In August of 2017 I made custom metal buttons for Down Syndrome (Trisomy 21) awareness bracelets by drilling two holes in aluminum discs and stamping them.
I then crocheted braided bracelets and used the buttons for the closures.
In June 2017 I combined a couple ideas for an egg/harvest apron. I put small pockets on the apron face and put buttons and button holes so the apron could be configured to hold larger things than eggs.
I made three of the aprons in preparation for visiting my folks so my kids could gather eggs.
In March of 2017 I was crocheting a yellow lace circle vest for my sister. The pattern included classic crocheted lace elements.
My sister was visiting, so we did a fitting and she requested sleeves. By June of 2017 I had finished the sleeves by doing a simple net for the arms, and a matching edge pattern for the bell sleeves at the elbows.
Although it was pretty, the delicate lace was, well, delicate. It didn’t hold up well to use.
Izzy the cat was quite miffed when I got a new chair and got rid of the hollow she has been carefully cultivating for years. She started the process over with the new chair and decided to add in claw sharpening, much to my dismay. To hide the damage I made a chair back cover with materials from around the house. It worked OK, but kept sliding, so I bought some nice heavy custom-print fabric from Spoonflower to make a new cover.
The first decision I had to make was how to construct the back cover. I decided to do a long strip up the sides and top, and a panel for the front and back. I tore the fabric to get straight lines (yes, light denim will tear like cotton plain weave, just make sure to tear at least an inch away from the seam line because the threads distort at the tear.) I then used the treadle sewing machine to sew up a new cover. I did a fit once the side seams were done, adjusted the length, then sewed a hem.
I do like the Art Nouveau look with squirrels on the fabric. Izzy has already started to reclaim the new cover. It’s a good thing I like cats more than furniture.
In February of 2017 I did an egg apron experiment for a friend with chickens. I made three kinds of egg apron from simple white cotton fabric that I had in my stash.
The experiment was interesting. The round bottom apron was hard to get the eggs out, the pleated pockets were nice, but if you leaned over too fast the eggs rolled out, and the harvest apron didn’t keep the eggs separated.
Now, with three of my own chickens and one or two eggs, I just use my pants pockets. Even when we had more chickens the aprons were more of a pain than helpful. Egg baskets are a more practical solution.
Critters and Craft 