Furry Crocheted Christmas Ornaments

It's beginning to look a lot like ... Christmas Ornaments! I know, crazy to be thinking about Christmas when the high today in Phoenix is 111 degrees, but I'm on to another destashing project. Glanced at a shelf in my craft studio this morning, saw these yarn scraps ...

and thought Furry Crocheted Christmas Ornaments would be just the thing to think cool!

I still consider myself a novice crocheter, not too confident with any pattern that has stitches to be counted but, I promise you, this is so easy -- seriously, if I can do it, I believe you can too!

The white yarn with a metallic strand shot through it is a #2 Fine/Baby on the Standard Yarn Weight Chart and must be left over from a baby item made years ago (I no longer have the identifying ball band). The fancy yarns are both Lion Brand: Martha Stewart Glitter Eyelash in Brownstone #526 and Fun Fur in Sapphire Blue #109.

Furry Crocheted Christmas Ornament

This ornament can be very organic with whatever yarns you like or have on hand but for the blue ornament, I used:

White #2 Fine/Baby Weight Yarn for the main color
Lion Brand Fun Fur in Sapphire Blue
H/8 Crochet Hook
Yarn Needle for weaving in ends

- - - - - - - - - -

With main color, chain 5 and join

Single crochet 12 times in circle and join end of round with a slip stitch

{I like to crochet over the tail of the yarn to omit weaving in the end later}

Chain 2 (which counts as first Half Double Crochet {HDC}

HDC in each stitch with 1 chain stitch between each HDC

Join end of round with a slip stitch

Chain 2

In each space, make 2 HDCs and chain 1 between each space

Pick up the strand of fun fur and, together with the main yarn, chain 3

Because the 2 strands of yarn together can be a little difficult, keep your stitches slightly loose to make it easier on yourself

{You will weave in the fun fur tail later}

Between every HDC, do a Double Crochet, chain 2

Here is the round half done ...

Slip stitch to join end of round

Bring both yarns through last stitch to knot them, but do not cut yet

Drop the main color yarn and chain 22 with the fun fur to make the ornament hanger

Connect the last stitch to the ornament at the beginning of the chain with a slip stitch to make a loop

Cut both yarns leaving a 3" tail, draw them through the working stitch and tighten to knot them

Then weave in all loose ends with yarn needle

Now wait patiently for the holidays to hang it on your tree or use as a present topper. The granddaughter asked if I could make her a black one with red fur. Hmmmmmm ... off to check my stash.

128 days until Christmas!

So many projects, never enough time ...

Sew a Coffee Cup Cuff :: Tutorial

I know there are a gazillion tutorials to make sleeves for coffee cups, both the paper kind served at coffee shops and insulated plastic to go cups. Well, now there are a gazillion and one because I've been rolling this idea around for a while and decided to try it out by making something special for my dad for Father's Day.

I purchased this 16 oz. Copco double-wall insulated plastic cup from Bed, Bath & Beyond for $5.00. It does have a textured, non-slip sleeve but adding a fabric cuff over it is so much nicer. I have a huge bag of my husband's old dress shirts that I intend to turn into a quilt someday, but I kept thinking how cool it would be to chop the cuff off of one of them to make a "masculine" coffee cup cuff.

This shirt is made of very soft, heavy 100% cotton. I used my rotary cutter to slice the cuff off about 1" above the edge of the cuff. Let me just say now that there is no fancy math or measuring in this project ... everything is simply eyeballed. Yep, this is my kind of project!

There are 2 buttons already on the cuff, which were perfect to use as is. For a loop to fasten the cuff, I used a small ponytail holder cut in half. This package is from the grocery store -- 40 for $4.00 which works out to $.10 each. Cut in half, that's a nickel for this project.

Since the shirt cuff is already 2-sided and fairly thick, I added a piece of linen for lining and a piece of flannel for padding. Again, cutting these pieces was done by eyeballing, no measuring involved. I made the lining larger than the cuff and the flannel smaller than the cuff.

Iron the cuff flat and press the long raw edge to the inside. Turn under the 4 edges of the linen lining so it fits within the edges of the shirt cuff and iron.

Fold the small piece of ponytail elastic in half and stitch to one end of the linen lining on the inside/wrong side. I just stitched back and forth over it a bunch of times with the sewing machine.

Layer the shirt cuff right side down, then the piece of flannel, and top with the linen lining right side up. Here is the one very important step to make sure this turns out correctly ... place the end of the lining with the elastic opposite the end of the shirt cuff with the buttons. 

Pin the heck out of the layers to keep everything in place while you stitch it together but remove the pins as you go along; don't sew over them. Because you cannot run the short end with the buttons through the sewing machine, just stitch down one long side, across the end with the elastic, then the other long side.

Even though I starched it, the linen was a little stretchy and I had to sew very slowly, continuously raising the presser foot and smooshing it (technical term) as I went along. Note to self: quilting cotton would probably be much easier to use as a lining.

By hand, whip stitch the lining closed on the button end.

Voilà!

Wrap around your cup and go ...

By recycling/reusing the shirt cuff with buttons, this project is fast and easy to make. Masculine gifts can be so hard to come up with, I love the idea of using a men's dress shirt to make these.

Wouldn't they be fun in a solid fabric embroidered with his name or initials? Or with a meaningful patch sewn on?

So many projects, never enough time ...