Binky Clips and a new Carseat Canopy!

I saw a little while ago the cutest idea! A woman had crocheted this adorable binky clip! So I gave it a try! Here's what mine turned out to look like:

Once again..the darn pictures are turning sideways..lame!

I love this one! After finishing that one, I decided to give it another try and do something just a little different with fabric instead of yarn. Here's the end result of that one:

  

INSTRUCTIONS: To make the crocheted one I just followed the instructions on the A Bit of Sunshine blog.  You can click on that link to get there.  For the flower on the purple crocheted binky clip I used the tutorial on this website. For the flower on the fabric binky clip, I used the pattern that is linked on the A Bit of Sunshine tutorial for the crocheted binky clip.

To make the fabric binky clip I just once again used a suspenders clip and then made a tube of fabric by cutting the fabric twice as thick as I was wanting it, and then adding seam allowances.  I then folded it over onto itself right sides together and stitched a seam along the outside edge, like this:

 

Then I just turned that strip right side out  so that I had a tube like this:

I then folded one end inwards so that the raw edges were tucked inside the tube.  I braided 3 strands of yarn together, made a knot in each end of the braid, and stuffed that inside the tube as well.  I edgestitched along the edge that I had folded to the inside of the tube and made sure that the braided yarn was being caught in those stitches.
For the side with the actual clip, I folded over the last unfinished end twice and stitched along that edge.  Before stitching it closed though I stuck the suspenders clip inside the fold before stitching so I didn't have to do an extra step. I hand stitched the teal flower and button onto the end of the binky clip and voila! It was finished! Two new binky clips!


Ok..so for the Car Seat Canopy.. I totally meant to take pictures as I went, but once I got started I just got so into it that I completely forgot to take pictures! HOWEVER! I looked up a tutorial for a car seat canopy that was similar to the same steps I did to make my canopy.  Here's the link for that tutorial: just-because-i-am-me.blogspot.com
There were just a few things that I did differently, but the main one was that I added the bows to the handle pieces as well as the strip to it.  You don't have to do this, I just thought it would be cute, so I added it!

Here's some pictures of my completed car seat canopy!:

Little tip: Don't make your handle straps too far apart! I think mine are just a little too far apart and so they seem like I may have troubles keeping it up on the handle. I plan to re-sew them just a little closer together.  Good luck! Happy sewing!

Crochet a Cute Monkey Hat!

Ok, I have seen these on different people's blogs, but it occurred to me the other day that I could totally make one!

SOO I googled "crochet monkey hat free pattern" and eventually found one I liked pretty well.  I mostly followed her pattern, but I made just a few adjustments.  For the pattern you can go to easymakesmehappy.blogspot.com.  This is hers:

I changed mine up just a little to make it look more like this one:

I found this at etsy.com in the citefuzz shop.  if you would rather, you can just buy them on there instead of making it!:)

Here's mine!

A problem solved: There have been a couple of times that I didn't know what different crochet terms were such as MC, CC, hdc..etc.. well, I figured out that if you go to google and type in "crochet terms" and insert the acronym after that that I have been able to find out what it meant.  THEN! I found that if I don't know how to do a particular stitch, people have done GREAT tutorials on youtube and you can learn how to do any stitch you want! So! To make it easier, I'm going to make a little glossary for the terms in this pattern and the flower pattern that I got from littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com with links to tutorials if necessary.

Glossary:

MC = Main Color

CC = Contrasting Color

st = stitch 

Rnd = Round

How to do a slip knot

ch = chain

hdc = half double crochet

On this pattern when she says join, that just means do a slip stitch( a.k.a. sl st) into the top of your last round

sc = single crochet

hdc2tog = half double crochet 2 stitches together

Note** the number in (parentheses) at the end of each step are just the stitch count for each step/row you do.

only on the flower pattern:

tc = triple crochet


 Here are the few alterations that I did:
I didn't feel like she made it very clear that when you get to the end of round 7 and before you start your earflap that you are suppose to tie it off and start fresh with the earflap. Remember that for the earflap you are doing 12 stitches, so make sure that you start in the right place so that the ear flap is centered on the right and left side of the hat.

For the chains that make the ties on the hat, she said to do 41 chains, but I felt that this was too long, so I just did 30 chains and thought that was long enough.  You can adjust it to your liking though!

For the ears, between round 2 and 3 I put in another row where I did the usual 1 chain, but then I repeated *2 sc in next, 1 sc in next* until all the way around the ear.

For the flower, I used the pattern, I just made 2 of the flowers and overlapped them.  I made one flower using a G hook, and then made the other using the I hook and then joined them together.