Upcycled Collared Terry Towel Bibs Tutorial

The boy is almost 3 years old and we needed more industrial strength terry cloth bibs.  These are so handy for busy toddlers because they catch and absorb a lot and can be used to mop up a table when something gets knocked over and spilled, etc.  Our carpet has never been the same since bringing a child home but he is worth it and these sure help!  These get used every day and they are upcycled from used items which makes them green and thrifty as well as useful.

Saver's had a great selection of terry cloth hand towels and I snatched some up.  I still had left over ribbed shirts from the last batch I made in a rainbow of colors for the collars.  I know I've written about these before, but for anyone new, don't bother trying to buy ribbing at the fabric stores.  At Joann's, and believe me I LOVE Joann's, they only had 6 colors available, it was spendy, and they were always sold out both in-store and online.  The coworker who made my originals shared her genius trade secret: buy ribbed shirts at Saver's and cut them up.  You get way more fabric for what you spend and can get a much wider variety of colors.

The three pictured above were kind of ho-hum towels with simple collars attached.  This towel had great visual appeal because of the fabric weave and I was thrilled to have a coordinated rib for the collar.

I was particularly proud of this one because of the matchy matchy collar and trim purchased in Las Vegas at Heddy's Fabrics.  Many hand towels have a border woven into the fabric that cries out for embellishment with trim.  You can see the original towel border from the other end of the towel through the collar.

I loved the color combination of fuchsia and lime and happened to have another fabulously coordinated trim from Heddy's.  This one was much more feminine so I decided to give it to my dear friend Nancy for her granddaughter.  She has another grand baby due this summer and wanted the pattern for making these.  There isn't really a pattern that I use so I decided to take pictures of the process and show all of you how to make them.

Recycling at it's finest!  Here is a ribbed shirt and I'm cutting off both the front and back layer for 2 panels that are 4.5 x 8 inches. 

Here are the two layers stacked on top of one another.  Now I am going to use a 1/2" seam on either short end to make a wide tube of fabric.

I press the seams open a little just to make them lie flat and be a little easier to work with.

Now fold the entire tube in half lengthwise so that the seams are hidden on the inside and all the cut edges are together.  Lay the folded tube so that the two seams are lined up on top of each other.

 

With the two seams aligned, make a mark on either edge along the cut side--I used a chalk pencil here.  We need to have 4 quadrants marked on this fabric collar--two are the seams and two are the marks we made on either edge.  Folding in half is a great trick for finding the middle of pieces when sewing.  Now our collar is ready to attach and we can turn our attention to the towel.

Much of this project involves eyeballing.  The neck hole is place about 1/3ish of the way down the length of the towel.  I also want to point out that the tag is at the top of the bib.  No one will see it when it hangs over the back of the child's shoulders.  It really doesn't matter, but it bugs me when I see the tag in the front on other bibs I've made.  That circle is just a 6" circle I traced with a compass and cut out.  I folded it in half and drew a line down the fold line to help me line it up on my towel.  I folded the towel in half and placed the pattern line on the fold of the towel so I could pin one half of the circle.  It does not have to be exact!

Unfold the towel and pin the other half of the paper circle in place.  Here is a full towel shot to better show you the placement of the hole.  Cut out and remove the circle.  You'll notice that I like to have a long bib with these.  I like when it drapes on Marek's lap.  These things can catch and contain a bowl of oatmeal when needed, so length is good.  You just need enough on the top part to drape over the shoulders.

Here is one of my favorite parts of the project!  What could you do with these terry cloth circles?  I feel bad throwing them away!

Since you are cutting through terry cloth, you are going to get all kinds of loop snips all over your cutting area.  This is your life now.

Fold the towel in half lengthwise and mark the top and bottom of the circle edges on the fold.

Now fold the top of the towel down as best you can and again mark the circle edges on the fold line.

We've made a kind of compass rose on our neck hole with 4 quadrants marked.

Remember the quadrants we marked on our collar piece?  We are going to match those up and pin them to the neck hole.  With the right side of your towel facing up, pin both layers of the unfinished cut edges of the collar to the towel at the four marked points of the compass rose.  Here I have West and South pinned and it doesn't seem too bad.

Here I have all 4 points pinned and this is where people get intimidated.  Sewing is making 3D things out of 2D planes so you have to think abstractly.  Take a deep breath and proceed.

We are going to work one quadrant at a time.  In this picture, the outer pins are on our compass rose.  Stretch the ribbing to align with the edge of the terry cloth towel and pin in the middle.  You can see the terry cloth puckering in the background.  This is normal and OK, don't let it bother you.  We will pin it into submission!

Here is the same area with pins between the quadrant pins and center pin.  We have wrangled it under control and it is behaving much better.  The power of pins!  Now we will turn the bib a quarter turn and do the same to the next quadrant and so on around the neck.

Here is the wrong side of the bib with the collar pinned on.  It looks much more manageable and neat once we pinned all those curves.  You can also see the edges of the collar and the terry cloth laying together which is where we are going to stitch.

With the right side of the towel facing up, position the bib so that the fabric edges are resting together in a sort of tube. 

Lay the edges of this tube on your sewing machine and position your foot and needle.  A clue as to how to turn the fabric is the position of the pins.  You always want your pins on TOP.  If we'd sewn it as it appeared from the wrong side of the towel, the pins would be on the underside and could damage the sewing machine.  Stitch a 1/2" seam around the entire circle of the neck.

I like to use my #17 overlock type stitch.  It uses a running stitch on the left and a zig zag on the right to help catch cut fuzzy edges and then I don't trim any seam allowance.  I serged my first batch of these bibs and as nice as the trimmed edge looked, my seams tended to disintegrate and required patching and repairs.  If you don't have a stitch like this, a simple zig zag will be fine but I would go over it twice.

Here is what the stitch looks like when finished.  You'll notice that my edges weren't exactly matched and perfect, but guess what?  It's ok!

When you turn that collar up, the right side of the seam hides all your sins and it looks neat and clean!  And now you have a finished terry bib!  You can embellish these with trim or patches or fabric paint. 

Happy Valentine's Day!  The boy and I made some valentines a few weeks ago with some paper doilies I've had for years for just such a project.  He loves stickers but has to be supervised or they'd be all over the walls.  We mailed these to our parents and my siblings as well as my uncle Doug.

I've hoarded stickers my entire life and am excited to share them with him but it drives me crazy that he stacks them one on top of the other instead of spreading them out!  Oh well.  I would be thrilled to get something like this in the mail.  I cooked a sweetheart dinner for my two men yesterday out of some ribs I'd had in the freezer for a while with mashed potatoes, baked beans from scratch, steamed broccoli and biscuits.  Today we are enjoying leftovers and maybe we'll have some take out for supper.

And did I mention it is butt cold here?  We've had SUCH a mild winter thus far but we couldn't escape some arctic temperatures. There was talk we'd break the record for a coldest high temperature this weekend.  Overnight we are expecting -20 something.  This picture was taken weeks ago during a heat wave when it was 30 degrees above zero.  I thought it was such a Minnesota picture of Dave maintaining the drive.  Another heat wave will move in mid-week bringing temps in the teens.  This is great weather to hole up at home, bake and snuggle which is perfect for Valentine's Day.  

Dave and my mother got their first vaccine shots this week, my in-laws got their first last week and I had my second shot weeks ago.  Keep at it and keep inquiring, logging on, trying, etc.  GET YOUR VACCINE!  It is safe.  The sooner we all get vaccinated, the sooner we can get back to normal.  Stay safe and warm!  Happy Valentine's Day!

Winter of Our Discontent

Here we are in January.  As gloomy and cold and dark as this post holiday season can be, Mother Nature gives us some stunning decoration.  We've been keeping busy, occupied and isolated while watching the daily shit show that is the national news.

Here is some footstool photography showing some deep winter knitting.  We keep it pretty cool in the house and I worry about keeping The Boy warm.  It brings to mind the scene in Dr. Zhivago when Yuri comes home early and yells at Tonya for letting the fire go out.  "The stove is out, Tonya!  No wonder he's (their son) losing weight!"

I found this awesome free pattern for felted slippers in all sizes on Ravelry.  I used some Lion Wool I had in the stash.  I love the pattern because it calls for 2 strands of worsted which anyone can get.  I loved this lime green and mallard blue together.  They're knitted on size 11 dpns which I just happened to have and had never used.  Here they are knitted before they went in the washer for felting.

I love the mottled look of them after felting and they fit him so well.  My only concern...they are slippery on the kitchen floor and he falls!  I saw an idea to use puffy paint on the soles to make gripper socks out of them and I have some in the sewing room somewhere.

My sister is very active in her local Sons Of Norway lodge and worked on her cross country skiing badge.  Not only does she ski, but she and her kids do it in their bunads for SofN events!  She mentioned a shawl to wear with her bunad.  I'd bought this yarn a thousand years ago on ebay with a shawl in mind for her then but for years it has been sitting in my WIP box where projects go to die.  I fished it out and ripped it all out and started over on a Pointed Firs shawl for her.  I've knit a couple of these and really enjoy the pattern.

This yarn was a fingering weight wool blend of some sort and a reddish brown color.  When I rewound and metered the yarn, I think I measured about 1700ish yards.  I used up all the yarn and it is an OK size for her to wrap and pin around her shoulders but in a perfect world, I would have liked it to be a little bigger.  Then again you don't want it too big where it gets in the way, especially if you are skiing in it.  It was also a knitting black hole and frankly I was sick of it and getting terrible Start-itis!

The top 2/3 of the shawl is a chevron texture with increases and the rest is mindless garter stitch with increases.  It was nice TV knitting but I was ready to move on.  It is a wonderfully satisfying feeling to have used up all that yarn and get it out of my sewing room!

We had a wonderfully quiet Christmas with just the 4 of us.  My house is in the middle of my parents and siblings and the easiest halfway destination for everyone.  I have come to accept that I will be hosting our Christmas for the rest of my life.  This year I didn't have to clean, bake or cook.  I hate to say it, but it was kind of awesome.  We put the tree up but I didn't put any decorations on it because someone is very curious about them keeps grabbing and pulling on them.  He was much more interested in unwrapping presents this year.  Last Christmas he was still too little and couldn't be bothered.

We've enjoyed the snow and the frozen pond.  This year our neighbors have their hockey area cleared off and their gear seat up.  They've also been grooming the ice with water regularly and we'll need to approach them with some baked goods to ask if we can skate there when they're not using it.  Lopi loves being out on the ice too!  Dave and I have skates but I look for childrens' skates every time I go to Savers.  I did get 10 Minnesota Wild pucks on one of my last trips there!

I still can't believe we had a would-be coup last week.  Thank god they were dealing with idiots and rednecks who were inept and didn't bother concealing their identities.  How far did they think they were going to get?  We've had CNN on nonstop watching the aftermath.  I don't even recognize my own country, although I've been saying that for the last 4 years.  I'm so glad we're moving toward impeachment AGAIN and still think it was a crime he wasn't removed the first time around. I'm ashamed of the hypocrisy of the enabling Republican party and even after he put them personally at risk, they are still defending him.  I know he has only days left but it is important he is impeached because he'll lose his pension and protection.  I hope he and his family are literally SHUNNED after all this.  They are poison and should be ashamed of themselves.  I can't even speak to my in-laws and sometimes my own father right now.  I am very nervous about the Inauguration and praying for peace and a smooth transition.  I have to admit I'm enjoying the smug satisfaction of being right after having seen the train coming down the track for 4 years.  As much as I want to move on peacefully, I also wouldn't mind watching the indignity of that man removed from the White House and handed over to the authorities.

In the meantime, we have work to do taking care of each other and keeping each other safe and healthy.  I've had my first dose of vaccine and my second dose will be in a week and a half.  I'm hoping the new administration will get the ball rolling and get our community vaccinated.  The goal is 100 million doses in the first 100 days.  Dave's school goes back to full time learning in 2 weeks and I want him vaccinated ASAP.  

Tis the season of making our own light and warmth to combat the cold darkness outside.  Nothing beats home baked bread in January or from scratch soup on the stove.  Ever since we invested in our Instant Pot, I've been saving bones in the freezer and every so often I use up some limp aromatics to make bone broth.

I hope for a return of rational and critical thinking in this country.  I never thought we'd be a disgrace on the world stage.  Our politics and this pandemic have revealed how selfish we are as a country.  We have never had to suffer or work hard for anything and that creates a collective weak character.  Help us find a renewed community spirit with the desire for public service to get through all this unrest.  Help us regain a dignified place in the world community.  God bless the United States of America.

Arlo

I finished finishing Marek's newest sweater Arlo and I absolutely love it!  We had almost 2 weeks of glorious warm fall weather so we could go out for some glamour shots. 

Here is the cabled back.  The sleeves knit up in a flash because they were plain stockinette.  Here he is playing in the free-on-the-curb water table Dave found on his way to work.  It was in pretty sorry shape but we did play with water in it until the Boy broke the pump off.  Dave had the brilliant idea of filling it with the contents of the fraying sand tubes from the bed of the truck.  Now we have an elevated sand box.

We never carved our pumpkin this year which is OK.  This way we could use it for a fall photo prop.

The Boy absolutely would not let us put his sneakers on and wanted to wear his crocs for the photo.  He was just up from his nap and a little hangry.  I didn't push my luck about the shoes...

...because he wasn't cooperative the entire time!  I was happy with the shots we got before he melted down.

I played a little yarn chicken before I finished up his Eventyrlue hat/hood.  I used up my remaining skein but had part of a mitten I'd started and abandoned to change needles and repeats.  I cannibalized all but about a yard and half of that mitten to finish the hat!  Now Marek has all his winter accessories needed for the season and I can start on some for Dave.
 

 This was the longest week of my life waiting for election results.  I stayed up until 0300 on Election Day but it made me too nervous to knit in front of the TV and watch it.  I turned on the TV in the family room and retreated to the sewing room.  Every time I'd get up to the ironing board, I'd wander out to check the progress.  Dave's truck got stolen last week in broad daylight from the parking lot at his work.  I was sitting in the car with Marek at a car dealership while Dave was out test driving a new vehicle when we heard the news that Biden was the projected winner.  I haven't felt that relieved in a very long time.  Our neighbor a few blocks away had this display on his fence and it was a joy to behold.

 Our weather is beginning to turn cooler and wet.  I'm so nervous about work.  Our Covid numbers in this county may keep Dave from working at the school so we're waiting to see how that will play out.  Pfizer released extremely optimistic vaccine news today but we have to get through this surge first.  Biden addressed the nation today as the President-Elect urging people to wear masks and was that ever refreshing.  We are stocked up and ready to hole up at home.  We've already decided we are not getting together with any family for Thanksgiving and probably not Christmas either.  I am thankful for technology because I can see family over the phone but of course it is a poor substitute.  Take comfort in small things.  I love looking out at our gumdrop tree.  Be safe and wear a mask.  Take care of each other.  God Bless the USA!

Premature Winter

We had a snap of winter weather earlier in October and I was woefully unprepared on the knitwear front.  The Boy loved running amok in the snow in the coat I got on clearance last year that fits him perfectly this year.  His hat is too small and his baby thumb-less mittens hardly cover his little hands.  It didn't stop him from enjoying our first major snowfall.

Lopi enjoyed the snow too!  She loves to prance and sniff and snort in the snow.  Our girl just turned  8 years old!

This boy is a busy toddler but he loves to color.  Sometimes I can keep him in the high chair with his coloring book and some washable markers and I can get some paperwork done...

...and he loves to play or color in the play room that is always one big fallout zone.  I can sit on the futon and close the door and get some knitting done while he plays and does his thing.  I just love when he plays with the play food!  He's not yet at the point where I can place my order and he'll bring it to me but we count and talk about colors and sing the alphabet and other songs and I listen to him babble and talk to himself.  I have been able to get some significant knitting done too!

One of the projects I've been working on is a new cabled sweater for him.  Here are the pieces knit and piled in a lump before I wove in the ends.  You can see the general detritus littered floor of our living room in the background.

I blocked the pieces to the dimensions called for in the pattern.  I get so impatient waiting for it to dry! 

The shoulders are seamed and then the cowl neck and button band are picked up and knitted before being blocked AGAIN.  You're killing me!

I had to wait again before I could sew the buttons on.  I worry the lower center edges will ride up because of the ribbing.  I knit myself a Roosevelt cardigan and had that trouble.  We'll see how this goes.

I used Cascade Spuntaneous Effects worsted for the sweater and had almost a full skein left over for more winter bits and bobs including a pair of spiral mittens with thumbs for this season.  This pattern came from Homespun Handknit which is a wonderful winter outerwear pattern source book.  I've knit lots of these for other kids over the years but this is the first time I've knit them for my own son.  My heart nearly burst!  

The "newsprint" in the background is actually the new top sheet I made for our bed out of 2.5 yards of 108" wide cotton fabric purchased from Joann's with a coupon.  I brought it home, washed it, ironed it, safety pinned the selvages together so I could fold and shake it into shape to find the straight edges.  Dave had to help me hold it and fold it while I aligned it and trimmed it as straight as I could along the sides--this was the most difficult part of this easy project.  I hemmed the 2 trimmed sides and one of the selvage edges because the print did not go right up to the edge.  The other selvage was printed all the way to it's finished edge and also the side that will get tucked under the mattress so I left it alone.  Done. Anymore I only buy fitted sheets instead of sheet sets because Lopi circles and "digs" at our bedding before she finally lays down and many a fitted sheet have been ripped this way.  Because of this we have some mongrel bedding that I'll use for the fabric in some eventual utilitarian project, but in the meantime I just replace the fitted sheet and make my own top sheets.  This way I can literally roll around in my fabrics!  I love having favorite and seasonal prints around the house in our daily textiles.  I make most of our pillow cases for the same reason.  I took the Ikea twin duvets off the bed in the ceremonial Changing-Of-The-Bed-Linens from summer to winter.  In summer we each get our own sheet encased duvet and we sleep on a fitted sheet.  In the winter we have a fitted sheet, a shared top sheet and several of my quilts.

 Back to the knitwear, I'm knitting another Eventyr Lue out of this same yarn remnant and I finished a larger Minnesota Gopher bonnet style hat but haven't managed to take a picture of that yet.  I got the yarn on closeout from Webs.  I've also discovered Hobbii and know I've ordered yarn twice from them and 2 or maybe 3 times from Webs during this pandemic.  I am using the stuff though.  

 Speaking of pandemic, I had my own Covid scare a few weeks ago and had to get a test which took practically an act of Congress.  I'm so disgusted and frustrated that this far into this, as a country we still don't have our poop in a group.  Once I got approval and a test ordered, I had to find a place that had an opening to perform the test and then I waited 4 days for results and was out from work.  Thankfully it was just a nasty snot/chest cold but I work in a high risk job and I didn't want to spread it to anyone else.  Things are getting hotter at the metro hospitals and that worries me daily.  Dave is still working at school and his teacher is out for 14 days due to an exposure.  Nationally we are not producing testing reagents so there is no rapid testing capability at my metro hospital.  Let me repeat that: My metro area hospital has no rapid testing capability.  Every day I am more and more flabbergasted at how this administration has handled things.  I'm sure the reagent production tows the line of his philosophy that less testing results in fewer cases.  Would that were true, I wouldn't be fat if I never weighed myself.  I'm going about this fertility thing all wrong because I'll never ovulate if I never test.  Can he hear himself when he speaks?  And I don't even have to say his name for you to know exactly who I am talking about.

Tonight is also the eve of Election Day and I am a nervous wreck about tomorrow.  I think it is going to be a rough week no matter who wins.  It makes me sound old when I say I never though I'd live to see such times.  I'm feeling the need to watch Lord Of The Rings.  I'm reminded of Tolkien's simple philosophy of, "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."  I have a beehive in my chest all the time these days.

Help us get through this election and the pandemic.  Our numbers are surging here in Minnesota.  We've had over 3,000 new cases every day for almost a week which is quite literally 10 times what they were a month ago.  I'm so beyond angry and frustrated with people.  This is the embodiment of exponential spread we've been warned of and it falls on deaf ears, including my in laws.  I find it utterly offensive to my sensibilities when I hear people say this will all go away on November 4th, and I've heard several people in my life say that.  Are you effing kidding me?  The virus doesn't care who you vote for.  I don't understand why it has become political.  It is science.  It is not a matter of if you believe it, it matters that you understand it.  It is science, not the Easter Bunny.

Focus on something positive...  Here I am getting ready for work and my little boy is also brushing his teeth with his dad's toothbrush.  He loves to wash his hands in the sink but really he just rubs his hands in the water and the bowl of the sink.  You can see one of our paperboard Halloween decorations taped to the bathroom door.  I do so love putting out my fall decorations but they have to be toddler proof.  We didn't dress up or go out on Halloween.  We had plenty of candy but we stayed in.  Of course I wanted to dress him up and take him over to his grandparents' house but it is not the safe or responsible thing to do.  I'm thankful he is so young and it is us grownups missing out and he won't remember that he is missing out on the best kid holiday of the year.  Hopefully next year...

Marek has colored on the walls a few times and thankfully washable marker washes off.  We've had to have several talks about only coloring on paper.   How can you resist that face?  You can see how long his hair was getting so it was time for another homemade pandemic haircut.

 

I think this was the 4th time we've cut it here at home and I think it looks pretty good other than above his ears where it got a little short and looks like a monk haircut.

 I requested the day off tomorrow so I can keep an eye on the election.  I am off to my bed for some fitful sleep before an anxiety riddled Election Day.