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.

Pictures! I finished something!

So just in time for Father's Day dinner (yes, I know I cut it close), I finished this new shirt. For those who are counting, it's The Shirt #4/"Real" Shirt #3. (I say "real" shirt, because DH won't wear the muslin. On the other hand, that crazy loud shirt does a great job of residing in the sewing room to serve as a memory aid for subsequent shirts.)

Here it is in all its grey glory. I used a "cotton blend broadcloth" from Fabric.com, which is a lighter-weight than the previously used broadcloths. I wasn't sure about it, but thought it was worth a try. The seams look very slightly puckered, but otherwise it seems fine, and the test run through the wash revealed that it might not be as prone to wrinkling. And this weight may actually be perfect for summer!

To celebrate finishing the shirt and being off the hook for "important sewing," I decided it was time to finally work on a project I've been considering for awhile and gathered supplies for a few weeks ago: a belt for me! I really don't like the one belt I have, but it was the only one I saw while belt-shopping that I didn't HATE. So....I've been stuck with it. And I have a few pairs of jeans which require a belt. So, without further ado, I present to you my paw-print belt:


I took 1-inch white cotton webbing, fused satin ribbon to one side, extending about five inches to the back side at one end and about eighteen inches to the back side on the other end, then stitched the ribbon down. I then threaded one end (the 5-inch on the back end) through both D-rings and then stitched that end down. Now I have a perfectly adjustable, cute belt to wear to work or wherever. One of my vet friends wants one for herself, and I'm getting excited about finding fun prints to make other belts to coordinate with outfits! These are going to be great Christmas gifts, too!

Catching up....

So once again, I've finally finished a few things. I'm not exactly speedy thus far this year, but I am amazingly ahead on stash parity (keeping in mind that I start again at zero on Jan. 1st - so yes, I'm still way behind on what's on the shelves).


A new scrub hat for my favorite recent grad, who loves the Indianopolis Colts and was horribly disappointed in the Super Bowl. This should cheer her up a bit! I've had the fabric for over a year, so it was definitely time to sew it up!

A new shirt for DH! This is the first of four fabrics I purchased before Christmas. The idea was to get at least one done for Christmas, but, well....you can see how well that went. At any rate, he likes it and says I did a really good job. (Though I really should have ironed it before taking the pic!) I believe it's getting its maiden wearing on his trip to Hawaii this week...And I tried out the Pro-Weft fusible interfacing from Fashion Sewing Supply. I really liked it! We'll see what DH thinks after wearing the shirt....And at long last, DS#2's double-layer fleece blanket. This is almost embarrassing - I cut the fleece and zigzagged the main part together around Christmas, and it's been waiting this whole time for me to simply join the binding strips and bind the darn thing. He is thrilled, and now his brother wants a new blanket. :) Since it's cold these days (and really cold in our house at night!), they might both get a second double-layer fleece blanket. I have a spider fleece and a robot fleece. Just need to get backing and binding fleece and I'm good to go.

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!

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.)

Continued progress...

First, the finished PJs for Thing 1! This is KS 3042, and I made the short-sleeved shirt, the shorts, and the pants. That will make this PJ set more versatile for summer and fall. I don't think I can even hope that it will still fit in the spring! Still, that's 2.5 yards out from long-term stash! Yippee! Here is the shirt at its current stage. DH was able to try it on, though it will be more helpful when I add buttons and buttonholes to hold the facings in place. I will likely hem the sleeves as directed (1 inch, I believe), but he wants the shirt as a whole to be shorter, as he does not plan to wear this design tucked in. So we'll have to determine the length after the rest is done. Also, I need to take it in a bit at the sides and determine optimal alterations to the pattern. But then he wants to pick out some solid colors for the next ones!

All in all, I'd say that is success. I did feel the need for some instant gratification, so I cut two new pair of knit PJs for Thing 1 (both long-term stash as well!), and I already had two new pairs for Thing 2 cut as well. I spent this evening folding laundry, but tomorrow, I'll rethread the serger and begin stitching those, along with continuing to work on The Shirt.