Some Christmas presents done!

Yeah, yeah, I know I'm late....I finished all the stuff that was given in person (on time, I might add!), so now I'm playing catchup with the stuff that's mailed out of town. I think I had something in one of my goals about not being behind on this in 2008....

The fabric peeking out in the upper left is from a pair of flannel PJ pants (Butterick 6887, using Simplicity 9958 for the real fly). I found this fabric on clearance over the summer and thought it would be perfect. The others are all boxers (Simplicity 9958, my TNT boxer pattern). The John Deere fabric must be a remnant I've had over a year, since it didn't show up in my fabric spreadsheet from last year. The Spiderman fabric was found on sale this summer, and DH specifically requested boxers from it! (This from the man who says he has way too many boxers and he'll never be able to wear them all out - HA!) The Native American fabric is for my grandpa, who is a big fan of Native American stuff. And the horse fabric is for my DSIL, who loves horses.

So three of these fabrics have been in the stash at least since the summer, and two were purchased in the last month for these gifts. I'm happy with that. After all, one goal is to sew more from stash. I realize that I can't do that all the time, but I have a lot of stash, so I should at least attempt to get something from stash first. This is a good start. And for the moment, since I started a new yardage spreadsheet for the year, I have almost 8 yards out and 0 yards in!

Looking ahead in 2008

A lot of people are talking about goals/resolutions for the year. I avoid resolutions, so I figure that goals are the way to go. Sewing goals are pretty simple, in no particular order:

1. Sew more of my stash. I went overboard on sales this year, and now I have a TON of fabric to sew up.

2. Keep my sewing area organized. My DH installed new shelves in my sewing room, and I got all my fabric out the closet and onto the shelves (pictures to come in a later post). I still need to actually organize it on the shelves.

3. Finish what I start. I have a habit of cutting out a lot, then taking forever to sew it up. I hope that the UFO contest on PatternReview will help motivate me to finish up a lot of the current UFOs.

4. Sew for me! I tend to sew mostly for my boys and for gifts. I need to make time to sew for myself as well. I think I'll start with a pair of a PJ pants and a PJ shirt that I've been planning to make for two years.

5. Stay on top of gift sewing. I did fairly well with this until Christmas. This year, I want to sew for Christmas gifts throughout the year. I have some fabrics earmarked for certain Christmas gifts already, so I can start working on this soon.

6. Use my favorite hobby to help support itself. I've had inquiries about sewing scrubs for money after people have seen friends wearing the scrub shirts I've made for them. It's time to use up some of the fabric I bought for scrub shirts and turn it into $$.

I'll post throughout the year with how I'm doing.

Progress update....

Four scrub shirts finished! These are for some colleagues at work. The dalmation shirt is for a good friend and colleague - she used to have two dalmations, now only one. The Jeff Gordon shirt is for one of our vet techs - she's a huge Jeff Gordon fan. I think she'll light up the place every time she comes in wearing it. ;) The horse print shirt is for a fellow resident who is an equine vet, and the skulls print (a Halloween special at Wal-Mart - wish I'd gotten enough for a shirt for me!) is for our other vet tech. She seemed really into the fabric when I originally bought some to make a chemo cap for a friend, so I went back and bought more to have enough for a scrub shirt for her. (In case anyone's interested, I make my scrub shirts from McCall patterns - 9123 for sizes S-L and 2834 for XL-XXL - but I use the Simplicity pattern directions for attaching the V-neckbands.)

I pretty much followed the pattern on these, with the obvious caveat that I used contrast fabric in the dalmation shirt. And I have started lengthening the pockets so that I can incorporate the bottoms of the pockets into the hem - much easier! On these, I also used quilt basting spray to attach the pockets prior to top-stitching. I like that! I'll definitely do it in the future, but I also have to remember to allow enough time to wash the shirts before wrapping them. Otherwise people are taken aback to find that the pocket is stuck to the shirt. lol

I have made progress in the queue, but there's much more to go. My next projects (partially started) are 1 pair of adult PJ pants, 1 pair of toddler PJ pants, 2 pairs of boxers, 2 fleece chemo caps, and 1 pair of toddler fleece pants. We'll see how much I can get done today....

Still plugging away....

....at those darn scrub shirts! I need to have four finished by tomorrow morning (gifts for coworkers). The rest (which I have not started to sew) can wait until later. Some are Christmas gifts, but I've already resigned myself to the fact that out-of-town gifts are not going to be mailed until after Christmas - so there! Anyway, the four which are needed tomorrow are partly done. I have prepped and attached the pockets, and I have prepped the necklines to attach the neckbands. So tonight I need to attach the neckbands, sew up the sides, add the back neck facings, and do the hems. I think it can be done.

So the next post will contain pictures of finished scrub shirts! And then I'll finally have another entry for the Holiday/Gift Sewing contest over at PatternReview.

Silly me!

Who was I to think that I could get all that much done yesterday, even with a day off? I should know better! I did get a lot done - just no sewing. :( I ran some errands in the morning, including a visit to Hobby Lobby for more glass ornaments (they were 50% off this week!). And I finally made it to the crisis pregnancy center to drop off a bag of maternity clothes that have been in my trunk for at least a month. Yay!

However, what it really boiled down to is this: I needed to have a prep day before a giant sewing day. So I did get a lot accomplished in terms of pressing and cutting fabric. I have two pairs of PJ pants (and I'm still debating on washing another piece and cutting another pair), five pairs of boxers, and nine scrub shirts cut. One of the PJ pants, two or three of the boxers, and all but one of the scrub shirts will be made using black serger thread. Once I'm through all that, I'll switch to white. Hopefully I can get a good start sewing today!

Nothing has been happening....

at least not on the sewing front. Bummer! But all is not lost! Thing 1 helped me to create some very interesting glass ornaments last week - pictures will be forthcoming soon. (These are definitely not traditional colors!) And I am taking Friday off to sew. Yep, that's right. Taking a day off work to work on stuff at home! I'll probably take breaks through the day to clean the bathrooms, but I'm planning to get lots of stuff done. For starters, I plan to cut out ten scrub shirts. All but two can be made with black thread in the serger. (The last two can wait until a bit later.) I also have 7 pairs of boxers, 4 pairs of PJ pants, and maybe 3 pairs of sweatpants to cut - all of these can also be made with the black thread. And I have another pillowcase to cut out - I'll have to doublecheck, but I think I can use the black there, too.

No, I don't expect to get anywhere near all of this done on Friday, but I'd like to get it all cut and get a good chunk of the scrub shirts sewn. In fact, I'd really be happy to just cut all the scrub shirts and maybe even get the 8 completely sewn. But I'm not sure that's possible. However, I do have the weekend, too, since I'm not on call. Things 1&2 will be at daycare Friday, so that I can get more done, but of course they'll be home all weekend, so that will slow down the sewing. But we'll see! Realistically, the scrubs need to be finished first (and before Christmas) so that they can be given out on Friday the 21st - our last regular work day before Christmas. After that, deadlines are more relaxed. I'm not expecting to get much out in the mail before Christmas, so I can finish things up during Christmas and let people prolong the joy of the season. :)

New bedding for the Things!

The weather turned cold here a few weeks ago, and we've been trying to keep from turning the thermostat up too much and so keep the utility bills down. But at the same time, we don't want Things1&2 shivering at night. I still need to work on their new blankets - I'm hoping to have a lot of downtime around Christmas. In the meantime, I did get new flannel sheets and pillowcases made!
The fitted sheets don't look like much when folded up, so I figured I'd just show the matching pillowcases. The construction flannel on the left is from JAF's 2006 Black Friday sale - I'm still a little embarrassed that I didn't get the set made before now. Oops! The other two flannels are both from this year's Black Friday sale. I really like how the green mottled flannel looks as a trim. (I tried to find a contrast for the other flannel but had no luck.)

I do have fabric for two more sets, but they're on the back burner for now. I'll probably work on them after Christmas, now that the need is no longer so pressing. Instead, it's onto Christmas sewing now!