Repurposing a T-shirt into a Necklace

There are many t-shirt re-purposing ideas that I'd like to try out and I decided to start with something fairly simple - making a necklace.

I made the necklace out of a shirt that had some holes in it (and therefore I didn't feel bad for cutting it up) and I also used some mint pearls and chain that I bought recently.

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the process of making the necklace but I will explain briefly what I did.

Firstly I measured how long I wanted the necklace to be.

Then I cut the chain according to that. I cut the jersey material a bit (maybe 10 cm) longer than the chain. 

I braided three of the jersey strips, made knots to one of the strips and left the others as they were.I did this to add some texture and make it a bit more interesting.

I took some thread and weaved it through the chain adding the beads at random distances. I'm not a fan of symmetry so the more asymmetric and random the better ;D

 Then I attached the chains and the jersey strips to a loop, kind of twisting/braiding them randomly so they would make a nice form. The fastener is quite bulky and heavy duty but I think it suits the look I was going for.

 

 Here is how I wore it the other day.

Hope you enjoyed and are having a great day!
I'll go and have a piece of carrot cake in celebration of getting 40 likes on my Facebook page Wohoo ;D
Ciao-ciao!

Crochet Tezzie Hat

So I know it's quite warm here in Estonia now and this post isn't very relevant anymore but last week it still was kind of cold and that's when I made these two adorable hats. I made one for my little sister and another for my daughter.I found the tutorial for this hat randomly on YouTube and you can also find the written pattern HERE. At first it was kind of difficult to understand the written instructions but the video tutorial really helped and it's actually quite easy to make, at least if you're familiar with crocheting :))
On the right you can see what the bigger one looks like. The yarn was kind of furry and I think that's why the pattern doesn't show off that well, but I it's still cute.

I love the quirky smile she has on this picture ;D

And here is the other one I made for my daughter. I actually ran out of the pink yarn so I made the rim with a light brown colour. I really like pink and brown together so I think it looks good like this.

 If you want you can add a ribbon, to make it even more girly and cute. Please don't mind the funky looking bow, she doesn't really like hats so it was kind of a struggle to get a good decent picture and I couldn't be bothered to fix the bow ;P

 Here's more of the funky bow ;D and a happy baby :))

I hope you enjoyed!
Ciao-ciao!

A Little Bead Haul

 I went to a shop called Kuukivi Helmepood (Moonstone Bead shop) here in Tartu. they sell the most beautiful beads and lots of other things for jewellery making. To tell you the truth I could spend hours there just looking at all the colourful and pretty beads. This time I didn't have hours to spend though ;P

But I had enough time to walk out with some bits and bobs :))

I saw these beautiful black beads with some golden accents and I fell in love with those. I bought those in different sizes so now I have 10mm, 8mm, 6mm and 4mm ones. I also bought some small (4mm) mint green beads. And also some fasteners, loops and chain.

I have a couple of ideas what to make with these beads and hopefully I will be able to make a post about that :))

See you later, ciao-ciao!

Sleeping Bag for Baby Stroller or Car Seat

I saw a picture on Pinterest of a car seat blanket (unfortunately the blog post doesn't exist anmore) and thought it was a great idea. So I made one which can be used for the car seat but also in a baby stroller which has straps.

I used a sleeping bag for babies that I already had at hand (we actually have 3 of those, so I didn't mind making a few alterations to one of them), I also used my rotary cutter, some pins, a water erasable pen and some bias tape.

Firstly I roughly measured how long the cuts have to be for the straps to fit through,  made the markings with my water erasable pen. After this I took my rotary cutter and cut two long slits vertically and one shorter one horizontally (according to the markings I had made previously).

Then I pinned the bias tape all around the sides of the slits.

I also decided to hand stitch the bias tape before sewing it with the machine just because sewing a bias tape is one of the things i don't have the talent for ;P

This is what it looks in our stroller with the straps pulled through the slits.

And this is what it looks  with a baby in the stroller :)) The sleeping bag has a zipper so if she falls asleep we can just zip the sleeping bag up and she's nice and cozy :)) This will definitely get a lot of use from us :))

I wish you a day full of sunshine and positivity!
And don't forget to like and follow if you enjoyed it.

Crochet Mittens (instructions included)

Ok, so I know I promised you some summery posts but the weather here in Estonia is very reluctant to let go of winter. So when I saw a picture of some crochet mittens then I instantly thought "Why haven't I thought of this?!" and immediately (I literally stood up right away) went to get some yarn from my yarn basket and tried it out. It was super easy, in my opinion easier than knitting a pair of mittens and I've knitted a few pairs in my life ;)
I decided to write down the instructions so anybody who would like to crochet mittens but can't be bothered to invent the pattern themselves can get the instructions here :)) 
I used quite a thick yarn (I didn't have the packaging and info anymore because they were leftovers from previous projects) and a 5.00 mm (European size) hook.

So here we go!

EDIT: Count -chain 3- in the beginning of a row as a dc (so the dc at the end of the row would add up).

Make a magic circle (see video instruction here)
Row 1: Make 10 single crochets(sc) into the magic circle, slip stitch (sl st) in first sc.
Row 2 : Chain 3, *double crochet (dc) in next sc, 2 dc in next sc* ; repeat from * to *,join with sl st (14 dc)
Row 3 : Chain 3, *dc in next dc, 2 dc in next dc*; repeat from * to *join with sl st (20 dc)
Rows 4-5 : Chain 3, dc in every dc, join with sl st(20 dc)
Row 6 : Chain 3, *dc in next dc, 2 dc in next dc*, repeat from * to *, join with sl st (29 dc)
Rows 7-11. Chain 3, dc in every dc, join with sl st (29 dc)
Row 12: 
*Right hand:Chain 3, dc in next 10 dc, chain (ch) 3, skip 3 dc, dc in next 15 dc, join with sl st
*Left hand: Chain 3, dc in next 15 dc, ch 3, skip 3 dc, dc in next 10 dc, join with sl st

Row 13: Chain 3, dc in next 15 dc, dc in each ch (3 dc), dc in next 11 dc, join with sl st (29 dc)

Rows 14-16: Chain 3, dc in every dc, join with sl st (29 dc)
Row  17: Chain 3, dc in next 4 dc, dc next two stitches together, dc in next 8 dc, dc next two stitches together, dc in next 8 dc, dc next two stitches together, dc in next 2 dc, join with sl st (26 dc)
Rows 18-20: Chain 3, dc in every dc; on last round fasten off.

Thumb:
Attach yarn with a slip stitch to one of the dc in the space for the thumb, chain 3, dc around the edge, join with sl st(12 dc)

Rows 2-3: Chain 3, dc in every dc, join with sl st
Row 4: chain 3, dc in next 2 dc, dc next two stitches together, dc in next 3 dc, dc next two stitches together, dc in remaining two dc, join with sl st (10 dc)
Row 5: Chain 3, now make a cluster stitch (see video instruction here) with all of the remaining stitches and on the last stitch pull the yarn through all of the loops on your needle. 
Side note: I actually put about half of the loops on a safety pin because otherwise it's very difficult to crochet on the last stitches (you'll see what I mean if you try it ;P).
 




Now just fasten off and hide all the loose ends and you're ready!

I hope these instructions were relatively easy to understand but if have any questions feel free to ask me and I'll do my best to answer you!

Here is my wonderful hubby modelling for me :))

If you enjoyed this post then why not click the "join this site" on the right sidebar or follow by email :))
I'd appreciate it a lot!! And if you're feeling particularly adventurous then why not even like this post or do something outrageous and share it on Facebook ;D
There will be other crafty posts coming soon :))
Ciao-ciao!

EDIT: Thank you to a couple of readers for pointing out some errors / confusing parts in the pattern. I've made corrections and hope that it is now easier to understand the instructions :))