Some birthday sewing....

So my friend's older son had a birthday in July.  This is the kid for whom I made monster PJs last summer.  I had asked her a month or so below his birthday about those PJs and how they fit.  She said then that they still fit great, and that her boys (the other is 17 months younger) fight over the jammies that I make.  Well, that sounds like a winner!  So I dug some vintage car flannel out of my remnant stash - I think I had a little over half a yard.  It was pretty much just enough for these size S shorts, with some scraps for embellishing the shirt.  The black flannel was a Black Friday purchase last year - with no particular intent, just figuring that I can always use black flannel, right?  Especially for $1.49/yard.  Anyway, I used Pam Erny's clean finish for facings on the neckband, then stitched it in place so that it would be flipped right side to the outside of the neck.  I like doing that on these flannel PJs, so that it actually looks like part of a set.  And I added a pocket from the car flannel as well.  He just turned 7, and Thing 1 is 9 and wearing the size M, so I'm hoping that the S will continue to fit my friend's son for awhile longer.  

And if I get a gift in the mail before the next calendar month is over, it's all good, right? ;)  This arrived August 31st, so I'm still good.

Another baby gift!

So my cousin was expecting her second baby, and I thought the diaper clutch would be a great gift for her.  I had already cut it out when I made the first one.  At that point, though, I was out of PUL, so I had to wait to order some, since my local stores no longer carry anything but the Babyville PUL. :(  Anyway, once the PUL arrived, I was already into other projects, and this one kind of stalled until the day my cousin posted that she was having contractions.  Oops!  Time to finish!

As you can see, this one looks pretty much the same as the last one!  (Except that I put the handle a little too high - I couldn't access the directions when I was putting it together, so I figure I actually did pretty well.)  Here it is closed.

And here it is partly open.  I know it's dark, but maybe you can see that there are two rows of snaps on the body, so that she'll be able to adjust it slightly based on how stuffed the pocket is.  We'll see how that works out, anyway.

I used up the rest of the butterfly print making two smallish wet bags to match.  These were both intended to be between 9x12 and 12x12, but the final dimensions were based on the scraps I had to work with.  Both close with zippers, and I added snapping handles in case she wants to hang them off a doorknob/stroller handle/whatever.

At the advice of several people in an online sewing group, I also made a pillowcase-sized wet bag for use at home.  This is a very bright Garfield print that has been hiding out in my stash for years.  I was glad to find something useful for at least part of it to do!  This is big enough to be useful for a family trip to the swimming pool, too!

She wrote back yesterday after receiving the package and sounded pretty excited about it, so hopefully she ends up liking all of this after using it a bit.

Another hobo/sling bag

Also known as, I finally actually made a birthday gift a month in advance!

I made an oversized denim bag a few months ago, using a thrifted denim skirt, thrifted sheet, and the tutorial from Morning by Morning Productions.  I really liked how it turned out, and I had already purchased a second long denim skirt from a thrift store to make another one, this time for my aunt's birthday.  But then I saw this lined linen skirt at the thrift store, and I just thought it would be perfect.  So....here it is!

This skirt wasn't as long, so I had to shorten the bag a few inches, but it's still quite large.  I just love the colorful print.  If I carried a bag more than once in a blue moon, I'd be seriously tempted to keep this one for myself.  Fortunately for my aunt, I just don't carry bags.

You can see the lining in the next picture - it's a purple poly-something fabric.  Looks nice, but isn't exactly sturdy.  So I didn't put any pockets on the inside of this version.  And I decided that I didn't want to use elastic in the outer pockets.  Instead, I made larger rectangular pockets, with rounded lower corners.  I lined them with the poly, interfacing both linen and poly at the top of the pocket.  Then I put two snaps in to help keep things somewhat secure.  (I also used light interfacing on the linen piece behind where the pocket was stitched into place.

I'm hoping that my aunt likes it at least as much as I do!

Lego sack/playmat

I've had my eye on this tutorial for months now, and I finally got around to making it!  (Probably because I was procrastinating on something else....)  I used two queen-sized thrifted sheets to make this - it's 80 inches in diameter, as we have a LOT of Legos.  I have enough left from both sheets to make a somewhat smaller version, also....We'll see how long that takes. ;)

The tutorial is pretty simple.  Basically, this is two circles sewn together.  You then use premade or self-made bias tape or ribbon or whatever for the drawstrings.  I made my drawstrings from broadcloth I had leftover from the "green" party bags project.  I liked the idea of using something up (that totally finished off my leftover orange) as well as getting a pop of color.  And orange is Thing 2's favorite color, so he'll like that touch.  (As an aside, I cut my strips on the straight grain and then ran them through the bias tape maker.  I didn't feel that they needed to be cut on bias as these were only going to be used for drawstrings.)

And here's the sack all cinched up, with toys inside.  I'm hoping this works out in practice as well as it does in theory!  I'm also thinking that this will be a great idea for a baby gift - something the parents can use into the future.  If I give any as baby gifts, though, I'll put a caution in the accompanying note to use these only with supervision, as the drawstrings could pose a strangulation hazard.

Someone had posted a comment to the tutorial, saying that their self-made bias tape didn't move very easily through the casing.  I don't know what kind of fabric she used.  My thrifted sheets are almost certainly a poly/cotton blend, and I believe the broadcloth was also a poly/cotton blend.  The drawstrings move very easily through the casing.

One-Yard Wonders: Bear

I've heard rave reviews of the book One-Yard Wonders for quite some time, and I was able to find it at my local library about 6 months or so ago.  I enjoyed looking through it, and I made the mistake of leaving it sitting out one day, and Thing 2 picked it up and started flipping through it.  That's always dangerous!  In this case, he picked out the bear cushion and wanted me to make him one (immediately!), as well as a second to give to his baby cousin.  Well, who am I to pass up an opportunity to encourage sharing?

We picked out (well, I picked, but he approved) a light brown corduroy that's been in my stash long enough that it can no longer be used for boy pants - at least not for my boys, at their current sizes!  And then we picked out the remnants from my dog's first leash/harness/collar/stuff as the contrast.  I traced the pattern, scanned the instructions (because the book was due!), and cut out the pieces.  And there it has sat for months.

And then I decided this would be a great back-to-school gift!  So I found all the pieces, found where the heck I saved the instructions, and got to work.  I was planning to make both bears at once, until I screwed something up and decided not to waste time unsewing right then.  So this bear got finished in time to be presented after dinner on the first day of school.  

Here's a side view:

 And here's the happy boy view:

I have to say that it's a pretty straightforward toy to stitch, though it's not easy to sew the long strap to the side pieces.  That takes some patience and slow-sewing.  It's definitely not perfect, but it's done!  I did wind up going back to recut the nose pieces and start over, because the nose looked ridiculously small.  I'm still not sure I'm totally sold on the nose.  Oh, and I cut two nose pieces, sewed them right sides together, cut a slit in one pieces and turned them out that way.  Press it, then stitch it on, and no one ever sees the side with a slit.  Much easier than what they described!  I also decided to use a contrast piece as the underside of the tail, to match the ears.

Thing 2 is happy, and now I just have to sew the second one for my niece, which will hopefully take less time than the first.

Angry Birds!

Thing 2 loves Angry Birds.  Never mind that he's only played the game once.  He's in love.  So when I was flipping through a pattern catalog and spied McCall 6481, I about fell over.  The pattern description is basically just "stuffed toys," but let's not kid ourselves.  These are Angry Birds!  Fortunately, JAF was having a sale on McCall patterns, so I just snatched it up!  This is view D, which is basically the red Angry Bird (though in different colors on the pattern cover, and minus the black tail feathers, which I still might go back and add....I haven't convinced myself to bother yet).  I changed the colors to match the red bird, and then I went to work!

Basically, this is a round ball with wings, facial features, and a comb.  It's awesome.  I used fleece for everything except the eyes and eyebrows.  Those are felt.  The pattern calls for using a fusible webbing on the eyes/brows and fusing them to the fleece.  Now haven't we all learned that we're not supposed to put an iron on fleece?  Well, I approached it with fear and trepidation, because there's really no way to machine sew these on, and I really didn't want to hand-sew them.  And now I can tell you that by using a press cloth (mine is an old thin piece of flannel from a practically threadbare sheet) and lots of steam and even moderate pressure, you can safely fuse things onto fleece.  Granted, this is generic, non-fluffy, non-special fleece, so YMMV.

I stitched up the pieces in half an hour or less, then ignored them for over a week, just because I didn't want to do the handsewing to attach the beak and comb.  Silly me!  When I finally buckled down and just did it, it probably took me half an hour.  I should've just sat in front of the TV and done it earlier.

I left the Angry Bird knockoff on my husband's nightstand, because Thing 2 always comes into our room in the mornings to announce that he's up and moving.  And DH's nightstand is visible from the doorway, so I figured he'd definitely see it there.  I was already up and in the kitchen, but DH said that the reaction was everything I had hoped for - the classic double-take in the middle of a sentence, then the cautious "Is that for me???", followed by joy.

Of course, now Thing 1 wants one.  Go figure.

Going green....

I have a cousin who is expecting a baby in the next month or so, and I have another diaper clutch in progress for her (I cut both out at the same time - good thing it turned out so successfully!).  But I also know that she switched to cloth diapers when her older child was around 2 years, and she plans to cloth diaper this baby from the start.  Not sure if it's more a financial or environmental decisions, but either way, go her!  In any event, because I know she's committed to cloth diapering, I decided that cloth baby wipes would be a nice gift!

There are 90 or so in these stacks, mainly because I was having fun cutting up flannel that was in the "huh?  What was I thinking?" category, as well as flannel that was leftover from other things but I just wasn't sure what to do with the leftover pieces.  And also because it was strangely fun and addicting.  These are all 8x8, with slightly rounded corners to make serging easier.  They are double-layer flannel, because I didn't have a stash of terrycloth or anything else for the backing, and I decided that I wanted this to be stash-busting instead of a reason to go shopping.  The apple, diaper pins, and beach flannel on the right and the penguin in the middle were all leftover pieces.  The Sesame Street on the upper left was purchased for making crib sheets for the local pregnancy center years ago, but obviously I never got around to using that particular flannel.  And the fall leaves on the left and polka dots on the top are both flannel sheets from the thrift store.  They were purchased to become PJ pants, but that hadn't happened yet, so I sacrificed them for this.

Now it turns out I have another pregnant cousin who is thinking about cloth diapering, so I'll send her some of these.  Maybe 2 dozen.  But Cousin #1 gets the rest, because I know that she'll cloth diaper. ;)

And since I was on a roll, I also cut the fall sheet into cloth napkins for an early Christmas present for another friend.  I decided that the casual fabric should mean a casual finish, so these are also serged with slightly rounded corners.  I got ten napkins out of the queen sized sheet, plus a half dozen or so cloth wipes.  Not bad!  Hooray for stash-busting!