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!