Searching For Buttons and Decided to Make Some of My Own

Some of my cover buttons

Quite a while back I purchased some supplies to make cover buttons to use in making hair accessories. I made a bunch, sold just a few, gave a bunch to my kids, then donated some for Bingo prizes at my older daughter’s school. I then promptly forgot that I even had the supplies around.

Recently I have been looking for some good buttons for my apple cozies and have not had much luck figuring out exactly what search terms to use to find what I want. I suddenly remembered my cover button supplies and decided to see how I liked using those with the apple cozies. While I was at it, I also made a few new sets of ponytail holders for my daughters. (They claimed them before I could take a photograph.)

I think I may teach my eight year old how to make the cover buttons this summer as one of our craft day activities. I think she would enjoy making them, especially since they do not take too long and can be used for ponytail holders and barrettes.

If the sun peeks out later, I will try to get a good photo of my first apple cozy with the new cover button attached. Otherwise, I may put up my husband’s studio lights tonight and play around with them.

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Creating Some Lovely Little Letters

I have been interested in making some stuffed crocheted letters that looked more like letters that children easily recognize for a while. I had done some research on cross stitch programs, hoping that one might help me in the design process. Since I have a computer that uses Linux instead of Windows I had to do a little extra searching for a program, but have been pleased so far that it does what I need it to do.

Since I have been making large letter pillows, I decided that these letters should be a bit smaller so that it would not be a ridiculous amount of work or money to create an entire name. The upper case letters are ranging close to 9 inches high, while the lower case are around 7 if they do not have stems. I think they are large enough to be played with by a young child, although I would not necessarily hand one to a kid who tries to stick everything in his mouth without some supervision.

I decided to just start at a and work my way through the alphabet, although is not working out exactly that way since a lower case b can also be a p or a d, depending upon its orientation. Once I get these created, I would also like to make the patterns available for those who crochet. I am now lining up some people to test the patterns for me once I manage to get them into a nice and clean pdf format. I think the patterns themselves could be used for the stuffed creations as well as just making one side to use as an applique.

Next up for me is a capital D. I am looking forward to just about every letter, but I know I will have to do some experimenting to get lower case i and j to look the way I want them to look. Anyone have any suggestions for those?

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Blue Ribbon Winner — My Daughter

My six year old daughter decided she wanted to learn to crochet this summer. She then decided she wanted to enter something in the fair, even though all she had made so far at that point were crocheted chains for necklaces, bracelets, and shoe laces. I worked with her to teach her to single crochet and she decided to make a white belt.

I think the belt was about four inches long for a very, very long time. She kept making funny loops over the tops of the stitches, which we would pull out and start the row over. Finally, she stopped making the loops and the belt grew by leaps and bounds.

The deadline for entering and dropping off entries just happened to be in the middle of Vacation Bible Camp, which I was helping to teach. It made for a crazy day, with me teaching her how to sew on buttons and weave in ends after camp and before running to the fair. As a result of Vacation Bible Camp and me being disorganized, only my daughter entered anything in the fair. Maybe next year for me.

She was very happy to get ribbons and three whole dollars, which are burning a hole in her pocket.

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