Personal Project: A Sweater for Bella

My Toy Yorkie, Bella, gets a little cold in the winter time here. Yes, I know how some people think it's stupid to dress up a dog. I really don't care what they think because my dog is just 3 pounds full-grown and Yorkie's have no warm winter undercoat. She gets cold and there's no reason she can't look cute while dressing up either. She's my companion dog that my husband sent me while he was deployed last year. See, isn't she cute? <3 :)

I'd been really wanting to teach myself Fair Isle or colorwork knitting but I needed a small project to get my feet wet in. A new sweater for Bella would be the perfect thing!

I started out by picking out some yarns, then knitting up a gauge. After I'd had my gauge I was able to measure from that to figure out how large I needed the sweater.

I spent a good day going through my books on color knitting and looking at patterns. I finally decided to create my own and came up with this!

I spent about a week knitting here and there. I'm a pretty slow knitter to begin with and when you add in a 2nd color for the first time, well, it took some getting used to!

And here is the finished product! I really enjoyed learning Fair Isle knitting and loved making something for my puppy at the same time.

Custom Cloth Diapers

I've been posting about cloth diapers a lot lately, but I've been sewing a lot of them it seems!

Last night I finished a custom order for a repeat customer. She picked the size she needed and the outer decorative fabrics and I created them for her little one. The possibilities are really endless! I also created a diaper cover for her from the groovy guitars printed PUL that I already had on hand. Everything turned out great!

Adult Cloth Diapers

*I am no longer accepting orders for adult cloth diapers. Thank you!

I'd been contacted recently by several individuals who were looking for cloth diapers in adult sizes for their handicapped/incontinent family members. There really aren't many options out there for adults in cloth.

It's tough knowing that a diaper is needed but the only option is the papery, plastic, uncomfortable, throw-away kind. Besides, what's an eco-conscious individual to do? Contact a seamstress/WAHM who might be able to help!

I've been asked over the years to size up my regular baby diapers and covers because they like the design. It'd actually been on my to-do list for a long time. Well, when I had 2 separate requests in the same week, I decided to go for it! I sent off my prototypes and had great reviews!

I'm still trying to figure out how to list these in my shop because of the size choices but I'm sure I'll come up with something soon. Until then, if you're interested just send me a message at h.greenhomegoods [at] gmail .com

Hopefully, I can share the over-night adult diaper style with you soon. What's pictured below is a basic day style diaper and waterproof diaper cover.

Custom Fitted Cloth Diapers

All the color options are now available for the custom fitted cloth diapers! I have 30 thread colors and 27 snap colors to chose from. So many possibilities! Hop on over to my website or to Etsy to order.

Custom Ordered Diapers

I love doing custom orders and here is one I completed recently! I have a couple listings in my shop that you can pick the color thread, size, etc... completely customizable! This customer choose a size small (fits 6-12 pound babies) with an emerald green thread for the edging. They turned out great!

I've been working on creating thread and snap 'color cards', cataloging what colors I have on hand. I plan to update the listings in the near future with all the different options and hopefully with a few new colors! Stay tuned! :)

New Diaper Covers Now In Stock!

I've been working hard between custom orders to get a few new items sewn up and listed! I'm not moving as fast as I'd like so I recently hired another helper so my time isn't stretched so thin. She'll be helping me sew up the RTS (ready to ship) items like the ones below. These covers are all the Newborn/Preemie size, which fits a 4-9 pound baby. The other sizes are being worked on, plus a few more colors to add to the RTS items. It's so exciting! Hop on over to my website or over to Etsy to find them, they are listed on both sites. Happy Shopping! :)

Walker Bag

This bag was a fun request I got to do recently! A coworker of my husbands wanted a bag to put on the front of her family members walker to carry all her stuff. The straps have velcro that come undone so it can be attached to the walker. The larger pocket is about 15"x15", perfect for magazines, books, etc. And the smaller front pockets are perfect for glasses, pens, etc. The fabric itself is pretty fun too! I'm glad I got to work on this little project, it was a nice break from some of my larger projects and was completed in less then a day. I used this pattern and added stabilizer to the outer fabric to make it a little more sturdy. I did change some of her instructions around to take a few shortcuts I've learned over the years, but in general hers are great to follow!

Wetbag Wholesale Order

Here is an order I finished a couple weeks ago. I made these for Karin at Dominopads. Karin is such a great person to work with and she has tons of great items! For this order I made Small, Large, and Dual Zipper bags in 4 different batiks. The black star batik was definitely my favorite fabric to work with from this batch. Fun stuff! :)

Thrift Store Repurpose

I found this pretty, but slightly plain, top at a thrift store a couple months ago. It has a crocheted edging around the next which gives it a little something. Unfortunately, the edging was beginning to fray, which is why it was at the thrift store I bet! It was discounted and I thought 'hey, I can fix that!', so I bought it. I ended up sewing a strip of ribbon all the way around the edging. It hid the frayed part and gave it a little contrasting color. Not bad for $2! :)

Snap Press Improvements

Over a year ago I bought myself a snap press. If you're not sure what that is, it's the tool that installs the snaps on the cloth diapers I make. For the longest time I'd been applying snaps with a hand-held pliers. How tedious and time consuming could it be? Very. The snap press is the way to go for professionals, like myself, who have a business that needs to apply hundreds of snaps at a time.

There is a hole in the back of the handle that allows you to hook a chain to and run it down to the floor to a foot pedal, turning it from hand operated to foot operated, and increasing your speed and efficiency. I'd asked him to turn it into foot operated for me because my hands were getting blisters from the handle. Well, my husband took it a step further. He decided to turn it into an air-operated foot pedal snap press. It's really the neatest thing and so easy to use!

I hope to get a video of me using it soon. There's too much to tell, it'd be easier to show it off. :) Until then, this is what it looks like...

Sewing for Myself!

I've been trying to take some time to sew for myself lately. I took a couple Craftsy classes on pattern alteration and fitting and put them to good use.

The first shirt I made is a little red and black number. This is a vintage reproduction halter top shirt (pattern here) . The red binding on the collar is a bit sailor reminiscent so I call it my Sailor Top. And to top it all off, I made a new skirt for my 31 Fitted Purse Skirt with the same red binding. Let's face it, that purse is cute but I wanted something to match my outfits! (No, I'm not selling these, they are for my personal use.) I ended up sacrificing a purse skirt that I didn't really care for to create the pattern from. Now I have endless possibilities!

 My next project was also a vintage reproduction fitted top (pattern here). This is a shirt from the 1940's Swing Era. I call it my 'Travelin' Top', well because I made it out of fabric with all the US states printed on it (and I plan to wear it while traveling this winter while on a cruise!). I also made another one of those really cool purses by Pattern Play on Etsy and a basic purse skirt for my 31 Purse.

 

I love sewing for myself. Endless possibilities and never one of a kind. <3

Thanks for stopping by!

~Heather