Other fun

 I used to do cross-stitch a lot, before I really got into sewing.  I liked the graphical nature of it, and I had a lot of fun with putting small designs on clothing.  I had quite a few big pictures that I started, but not so many that I finished - oops!  And most that I finished were given away.  I'll have to dig up the few that are still here and photograph them.

Anyway, there are certain times that you need a project and can't lug your sewing machine along.  (As evidenced by last Christmas' slipper production....)  But I eventually got tired of slippers...even though I have a pair that need to be finished....so when I knew that I had a long day out with not much to do, I turned back to cross-stitch.  At this point, my favored Blackhawks were starting the Stanley Cup finals, so I bought a logo pattern on etsy and picked up the few needed supplies.  Nearly a month later, I finished it while en route to the United Center for a U2 concert. 

It's actually still not done - the logo is complete, and I do really like the pattern.  All full stitches, and it stitched up nicely.  I will say that I changed the color of the face - that was originally the same yellow as the feathers, and that was just not right.  The other colors perfectly matched the logo on my sweatshirt from the Winter Classic 2015, so I just took the sweatshirt to the store and matched the floss to the face that way.  (If anyone wants to know, I used DMC 783 for the face.)  Now I just need to decide what font I'm using to add the years of Stanley Cup wins around it, and whether I'm going to add "Chicago Blackhawks" or "Stanley Cup champions" to it.  Decisions, decisions.....

However, this one is finished!  I have a misguided friend, so I bought this pattern and made it for her.  I added her name and "#1 fan" below the logo.  It turned out really well (except for being the wrong team....)!  I love the colors in it, too.  That electric blue is one of my favorites.

As an aside, this is also the first cross-stitch picture that I've framed myself *the right way*.  I looked up online how to do this properly.  It's mounted over a piece of acid-free foam-core mat board, and it is laced in the back instead of taped or anything crass. ;)  I didn't add a back over the opening, because I want her to be able to remove the mat in case an autograph opportunity presents itself.  And I included an acid-free pen in the box, for use in such an opportunity.  She was really thrilled with it, and I'm delighted with how well it turned out!  Now I need to figure out how I want to finish mine so that it can get into a frame!

More twirly skirts!

So of course I couldn't stop with just those previously blogged little girl skirts.  Um, no.  I had bought enough of the tutti fruitti fabric in my initial shopping trip for five skirts.  And then when I went back for yardage for the Sophia skirt, I had gotten enough for two of those.  So it was time to finish these and move them out before summer ended and my niece couldn't wear them!  (Yes, I'm blogging late....again....)

These are all iterations of the Rachel skirt.  I used my serger on all of them to ruffle the middle and trim tiers.  I really like how they turned out!  The purple wavy lines/colored dots on white skirt is a size 4 (my niece is going to be four soon), with regular elastic.  The other three are all size 5, with buttonhole elastic.  I figure that way she can use them now, but she won't outgrow them before next year.

And I had to make another Sophia!  This one is also a size 5 (the last one was a size 4), with buttonhole elastic.  Takes some of the guesswork out of these, which is great!  I included a note with them for my sister-in-law to let me know how that holds up in the wash.  These recent skirts are my first time using it, but I really love it in my boys' store-bought pants!

The Husband was surprised to see this combination, and even more surprised to hear that I'd been the one to pick it.  He thought it looked very summery, like corn, and I told him that was the intention.  I really stink at combining more than two fabrics, so I was just looking for two coordinating colors that were in the dragonfly print.  Still not my style at all, but I think it looks good.  Hopefully my niece likes it!

Little 4 Awhile Rachel Skirt

So I had made my niece a trial skirt - the Sophia Tiered Skirt from Funktional Threads - and then waited to hear the reaction and feedback on the sizing.  Well, it was a hit!  And they said that it was a bit big, which was good!  So of course I had intentions - and fabric already - to make some more.  But first, I decided to try another - less intensive - skirt pattern.  Enter the Rachel skirt, from Little 4 Awhile.  This has the added advantage of being free!  (Anyone who makes skirts for charity, take note!)

For my first iteration, I basically made it as is.  It is a very basic skirt which can be made in either knit or woven fabric.  I chose to use woven for this.  The skirt is gathered to fit the waistband, and the bottom trim band is the exact length of the skirt - no ruffles here.  This is a size 4, and I made the elastic an inch shorter than I had on the Sophia skirt, based on the feedback of that one being a bit large.

For my next iteration, I used my ruffler foot or my serger to play around with gathering - which made it non exact.  (I was using both the ruffler foot and the serger for various pieces at that point - don't remember which I used here.)  The only thing with using either of those - which worked great, by the way! - is that unless you do more math than what I was willing to do at that point, you don't know exactly how the gathering is going to turn out.  I.e., you need to ruffle more than you think you'll need and then put it together.  This didn't bother me - I just cut extra length for my middle and bottom tiers, stitched them together, gathered them, and then put them together with the waistband before stitching the last seam.  (Does that make sense?)  And after the first one, I decided to go with ruffles at the bottom edge - these are double layer, because I have no desire to hem it all. ;)

So there's a story with these two skirts.  A friend's little daughter really loves Spiderman, which is a bit unusual, and her favorite color is brown, which is rather unusual.  She just had a birthday, and I thought it'd be really neat to try to combine these two favorites.  Sadly, there were no Spiderman prints available which were really brown-friendly, but this was the closest I could find.  And this brown print was the one that best coordinated, so I went with it.  At the time, I wasn't sure what pattern I was going to use, so I bought more than I thought I'd need.  (Um, yeah....I had more than enough to make a second skirt for my niece.)  Since I didn't know a waist measurement (and didn't want to spoil the complete surprise by asking), I used buttonhole elastic in this one - my first time.  I heard that it turned out great!

Another long-term UFO

So I blogged waaaaay back when (July 2011) about how we repainted my sewing room, and how I bought FQs to make sampler quilts to hang on the walls to tie the room colors together.  And eventually I did make four blocks....and there they've sat.  At one point, I solicited opinions from my online sewing groups about colors for sashing/borders.  And then I bought the sashing/border fabric.  And there it all still sat....until last night.  I suddenly got the bug to do some selfish sewing, and I went digging around in the bins for the blocks and the fabric.

And here's my finished top for the wall hanging!

I still don't know what I'm going to use for backing or binding.  I was thinking about maybe something striped for the binding, if I can find a striped fabric with the right colors in it, and maybe just a muslin for the backing, since it's just going to hang on the wall nonstop.  And I'm going to find someone to quilt it for me, so that it'll actually get done without waiting another four years.  But I'm still amazed (as is The Husband!) that it's done!

Doll dresses!

My niece is apparently quite into dolls, so I decided to get her one that I could dress for her.  I didn't want to spend the money on an American Girl doll for a three-year-old, but Target has the Our Generation dolls which are pretty similar in size, proportions, and looks.  So after texting pics back and forth with my brother, I bought one.  

I was making mother-daughter tops for my sister-in-law's birthday (just now realized that I never got a picture of this year's version before mailing them, darn it!), and my pattern has a doll size!  

So this is to match the two humans - and please excuse the non-matching shoes.  Those are the ones that came with the doll, and I haven't gotten or made any more yet.  Priorities, right?  Now I have since retrofitted this one by stitching the ribbons to elastic and stitching the elastic in place in the necklines.  That way at least the ribbons can't be pulled out.

This one matches my niece's new skirt.  I made it basically to play around with the gathering foot that I hadn't realized I had (bought it in a box of 32 sewing machine feet, then haven't really played with them).  The gathering foot makes some very soft ruffles.  Next time I'll see if I can use it with a double layer ruffle!  I did the same thing with the ribbons stitched to elastic....

And like every young girl these days, my niece loves Frozen.  I found this as a remnant at JAF - far too small to be a top for my niece, sadly - so I turned it into a dress for the doll.  For this, I had to take about six inches off the bottom edge, and I also took out six rows of shirring.  I added straps which are stitched down, because the shirred bodice is stretchy enough to allow for getting the dress off without any closure.  I think that'll be especially nice for my sister-in-law!

I really hope that my niece likes her doll (Christmas present) and all the clothes I'm working on!

Twirly skirt!

My niece is of an age where she loves "twirly skirts," and I got a request from my sister-in-law to supply some.  And JAF was having a sale on their Tutti Fruitti collection, which are basically lightweight, seersucker-like prints.  So I figured, why not have some fun?  I bought several to go together, then realized that without any measurements to go on, I had zero idea how to make something that might turn out wearable.

Enter the Sophia tiered skirt, from Funktional Threads.  I know it's basically an everyday tiered peasant skirt, but since I had no measurements, I wanted sizes and cutting measurements so that I had a better chance of making something usable.  I chose the size 4 because my niece is 3.5 years old, and apparently it worked out well, because it's a little big.  (Yay!)

I really liked the results.  As you can see, this is basically a circle skirt - it's even too full to lie flat as a circle!  I'm not sure that this would have worked as well in fabrics that weren't so lightweight - it might need wider elastic to still stay up.  The ratio on these layers are 2:1, with each successive tier being twice the width of the previous.  This means that you're gathering 7.5 yards of ruffle!  Yikes!  

The instructions tell you to gather each layer by stitching two lines of gathering stitches, then pulling them tight.  I think that's a recipe for broken threads and much frustration, so I pulled out my trusty cording foot and zigzagged over thick crochet thread instead.  Still annoying and time consuming, but not nearly so frustrating.  And I have also ordered a ruffler foot, so we'll see how that works out for future iterations.

Also, the yardage requirements assume single layer ruffle at the bottom, but the instructions give the option for a double-layer ruffle (to avoid hemming 7.5+ yards of ruffle!).  Do yourself a favor and buy a little extra yardage to do the double-layer.  You're welcome in advance.

All told, I do like the results.  This is not something I would have ever come up with otherwise, but then I'm the mom of boys.  I definitely see more of these in my future, but I'm going to play with the ruffler foot when it arrives.  That gathering was for the birds!

A new scrub shirt!

This was a recent birthday gift.  One of my friends on an online sewing group was destashing her mom's sewing stash, and when I saw this print, I knew it'd be perfect for a new scrub shirt for my mom.  Though it wasn't done for her birthday, it was done and mailed in time for her to wear it to their church's yearly VBS program.  (Apparently her fellow volunteers and the kids keep track from year to year whether I've made her any new scrub shirts?)

So Tigger is of course colorful and adorable on his own merit....but I discovered after prewashing the fabric that I didn't have enough to also make the bias binding for the neckline from the main fabric.  Instead, I stole from fabric designated for a different fabric (don't worry, it's at the local JAF - I can get more!) to make the bias binding.  Then, I figured that to tie it together, I should also use it for the tops of the pockets.  Makes it look intentional, and added bonus that it's easier to find the pockets in the busy print!  

No pattern matching here for the pockets - the print was busy enough.  And I think the orange tonal print looks great against the blue background and Tigger.

I hope everyone really likes this one!

New baby gifts

So I'm (as usual) catching up on blogging, in some cases long after the gifts have gone out.  That's okay, right? ;)  Two babies were born earlier in the summer, and these are baby gifts that I made for both.  The first was born to a friend who, along with her husband, practices martial arts.  So naturally I wanted to use that as a focus. First, I used scraps leftover from their wedding pillowcases to make a set of burp cloths.  Then, I pulled out the ninjabread appliques again.  This time, I used one on each onesie.  Add in a onesie with the baby's first initial, and the end!

This picture was taken before finishing each gift completely.  I had made a bunch of burp cloths and showed one of each print, plus the nursing pads I'd finished.

And a closer look at the nursing pads.  I'm now out of the microfleece that I had bought for this ages ago, so the next ones will use Cuddle Dry Microfleece that I bought through a coop.  I'm also now out of PUL, I think, so I'll have to buy some more.  These don't take much, but they turn out really nicely, especially with the lace overlay.  I've had great feedback from some of the people who have received these, so I'll continue to gift them.

This is from a book panel that I bought and stashed probably at least ten years ago.  The new mom loved Care Bears, so I was saving it for her first child.  I'm kind of impressed that I remembered and dug it out! :)

And then a baby sling!  This baby's gender wasn't known ahead of time, so I wanted to make something that could be gender neutral.  I purchased an olive linen blend from JAF and went to work.

I went with the black print for bias binding - both because I thought it'd be fun to have the music print, and because my remaining nylon sling rings were black.  I do think this really sets off the olive, so it was a good choice.  And I have a bunch of the bias tape remaining for future projects.

I sent this along with a print out of instructions and helpful websites for babywearing....I hope that she uses it and likes it.  My sister-in-law told me (much later) that she had LOVED her sling and used it almost daily.

New Star Wars shirts! (And a bonus dinosaur)

So my niece has LOVED her Star Wars shirts, but she's outgrowing them, as children do.  So I kind of got carried away on making her a new set.  Oops!  All of these applique shapes have been seen before, but I changed up the colors (and obviously the sizes).  Darth Vader got a hot pink lightsaber this time, because red wasn't going to cut it on a purple shirt.  

And every little girl should have her own dinosaur, right?  This was the bonus shirt.

I hope she likes her new shirts!  She should still have plenty of good weather for wearing them....

Matching family!

I wanted to send a baby gift to a family which recently welcomed their fourth child, a daughter (they've been alternating boy-girl), and I thought it'd be fun to send something to the older siblings. And then it hit me - they could be quasi-matchy-matchy, which would probably never happen if you were looking for store-bought clothes.  But this is why we sew!

My dino appliques are usually a big hit, so I decided they would be appropriate here, too.  The first set features the darker blue on the boy shirts and the lighter blue on the girls.  This was simply due to not having a single shade that would look good on all the shirts.  (As an aside, it's not easy to find plain, solid color tees at WM for all the sizes I needed!)

For this set, I was able to use a single red fabric for all the shirts, and I think they look pretty good.

I heard that the family loved them! 

UFO to FO!

I am embarrassed to admit how long this has languished in "the pile."  I think it was two years, to be honest.  When I was thinking up a birthday gift for Thing 1's then-teacher, I had considered using the Green Pepper Wave Bag pattern.  But I had wanted to muslin it first and make sure it would be okay.  (I have a hard time visualizing bag sizes very well....)  Anyway, I used a white twill and a weird woven purple paisley print for the first try.  And then I totally stalled on the binding/straps.  Like, for two years.  The pattern called for webbing to be folded over as the binding, and I didn't want to do that, but I wasn't sure how best to do it.  So the muslin got thrown onto the sewing table and left there. for. ever.

Then I finally decided that I really wanted to finish it for my grandma's birthday earlier this year.  (Since I didn't get it done for last year's birthday....)  And it really didn't take all that long to cut and press bias tape to use on the edges.  Sigh.....

The colors of the print are pretty dark in this picture.  

Definitely more true to life here.  It really isn't a bad color, though she may not be able to find anything in it!

Hopefully she likes it!  I was just thrilled to have it done and out of the sewing room.

Still more PJs

I believe that it may have been previously mentioned here that my brother is an obsessed Star Wars fan.  So when I saw this sheet set at a local thrift store, there was no question what it would become!  This is my TNT pattern for mens' PJ pants - B6887 - OOP now but still available on eBay, etc. - but this time I did not make the fly functional or add a drawstring, as the fabric would have needed substantial interfacing to make buttonholes or hold snaps.  He said that he really doesn't use them, anyway, so I saw no point.

And Thing 2 is in need of some new PJs.  Actually, this was supposed to be a pair of winter PJs, but I screwed up my cutting layout and wasn't able to get both front and back cut out in the full length.  So I put my screwed up pieces aside while I ordered more fabric (on etsy, paying far more than I had for the original length, grrrr), and instead I cut out a pair of shorts.  After finishing them, I added some sharks to a purchased shirt to complete the new summer set.  I still plan to finish the originally planned set, though that will have to wait until some other birthday gifts are finished.  I may even have enough left over for another short set, that would become someone's birthday gift....hmmm.....

More PJs....

So the PJ train continues....when I made the ninja PJs for my friend, I started worrying because I discovered some pilling on the PJ pants.  I thought that maybe I should make another pair of pants, in case the pilling became horrible quickly.  She likes purple, and I figured that these would go okay with the ninjabread shirt.  There was the added bonus that this flannel has been in my stash for years, so it was nice to get it used up.

And another friend likes sheep.  When we were in high school together, she frequently wore a particular sweater with sheep knitted into the design.  So when I saw a set of sheep sheets at a thrift store, I just HAD to buy them.  As per usual, the top is M5504, and the pants are M3006.  I don't see these lasting terribly long, but the fabric was so perfect that I had to go for it.  I have another pair (new fabric!) in progress for her for Christmas....

Teacher gifts

So once again, the school year has come to an end, and I did my now traditional end of the year teacher gift!  I made two new tote bags and pulled one from last year out of the gift stash.  (Yay, gift stash!)  And I even finished these TWO nights before the end, so I had time to leisurely wash out the chalk markings. :)  

Anyway, the new ones were made from a palm tree home dec fabric I found at the thrift store.  I originally intended to leave the bags unlined, but then I figure it really wouldn't take that much more time to just line them.  I forgot to take a picture before Thing 1 left the house with one of the bags - his had a green twill in place of the brown sheet.  I did serge all the seams of the outer bag, because the home dec print was a little ravelly.

And the one from last year - the green was a broadcloth from the thrift store, and the black was from a thrifted sheet.

As per usual, I filled the bags with a beach towel, a canister of strawberry lemonade mix, a plastic water bottle, a pair of flip flops, a can of sunscreen, a note from the appropriate Thing, and a B&N gift card.  I really hope that they enjoy the gifts!

And more PJs....

Another belated birthday gift here - I have a friend who loves foxes.  Last year, I gave her a pair of fox flannel PJ pants.  This year, the pants are a lighter cotton.  I found the fabric on clearance at HF and had to snatch it up for her.

And for my ninja friend, I made a pair of lounge/PJ pants from a striped thrifted sheet.  As soon as I saw it, I thought it would make some fun PJ pants.  I hope that she likes it.  Sadly, I noticed after I made the pants and washed them, that there is some pilling in places.  (Didn't notice that when I'd washed the sheet before cutting.)  So I may make another pair of pants to go along with this, in case this pair doesn't last long.

And the set together with the ninjabread shirt.

Both PJ pants were made with M3006, my TNT PJ pant pattern.

PJs

The son of one of my friends had a birthday recently.  Though it was of course cold out, I made him a pair of more summery PJs, as a sign of hope that spring will come.  :)  Plus, if he's anything like my boys, they like to wear summer PJs and burrow into so many blankets that they're sweating.  Goofy boys!

This is a Transformers fabric found at WM on clearance and a tie-dye flannel from JAF on Black Friday.  I like bringing the neckline to the front when I'm using the contrasting color - I think it helps tie the set together better.  This is KS 3042, my TNT woven kiddo PJ pattern.

And for another friend, I'm working on a PJ/lounge set for her.  The pants will be shown later, but I appliqued ninjabread shapes to the front of a purchased shirt to go with it.  I hope that she loves them!

Back to boxers.....

I can never get too far away from boxers as gifts for men in my life....though of course this is a pretty small group of men that I can sew boxers for. :)  My dad's birthday was in January, and when I saw this tool flannel, I thought it would be great for boxers for him during the very cold months.  Because it's flannel, I don't expect that he'll wear them throughout the year, but they might be very welcome when it's really cold.

And these are for my brother - probably for his birthday later this year.  I had cut them out several months before sewing them, as part of an assembly line process.  So when I worked on my dad's boxers, I figured I'd grab these and sew them up, too.  This fabric was from JAF, and I found it on red tag clearance one day.  There's some glitter in the fabric, too, which makes it even more hilarious for boxers.

As always, this is S9958 - my TNT boxer pattern.

More box bags!

I think these are the last of the Christmas gifts.....

I made a set of box bags for one friend who loves to travel.  I thought these would be useful for separating her toiletries or whatever when she's traveling, and I was able to make it to match the sling bag I made for her two Christmases ago....The outer fabric is a pleather that came from a thrift store.  These metal zippers came from a garage sale, I think.  They look great but were a pain in the butt to work with - I think only because I had to shorten them, and I had to be really careful sewing over the ends.  If they were exactly the right length, they might have been no problem.  Oh, well.

The lining is a fun rock-n-roll disco print that had originally been intended for a scrub shirt for her, before her hospital stopped allowing random printed scrubs.  So it got new life as first a sling bag and now some box bags.

This one is for a friend who's into martial arts.  This is the same fabric that I used to make her a scrub shirt (which I sadly apparently never took a picture of and thus never blogged about) and then a stocking.  I managed to get these two box bags out of the leftovers.  The linings are a sturdy red twill.

This may be it for box bags for awhile.....but you never know!

Hanging towels again....

Yep, still finishing up Christmas gifts.  Apparently I should have a) finished the gifts on time and b) blogged about them earlier.  My bad.....

Anyway, one of my clinics usually throws a towel over the chain by the sink at the start of every work day.  Sometimes the towels are nice, sometimes they are ratty.....And you never know if anyone thinks to change them and wash them daily, so I decided that it was time to make some big hanging towels to use at the clinic.  These are actually bath towels from WM, which I cut in half - just like my regular hanging towels.  I enlarged the top pattern with some help from my ruler and French curve (and then I stitched and restitched until the sizing was right for each towel).  The towel on the right has the better color, at least from my computer.  The towel on the left is a pretty close match to the top on the right, and the top on the left is actually a purple - pretty close match to the towel on the right.  I chose these colors because a) they are in the clinic logo, and b) they add a pop of cheery color to an otherwise kind of industrial looking area.  I made two of each, so plenty to be able to use daily and wash in between.  Here's hoping that they are appreciated!

And some Blackhawks towels that I made a few months ago....I have enough to make seven of each print, but I didn't have enough towels right now.  So I made four of the one on the left (that's actually a pretty bright red towel, by the way) and three of the one on the right.  Once I get more towels, I'll finish the rest.....Three sets went out as Christmas presents to friends who are Hawks fans, and the extra of the one on the left stayed in my kitchen. :)

I just have to say yet again how good these are for fairly quick and inexpensive gifts.  They are so useful/practical, and they can be fairly generic or customized to the taste of the recipients.  Thing 2's teachers and most of my coworkers at one clinic got hanging towels for Christmas, and they loved them.  For those with small children, I keep hearing that these are the only towels the toddlers can't yank off the towel bars.

Assembly line sewing!

When you have a lot of girls/women on your Christmas list (yes, I'm still getting those posts up), especially when some of them you don't know really well anymore, it can become difficult to find nice but not horribly expensive/time-consuming/specific gifts to give.  Last year was supposed to be the year of infinity scarves, but it didn't work out.  (That purple linen/cream lace scarf was the only one that was actually made for Christmas 2013 - but then I hung onto it until Christmas 2014).  I posted about two months ago about the plaid ones that I made, but now I'm showing the linen/lace ones.  There are even a few duplicates!

Back row, L to R: "deep lake" linen blend with black lace (stash), "potting soil" linen blend with hunter green lace (Grandma), black linen blend with red lace (coworker, friend's daughter)

Middle row, L to R: purple linen blend with cream lace (This was the one I made a year ago, from the leftovers of my sister-in-law's baby sling.  This is for a friend's daughter.), "ocean" linen blend with turquoise lace (from leftovers of another baby sling; also for a friend's daughter), "deep lake" linen blend with deep purple lace (2 of this - one for my aunt, one for a friend's daughter), navy linen blend with cream lace (this is from the leftovers of the original sling for my sister-in-law; for a friend), black linen blend with turquoise lace (stash).

Front row, L to R: "potting soil" linen blend with yellow lace (for my mom), "potting soil" linen blend with turquoise lace (stash)

So I made 12 of these linen/lace infinity scarves this year!  That made me pretty happy to get that yardage out of the stash.  The brown and teal linen blends were purchased specifically for this project, but the black linen blend was originally intended for dress pants for the Things - obviously that didn't happen so far, and I decided this was a more pressing need.  I have to say that the turqhoise  and black scarves are more drapey - I think that those fabrics had a lighter hand than the brown, teal, navy, and purple.  I can't remember if they were a different percentage blend now.  But I think they all turned out very nicely.

With the purple, turquoise, and navy scarves, I made them a little wider just because that was the width left over from the baby slings.  With the others, I was able to get 3 out of each length by making them a bit more narrow.  Still should look good, but allowed me to get more out of the same fabrics.

I like the way these turned out, and I hope that the recipients enjoy wearing them!

Little bits....

Before Christmas, my husband was attending a white elephant gift exchange as part of a work get-together.  He ultimately decided to take a bottle of homebrew as the gift, but he thought it looked kind of lame, since he'd forgotten to buy a bag to put it in.  I asked how long he had before he had to leave, then brought him a couple of Christmas fabrics from the stash.  He chose this one, and I whipped up a quick lined bottle bag, which we then topped off with a red ribbon tie.  He told me later that the bottle of beer was the hit of the party, and that everyone was surprised and impressed to learn that his wife made the bag, let alone so fast!  (This is why we sew....and keep a stash!)

Thing 2's teacher is due any day with her second child and second girl.  The room moms decided to throw a baby shower for teacher and kids, and so of course I had to contribute some dinosaur appliqued onesies!  But I also thought it would be fun for the older sister to get to "match" her new baby, so I did matching appliques for the little girl.  Unfortunately, WM is down to very few long-sleeved no design shirts, so I ended up with two shirts of the same color - but one is a turtleneck and one a crew neck.

While I had the Jeep fabric out, I also appliqued two onesies with Jeeps, to go in with my sister and brother-in-law's Christmas box.  These are for their first baby.  I hope to be the first one to give them Jeep baby stuff. :)

Box bags!

I've made box bags before (pattern here) - they're very useful gifts.  Cute in and of themselves, but good for storing things - maybe for traveling, maybe just for organization.  But I've always made them for females.  This time, I asked my brother whether he thought that, in appropriate fabrics, they'd also be good for males.  He thought so, even though I hadn't told him he'd be a recipient! :)  These first two are for him - computer keyboard fabric.  I went to the quilt store hoping to find the print that looks like USB plug-ins, but no such luck.  I think these are just as fun, though.  Both are lined with the bright green you see peeking through the right one.

I had actually asked the question with the intention of making some for my brother-in-law, who loves his Jeep.  I found this fabric at Nancy's Notions and thought it would be perfect.  The one with an orange zipper is lined with a dark green, and the other has an Army green zipper and is lined with bright orange.  I used a heavier weight of interfacing for this set, and it does hold its shape better.