Other FOs

My aunt likes cows, and she works for a company that makes ice cream. Consequently, she gets a lot of cow-type collectibles. I'm always on the lookout for something different. I found a "cow jumps over the moon" flannel sheet set on eBay a year or so ago, and I bought it to make her some PJs. I have not yet made the PJ shirt, as I'm debating which pattern to use, but the pants were finally finished and sent on their way to her as a belated birthday gift. (She'll get the shirt for Christmas, I hope.) She got them yesterday and says that she loves them, so that was good.

And DS#1's first grade class earned a reward for good behavior, and the class voted to have Pajama Day. So I thought that deserved a new pair of PJs. His only other pair of flannel PJs were getting a bit short in the legs and were short-sleeved, so I pulled out two lengths of flannel and let him choose. He chose the bears roasting smores over Toy Story, which surprised me a little. I traced the next size up, stayed up too late, and voila! Here are his new long-sleeved flannel PJs!

And DS#2 is potty-training, and so we need quite the assortment of underwear around here. I thought that if I could sew some for him, it would 1) use up some of my otherwise useless knit scraps, and 2) encourage him to not pee in his underwear! So far the results are mixed. At any rate, I used the pattern from That*Darn*Kat to make prototypes for each boy. (Because of course if one boy gets Mama-made undies, the other will cry foul.) And I have to say that these are pretty cool! You use regular knit fabric of any kind (even old T-shirts) for the main parts and cotton/lycra knit for the waistband and legs, so that you don't need elastic. The fly is a double-layer, functional fly, not that my boys need it, and you can use a serger or just a sewing machine. My serger is sick, so sewing machine it was. I will be happy when I can use the serger, as it will cut down on assembly time, but these are quite functional. And the boys like them!

*DS#1 is not a lefty - I simply goofed when assembling the fly and decided that even I wasn't OCD enough to rip it apart and fix it when he'll just pull them down, anyway.

New PJs finished!

I finished my new PJ shirt the other night and am wearing it as I type! It's warm, cozy, and (I think) cute. This is M5511 view C. I like the contrast collar, and I also added contrast at the facing, because I was out of the main fabric (I wanted to use the contrast print at the facing, but I didn't have enough of that, either). And I added contrast cuffs at the sleeves both because I was short on the main fabric and because I thought it would help to tie it in to the pants, which have the contrast cuffs.


I don't like how the facing is pretty much like a bib in there. This is an inside out view. Part of the problem is that I have no way to stitch it down to the shirt, because the pocket is in the way. And that was the order of instructions - you attach the facing sometime AFTER the pocket. (The instructions don't tell you to stitch down the facing - I'm just bothered by it.) I think that if I make this again, I would attach the pocket sometime later so that I could stitch down the entire facing.

And I tried out iron-on hem tape for the hem, instead of just stitching it in place. (My serger is out of commission, and trying to do a double-fold hem after using french seams for the sides just didn't appeal to me.) I'm not sure that I like it. After wearing it for a night, I concluded that the hem tape was peeling away in places and that it gives a strange stiffness to the hem, making it poof out a bit, which can give a slight preggo look. So after trying unsuccessfully to peel it away, I simply resteamed it down and then used a twin needle over the hem tape. That helped.


My finished PJ ensemble! I should have taken a before picture - my first addition of sleeve cuffs were very flamboyant, as I'd made them too long. But I decided that I couldn't stand them, and that they needed to be the same length as the leg cuffs. Now I'm much happier with them.

I like this PJ shirt pattern, and I'm plotting which of my next PJ fabrics to use with view A.

Finished presents!

I made a few PJ pants for Christmas and birthday presents. I bought Lucky Charms and Trix flannel on clearance at JAF last year, but I didn't have time to make the PJ pants for last Christmas. So this year I made sure to get them done! The Lucky Charms pants are for my sister-in-law. I couldn't find any of the stretchy foldover braid I used to use for drawstrings, so I just used bias tape in coordinating colors.

The Trix flannel is for my brother.

The billiards flannel is also for my brother, but for his birthday. These are heading into the mail tomorrow. I also found this flannel on clearance at JAF, but I bought it earlier this spring, I think. Still counts as stash, though!

All the PJ pants are from B6887. The two pair for my brother have real flys, but the one for my sister-in-law does not have a fly. No point, right?

Chugging along....

Just in time for Halloween! I finished these boy pants, and the Things wore them to church the next day. :) They are ghost camo from WM ages ago, and they are fully lined with white flannel. So they'll be warm for awhile! Oh, yeah - and I added pockets. Orange for one, and black for the other. I was surprised that the pocket bags didn't show through the fabric. It's a little beefier than it seems, I guess.

And I have finally finished a pair of PJ pants for ME! These are from my TNT PJ pants pattern, M3006. It's long out of print, and I can't even find my copies of it. (I'm still hoping that my friend still has them.) But I did manage to find my tracings, thank goodness. I apparently shortened the pattern a tad too much, so I added contrast cuffs to make up for it. Also, I plan to make a coordinating PJ shirt out of the same green flannel, so I figured this would help tie it together.

And this will be my next project, at least once the serger is fixed and back from the shop. :( I bought this flannel shirting to make my first long-sleeved shirt for DH. I hope that he'll like it. I'm using KS 3422, size M with a 16 1/2 inch neck. I think it's really cool that you have the option of the general sizes as well as the neck sizes. Very nice!

Boy pants! (and a sweatshirt)

First up, because that's how Blogger put them, is the sweatshirt. Last year, Thing 2 didn't want to wear the pants or sweatshirt made from this fabric. What a difference a year makes, huh? Now he'll tell me he's cold and wants his sweatshirt to wear. And Thing 1 is jealous because I didn't make him one this year....maybe I should fix that....

Then the lone pair of knit pants for Thing 2 - I sort of figured that I should cut this pair out and stitch it up quickly, as the serger thread was right, and he needs longer ones. Nothing fancy about these.

But here's the fun part - the "stack of boy pants" that's been in the works for a bit! The first two that I finished were the Spiderman (Thing 1) and Transformers (Thing 2). Both were thrilled with their new pants and wore them almost immediately.

Then I finished the rest of the stack for Thing 1: a juvenile pirate print, what DH calls the black "disco" print, and, of course, Transformers! These were a definite hit, especially Transformers. :)

And here's a gratuitous shot of the contrasting pocket bag colors I used. For Thing 2's Transformer's pants, I used red - to make it even easier to differentiate.

I have plenty more "boy pants" to make, but these were the most urgent, as the days will soon be too cool to wear these lighter weight pants. Thing 1's pants came from KS 3042, and Thing 2's sweatshirt and pants all came from KS SFT.

Dog booties!

I have a friend with a small dog who hates to go outside in cold weather. (He's from California!) So she asked me last winter about making him some booties to wear. We never got around to it before the weather got warmer, but she mentioned it again this fall, and this time, we got right on it! I used the Domestik Goddess pattern and simply printed out the pattern, then used the copier to reduce it by percentages. Here are my size prototypes!


The small blue one is 40% of the original, the red one is 45%, the blue print is 50%, and the green one is 55%. The green one also happens to be the winner, so that is what's sitting on my sewing machine right now. Because, of course, he needs three more! :)

I used fleece scraps for the booties and recycled ToughTek (from old leather shoes that had holes in the toes and heels) for the gripper part. These took me about fifteen minutes to cut and sew each pair (because I did two prototypes at a time, until we found the right size). I traced each size onto scraps of template plastic to make cutting easier, and I can't say enough just how easy this was.

I'll be making more pairs of booties for this dog, and my smaller two prototypes are in the mail to another friend to try onto her dog. I would definitely make this for any friends with diva-ish dogs! :)

Still plugging away....

So I have no pictures to show yet, but two of the five pairs of boy pants were finished Sunday night and left for said boys to potentially wear Monday. (Thing 1 wore his, Thing 2 is wearing his today.) The other three pairs - make that four, I forgot about cutting a quick pair of knit pants for Thing 2 - are pinned and pressed for hemming and waistbands. Those should be done tonight.

The two pairs of adult PJ pants are hemmed but need the buttonholes and waistband elastic, and both of those plus the other (mostly finished) one need the drawstrings stitched and inserted. I decided to go with extra wide, double fold bias tape for drawstrings, to avoid having to order something. Those have been washed, shortened, and pressed, but I wanted to stitch the fold down so that I don't wind up with trashy looking drawstrings later on. That would just annoy me. So...this too should get done tonight...I hope.

And then it will be on to the white queue, I think!

The Black Serger Queue

I'm getting there slowly but surely in the queue of "things needing black serger thread." First up, two finished Christmas presents! These are PJ pants (KS SFT size T2) for the children of two coworkers. And let me just say, it feels good to have a few things already done for Christmas. :) Then two pairs of knit pants (KS 2275 size 5 and KS SFT size T3) apiece for Things 1&2. I've had the fireman fleece forever, and each year I've been making at least one pair of pants or shirt from it. Yet there is still plenty for next year and probably the year after! (And there's an upcoming sweatshirt from it for Thing 2.) The other knit is a strange animal symbols on grey. It was a $1/yd purchase from WM a few years ago. It's not terribly soft or warm, but it works well, especially as a backup item in a locker or cubby.

I'm still working my way through the Queue. There are three pairs of adult PJ pants that are almost done (and all Christmas/birthday presents!), plus 5 pairs of Thing pants which are about half-way done. Hopefully I'll be updating this post later today with finished pics. :)

Patrick Curved Raglan Shirt

The Patrick Curved Raglan Shirt from Fishsticks Designs! I'm totally in love, and I would wear this myself if it came in my size. (In fact, I'm thinking of trying to modify a pattern in my size to look like this....)

The curved raglan seams were the only slightly tricky part, but as long as you pin them well and then take the seams slowly, it wasn't a problem at all. I made a 3T for Thing 2 and a 5T for Thing 1. After they try them on, I've got plenty more fabric combinations to make these in!

The red and black interlocks were stash leftovers, as was the orange interlock. The green ants print was a coop buy several years ago. This is the first use. It's a jersey knit, so not terribly thick. We'll see how it holds up. But it's very cute!

Current Queue

So I'm trying to finish The Black Queue so that my kids will have some new fall pants. Unfortunately, I am getting sick, and my sewing mojo is also suffering. But I will persevere! In addition to the pants, The Black Queue also contains 5 pairs of PJ pants (Christmas/birthday gifts), so I'm working ahead here, as well as the two prototypes for the Patrick Curved Raglan Seam Shirt (from Fishsticks Designs). I just need to sew up the side seams and add the neckbands to those and they'll be done! I can't wait to see how they fit the Things - I already picked out plenty more fabric combinations to make them in. And I just saw that there's a free tutorial on the website for converting the pattern into a hoodie! I'll have to try that, too. :)

And then, of course, I have plenty more plans! (If only I had more time....) Thing 2 is rapidly outgrowing the size T2 PJs I made him earlier this summer. So he will need some new PJs. Fortunately, I did already make one pair of size T3, so that may tide him over a bit. As it's getting colder, it may be time to break out the thermal knit prints I bought on clearance earlier this year and start making those in long sleeves. That would be good for stash reduction, too!

Updates

First, the doll blanket was finished in time (late the night before!) and was apparently a smashing success. Yippee! I stitched the binding to the front and then handsewed it down while watching CSI Miami late on Friday night, but that meant that I didn't have to rush Saturday morning before the party. DH even thought it looked nice - for a little girl - and was pleasantly surprised that I didn't make the binding wider. He was thinking that the pink binding was going to be very "in your face" and definitely be something only a little girl could appreciate. I was just hoping that she'd like it, and according to Thing 1, she did. :)

And, I finished The Shirt#2 barely in time to slip it into DH's travel bag. In fact, I'd say that it was finished about three hours before he left town. Unfortunately, it was no longer a surprise by then, because he had come in to ask me what in the world I was working on. :( Oh, well....he was still surprised that I was doing it.

So hopefully he liked wearing it in Hawaii!

Stalling....

So I'm stalling on studying for an exam by (finally!) updating my blog. Oops. Not my smartest move. Oh, well....it's not as though there's that much to update yet.

This is a doll quilt that is for Thing 1 to give a friend at her birthday party on Saturday. When I asked him what she liked, he said, "Girl stuff." Funny, but not terribly helpful! :) So our choices came down to a (girly) cape or a doll quilt, and he decided that she'd like the doll quilt better. I pulled out scraps and let him choose which ones to use, and then once I'd cut the squares, he arranged them the way he wanted. Now I have the squares assembled, the quilt sandwich quilted, and the binding ready. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough of the binding fabric to be able to make it as bias binding, but I think straight-grain binding will be fine for a doll quilt. So hopefully tomorrow night I can stitch it on and then probably handsew it down while watching TV. I hope.

I'm also in the midst of Stack One of boy pants, as a friend calls it. These are the lighter weight pants, and I hope to have that stack done this weekend. But that may be superseded by The Shirt #2. I have cut out a corn fabric shirt for The Husband and fused the interfacing to the necessary pieces. If I can get it done this weekend, I can sneak it into his bag for a surprise once he reaches Hawaii on Monday. :) That is my goal. Hopefully I won't have too many emergencies to interrupt my pursuit of said goal. Then I could finish the boy pants early next week, while he's gone.

I also stitched together red fleece strips for binding, and I pinned them to a new flannel blanket for Thing 1. So hopefully I can get that stitched down quickly and get the blanket into the rotation. We'll see....And then there's all the blankets to be made for the new babies at church - yikes!

What's coming up next

I haven't really been sewing in the last couple of days. My son went back to school after over a week of being in the hospital and at home due to pneumonia, so I went back to work. And now I'm starting to come down with something. It never rains but it pours! However, what's hanging out by my sewing machine is a stack of cloth napkins that just needs the final edgestitching. I have a friend who decided that for environmental and financial reasons, she wanted to try to get her family using cloth napkins. I cut a bunch out of a flannel sheet set last winter but never finished them. So during my time at home, I worked on them. Now the stack just needs to be edgestitched, and they'll be done!

I've also been prewashing fabric and cutting patterns! There are several birthdays coming up this fall, as well as of course Christmas! My siblings are getting PJ pants, and I've had the flannel for months or more. So I cut three pairs of PJ pants. And I've had flannel for more PJ pants for me for months, as well, so I prewashed that and hope to cut them out this weekend. I also prewashed flannel for three pairs of little boy PJ pants - those are going to be gifts for the sons of two friends. And two of those fabrics are long-time stash. :)

A woman at church just had a baby girl, and my cousin is expecting a baby girl this winter. So I pulled out some cute, girly flannel that's been in the stash forever ($1/yd at WM - I got it for crib sheets for the crisis pregnancy center but never got around to making them) and cut enough for 2 double-layer flannel blankets. I will bind these in complementary fleece. And my older son needs some more blankets that are relatively light but a little longer. I had found a pirate flannel on clearance at JAF this summer and paired it with a tie-dyed red flannel from my stash (Black Friday deals!). Unfortunately, I didn't have red fleece to bind it, so that one is waiting until I get to the fabric store. ;)

I think that about sums up my current sewing queue.

Blanket and a shirt

I finally used some of my precious Cat in the Hat fleece to make myself a new blanket! I've had this fleece for several years - probably 5 - and I haven't done anything with it. I made sure that there was enough left to still make myself a lounge shirt. But this is backed and bound with black fleece. It's two yards long - nice and toasty.
"The Shirt" is finally finished! Hooray! I used my new french curve to help me take out excess width through the rib cage and abdomen, tapering back out a little near the bottom. I also took two inches off the bottom of the shirt and another 3/4 inch off the sleeves. These changes were made on my pattern pieces, so now I'm ready to go on the next one once I get fabric. :) (This is KS 2935.)

Think I'm done with shorts now....

I finished these shorts at the end of July but forgot to post a picture. These were the "blue" set - and two of the three fabrics were from stash of at least one year - yippee! The Cars print was purchased early last year, and there should be enough left for a pair of pants, I think. And the beach print was purchased before I left Mississippi, so it was 2006 at the latest. I don't think there's enough left for pants, but definitely one or more pairs of shorts. The Batman print was a remnant I picked up at HF recently - there was just enough for the shorts. These are all size S for Thing 1.

These are the shorts I finished this weekend. I found the soccer plaid at HF - Thing 1 picked it, but both Things liked it. And the construction trucks was a remnant that apparently I never logged into my spreadsheet, so I have no idea when I bought it. I really like it, though! Both Things wore their new soccer plaid shorts to the town's anniversary celebration last night, and Thing 1 wore his new trucks shorts today. The two bigger ones are size S for Thing 1, and again the smaller pair are size T3 for Thing 2.

The pockets are the first contrast color that I've used. I bought several colors of thin cotton broadcloth, on sale last week at HF for $1.99/yd. (I got more today at JAF for $1.66/yd, since I liked it so much!)

And I finally made more scrub hats! I've had these fabrics in my stash for months, waiting on time/inclination to make these. The Beatles prints are both a size M, for a friend who loves the Beatles (she got the Beatles pillowcase I made awhile back), and the cow and pig prints are a size L for me. These are from M4116.

So now I'm working on my fleece Cat in the Hat blanket while I wait for the french curve to arrive so that I can finish The Shirt. I had spray-basted the layers together several weeks or more ago, but I'd gotten stuck on the fleece binding, as I'd run out of premade binding. So last night I pinned black binding strips together and sewed them, and today I pinned the binding to the blanket. I still need to stitch it down. That will also help my yardage stats!

Annoyed at Wal-Mart and fabric stores alike...

I'm once again annoyed with WM because they have eliminated all the fabric departments. I'm about out of old sheets for pocket bags, and I went to the last WM in our area that still had fabric, intending to buy some of their cheap, thin solid-colored broadcloth to use. But of course, that WM has now gotten rid of their fabric as well! Grrrrrr...guess I'll have to remember to pick some up the next time I go to a fabric store.

Speaking of fabric stores...I need a french curve to help with taking the excess width out of The Shirt. So I checked online - both HF and JAF have them. I wanted to buy one in person to avoid delay, but I couldn't find it at either brick-and-mortar store! Argh! So I had to order it after all. Bummer. Now I have to wait a little while to finish the shirt.

While I was at JAF, I picked up a yard of a girly knit print. My cousin is having a baby girl late this fall, so I'm planning to either make a long-sleeved T-shirt and long pants set or a pair of long overalls for her. I won't get started on that for awhile, though, so I'll have some time to decide.

Moving up in sizes...

Thing 2 is already starting to outgrow his new knit PJs. There's still definitely plenty of wear in them, but the shirts are starting to look a little short. Since I've got all this time on my hands right now, I cut out another pair in size T3. This knit was a recent impulse buy, when juvenile knit prints were 60% off at JAF. I've got enough left for a pair of baby pants, I think. It would make a great baby gift - there are several babies due at church soon.
I also cut out four raglan shirts for Thing 2 - he needs some solid colored shirts to go with the print shorts. I thought it would be fun to mix up the sleeves to make them a little different. I was initially going to put sleeve bands on them, so two of the shirts have neckbands the same color as the bodies - the bands would have matched the neckbands. Then I didn't like the sleeve bands and took them off. So on the other two shirts, the neckbands match the sleeves. I like that look better. These are size T3 as well - we'll see how well they fit.

Slow sewing....

I'm trying to sew, but it's difficult to do so one-handed. :( I severed a nerve in my left hand and had surgery to reattach it. This makes it difficult to sew. I have managed to cut out four solid-colored raglan shirts for Thing 2, and I switched sleeves around so that all the shirts are different. And I cut out another pair of knit PJs for Thing 2, this time in size T3, as his T2 PJ shirts are starting to get a little short. So we'll see how much too big the size T3 will be.

I am also working on The Shirt again. Buttons and buttonholes were put on yesterday, and we pinned up the hem and pinned out some excess width. Now to hem the sleeves a bit higher and baste out the width for another try-on.

More sewing....

Yep, more shorts! The green twill was in my stash since last year - I think it was supposed to be pants. And I found the bug print - a very sturdy cotton! - in the remnant bin at HF. So Thing 1 got shorts from both, and Thing 2 also got bug shorts.

Thing 1 still wets the bed at night, so I bought the New Conceptions Sleep Dry Briefs pattern awhile back to try. I had this half-sewn for months and finally finished it. The pieces looked enormous until I sewed it all together and got the elastic in, but it really does fit okay. We've had one trial, which was unsuccessful - I'm not sure if I need more padding or to tweak the fit. But I will perservere! And I'm thinking of also getting the training pants pattern for Thing 2.

I put the buttonholes into the muslin shirt for DH and topstitched the facings down. Now I need to sew in the buttons and try it on him again to make the adjustments to take in the sides and take up the hem. Then I can adjust my pattern and cut out one of the "real" shirts.

Pillowcases

Thing 2 has adopted the travel pillow that was Thing 1's nap pillow at daycare. And that's just fine, except that he only had one pillowcase to fit it! Hmmm....not a good thing....but I know just the way to fix that:

Some stash-busting! I've had the Veggie Tales fabric for probably two years, and I had the bright idea to pair it with the calico that I've had about the same time. The two flannel pillowcases are made with leftovers from Thing 2's sheets (and matching full-sized pillowcases). In both cases, I didn't have enough of the print flannel to do the body of the pillowcase, so I made the body from the "trim" flannel of the original pillowcases, and used the print as the trim here.

I cut my main piece 13.5 (tall) x 16 (wide, and on the fold) inches. The trim pieces were 13.5 (tall) by 5 (wide) inches. I didn't use a second trim because the flannel gets bulky when there are two many layers at the seam. Definitely check your own pillow measurements, however, before using my dimensions.

Thing 2 is thrilled!

Pictures!

First, the knit PJs:
These two pair are for Thing 2. The long pant version was due to retail therapy one day. :) I saw the print on sale and decided that buying it would make my day better! The shorts version was a remnant that I couldn't pass up, and there was just enough to cut the shirt and shorts. He loves them! (KS SFT size 2T for both pieces)

This pair is for Thing 1, and the fabric has been in my stash for at least three years. There is a second pair as well, but apparently I haven't yet taken a picture. I'll have to do that at some point. It's really cute, too. (KS 2775 size 5 for the pants, KS 3043 size S for the shirt)

Probably the last pair of summer-weight pants for the boys. We'll see if I find any really cute fabric anywhere else! I just couldn't pass this up, with all those bright fish - and especially on sale at $1.99/yard! (KS 3042 size XS and KS SFT size 2T)

Thing 2 just turned three, and these are his birthday shorts! He really doesn't need more clothes, but I knew that he'd love them (especially since Thing 1 is getting some - see below!). The fabric was a remnant I picked up last year, and it was perfect for this. Because last year's 2T shorts are getting a little small, I made a size 3T, which is perfect, plus a little growing room. And he's thrilled that the pocket openings are big enough to get his hands through. :) (KS SFT size 3T)

Thing 1 is in dire need of new shorts. He's been growing like a weed, but he's still skinny enough to wear his 4T shorts from two years ago, as well as last year's XS ones. However, the length is getting a bit skimpy, shall we say? So this is the first pair of size S shorts, to test the fit. Once he tries them on tomorrow, I'll cut out bunches more and start eliminating the 4T shorts from the drawer. :) He is obsessed with Cars, so this will be great. I found the pattern as a remnant last year. (KS SFC size S)

No pictures today

So I've been sewing, but I'm not at home so don't have pictures to put up. I haven't worked on The Shirt anymore yet, but that is my goal for Friday afternoon, if I don't get to it before then. I did finish the new PJs for the Things (2 pair each), and I'm almost done with a pair of new summer pants for each of them. I also made three new pillowcases for Thing 2's travel pillow, using long-time stash. Yay!

And with a long weekend (one in which I'm not on call - amazing!), I hope to get a lot more accomplished. And hopefully I can manage to stay away from fabric stores, too. (I was bad last week and made some purchases, which I will show in the next post, I hope.)

Continued progress...

First, the finished PJs for Thing 1! This is KS 3042, and I made the short-sleeved shirt, the shorts, and the pants. That will make this PJ set more versatile for summer and fall. I don't think I can even hope that it will still fit in the spring! Still, that's 2.5 yards out from long-term stash! Yippee! Here is the shirt at its current stage. DH was able to try it on, though it will be more helpful when I add buttons and buttonholes to hold the facings in place. I will likely hem the sleeves as directed (1 inch, I believe), but he wants the shirt as a whole to be shorter, as he does not plan to wear this design tucked in. So we'll have to determine the length after the rest is done. Also, I need to take it in a bit at the sides and determine optimal alterations to the pattern. But then he wants to pick out some solid colors for the next ones!

All in all, I'd say that is success. I did feel the need for some instant gratification, so I cut two new pair of knit PJs for Thing 1 (both long-term stash as well!), and I already had two new pairs for Thing 2 cut as well. I spent this evening folding laundry, but tomorrow, I'll rethread the serger and begin stitching those, along with continuing to work on The Shirt.

Progress update....

So I'm diligently working on a shirt for DH (which was promised to him three years ago - oops!) from KS 2935. And Thursday night, I got as far as needing to attach the collar before I went to bed. Friday night, I was ready to attach the collar, when I realized that I'd sewn the wrong edges of the collar together the night before. Aargh! At least I still had enough to recut the collar pieces. Now I'm waiting for my iron to heat up to press the collar and get back to it.

I'm also finally sewing up PJs for Thing 1 from KS 3042. I've used it for the pants before, but this is the first time with the shirt or shorts. I have some flannel from JAF on a Black Friday (2007, I think) which is being used for shirt, shorts, and pants. This has been cut and in the queue for months, so I hope that the pants are still long enough!

Hopefully there will be pictures later today or tomorrow!

Moving right along....

On the road to stash reduction and increase in useful items! First up actually isn't stash - I bought the seersucker print on sale at JAF a month ago, I think. My boys love the pirate seersucker pants I made them last year, so I figured that another pair was in order for this summer. And then this one truly is stash! I had the shirt and fabric last year, intending to make a summer PJ set for my SIL's birthday, and it just didn't happen. This year, I was determined. I'm a few days late, but I'm sure she'll be okay with that. She likes to wear her boxers low on her hips, so I modified the size S of S9958 to have it hit where she likes them. It saves on fabric, too! (Not that I need any fabric savings with stash reduction plans, of course.)

More crocheting...

I went on a road trip this weekend with a friend, and I don't sit still in the car very well. This was the result! In fact, we had to stop at WM on the return trip to buy more yarn, or I would have lost my mind! ;) Two of these potholders were done before the trip, but the rest were all done during the driving.

And the monster PJs turned out so well that I'm planning to make more for my boys very soon. These two fabrics have been aging long-term in the stash (as in, at least 3 years, maybe 4), so I think they're ready! I will probably use white ribbing with the top one but maybe blue or navy with the bottom one. I think I have enough to make PJs for both boys out of each one...I hope...

Some finished items....

So I've been watching a lot of movies or TV shows on DVD, which means crocheting time, right? Three more double-layer potholders are done, and more are in the works. In fact, I've got an hour-long commute tomorrow, so I bought more skeins of cotton yarn to take along. :)

And I finally finished the last pair of knit pants. (They are actually navy - the flash went off strangely.) They've been sitting around for at least a month, waiting on hems and waist elastic. Oh, well....Thing 2 is still asking for pants some days, so they'll be worn. These are my typical KS SFT pattern. This size was T1, lengthened by 0.5-1 inch, I think.

Then it was time to get serious about summer PJs for the Things. They like to wear sleepers year-round, but they'll also wear short-sleeved shirt/long pants PJ sets. So I pulled out some stash (Yay! Stash reduction!) and traced some new pattern sizes. Thing 1 got pants from KS 2275, size 5, and I added the leg cuffs at his request. They are now plenty long, though I think they'd have been okay for awhile without the cuffs. The shirt is from KS 3043, size S (the last time I tried this, I learned that size XS was just a bit too small).

Thing 2's new PJs were of course from KS SFT. However, I traced off size T2 in both shirt and pants - the first time I've moved him up to that (despite the fact that he's about to turn 3). The pants are plenty long enough to take him through a bit of a growth spurt, and the shirt will fit for awhile. I'll even use size T2 to make him a "regular" shirt soon - but probably not too many of them.

The monster interlock is from JAF, purchased when it was on clearance a few years ago, I think. It was definitely time to use some! And the ribbing was from Hancocks, I believe. I prewashed the interlock but not the ribbing. They are wearing their new jammies tonight and seem very excited about them! Guess I'll have to make some more, now that I'm sure of sizing. ;)