's" as she opened her gift.  I can not wait until her little girl gets here (this December) and I can update you with a picture with a cute baby wearing my sweet lil' giraffe hat.  I also can't wait to try some other colors.  A little baby blue one, or a light yellow one with some brown spots for a "real" giraffe look.

Little Pumpkin Hat

Do you have any lil' pumpkins in your life that need an adorable seasonal hat?  I've rounded up three very cute tutorials that I want to try out this weekend. All are shown in the infant size, but can be easily modified to make one for a child or tween.

I was really drawn to these two crocheted hats because they both use a crochet pattern I have not done before.  I like the way both techniques create a raised ridge that gives the hat a definite pumpkin look.

The first hat is in a great tutorial by Teresa over on her youtube channel Crochet Geek.  She is awesome and I learned to crochet from her.  The best part is she will do a project from start to finish, so you can watch her step by step. She even will do some stitches in slow motion. (Learn beginning crochet stitches from her here)

Adorable pumpkin hat by Teresa.  I think I would make the leaves a greener shade

Check out her tutorial here:



And do not fret if you are left handed.  She's a genius and has a tutorial for you too!
She also has  a written pattern here. 
This technique uses as front post double crochet to make that raised ridge

The second pattern also makes a cute hat. This is a written pattern for those of you who like following patterns instead. The top has a thinner stem and adorable curly cue vine for added fun.

Another pumpkin hat found over at Fave Crafts (free pattern)

This pattern looks a bit more unusual in the fact that you are making more of a rectangle and Half Double Crocheting (HDC) in the back loops as you make each row.  By doing back loops only and then switching the other direction every row will create the "ribs" of the pumpkin then Slip Stitch (SL) the ends together.  Like I said, I want to to try this one out this weekend.  If you try it let me know how it goes. I really do like the end look though with the raised ridges.  Click here for the free pattern. If you check in the comments section of this pattern you will see tips on how to enlarge this hat, which is done simply but making a longer chain and more rows

If you do not crochet but STILL really want to make a cutie patootie pumpkin hat for your little one, feel free to try my round loom hat tutorial below. Do not use the very small blue loom (only for dolls and preemies).  I show the blue loom in the tutorial but the hat technique will work for any sized loom in the set.  I would start with the red loom (for small kids age 2-5) or the green (tweens and adults).  I would recommend using double yarn - that's 2 skeins of redheart yarn at the same time, in the color orange, for thickness and warmth.  You just hold two strands at the same time as you wrap the "e" wrap.



Part II finishing off and making a pompom can be found here

But for the topper, instead of a pompom, I would recommend some of Teresa's leaves from her you tube video, and maybe a curly cue, which I will teach you very soon.

I can't wait to try these little guys out.  They will make for some lovely photo ops for this upcoming fall season.  You could also make one red for an apple hat, or blue for a blueberry, whatever round fruit you desire.

Baby Rattles- Turtle & Ladybug (crochet pattern)

The best thing about knowing how to crochet is when you come across an easy free pattern, have a myriad of scrap yarn lying about, and have someone expecting a baby that you can make a gift for.  Like they used to say on the "A" team, "I love it when a plan comes together"!  Up until now I had never thought to make a baby rattle out of crochet, but the adorable turtle in the picture that was designed by Kristie over at KristiesKids beckoned me to make one. Immediately.  Oh, and did I mention there was a baby ladybug pattern too?

The cutest homemade baby rattles you ever done seen!

You have to thank Kristie for the design and the free pattern, which can be found here.  The first adorable creature I decided to try  was the turtle.  All you need is a tiny bit of yarn in two colors, and a plastic cat toy with a bell inside of it (found in the pet section of most stores).  Remember you don't want ones with catnip, just plain plastic with bell. Sometimes the plastic ball is lumpy, try to find smooth ones ;)  Just look how cute he is!

Little soft turtle rattle - who jingles softly when you shake him

When you make this little guy, you have to finish off and change colors every row.  At first I was worried, because that is a lot of loose ends to tie off, but I realized it would all be inside the body that was being stuffed, nothing to tie off at all!  Matter of fact by the end I had this cup shape with tons of strings hanging out and it looked like just like a jelly fish.  Once I started to stuff the body, all the dangling strings went in and became apart of the stuffing.  Besides the adorable ruffle around the bottom.  I love the little tiny feet sticking out.

I flipped the turtle onto it's back so you could see its cute and tiny little knobby legs

And if that wasn't cute enough... I fell in LOVE with the tiny little wispy tail

Cute and tiny tail poking out from under the "shell"

Then when I scrolled down on Kristie's page, I noticed she had a ladybug rattle pattern as well, which was similar to the turtle (sans legs and ruffle) and she had added antennae.

Cute little lady bug with tiny little spots

The little dots are hand sewn on using an invisible stitch or a blind stitch (so you don't see any stitches)  I can show you that on a future blog if you want.  Also I noticed in Kristie's picture her lady bug had a line down it's back to show the to halves of the "shell", but she didn't say how to do it.  I just threaded a needle with the same yarn color as the head, secured it at the neck and did some small stitches down the back of the lady bug.

lady got back

This pattern was a great find because I happened to be making a lady bug blanket and I thought they would go together perfectly.

 
I just sent these off to the expectant mom and she received these in the mail yesterday so hooray, now I can post about it :).  If you have never done any amigurimi this would be a great beginner project to try.  Amigurumi is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting little stuffed animals for cuteness purposes alone.  Also if this makes you want to LEARN crochet, everything I picked up was online by a lady named Teresa on youtube.  She has fabulous step by step videos on how to crochet, teaching every stitch.  Search for her courses under the title "crochet geek".  She has beginning courses and intermediate.  I highly recommend her.  So that's it, just a tiny bit of yarn, a cute little pattern by Kristie and you've got yourself some adorable handmade baby gifts.

Adorable Horse Purse (pattern)

A while back I was knee-deep in my crochet obsession when I came across the most awesome free pattern I have ever found!  It was for the most adorable little horse purses.  With three little girls embedded with an ingrained love of anything to do with horses, I knew this was going to be a win win for everyone.  What's not to love about these faces?

Horse purse pattern and design from Kristie over at her blog Kristieskids

And what do little girls love as just as much as horses (if not more)?  Storing stuff in purses!  Let's put those two together and see what we get...

Horse Purse:  White unicorn horsie purse with purple accents

The lovability of a stuffed animal with the convenience of a carrying bag.  Nice.  Here is a shot of the inside "storage" area for all of your little girl's worldly treasures.

Each daughter was able to customize the colors they wanted. My oldest wanted a unicorn, so that was a little trickier. I had to sort of wing the "horn" part by crocheting a little triangle tube and attached it between the eyes.  The rest followed the regular pattern.  My littlest wanted one to look like a "real" horse and she named hers "Apples" by the way. 

My middle child is who inspired this project as I started out making her one as a surprise for her birthday.  I went with the colors of the original pattern found here: Horse purse pattern.

What girl wouldn't want a pink and purple pony purse?

The inside storage area for the pink horse

Here are some pattern tips:  When I made the pink and the white horses, I used Caron 1-pound yarn (found at Joann's).  This yarn comes in many colors and seems a tad thicker than the red heart super saver yarn. Both of those horses stood up better on their own and felt a bit more firm.  For the he brown horse I used regular red heart yarn and it's just a tad more floppy than the other two.  Also for the mane and tails I used red heart yarn.  The directions are very clear and it took a little bit of trial and error to attach all the parts (ears, legs, saddle, handles) correctly and to make then look nice.  The mane technique was new to me and it reminded me of latch hook from my childhood.  I did opt to add the embellishments of a beaded bridle and beads for the eyes.  I used embroidery thread and bought a multicolored assorted box of beads at Walmart for about $9 to get those tiny little bridle beads and then those bigger ones for the eyes. Here is a close up of the saddles, as I decided to embellish these with matching beads as well.

Close up of beaded saddles to match the bridles

This project took me about three days. One day to make all the parts, one day to attach them together and stuff them, and an extra day to attach the mane and tail and to do the fancy bead work.  These were not all day things, just worked on them a bit each day.  With the tiny beads these might not be safe for kids under three, but would be perfect for anyone over 4 years old.

I just love these cut little horse purses!

I just love how these turned out.  You can customize this for any little girl with her favorite colors.  Great as a personalized birthday gift or make them for all the girls in your family for Christmas.

Baby Bumble Bee - crochet

Last year, when my eldest was in Kindergarten, there were two classes, each with it's own theme name.  The other class's name was the "cool cats" and my daughter's class was called the "busy bees".  At the end of the school year I was searching for a teacher gift that I could make, and came across the free baby bee pattern on the inside of a red heart yarn label.  It was so cute and perfect, so I decided to make one for her teacher and the assistant teacher.

Aren't they so sweet?!  They are under their category of easy crochet on the red heart website, and can be made using small scraps of left over yarn. The downloadable pattern can be found here.  If you are new to crochet it can help teach you a number of skills, like changing colors, stuffing, working in the round, and attaching small pieces securely. This is like a beginning amigurumi pattern that can be the gate way to many cute stuffed animals in your future. So here is my girl on the last day of school, dressed in her class colors and off to deliver her adorable baby bees to her teachers.

By the way, the class party once we got there was really cute, you could easily do a fun birthday party with that theme. They had yellow plates and black cups, yellow and black balloons, plus two different bee themed cakes.

Check out the favors one mom made up for the whole class.  You could easily get a packet of yellow paper bags and decorate with either bee stickers, or a black ribbon stripe on them.  They were filled with a bug catcher craft, bee pencils and erasers, crazy straws, and bug stencils. Also the little name tag on the outside doubled as a book mark.

The kids had a blast at this party!  The whole place was buzzin'. ;)

So, back to the crochet... if you want to try and make a cute little stuffed toy, this buzzing bee is a great place to start.  I'm going to try and make a little butterfly modifying this pattern very soon.  It would make a cute baby gift for a new mom or a gift for a little girl's birthday.

Culinary Crochet: Cupcakes

Shortly after I taught myself to crochet a year ago on YouTube thanks to a very nice lady name Teresa who posted a ton of how-to videos (you can too, click here), I had the sudden inspiration to stray away from the first thing I had learned, which was hats.  For some unknown reason I still can't quite explain, I could not shake the persistent idea I wanted to make realistic food out of yarn.  That little idea sent me on a search around the internet, until I was shocked to discover there is a whole crochet genre subculture out there called amigurumi, where you make dolls, animals, and sometimes realistic food using crochet and then stuffing them so they take on a three dimensional shape.  The first pattern I found was for some adorable cupcakes.  I just fell in LOVE with them, they were so cute and tasty looking.

The free pattern for these cupcakes is found here

In no time at all I had a platter full of yummy looking cupcakes.  First I made them all "devils food" but shortly after I did "vanilla" ones and even some "red velvet" ones (not pictured).  It was fun to mix the frosting colors with the cupcake flavors.  

These would make adorable pin cushions and I did a few that way using colored straight pins  through the top layer and they became the "sprinkles".  The other option is they make a great play kitchen food.  My girls instantly had these on a pan in their pink kitchen and having cupcake tea parties as soon as I'd get one finished.  

These could also make a lovely birthday present for a friend to keep around her desk (but with none of those pesky calories that normally come with baked goods).  This was my first attempt at crochet food, and since then I have done many more food items, (donuts, cheeseburgers, tea and cocoa cups, fried eggs and bacon, carrots) which I will share with you in future posts.  It has been fun to try and get them as realistic looking as possible.

Crochet: Barbie Spring Wardrobe Part II

Well in our last Barbie crochet post, my daughters were picking colors and designs for me to make dresses for them.  I whipped up a few more over the course of the last week.  I should remind you, the color schemes were designed by the minds of 4-7 year olds, which, as it turns out, is not such a bad idea after all.  My girls have mad design skilz, who knew?  OK so this was the black and white one I came up with for my middle child:

Classic 50's style dress with matching headband

This one turned out pretty classy.  My friend claims it is  so cute she would wear it and asked if I can make grown up sizes... hmmmm we will have to see about that.  The next style was dictated by my eldest, and she wanted a blue and purple Easter dress, so this is what I came up with:

Easter Dress Front                                                                                                  Easter Dress Back

Instead of doing black and white stripes, I just made one large purple stripe and added in some tiny pearls around to make it more fancy and "Eastery".  Also what Easter dress is not complete without a fancy hat?  So I made a simple hat to complete the ensemble. The next dress they wanted was a full length dress in the colors of the rainbow.  This one turned out very colorful

Pretty rainbow ball gown                                                            Close up of all the colors.  Love it!

So now Barbie is set for any future rainbow ball.  I like the scalloped "cloud" edge around the bottom of the dress.  Rainbows rock, good idea girls!

Here's all the latest Barbie spring fashions together on the runway

Oh and then right before press time, we had a late entry. My youngest informed me she wanted an all purple dress, so I cranked one out last night

         My first attempt at a "ruffle" dress                                                      Close up of the ruffle effect

I did two layers each of DC rows, and each time I started a new row, I tried to build it slightly behind the first row.  This left the top layer in tact, as I was hoping this would give it a three dimensional ruffle layered look.  All in all, I think Barbie has never looked so classy!