Sweet Fabric:
cheating

It's totally faker crochet! If you are a purist...power to you. Hook yourself some little caps for soap.

I confess I find the gifting of handmade items something of a challenge. It's one thing to give something you've painstakingly hooked, or stitched, or knitted, or sewn to someone else who makes things & appreciates them. It's quite another to gift the same items to folk who've no idea of the time involved. Faker or not - it's all the same to them. So...at this time of year when you're crafting to give I heartily recommend the faker route.

I got lucky at the oppy a couple of weeks ago & picked up a set of 6 crochet coasters which were a bit stained & yick. I slung them in the washing machine & stared at them for a while & wondered if a soap cosy might be just the ticket? Loofah & soap in one...yep! Time to have a crack folks.

Five minutes flat per soap...maybe less.

How to make faker crochet covered soap
View more presentations from kootoyoo.

We saw a lovely knitted shrug in Sunspun. Of course, I'm more a fan o' the hook & decided I'd have a crack at my own.

I've been doing a bit of sampling with the hook but before I wasted time on the crochet version I refashioned from an Op Shopped/thrifted Pashmina type thing to make sure I had the measurements right.

Very much in the same vein as the slashed number.

I had planned to use the circles as a neck treatment but it seemed a bit too much.

& of course it can still be worn as intended.

There's a bit of a back story to this one.

My bossy mate Tracey came home from a client meeting & told me I needed to make her a scarf with sleeve holes cut in it. Then she mentioned she'd seen some fabulous vests in Cactus Jam that she also wanted. Should just mention here that she's the recipient of the grey granny shrug too.

Then I saw this at Leonie's & thought it was the perfect two for one. I decided to trial it with the last piece of blanket from the slippers. This rectangle was it...I didn't cut it at all. I just waved the tape measure around my bust & from my shoulder to my hip ... near enough. Positioned the arm holes by eye (lucky that worked out OK).

The slashed vest was supposed to be a 1 hour gig & truthfully the slashing took fully five minutes but I could hardly put a rectangle of blanket up with a few cuts in it & say I made it. The idea behind the slashing was to give the blanket a bit of fluidity.

I threaded the machine with red & the bobbin with white & just roughly rectangled the slashes. I didn't finish in under an hour ... it was more like two but that did include numerous trips to the bathroom mirror to check & check & check that I hadn't completely lost the plot.

I'm quite chuffed with it, so totally unable to decide if it is in fact fabulous or complete cheater craft. Either way it was fun.

PS: The doily top is merino & was a gift from Icebreaker (?) isn't it gorgeous?

PPS: Feeling a bit weird about loading a post with pics of self. More here if you want to see the red.

I'm just making a few little last minute gifts.

I did try to knit with the pins but found it absolutely impossible. So I cheated a bit & just slipped the pins in after I'd knitted the teeny rows.

In around 15 minutes from Go to Wo.

I made another video & timed myself but the whole thing was such a disaster - it was axed before it even made it to air.

I've been making lots of these pincushions lately. They came about from the fortune teller folding & then the fat quarter folding.

Nothing remarkable in the construction of this super quick pincushion but I think that they finish up as something quite beautiful for very little effort.

How To Make A Simple Square PincushionView more presentations from kootoyoo.

Once all this was finished I had a vague memory of my grandmother having a pincushion constructed in the same way out of a Bargello sampler.

I think that these would look excellent as samples for the seam-along.

You can see variations on the theme in felt with a pinked seam & in a heavy cotton with a frayed seam.

The PDF tutorial for How to make a square pincushion can be downloaded here.

See my other pincushion projects.

the popcorn.

I think this looks cuter. Don't eat the popcorn though...the last thing you want is a mouth full of Tarzan's Grip.

And now for the gifting part...

I fashioned this gift from tin cans I'd saved but it would work just as well using a milk carton (in fact, now I think of it that would probably work even better...darn it). Then I embroidered the popcorn piece & the red stripe once. Next, I scanned & mucked around with it in publisher until I was happy with the placement.

Anyway...if you'd like to make a cute gift box for a movie ticket & popcorn gift then head over & pick up the jpegs sized & ready to print:

surround
& lid (if you don't want to go with the real popcorn like I did).

Then adhere to your chosen recycled container.

...I had to have a go with the milk carton - I'm happy.

Absolutely basic "present wrapping" construction - no words required...

The popcorn plans are complete.

The original idea for this came from yoghurt tubs. We eat quite a bit of yoghurt & consequently I've collected a good number of the 1kg tubs. I thought that they would make good popcorn buckets & set about preparing the embroidery.

It didn't work out as I'd planned because the tub was considerably narrower at the base than at the top. So I've gone back to the old faithful tin can & I'm pretty happy with the result.

I've been nodding along with Lara, Jodie & Stacey as they've been struggling with their crafts being suitable/cool enough for boys & teenagers.

I reckon this ticks all the boxes & will make a really cute Christmas gift. I'll be packing a sealed bag of popcorn & a movie ticket into each tin. The large (800g?) can of tinned tomatoes is perfect for the job. It doesn't look like it fits in the pic but it does - I promise.

Best of all ... it's cheater craft!