Making Bibs

Bibs for Orliath

Over the weekend, I dug out the sewing machine. The funny thing is that I often get asked about ‘fixing’ things using my sewing machine, and the only time that I ever do get out the machine is if someone else asks me to do something for them. I’m not the world’s best at sewing, nor am I very fast at it. To be honest, it is my least favorite “crafty” thing to do, but if I have to I can do it. The result is that when the machine is out (about once every 6-8 months) I go through and “binge sew” on it – to repair everything that needs reparing, make what needs making, and then call it good. I then pack up the machine and it doesn’t see the light of day for another 6-8 months.

Bibs for Orliath

This time, I was asked to repair 4 bibs for Orliath, a gorgeous little girl who wears bibs daily. Sadly, she is confined to a wheelchair, and when I got the bibs, I ended up having to take them apart and remove the binding / ties and then re-sew and replace the binding. You see, the bibs that I was asked to repair are basically 2 pieces of poplin (cotton) fabric with a thin piece of plastic in between (they crinkle when they’re moved).

Bibs for Orliath

They were sewn with a single stitch on two fold binding tape around the outside edge. The end result was that they came apart after only a (relatively) few washings as the fabric shrank / stretched. It’s quite time consuming and challenging for me – with my limited patience and sewing experience.

Bibs for Orliath

After getting frustrated, I chatted to my mom, dad, and grandma (dad and grandma make quilts) and I posed the problem to them. They told me that it might be faster to make the bibs brand new – and sewn at least twice – once on the inside fabric pieces with a single stitch, and the other with zig zag stitch on the double sided bias tape to effectively give it 3 levels of stitching to “hold”. Once I had the concept – I decided that I could cut a bunch of fabric, and then properly put them together so that they’d need fewer repairs in the future. With the right fabric, I could also give something that’s waterproof and easy to clean – but also soft and not so noisy.

Bibs for Orliath

And so it began. I looked on eBay, and found something called PUL fabric – PUL stands for Polyurethane Laminate fabric – and the polyurethane is bound with soft t-shirt and microfiber (to eliminate the “crinkle noise) using an eco friendly adhesive. From here, I decided to try my hand at “creation” using the old bibs as an example. Using the old bibs as a “template” for size (you can see the red piece from one of the bibs I took apart), I started cutting out multiple triangles.

Bibs for Orliath

Then, I pinned and sewed the wrong sides together along the edges.

Bibs for Orliath

Bibs for Orliath

Trimming the excess fabric edges, I then pinned on the satin bias tape and made corners. Now, I went back and did the zig zag stitch over the edges.

Bibs for Orliath

Bibs for Orliath

The end result I think turned out pretty well in my opinion – Orliath ended out with 4 repaired bibs (top of the picture and 5 new bibs from scratch. They’re not perfect (I still have trouble sewing straight seams and keeping the bias tape even on both sides) but they will hold up to washing, chewing, and food – and that’s what counts.

Bibs for Orliath

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Stacking Crochet Baskets

3 round stacking crochet baskets out of chunky yarn. Perfect for all the small toys like legos, action figures, etc. #phoenixrosedesign  #crochet #baskets #stacking #black #orange #green #acrylic #chunky #solutions #organization #homedecor #handmade #Phot

Doing a bit of retro blogging today, as I am trying to catch up on several Crochet projects that I did and then gifted for Christmas. Since I didn’t want to reveal the “gift” until after the person received them, it only makes sense.

3 nesting baskets - crochet. Completed Dec. 18,2014

While I was ill over Christmas, I was home for about a week from work. The bad news was that I was sick and highly contagious. The good news was that I rested up, and with the help of antibiotics, I did feel well enough to get some crocheting done. I had some really rough, chunky yarn that I got at the local Euro shop – in not very pretty colors. My original thought was to make an “ugly rug”.

3 nesting baskets - crochet. Completed Dec. 18,2014

The problem was that I just couldn’t think of making a rug with a couple of afghans and other larger projects in the works. As a result, I decided to try my hand at some baskets. The result was me crocheting a set of 3 stacking baskets in orange, Green, and black. They weren’t very big – maybe about 14 inches high for the largest, but they are all quite wide in diameter.

3 nesting baskets - crochet. Completed Dec. 18,2014

3 nesting baskets - crochet. Completed Dec. 18,2014

The smallest is perfect for fitting a skein of yarn and keeping it from rolling about on the floor. The middle and larger ones hold 1-2 skeins each, or they can hold some cool things like legos, GI joe type toys, or Mc donalds figures. I’m trying to figure out what to “line” them with – maybe I won’t do that at all – but I’m still trying to think what to use. I’m open to suggestions, so please feel free to share.

Otherwise, as always, if you’d like a custom order set of baskets, or anything else you see here, please let me know!

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Retro Ear Warmers

This week, I had an order for 3 gorgeous ear warmers to be made. They needed to be in light blue, Dark blue, and Grapey Purple.

I did them all 3 in some variations of the Pinup girl tie style hairbands that I made, and I’m pretty pleased with how they turned out. There are no a patterns – I came up with them myself. 🙂

The first is the Grapey one. It’s in a front/back post stitch, and has a little “feature” of a loop that hooks around it to make it a bit looking like a bow.

sparkly grape colored ear warmer. crochet. #PhotoGrid #phoenixrosdesign #violet #sparkle #crochet #earwarmer #handicraft #hairbands

The second was a petrol blue colored blanket stitch style ear warmer. This one I narrowed the ends and added a button to go in the back.

Blanket stitch crochet ear warmer in petrol blue. #crochet #phoenixrosdesign #earwarmer #selfpattern #blue #fashion #winter #warm #PhotoGrid

And the third is a light tourquoise hair band with ruffled edges, and a tie on the top. This one is the one I mentioned that was modified from the pinup girl hair tie I did earlier.

Scallop edged tie crochet ear warmer #PhotoGrid #phoenixrosdesign #crochet #blue #custom #handmade #pinup #pinupgirl #sexylady #winter #hairbands #hairtie

Not bad – and for a custom order – 8 Euro each. You can always reach out to me if you’d like a custom order for something that you’d like.

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