Knit Work Hats

The weather is starting (very slowly) to get colder.  So in anticipation of the -20 degree days we will be facing in just a few months I have gotten a jump start on making work hats for my hubby.  He works on natural gas wells, which means that he has to wear a hard hat, so I had to come up with something that would keep his head and ears warm, but still fit comfortably under the hard hat. My solution is just a simple beanie with a 2” ribbing for his ears. Then the thinner stockinette stitch fits nicely under the hard hat. I used Caron Simply Soft which is acrylic because it feels nice against the skin, but is fairly durable and machine washable. 

 He requested a plain green hat, and just to break up the monotony for me, I decided to do a little bit of color work. Yes, it is very basic, but is still some of the very first that I have done. I like how they turned out, and now I know that switching colors is easier than I first thought it would be.  Plus, the best thing is that my hubby Cody likes them very much too.

PVC Pipe Quilting Frame

One of the things that my mom and I wanted to do at my older sister's baby shower earlier this summer was to tie a baby quilt. We just didn’t have a quilting frame.  My mom mentioned that she had heard about making a frame out of PVC pipe, so I got online to look for ideas. I used this as a basis of how to make it. (There is a mistake in the materials section. It says (4) 9 ½” PVC pipe, but should really read as (4) 19 ½” PVC pipe.) We wanted to use it while standing, so we didn’t have the two 6” pieces to tilt it, which means that we had 4 elbows, only 2 T connectors, and no end caps. We also cut the side pieces 37” tall instead of 25 ½”.  We also didn’t glue it so that we could unassembled it and store it easily. The only difficult thing about making this was that in our small town we couldn’t find any of the correct size 3-way connectors or the snap clamps. Thank goodness for the internet. I was able to find them here.
We wound up buying 16 snap clamps, so that each side of the frame could have 4 clamps holding the quilt in place. 

I think that it turned out to be a major success. No, it isn’t as sturdy as some wooden frames that I have used, but it has plenty of support. We used this frame for my sister’s baby shower, my baby shower, and I have also used it to pin a full sized quilt that I am working on.  This frame worked amazingly for the baby quilts. The only thing about this frame is that it is only 40” across, which means that most people can easily reach the middle, but you can’t stretch the entire quilt all at once like you can with a traditional frame. So the best way that I found to make it work is to line up the quilt with the back and the batting on the floor and then slide the top of the frame underneath all of it until the frame is about in the middle of the quilt. Then just snap the sides down and put the top back onto the frame. (Having someone help you with this is strongly recommended.) After doing that I was able to tighten the quilt and begin tying or pinning it.  (I pin my quilts to machine quilt them on my old Bernina 830.) Then after tying the middle section of the quilt, I just moved the quilt around on the frame until it was all done.  Moving the quilt around is not the most ideal way to do this, but with patience and a little work I was thankfully able to make it work.

Car Seat Canopy

Another project that I have done in anticipation for this soon to be here baby was to make a car seat canopy.  I love the idea of it. Blankets can fall off of the car seat, leaving baby exposed and cold.  But with this, it can't fall off considering that it is buttoned to the handle.  It was actually very easy to make. 

Materials I used: Two 1 yard pieces of fabric (1 print, 1 plain), ribbon, and buttons or Velcro

·         The first thing I did was to wash my material. Then I cut the 2 pieces so that they were the same size. Mine ended up being about 35”x45”.

·         Next I sewed right sides together leaving about 10” on 1 side so that I could turn the material right side out. I highly recommend pinning the sides so that they don’t stretch when sewed together.  

·         I turned the material, and pressed all of the edges. Then just to give it a nice finished look I sewed around the edges with my ¼” foot, which also sewed close the open part.

·         Then I cut two 8” ribbons. If I do this again, I think that I would make them a little shorter. To make the ends not fray on the ribbon I melted the edges a tiny bit with a lighter.

·         I measured the halfway point the long way on my material, which was approximately 23”. On this middle “line” I measured in 13” both sides so that the ribbons would have about 7” between them.  I sewed each ribbon down in a square with an x in it to make them secure. 

·         I made button holes and sewed buttons (before I sewed the ribbon on the material) on my ribbons as a way to attach it to the car seat, but Velcro would work too. Or just leaving the ribbon long enough to tie would work great too.

The hardest part about this was putting on the ribbon handles, but once I was actually doing it, it wasn't that hard, it just sounds tricky.  So now I have a lovely cover to protect my baby when he finally decides to show up.

-Update: Now that I am actually using it, I realize that the ribbon handles need to fit snuggly on the handle of the car seat because they just slip and slide all over the place. So I will be shortening them to fit better. Otherwise, it works great.

Baby Shower Blanket

One of the things that we did at my baby shower last month was to tie a quilt that I had sewn a top for. I just went through my stash and cut random widths of fabric 60" long and then sewed all of the strips together. It is not a complicated pattern, but I really like how it turned out.  And having a bunch of ladies to help me quickly tie it was pretty nice too.  After we tied it I sewed the binding to finish it off. It is only 60"x45" so making it was rather quick, it was just the getting around to finishing it bit that took a little time.