Green Knit Hat.

This is the second knit hat I have made. The first one was a gift to a friend of mine.  These hats are simple to make and are warm.  I usually don't like wearing knit hats, but this one didn't make my head itch. It is made out of Acrylic yarn and is very soft. As you can see the bottom curls up a little bit.

This hat can fit adults and children. It stretches the more you wear it. This is made with a stockinette stitch and took 3 days to make. In my etsy shop I am charging $10 for it plus shipping. 

The knit hat

Unfortunately I didn't have any of my models with me, so you are forced to see me. (-:

The link above leads to my etsy listing. Thank you for reading my blog. (=  

My favorite meal to make.

This post isn't so much about sewing. This one is more about what type of food I like to make for my lunches. This meal is what I like to call: Veg. It is my favorite meal to make. My Great Grandmother and my mother both love the food. 

Veg Recipe

Zucchini (1 or 2)
Can of Green Beans (1 or 2)
Ham (Lunch meat ham or pre-cooked ham is the best)- You can really use any kind of meat, but ham is my favorite. I have also used Turkey burger and hamburger. 
Carrots (Slice them thin)
Onions (1 or 2)
Sweet peppers (One big one)
and Cabbage. 

I put Olive Oil or vegetable oil in the pan. Put the Peppers and Onions in first as you cut up the rest of the veg. The ham should go in last. Stir it occasionally until the veg is the right consistency. 
I usually put Garlic powder, seasoned salt, and pepper in it.

I am feeling hungry just typing it. Whenever I visit my grandmother she always requests that I make this meal for her. I usually do it twice a week. We also usually invite two of my cousins and my aunt to come eat it with us. 

You can really add any type of veg you want. I have also used Summer Squash before in it. If you load the pan full you can have leftovers for at least two other lunches. 

I hope you enjoyed this delicious blog post. (=

Back into the Blogging game.

I recently saw some other Etsy sellers are in the Blogging universe and I decided I wanted to give my own blog a fair shot again.  This blog will still be mainly about sewing, but I realize that sometimes it is nice to have a small break from just pushing my items. 

Telling a story about the items every once in a while is fun. It makes me really think about the product. 

Today's topic will be knit hats. I don't currently have this item listed, but I hope to have pictures by tomorrow. I only have 1 hat right now, but I want to make others of the same color. I have two empty knitting needles just for the hats. The colors I am starting with are green and red. The red hat is actually for my 10 year old brother. 

I plan on knitting with those colors until I am out of that color yarn. I have more yarn then I know what to do with and the hats I am going to make are very easy. 

Unfortunately I haven't had any time for sewing, so any new items I post will be Fleece scarves or knit items. 

Please remember to follow me on Twitter: Samantha Speed/GodsGraceSewing

Facebook: facebook.com/godsgracesewing

And Google+ : Samantha Speed. 

My etsy shop name has not changed, please look at the items I have there. (=  I hope to have something for everyone.

God Bless

Samantha Speed. 

Can you make money at sewing/knitting handmade items?

So, the question is, Can you make money from creating handmade items? No. At least, not if you do what I do.  If you sell online you have to pay a fee. Now, I believe Etsy has the lowest fee along with Ebay, but the problem is that people generally do not buy handmade items.

If you sell at Craft Shows you need to pay a $30-$50 fee. A lot of the time you don't even break even. (payed $30, didn't even sell $30 worth of items)  

When I went to the craft show I paid $30 for 1 table. I sold Hotpads and Cat toys. I didn't sell anything else. ($4 for hotpads and $1 for cat toys)

                                                              Both from my Etsy shop

Needless to say, this is why I believe that you cannot make money at this. Not unless you have patented your own brand of item. Which I refuse to do. It is ridiculous to restricted others from creating that same item. Your item is popular, that is great, so why can't others make the same item? It is likely that they won't make it the same way as you and if you already have loyal customers then you shouldn't be afraid of some competition. 

The other way you could make money at this is if you are not the one doing the work and are paying some poor soul 50 cents an item that they make. 

But handmade in the USA by one person isn't worth the money?  Allow me to tell you the time it takes for each item.

Hotpads: I take 1 day to cut the fabric and middle. Then I take an entire second day to iron and pin. Sometimes it takes a third day to sew all the hotpads. Once I made 150 hotpads in a week, but my fingers were bruised.

Pillowcases: I can make four a day. But that is with my mother's help. She cuts the fabric to the correct size that I need and then I iron and pin. I can have 15 pinned but it can take up to two weeks to get them all done.

Cat toys: These didn't take much time, my mom had 10 crocheted in 15-20 minutes.

Knitted items: These can take between 1 week and 6 months, depending on what it is. The Doctor Who scarves took up to 2 months. The blankets took 1 week through 3 weeks. The regular scarves took between 10 days and 1 month.

Fleece Blanket (I will soon have a made to order thing in my Etsy shop for these)- This took a lot longer then it should have. But it was 3-8 months. My fingers have been bruised and cut from this and I will be finished with this blanket sometime this week. (Lord willing)  The poor man has been waiting forever since he first ordered it.  I only asked for $75 from him, but he is a family friend. In the etsy shop it will be at least $100. (Custom made blanket)

I hope you can see my point of view.

Preemie Baby Blanket. Handmade.

Hand Knitted Baby Blanket: Etsy

This is a handmade preemie baby blanket. I made this by hand and in my Etsy shop it is 24.99, otherwise known as $25. I used a baby doll to show that it could wrap around a regular sized baby, but I think it would be ideally used for a preemie. 

This would be a perfect New Baby gift. I would suggest a baby girl as the recipient for this gift. This took around 8 days to make and 40 hours or more. I was at my Great Grandma's house, so while I took care of her I also knitted the blanket. I have started a 2nd one of these, but it may be smaller so I will list it separately. 

Thanks for reading! Please go check out the link and view other things in my Etsy shop as well.

Sewing. Hard or easy?

I have had many friends over the internet ask if I find sewing hard or easy. I suppose it is a matter of perspective. I find it hard but many other friends that I know who sew find it easy.

If you can knit and sew I will give you my perspective on both, listing both good and bad things about each.

With sewing it requires a lot of math (or so they tell me) and measuring. The measuring and ironing can become very tedious if you do it for an extensive amount of time. But the end result is very nice. The other downfall is that if you make a mistake you can spend hours seam ripping one item, which can set you back a few days.

With knitting it requires a lot of memory. You need/can memorize a pattern and forget where you are. Then you need to count all the stitches with the pattern in mind. Or you can loose a stitch and not notice it until three or four rows later. By then its too late and you need to pull it out and redo it.

Both can be very difficult, depending on how you look at it. In my opinion knitting is relaxing and sewing is a little more stressful.

Where the Wild Things are

Etsy product

This hotpad is made from fabric that I intended for a pillowcase. I have more of this fabric somewhere in my room, but at the moment I cannot locate it. I saw this fabric for sale on Black Friday at Joannes and it made me smile. I used to love that story when I was little and it was a rather large bolt, looking like it had not been chosen yet. 

I was happy to be the first. I found the fabric again recently and saw it was cut into the correct size squares for a hotpad. And since I am the only one that sews I knew it wasn't meant for a quilt. I made the hotpad and decided to charge a little more for the hotpad then I would for others. Since Licensed fabric costs more it is better to charge a little more for the product then when you normally would.

The link above leads to my product in my Etsy shop. It is $4.50 and there is only one. It doesn't have any favorites on the product itself, but on Twitter I have gotten lots of positive feedback about it.

This would be the perfect gift for a person who loves the Wild Things book.