Crocheted Baby Sweater

A couple of young ladies I know both had baby girls this past month, within days of each other. Annabelle Lee, who was a first born, and Violet, who joins her big sister, Honey Rose. I wanted to make something for them rather than purchasing something. I always find it more personal that way. I decided on sweaters... something that I could make up fairly quickly. I found a cute crocheted sweater pattern here:
http://www.crochetme.com/Feb_Mar_2005/patt_baby_sweater.html

I wanted to make them in colors and yarns that weren't the traditional "pink" baby weight yarn, so I chose Lion Brand Homespun in violet for, of course, Violet...and I chose a varigated blue, purple, green version for Annabelle. I then bought some contrasting Fun Fur to use around the neckline, sleeve cuffs and down the front. Here is the finished one for Violet. I'll probably make some sort of matching hat as well. This is a really easy sweater to crochet, and makes up fairly fast. It only took me two evenings of working on it for a few hours while watching movies.

I figured I would make larger sizes, since babies tend to grow so fast, and that way they will have something to wear in the colder weather.

Reupholstering a Loveseat continued

Well, I've been spending most of my spare time trying to get this loveseat done. After getting the deck attached, I then did the inside arms and outside arms. I ended up using a tack strip, which is a piece of strong cardboard with tacks already attached to it. This goes up under the curved arm piece, allowing you to "seamlessly" attach the outside arm fabric. Then I put on the inside back piece. This was a little tricky, as I had also added some fresh padding to the back and had to really pull and stretch the fabric to get it to lie smoothly over the new padding.

After I got the inside and outside arms and inside back done, it was time to put the outside back on. I was a little nervous about this part and with good reason...there is an aluminum tack strip that has to be stapled/nailed all along the edges of the back, and piping (or in my case I used a rope trim) needs to be stapled on as well.

You then have to fold the edges of the fabric piece over one side of this aluminum stip and then press/hammer that down, sandwiching the fabric between it so that the back is attached and no raw edges of fabric are showing.

I was able to salvage and use the strip that was already on the loveseat, so I didn't have to buy a new one. The hardest part was getting it smooth, and making sure there weren't any puckers, especially at the top, where there were these little "tab" shapes on each side. I'm pretty satisfied with the way it turned out, although it's not as smooth as I would have liked it.

Once I got the back on, I just had to finish up some of the "trimming", like adding piping along the bottom edge, recovering and nailing on the arm fasciae (those are the curved, decorative pieces that hide the staples/nails on the front of the arms), and covering a new seat cushion. I really hated doing those fasciae! They are made of several layers of cardboard (so they can curve), to which I had to not only staple padding and the new fabric cover, but also an edging of piping. I improvised on the piping and used some thin, nylon rope that we had lying around in the garage as the filling for the piping. It turned out really nicely! Then trying to nail the fascia onto the arms without marking or damaging the fabric, and getting it on straight was a nightmare! I had to nail them on and take them off two or three times in an attempt to get them on straight. I'm not 100% happy with how it finally turned out, but I didn't want to make the attempt too many times and mess it up even more. As it was, I had to totally recover one of them after ripping a small hole in the fabric from a nail.

I thought covering the cushion would be pretty straight forward, and it was for the most part; however, putting in the zipper properly was a bit of a challenge...not so much putting IN the zipper, as I have done that numerous times in clothing, but the exact placement of it, and the fact that the top and bottom have to be "closed", unlike in clothing where the top is "open". My main concern was if the cover would fit the cushion snugly with the measurements I took. It did, although I think it could be a little tighter, as it has a tendency to wrinkle slightly when someone sits on it. I may take the padding out and take in the seams a bit to make it fit more snugly. Well, here is the finished product. Not too bad for my first one. Of course there are a few things here and there that I'm not entirely satisfied with, but I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist. All and all, I'm happy with it and best of all, no cover to have to mess with!