A little yarn detour....

So last winter at some point, my sister-in-law posted the link to this slipper pattern and said she wished she could make these.  I took the bait - asked about colors and sizes - and ordered the pattern.  I never did get around to making them last winter, but this fall, I realized that I needed a portable project for lunchtimes at one of my jobs.  These came out, and they've worked out great!

The solid green ones are for my sister-in-law.  The other two pair are for my niece.  By foot measurement, the red/yellow/green ones should have been the right size, but they seemed awfully big (quite possibly user error!).  So I also made the purple/green ones in the smaller size.  (The purple/green variegated yarn was leftover from the slippers that I haven't yet finished for my aunt!)  I figured that even if the smaller size is right, she'll eventually grow into the larger one.

A close-up of my favorite buttons.  I found these at JAF, and I really wish they'd had other colorways to fit my slippers.  These are so cute!

To be honest, these are totally not my style.  The cuffs are way too foofy for me.  But if that's your thing, I can highly recommend the pattern.  It is well-designed and well-written, and it really works up quickly.  I could see myself using it again, if I thought the recipient would like this style.

Dribs and drabs

My sister-in-law likes having matching mother-daughter stuff.  Not sure that she's quite taken it to PJs/loungewear, but hey!  Why not?  :)  I made her a pair of Tigger PJ pants last Christmas (she hasn't gotten them yet - shhhh) when I accidentally cut the wrong size for another friend.  Now I made a matching pair for my niece!  These are from the Kwik Sew Sewing for Toddlers book.

A friend commissioned some special flannel pillowcases for some friends, and I was happy to oblige!  There are two of these, and I hope that the recipients love them as much as she hopes.

And more key fobs!  I think there will be a few more to come - don't think I have any teacher ones left - but these are for a few coworkers and friends.  The short ones are for my boys for stocking gifts - they like putting them on their backpacks as zipper pulls.

Some new PJs

When I made Thing 2 the new Angry Bird Star Wars PJs, I also cut out the regular Angry Bird PJs.  And there they have sat for the last almost two months.  But this weekend, I got them stitched up.  The top is a purchased T-shirt, and I added appliques.

While I was at it, I had also cut out some PJs that were supposed to be for a friend's son's birthday - back in July.  Oops!  I finally finished those up.  They're flannel, so he may still be interested in wearing them before spring.  Hopefully.  These are a flannel from my deep stash - I believe it was part of a Christmas gift about ten years ago!  Glad to finally be using some.

Upcoming gifts

I had the brilliant idea a year or two ago to make infinity scarves as Christmas gifts.  And I tried it out on one scarf, and that's where I left the idea.  (Too many ideas, not enough time.)  So this year, I decided to revisit it.  And I actually made a few already!

This is a woven cotton shirting - I think - that I found at HF.  For something that's not flannel or fleece, it's still fairly soft.  I chose it mainly for the color/print, which is perfect for one of the recipients.  This made 3 scarves, so a total win.  

This fabric is one of the Plaiditude collection at JAF.  It's a brushed cotton, and it's soooo soft!  I wish they had enough left of the other colorways that I liked, because I would buy it all!  This one made 2 scarves.

With each of these, I used scissors instead of my rotary cutter, and I carefully followed the lines of the plaid to cut them.  Normally I'd be all about the rotary cutter and ruler, but my obsession over matching the stripes took over.

I really think the recipients will like these.

And still more stockings!

We have previously documented my love for the StudioCherie Burlap Stocking pattern (minus the burlap).  Well, I'm at it again.

First up, monogrammed stockings for a wedding gift: I don't know the couple's tastes and preferences, so I didn't want to use novelty fabric.  Instead, I went more classic.  She has always liked more of a bright blue or turquoise, and he is a soldier, so I chose a darker blue.  Both colors are remnants from my last set of stockings, and the red print used for the piping was also a remnant from the last set.  All I had to buy to make these were the linen blend and the muslin lining.

While I was getting my sewing mojo back, I decided to throw in a stocking for my buddy.  She's into martial arts, and I had made her a scrub shirt for her birthday, using fabric I found on eBay.  I still had plenty of remnants left, so I used that print for the cuffs and back of the stocking.  The red print used for the piping on the above stockings is the one used for the front here.  I found a black print in stash which became the piping, and I bought another black print for the monogram.  Here's hoping she loves it!

And the back....

I'm back!

So....it's been forever, but I'm finally back.  The palate cleanser project to get me back into things was a new pair of PJs for Thing 2.  I did some retail therapy awhile back and bought two one-yard cuts of Angry Birds flannel to make him new PJs.  And I bought the coordinating T-shirts around the same time, so that I could get these done....and then they sat.

But here is the first one!  The shorts are from KS3042, size M - they're long on him, but that just gives some room to grow.  And I chose one of the motifs to add to the shirt to tie them together.  Thing 2 is wearing them now, which makes me happy.  A good way to ease back into the sewing....

A long time away....

It's been just about two months since my last posting.  Part of the problem is that I started working a lot more over the summer.  That's good for my bank account, but not so great for getting projects done.  But the bigger issue is that honestly I've been missing my sewing mojo for quite some time.  I hope to get back into the groove and start putting up projects again soon, but we're just going to have to see....

More scrub shirts!

So back in December of 2007, I made a Jeff Gordon scrub shirt for one of my techs - someone who looooves NASCAR and Jeff Gordon in particular.  And she dearly loved it, and I saw it in frequent rotation.  Then last September, I was in town for a conference, and I happened to see her still wearing it!  And, oh, how ratty it was looking!  I suggested it was time for retirement, and I was told that she couldn't retire it, because she couldn't get a replacement.  (Apparently they don't make NASCAR scrubs?)  And the tech beside her helpfully told me that she wears it every Friday, and that she tells everyone that I made it for her.  Gulp.  Did I mention it looks really ratty now?  So, as one can imagine, I got onto the internet that night and looked for some new Jeff Gordon fabric.  And it arrived less than a week later, got prewashed, and there it sat.

Until now.  Since I was pulling out the scrub shirt pattern for my mom, I decided to cut out a couple of other ones.  This was first on my list - no occasion, really.  I just wanted it done and out the door so she will hopefully burn the old one. :)  I put in the lower pockets but left off the upper one.  I'm really happy with how it looks, and I hope that she will be over the moon to get a surprise replacement.

Last July, I was in need of some retail therapy, and so of course I went to the fabric store.  With grand intentions of sewing some new scrubs for myself, I bought two prints for tops and three solids for bottoms.  And there it has stalled....until now.  I chose this for the first top to stitch up for myself, simply because I could use black serger thread on both this and the Jeff Gordon top.  I left off the lower pockets but put in the upper pocket, to hold a pen.  And I didn't bother pattern-matching, because it is such a busy print.  Think I'm going to have some fun wearing this one!

Now let's see how long it'll take me to work on the others....

Library Book Bags

So way back before we moved to this area, I bought three different Dr. Seuss fabrics, with intent of making book bags for each of us to take to/from the library.  And I kept saying that I needed to do it, and I kept putting it off to do more urgent projects.  Well, I finally got tired of having to search for library books, and I decided that maybe if I made the darn bags, they could also be used to corral said books.  (I hope.)  But by now, we decided that Dr. Seuss really didn't suit my sons as well as it used to.  And more importantly, I have this growing ribbon stash. :)

So I took brown duck cloth from my stash, and I bought tonal prints in each of our favorite colors to use for the straps/lining.  (And then, just because, I went ahead and cut one from the Cat in the Hat fabric, too....It may become a craft project bag.)  We have a green fan and an orange fan in the house, and mine (not yet finished) is blue.  Thing 1 chose a Mario ribbon to go with his green, and Thing 2 chose a Lego Star Wars ribbon, which actually looks pretty good against the orange.

I made these to the same specifications as the teacher tote bags, except that I put a pocket on each side instead of on only one side.  And I added two snaps to close one of the pockets - with the intent of keeping library cards inside.  The ribbon was stitched down under the trim at the top of the pockets, and also around the top of the bag.  I really love how these turned out, and my boys are very happy with them!  (And I can't wait to finish mine - I used Calvin and Hobbes ribbon!)

Birthday scrub shirt

I've made my mom scrub shirts in the past, but mostly pre-blog, I guess.  The only one I've previously blogged was, ironically, a Suzy's Zoo print, and that was four years ago.  So when she wrote that she still wore them and hinted that she would like another, I figured it was time....

She likes Thomas Kinkade prints, and I actually have two TK prints in the stash, intended for scrub shirts for her.  But then I was at the local quilt store on New Year's Day for their sale, and I found new Suzy's Zoo fabric from Hoffman Fabrics!  Well, that settled it!  I bought the brightest print they had with the intent of making a scrub shirt for Mom's birthday.  Between the end-of-school craziness and all the other deadlines I had, I basically made this shirt at the last minute to get it mailed out in time.  But finish on deadline I did!

I'm really happy with how it turned out - I left the lower pockets in, and my pattern matching was near perfect.  I've had issues with some of the quilt basting spray not washing out of my pockets very well, so this time I used Steam-A-Seam to secure the pockets before I stitched them in place.  It worked well, and I'm very happy with how it all looks.  I hope that my mom loves it.

And there's my adorable Cooper getting his face into the picture!

Father's Day Boxers

So it's been previously demonstrated that I tend to make boxers a lot for the men in my life.  And this Father's Day was no exception!

My dad is an Army veteran, and I've previously made him Army print boxers.  But I was in JAF recently and saw that their licensed fabric was on sale 50% off.  I hadn't really expected to buy any of it, but then I saw this print and thought it was really neat.  So....my dad got a new pair of Army boxers for Father's Day.

My husband is a Marine Corps veteran, and so he has previously been the recipient of Marine print boxers.  But I thought it was time to make more, and both of these prints (purchased from a coop) have been in the stash - intended for boxers - for at least four years.  So it was time to move them out. :)

And since I was working up boxers and had black thread in the serger (with the Army boxers), I also cut out and whipped up this pair of monster boxers.  My husband has a couple of pairs of Halloween boxers already, but they are 9-10 years old, and at least one pair needs to be retired from use.  So when I saw this print on clearance at JAF for $2/yd, I bought some.  I'll hang on to them for now, but maybe give them to him around Halloween.

Mother-daughter dressing....

So my sister-in-law's birthday is coming up again, and last year she wanted mother-daughter outfits.  Based on ideas she gave me (including patterns she liked), I had chosen the Frog Legs and Ponytails patterns Amelia shirt for her and Caroline dress for my niece.  Last year, I made the size M (a total guess, but it worked!) shirt for my sister-in-law and the 12-24 month dress for my then-18 month-old niece.  I had even bought another pair of fabrics at the time to make a second set for them, but I had wanted to wait on hearing how they fit, first.  And by the time I heard anything, I had other priorities, and summer was drawing to a close.  So instead, I pulled them out now!

These fabrics were from the "Keepsake Calicos" section at JAF.  I love the tonal blue butterflies print, and the yellow floral brightened it up nicely.  I made the M for my sister-in-law again but this time chose the 3T for my niece.  I figured that hopefully she can wear it next summer, too.  Once again, this is a well-drafted pattern, and there were no surprises.  

I hope that my sister-in-law likes the outfits!  And I'm very pleased to have them done in advance of her birthday!  I can see myself making her new mother-daughter outfits from this pattern as long as they are both willing to wear them.

More birthday pillowcases!

My two nephews have birthdays coming up this month, and usually I just get them gift cards - Sport's Authority, iTunes, etc.  But I was at Jackman Fabrics two weeks ago for their Memorial Day sale, and I saw lacrosse fabric and just had to get it for my older nephew.  That was the first time I'd ever seen lacrosse fabric, so I decided that he needed a pillowcase to go with his birthday gift.  The younger one is easier - he plays soccer.  :)  

Then I had to ask their mom about their favorite colors - and she had to check with them! :)  The older one was easy - green.  I even had this green print in my stash!  The younger one went with purple as #1, but orange as a close second.  Well, sorry, kiddo, but purple doesn't really go with that soccer print.  So I chose an orange tonal print instead.  I'll put some gift cards in with these, and I'm hoping that they really like them!

Appliqued stuff out the wazoo!

So there are always babies being born in my world - some nearby, some farther away.  And with one classmate, one coworker, and two people from my past all having new babies, it was time for another marathon onesie session!  (Yes, some of these are just because I was getting a little onesie applique happy....)  

In the left column, there are four onesies going to the new baby of the child of a family we used to attend Bible study with.  (I still can't believe she's old enough to be married with a baby!  I must be aging...)  The baby's late uncle was apparently very interested in getting a motorcycle, so I made sure to have two motorcycle appliques in the lot.

The column second from left is for a classmate's new baby girl.  Her daddy is a pig farmer, which inspired the pig applique.  I think it's super cute!  I also really like the black dino - it has multi-colored hearts all over. :)

Then the other 3 columns were not specifically intended for anyone - though I did scoop three boyish ones out of the mix to send as a gift to someone for whom I used to babysit.  This is his second baby - again, I feel as though I'm aging!  (But I was only a teenager then, and I figure I'm probably less than ten years his senior, so it's not so bad.)  I'll be keeping the motorcycles, foxes, and pigs in the mixture in the future!

The onesies on the left are for my coworker's baby.  His intended name begins with a "B," and his room is decorated in a fox theme.  And then I just had to throw in a dinosaur.  I mean, come on!  Every little boy needs a dinosaur!

And after all the recent Star Wars love for my niece, I realized that she has surely grown out of the original dinosaur onesies I sent her.  So she needed a new "grown up" dinosaur shirt. :)  I thought that the tonal purple dinosaur would go well with a lime green shirt - the combo seemed very summery to me.

So the red dinosaur applique has been kicking around for about a year now - basically ever since I made Thing 2 his dinosaur shirt.  I had cut this applique out at the same time as the orange one, then decided to go with the orange.  So I finally decided that this red one needed a shirt.  The little girl who inspired the whole dino appliques in the first place is now a year-ish, so I figured that she could use a new dino shirt.  Since the applique was so big, I went with an 18 month size - she can always grow into it!  

And then I just loved the pig applique so much that I wanted to make a bigger version.  A friend from my grad school days still does research with pigs, and her little girl is turning two later this summer.  So I thought this would be perfect for her.  It turned out really cute, and I'm already trying to come up with other things to use it on!

Birthday pillowcases

I think I've mentioned before that my DSIL is a big horse lover.  So when I saw this mustang print flannel at JAF (on sale, no less!), I figured that I really needed to make something for her!  There wasn't enough for PJ pants, and I'm not sure if she needs more yet, anyway....So I thought pillowcases!  I haven't made her any pillowcases in a looooong time.  Sadly, there wasn't enough, as this was the last on the bolt, and the print was unidirectional.  Time to bring in some solid colors!  Basically, I just cut two pieces of print for each pillowcase (figured it out by dividing my usable length of fabric by 4), then added enough of the brown between the prints to get the needed length.  Then I added brown at the ends for trim as usual.  Not sure if this will go with her birthday or Christmas gift....maybe Christmas, as her other birthday gifts are definitely warm weather gifts and must be given now.

Kiddo summer PJs

So about a month or so ago, I realized that spring had finally come to the Midwest.  As in, summer PJs were going to be in constant use.  And then I realized that Thing 1 no longer had any summer PJs that fit - because I saw him put on a pair that showed an inch or two of midriff, and the shorts looked like Daisy Dukes.  Not a good look.  Not at all!

So I traced off the size L of KS 3042, and I pulled out three lengths of flannel from the stash.  For each, I purchased a coordinating color T-shirt (might as well make this easy, right?).  And then I cut and sewed, adding an applique to each T-shirt!

We have robots doing lab work:

Sharks!

And Transformers!  (And it's killing me that I didn't pay enough attention to see that the pattern repeat was going to get me in trouble at center front.  I had checked that as I was cutting the other two pair, and I just got lazy on this one.  My bad!)

Considering that Thing 1 is fond of not wearing jammies unless ordered to (babysitter here at night, sleepover, whatever), I think three new pairs are sufficient for awhile!  And I'm happy to have moved some stash out into useful garments....

Long time since my last post - and teacher gifts!

So I really have been sewing in the last month!  I've just apparently been terrible about blogging....It's the end of the school year, and this year I was determined to NOT be sewing tote bags the night before school ended.  I did really well at cutting out the pieces for the tote bags over a month in advance - the green is broadcloth found at a thrift store for $1/yd, and the pink is a thrifted sheet of about the same weight.  There's also one (not pictured) with green for the main color and black (thrifted sheet) for the lining/straps.  But life kept getting in the way, and I made very minimal progress.  And then I discovered that Thing 1's main teacher's favorite color was blue - so I had to get blue broadcloth on sale at JAF so that she could have her favorite color.  (Thing 2's teacher's favorite is pink, and we didn't know at all about Thing 1's other teacher.)

These are my usual go-to basic tote bag, double-layer with a pocket on the front.  I like this construction because it is sturdy and durable with the two layers, but lightweight and easy to wash.  Also, it looks a bit more fancy than it is because the lining comes up over the top and the straps are contrasting.

I ended up making 5 bags at once - the three pictured, a second blue/green, and the green/black I mentioned.  Once I started making real progress, they did come together quickly.  Each bag takes about 0.5 yards for the main part and 0.75 for the lining/straps.  I filled them with a beach towel, a pair of coordinating-colored flip-flops, 2 plastic tumblers, a jar of strawberry lemonade mix, a can of sunscreen, and a Barnes & Noble gift card.  Just like last year, I used the Summer Subway Art to make the thank you cards.  I think that the teachers really liked them!

Feeding the obsession....

So my mother-in-law's birthday is this month, and she loves playing Candy Crush, for some reason.  And so I made her a Candy Crush key fob at Christmas, but then I saw this Candy Crush-inspired fabric at the quilt store at their New Year's Day sale, and I just couldn't resist. ;)  So I made these six towels, using all the main colors of the rainbow for the towels.  She gets the green and purple ones, and the rest will go into the gift stash....And now I'm in total hanging towel mode, and I'm planning to make up a bunch more - this Christmas might be towel-themed!

Still more key fobs - and a new use!

So I had made my friend some "Proud to Be a Nurse" key fobs, and she wanted more to distribute among her coworkers for Nurses' Day (May 6th, in case you aren't aware).  She chose the webbing colors from the ones I had available.  The Candy Crush key fob is for my aunt's birthday in the fall - yes, I too am shocked that I'm this far ahead of the game on that one! And the Lego key fob is for my son....

....to make it harder for him to lose his jump drive!  This particular jump drive is to be used for his programs for the Lego robotics club, so the Lego ribbon is perfect.  I let him pick the webbing color, too, and I am hoping this makes it easy to hang onto his jump drive, or at least much easier to find when he invariably misplaces it.  (These jump drives are TINY!)

I think this is a great way to help keep track of jump drives, and I'm thinking that I'll be making some key fobs for my own jump drives!  Time to make those suckers harder to lose!

More Star Wars clothes!!!

 It's been about nine months or so since I made my niece the girly Star Wars shirts.  And apparently she is outgrowing them, so my brother requested some new ones.  Well, how can I say no?  So I bought several different colors of the very same shirt (Garanimals brand - short sleeved toddler girl's shirt - just a bigger size this time) and got to work.  This time I went for some Star Wars Lego images, which I just thought were awesome.

Meet Yoda:

And R2D2:

And you can't have Star Wars without Darth Vader (with the appropriate colored lightsaber):

All the shirts together - I love how they turned out!

More pillowcases

It's getting to be birthday party season again, after a break.  So I started making pillowcases.  This was the first one that occurred to me: Thing 1 has a friend who loves reptiles, and the idea came when I randomly happened to see this flannel at JAF.  Good thing!  He loved it!

So then Thing 2 had a birthday party a week later, and that friend likes Minecraft.  So I pulled some flannel out of my stash and whipped up two pillowcases, with different Minecraft ribbon bands (bought from a coop), then let Thing 2 choose which one would go to his friend.  The other one is going into my gift stash.

After that, I was on a roll, so I pulled more flannel out of the stash (I love using up stash!) and made two Angry Birds pillowcases.  These are intended for Christmas gifts for a pair of brothers.

Pillowcases are a great gift - always useful, don't take up much space, and can be easily customized to suit the recipient.  And they don't take much time!  Bonus!

Easter Angry Birds

So, Easter is coming....and I thought my niece could use a cute shirt. :)  Okay, so it's really that I needed an excuse to use the Easter Angry Birds print, and I thought it was a little too girly for my son.  But, you know....

So I spent a little while walking around the keepsake calicos, trying to find something to go with the print, and I finally settled on this multicolored hearts on a black background print.  I wasn't totally sure how it would work, but I thought it was the best option I saw that day.  And I think it looks okay!

This is the Izzy top again, by Climbing the Willow.  Based on the feedback from the two I sent in February, I made this the size 2T but added 2 inches in length.  This should be perfect for awhile.  Here's hoping she likes it!

More key fobs!

I recently made a bunch of key fobs and thought I'd share them.  These are so quick and easy!  The first set went to my high school friend who is a nurse.  I told her to pick her favorite and then see if anyone at work was interested in buying the others.  (Yes, I'm selling them - if someone is willing to help fund my new ribbon obsession, I'm totally willing to let them!  $6 each plus shipping if anyone's interested)  I think my favorite is probably the red one, but the blue goes almost perfectly with the blue in the stethoscopes, and the black looks pretty classy.  I'm thinking that in the future, I'll make sure that they all line up with the phrase complete on each side. 

These two are random gifts.  I know someone who loves Legos and was in need of a pick-me-up - I hope that she liked it!  That would potentially be a nice fundraiser for a Lego robotics team, too....And the eyes one is going to a friend who works in an ophthalmology office.  Maybe her coworkers would like some?  We'll see....

And these were commissioned by coworkers at the animal shelter I occasionally do work for.  One of the techs saw the key fobs I made for the other doctors, and she asked where I had gotten them.  When I said that I'd made them, she asked if I would sell any.  I thought about it and said sure, and she collected orders.  My favorite is probably still the turquoise, but I'm also partial to the purple and the green.  I also really like this ribbon on black, but no one ordered it this time.

I hope that everyone likes their new key fobs!  I'm currently semi-obsessed with making them, but I have to wait until my hardware order arrives before I can make any more.  These are great gifts - relatively inexpensive, but super cute and very useful.  I'll definitely continue to make them as gifts, especially when I need multiples.

Baby gifts

Two people I know just had their first babies, so it was time to pull out some onesies for embellishment!  The onesies in the left column are all long-sleeved 0-3 m size, and the others are all short-sleeved 3-6 m.  The blue shirt in the bottom is a 24m, for my niece.  I had some fun with these!  The red and green dinosaurs are for one friend's baby boy, and all the girl onesies are for the other friend's new baby girl.

I also made a baby sling for the baby girl.  Her mother's favorite color is blue, so I found a sky-blue linen look fabric at JAF and made a single layer sling, edging the sides with homemade bias tape from a tonal turquoise butterfly print.  I think it turned out super cute!  I hope that she likes it!  The sling rings were passed on by a member of my online sewing group, so this is my first time using real sling rings, as opposed to steel ones from the hardware store.

Birthday PJs

A friend's son recently had a birthday.  This is the same kid who got the baseball jammies for his birthday two years ago.  Apparently he loves them, so I figured a new pair of PJs would be a good thing.  I bought this flannel on Black Friday a year or two ago, specifically intended for boy PJs, so it was time to break it out.  Last time, I made him a size XS, with two inches added in the legs.  Since I wasn't able to get measurements from his mom, I just went up a size (she said the previous pair fit perfectly now).  

I heard that he loves them!  Woohoo!