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.