The Christmas of the Pillowcase

We are moving the week of Christmas, so as you can imagine, things have been a little crazy here. Partly due to that, I decided to keep the gifts simple this year. Fun yet practical. This is the first installment of Christmas pillowcases! (Well, really the second....the first ones were here.)
This is all flannel from JAF on Black Friday. There is a matching pillowcase for the penguins in the front, and there are two more of the music notes with white trim. It pretty much became that adults are getting a matching set of pillowcases, and kids are getting single cases. Pillowcases are also a great way to wrap awkward gifts! (Or just any gift, especially if you are semi-wrapping-impaired....) The white and red tie-dye flannels are from my stash from my very first Black Friday flannel haul, and the black was in my stash from a recent purchase....or maybe last year's Black Friday? I can't remember.

Anyway, there are at least 3 more sets of pillowcases and at least five more single pillowcases to make. I'm cutting most of those tonight, although it is not crucial that they be done before Christmas. I tend to mail things a bit late....oops!

I am also making more corn bags and flannel covers. I'll have to finally put up some pictures when I finish these. The bags are long rectangles made of muslin, with serged edges, filled with dried feed corn. The flannel covers are simply long envelope style covers. You heat them up in the microwave for 2-3 minutes, then enjoy warmth on your feet/shoulders/whatever. I also made a few square ones with separate channels to fill with corn, which may be more useful for trying to do heat therapy on specific body parts, like knees. Not sure how those will compare....

Finally finished!

My older son has a Didj, which has become a beloved possession. It frequently goes in the car with us, but until now, there has been no case for it. And so it gets carried, stuffed in backpacks, etc. The Didj itself has survived fairly well, but one of the game cartridges has been unfortunately lost, possibly never to be seen again. So I wanted to construct a padded case, preferably with a zippered closure, and zippered pockets for storing headphones and game cartridges. I suppose it might have been wise to also have room to take the recharger, but I decided that was just too bulky to go on smaller trips and would simply be put in an overnight bag for longer trips. My son picked a marble fabric from my stash, and I took the dimensions of his Didj, added some ease, and went to work.

I decided to skip a lining and just make my own quilted fabric, with two layers of Warm&Natural batting in between the cotton, for more protection. I quilted a large enough piece to allow for some shrinkage but still cut all my pieces from it afterward. After cutting each outer piece, I bound each edge in black nylon lycra. Then I cut the pocket pieces from non-quilted fabric and used black zippers from my stash.

So...from the side, showing the webbing straps (I thought that fabric straps looked too girly) and one of the zippered pockets.

And then the inside, showing the outer zipper and with the Didj inside. As you can see, either I over compensated with ease, or I screwed up some measurements, as there is definitely more than enough room inside for the Didj. Oh, well! I also put a zipper pull on for easier zipping/unzipping - just a small piece of black nylon lycra tied through the zipper pull.The only thing I don't like is that I should have rounded the edges of the main piece before binding it. Once I had the pieces sewn together, I had to trim the inner points to make the case look better. Otherwise, the points stuck out too much. So now I have those raw edges on the inside, which I was trying to avoid. Oh, well....so it's not perfect. If I ever make another one, I'll fix that.

The important thing is that it is almost exactly what I was after, and my son loves it. And now his game cartridges are all secure with his Didj!

November birthdays....

November is a great month to have a birthday. My DH (fittingly) was born on Nov. 10, the Marine Corps birthday. I had intended to have another KS 2935 shirt ready for him, but it just wasn't happening. So instead, I (fittingly) bought him the BluRay boxed set of the HBO miniseries The Pacific. (It worked out to sort of be a birthday present for me, as well - I'm a Veteran's Day baby.) We've been watching that at night, and we just finished it the other night. Now we just have the Special Features disk to go.

My brother was born Nov. 13, and I have told him for years that he was the worst birthday present I ever received. :) Feel the love, right? Well, this year, instead of the traditional boxers or PJ pants, I decided it was time to make him a Hawaiian shirt. I found a loud rayon challis on sale at HF a few months ago, and I cut it out during my time in the lab (while waiting for stuff to finish so that I could do the next stuff). I have since discovered that rayon challis would benefit from starch, and that next time, I won't cut it out, wad it up in a bag, and let it sit for months before sewing. (I had to recut both collar pieces because they wouldn't fit the interfacing pieces.) Oh, well....he still loves the shirt and tells me that it'll be perfect for the office Christmas party at the bowling alley. This is KS 2935, size XL. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good, and more importantly, it's done!

My best friend from high school has been the recipient of many sets of scrubs. And she loves the Peanuts gang. So when I find Peanuts fabric on sale, I get at least enough to make her a scrub shirt. I don't remember where I got this fabric - maybe WM before they got rid of their fabric - but it was cut out for over a year before it was finished (it was supposed to be her birthday present last year - oops!). With the Hawaiian shirt also taking orange serger thread, I decided to finally finish this and get it out of the UFO box, just in time for her pre-birthday visit. Hooray! This is M9123, size S.