Transcripts
1. Intro: Hello. My name is Teresa, and I'm a circus pattern designer in this class. I'm going to teach you how to crow Shea a border around the police baby blanket. Perfect for gift giving or selling in your Etsy shop. Or maybe selling in a local boutique if you're new to Crow Shea, this is the perfect project for you because eliminates the number of skills you're trying to master all at one time will only be concerned with retention and the single close a stitch. If you are a season. Croshere This is still a great project toe learn. It will be a nice easy thing for you to pick up, and it does make a great go to gift when you need something in a hurry. Al Gore, All the materials that you need will go through every step together, and at the end, I would like to give you some bonus tips on how to make a label for your eye, depending on what you're going to do with it. There are different considerations you need to think about when you're giving as a gift versus selling it on Etsy versus selling it and a brick and mortar store. Those are all very different situations. And I'll give you tips on that now, regardless of your skill level. I hope you join me for this fun project to you in a minute.
2. Materials & Tools: before we get started winning to talk about our materials and tools, and I want to go over with your thing you'll need and tell you which things that I like and things that you need to consider before you actually make a purchase. If you need to make a purchase, if you're already crafter or especially if you already so then you were going to have most of these things already. But I would like to go over that with you real quick. Okay, the first thing we need will be fabric. Fleece is what you really want, because police does not Raval on the edges, and that's that's really important for this project, So anything that will not Raval would be fine. But police is really good for a baby blanket because it's so soft. Jones, make sure that it's not too thin, maybe not too thick. If you get a really thick fleeced in, you'll need to adjust the size of your Yorn will talk about that in the second. Also, you want to consider your pattern or your repeat. Now this one eyes a very large pattern, so you would want to be careful if you want to center any part of that pattern, make sure that you buy enough fabric. We're going to make our baby blanket 36 by 36. I think that's the perfect size. It works well in a car seat or, you know, laying on the floor or whatever. 36 for 36 is what I really love. That's what I recommend, especially for this first project that you do. You don't want anything too large. So, uh, that's my recommendation. But you can make it any size you really want. Just like I said. Think about your repeat. If the kangaroos were not here and it was just these little starlet things, then you wouldn't need to be worried at all because you're not really going to be centering that so much. It wouldn't be noticeable, but something this large would be noticeable. So just make sure you buy enough so that you can get whatever size you want with the pattern centered, however you want it. Okay, so next you will need your now. I love this yarn. Not only does it go beautifully with my fabric, but it's very soft and silky. You want cotton for baby. That's the best thing. Worsted wool is very scratchy. Even the softer ones are fairly scratchy for a little baby. So make sure that your yarn is Justus soft as your fabric. This one. I will tell you what this one is. It is one of my favorites because it is so silky, it's it's lovely to work with. I don't know how to say this. Name A Barrel Co. I guess. Modern cotton. There's the website. It's It's really lovely. On the back of all labels, you will find the information that you need as far as your need. Engage or your crow shake age. We are Crow Xiang, which will mean that we need a crush. I hook knitting needles. There's two when unit and they're pointed on the ends. Those were needles. The crush a hook has a little hook on the end, right like that. So on the back of the label, it will tell you all your care instructions. And this, unlike because it's the same washing instructions as the fabric. You'll want to consider that, too, and picking out your materials always goo with. I'll talk about that later, but but you really want something simple, especially for a baby item, and it gives you what yarn saws they suggest and what hook size they suggest. So this is a four, and they suggest in H Well, we're going to use a G, and I'll talk more about that in a little while. It's because of the whole size that we're using. G is just fine. Usually with yarn. You can go offer down approximately one, sometimes two, and it won't matter. OK, so I will give you a chart. Excuse me that talks about the you're in sizes and hook sizes. We'll talk a little bit about that later, so then you need to crush a hook. I like this one, not because it has the light in it, but because of the grip. It's very, very comfortable. I love this part. I just it's comfortable for me to use is why I use a bamboo. Crochet hooks are also lovely as well, but they are. You know, the shaft is the same. Size is this would be, and my hands tend to cramp. So if you have hands that tend to cramp up, if you croce for a long time, you might want to consider this one. Um, I've never found in the light useful because it puts the light source Not really where you need it. You really need to light down on top of what you're working on, not inside of what you're working on. But that's just my opinion. There's that you will need a cutting man, of course, unless you're using scissors and then you don't have to have one. But I like using a rotary cutter. Any rotary cutter will do, but you also need I skip Blade S k i. P skip bloodied. It's called that because, of course, the blades skips in places, and that's what puts our holes along the edge of the fabric that where you're going to crush a into I do this so much that I just find it helpful to have a separate handle, and I just keep this blade in it all the time. Alternatively, you could just buy the little packet of blades and switch it out with your cutting delayed . So whichever way you want to do it, it's fine. Just please don't use the same blade on paper that you use on fabric. It will tend to paper tends to dull the bleed. And it could caution, you know, have little little nicks and stuff in your in your fabric. So then here is a marker. This is a fabric marker. You can use a pencil. It really doesn't matter if you're gonna mark outside where you're cutting and you won't matter. But I just like this one. It's washable. Comes off with just a sliced, a bit of water, and it's easy to see because it's bright purple. So I like you will need a large I needle and that's for finishing off. Are you aren't at the end and then you will need a ruler Now. My husband gave this to me for Christmas, and I love this ruler. I guess it turn it around this way. Love this ruler. It has this little guard on it so that when you're cutting me, move this. Let's say you're cutting and you're holding it down and you're cutting. I have a non slip bottom, which is very helpful, especially on fleece. But then, if you slip, you're not gonna cut yourself, which I've done that too. So I really like this. They make one that's 36 inches and I want to get that one. But right now it's not available, so I will put the link down below for this one so that perhaps it's an 18 inch and, um, if you'd like to get that, that's great. I will keep my eye out for the 36 inch because I made a lot of these blankets, and that would be helpful. Toe have one. That's 36 years now. The only thing I will warn you about the one your ruler. Police is very slippery, so I had been using a quilting ruler, and I almost cut myself. Plus, I roomed a piece of fabric because you're you're holding it down and you're cutting, and it it's a very slippery ruler is one of the clear ones. I love it, but for this project, it's not good. It's very slippery, and it slipped this way while I was cutting and a ruined my fabric so I would advise a non slip ruler if you can. If you can do it, so that's about it for their tools. Let's get started on cutting our fabric
3. Preparing the Fabric: we owe. First thing is to cut your fabric to size. And we've already talked a little bit about that, so it won't go back over that again. But, um, so I've cut it 36 by 36. Cut off the salvage so that you don't have the white border of the salvage. Uh, that is you might think. Well, we're turning it under, so why would you do that? But really, we are only going to turn it under by 1/2 inch, which is a very little bit amount. And we really don't want to run the risk of a little piece of that white border coming over on the front side. That just will not give a very neat appearance. So I like to just cut it off. That way, I don't have to worry about it. Then we need to mark 1/2 inch out so that we know where we're going to be cutting with our skip blade. Now I like to try who I got that almost perfect. I like to try and get one whole. In the very corner, it rarely works out, And if it does work out, it works on one corner and then not the other corner. So don't fret too much about this, but, um and then on my rulers 18 inches. So I don't need to put a mark, you know, any more than that, so we'll just move this up. Okay, that's about 18 inches. And I just roughly come down here to 18 and mark I have and I just go to the inside, just barely. I know it's waterproof, but the market is going to come off. But just in case you never know, just be safe. We'll do this sign. Don't get closer to the edge there, so that's and again, that's just about perfect, right? Turn it and that's about 18 inches right about here. This part doesn't have to be exact. You know how often you put your little dots. It's just to give us a guide when we're cutting it. So do that all the way around on all four edges. Just mark your little half inch from the edge. So now marked my little dots all the way around. Now I'm going to take my skip blade and cut a row along the one where the dots are so 1/2 inch in from the edge. Now, I'm not gonna flip a little guard up just because I want you to be able to see what I'm doing. But I want place one of these little, little points right in that corner that I know was perfect 1/2 inch off this son and 1/2 inch off that. So, no, I'm starting out with one, at least exactly in the corner. Um, and this, Like I said, this really not a big deal. It's just nice when it happens that way and you'll see why in just a little while, So I'll put that little point right on top of that. Hold this firmly and cut all the way to the next dot. Okay, Then I'll stop. There was my blade, and then we'll move this, find the last dot. If you pull it open, you can see the little holes. They're little tiny holes, but I know that's where it Yes. So I want to start in that hole, make sure that you can see this. Okay? Yeah. I'm going to line my ruler upon that dot in the dot up in the corner, which may be out of the camera shut that I know it straight and fleece has a tendency to pool and kind of watch your edge here. This is this pattern really helps because I can see that the fabric is a nice and straight . But see if I do it like that a little bit, See how it's down. It's easy to see, so you'll just want to push it back in, pull it back out. Make sure it's nice and smooth. All right, were lined up on our dots. Find our last hole. Put the blade inside that hole so that all your holes will be evenly spaced and go all the way to that last dot And honestly, because this is almost a self healing, not really self healing fabric. But it doesn't travel, so she just going off the edge doesn't matter. This is going to be turned under anyway. You'll never see that little hole. See how you can't see those holes right here. Make sure you have to pull it apart to see them. Once we start crushing in them, then you'll be able to see them better. But But what I'm saying is if you just run it off the edge of the blanket. It's not gonna It's really not. So now we're going to do this all the way around. I will by my next dot wanted up there, blamed it up here and again. So Oops. Sorry was flying that that whole Okay, there's the whole It missed the dot by a little bit. See what I was I was talking about. So now we have our dot in the middle of two holes. So here comes the question of which one do we want to go off of? Um, you could just start over, but that's gonna make our stitching uneven, so we don't really want to do that. So how close is this to the edge? A little bit. So do we want to turn under a little more? I think that's probably what I want to do. I want to turn under a little more, so I'm gonna go with the whole that goes before our dot. But I still wanna this end with the dot over here so that this will be slightly thicker. But then it will even out, and you know it'll be correct pretty quickly. So let's find our dot the Dutch. You can even like what I was talking about. I kind of pull it down a little bit just to make it lineup where it's supposed to be a little sooner, then later find her home there. It iss all right. Just like that? No, it's true. It deal. We'll continue on all the way around until we have all our little holes made. And there you have it already a crushing.
4. The Single Crochet Stitch: way are now ready to begin. Shame. So I like to begin on the corner, Are close to the corner down on the left hand side. If you were looking at the front of your fabric, we will need to We're gonna have a tail end here beginning, and we will have a tail end when we go around and we end up, so are finishing off will occur at this point. And I just find that it's less intrusive to do it down at a lower corner. So I want to turn this around so that we are looking at your fabric this way. Find your corner hole, which is right on the dot Then I want to back up a few a few holes. Mm. Say, you know, 34 something like that. And that's where we want to begin. You can go ahead and just stick your look in there and hold your place. Now, take your Yorn. You want to leave a little bit of a tail? Um, you know, 55 or six inches is fine. That will give us plenty to work with after we're finished. So make a little loop like that and pull it up. All right, Now you're going to forget about that tale. We can use it to tighten it up later, but we really don't want to tighten it. At this point. As you're working, we will allow this edge to roll under. You don't have to be precise about it. It will just kind of happen naturally. You can hold your yarn any way you want. This gives a lot of beginners a little anxiety about how do you hold your yarn? Well, you hold your yarn, however, is easiest for you. And the only way you can figure that out is by practicing over and over. And I find that my grip changes depending on my mood or how much I've been crushing. So this is this is just what works for me. I put it between my pinky and my ring finger and just kind of wrap it around like that. Then wrap it around my index. But you do it however you need to as long as you can move your finger back and force to make this loose or tighter as you need to. And this first ditch, as you see is is very very loose, and you want to be sure that you don't pull on it as much as I did right there to make it shorter. So let's just allow that get longer again, all right? And you may adjust your the way you hold it several times throughout this project, and that's fun. So we just want to secure it a little bit by pulling up a loop just like that. That's all it is. Pull loop through that loop now for a single crow. Shea, we're going to single Crow Shea two times in each one of these holes that will count is one of the end. But you don't have to worry about that right now. We're only going to do one single crow shayt in this one at this time. So you take your hook through, grab a hold of your yorn, pull up a loop by pulling it back through the fabric through that hole. All right, so now really have two loops on my my hook. You want to grab that yarn and pull it through both loops just like that, they were going to move to our second hole, so let's find their second holes right there. Poke your neo or your excuse me. Your hook through that whole. Allowing this to fold over, See how I can keep my tension. And I just rotate my hand like that, grab the yarn, pull up a loop. And I am holding the fabric right around the whole spot with my thumb and my middle finger right here and kind of pulling a little bit so that there's tension on that loop just holding it taut. Grab that yarn and notice how I'm rotating my hook as I come around, grab the yarn. Rotating that hook so that it doesn't slip off the tip. Hook helps. But if you don't have tension on it and rotate it, it could still slip off. Pull it so that hook is facing down now and pull it through both loops. Okay, that was one. So sometimes I hold my yarn here to just you'll find little things as you work. That will help you depending on what problem you're having. So I just to keep control. Sometimes I will hold on to that because I know I'm sticking this whole thing through the hole, and I kind of want that to be out of the way, stick that through the whole come up the back, grab your yorn, turning the hook so that when you pull it through, it doesn't fall off and then notice how are kind of pull on it a little bit to keep this tension on. Both of these loops equal just kind of Give it a gentle you can rock it back and forth while holding pressure down here. You know, if you need to tighten it up, just raise this finger with this index finger empire and it will cinched down on that loop . Or relax that tension and it will loosen that up without going crazy loose. So when I get it to where I feel like that that I like that tension go around, grab the yarn, turning my hook downward, pulling it all the way through again. That's two single crow Shay's all right. Like I said, don't worry about this first ditch coming back to that later again, just gently folding over that edge. I'm not really measuring it. I'm just allowing it to roll over because these stitches are encouraging it to roll over. You don't have to worry about them out. I say I've talked so much that this is kind of gotten way too long. So my tensions off. So I'm going to start over. And honestly, I'll do that a lot throughout the whole project, just readjusting, and that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. See, I'm gonna do it again because I didn't feel good about that once. All do it again, and this is going nowhere, so I don't have to worry about this. That's a great thing about crushing on this. This fabric kind holds things in place a little better to the when you're just crashing. It can kind of loosen up on its own. Justin moving around and this fleece does a good job of kind of gripping the yarn a little bit for you, so it helps you with your attention. All right, so again full. Didn't that over find your next space going to poke that through, grab your yarn, turning my hook downward as I come through the hole, pull it up and I just like to give it a gentle didn't a little rock back and forth sometimes even at my tension, make sure we're still good intention. Grab that yarn, roll it around, hook downward. Pull it through two loops. All right, that's one for that whole. Do it again. Grab you, Yorn. Pull it through and we're gonna check our attention and pull it through the two just like that and it should. You're should be looking similar to this. If it's not, don't fret about it. But the time you get all the way around this blanket, it will look more like that. Try not to decide. You know, if you're looking at yours and you're going, Oh, but this one's really loose and this one's really tight. Unless it's really obvious, I would encourage you not to rip it out the more you pull this through, which that's very easy to do and just start over or even back up a few stitches. But what's going to happen is these holes are going to get stretched out, and you can pull it out two or three times, and it's not going to be noticeable. But every time you pull it out, it's stretching that hole a little more and a little more, and it will start to be noticeable. So just realized This is your first project. It doesn't have to be absolutely perfect. Okay, but the time you make it all the way around, you'll be much happier with your attention. So if also another little tip if you notice, let's say at this stage we've only only done this once in these holes. Let's say there's a big hole there that you can see through. You can see the back side. That means your attention is too tight. You need to loosen up a little bit. These stitches should rest very comfortably on top of this fold. See, nothing is pulling nothing. You can't see the space of that hole. You can see through to the back side over here, and they're not loose. They're just laying down perfectly on there. That's your goal. But like I said, don't fret. If you're not there yet, it will all work out. You will get better and better as this progresses. So let's do a few more together. All right, here's the next hole we go through the whole. Sometimes you can't have toe Po Cardiff. If your blade didn't get all the way through or something, you have to kind of push it a little bit. All right, come up. So that the yarns in front of your hook? I didn't say that before, but that's you want it in front of your hook, Come around pulling it downward and up through the hole. Kind of check your don't pull too hard, but just kind of make sure that the tension between these two or close Then I have my hook facing the ground really backward, and I'm going to grab that yard, turning my hook around and pulling it through both loops. All right. Must do that a little quicker. This is how it's going to be when you get used to doing this. Now, if you already know how to do this, thank you for your patience with everyone else learning. We're going to pick up the pace here, so I don't want you to get to board. There are some things I need to tell you along the way, but we do want to give everyone a good foundation for how to be successful with the's single Croce stitches across our fabric. We'll do a few more now. It typically takes me 2.5 to 3 hours to get all the way around the blanket. I am not going to bore you for 2.5 and three hours watching me. Crow Shea. I could speed it up. But even at that, I fear you would get bored watching me. Croshere all the way around this blanket, even in fast mode. So I won't do that to you. But I do need to give you some tips about corners. In just a second, we will progress on the corners. And if you were doing this along with me, then feel free to just stop right here, Crow she all the way until you get to the corner and then pick up with the next lesson so that we can do the corners together cause there are a few things that you need to know. So this is what it looks like so far. And I will check back with you in a minute so that we can talk about corners
5. Corners: Don't Snip the Tip!: Now we're and her corner. We have one hole right there in the corner. If you'll notice your fabric is already trying to fold over this way, if you could do it either way, you can go ahead and let this fold over this way and then fold this side down on top of it . That would be fine. Or first do this side and then allow that corner decide to roll over. So our doing is folding the corner one side, and then the other you condone experiment to see which way works better for you. I've done it both ways, and you know, they're still always the possibility that this little corner is gonna puff out. But I'm going to show you in just a second how to deal with that. I have gotten to where lately I'm having better luck going this route, folding the other side first and then this side so I'll do it that way this time. Now, do not be tempted to snip off that tip. Do not snoop the tip. That's because you would think that if you got rid of this tip, it wouldn't be Aziz likely to pop out from underneath our stitches. But what, in fact it does is thin. If that tip is gone, it gives you then two tips on either side of that cut, and they tend to pop out. So you've actually just doubled your issue. So do not snip that tip. You actually need that fabric to help hold everything underneath. So let's fold there in. Let's fold there on all hold it in place, get my yarn ready and we want to put four or five crow shays around this corner. I like five because I like to have to on this side, one across that center edge and then to on that side. I just think it holds it better, and it turns a softer corner, as you will see. So there's my my whole and just kind of work it in there, and this whole is going to stretch and you want it a little looser than you've been doing these because we are making a turn. So we need a little extra in this 1st 1 Not so much, but there's one making a little bit taller. There's too Now I'm going to try and encourage it to go at a diagonal here and you know it . It's not gonna go exactly because it's got to get around that corner. Then we're going Teoh. What? That stitch Get a little taller. Pull that through. And now we're making that corner. Let's do two more. Try. Toe. Hold that piece down. If you can get your yarn to go over the top of that little tail, that's that will help this one. I'm going to do a little tighter, and I think I actually split my yarn there. So let me start over on that one. I accidentally split it. That means I put my hook through those strands and I don't want that to happen. All right, let's do it again. And I can make this one a little bit tighter than we did that center one. So we're tightening our attention back up, and these were very slight adjustments. Intention? All right, so there are five in that corner and see, how will that lays down now? We'll go ahead and do two more here, and then we're gonna go back and talk about the backside. So where is our next one? Right here? There's too. All right, so like I said, because we're putting so many in there, we're going to have kind of a large hole that will relax. So don't fuss over that too much. Just kind of encourage it to close back up. It will relax, and you're not ever going to notice it. But look what happened over on the back, Our little tail. A little tip poked through, which sometimes happens sometime. Doesn't. I'm glad it happened here so that we could talk about this. So take your you're darning needle and let's tuck it back down. Up under those stitches on this has a blunt tip, so you can really use it, Stuff it down in there and move those over. And you want to kind of finger press it like that? No. Now, that looks fine. You can put that down, but see how having two stitches over here, one in the center and two over here really help that corner too smoothly round out. The fewer stitches you have, the more they will split apart and you will have that fabric poking out on the end. There's one other thing I want to show you real quick. So what happens What do you do when you're crushing and let me see? Wrong hole. Okay, let's leave. That one. Didn't do it, but this was going to do that. All right, Now notice this. I pulled it up. Look how loose that is. So what should we do about that? That one's really loose. If I go ahead and crow Shea, see how large that is compared to those that's very large and loose. Well, let's take it out. That happened because this loop here was too large when you went back into the hole to pull a pure your next crow Shea. That's why that happened. So you just pull it out, tighten this up on the shaft of that hook and if you hold it like I was talking about before, kind of helps prevent that, you know, as long as he keeps intention here. So it's I'm not cinched down on, and it's not really tightness just snug, but I can still move my hook within the loop, hold it, keeping the tension there that fixes that problem. So I just started thinking, if you're having some loops that are really large, which often happens when you're just learning to do this. That's how you fix that. And that's why that happened. So I don't know why I just took that out, So All right, That's how you handle corners. So I will let you finish your blanket, and then we will talk about finishing it off and how to what to do with your ends at the at the end of it.
6. Finishing Off: To Knot or Not-to-Knot: Okay, now we have finished the blanket. Now we just need to tile Koreans so we don't want a gap here. Like what you're seeing right now. We want to fill that gap and make it look as natural as possible. So notice how these stitches look like wheat. We want to mimic that. Although there is not going to be a single grocery here. We want to look like there were. So I've taken and cut my ball end of the aren't off and this is a little short. You really want about 10 inches, and then we'll cut it back to this size. But, um, it just makes it easier to work with, But mine is a little short. So just knew that this needs to be longer to make it easier to work with. So the hook had just come out of here. That's my last single Crow. Shea and I've taken my hook out, threaded my end after I cut it off the ball. So if we pull that damn seem and we laid it over that, would that would make it blend right in. So how do we do that? So that it's not noticeable Well, this is the best way I have found. Have this this movie to front and don't let that look go anywhere. See how our first stitch that was not really a full single crow? Shea. We just pulled a loop up and then pull the lived through one loop. So it's not a full croquet, but it's similar. We want to tie into that. So I'm going to place my needle underneath those two first strands. Okay, That's because if I goto, one is going to make this separate and that's not going to look as nice. Is that so? Let's take both of those. That would have been a first ditch. And now we want to take it to the center. Part of that first stitch that looks like a little wheat because see this how they all do. They come out from this ditch before them. So was put that up through here and do not pull it very tightly because it's going to cinch down on your that first itch, so just kind of snug it up. And now we take and go through from the bottom of this loop a blank, that right? And now you can sit, Sit down and we want to mimic the size just like these ditches. I want to look about the same size, and that's about right. You can pull it a little more for one of a little tighter kind of work it, Work it in there. Okay, Now we have to do take your NATO and let's go back down through the same space. But let's look to the back here. We want to still maintain that space between those two. So don't actually see. This is why you need a longer a longer piece. Because we're really spinning around. Okay. And now pull that down through there, kind of bring it still. It is at the peak of that loop. We can pull this into working Snuggie everything up. Okay, so from the front, that looks pretty good. You're going to pretty all this up here in a second. Just kind of pulling things, pinching them, making the yarn go the way I want it to go now see? Looks pretty good. And what we want to dio is to bring this end down to the bottom because I want to get that away from this top egx. Now here's what we need to talk about. Nodding versus not putting, do not or not. Do not. And crucially, we typically do not tie knots when we join yarns or tie off. Yes, it's it's not necessary. Most of the time I want to show you and typical crow shaped piece where the whole thing is crow shape. What you can do is you take your tail and you will leave it in. You will go this direction and then you will go back in the other direction. And you know you will do it closer together than what I'm actually doing here because I'm not actually doing it. So you want you would go back and forth in two different directions like that, and that weaves in your tail underneath your stitches on the back side so it would be like this underneath your stitches that will hold it in place for most things. But I have a different theory. I sleep better at night on baby items, knowing that my tails are absolutely secure or secure, as I can reasonably get them. So because this is a baby item and because we do not have rows and rows of crow Shea here, do we? We only have one row of crow Shea. So we really I could go back and forth this way. But it's really not going to hold the yarn very well. If I did that because of that, I really want to make sure that my yarns days nice and secure. Since it is a baby item, I will go ahead and tie a knot. I keep my not fairly small. Small is I can give it so that it's not noticeable. That just gives me a little peace of mind. And now all we have to do through each one and see how, because of the fold of the fabric can I have a little channel down in there? I am just going to put my needle down between those two pieces of two sides of fabric in that little channel, and I'm going to run my yard all the way down. This will help you hide it and we'll hold it in place for the most part, you know, depending on you don't know what what people are going to do with this. You know how rough they're going to be on it. How often is going to get washed? You know, you just you don't know. You can't guarantee that that's not going to come out, but it probably want. And this is what I like to leave early, long ends so that we can make this run a long way, and I'm trying to get it a little further. Don't you just hate that when that threat splits that way? There we go. You don't know that I could make that happen. What I'll do is I was do this another trick. I wanted to go further, and I want to actually really bury that end. So I'm gonna go ahead and put my needle through there and now I will through it the needle after it's already in place. Now pull it through, and that's OK if it Bunches up. I really wanted to do that so that now I can make it relax and pull all the way back inside . So that's one sign, and he hopes now we'll go to the other side and this will actually help to pull that not down insight as well. Get it out of sight a little more to me to get off camera. Turn it too, so I can handle it a little better. We'll make a turn. That turn helps toe hold this side and in place. And you could have actually taken both ends and gone in the same direction with them. I'm just like, separating them. If they're together and one starts working lose, they're both going toe toe work loose. This way, they won't necessarily both work loose at the same time. Right? I'm going to run it. Yeah. All right. We're getting close to the end. See if I can this one more time without having to take the needle out. Take that yarn out. No. Rented a long way so that I could be sure this will be the last time. Perfect. Stretch it. Oops. I have a little piece that's wanted to pull out, So we'll take the I end and stuff it down in there. I don't know why that happened. Just didn't want to go in that. All right? No, we go. So that's what the back looks like. And that's what the front looks like. You can barely tell you would have to really scrutinize that to tell. All right, we have finished our blanket soon. Now, let's go talk about how to label your product
7. Bonus: Labels: Now let's talk about labels. The one thing that will dictate what type of label use is going to be your method of delivery. The information on the labels will be the same or similar, and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment. But first, let's talk about type of label. So the first scenario is you're going to sell it on Etsy or anything. Where is going through the mail. Even if it's a gift and you're sending it through the mail, you might want to consider this labels. This is a nice, sturdy wraparound label that has all the information you need. The logo. What it iss the size washing instructions all of in if aeration write their own front. But you could package this up boring this getting run over by a truck. Uh, this package could get thrown around. Kicked. It doesn't matter. This, like it is not coming unfolding. Very secure now for a gift. Sometimes use this if I'm going to package it in a gift bag, and that's because it will slip very nicely down inside the gift bag but your tissue paper in there and it makes a really pretty presentation and you don't have to worry about it Coming unfolded inside the bag. This label gives it a bit of fat so that it will stand up in your bag very nicely. So I really like that one for that. Then I have another one that's just a little square like that again. It's the logo. Some information will talk about in a moment. Open it up and there's more information on the backside Has the washing instructions this particular style? How have it tacked down on the blanket is because I have a store owner who likes to hang them up. They make a really pretty display. She can just take it hanging up like that, and it invites people to come over and touch it and take it down. It's just a little clip that it's hung up with. They could take down. They can spread it out. They see how thick it is. They can feel how soft it is, and this tag will stay secure no matter what. When you just have a little tag in this type situation, and it's just hanging off with, you know, little yarn or whatever, the tag gets a bit beat up just in the handling. When you tack it down like this, it stays very secure. I had very good luck with this and punched a little hole in the top corner here and just use the holes that we crow shade in and slipped the little needle in there with some thicker yarn. Actually, it's it's a it's a forgery threat, but it's more of a according pipe. Thread is not a stick is corn, but it's thicker than a border thread, but they do call it sewing bordry threat. But anyway, so it's tacked right there, and then I only tack them the bottom corner over here so that you can still open it up and ready the information. Then, if you are going to give it a gift and you're going to wrap it, this makes it very pretty presentation where you have it wrapped in a bow and again it's the same little square label. But this time I actually did use a longer strand to tie that on on there. This is lovely. When you're going to rent the box, you could you could mail this that way if you wanted to. That would be just fine. In this particular ribbon you just want. Make sure to use a ribbon that is not going to crush or anything. I think this whole would be just signed so you could mail. This is well, just like the stability of this one holds a little tighter. This could also work in a gift bag, but it's not going to have a backbone. This other one does for the bag. Now, if you're going to sell it in a store where they're placing it on a shelf, this is the way to go. This is what I do. It makes a beautiful presentation sitting on a shelf. People can still pick it up and feel it. They're not going to want to unwrap it, but that's fine. I have any problem with that. It is nice that this one shop we'll do this. It gets a lot of attention because people can see it from a distance. But, you know, they're Shero boutiques. Weird. That's just not in their style. And that's fine. This is more and they're keeping, and it does very well. So now let's talk a little bit about the information on the blanket. Okay, so let's just talk a little bit about our labels. Plus up, they basically have the same information, except for +11 thing. They both have the logos, of course, and the basic information, the washing instructions, the size and all of that and that information backside of this one. The difference in these two is that this one specifically highlights the fact that I am a local artist. There's a little bit of a story on the inside about the process explains about that. This one does not have that. You could easily at that. If you want it on there, there's plenty of room on the back, but you could add it if you want my thought. Waas the that. If they're purchasing something that I'm bailing, then their purchasing it either through my website. I don't haven't Etsy shop at the moment, but if you do have a Nancy shop, then of course you're gonna have all of this type information on your Etsy shop description . And like I have all this stuff on my website, so if they purchased it through there, they already know that. But in retrospect, it never hurts to put it on there anyway. So when I reprint these, I may add that to the back again, but at the moment, this isn't even available online. The only way you can purchase this item for me is, is a local store. But a local store owner told me once that having the local information that's in the store makes all the difference in the world, and I have to agree with that. Sales did go up once I put that information on my card. Otherwise, it just looks like a mass produced I don't so people really do cherish handmade local items , so I would I would really be sure to put that on there. You know, we cut the fabric 36 by 36 but then we fold it under 1/4 of an inch on on each edge. But then when you crash a on, it adds back part of that. So it's just barely under 36 by 36. That's why I put approximately if you were wondering about that. Uh, one of the thing I wanted to mention about the labels is the washing instructions. You want to be careful about this This is why I was mentioning earlier about trying to find yarn that has the same washing instructions as your fabric. Because let's say that your fabric could be washed in warm water but not dried. And then you're your has toe have cool water, but it can be drawed, so you want to take the most conservative round. In my instance, these two were the same instruction, so it didn't matter. But I always go with the more conservative. If one of the items calls for cold water, then just say war separately, gentle cycle and cool water. If it cannot be dried, then I would just say, you know, do not dry if if you one of the items cannot be dried anyway, just this is a little something to think about. Uh, so that's that's really if you have any questions about labels, just just put the comments down below, and I'll be sure and get back with you on that
8. Your Project and Final Thoughts: Thank you so much for taking this class. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you find useful. And I hope you become a very successful crow share. If you are not already, Please be sure to post pictures of your blanket in the project section so that we can all who and all over your beautiful works. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate posters and then plot of that. So that everyone from your question you against him.
Teresa D., Beala™ Designs, LLC
