Friday, December 24, 2010

Last minute elving...

...I've been spending some time in my secret workshop...AKA...the laundry room...er...um...ironing...if you know what I mean...

Scout has a cousin serving in Afghanistan...and he wanted an ARMY Sweatshirt...

...so I went online and downloaded a military font and printed out some big letters...

...acquired a generic grey hooded sweatshirt...

..carefully cut out the letters with an exacto knife - through the printed paper and the freezer paper - not difficult but the most time consuming part...

...Oooops - I should have put some space between the two sets of letters to allow for the zipper...so I just covered the zipper with a strip of freezer paper and then cut the template in half...

...spounced on some bright yellow paint...

...let it dry - just to the touch - if you let it dry too much it makes it kinda hard to remove the paper...

...then peeled off the freezer paper - to reveal the perfect crisp letters...

..so, one little Mama-made present under the tree...

...somehow - between last winter and this one...Scout lost his gaiter...so he needed a new one...

...I just knit a tube over 80 stitches on size 10 needles...about 65 rows I think...

...I don't often mix sewing machine sewing and hand knits - but this gaiter would be too thin and breezy without a liner...so I stitched a tube of stretchy cotton (actually left over in the stash from the Alien Costume - wow that was a long time ago - such a little guy) - to the end of the knitted tube - with right sides together...

...then turned it back to the right side and stuffed it into the tube with the wrong sides together...

...and stitched around the bottom on the machine...

...it made a kind of neat rolled edge effect that I wasn't really expecting...but I like it...

...I'm really not very good with the bathroom mirror shots - but this gives you an idea of how it works - he can wear a toboggan and goggles and basically have no exposed skin - that's the goal when it's 40 below (which interestingly is 40 below Celsius too)...

...I'm hoping you get all your last minute elving done and have a very Merry Christmas!

4 comments:

  1. You're an AWESOME elf! Merry Christmas!!

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  2. hey, very neat. glad he has a momma that knits and keeps him warm!! merry merry! love, k

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  3. My lovely daughter cycles in London and I would like to make her something similar.

    Could you give me the measurements of the finished item - I want to use fleece.

    It lookes really 'cool'!

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  4. I love the sweatshirt idea! The gaiter is really nice as well, I like the lining, looks so warm and soft. If our thermometer keeps reading in the 20's I might have to make a few down here too!

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