Hooded Towel

Oh, baby! When you get to be a certain age (really late 20s...okay, okay mid-30s), you find yourself invited to a lot of baby showers. Pretty close to half the people I know either just had a baby or are expecting one soon. I suppose I should have seen this coming when I was attending a wedding every weekend a few years ago, but here we are. Sure, I could hit the baby section and stock up on items, but I've always been an over achiever!

In a previous post I showed hand-knit baby booties, but I am finding that those are really only good for brand new infants. If baby is a little older, he/she needs something a little different. Enter the hooded towel.

My mother used to make these for baby showers when she was in her really late 20s and all her friends and family were having babies. Her design was a little different, but I like to put my own spin on things. This one is for a dear childhood friend who just had her first baby. I use a full size bath towel so she can use past babyhood. The hood part I make from a hand towel, and the petals are cut from a hand towel as well. It is modeled here by my darling daughter who is 9, so you can see how big it is. DD still uses her own hooded towel to this day!

Since the hood only uses part of the hand towel, I used the rest to make a little wash mitt. The stripes are knit jersey cut from an old T-shirt and tacked down with a zig zag stitch and are only on the back. The wings are microfleece.

I also made a similar towel for a baby boy from a brown towel and added little bear ears to the hood. I made the mitt look like a bear claw, which turned out so cute! Unfortunately, I was still stitching it together about 5 minutes before the shower so I didn't get a picture of it.

You would think that with all these babies coming I would learn my lesson and just have some towels done and boxed up, but I work better under pressure! Besides, who knows what will inspire me next!

Golf Stroke Counters

Anyone who has played golf with me knows that words like "birdie" and "par" rarely apply to my score card. For those of us who need more than a handful of hits, stroke counters are handy little tools. I've tried the clicker style counters, but they are for counting a whole game, and are very difficult to reset for every hole, which is the way I like to score. I've even tried a digital counter, but one surprise rainstorm put an end to that!

Last summer at my local ladies golf league, I won a pin-prize that included a beaded stroke counter. It was genius! I can hook it with a half-hitch to my belt loop, and slide the little beads one at a time to help me keep track of my strokes. As with most little craft items, I took one look at it and thought, "I can make that."

This summer I did. I made a second one for myself, and also made one for my mom and all my ladies league team members!




I bought a big package of red, white, and blue beads and some elastic cord. The beads are strung "X" style, so they can slide easily but stay securely where you put them.



Each counter has ten counting beads and one handle bead to help with the hooking and unhooking. (When you run out of beads, you know to pick up your ball and move on!) It's a simple little solution, and I wish I could claim it as my own, but I did "borrow" the design. Just another little craft thing that keeps my hands busy. Anything to distract me from doing the dishes! Enjoy your summer!

Sharp Dressed Doll

Yes, it's been awhile since my last post. But, during that time I have managed to work on a few projects, namely some doll clothes for my darling daughter. Okay, you got me...they were a Christmas present, but I think it still counts if the project was less than a year ago!

Santa was bringing a new American Girl Doll for her, and since that pretty much strapped "his" budget, Mom thought she would supplement with some new clothes. Luckily there are a bunch of patterns available for this sized doll, and they worked perfectly! The following picture is an outfit that I made for one of my daughter's friend's birthday.

I used fabric from some of DD's clothes that she had outgrown, which made for a cute T-shirt and denim capri set. Paired with a pair of doll "crocs" in hot pink that I found at Michaels, and it turned out to be a fun birthday present.

The rear view needed a little work, but this pic was taken before I ironed the shirt. The back pockets were a fun addition, but I think they were a little small. The corduroy jeans I made for my daughter's doll had bigger pockets, and it looked a little better.

I made two pairs of pajamas, brown cords, a fleece lined ski jacket with fleece hat, a quilted jacket with hood, a hand knit sweater and scarf, and some fuzzy slippers. (Whew!) Needless to say, I was still scrambling to finish them the day before Christmas, so when they were done they got wrapped before I could take a picture. Maybe soon I will pose the dolls for a photo shoot when I have nothing but time! (Don't hold your breath!)

All of the clothes were made from "found" material, such as old clothes from my daughter or Goodwill, or some of the scraps of fleece I had in my fabric box. I was also able to use up some of my yarn scraps, so whenever I find myself with a bunch of "scrap" material, I'll know it might be time for more doll clothes! ;)