Teacher Appreciation

I remembered to take a picture before I gave it away!  Hooray!  The last thing I made was a Cars shirt for a friend's little boy, but I forgot to take a picture before I gave it away.  That was months ago.  I really have been in planning mode more than actual sewing mode.  I've been tracing pieces to cut out in fabric at a later date and washing fabric, but the two haven't met in weeks.  It's almost time to put away the summer sewing and begin the Fall/Winter sewing.  Thankfully, I have a fabulous issue of Ottobre Woman to get me through the transition.

My son is starting Kindergarten next week.  He's excited and plans to make tons of friends.  I, however, am not as excited.  There have been a couple of mornings with tears in my Frosted Mini-Wheats.  Shortly after we moved to VA I enrolled my son in the local Gymboree.  An art class at first till they opened a School Skills class.  For a while we were there 3-4 times a week.  We even had his 5th birthday party there.  He's had two wonderful teachers that have always been really sweet to him and who he really loves.  Today is his last day so I wanted to make sure they knew they were appreciated.  Thanks to Pinterest I was able to make something really cute for them.  Totebags and a snack!

These totes are from the directions from Skip To My Lou. I was already subscribed to this blog and saw this a while back, but when I did a search for teacher gifts this came up and I knew it's what I wanted to do.  The outer fabrics are from Wal-mart on clearance.  The inner fabrics were from Joann fabrics remnant bin.  The directions were from reversible totes, and they are, but the inner fabrics are just plain white and beige.

Inside I put a special snack gift.

This is the idea and tag from Domesticated Lady.  She did it in a smaller form, but I wanted to do it a little larger.

Both teachers seemed to really love them!

The Worst Thing I've Ever Made

It's not really the worst thing I've ever made, but that's how I'm feeling about it right now. 

I made Alex a shirt.  I wanted something I could put together quickly that didn't require me to do anything especially fancy.  I used Butterick 3475.  I've made Alex shirts before, but this pattern was for just boys instead of for both genders.  This made the fit more "manly".  With the previous shirts I've made they were tighter in the body because they needed to look good on a little girl as well as a boy, but this one has a looser body.  I really liked the pattern and I can forsee making it again this summer. 

The problems were with me.  The shirt has standard hemming on the sleeves, but after doing one I realized I wanted to hem the sleeves like Simplicity 3856 with a pintuck.  I had already done the first one with a tight stitch and ripping it out was a huge pain.  However, I persevered and after taking longer than it should have I finished it. 

The second, much larger in my opinion, mistake was the buttonholes.  First of all, before we get to my error, I want to say that my machine has a one step buttonhole.  I remembered having issues with my buttonholes, but didn't remember why.  I did one on test fabric.  It looked fabulous.  Confidant I then moved on the the actual shirt.  I marked where they were supposed to go and started.  It just kept sewing the same section over and over not making a buttonhole at all!  I thought maybe it was a fluke and tried again with another while I tried to push and pull it to make it move along the fabric.  Still a disaster.  And then I had TWO not a buttonholes to seam rip.  Buttonholes are not the most fun thing to take out (especially ones that have been messed up this way) and it took me a while.  Then I tried again.  This time I made a buttonhole that I had forced along, but it was slanted and looked a little funky.  I started to get really frustrated.  It was about this time I just so happened to push on the push plate that I had pushed when I made the first buttonhole and had, mistakenly, believed would stay pushed.  It seems that was the magic word.  Nothing in the directions mentioned that this plate had to re-pushed every time you make a buttonhole.  With this new found knowledge I was finally able to make actual buttonholes.  Relieved and tired I finished them up and sewed the buttons on.  I was so proud of my work....

 
till the boy put it on and I realized they were not only too far over, but they were on a diagonal.  The pocket also isn't the prettiest thing I've ever seen.

My son likes it though.  He picked this fabric out himself from the clearance at Hancock Fabric.  I think it only cost me a dollar or two.  The buttons were Wal-mart cheapos.  So, even with my mistakes, it's a keeper. 

To make it up to him I also stitched up some super quick super easy cheater pillows.

I actually stuffed the long one with a pillow form I found a Joann's that fit the dimensions.  He's in love.

More Baby Gifts and Simplicty Sew Along Skirt

Looking at my previous posts I realized I haven't updated in a month!  How did that happen?!  So I guess this is more of a monthly round up kinda post.  This month I made three things.  Two for tiny people and one selfish sewing project.

First up is a baby bib.  Last month I had made a bib for a baby shower I attended using Simplicity 2924.  Although I wasn't completely happy with it a friend at the shower thought it was pretty awesome and asked if I could make one for her little guy.  I had reviewed in my head what I had done wrong with the first one so I was more than happy to make another.  She's a little rock n' roll so I asked her if it would be cool to make it in a non-baby kinda pattern just for a little fun.  She's into zombie and skulls and has stuff for her kids in that style.  I really like the way it turned out!

Next up is a project I had actually anticipated making for previously mentioned baby shower, but ran out of time.  It's an infant pillow from Simplicity 2389.  I found out that the Wal-mart by my house has a row of pre-cut yards of fabric (and another Wal-mart around here still has an actual fabric department!).  Which means they also have clearance of said fabrics.  I picked up 2 yards of this pre-quilted pink check for $3!

I had felt already in my stash for the face.  The face took me a while.  I can still see the mistakes, but from afar it looks pretty cute.

Lastly, I have the skirt I made for Simplicity's Sew Along on Facebook.  I didn't contribute a lot, but I did read what others were saying and finished the project on Memorial Day.  I discussed it in my previous post.

I really like this skirt.  It's extremely spring-y, it twirls, and it has pockets!  It's got a side lapped zipper which took me a little fidgeting to get right.  After I had it hemmed (where I accidentally cut into the fabric instead the excess, oops) I put it on and realized I had accidentally sewed the lapped over part shut and had to emergency seam rip to get it on.

However, after I put it on I realized I really don't see any of the mistakes.  It still needs a hook and eye above the zipper, but I've already worn it twice without it so I'm not super concerned.  I will definitely use this pattern again.  Originally I had bought ribbon for the waist and pockets, but after putting it on one of the pockets I didn't like the way it looked so off it came.  I was unsure of the size.  In real life I'm a 16/18, but measurements said 22.  I made a 20 and crossed my fingers.  It's actually slightly big in the waist, but that's fine with me.  This makes me believe that I may be able to get away with a 20 for the Simplicity 2562 pants.

Let's Do This!

I'm going to be doing a sew along!  I "like" Simplicity patterns on Facebook and they will be doing a sew along starting tomorrow to make a skirt.  They are doing Simplicity 2185, but the only requirements were that it had to be a Simplicity or New Look pattern preferrably with a zipper.  I'm going to go with New Look 6899 View B.

She looks SO thrilled.

The fabric is from the tutti frutti collection at Joann Fabrics.  I'm a little concerned about the fabric.  I wanted something light and festive, but I'm worried it's going to be a little clown-ish.  I really like this pattern and if I get overly ambitious I can see myself making one of the tops in the pattern too.

I still have three other projects I'm working on, but this will get completed as the sew along progresses.

In A World Of Pure Imagination...

Finally!  This past week I finally took my sewing machine out of it's box and unpacked some boxes of fabric and notions.  I even completed some projects.  Unfortunately, you are going to have to use your imagination for right now because I didn't take pictures of the finished projects.  I had a baby shower to attend Sunday and a smart woman would have started making the gifts the moment she found out...this woman started it the day before...after walk/running seven miles.  I was up till midnight and tried to fix some things the morning of, but they were completed and I think that's what counts.

The first thing I made was a baby blanket.

This was the first thing I thought of to make when the shower was mentioned.  I had this fleece in my possession since 2006.  Since I have a boy I'm not sure why I bought it, but now I'm glad I did.  I did have to go out and get the blanket binding.  The original blanket was going to take two packages of binding, but I had only bought one.  I went back to get another, but I got the wrong color (picutured is "hot pink", the blanket has "shocking pink").  My husband pointed out that the original size blanket was going to be super huge for a tiny tiny person so it was downsized to a square.

Gift two was a bib.

I always raid the remnant bins at Jo-ann Fabrics and at some point had picked up vinyl and this cute fabric.  Add the leftover bias tape from the Buzz Lightyear costume.  I used pattern Simplicity 2924.  It wasn't perfect.  My husband pointed out that it was good enough for a baby to spit up on.  (He's so helpful, lol.)

I added a newborn dress that I couldn't resist at Target and a small loaf of banana walnut chocolate chip bread (recipe from Food Network Magazine).  I was very proud of the way it all turned out (although I was apologizing like crazy because that things weren't perfect at the shower).

Coming up, I still have Al's vest.  It's all cut out and taunting me.  I didn't even start the pants yet.  I think I may see if I can find a bigger pattern to fit my big butt. 

In the meantime I'm going to (hopefully) make a dress for myself.  Gotta love the selfish sewing!

McCall's 6037 View C

Hopefully the dress will be finished before the summer ends.

I also received my first issue of Ottobre Design Woman.  See that face.  She's saying "Hello, make my clothes!".

I feels good to be getting back into the groove.  I'm already thinking about Halloween costumes.  My son, having conquered being Buzz, has decided he wants to be Woody.  As I was going through my blog today I realized I never updated with completed Buzz costume.  I had made some updates before the actual party last September.  I will look for that and update soon.

Thanks to all my readers that have stuck with me!

**Update***

I'm sad to report that I'm still trying to set up my sewing space.  I'm optimistic this weekend will be the weekend the hubs and I get it in gear and tackle the downstairs, but that's what I thought last weekend.  I have the sewing itch, but can't even get to my table (which was damaged in the move, but has been fixed). 

Today I'm taking a trip to the Joann Fabric to get more patterns and fabric.  Hopefully that will make me motivated enough to get in there and at least make a path.  I've been following the Celebrate The Boy blogs and I'm so desperate to make so much of the cute-ness. 

Look for another update soon!

Damn My Ambitious Husband

I know that I haven't updated in so very long.  After I was ready to start with the making of Christmas presents we got the news that my husband had been accepted for a new job with a new company with a spiffy new larger paycheck to boot.  The thing was....we are going to have to move again.

Thankfully, to a larger city with lots to do, but it's been consuming all my time getting things ready.  Our "official" move date is 10 days from now (Jan 28) so for the last month I've been getting quotes, researching areas and schools, organizing, throwing things out, and random other moving related things.  We didn't even put up Christmas decorations.  I did however make our new stockings which I would love to show you a picture of...if my husband hadn't zipped them up and threw them in a box!

All of these means the sewing and crafting is on hold till at least Mid-February possibly early March.  Thanks to everyone who reads this!