Baby Jumper and Mary Janes

I saw this cute jumper on Smashed Peas and Carrots and knew that it would be the gift for my friend Jen's new baby. The best part about the jumper and booties is that I already had all the supplies in the house!


Materials
1 yd of outer fabric
1 yd of lining fabric
2 buttons
thread

First, print out the pattern and tape the pieces together. I have a pile of old clothes that I don't wear anymore, but I thought had some potential for reusing the fabric. I chose a skirt and slit it at the seam. There was enough fabric that I could make another jumper!

I won't go into the details of how to make the jumper since you will find excellent instructions on Smashed Peas and Carrots. Lay out the pattern on, once on the outside fabric and again on the lining fabric.

It took me about an hour to make the jumper and another 20 minutes or so to cover the buttons and sew them on (I had to figure out how to use the button hole foot on my sewing machine). You could use regular buttons or even snaps. If you used cute lining fabric, you could use flat buttons on both sides and the jumper would be reversible.




The booties

I am the first to admit that I am not a particularly good knitter. I can do the very basics, which is all you need for these. I modified a pattern from Knit Simple magazine a few years ago (I think the pattern was too hard for me, so...the pattern isn't perfectly symmetrical, but its close). I often add a big fluffy bow to these booties. The knitting is pretty fast, but the sewing and weaving is what takes up the time on these cuties. I made them in red once with organza ribbon bows...ruby red slippers, oh so cute. I didn't have any buttons in the house for this project, so I just crocheted little balls instead and tied them on.

Baby Mary Jane Booties

Sized for newborn-3 months

Materials

Size 6 needles

1 skien 50g yarn or sport weight—cotton or microfiber

sm. crochet hook

2 small shank buttons

Cast on 31 sts

Next: Knit across

Next: Inc 1 in first st, k13, inc 1 st in next st, k1, inc 1 st in next st, k to last st, inc 1 in last st-35 sts.

Next row: Knit across

Next row : Inc 1 st in first st, k14, inc 1 st in next st, k3, inc 1 st in next st, k to last st, inc 1 st in last st--39 sts.

Next: Knit across

Next: : Inc 1 st in first st, k15, inc 1 st in next st, k5, inc 1 st in next st, k to last st, inc 1 st in last st--43 sts

Next: Knit across

Next: Inc 1 st in first st, k16, inc 1 st in next st, k7, inc 1 st in next st, k to last st, inc 1 st in last st—47 sts

Next: Knit 9 rows

Next: k13, SKP 5 times, k1, k2tog 5 times, k13= 37 sts

Next: Knit across

Next: k16, k2tog 3 times, k to the end of the row=34 sts

Next: k14, k2tog 3 times, knit to the end of the row=31 sts

For the next row, choose either the Right or the Left shoe:

Right:

Next: Bind off 8, k3, bind off remaining sts. Cut off yarn tail. To make strap: knit 20 rows on the remaining 3 sts. Bind off. Leave a long enough tail to make a loop at the end to be the buttonhole.

Left shoe:

Next: Bind off 24 sts, k3, bind off remaining sts. Cut off yarn tail. To make strap: knit 20 rows on the remaining 3 sts. Bind off. Leave a long enough yarn tail to make a loop at the end to be the buttonhole.

With right sides together, sew up the seam of the bootie, using a crochet hook. Weave the yarn ends using the crochet hook. Flip the bootie right side out and sew on a button.

k=knit

st=stitch

sts=stitches

inc=increase

SKP=slip knit pass

k2tog=knit two together

Way cool way to do subway art

I love subway art. I have a great frame on my mantle that I change the subway art each month. I usually find a great one online or make my own using Photoshop--but today, I ran into Tagxedo (pronounced like tahg-seedo). Wow, it is cool. It reminds me of another program called Wordle, but Tagxedo is FUN. I am not an expert yet. I did not go through the tutorials (I was way too excited to make a word art to bother with instructions, ha ha ha). In less than 5 minutes, I had created this super fun February word art.

Here are the few things that I've learned so far.

1. go to tagxedo.com and click Create. Install the program (Microsoft Silverlight is required)
2. You can make a project by entering a webpage or your own list of words. I used my own list by typing and clicking the submit button on the right side of the box.

3. Now the fun part, pick a theme (these are the colors).

4. Pick the fonts

5. Pick a shape

6. Go into the Word Options button and decide the Yes or No questions. I said Yes to numbers. I also said yes to Combine identical words. I typed the same word several times in my list, and this made it so it ended up as a much larger font. While in the Options box, try the Layout Tab. I moved the slider button for emphasis all the way to the right. It made me have bigger words (otherwise it repeats the words multiple times to fill in the space). Click Accept when you are ready.

7. You can click the color button to have it shuffle the word colors. You can also click the layout button to shuffle the placement of the words.

Now you are ready to save and print. Near the top of the screen is the Save/Share/Print link. You can choose to save it in small or large formats, both jpg and png. Awesome.

That is all I know about this online program. Its free, and it was pretty simple. I used it to make this cool retirement card for my colleague. Try it and let me know what else you've learned about it.

More Subway Art

I'll be adding to this post later this weekend, but I'm uploading all my calendar subway art... (sometimes I use my own in my decorating, sometimes I use the ones from Eighteen25, or from other places). More are coming-these are done in PhotoShop Elements.

Here is the Google Doc with the large files where you can download them. They will print as big as 8x10. If you need a larger file, just let me know.