embroidered trucker hat

We're taking the family camping later this month and I'm super excited.  I love camping, but I do not love how greasy my hair gets while camping (bangs don't help).  I normally wouldn't mind looking abhorrent in nature, but we'll be near a quaint little town that I adore for day excursions, so appearance counts.  I discovered that a hat would help, which is something that I oddly haven't owned up to this point. 

Our old tent finally bit the dust on our last trip, so we had to buy a replacement at Cabela's.  It was there that I saw this trucker hat for the low price of $5.  But it said Cabela's, which is lame.  I didn't want a Cabela's hat, but I DID want a hat that only cost $5.  I figured I could do something with it once I got rid of the Cabela's logo.

Admittedly, ripping the old lettering from the hat would have been much faster and easier with a seam ripper.  But I don't have one of those so I just used small scissors and a lot of patience.  If I ever do this again, I need to get a seam ripper.  I think they cost a whopping $3 or so.

After all evidence of the Cabela's logo was removed, I drew a design in pencil in its place.  I kinda doodled, but I was careful to make sure the design covered all the old lettering so nothing would show through.  A floral pattern lends itself well to this, because petals and leaves can go wherever you want them to.  Whereas a rainbow would have been rather limiting, for example.

I grabbed the strongest needle I owned and just went to town in colors that looked good with my red mesh and bill.  I used all six strands of embroidery floss, hoping that would mean fewer stitches.  I gotta say hats are STRONG, and I actually broke two needles while stitching.  Just snapped in half in my fingers.  I've never had that happen to me.

Turned out pretty good!  I'm glad I did this, but it SUUUUUCKED.  I developed some hard core callouses on my fingertips getting that big ass needle through the hat.  It had a mesh backing that would often catch the needle and spring it off to the side of where I wanted.  And the seam running vertically down the center was THICK, so the going was slow and tough.  But look!  So pretty!

 Rockin' it.  Imma be the prettiest old lady at the camp ground.

I can't stop!

I guess I'm addicted to embellished cardigans.  Maybe I need professional help, but I'm having too much fun.  This time I did two, but they look strikingly similar, like they could be one in the same in a certain light.  But I swear they are actually two different cardigans in two different colors.  One is for my sister, because her birthday is on Saturday.  The other is for me, because I wanted one.

This one is my sister's.  The cardigan is black, and the lace applique is gray.  Oddly, I found two very different shirts from the thrift store that both had essentially the same lace pattern cut out in the back.  It was sort of a v-shaped cut out detail just below the neckline.  One was in gray and the other in ivory.  So I bought them both, cut out the cool lace design part and tossed the rest of the shirt.  They were ugly anyway.  

As a birthday spoiler, I let my sister pick which one she wanted (she picked gray) and the color cardigan she wanted (she picked black).  Then, as in before I laid out the pieces and sewed them on.  This was a little tougher than the last ones I did, simply because the symmetry was so much more pronounced on the appliques.  If it was messed up at all, it would be easier to tell at a glance, and then (I assume) that would be all anyone would see every time the sweater is worn.  ...At least, the OCD people, myself included.

So that's my sister's birthday present above.  Pretty standard, black cardigan with a nice little gray embellishment.  Happy frickin' birthday, sister!  (I also made her some jitterbug perfume, shhh...future post, maybe)

That left the ivory lace for me.  And I had the darndest time deciding which cardigan to use.  I tried a beige, which did have a decent contrast but the cowl neckline was a challenge:

I tried an ivory cardigan, which I was expecting to look much better than this but you can hardly even see it:

I tried a nice soft blue, which also looked pretty good but also had the cowl thing going on:

And finally I tried a charcoal gray, which I decided I liked the best:

And here it is all finished.  I brought the design up a little more toward the shoulders on this one.  Again with the symmetry issues, but any inconsistencies are actually due to irregularities in the lace itself (it's not my fault, I tried you guys!!).  They don't really bother me too much, and it looks really nice on. 

diy embellished cardigan...again!

It worked out so well last time I embellished my own cardigan that I decided to give it another go.  But this time all my materials came from the thrift store.  Huzzah for frugality!  I visited on a day that all apparel was 50% off, so there's another financial bonus.  This ended up costing me a whopping $8, plus several hours of labor.

The cardigan is a wonderful mustard color, which I love.  The embroidered appliques came from an unbelievably fugly camisole thingy, with sequins and brown tulle and all kinds of dreadful things.  I cut out the embroidered bits as carefully as I could and trashed the rest.  

As with the last embellished cardigan project, I laid out the appliques and pinned them into place, then started sewing.  This time I used thread that matches the cardigan, so you can see the stitching if you look closely.  Again, I used an overcast stitch, and again, I worked slowly and carefully to avoid skewing the knit fabric.  Last time I did this, there were a total of six separate applique pieces.  This time there were 24.  So it took quite a bit longer.  But worth it!

Anthro-style embellished cardigan

I adore cardigans.  I'm not exaggerating when I say my cardigan collection takes up at least half my closet.  My standard work outfit is a cute top, a pencil skirt or slacks (seasonally-dependent), flats, and a cardigan.  It's my thing.  I also love wearing pieces that not everyone else has.  When I saw the two Anthropology cardigans in the image above on pinterest (right side), I had to have them.  The trouble with pinterest is you can pin things that are no longer available and you get all excited for nothing.  The two gorgeous sweaters above are not available on the Anthropology website.

So I decided to make my own.

I got a navy blue cardigan from Target for about $20.  They make a perfect standard cardigan, by the way, I highly recommend it for the price.  But I was not about to embroider my own flowers.  I don't have that skill, and I probably would have ruined a perfectly good cardigan had I tried.  Amazon has pretty much everything, including these applique embroidered motifs in a variety of colors and designs, for about $6.  

These appliques don't have the glue backing that some patches do, so they work much better for sewing onto knit fabrics.  I'm not really sure how these are supposed to be used.  Maybe they're intended for adding flair to a t-shirt or pullover or something like that.  But that shape (and the green color) was not going to work for me, so I cut it apart and saved the leaves for another project.

I laid out the flowers in a design I liked...

...transferred to the sweater, and pinned into place.

I hand sewed them using a similar color thread (coral colored in this case) in an overcast stitch.  I would resist the temptation to use a sewing machine for this.  While it would certainly be much quicker, I just don't trust it.  Knits are too stretchy...and bouncy.  I prefer to maintain the control of a hand stitch, so you can see what's happening to the sweater with each and every pass of the needle.  I would hate to get the applique sewn into place only to find that the fabric got pulled too much in one spot and made the sweater all wonky.

I sewed on my bits of applique on Saturday night after putting the kids to bed and it took me about 2 hours, start to finish.  By Sunday morning I had a brand new cardigan that no one else in the world has.  And it cost me roughly $26.

I'm already planning my next embellished cardigan project.  I'm thinking an ivory cardigan (which I happen to already have) with neutral toned appliques.  I checked, and Amazon has some good motifs in just the right colors.

Round Oilcloth Tablecloth

I'm pretty excited because I finally dusted off my sewing machine last weekend and got down to some serious bidness.  I bought the machine nearly 10 years ago and it's been sitting in a closet ever since.  Never been used.  I lost the manual long ago.  Shameful.  But then, YouTube tutorial videos!  I got it set up and going the other day and now I'm positively giddy.  I've got some big plans.

The most pressing was the need to foil my toddler and de-grossify my kitchen table.  It's one of those standard round pedestal tables with an oak top.  Though it's small, little leaves fold down on the sides, which makes for a couple of nasty gaps in the top that like to collect dried food and other assorted crap.  You just can't get in there to keep them clean.  Regular tablecloths are not a viable option, because LAUNDRY.  So I ordered some oilcloth from an online fabric store and cut rounds to fit my table.  Oilcloth is awesome.  It's durable, waterproof, and comes in lots of really pretty patterns.  I especially like the vintage-looking ones, and got three different florals and one gingham.  I learned that pre-made oilcloth tablecloths are really expensive, but it only costs about $6 per yard to buy the material.  And you don't even need to hem it.  Seems like a no-brainer.

The plan was to put the oilcloth over the table and just wipe 'er clean after each meal.  But the toddler thought it was hilarious to yank the tablecloth off the table during meals (probably part of the reason I wasn't using a tablecloth to begin with).  An elastic band sewn around the edge fixes that issue by securing it to the table.  Because I was so daunted by the sewing machine collecting dust in the closet, I hand-sewed the first one.  It took me a total of TEN HOURS to finish.  And caused some pretty serious callouses.  After getting the machine set up, the second tablecloth took me TWENTY MINUTES.  Sheesh.

To complete this project, I cut my oilcloth into a round that measured about 3 inches bigger than my table.  To make the cut as circular as possible, I folded the oilcloth square into quarters (inside out, so you're looking at the back of it), and measured out from the center fold with a fabric measuring tape, holding a pencil at the end.  I drew the quarter-circle with the pencil while holding the measuring tape taut.  Then cut.  To sew, I stretched the elastic tight while feeding it through the machine, and kept it held about a half-inch from the outside edge of the circle.  It doesn't have to be exact, as that part will be under the table.

My recommendation is NOT to hand sew it.  That was terrible.  However, to do that, I stretched the elastic and pinned it to the oilcloth in a spot about 2-3 inches away from the current stitch, then pulled it tight with each stitch until I reached the pin, then moved it another 2-3 inches away and repeat.  Again, don't do that unless you absolutely have to.  Cuz again, it sucked.

The chairs are also recovered using the blue gingham oilcloth.  It's a lovely, simple pattern that's complementary to the various florals.  That's an easy project that I'm sure anyone can accomplish with a screwdriver and a staple gun, but again the oilcloth makes the chairs wipe-clean-easy, while the previous covers had been nasty and stained.  Always a good thing with small children in the house.

So, toddler foiled.  My kitchen table is kid-proof and looks lovely!  Take that, little boy!