It's Been Awhile.....

So I haven't been sewing for awhile, and it's been even longer since I blogged. Here is the first set of out-of-town Christmas gifts that I am sending out. 

 

The snowman afghan is what I've been doing a lot of lately - prep a piece of fleece, then crochet an edging on it. This works out well for portable projects at the hockey rink. The White Sox fleece pants were done much earlier in the year (and saved for Christmas!), and the pillowcases were just finished up today. At least I realized that I had only sat on that fabric for almost a year and not 2 years like I was thinking? 

Isn't the fabric cute? My friend is going to love these. I used the burrito method and french seams, so they're totally clean inside. I really should make pillowcases as gifts more often.

More lounge pants for Thing 1!

Thing 1 really got into wearing his lounge pants that I made him previously - the (retrofitted) gamer pair and the sea turtles pair. Once school became virtual, you would often see him wearing these preferentially, until I had to wash them. So of course, when JAF had a sale on flannel, I had to make more! 

I did involve him in the fabric choice. First up, "psychedelic kaleidoscope blue" flannel. And yes, it's a bit crazy. I didn't try to match the color patterns, and maybe I should have. On the other hand, this is definitely psychedelic.  These are both S8022, size adult L, with pockets added as per my yoga pants, but lengthened and changed in position as per his request after wearing the first pair.

You can see that the pocket really blends in on this side.

It stands out a little more on this side.

And then we have geometric sharks! I kind of love these.

No attempt to match up the pockets, and no need.

 

More Hockey PJ Pants!

Thing 2 loves PJ pants almost as much as he loves hockey. He's constantly changing into PJ pants to lounge around the house after school. And he does have plenty of pairs, thanks mostly to his mama. But when I saw this hockey flannel on doorbuster sale at JAF, I knew he needed to have it. This is the trusty S8022, in teen/adult size XS for more growth room. I'm planning to throw it into the gift stash and have it ready to pull out for his birthday.

 

More sports pants!

So when JAF had the good sale on licensed sports fabrics, I also bought a length of fleece for my buddy. She's a die-hard White Sox fan, and she's also always cold, so I figured this would be a total win.

Sometime maybe last year - I don't think I ever mentioned it on the blog - I had mocked up two adult sizes of  S8022 and sent them to my SIL, to try on for size, when she wanted me to make her some lounge pants. Never one to miss an opportunity, I then asked her to forward them to my friend so she could do the same. I was really wanting to make her some flannel PJ pants in a plaid background and wanted to use a pattern with minimal seams. But it also works out well for fleece!

And then, since I've learned these lessons, I thought to check if I could squeeze a pair for my niece (her dad is also a White Sox fan) out of the leftovers! And - woohoo! She gets an extra pair of lounge pants, and I have less fabric waste. You can see that I'm still debating shirt colors for a matching shirt with applique.

Edited to add that I decided to go with grey! Mainly because I have a new use for the red shirt. ;)

 

Lounge pants for a kiddo

I stopped by JAF the other day to look for a specific fabric to pet. Then this one caught my eye and it became an impulse buy for my niece. 😎 I'm going to assume that she won't mind. The fleece was on all sale, and it only took a yard to turn into a cute pair of lounge pants for her, just like the Grinch pair I made from the leftovers of my pants.

I ended up making a shirt to go with this one to send to my niece. I'm working through a bunch of shirts that I bought her and never did anything with, so.....the scraps of fleece that were leftover were useless, so I traced the unicorn constellation and made an applique from it.

I tried to echo the lines of the constellation in the stitching. Hopefully it looks good enough.

 

Grinch set for my niece!

I try my hardest to get my niece's birthday present out on time (her birthday is just before Christmas), but then the Christmas gifts to that household are usually sometime in January. You know....it draws out the season. 😂 

So when I made my Grinch lounge pants for me, I realized that I probably had enough leftover to make her a pair, as well. These fleece pants require no seam finishing and no pressing, so they are quick to make! Last night, I traced the pattern and whipped up a pair in no time. I used Simplicity 8022, child/teen size S. (I compared the pattern to the KS213 I've been using for her, and the XS was about exactly the size I've been using, so I went up a size to give her more time to wear them.)

And then, just for fun, I appliqued Grinches from the leftover fabric onto two shirts, for a PJ set. (Why two? Well, I couldn't decide on black vs white, and I also have a bunch of shirts for her that I haven't yet done anything with, so....)

 

Lounge pants for ME!

So last year, I found Grinch fleece on clearance at JAF, and I bought enough to make myself a pair of PJ/lounge pants. But I hadn't used a one piece pattern for my own PJ pants so far, so I didn't want to mess it up. Therefore, I started by trying on Thing 1's pants made from S8022. That sizing seemed to work, so I decided to try a test pair first, and also try adding patch pockets. Clearly I never bothered to blog the results, so here you go. The most ridiculously loud pair of lounge pants ever. The Husband begged me to burn them. 😎 I have no idea where I put them, so he may have gotten his wish.

 But the loud pair did tell me what I needed to know, so just in time for this Christmas (literally on Christmas Eve!), I cut into my Grinch fleece and made myself a pair of lounge pants. I decided to leave the pockets off this time, especially since I'm usually wearing a cardigan or hoodie in the house, so I'll have a pocket for my phone. We'll see....

They're super cozy! And this is a better look at the print.

New fleece PJ pants

Of course Thing 2 was going to need new PJ pants also! He's been growing, so some of his prior PJ pants are getting into the "wader" category. Plus, he just loves PJ pants and wears them around the house all day. I also used S8022 for these.

The first pair is a Blackhawks fleece print, which I bought online early in the year and then promptly forgot about. This is child size L, the same as last Christmas's Blackhawks fleece PJ pants. They still fit well, with possibly a little room left for growth.

This next pair is a Star Wars fleece print that I found randomly on clearance at JAF. I was there for something else entirely and happened to walk by the section and just had to grab it. (They only charged me $2.37/yd! I should have taken all of it!) I made this one teen/adult size XS to give some more growth room.

And a closer look at the print - designed to look like a Christmas sweater. 😎

 

New PJ pants for Christmas

Thing 2 really liked his lounge pants that I made last year for Christmas with the gamer flannel, even more than I had hoped! So I figured he needed another pair. We had actually shopped online together back in the spring for fabric for the next pair, but then I hadn't gotten as far as sewing them up before the weather turned much warmer. So I saved these for Christmas. These are S8022.

At his request, I had added patch pockets on the last pair (never blogged, apparently). They were based on the pockets on my yoga pants. Then, after adding them and having him wear them for a bit, I got feedback on changes he would like to have made (which was like pulling teeth! I had to convince him that custom means you can get these to be perfect for you.), which I used on this pair. So these pockets are two inches longer and were moved a bit further to the sides. I hope he thinks they're exactly what he wanted!

 To make it easier on me to get the pockets finished well, I lined them with muslin and left the slanted edge open, then added a facing to close the pocket.

New Christmas PJ Pants

Silly me did not remember to take pics before mailing out some of the gifts, but I did grab these out of my kids' rooms to take one. This is Simplicity 8022, my new go-to for my younger son. I bought the Blackhawks fleece during a sale over the summer, and it's been waiting for Christmas. I have been making his PJ pants a size child/teen M, with smaller SAs for the fleece. But I went up to child/teen L for this one, as I want it to fit longer.

My older son doesn't normally wear PJ pants, but I saw the gamer flannel at JAF one day and thought it would be perfect. He was having surgery right after Christmas, so I thought he might like a pair of soft flannel lounge pants during his recovery. This is the teen/adult size L.

More PJ Pants!

Thing 2 had a birthday recently, and he needed some smaller gifts to go with the bigger one we'd already gotten. So PJ pants were my immediate idea! The milk and cookies flannel has been in my stash for a long time - I eked this pair out of what I had! And the Chicago Blackhawks woven fabric was from a sale earlier this summer. (I also have some fleece for Christmas PJ pants - shhh! Don't tell him!)

The milk and cookies pair was S8022, size M. I wasn't sure how it would do in a flannel (although I believe flannel was listed as a recommended fabric), so I did the 3/8" SAs again. The Blackhawks pair is KS 3042 size XL. The others that he has in that pattern and size have some decent growth room, so I figured these would last awhile. The fabric was too expensive to want him to outgrow it quickly!

Knit PJ pants!

Thing 2 has been in dire need of new PJs for a long time now.  He had outgrown the few pair that he still wore, but he wore them anyway.  I refused to buy new PJs, especially since he tends to only wear the pants, and especially given my current state of fabric.  So I finally decided to bite the bullet and stitch some up, as I'd been promising forever to do.

First problem - the pattern I thought I could use proved to be problematic.  It's a men's/boys' pattern, and Thing 2 has outgrown the boys' sizing but not yet reached the men's.  So off to JAF I went, where I found S8022.  I was intending to use fleece fabric from my stash for these, so I figured a one piece pattern would be ideal.  These are size M in the boys' sizing, and he loves them!  I made this first pair basically as is just to test it out, which worked well.

For the second pair - also a knit from my stash! - I used the same sizing, but decreased the seam allowances from 5/8" to 3/8", just to give a little more room for growth.  Probably not as important with the thinner knit but would definitely help with the thicker fleece.

There has already been another (not pictured) fleece pair from my stash, as well as another knit that I simply couldn't resist.