Long time with little to show....

Things have been pretty busy at work lately, so I haven't had a lot of time to sew. I did finish those two pair of knit pants for Thing 2 that I mentioned in the previous post - you can see Thing 2 wearing the orange pair in the above picture. (Those are also one of the pairs of shoes I sewed!)

I'm hoping to get some sewing done with the 4-day weekend. We'll see how that goes....I need to get started on a bunch of Christmas presents - like half a dozen scrub shirts for coworkers - yikes! But I also want to sew for Things 1&2, as well! They both need more warm blankets. Thing 2's blanket will be out of the fabrics seen below:Both flannels are from my stash - the space flannel was purchased on clearance at JAF for $1/yd this summer, and the green flannel was purchased during a sale ($2/yd, I think) for a PJ shirt, but I eventually decided that Thing 1 didn't need another too-big PJ shirt yet. I'll probably eventually make that last PJ shirt, but I'll wait until Thing 1 grows into the pattern more. In the meantime, the green flannel will make an excellent backing for this blanket. I have Warm & Natural batting to use for it, and I'll use a cheater's wrapped edge binding from the blue fleece in the corner (also stash! yippee!). It'll look like Thing 1's school blanket.

Thing 1 also needs new blankets - he's growing like a little weed, and it's getting cold out. I have two yards of fleece with a car road print on it (I'll have to take a picture eventually) and a hunter green fleece to pair with it. I think I can use the same blue fleece for the binding - hopefully I have enough. But I think that the first priority for him will be his Thomas the Tank Engine fleece hoodie. He doesn't like to take off his jacket at school, so maybe this will be a good alternative.

Next up in the queue

I decided that for my next project, I'd do something quick and easy - and preferably something I could do without changing the thread in the serger. :) So I cut out a few pairs of knit pants for Things 1&2. Thing 1 definitely needed some extras to have on hand for daycare, in case of accidents of various natures (last week, he slid down the slide to discover too late that it was wet), and it just made sense to cut matching ones out for Thing 2 at the same time. And I'm using up stash as well! Yippee!

I used my TNT patterns of knit pants from Kwik Sew Sewing for Toddlers and Sewing for Babies. The appropriate sizes fit fine with no alterations, which is great for me! I may have to start adding length for Thing 1 soon, but for right now, we're good. I still have stash of each of the fabrics I've used lately for knit pants, so it's not the end of the world if I have to make longer ones this winter. I could just add some length now, but I hate to make them too long, when he is likely to wear them shoeless in the house so much.

I made three pairs for Thing 1 and two pairs for Thing 2. Now I'm deciding what to work on next! I still have some woven pants and shorts in the queue for Thing 1 - they're only about half done, but they need white thread in the serger. And I cut out two pairs of knit pants in fall colors for Thing 2 - they will each need different serger thread. Maybe I'll do the knit pants for Thing 2 next, since they're quick to serge. And then I'll get back to the woven ones for Thing 1 and get them out of my sewing room! One of these days, I want to sew something for me again!

Penguin, anyone?

Last year was Thing 1's first exposure to Halloween. He was a dinosaur then (I made that costume, too - Simplicity 4002), and he quickly learned just why it is beneficial for a child to be willing to say "trick or treat!" This year, he was very excited about Halloween coming, and he told me all throughout October that Halloween would come at the end of October. I showed him a pattern that I'd seen of a penguin costume (Simplicity 3639 - it has all sizes from 4-5 child to XL adult), and he really liked it, so I bought the pattern and supplies. Then he started asking every day if his "penguin suit" was done yet! I stayed up late two nights in a row to finish it, but the costume was ready Wednesday morning. Here it is:

I reviewed the pattern over at PR, but the basics are that I liked it. It went together well, and my only real gripe was that there was no guidance on choosing a size for the hood. You may be able to tell from the picture that Thing one needed the hood to be either lengthened or else a size bigger. But I made it work! He loved it, and that's the important thing. :) I'm sure that this one will be a good addition to the costume box, just like last year's dinosaur suit.