Simplicity 1724

Okay, so this blog hasn't been updated in a while.  The tiny little Tinkerbell below is now a rambunctious three year old.  She is a most definitely a force to be reckoned with.  A Tiny Tornado.  I have made her (and the rest of us) other things in the two years since I last blogged, but never found the time and energy to blog them.  Sometimes I didn't even take a picture.  Hopefully, this will be the re-start of regular sewing blogging again.

I don't know what's up with that face she's making

It's Jungle January!  I actually bought this fabric, I think, two years ago for my then one year old.  I was bound and determined to finally complete it for January.  This is Simplicity 1724, View D.  I did not do the applique.  The fabric had a lot going on and wanted the jungle hearts to stand on their own.  I do believe I saw a jungle heart at Joann Fabrics that matched, but that was two years ago.

The pattern has two jumpers, C and D.  The view I chose, D, has more of a ruffle skirt.  Whereas C has a straight skirt.  I will definitely go back to this pattern again.  It was a quick cut and sew and I think it looks really nice on.

Pay no attention to the shoes on the wrong feet. 

Mistakes:  (Because I always talk about them and obsess)  I, for some weird reason, cut a size 4 last week.  I don't remember what I was thinking because kids' patterns from the Big 4 always seem too big anyway.  I was worried it would look like she's drowning in it.  I actually think it looks okay and I'm actually glad that she will be able to wear this next year as well.  So, I guess it was a mistake, but I'm happy about it. :)

I also had a hard time with the button holes for this jumper.  I may have just been out of practice with making them.  I spent most of today ripping and re-doing the button holes.  As I was working on them I thought maybe next time I will just use large snaps and a button or flower instead.

But, she likes it a lot and that makes it a success.

Tinkerbell and the Great Not Really A Fairy Dress: Halloween Part 2

I love Disney.  Although I was frightened at the prospect of having a daughter I have had thoughts of Disney costumes for little girls dancing in my head since we found out.  She was born in October and was very small so last year she just wore a Carter's ballerina themed outfit while I wore her in the Bjorn as my son Trick or Treated.  (I was recovering from surgery so I feel I may get a pass on that Halloween.)  This year my daughter was going to be a year old so I was excited to work on my first little girl costume.  I decided to go with Tinkerbell.  I had picked up two patterns:

Because why make one Fairy pattern when you can make two and confuse moms

I asked my friends and the consensus was the fancier Simplicity 1792.  I was game.  It looked a little harder, but I was totally up for it.  I look at that picture and I think "Tinkerbell".  She's a little fancier than the Ms Bell in cartoons, but Tink nonetheless.

At the fabric store I was concerned about making it too dark.  In my rush I went, in my opinion, too far the other way.  I think the green is called Celery.  I wanted to go with a subtle pink too.  On the bolt and in a pile with all the other fabrics they both looked more vibrant.  Instead once the dress was finished the celery looked very pale and the pink almost white.  I bought the Organza in colors that looked almost identical to the Satin.

Since Tinkerbell is the main Fairy I made the mistake of not really paying much attention to what View it was on the pattern.  You would figure Tink would be View A.  It even says A by her little foot on the envelope.  You, and I, would be wrong.  I completely constructed the top bodice using the instructions for View A which is the Blue (Silvermist-ish) dress.  This only became apparent when I went to put on the numerous tiny flower petals I had cut out and realized that I had completed and lined the top of the bodice.  I could have fixed this, but it looks complete and finished the way I sewed it so I let it be.  I was on a time crunch at this point so I was just happy it looked completed and a little relieved I didn't have to mess with all the petals.  I did, however, attach the petals at the bottom of the bodice.

At this point I was a little impressed with myself.  That looks pretty good.

Next is the skirt.  The underskirt is more Satin and the overskirt is Tulle.  So much Tulle.  Over six yards of Tulle for such a tiny little dress.  Needless to say, there was a lot of gathering involved.  I still managed to pull this off quite nicely.

Lastly, was the zipper.  Up to this point the dress, in my opinion, looked pretty amazing.  The problem came at the zipper (which is kind of a theme with me at this point).  The bottom of the zipper ends in the skirt.  The issue I had was trying to make it look neat while not completely ripping and destroying the Tulle in the back.  I don't have a picture of the finished zipper area in the back, but although it was a challenge it doesn't look too bad.   When we put the dress on her we only zipped it down to the waist.

The last part of this dress is the wings.  I thought they were going to be harder than they were.  The insides are made of a stiff netting and the outsides are the green organza.  The directions have you use pipe cleaners in a pattern on the outside of the wings secured with nylon thread.  I attempted this, but I couldn't get the pipe cleaners in the right pattern.  Ultimately I just went without and let them be a little floppy.  They fasten to the back of the dress with Velcro.

The sizes for this pattern start at 1/2 and then go to size 1.  My daughter is small.  She's started to become average height, but she's tiny otherwise.  I was paranoid that 1/2 was going to be way too small.  I should have done a quick muslin.  Instead I just made the size 1. Bear looks like she's being eaten by fabric.  I added a plain white onesie underneath for modesty.

Doesn't she just look thrilled with it?

Something I hadn't thought of was that the volume of this dress was quite impressive. (All that Tulle.)  So much so that we had problems buckling her into her umbrella stroller.  So my poor husband (seen here wearing his Jedi costume from a few years ago) had to carry her all around the Magic Kingdom.

Here's another thing I didn't think of and it became a missed opportunity.  The dress is so long on her it looks less like a Fairy costume and more like a ballgown.  Once we started wandering around the Magic Kingdom it became obvious her dress didn't look like all the other Tinkerbells.  It did, however, look like another Disney character's outfit....

Princess Tiana

If that had occurred to me before our vacation I so completely could have accessorized her better!  I could have added a flower and maybe made her a tiny crown at the very least.  Heck, if it had occurred to me before that night I could have bought her a Prince Naveen frog.  I can't believe I didn't see it before!

I really liked this pattern.  I don't think I would do it for a Fairy again, but as I was making it I was thinking about what a great Cinderella dress it would make.  I think I will make the wings again at some point.  It also made me more confident about making something more formal.  I think if I continue to make things like this I can definitely make formal dresses for her to wear for occasions when she gets older.   (If she lets me.)  I was really in love with this dress.  If it had fit properly and I hadn't had issues with the zipper I would say it was one of the more perfect things I've made.  Even without the petals at the neckline.  I may make her something simpler next year though and work back up to this again.

Mario Madness: Halloween Part 1

Blogging Halloween 2013 in January 2014.  Better than never, right?

I truly love making costumes.  I've heard the argument that it isn't worthwhile to make a costume that will be worn one night and then tossed aside forever.  I'm sure one year I will probably feel this way. (I know some kids like to play dress up so those costumes aren't discarded.  My Allie-gator has never rolled that way.  Maybe my Little Bear will when she's older.)  However, this was not the year.  The last couple of years our Halloween festivities have included being at Walt Disney World so I have made costumes for the whole family while we visit Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.  That alone would make it worth the time and effort.  Add to that the fact that I actively seek out costume wearing opportunities for my kids.  Library story times, community Halloween trails, anything where it looks like they can wear their costumes I make an effort to take them to enjoy.

My son is now seven.  This means he now has not only an opinion about Halloween costumes, but that he has more of an interest in having a "cool" costume to show his friends.  He requested a Skylander costume.  I had an idea for Tree Rex costume I was all set to start on.

Pic from wired.  This is the same look Bear gives when she misses her nap.

However, he finally, out of nowhere, decided he wanted to be Race Car driver.  No idea where that came from, but I was going with it.  On a Saturday we visited Joann Fabrics to pick out the fabric.  I was debating satins (manly satins) when Al saw the display of Halloween Patterns.  What should his wandering eyes see, but.....MARIO!

McCalls M6814 View A

Al loves video games.  Almost all video games.  I'm quite the fan myself.  I was immediately on board with this idea.  When I was a kid we had a Nintendo and one year my oldest and middle brothers went as Mario and Luigi and I was Princess Peach.  This was something easily made with the very cheap and plentiful broadcloth in easy to find blue and red.  Plus, the pattern looked simple.  (When you see the costume for my daughter in part 2 you may understand why that was important this year.)

I didn't take my usual dozen pictures of the costume from every angle.  I really had to look to find one.  We scored some fake facial hair at Target dollar area so we added a mustache and eyebrows.  My son has a thing about paint anywhere on him (no face paint, no temporary tattoos, etc.) so the fake hair worked for us because he could take it off easily.  Here's the best picture I could find:

Not pictured:  Pirates that had raided our hotel room and left that mess.

The outfit has the zipper in the front in the center of the jumpsuit.  I found, even with my zipper foot, this was hard for me.  Unlike a shirt of a skirt there isn't an opening on both sides.  The zipper also goes from the blue to the red so I had to either switch the threads while I was sewing or stick with one of them for the whole process.  I went with the red because it would look better on the top half.  I felt awkward about it though.  Even from a distance you can see the red thread on the blue.  The bib instructions were a little confusing for me.  I liked watching the hat come together.  On the pattern it just has a circle (trademarks, man) so I had to free hand the M. 

Here's a big ol' mistake I made.  When hemming the pant legs I wanted to put it on my son to get the right length.  I was working hard into the night.  My son was already dressed for bed (some of you can see where this is going).  I measured without making him wear full pants or, more importantly, shoes.  Once we got to WDW and he put on his costume it became apparent that it had been hemmed WAY too short.  Luckily, I had packed him some black boots that went passed his ankles so it was passable.  There were like at least three other Marios at WDW that night (and they all greeted one another every time they passed one another with "Hey, Mario!") and, in my very biased opinion, I think his costume looked just as good as their store bought ones....from afar.

When we came back to TX it was reasonably chilly for Halloween so he wore jeans instead of the shorts he wore on vacation.  I buy him boot cut jeans so he had about an inch or two of jeans passed where his jumpsuit pants ended.  He still didn't care.  He just liked showing his friends his costume and shouting "It's a me, Mario!  I'm here for some candy!".

I still really liked this pattern.  My kid was really happy with it (which is most important).  If I was going to make it again I think I would try to alter it so that the pants and top of the jumpsuit snap or Velcro together so if he had to go to the bathroom he wouldn't have to take the whole thing off.  I might skip the zipper and go with Velcro there as well.  The Buzz Lightyear costume from a couple of years ago used Velcro for the jumpsuit and I liked how that came together.  Just for my personal preference I might put elastic in the cuffs of the sleeves.  My favorite part of this outfit was the hat.  Which I wore on my own head whenever he wasn't looking.

My First Baby Girl Outfit

I'm back!  I had a baby girl!  She's amazing!  We also moved back to Texas!  So much excitement!

It was a rough year.  I'm not a good pregnant woman.  I get cranky.  And I sleep a lot.  Combine that with a three story townhome and I don't think I even opened my front door after six months.  (UPS guy knew to just drop it and go.)  Then, there was the newborn stage.  Also, not my best time.  Then, we moved across the country again.  We obviously are gluttons for punishment.

I had made a couple of maternity tops while I was pregnant, but I was so out of it I didn't blog them (obviously) or even take pictures.  Now, however, we are settled.  The newbie is almost nine months and we are settled in to our new rental home.  I can finally breathe!

As the mom to a new girl I was dying to make her something.  I've been Pinning lots of girl ideas.  For my first project I went with Smashed Peas and Carrots Little Girl's Crossover Pinafore.  It says it's for 6-12 months, but I was jazzed by the pictures of her daughter still wearing it a year later as a shirt.  My girl will be nine months next week, but is petite.

I bought the fabrics at Joann Fabric after Valentine's Day.  They are Paris themed.

After I finished them I realized I need she was going to need bloomers to go underneath.  Not just any bloomers!  Bloomers with ruffles!  I went with Bella Bama's take on MADE's bloomers.

Unfortunately, even at nine months my little lady was still to small for them.

Put a onesie on for modesty

Just a little big

Thankfully, kids get bigger so I'm sure it will fit her soon.

Hopefully, this is the beginning of my return to sewing.  I already have something quick on the machine that, regretfully, need to be seam ripped apart and then re-sewn.  I'm confident it won't take me too long though. 

Here's a parting shot of my youngest cutie:

Big Change Of Plans (And Momentum)

So I entered February very excited to be working on Family Fleece and thinking about my lovely simple wool coat.  It was cold outside.  I was pretty jazzed.  Then the second week of February my plan got derailed.  That Friday I started feeling so sick I could hardly stand it.  I think you know where I'm going with this.  I had been told the week before (when stuff was already going on unbeknownst to anyone) by a doctor that although there was nothing wrong with my husband or I that we may need some fertility help.  We couldn't afford it so I was trying to reconcile myself with waiting till next year to start a fertility treatment plan.  Big, happy, welcome surprise.  God Is Good!

Today marks the start of my 12th week.  I know my second trimester is a week or two away (depending on who you ask), but my sickness seems to be gone.  Now that my days are being spent upright again (instead of face down in bed) I went down to look at my sewing stuff and discovered that I still have the family fleece cut and ready to sew.  Alex's is almost done (minus a sleeve and bottom hem), but Brian's and mine are just cut.  I'm feeling Spring so I think they may go on the shelf to be worked on when it's actually cold.  Luckily, plus size patterns lend themselves to lots of material in the mid-section.  (I won't find out the sex till like June so I don't want to work on baby stuff yet.)

Hopefully my sickness will continue to leave me alone and I will FINALLY get back into my sewing room to do some damage!

Simplicity 2743- Little Man Vest

Simplicity 2743 is the latest thing off my machine.  I actually had this project cut out before we moved from West Virginia.  Lucky for me pattern sizes run big.  I chose a very boy-ish sweatshirt fabric covered in skulls for the vest.  Alex can be kind of tough to please.  Sometimes he loves the things I make and sometimes I have to chase him running and screaming to even get a picture.  He wasn't with me when I bought this fabric, but he loved it when I had him try the vest on.  He's also really excited about the next project I have for him, but more on that later.

Here is the vest:

You can see that there is an issue with one side being longer than the other lengthwise.  Yesterday I thought about seam ripping and trying to fix it, but he was so excited to wear it I just let him go to school in it first.  The top edge and the separating zipper line up nicely so the only fix needed is to adjust the hem.  It has seam tape on the inside of the pockets, the armholes, and the collar so it looks nice on the inside as well.  It's another case of ninja pockets, but if you look closely you can see them.  They definitely blend in.

When I had bought the notions for this project I had mistakenly (drunkenly?  j/k) bought a regular zipper instead of a separating zipper.  I don't know how I made that mistake, but c'est la vie.  A few weeks ago I went and bought the 22" separating zipper called for.  It was huge!  For a regular zipper I would have probably just adjusted it, but with a separating zipper I would have had to gotten all frustrated with the needle-nose pliers.  I was feeling lazy so I went out to see what more appropriate size I could find.  I was hoping for an 18", but I only found a 16".  I think, if you disregard my mistake with the hem, that 16" worked in this case.

I know I haven't updated in a while so I want to include some (badly taken) photos of some projects I have finished since my last update.

Here is an outfit for a friend's little girl from an out of print Simplicity 5374:

I had purchased the pattern and fabric when my now five year old was a toddler.  When I was unpacking I found the pieces already cut out so I completed it for my friend's daughter who was of the approximate age.  My friend lives in another state so I could not adjust the straps correctly.  I'm not positive I would make the jumper again because I don't like the way the straps come together and I really don't like putting buttons on kids clothes (I kept panicking and redoing them over and over).  If I made it again I would do faux buttons and probably Velcro or snaps.  I did really like the bloomers.  It was a bit of challenge trying to pull elastic through an edge so tiny, but other than that I really liked them.

I also made Halloween costumes.  My son was Woody from Toy Story.  I bought the hat, the t-shirt and the bandanna.  I used fabric paint to do the plaid on the shirt.  I used Butterick 3244 View B for the vest and View C for the boots and belt.  I omitted the fringe on the vest and just left the fabric whole.  It ended up being too short and I had to add another piece at the bottom.  Alex was pretty tickled with the costume.

My husband and I wanted to kind of match with our son so we did Simplicity 2172 and Simplicity 4083 (View C).  We were in a time crunch because I was making them as we were preparing to go to Walt Disney World so I skimped on the buttons and do-dads.  I have them so next time we want to wear the costumes I can add them, but for this occasion Velcro was our friend.

That was probably not the best pose for me to do.  I cut the jacket too small and it really shows here.  I was too tired/lazy to add the accent around the neckline (again, I have it in case I want to add it).  It's Velcro-ed closed.  The skirt was bought because I could not get my skirt to fit together.  Something went wrong somewhere and the pieces just weren't matching up.  The part I really loved about this pattern was the corset.  I LOVE that corset.  It was a lot of pieces and a lot of work, but it looks fabulous.  If I could figure out a way to work them into my daily wardrobe I would make like 20 of them.

Here you can see that my husband is a nut.  And his costume.  Those are his own pants and bought goggles, but I made the dickey, the vest, and the jacket.  He really really liked them.  He was very proud of my sewing abilities and he had a really great time wearing it.  His costume was cut correctly (hint of jealousy on this end) and he wore it well.  He's a sexy beast anyway so I knew he'd look great.



Now looking forward to the future projects.  It's still cold here in VA and it's supposed to stay that way for a while.  It seems to me like it took a long time to get cold so I'm hoping it will hold out.  Next project I'm thinking of tackling is one of these two:

Guess which one's mine

A fleece jackets for all of us. Or:

Just a simple yet kind of fancy coat for myself.


I'm not a 100% sure which I'm going for just yet.  I think it's going to be the family fleece, but I am really excited about the simple coat.  We will see.

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! 

Overwhelmed

Chastity: I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?

Bianca: I think you can in Europe.


-Ten Things I Hate About You


Christmas is upon us.  I am feeling like that kid that's worried he's going to be left behind in school because I just cannot seem to get my projects finished like I planned.  I'm not even done with Alex's vest or my pants, but Christmas is taking precedence.  Since my mom and hubby read this I'm not going to go into detail with what I'm up to.  Let's just say I'm feeling the pressure because I have many things started, but not completed.  (As a side note, I can't believe how expensive nuts are!)

 As soon as I have something to show I will show, for now....

Here's a picture of a baby in a Santa costume (and the reason my four year old may need therapy eventually)

I Love My Ass...

but, evidently, Simplicity does not.  Amazing Fit my err...ass.  I'm so very frustrated with these pants right now.  I measure and measure and I can't seem to make it work.  I measured my (high) waist and it's a 40, then I measure my hips and they are a 49 (baby got back to spare).  This, of course, is off chart for the pattern.  Finally, I measured my crotch length and it was, no surprise, off chart as well. 

Calculating from the chart on the back of the pattern I might have been able to get away with a 24, but my pattern doesn't go up that far.  (I want to state for the record I have a Levi's size 14 jean in my closet that I wear often and my ass is fabulous in them.)  I'm considering tracing the largest size (22) and then I will have to make adjustments.  I pulled out my Fit for Real People to figure out what needs to be done.  Apparently this book is only useful for shirt, skirts, and dresses.  They have a whole other book for pants.  That's just wrong.

I'm also considering just chucking it out the window and having my personal cabana boy serve me a Pina Colada...

Option three is to just put it on the backburner and make Alex's vest. 

Perhaps a combo of two and three?

See and Sew B5203

I finally finished the shirt.  I was having problems finding the time for a while.

 
The instructions said the collar was supposed to be hemmed with bias tape.  I bought some bias tape that I thought would work with the color of the shirt.  No, really really not.  Too neon green.  Being this shiny (and kinda awesome) green I realized unless I made my own it wasn't going to really match.  I decided to go with a narrow hem instead.  I had done a ton of them for my Halloween cape and with the method from Threads I felt confident it would look great.  I accidentally read the instructions for View A though so no hole in the back. (D'oh!)

Then I was having sleeve "issues".   I looked at the instructions, but decided I wanted to do the sleeves so that it was one long stitch from the cuff of the sleeve to the bottom hem.  Eventually it became obvious that wasn't going to fly with these particular sleeves.  They wanted to be done exactly as the instructions said.  Annoying.  There was a lot of stitch and rip before I just succumbed to the instructions. 

This is honestly the best picture of the shirt on me.  Hair and makeup, but no smile.  :(  I'm starting to think my husband just likes to take pictures of me where I look unhappy.  I did smile, even did a little dance, but those pictures didn't come out right.  Perhaps it was the dance.  Too awesome for the camera to handle.

Here are pictures of my "new" workspace.

You can't see the picture, but the desk has a long arm.  I have a blank dry erase board, a calendar dry erase board, a magnetic board (shown holding pattern instructions!), and a yet to be mounted (hehe) cork board.  So much nicer than just making room on the dining room table.


Next up...measuring my big beautiful ass for pants.