Well, like I said, Mary has joined with Sara to raise money for her travel and legal fees through the sales of her crochet hat pattern, the Bring Eli Home Hat.

Besides being a fantastic cause, it’s also a fantastic hat pattern. Here’s me wearing my fuchsia version (which Mary made). It’s a perfect casual hat, awesome for bad hair days, and very very versatile. I plan on making one to use up some rainbow wool that I have left over from a previous project.

So, check out the links. Say a prayer, and buy the pattern or make a donation. I can’t imagine being away from my sweet girls for a week, let alone a year. Let’s help bring Eli home.

In the meantime, I have just enough time to write up this tutorial on how to turn a men’s shirt into a mitered square cloth napkin before I have to run car pool. This project is a great way to use up scrap fabric in prints you love, too. And it’s an awesome project for beginners.

All you need for this fantastic project is a shirt or fabric scrap, grid ruler, a rotary cutter, marking pencil or chalk, and sewing machine. Nothing special!

I like big ol’ napkins so I cut my piece from the shirt back. It’s 18″ by 18″ square. You can make more from the same shirt, obviously, if you make them smaller and then you can have a set. But I like them all miss-matched. I wouldn’t be able to find the set if I had it anyway!  So on a cutting mat, use a rotary cutter to cut your piece in order to get a nice clean edge. You can also use scissors if you really take your time.

Next you fold up your fabric into a bandana shape, corner to corner.

In the folded corner line up the marks on your ruler to the folded edge. Slide to ruler until the measurement from folded edge to cut edge equals 1 1/2″, perpendicular to the fold. Mark it.

Over at the machine, stitch along that line you marked for 1/2″, back stitching to secure the seam.

Clip a scant 1/4″ seam allowance.

See how the seam opens up? That’s what you want.

Go ahead and turn the corner out, poking the corner all the way out with a knitting needle or bone turner. Fold the raw edge into the seam.

Give her a good press with the seam all tucked in nicely at 1/2″.

Stitch the seams, turning in the corners with your needle down, going all the way around in one pass.

Lovely! And Done! So now you’re one napkin closer to a dinner party.

I’ve mentioned before that I have the best knitting group in the history of man-kind right? Yeah, the west akron Stitch N’ Bitch is probably full of the coolest ladies I’ve ever met.

Well a weak-ish ago it was the annual Art on the Square in Highland Square, Akron. And my friends organized a Yarn Bomb for the event. I could go on and on about prepping, but really I think the photos should just speak for themselves!

But any who, here’s the dress!

Paula and Jason had their ceremony on Paula’s grandparents’ farm, so she wanted a casual and comfortable feel. But of course she wanted to feel pretty, too. Her dress is an all over lace, with a cotton lining. It has a draw string waist band, tightened with a grosgrain ribbon. The simple a-line silhouette was lovely on her, and really suited the atmosphere.

The neckline and cap sleeves were really important in Paula’s vision of the dress. I really love the way they turned out. I had to trim along the lace in order to get the detail on the v-neck. It was worth all the time with my scissors. So delicate!

And here’s a shot of the back. She wanted a scoop back neckline with the lace overlay. It’s just a hint of detail. I think it gives just a bit of daintiness to the overall look, definitely making it more than just a tunic.

I’ve got to say, I love this project. I loved the shared creative process, and being allowed to help bring her vision to light. I really hope she enjoyed it as much as I did. Thanks, Paula and Jason, for letting me be a part of your BIG DAY! It was a real pleasure!

Then she sent this, which is where I got the idea for the full ruffled cap sleeves (which I haven’t shown yet, but will):

And this is the pattern we chose to work with, though in the end I ended up changing almost everything about it:

Inspired by my few friends who’ve taken their interest in photography and turned it into a wedding and portrait photography business, I took on my first commissioned wedding dress project. My friend Paula was wedding dress shopping, and her sister joking/half-jokingly suggested she ask me to do it. I’ve sewn many many baby slings and gifts for their family in the past. So I asked to see some inspiration photos, determined the project to be within my skill level, and said “you sure you’re just kidding, cause I can totally make that.”

And thus it began. We shopped for a pattern to alter. I altered that pattern to match Paula’s vision. Then I put in the hours, and hours. In the end, I couldn’t have been more proud of my work, and Paula really looks stunning. Here’s a sneak peak of the hemline, can’t show too much before the wedding!

And here is a shot of the fascinator which I threw into the deal, modeled by my sweet nearly five-year-old daughter. I have no idea what her hair style plans are, so I don’t know if it will be worn or not, but I loved her color choices for the flowers and I wanted to throw something together with more color.

After the wedding next weekend I’ll be sure to share some better shots. And just in case anyone was wondering what the fee was, I charge $25 a hour for sewing, and Paula purchased the fabric.

I got about 3 pounds from Bauman Orchard last week and they nearly fell apart in my fingers while eating them. The girls went through all three pounds (with a little help from me) in about three days. And today I was the lucky recipient of a handmade tart from Mary Contrary, which she made with local peaches from the Lock 3 Farmers Market.

This is a directive: go eat local peaches now before it’s too late!

Note: We ate the tart and peaches so fast that no one got any pictures, so that there’s a tantalizing shot I borrowed from sxc.hu.

So I got three untreated (as far as I can tell) oak pallets from someone who didn’t need them anymore and put them to work. I cut them with my hand saw into three 4′ x 4′ squares and nailed them together like this:

Then with the 1 1/2′ x 4′ pieces left over I nailed one to the bottom half of the open front, and just stacked the second piece on top of the bottom piece. It’s held on by a bungie so that I can easily get in and out of the composter to turn it and shovel compost out. Already my compost is breaking down more quickly, and it just looks so much better! Yesterday I found Olivia pulling dandelions on her own and tossing them into the bin, so it’s basically a win-win-win-win situation now. Plus, the whole project cost me a whopping $2 for nails and 2 hours time! Unbeatable!

Mary Beth is a crafter/repurposer extraordinare! There are items to fit anyone’s fancy, whether you are a cottage crafter or a hipster.

I’ve been eyeing her aprons and flowers. Those are right up my alley, and I’m in need of a new apron to match my new kitchen.

But we went right from Easter to Crafty Mart around here and I had a hard time keeping up. I think I missed a week’s post. Sorry about that. Those of you who follow us on facebook (link over there ——->) know that I have decided to scale back my posts to once a week. Therefore you’ll probably find more info in each post and I’ll be able to spend a bit more time with my kiddos.

I tried my darnedest to get some good pictures of the girls in their Easter Dresses. But, goodness, it is really hard to get three children to stand still. It’s even harder to get three girls who love their spinny dresses to hold still. And yet even harder to get them to hold still in their spinny dresses long enough for a clear shot in indoor lighting because it was about 40 degrees and raining. Blah! But this will have to do!

Olivia’s is my favorite. I spent the most time playing fabric against each other for her dress and I gathered the under skirt to make it much fuller and princessy. Since hers is the biggest each girl will get the chance to wear that dress, so it got the most attention to detail.

The other amazing thing we did this Easter was head over to Rob’s parents’ house to dye eggs the Martha Stewart way. We wrapped them in cut up silk ties. They turned out absolutely amazing. We had so much fun seeing them when we unwrapped them I think we dyed at least 3 dozen eggs. Maybe 4. It was a real shame to eat them.