PlanetJune Blog: Latest News, Patterns and Tutorials

Here’s my latest fuzzy crocheted friend… meet Fuzzy Chick! 

I’ll be including the pattern for this little guy as a freebie with my next pattern. Look out for Fuzzy Bunny & Chick in the next few days – so you’ll have plenty of time to get crocheting before Easter!

Here’s the chickie with the original Fuzzy Bear:

I’ll also be setting up a mailing list in time for the release of the next pattern, so you’ll be able to sign up and be automatically notified whenever I release a new pattern.

UPDATE: Looking for the patterns? You can find the Fuzzy Bear crochet pattern and Fuzzy Bunny & Chick crochet pattern in my shop.

To everyone who tried unsuccessfully to buy the Fuzzy Bear crochet pattern over the past week, I’m sorry! There was a problem with the ‘Buy Now’ button and it wasn’t possible to submit an order. I’ve fixed the button now, so please try to order again – I promise it will work this time!

 

It’s my cat Maui’s third birthday and I wanted to make him something special…

I had this brown patterned fabric in my stash, and the pattern was just mouse sized… I came up with this catnip-filled mouse, with a string tail, felt ears, and embroidered eyes and nose. I know it was a lot of work just for a cat toy (those ears won’t last for long!), but I think it’s just adorable.

And, most importantly, the birthday boy loves it:

Yes, I’m a Brit, and to me they are *knickers*, not panties 🙂 

My friend Allison and I decided to get together for an afternoon of crafty goodness and we thought the OneHourCraft sexy Valentine’s Day string panties tutorial would be a good place to start.

After we had spent a while giggling and examining animal prints in the fabric store, we settled on a subtle black floral pattern, with some fancy black elastic and purpley red ribbon ties.

We modified the pattern template because it looked a little too small (aka revealing) for us, and then we pinned and sewed and pinned and sewed and… no, this was not a “one hour” craft for us! And my poor hubby had to studiously avoid listening to us discussing underwear all afternoon. But it was so much fun – I can see why people are starting up craft groups all over the place now; crafting with a friend is a very different experience to crafting by yourself.

And, eventually, look what we made (click to supersize): 

Mine are the ones on the left

They ended up looking really good – I think we were both a little surprised by how well they turned out.

Thanks Allison – we’ll have to do it again some time! 

Q: What do you get when you add:

• Fabric
• Freezer paper
• Scalpel
• Fabric paint
• Foam brush? 

A: My first freezer paper stencil!

(Don’t know what a freezer paper stencil is? Angry Chicken explains it best.)

I love it – the edges came out really crisply, and I dried the paint with my hairdryer between coats so it only took about 10 mins from ironing on the stencil to peeling it off again. This is (hopefully) going to be a handbag, although I haven’t even designed the bag yet, so it could be a little while before it’s finished.

I predict more stencilling in my future…

I’ve finished the pattern for the Fuzzy Bears! You can order it here on PlanetJune.com and the pdf will be e-mailed to you.

 

Hope you enjoy it, and I would love to link to posts or photos of finished Fuzzy Bears when you’ve made them! Happy crocheting 🙂 

This pink fuzzy bear is a commission from my sister. I made him using my Fuzzy Bear pattern. Hope you like him, Dawn:

He’s quite a bit bigger than the original bear, because I used a different yarn, but the pattern worked perfectly. Now I’ve tested the pattern I am confident about making it available for sale (look out – it will be available from PlanetJune.com soon!).

Here he is with the original fuzzy:

Now he has a big journey ahead, to cross the Atlantic to England. Bon voyage, pink bear!

UPDATE: Looking for the pattern? You can find the Fuzzy Bear crochet pattern in my shop.

I made this bag for the January One Hour Craft Challenge. It’s a smallish tote because I made it to be a lunchbag-in-disguise so I can bring food into work without being too obvious 🙂

I made up the pattern using the size of my lunchbox as the base of the bag. I used a thick black fabric for the outside, so it won’t look grubby once I’ve used it for a while. I think it’s supposed to be suit fabric, but it works for me as bag fabric! I made the lining out of thin black vinyl, so the interior of the bag can be wiped clean – always useful when it’s going to carry food.

I made the handles from the same fabric as the outer bag, and the bag fastens with one snap in the middle of the top edges. I also added a pair of magnets on each side at the top (inside the lining) to stop the sides from sagging outwards when the bag is half empty.

The crowning glory is my machine-appliqued patchwork design on the front, inspired by Wee Wonderfuls’ Hillary’s zig-zag’d patchwork bag, which in turn came from the Japanese craft book Machine Made Patchworks. I changed the method a bit – I used HeatnBond to iron the patchwork squares into place on my fabric, and then used one careful line of zigzag stitching to anchor all the edges. I completed this step first, before even cutting the fabric for the bag. I’ve wanted to try this for months, and I am unfeasibly pleased with how it turned out. I’ve never even used anything other than straight stitch on my sewing machine before!

Love love love this patchwork! I have some fabric left over, so I’ll definitely have to make something else to match my tote…