Prepare Yourself For A Shock!

I managed to go to a fabric store for this:
and didn't even look at the fabric!  I know!!!!!!  I did pick up a few Christmas closeout floral picks, but I still walked out of Joann Fabrics having spent less than $6!!!! 

Originally, I had planned to buy NO crafting supplies at all this year, but thread to finish a project seems reasonable, and over the weekend we ran across these at a thrift store,
for $3, so let's just say I'm not spending MUCH on crafting.  I can't say that I even know what to do with this one,
 and there are 4 of these,
 which I may never do anything with, but now that 1.) I've come to terms with the bifocals/reading glasses and can see well enough to paint details, and 2.) I'm not frantically trying to finish a huge bunch of gifts, I hope to break out the paints and tackle some ornaments soon.  I'm not good at it, but I enjoy it.

Interestingly, even though I really only opted to wear handmade things on Mondays, the whole challenge has made me reexamine the things I've already made.  This:
 is a fleece jacket I made a few years ago, and I think I've only worn it twice--including yesterday.  The sleeves are about an inch too long, which is sort of amazing as I'm 5' 8" and fitting my shoulders and arms has usually been a bit of a challenge, so I have no idea who they thought might have arms THAT long.  The pattern called for small shoulder pads, which Milo here would really need, but I have broad, square shoulders and don't need them.  And I must have done a really poor job on the buttons, because the top one is barely hanging on.  So, I am going to fix the button and shorten the sleeves on this jacket to make it wearable.  I have decided that this year will be going through the things I've already made and either wearing them, fixing them, or donating them.  So, I'll either be gaining a wardrobe or closet space.............or a big pile of "things to be fixed" that I will keep meaning to get to.....  But it's January!  Think BIG!

Comments

Kathleen C. said…
Only the one spool of thread!?! Good thing I was sitting down already! ;^)
January 14, 2016 at 2:41 PM
Amy at love made my home said…
You have to buy thread otherwise you won't be able to make anything else! Hope that the jacket fix goes well. xx
January 15, 2016 at 1:44 AM
Book Dragon said…
I'm so excited for you! I did this with Hobby Lobby recently. I only needed yarn and I only got the yarn I needed. It helped that it wasn't on sale ;-)

I love the idea of wearing handmades on Monday. This is the year I actually have handmades to wear!
January 17, 2016 at 3:08 AM
Meredith said…
I think that is a great idea, you will have lots more to ear and if you don't like what you made someone else will love it.
Hugs,
Meredith
January 17, 2016 at 8:40 AM
handmade by amalia said…
Any reasonable person would make an exception for thread. Coming out of the shop with just thread, now that is something.
Amalia
xo
January 19, 2016 at 1:56 AM
omly said…
Similarly, I just blogged about mending a bunch of socks to put them back into rotation. So I totally understand the desire to fix or let go of handmade items that aren't able to currently be used.
January 22, 2016 at 3:47 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I Used The Glue Gun Without Burning Myself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Image
I'm not sure I'll have a prouder accomplishment all year--or a more surprising one.  I think I have a few fingerprints left. Andy is gone for the weekend, so the kitties and I are having a crafting weekend.  With their help,  I finished the first project of the year. The colors are a bit more subdued in real life, but I don't know how to reduce the intensity of this cell phone's camera.  I also cut some more strips for other projects, and wound another Hank from Hell:  A couple years ago I bought some Feza Rio that was on clearance, and for a cashmere/merino blend, it's not at all soft, and until this yarn, I didn't know one could hank yarn badly, but there does seem to be a way to do it so unevenly that permanent kinks are put into the yarn, and if that weren't enough fun, rather than being normal human beings who tie the ends into the threads holding the hank in place, these deranged maniacs tied the two ends together and snipped off the end...
Read more

Whew, It's Been A While.

Image
Wow - more than a year.   I am still crafting - lots of chemo caps knitted this year, but I'm also still learning to quilt.  This, is one of a set of table runners after I made a huge mistake on what was going to be a quilt.  Whoops.  That's twice I've done that.  I'd show you the other set, but blogger isn't letting me upload any older pictures.  I can show you this, which is from a kit and is one of my new favorites. This quilt, is my first attempt with a striped fabric, and is going to be shipped off to it's recipient today, who hopefully doesn't suffer from dizziness or vertigo.  What I learned from THIS project is that stripes aren't always printed straight, and if they are, I certainly don't always cut or sew straight.  Ahem... I am back to working from home.  I had been the marketing director for a local air conditioning company, but it was a family business, and what I discovered during the slow months is that it was a nightmare....
Read more

Ostrich Plume Scarf

Image
This scarf is actually very simple, but I'm trying to make the directions as thorough as possible.  It has a moss-stitch border of 6 rows on top and bottom and 4 stitches on each side, and uses the stitch pattern KNOWN as Ostrich Plume (hence the name).  There's a 3-stitch decrease using a slip 2, k1, pass slipped stitches over, which creates a nicer look than the traditional slip 1, k2tog, pass slipped stitch over technique, but feel free to use the more traditional decrease if you choose.  I used a shorter bottom and top edging to allow the wavy stitch pattern to pull the border into the wave effect, but you could certainly add a few extra rows of moss-stitch to the top and bottom if you would like. I have written this to slip the first stitch of all but the very first row as I think it makes a nicer edge, but you may choose to simply knit them.  As a matter of personal preference, I never slip the first stitch of the first row--it doesn't work with some cast-o...
Read more