Robot Mittens

I try to make a lot of the gifts I give out for Christmas and birthdays, it's usually budget friendly and I feel like it's a little better than giving a gift card. Now don't get me wrong, I love getting money for a gift, who doesn't? But I also enjoy gifts that are unique and have had some time put into them.  .

Last year I waited until a month or two before Christmas to start making our gifts and almost didn't finish making everything, I figured it would be smart to start a little early this year. It's no fun when your stressing out a week before Christmas because you have so much to get done. The holidays are more enjoyable when they are stress free, don't ya think?

While looking for things to make Charlie I came across this wonderful mitten pattern and I crochet him some mittens. The pattern is well written and I was able to get the gloves done really quick. The pattern can also be used to make gloves for older kids and adults too. After looking at the mittens I felt like they could use a little more protection. I don't know if you've ever played in the snow with crochet gloves but after a few minutes the snow starts to seep through the gloves and your hands get cold really quick. If there is snow outside it is inevitable that Charlie will be in it. So I needed to come up with a way to keep the snow from getting through right away.

I found some felt in my craft room and came up with a robot that I could sew onto the gloves. It will give Charlie's hands a little more protection from the cold and it looks cute to boot! I made a printable robot pattern and a simple oval pattern that you could put on the gloves instead of the robot if your looking for something quick.

The materials I used where

-Yarn

-Crochet needle

-Scissors

-Needle

-Thread

-Crafting felt sheets in any color you choose

-Craft glue (optional)

Step one! Crochet your gloves. 

Step two! Cut out your Robot!

Step three! Sew the eyes to the Robots head and the hands
 to the robots arms.

Step four! Place both heads on each of the gloves
 and make sure their placement is the same. You need
to also make sure that you are putting the Robot
on to the palm of each glove. Sew them on.

Step five! Do the same thing with the body of the
 robot and sew that puppy onto your mitten.

      Step six! Sew on your arms and your done!

Notes- I used a stitch similar to a blanket stitch for this project. You want to be very careful to not go through both layers of the glove when trying to sew your applique on. 

You can use a craft glue to stick the eyes and hands in place before you start stitching but it isn't necessary.

If you would like to use a different fabric like cotton for your mittens you may want to add fusible interfacing to it so that it isn't so flimsy. It will also keep the fabric from fraying.  Double sided fusible interfacing like Heat and Bond, will not stick well to your mitten and you run the risk of melting your yarn if you try to iron it on. So if you go the interfacing route then iron it on to your fabric only and iron it before you place the pieces on your glove so you don't burn anything.

I hope you really enjoyed this tutorial. Its really simple and lots of fun, you don't even have to use a robot. Make your own applique and put it together and post a picture on the Divine Crafting Facebook Page, I would love to see what you've come up with.

Messing Up the Baby Blanket

The blanket is for my cousin's baby, it is crocheted with a fabric backing. I came across the idea on the internet a while back but like an idiot I didn't think to look for instructions. I thought "that would be easy to make" but it wasn't. I knew that crocheting the top was going to be a little time consuming and it took me about a week to get that part all done. But when the time came to assemble everything, I had a really hard time getting the top centered on the back piece of fabric and I spent about 5 hours trying to get the thing finished. When the sewing was all done, it at about 2:00 in the morning and I was so tired! When I looked at it I notice a bunch of puckering, I was just so mad I could have screamed! I almost got out my seam ripper and took the whole thing apart.

(I have a habit of taking my work apart when I mess up and then not finishing it because I just get so frustrated with the project.) Luckily it was really late and I decided to go to sleep and then I would take the blanket apart and try all over again the next day.
 After I got some sleep, I looked at it the next morning and it didn't look as bad as had the night before. It still had its flaws but I guess I just needed to step back for a while and look at it again with fresh eyes. I am still a little bit disappointed with my work but I know If I take it apart now I wont finish it until my cousins baby turns five.

I should have double checked the placement
 of the pins before I started sewing.
I might have avoided all of this puckering.

There is puckering all over the back of the blanket because
I over stretched the crochet top when I sewed the blanket together.

Here is what went wrong...when I was putting the blanket together I over stretched the crochet part and because of this, the back of the blanket puckered. It didn't turn out too bad for my first try though. I think the next time I make this I'm going to set it up on a quilting frame and tie it before I sew the edges. I will let you know how the next one turns out.



Thank you for reading!

Crochet a Beanie

Since Christmas is not far away I have been looking for gifts to make for my loved ones and honestly I am freaking out a little. I guess I didn't realize how little time we really have until the holidays are here. So this week I have been doing a lot of crocheting (mostly because I am tired of sitting in front of my sewing machine) and I found this awesome beanie tutorial on YouTube by Crochet Geek. I am not very good at crocheting but I like to pick it up every now and then just to make sure that I still suck. 

This hat took me 2 hours

If you are still learning like me this is a good tutorial for you, so here it is. Crochet Geek also has some great tutorials on the basics of crocheting. 

The only problem I really had with this project was getting enough time to just sit and finish it. It only took me about 2 hours but if I had waited for my son to take a nap it might of moved along faster. I spent a lot of time chasing him around the house as he ran away with my yarn or crochet hook. 

And just for fun here is one of the other projects I'm working on. New pj's for Charlie! They are going to be footy pj's when they are all done. I still have to cut down the legs and the arms because the pattern I used was way too big, then I need to add the feet and the trim. I don't have much left to do and I hope to get it done sometime this week if I can find time. 

Thanks for reading.