Clay for Couples

A few weeks ago, my husband and I decided to sign up for a Clay for Couples class. It is put on by the Great Plains Art Museum. Not only do they offer youth classes but they also offer a variety of different art classes for adults. Check out their website for more info: http://plainsart.org/learn/art-experiences/ This Clay for Couples class was one night and was held over at the Great Plains Art Museum.

For $50 a couple, we had 2 ½ hours to play around with the wheel as well as learn some hand building techniques from Paul, the instructor. Even though I had done some clay throwing in college, it had been almost 10 years since I had touched clay or tried to make a pot on the wheel. My husband, Jon, had never had a chance to do it.

After some insightful and very informative instruction and demonstration, Paul let us try our hand at making our own pots and bowls. Of course, Jon started whipping out bowls as if he had done it for years! I struggled to get into a groove. He made three different pots/bowls. One was a little wobbly, but he managed to save it. 

Jon's three creations.

       

The biggest problem I had when throwing pots years ago was getting the clay centered on the wheel. Turns out time doesn’t change that much. I managed to make two different small bowls. The first one was pretty thick on the bottom – I didn’t go down as far as I could have. The second one I played around with a little bit more and flared out the edge.

My two bowls.

After playing around with the wheel, Paul taught us how to do some hand building with clay. We used the clay roller (not sure if that’s the official term) to get an even thickness and then folded it over an existing bowl mold. We used some different tools and lace to make some fun patterns and textures on the clay while it was still semi wet.

At the end of the night, we got to pick out which glazes we wanted on our pieces and they would be fired and glazed in the next week or so. We didn’t take part in any of that – it was just a one night class after all. After a few weeks had gone by, I got an email that our pots were ready to be picked up. I drove downtown and picked them up and brought them home. I was super excited to see how they turned out!

Jon had chosen red, black, and blue glazes for his three projects whereas I chose black and red for my two bowls. The one project we made together with the different textures was glazed in red. I think they turned out quite nice for not having much experience or time! Definitely a fun date night and was money well spent.

Grey ribbed hat with poofball

So, I have made TONS of hats, blankets, scarves, cowls, booties, diaper covers, and other crocheted treasures for my friends and family. I LOVE crocheting gifts - especially for babies. Unfortunately, I don't make a lot of things for myself. To remedy this situation, I decided to make myself a hat. I looked through lots of patterns trying to find a new one that interested me. Finally, I came across one that I hadn't done before. It is a cute ribbed hat that folds up over the ears. I decided to go with a neutral gray color so it will work with a variety of different coats. Of course, I HAD to add a poof ball on the top. 

I started with some Wool-Ease yarn in Oxford grey and a 5.5 mm crochet hook. 

                       

Creating a half double crochet
in the back loop only.

This pattern is basically just creating a rectangle of ribbed half double crochets going back and forth until you reach the desired size. To create the ribbed look, you do half double crochets in the BACK LOOP only. By crocheting only in the back loops every time you flip over the rectangle, you get the nice ribbed look. 

I started by chaining 43. For the first row, I half double crocheted into the third chain from the hook and in each chain across (42 total half double crochet stitches). Chain 2, turn. Then, for each row after that, half double crochet into the BACK LOOP only of each stitch and chain 2 and turn. Simple as that!

From here, you crochet the rectangle until it is the right size for your head. Keep in mind that you will be turning your work so that the ribs are going up and down instead of back and forth. I think my rectangle ended up being about 18 inches. When it is big enough to go around the circumference of your head, you single crochet the two ends together and tie in the loose ends. Now, you finish off the hat by creating the top. Using a large crafting needle, weave a long piece of yarn in and out of one of the sides of the rectangle and cinch it up tightly to make the top of the hat. 

Weaving in and out along one of the sides to cinch
the top together. 

Because I wanted a soft hat and the Wool-ease isn't the softest of yarns, I decided to wash it and try to make it a little softer. I washed it with my All Soft shampoo in cold water and rinsed it a couple of times. Then, I saturated the hat with All Soft conditioner section by section and let it sit in the cold water for an hour. Then, I put it in a lingerie bag and washed it in the gentle cycle of my washing machine and let it air dry. Although it wasn't SUPER soft, I admit it did make it softer.

 

Now comes the fun part - making the poof ball! I have perfected the art of making the poof all because of a weird tool that I found around the house. It happens to be a small remnant from the maintenance free deck material we used to build our deck a few years ago.

The BEST poof ball maker I've found yet! It's a
remnant of our maintenance-free deck material!
The deep-set groove is the secret to it all!

I wanted my poof ball to be two different colors, so I continued to use the grey but also found a nice cream colored yarn. So, to start off the poof ball, I take a couple pieces of grey yarn (about 8 inches long) and tape them to the smooth side of the poof ball maker (the remnant deck piece). Tape each end down and let the ends dangle off each side. Now, holding both the grey and cream colored yarn at the same time, start winding the yarn around the poof maker. Start near the middle of the poof maker and keep it nice and tight. Wrap it around 150 times (ends up being 300 pieces of yarn because you are using two pieces at a time). 

Now, it's time to cut one side of the yarn. This is the REALLY tricky part. I have it down to an art because I've done it hundreds of times. It works best with two people so I always recruit my husband. One person has to take the tape off of the initial grey yarn you taped down. Then, start tying it into a knot but don't complete the knot yet. Basically, pretend you are tying your shoelace and as soon as you cross the two pieces, put one piece under and around the other, you pull it tight and don't finish the rest of the knot. 

Now, I turn the poof maker upside down and have my husband cut the yarn. This is where my unique one-of-a-kind poof maker tool really shines. It has a nice space where the scissors can fit. Use a nice sharp scissors because it'll be hard to cut through that many pieces of yarn at once. 

As my husband is cutting the yarn, I am holding my half knot tight and continue to tighten the knot as the yarn is being cut. When it is completely cut, I tighten the knot as tight as I can and then my husband straightens out some of the pieces so that I can finish the knot. He puts his finger on the grey yarn that is being tied around the poof and I finish the knot. 

Then, I use the long ends of the grey yarn to tie it to the top of the hat. Some of the pieces of the poof are going to be longer than others. To shape it, use the same sharp scissors and start cutting the longer pieces so that they are all similar in length. Cut pieces all around the poof until it looks nice and even. 

My first big sewing project

My sweet nephew, RJ, hanging out in his car seat with the sewed car seat cover. Love him so much! 

So most of you who know me know that I am somewhat crafty – mainly with a crochet hook and yarn. I don’t consider myself a sewer. I took one class at Modern Textiles with some friends – we each made a cute cowl. Mine was Bison themed (Go NDSU Bison!)

That is about the extent of my sewing experience. I don’t know my way around a sewing machine and am not terribly confident when it comes to sewing projects. A few years ago, I was one of the lucky winners of a sewing machine at the Unglued craft fest (super fun - I highly recommend you go to it if you've never been to it. More info here: http://www.ungluedmarket.com/fest/). My husband and I were ecstatic! My husband, Jon, started dinking around with it and really got the hang of it quickly. He is a super crafty man – in fact, he makes his own candles and even taught himself how to crochet before I learned! He started experimenting with some free form quilting and his finished project looks AMAZING! Check out the pictures below - I'm so proud of his awesome sewing skills!

My husband's super awesome first ever free-form quilt.

               














A few months ago, my twin sister was looking at some car seat covers and asked for one for Christmas. She has two children and was expecting her third. But, this was the first time they weren’t going to know the sex of the baby until it was born! How exciting! She had never had a car seat cover but wanted one so that it would protect lil one during cold, windy or rainy days. (They live in the south, so they don’t have to deal with the blizzards us North Dakotans experience on a regular basis.) She sent me a few pictures of car seat covers that she liked – somewhat light weight and just the basics of some soft cloth and a couple of straps that hook onto the handle of the car seat. She wanted some kind of gender neutral colors.

Little did she know that I was thinking of MAKING one instead of buying one. I set out looking for an easy tutorial for how to make one. My husband kept trying to convince me to crochet one instead since that is my strong suit. I was stubborn though and really wanted to push myself outside of my comfort zone. Sewing is certainly outside my comfort zone. After finding this tutorial http://suttongrace.blogspot.com/2010/05/infant-seat-canopy.html   online and realizing it wasn’t as hard as I thought, I decided to plunge into the sewing world head first!

First off, I hit JoAnn fabric to pick out the material. I wandered the store for quite a while trying to find the PERFECT gender neutral material. I wanted it to be soft and breathable – not super duper warm. There were plenty of blue and pink patterns to choose from but not a lot of neutral colors. First, I found the grey and white chevron pattern.  Simple, elegant, and could be for a girl or boy. Perfect! On to the next challenge – finding another fun pattern for the other side. After many minutes wandering the aisles, I found the perfect material! A fun polka dot pattern with turquoise, grey, and orangey colors! Soooo cute! I found some white thread and some ADORABLE orangey buttons that matched the fabric perfectly. Things were all falling into place!

After buying a yard of each of the fabric, the thread, and buttons (less than $15 with coupons!!), I dug out the sewing machine. Time to see if I had the skills to accomplish this daunting task.

First off, I cut both pieces of fabric into 33" X 41.5" rectangles and the extra material into 4 strips of fabric measuring 8" X 2.5". I cut the fabric using a large cutting mat and wheel scissors. The small strips of fabric would later be the handles that would attach to the car seat handle. Be sure you measure twice before cutting and push down on the ruler so it doesn’t move while cutting.

After cutting those strips and setting them aside, I ironed the remainder of the material to make sure there were no wrinkles from folding.

To create the rounded edges, I took a small plate and put it in the corner of the fabric and traced the little part closest to the edge. I repeated that with all four corners of each piece of fabric, traced it, and then cut that part out.

Make sure you cut off the SMALL part of the fabric at the right of the plate.

I then turned both pieces of fabric inside out and pinned them together. Now it’s time to start sewing! I went nice and slow and went around the whole rectangle, leaving a small space open about 6 inches long. This will allow you enough room to turn the fabric inside out later.

When you are done sewing all around the car seat cover, gently pull the material out so that it is the right side out.





My husband sewed all around leaving a nice small border. I left that part to him because he is a way better sewer than I am!

Now on to the straps. Get the strips of material out that you cut previously into 8" X 2.5" strips. Place them right side together again like you did earlier for the main piece of the car seat cover. I ironed the straps before sewing them to make them as close to rectangular in size and shape as possible – and as similar to one another as I could. Sew the two pieces together on three of the sides, leaving one of the short sides open. Trim the ends and gently fold inside out so the right side of the fabric is facing outward now.

Turning the strap right side out. 

             Dig out your iron again and iron the straps so that the edges are nice and even. 

Now, here is where I made a dumb mistake. I accidentally bought the sticky back Velcro instead of the sew-on Velcro.

Don't buy sticky-backed Velcro. Buy sew-on Velcro!

 Luckily, I have an awesome husband who helped sew on the Velcro pieces with a needle and thread because the sticky stuff would have destroyed the needle on the sewing machine. After the straps are done, you can sew on the buttons. I decided to have the contrasting fabric be the main part of the strap that you’d see. Even though the buttons are sewed on, they are only for looks. There is no button hole.







               











From there, I just kinda guessed where to put the straps since I don't have a car seat. It really depends on the exact car seat you are using for your baby. So, if you have one in front of you, that will help you figure out where to sew the straps. I put them about 14 1/2 inches from the top of the cover and about 9 1/2 inches in from each side.

I used pins to keep the straps in place but then some blue painter's tape to help guide me as to where to actually sew the strap onto the cover. There is only going to be a small section that is sewed to the cover. I sewed a small rectangle with an X in the middle to reinforce that area.

Next step, mail it to my sister!!! I watched her open it on webcam and she LOVED it! Not only that, but I managed to surprise the hell out of her when she found out I MADE it. She thought it was store bought! Sewing adventure was a success! :)

My sister told me the cover has come in very handy to block out wind, rain, the sun, and bugs.