Crochet China Doll Chingosam

For those who thought I gave up crochet. Started a new project frogged the skirt to many people told me it would have issues so I will use the yarn for something else. This pattern is China Doll by Doris Chan. I am doing it in red might add side slits as I think it would look better more like a real Chingosam. I am probably going to have black trim too and metal frog closures. If it works out well I may make a ton of these as I love oriental looking shirts. On a side note if any one knows of a knitted shirt like this I would like to make one that way too. If you are making this realize there are mistakes in the pattern go here to find the corrections.

How to:Lilac Gift Tag

Playing with the kids coming up with holiday ideas for their Valentine's Day Parties at school, that of course are not on Valentine's Day because it lands on Sunday. I decided to make gift tags to add to the teachers gifts. Looking around the house this is what I found. These would be cute for Mother's day, or Easter too.

Supplies

• glue ( I had YES paste (17 years old and still works amazing) and Elmer's glue kicking around use what ever you like or have)
• toothpicks to use with white glue
• corner punches
• flower punch
• shipping tags
• decorative string or yarn (not pictured)
  
• construction paper in colors desired 3 to 5 colors (we used3: solid lavender, variegated pink, variegated red)
  

1. Punch tons of flowers out of construction paper we placed them in a zip lock bag and shook to mix them
   
2. Remove string from tag ( you can replace it later with same string or decorative yarn, string)
   
3. add decorative punches to the corners of tag (our tags had been notched already I wish they had not been would have been prettier)
4. add glue to tag in a paisley or tear drop like shape
5. add flat flowers to tag
6. bend petals of flowers up and place a drop of glue on back of center of flower and place in desired location on tag continue to do this till as full as you like (the photos are showing one with them added and one that doesn't have bent flowers yet)(the very first one only shows one bent flower on the right picture)
7. replace string or add new one
8. write in space left on tag your desired message

start of a skirt

This is a wool skirt I am making for myself if it works out how I like. If not I am felting it adding a zipper and giving it to one of my kids. Ok I have never made a skirt out of wool yarn. I know wool fabric keeps its shape well but I am wondering if wool yarn does too. Let me explain I was told that if you sit in a wool skirt for any length of time when you stand up the skirt may have a funny curve in it from being stretched while sitting. Is this true or not? If you know let me know. If it is I am defiantly felting it as that will turn it into a much more ridged fabric and this is a pretty loose knit currently. That should fix that problem and then one of my children would get it.

Help with damaged old sweater ?

I was given this sweater over four years ago from my Vavo it is a beautiful sweater that has hung in her closet since 1967 that is a number of years to never be worn still has the original tags on it. In 7 years this sweater would have had its own 50th anniversary made by Çift Geyik Karaca. I think the companies name means "two light brown deer" but not sure.

She lets us go shopping every now and again in her closet to get one item from her. Sad thing is at some point in her closet she had wool moths so before I ever saw it this damage was done. I kept in in the hopes I could repair it some day and wear it. I tried mending it but after 12 hours of fixing holes I wasn't even 1/10 the way done.

Secondly who ever made it made the neck hole so small it is impossible to wear the body part fits me but the head part is painful to put on it won't even go over my 8 year old's head with out pain. I can't bear to toss it as it is beautiful and has been around for so long with out ever having been used. I thought of felting but didn't know if that was like sacrilegious so to speak. If it ends up felted I will copy the image from it to graph paper. The image was hand embroidered with wool after it it was knit so tons of hand work. I would probably want to just knit the pattern in instead.

This was made in Turkey and is 100% wool. The reason I know ruffly its age is well because it was a commemorative sweater and there is a date inside on the tag, one more reason not to toss it. It has buttons that hold on the hood. Can I just say putting on such tight neck with buttons around the neck over the head it is a wounder that my girls and I do not have cuts all over our faces. As it scraped past all our faces it was painful to say the least. What was that knitter thinking oh yeah wasn't I bet that is why my grandmother never wore it bought it on a trip tried it on after getting it home and that was the result to stay in the closet.

I was so hoping I would get to wear this sweater but I don't think that is going to happen at least not in this form. I thought about felting it and making a skirt from it for me or one of my daughters, or a hat and mittens I don't know yet what will become of it, any ideas? The pompoms you see in some of these photos fell off right after the photos because the moth holes in the cords where so big just moving it around broke them off. They had been just decorative anyway they didn't actually cinch anything they just hung there as decoration to be tied but do nothing.

There are way more holes then are shown in these photos I stopped counting when it got to be over 100. Figured it would be easier to re-knit and embroider than to fix. And trust me I am not thinking of re-knitting just yet not sure I have that skill. Having made my husbands hat in black and trying to mend this in black my eyes hurt just from the thought. Sorry for the bad lighting in these photos. So any ideas!