Pillowcases!

I've been sewing, just not very fast. I'm on a pillowcase kick at the moment, with more on the way (they're about half-done and on the ironing board right now - hopefully I'll be able to post pictures tomorrow).
These are belated Christmas presents for a trio of sisters. The fabrics are leftovers from the tote bags I made them two years ago. I usually put a trim fabric on, in addition to the contrast band, but there wasn't anything I liked in my stash, so I left them like this. The fabrics are busy enough that I think it's fine. And I won't see that family until March or April, so late is fine. :)

This is a pillowcase for a friend who is a Beatles fanatic (her spare room is a combination reptile haven and Beatles shrine), in celebration of her passing her national board exam. I bought the fabrics at WM on Wednesday morning, prewashed them Thursday, cut them Friday, and sewed it and gave it to her Saturday night. A pretty brief stay in the stash! She was thrilled, and told me that the pillowcase was already on the bed later Saturday night. :)

Blankets!

Camping fleece - found this on the clearance rack at JAF somtime last year. I used orange fleece for the backing and bound it with black fleece.

Pirate fleece that I found in the remnant rack at JAF. It is backed with burgundy fleece and bound with black. This is a gift for a toddler.

John Deere fleece that I also found in the JAF remnant rack. The backing is black fleece, and the binding is yellow. Also a gift for a toddler.

I've had this Peanuts winter fleece since last Christmas, when I bought it on clearance at WM. I backed and bound it with a blue fleece and gave it to a friend for Christmas. She was thrilled! I would love to have kept it, but that's okay. There will be more blankets in my future, I think.

Well, I know! I have a Beetle Bailey fleece print that I bought over a year ago, and I finally bought backing and binding fleece. That will be a blanket for us, I think. But I also have Cat in the Hat fleece that would make an awesome blanket....and I love Dr. Seuss far more than Beetle Bailey. I just need to buy fleece for backing and binding.

Oh, and all backing and several binding fabrics were purchased at JAF's Black Friday sale. That was a good day!

No sewing to report...

I really wanted to get some things done last weekend, but I have to admit that I pretty much procrastinated the whole weekend. The extent of my usefulness was folding/putting away a bunch of laundry, pre-writing a ton of health certificates for the cattle sale I'm working on Saturday, and packing for an unexpected trip out of town. My grandfather appeared to be dying late last week, so the Things and I headed for that area Monday, and we're getting ready to head back tomorrow.

In good news, my grandfather has taken a definite turn for the better, and he came home from the hospital today. And in completely unrelated good news, the Percy shoes fit well, even over footed pajamas, and they seem to be warm enough with the fleece. Unfortunately, Thing 2 greatly prefers the bug shoes, which are undoubtedly not as warm. Oh, well...it's not like he's staying outside that long, anyway. And I'll make sure that the Percy shoes are the ones for the travel days.

Hopefully this weekend will see some Christmas sewing done - like a tree skirt, to go under the tree that we haven't put up yet!

A shoe compliment....

So I was talking to a friend yesterday, and she wanted to know if DS#2 had outgrown any shoes lately. "Of course!" I said. "That's why I sent you pictures of 2 new pair of shoes that I made him."

"So do the old ones have any wear left in them?" she asks. Ahhh....now I see the light. I had sent her a pair of old ones when I made the last two pair, so that she could try them on her son to check sizing. And apparently he loves them and uses them as his indoor slippers, but they are getting too small.

Unfortunately, the two pair that were just retired are rather holey. Still, if he only uses them in the house, I'll at least send them for size check, and then maybe make him a new pair for Christmas. It's nice to be appreciated!

...and pair #2!

Introducing the Percy shoes! Thing 2 was so distraught over the loss of his holey, too small Thomas shoes, that I decided to make the next pair with Thomas appliques again. However, just to be different, I used Percy this time instead. (Yes, Thing 2 does know the difference! I'm truly scared...) And so, of course, he decided this morning that he didn't want to wear the Percy shoes. Oh, well....he'll change his mind.

These are the MTY pattern again, toddler size 9W. I did go ahead and line them with fleece, using scraps from Thing 1's Thomas fleece hoodie. I think they'll fit better, but I'm a little annoyed that I made the toe guards so small. I think I need to just draft a template so that my toe and heel guards are more consistent.

New shoes - pair #1

Finally! I finished a new pair of shoes (Make Them Yourself pattern again), and, as usual, I'm kicking myself for procrastinating so much. I'm liking these new shoes a lot, except for the extremely minor detail that they're too big and look a bit like duck feet. :) But that's entirely my fault. I made a size 9W this time, because the size 7 is too small and I wanted these to last longer. I decided to try it in the wide size, because my little guy has some chubby little feet. Note to self: not quite chubby enough for the wide size. Oh, well....they're wearable.

I've got a second pair partly done - also a size 9W. (I cut them both out at once.) I'm going to line those with fleece, though. That should add some warmth as well as possibly take up a little space. We'll see what happens with those before I start talking about the next pair. Actually, I might try making the boots next time. After all, it should start getting even colder, and he might want to go out and play in the snow this winter. I have some denim bonded to sherpa or something fuzzy like that - I might use that next time for warmth. We'll see....

And the next three....

These are the two new blankets for the Things. Thing 1's is the top blanket, the pirate parrots on one side and pirate kids on the other, bound with black fleece. The lower blanket, tractors on one side, solid green on the other, bound with blue fleece, is for Thing 2.

This one is for Thing 1's kindergarten teacher, who just had a baby girl last week. Hopefully she'll like it. I pulled five or six prints out of my flannel stash and let Thing 1 pick which he preferred - he chose these bumblebees! So I backed it with a bright yellow flannel and bound it with a fuschia fleece. I hope that she likes it.

Right now, all three blankets are in the wash, getting the spray basting washed out before the first use. And can I just say how much I'm liking the Shout color catchers? I used two in one load last week, when I was prewashing some of these fabrics and wanted to be absolutely sure that they didn't bleed on each other. Today I just threw one in - no way do I want this blanket stained before it's given away! - and it came out stained bluish-green. I'm so happy to have excess dye on the sheet instead of on the new blanket!