These Little Piggies Are Going to England!

There were lots of scraps of fabric leftover from clothes I had sewed for Evie and Canaan (my grandchildren who live in England).  So I decided to cut 3-1/2" squares from the fabric, sew them together to make two pieces large enough to cut out the pattern for the two Pigs! 

The pattern for the pigs was a 1967 Simplicity.  Of course, the instructions were missing but it wasn't too hard until I lost the pig's ear pattern and had to improvise.

I found a pattern for making the curly tails and made a red one for Canaan's pig and a pink one for Evie's pig.

So....these lucky little Piggies are going to England to play with Canaan and Evie!

 Pink Pig for Evie

 Blue Pig for Canaan

Cute Little Piggies!

It's off to England they go!

One Sock Completed, One to Go!

While visiting SunnyStitching and her family in England a few weeks ago, I purchased some sock yarn by Regia.  I had been wanting to try making socks for Evie and Canaan.  I bought one skein each of pink variegated and blue variegated colors.

After researching about knitting the socks, I actually found a cute pattern for crocheting a pair.  This pattern also had the size I needed.  I now know most of you use two skeins so each sock begins at the same place but SunnyStitching is so lovely and creative.  She said it wouldn't matter if they were a slightly mismatched pair.  I started the project and it was a bit challenging using the narrow yarn and narrow needle, but the pattern was easy to follow.  However.....oh no!....not enough yarn to finish the second one...just 10 yard short.  I left the most important marker in and a piece of yarn on a row until I make the other one!

I have ordered another skein of each color but would have been sad to miss posting on the linky parties this week so.........

It's One Down and One to Go!

Lesson Learned.....Buy at least two skeins of yarn from another country...Regia is hard to find in USA

Tarry not, for the hook awaits thee.

Jeans Remade Into Grocery Bags

About 2 years ago a friend gave me about 11 pairs of jeans that he and his son were no longer wearing.  They sat around and then I made 3 really nice purses for 3 friends of my daughter Mary as thank you gifts for their help with her wedding.  I made a few pairs of jeans for my grandkids out of more pairs of them and had about 6 pairs left along with 3 that I outgrew.  They continue to stare at me every time I open the closet door.

I determined that this weekend I would make market bags from them.  The grocery bags I have been using that were purchased from various stores are starting to wear out There was no rhyme or reason to the jean bags....just started cutting and sewing not even caring about thread matching, etc.  The ecru colored purse is from the same pair of pants I used to make the cargo pants for Canaan a few weeks ago.

Added Cloth Belt to this one to spruce it up

Love the detail on the pockets on this one!

My first attempt at a rectangle bag....the one in the tutorial below came out better.

My favorite one......

Then, Jerry said he wanted to help me make one that would be the same size as my favorite Trader Joe's bag.  I didn't have my camera out and he said....well, aren't you going to take pictures?...so I did!

I took pictures to make a semi-tutorial....Hope it is not too confusing.

 This is the pair of jeans before we started cutting.

 Jerry is pointing to approximately where we did the first cut.  We cut pieces off of each pants leg. 

We then cut each piece long enough to match the height of the Trader Joe's bag.

When I cut down the center of the leg pieces of the jeans they would flare like a skirt.  Jerry used the Framing-square to make straight edges on the two leg pieces.

I sewed two of the edges together and then sewed the other two edges together.

Jerry uses the L-square to cut out the rectangle shaped bottom piece.

 I then sewed the bottom piece to the top piece and used the waistband to make the straps. In picture above the side seams are the two seams of the top piece.  

 This is the back of the bag...sewed the straps down to be a little creative:):)

A close up of my "creativeness"....:)

I used a back pocket from the pair of jeans to sew over a hole on the front side of this very cute grocery bag!!!!!

Time to go to the store!

Jerry Sews!!

A few weeks ago, Jerry asked me where he could find the curved needle.  He said I had inspired him and he was going to sew a button on one of his all-time favorite old shirts.  He said he wanted to use the curved needle because it is easier for him to thread.

So we laughed together as I took pictures of him.  Enjoy below!

Jerry threads the needle...

The needle is threaded!

Jerry sews the button on...

Done!

Any day spent sewing, is a good day.  ~Author Unknown

Chubby Chirps, Peeps and Pancakes

I saw the cute Chubby Chirps while browsing one day on some linky parties and decided to start making them about a week before we went to England.  The pattern by Rebecca Danger was on a Ravelry page.  I had  never used double pointed needles before and it took quite some time to find the tutorials that I could follow.  I ended up using one from Very Pink  that I found on YouTube.

 I am very slow and ended up finishing them at night while we were visiting my daughter Jessica (who most of you know as Sunny Stitching) and her family in Surrey, Thorpe England.  Then I decided to also make a couple of the cute Peeps that I had seen on Hanni's wonderful blog. 

Finished them all the night before Easter morning.....it was so fun to see Evie and Canaan open their Easter gifts that were in their baskets.

Happy Easter from the Chirps and Peeps!

Want to make mention the fantastic fun breakfast Jessica made.....Rabbit Pancakes!!!

Yesterday, Jessica said they were playing house with their dolls and the Chirps and Peeps so I think they did like them!

It was a joyful morning!