Cable Knitted Headband

Like I've said a couple of times, I didn't craft much while I was in Mexico. However, about a month before I came back, my family went to visit me and brought me some yarn and knitting needles I had requested. So, I made a few headbands. Not that they were of much use over there since the temperature was never below the 80s. Anyway, I made a few of these and gave them away to friends so they could use them when they went back home. They are really quick to make (took me less than 2 hours each) and don't require much yarn. Plus, they're super cute and I think they'd make great Christmas/ holiday gifts! So time to knit about a million of these!...

Materials used:
- 2 balls of worsted weight yarn (or you can use 1 of chunky yarn)
- size 11 knitting needles
-cable needle

Directions:
I used the Vanessa Headband pattern you can find here.

I made the narrow version, so I only cast on 14 stitches and instead of using chunky yarn, I used two strands of worsted weight yarn held together.

Action shot:

Closeup:

 Just the headband:

Thanks for reading and have a great day! :)

DIY Apron

I don't know about you guys but I usually end up making a mess in my kitchen when I bake. I've no idea why, I'm really careful and use the lowest speed when mixing the dry ingredients, I pour in the liquid ingredients very slowly so they don't splatter all over the place, yet somehow batter always ends up on the counter top and worse, on my clothes.

To fix this little problem I decided to make an apron I can put on and then hang up when I'm done baking. It's a really simple project that can be done in just a couple of hours. All you need is about 1- 1.5 yards of fabric depending on the size of the apron and if you line it or not. I would recommend using a thick and sturdy fabric such as canvas or using two layers of normal fabric. I flowery cotton fabric, which is what I had, so I cut each piece twice and sewed them together.That way, each piece has two layers and is sturdier.

 Tutorial:
Materials:
*1.5 yards fabric-- If you're using two different fabrics like I did, you'll need 1 yd of the main fabric and 0.5 yd for the neck and waistband.
*Scissors
*Tape measure
*Thread
*Sewing Machine
*Pins
*Iron (optional)

Instructions: 
*(I don't have pictures to go with the tutorial but it's pretty straight forward, I think, but if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment!)

1.For the neckband, cut a rectangle that's 5 x 24 inches (includes 1 inch seam allowance on each side) or the thickness and length you want your neckband to be. Fold the fabric in half so that the right sides are together and sew lengthwise, leaving a 1/2in seam allowance. Now, you have a long tube that should be approximately 4 x 24 in. Turn the tube right side out and press, making sure the seam is along the middle and not the side.

2. For the top part of the apron, cut two rectangles that are 10 x 12 inches (includes 1" seam allowance) or your desired size. Place the rectangles right sides together and sew along 3 sides, leaving one of the longer sides open. Flip the rectangle right side out and press. Fold in about 1/2" of  fabric on both layers and press. Take the neck band and place the ends inside the big rectangle and pin them where you want your neckband to be. Sew along the folded edge and now your top part is complete.

3. For the bottom part of the apron, cut two rectangles that are the length of the front part of your waist by the length from your waist to about 4 fingers above your knee. Include 1" seam allowance. Mine was about 19 x 21 inches. Place the rectangles right sides together and sew along all 4 sides leaving a 2 inch gap on one side to flip the fabric right side out. Turn the fabric right side out, sew the gap shut and press.

4. To make the waistband cut two rectangles that are 6 inches by the length of the circumference of your waist. Place both rectangles right sides together and sew them to create one super long strip of fabric, 2 times the circumference of your waist. Fold lengthwise right sides together and sew, leaving 1/2" seam allowance, to form a long tube. Turn the tube right side out and press, making sure the seam is along the middle and not the side. Fold in about 1/2" of  fabric on both ends of the tube, press and sew shut.

5. Find the middle of your waistband and mark it with a pin. Center the top part of the apron about 1/2" under the waistband and pin it down. Do the same with the bottom part of the apron. Sew both parts of the apron to waistband. And you're done!

Here's the finished apron!

Elastic Waist Skirt Refashion

My aunt had been asking me for the past couple of weeks to help her go through my grandma's closet to get rid of things that she doesn't want or that don't fit anymore. So finally, last weekend I decided to go help her and clean out the closet. We filled about four trash bags worth of clothes (to donate, not throw away) and we didn't even finish going through everything. The good part was is that I was able to keep pieces of clothing that I liked. I kept five of my grandma's long skirts. However, they are way too small for me because back in her day, my grandma had a really small waist and well, let's just say my waist is nowhere near her old size. The good thing is that they are gathered at the waist, meaning that if I cut off the waistband, I'll have a bunch of extra fabric and then I can use them to make myself a dress or skirt that actually fits. 

These are skirts I got, minus a brown one I had already cut up for another project.

Anyway...I'm so excited to share my first complete tutorial with pictures with you guys! For this skirt I made I used:

First, cut the top of the skirt to remove the waistband so that the fabric can lay flat on your table or cutting area. Now, you'll have a big rectangle of fabric. Cut from the top (that way you won't have to hem the skirt since it'll already be done for you!) to your desired length + 2 1/2 inches (for the elastic casing).

Now turn your skirt inside out and lay flat. Fold and iron 1/2 inch. This is to enclose the raw edge of the fabric in the elastic casing. Then, put the elastic near that 1/2 inch fold and fold the fabric over to cover the elastic. This is just to determine the width of the casing for the elastic. Now remove the elastic and pin the casing down. You might want to iron the casing before you start pinning so it creates a crease exactly at the width you want it, just in case it unfolds. Do this for both sides of the skirt.

Sew close to the bottom almost all the way around but leave a 2 inch opening to insert the elastic through.

Measure a piece of elastic around your waist or hips, depending on where you want to wear your skirt and cut the elastic. Don't worry about adding seam allowance because you actually want your elastic to be a bit smaller than your waist/hips. Attach a safety pin to the edge of the elastic and thread it through the casing.

Overlap the edges of the elastic 1 inch and sew them together. Then, sew the 2 inch opening of the casing shut. This is how I sewed the elastic. I had to draw a diagram because I forgot to take a picture. Ooops!

And you're done! 

I chose to accessorize my skirt with a cute brown belt!

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

<3, Martha

Moss stitch cowl/ circle scarf

I can't believe it's already March, which means spring is almost here!

It's not even remotely cold where I live but I love knitting so I recently made an infinity scarf or cowl, whatever you want to call it. I absolutely love it! The color, the texture, everything! And, since it's super easy to make, I wanted to share it with you guys. So here's the tutorial:

This is a super simple pattern, it only uses the two most basic stitches: knit and purl. All you're going to need is some yarn and size 9 knitting needles. I used one skein of  7oz/198g with 364yds/333m acrylic worsted weight yarn.

Instructions:

-Cast on a multiple of 4 stitches. I cast on 36 stitches because I thought that would be a good width for the cowl.
-Rows 1 & 2: *K2, p2; repeat from * to end
-Rows 3 & 4: *P2, k2; repeat from * to end
-Repeat rows 1-4 until your scarf measures about 70 inches long. Bind off.
-Using a tapestry needle, sew the cast on side to the bind off side to form a hoop.

And you're done!

Thanks for reading and have a great day! :)

<3, Martha

Happy Birthday Grandpa!!!

Today's my grandpa's birthday! I'm pretty excited because:
1) It's the first time in four years that I've been with him for his birthday
2) I baked him a cake! Yay!

So, I'm not really going to post a tutorial for this cake, mostly because I already made it but here is a picture of the finished cake. It's a vanilla-chocolate-vanilla 3-layer cake, covered in vanilla buttercream frosting and it says "Happy birthday grandpa" in Spanish. And yeah, it's green and blue, not the most appetizing colors, I realize, but it was delicious!

Happy birthday grandpa!!

Caffeine Molecule Mug

Hi guys! The project I wanted to share with you today is a Sharpie mug. If you're on Pinterest, you've definitely seen this at some point. So why would I want to do this tutorial? Well, I know everyone and their mom have made this mug but I just wanted to share mine with you guys, so here it goes.

The materials you'll need for this project are a mug and a Sharpie. You might also want a stencil if you're scared to ruin your mug or are not a good artist but I think that it doesn't really matter, just have fun with it! You can use any mug, really. Just go to Walmart,Target or even the dollar store and buy a white mug, or a mug in any color you like. I got my mug at the Dollar Tree.

The first thing you'll probably want to do is wash your mug, just to make sure you have a clean surface do draw on. Next, draw whatever design your little heart desires on your mug. I chose a caffeine molecule because I'm just nerdy like that/ I didn't take one full year of organic chemistry for nothing!  NOTE: If you mess up while drawing your design, use rubbing alcohol to erase the mistake and after the alcohol dries off, continue drawing. Finally put your mug in the oven and bake at 450°F for 40 minutes and leave it in the oven while it cools off. (I did some research and found that the above temperature and time are the best to do this if you want to use regular Sharpies.) Just remember to hand wash them and not put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy your mug!

UPDATE (2/21/2013): Unfortunately, after using this mug daily since I made it, the paint started to wear off so I'm probably going to repaint it using markers for ceramics. And, after reading a bunch of reviews, I think I'm going to go with the Vitrea 160 markers by Pebeo. I'll post an update once I buy them and redo my mug.

UPDATE (4/2/2012): I finally got around to fixing my molecule mug and instead of the Vitrea 160 marker, I got the Porcelaine150 marker also by Pebeo because it's the only one I could find locally. I followed the instructions according to the package and air-dried the mug for 24 hours after painting it and then put it in the oven at 300F for 35 minutes. I think it looks pretty well and it's supposedly dishwasher safe. Unfortunately, I can't test it out because I don't have a dishwasher but if what the marker advertises is true, then it should hold up just fine. Here is the picture of my new-and-improved mug!

Knitted Headband with Bow and Fingerless Gloves

Hi everyone! This is my first DIY post ever and I’m pretty excited to show you what I made. I actually made these two things in December/ early January for the holidays and I’m posting them because I really liked how they turned out. I realize I should have probably made two separate posts, one for each item, but since they’re kind of related (a. they’re both knitted. b. they both use the same blue sparkly yarn), I decided to post them together.

So the first item is this knitted headband/ ear warmer with a bow. I based my headband off of this tutorial here. The only modifications I made were that I used needles a size smaller (or you could also cast on fewer stitches) because the first one I made stretched out a lot and didn’t like how it ended up. Also, I didn’t like how the bow looked with just yarn wrapped around the big rectangle so I just made a smaller rectangle (casting on 5 stitches) and wrapped it around the bigger one. 

For my headband I used a navy blue acrylic yarn with sparkles from Michael’s. Perfect for the cold weather!

 
My second project was a pair of fingerless gloves. This was my first time knitting fingerless gloves, or any type of gloves for that matter, so I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. The pattern is pretty simple. I got it from the Lion Brand Yarn (LBY) website and you can find it here. To see it you need to be registered on their website which is completely free and totally worth it because they have some great patterns. I used the same navy blue acrylic yarn I used for the headband and some grey acrylic yarn (I think it’s Vanna’s Choice yarn from LBY).

And voila, here are my fingerless gloves. Well, it’s actually only one since I had to take the picture with my other hand, but you get how they look like.

Thanks for reading!