The Finished Jacket: Minoru Round Two

My mom excitedly modeling her new Minoru Jacket

Now that the Christmas rush is over I have a lot of updating to do. I was so busy traveling and crocheting and sewing non-stop to finish up presents, these last two weeks before school starts up again for the semester have been really relaxing. I've done almost nothing craft wise, except make a shirt (the Sewaholic Renfrew Top ) , and upload all of the pictures of my projects to share with you guys. As you can see from the above picture I finished up the second Minoru I was planning on making. It came out perfectly, I really like the additions and changes I made to it compared to my first one, and it was very hard to part with it.

My mom excitedly modeling her new Minoru Jacket

Now that the Christmas rush is over I have a lot of updating to do. I was so busy traveling and crocheting and sewing non-stop to finish up presents, these last two weeks before school starts up again for the semester have been really relaxing. I've done almost nothing craft wise, except make a shirt (the Sewaholic Renfrew Top ) , and upload all of the pictures of my projects to share with you guys. As you can see from the above picture I finished up the second Minoru I was planning on making. It came out perfectly, I really like the additions and changes I made to it compared to my first one, and it was very hard to part with it.

Crochet Away: Colorado Slouchie Beanie

Colorado Proud!!!

There's something about the state of Colorado that makes people who live here absolutely love it. Some combination between the mountains, endless sunshine, 60 degree weather in December (it's surprisingly 11 degrees here today!), snow, and who knows what else that makes this a fantastic place to live. People who live here love everything, including their state flag. The only other state I've really been to that represents their state flag as much is California.

Colorado Proud!!!

There's something about the state of Colorado that makes people who live here absolutely love it. Some combination between the mountains, endless sunshine, 60 degree weather in December (it's surprisingly 11 degrees here today!), snow, and who knows what else that makes this a fantastic place to live. People who live here love everything, including their state flag. The only other state I've really been to that represents their state flag as much is California.

Peek into: The Craft Room

I haven't posted about the craft room before, mainly because it still wasn't very setup. I had some time over Thanksgiving break to get some things organized (hide some other things in the closet) and make it look presentable with what I have so far. This room had a built in bench/desk that I thought would be perfect, but in actuality it's a really small tight spot when you're working with a bigger piece of fabric.

I haven't posted about the craft room before, mainly because it still wasn't very setup. I had some time over Thanksgiving break to get some things organized (hide some other things in the closet) and make it look presentable with what I have so far. This room had a built in bench/desk that I thought would be perfect, but in actuality it's a really small tight spot when you're working with a bigger piece of fabric.

Minoru Round Two...and Three: The Plans

Do you guys remember the Minoru jacket I made? I love this jacket so much I'm planning on making two more, another for me and one for my mom! I had mentioned before really liking the fit of this jacket and the possibility of wanting to make a heavier version for the winter or even try to make a longer version for snowboarding. I looked around for waterproof/breathable fabric that would be good for a snowboarding jacket and most fabrics really wouldn't cut it. I did find a website that sells outerwear/extreme fabric and they had Gore-Tex and a number of other really good fabrics that would handle extreme cold and snow really well, but they were all really expensive and plain. If I'm going to shell out a lot of money on fabric I at least want a pattern that I like otherwise I can just buy one, but I guess that's the tradeoff for a jacket that fits your body perfectly.

My mom's jacket is going to be olive green, with a nice cozy furry lining, complete with a lined hood and some additional pockets added in. Since I nixed the snowboarding idea I'm now thinking of making a mudcloth jacket.

Mudcloth Fabric from Spoonflower - $17.50/yd

I'm not quite sure yet whether I want to buy pre-made fabric or make my own. The pre-made fabric is pretty expensive, but making my own would be time consuming and the supplies needed could add up and end up being expensive too. I do like the idea of making my own pattern on my own jacket thought.

Credit - Apartment Therapy

Apartment Therapy even has a mudcloth tutorial that is easy to follow and the end result came out really cute. It really just comes down to the time it would take to mark out the design, lay down the glue on the design, and then dyeing the material. The jacket takes 4 yards of fabric to make, which is a lot of fabric to mark out a design on. The other option would be to make the entire outer shell out of plain canvas, and then once it's sewn together I could mark out the design and dye it. It would be a lot easier to mark out a design on an already assembled jacket and that would make the design fit together better as well. That may be what I end up doing after all! I'll probably go to get fabric in the next couple of weeks for these, and since I already have all of my pattern pieces cut out and saved from the last time I doubt it will take me very long to make these. Fingers crossed!

Do you guys remember the Minoru jacket I made? I love this jacket so much I'm planning on making two more, another for me and one for my mom! I had mentioned before really liking the fit of this jacket and the possibility of wanting to make a heavier version for the winter or even try to make a longer version for snowboarding. I looked around for waterproof/breathable fabric that would be good for a snowboarding jacket and most fabrics really wouldn't cut it. I did find a website that sells outerwear/extreme fabric and they had Gore-Tex and a number of other really good fabrics that would handle extreme cold and snow really well, but they were all really expensive and plain. If I'm going to shell out a lot of money on fabric I at least want a pattern that I like otherwise I can just buy one, but I guess that's the tradeoff for a jacket that fits your body perfectly.

My mom's jacket is going to be olive green, with a nice cozy furry lining, complete with a lined hood and some additional pockets added in. Since I nixed the snowboarding idea I'm now thinking of making a mudcloth jacket.

Mudcloth Fabric from Spoonflower - $17.50/yd

I'm not quite sure yet whether I want to buy pre-made fabric or make my own. The pre-made fabric is pretty expensive, but making my own would be time consuming and the supplies needed could add up and end up being expensive too. I do like the idea of making my own pattern on my own jacket thought.

Credit - Apartment Therapy

Apartment Therapy even has a mudcloth tutorial that is easy to follow and the end result came out really cute. It really just comes down to the time it would take to mark out the design, lay down the glue on the design, and then dyeing the material. The jacket takes 4 yards of fabric to make, which is a lot of fabric to mark out a design on. The other option would be to make the entire outer shell out of plain canvas, and then once it's sewn together I could mark out the design and dye it. It would be a lot easier to mark out a design on an already assembled jacket and that would make the design fit together better as well. That may be what I end up doing after all! I'll probably go to get fabric in the next couple of weeks for these, and since I already have all of my pattern pieces cut out and saved from the last time I doubt it will take me very long to make these. Fingers crossed!

Spare Bedroom Update

Polka dots everywhere!                                         TV trays as a desk? It'll work for now!

I've been working little by little to get the spare/guest bedroom exactly how I want it. I am still  in need of a desk, some accessories, and pillows but I've managed to decorate the walls a little bit since I last posted about this room. Speaking of pillows for a second, I've seen a number I love but the prices of them are outrageous. I was looking mainly at Etsy and pillow shams/covers alone are a minimum of $20! None of them included the actual pillow, they all just suggested you buy a pillow form cheaply from a craft store. I would make my own, but I can never find fabric that I want or like at my local fabric store, it's really a pain. Anyways...

If you remember from my theme board I wanted to accent the walls with gold polka dots. I found some gold contact paper online and got to work.

Polka dots everywhere!                                         TV trays as a desk? It'll work for now!

I've been working little by little to get the spare/guest bedroom exactly how I want it. I am still  in need of a desk, some accessories, and pillows but I've managed to decorate the walls a little bit since I last posted about this room. Speaking of pillows for a second, I've seen a number I love but the prices of them are outrageous. I was looking mainly at Etsy and pillow shams/covers alone are a minimum of $20! None of them included the actual pillow, they all just suggested you buy a pillow form cheaply from a craft store. I would make my own, but I can never find fabric that I want or like at my local fabric store, it's really a pain. Anyways...

If you remember from my theme board I wanted to accent the walls with gold polka dots. I found some gold contact paper online and got to work.

Crochet Away: Swirl Beanie

Can you ever have too many scarves, pairs of mittens, or beanies? The obvious answer, at least to me, is clearly no. I like having different cold weather accessories to choose from. Sometimes I'm looking for options to match or complement what I'm wearing and other times depending on the weather I need a lighter scarf or a heavier pair of mittens. Couple the latter with the fact that I find crocheting extremely relaxing, not to mention something i can do while watching tv or nearly anywhere for that matter, and you end up with a lot of headbands and beanies to give away as presents come Christmas time. Hopefully Corey's not reading this, or he'll ask where the headband he's been asking for the last two years is, whoops!

I would pick colors that contrast more if I used this pattern again

 I found this pattern on The Crochet Zombie , she has so many tutorials it's unbelievable. The pattern for the swirl beanie is posted here. There's a pdf file that can be downloaded as well as a youtube tutorial video. I found the pattern really easy to follow and it only took me handful of days to finish this. The pattern makes you work with two pieces of yarn at once instead of one which saves you from having to change out the colors every couple of stitches which makes for a really sturdy hat. I have some ideas for another beanie I want to make so check back in a couple of weeks for another crochet post!

Can you ever have too many scarves, pairs of mittens, or beanies? The obvious answer, at least to me, is clearly no. I like having different cold weather accessories to choose from. Sometimes I'm looking for options to match or complement what I'm wearing and other times depending on the weather I need a lighter scarf or a heavier pair of mittens. Couple the latter with the fact that I find crocheting extremely relaxing, not to mention something i can do while watching tv or nearly anywhere for that matter, and you end up with a lot of headbands and beanies to give away as presents come Christmas time. Hopefully Corey's not reading this, or he'll ask where the headband he's been asking for the last two years is, whoops!

I would pick colors that contrast more if I used this pattern again

 I found this pattern on The Crochet Zombie , she has so many tutorials it's unbelievable. The pattern for the swirl beanie is posted here. There's a pdf file that can be downloaded as well as a youtube tutorial video. I found the pattern really easy to follow and it only took me handful of days to finish this. The pattern makes you work with two pieces of yarn at once instead of one which saves you from having to change out the colors every couple of stitches which makes for a really sturdy hat. I have some ideas for another beanie I want to make so check back in a couple of weeks for another crochet post!

Entrance Way Update: Quick and Easy Shoe Rack

 

It's been far too long since I last updated, but that doesn't mean I haven't been working on things. I have a backlog of things to post as well as a bunch of projects I want to get started on, and ideas I can't wait to share. We've slowly been making the house our own, mainly by painting, but also by getting things fully setup and decorated. One easy area to get setup was the entrance way. We do have a little closet right next to the front door, but it's not big enough to store everything. A shoe sturdy shoe rack was an easy way to give more space and add a pop of color to the entrance. We have a decal of some camels hanging up in that hallway and one of the colors is blue, so it ties in really nicely.

 

This project was extremely simple and could be completed in a day. Click the link below to read the whole story.

 

It's been far too long since I last updated, but that doesn't mean I haven't been working on things. I have a backlog of things to post as well as a bunch of projects I want to get started on, and ideas I can't wait to share. We've slowly been making the house our own, mainly by painting, but also by getting things fully setup and decorated. One easy area to get setup was the entrance way. We do have a little closet right next to the front door, but it's not big enough to store everything. A shoe sturdy shoe rack was an easy way to give more space and add a pop of color to the entrance. We have a decal of some camels hanging up in that hallway and one of the colors is blue, so it ties in really nicely.

 

This project was extremely simple and could be completed in a day. Click the link below to read the whole story.