Polymer Clay Lace Necklace

Here is one of the clay projects that I made. I found a video tutorial online for making clay lace. It looks more complicated than it really is. I don't have images of making it, but basically you take a tube of clay and wrap a flat piece of another color around it. Then you take that tube, cut it into smaller pieces and roll them together to form a larger tube. For a visual explanation, check out this video. It's not the one I learned with, but it's the same concept and I think I like it better.

For the actual pendant, I used slices from my clay lace cane and put them together side by side to make the size I wanted. I cut smaller pieces to fill the holes because since they were circles, they didn't fit together. I did it on top of another piece of clay so it would have a black backing. I cut everything out with a small round cookie cutter and baked it on a ceramic tile. Next time I'll try to remember to take more pictures.

The beads are also clay that I just moulded into oval shapes. I like the marble effect, but I'm not sure if they really blend well together with the lace pattern.

Have you experimented with polymer clay? I got my clay at Walmart for less than a dollar per color. You can also get color samples online. If you didn't know, Amazon is my favorite store!

Lacy Shirt

  This was a really quick work up. I found the pattern on Ravelry. You can find it on Lion Brand's website, it's called Crochet Bronze Beauty Top. The original pattern has long sleeves, but I think I will keep it just like this. I want to make one in another multicolored yarn with the sleeves.

  This pattern didn't give me any problems, I just followed along and everything fell into the right places. It starts off with a foundation single crochet which they call a base ch/sc. The wording through me off a little, but once I realized it was just a foundation sc, it was fine. If you don't know that stitch, they have an explanation in the pattern stitches section to tell you exactly how to do it. Piece of cake! Let me know if you try this pattern.

Another Freeform Technique

  Here is another freeform technique from Myra Wood's book. This one is called Doodle Lace. I used a scrap cotton yarn and a G crochet hook. I think this would look nice as an applique on a bag or maybe a shirt. I must say I do like the randomness, or I should say freedom of freeform crochet.  The only thing you really have to worry about is keeping your work flat. Other than that, let your imagination run wild. This swatch started with 12 dc in the ring, then in the next round I made random chains and sc in every other dc. In the next round and throughout, I made random stitches into the loops of the previous rounds and chained in between, being sure to check that my work stays flat. Another option would be to stop and turn, instead of completing the round, leaving one side flat (creating a half circle), which could eventually become a shawl or scarf.

Freeform Crochet

 

   I found this interesting book at the library recently. Creative Crochet Lace by Myra Wood. I didn't get through the whole book yet, but I just wanted to share my first freeform swatch with you. This technique is called "funky filet." In this exercise, I took groups of 5 double crochet and did whatever I felt in each grouping as long as I had 5 stitches in each group. It could be 5dc, or 3chains and 2dc, or 5chains, or 1ch 2dc and 2ch... You get the picture. The point is to keep the work flat which is why you keep track of your stitches. I did about 6 rows and here is my funky filet swatch. There are four other techniques for freeform in the book that I have yet to learn.

Refashion

   Ok, don't laugh at my amateur sewing job.  I am well aware that I have tons of learning to do in that department. I think it turned out way better in my mind. I should probably take a class sometime.Well, on to the project.

  I took this thrift store shirt and made some alterations. 

First I chopped off the sleeves and made the shirt a little more fitted. 

Then I added crochet, of course. This is an applique that I wrote about in another blog post. I just pinned it where I liked then hand sewed it in place. 

I carefully cut out the fabric from behind the crochet.

This shirt is for my daughter, so instead of leaving the open back, I added a contrasting color to the inside. Conveniently, I had a sample swatch of stretch cotton jersey in the exact size that I needed. Not the prettiest stitches, but they do the job. I had to make sure to stay behind the crochet so the stitches weren't visible on the other side. 

And the final piece. 

Butterfly Lace

  As you can see, I'm still testing out some lace patterns. This one was a little intimidating at first, but once I got the hang of it, it was a breeze. The stitches were actually very similar to the pine cone doily. The shell stitches had slight differences, for example, the butterfly pattern used dc and the pine cone pattern used tr. The free crochet pattern can be found here.

  By the way, my husband picked up this crochet thread on sale at Walmart. I'm not sure how much he paid, but he got about 5 of them. It is Red Heart Fashion Crochet Thread. The color is Scarlet, and I used a 2.25mm size hook.

Crochet Lace

  I've been looking for some crochet lace patterns lately. I want to make one of those shirts that has the lace in the back, but I didn't want to just buy a lace fabric. I want to crochet it myself. I found this pattern on Ravelry. It is for a triangle shawl, but I adjusted the pattern so I would only get four "pine cones" in a diamond shape. I'm thinking a lacy butterfly applique would work too. I'll keep you posted on the shirt as I get to it.