Sewing for post-op care

My dad was having prostate surgery in mid-July, and my mom suggested that elastic waist pants would be a good thing for him to wear during the recovery period.  So I used my trusty men's PJ pants pattern (B6887, which is sadly OOP) to make a test pair.  These pants are a straight size L, as my brother wears a M in both his boxers (S9958) and PJ pants (B6887), and my dad wears a L in his boxers (S9958).  I knew they'd be long on him - he's shorter than my brother - but I didn't know how much length to take out, and whether to take it out of crotch, legs, or both.  I made a functional fly with the instructions from S9958, in case it would be helpful with the post-op catheter, and I added a single cargo pocket, much like my scrub pants.  Then I sent it off with a list of fit/preference questions. :)

While waiting for answers to the questions so that I could make a bunch more, I got the suggestion that shorts might actually be better.  So I made several pairs of shorts.  These are all different patterns, as I didn't know which might work better.  The lime green (the color didn't show up quite right in the picture) shorts are from B6887, and they have no pockets.  The green striped shorts are S8088, a discontinued scrubs pattern that I had in my stash.  They are size L also, and they come with inseam pockets.  The black pair is S5539, which I used to have in my stash but apparently lost/binned/something.  I had to repurchase it on etsy, much to my chagrin. That is also size L, with the mid-length (there are 3 length options), and with inseam pockets.  I made all three with functional flys, closed with 2 small snaps, and added drawstrings.  Then I sent these off with the same fit/preference questions.

Party gift bags

So my monkeys have summer birthdays, and we have pool parties for said birthdays.  After all, why pay for a fancy party venue, when there's a pool in the backyard, right?  Anyway, as I blogged about last year, I prefer to have "green" party bags.  So this year I thought that drawstring bags would be good, and I wanted to make them a little more "themed" to the pool, especially since the goodies inside were all pool-related.  So I found a swimming clip art image and enlarged it to a good size for the bags.  I used heat-n-bond lite to fuse the appliques in place, then straight-stitched just inside the edges with matching thread.  The green bags were for Thing 1's party (his favorite color is green), and the orange ones for Thing 2's party.  The green and black fabrics were thrifted sheets - the green is actually more of a lime color - and the orange was broadcloth that I purchased on sale at JAF.  The green bags are lined with black, but the orange bags are lined with the orange.  The bags ended up measuring about 11 inches wide by 13.5 inches tall - a good size for fun pool toys, as well as whatever treasures they will hold later.

I hope that the kids enjoy using them to hold their stuff as much as I enjoyed making them!

Another Angry Bird knockoff

Back in February, I blogged about making this view of M6481, I mentioned that I gave one to a friend's son as a birthday gift, and his brother became super jealous.  Well, said brother has now had his own birthday, and I thought it would be nice to make him his own Angry Bird knockoff.  This time, I used a fuzzy red fleece instead of green, and I've shown all three birds that can be made from the 1/4 yard of fabric required. :)  Once again, I used a press cloth and fused the eyes (from felt) in place without detrimentally affecting the fleece, but this time I did stitch them in place, as well.  Not only is it more secure, but I have to say that I like the look better.

Now my boys want the two leftover birds!  Oops!  I'll have to hide them in the gift closet....

End of the year teacher gifts!

I can't believe that I never blogged about my end of the year teacher gifts before now!  I was really excited about them, and the teachers seemed to enjoy them, too!  I got the idea of a summer relaxation tote from The Lovely Cupboard via Craft, Interrupted.  I sewed my tote bags, of course. :)  These are two layers of Symphony Broadcloth from JAF - I figured that would be lightweight but sturdy and easy to wash, so perfect for the pool, beach, wherever.  The pink tote is for Thing 1's classroom teacher - I knew her favorite color, so that was an easy pick.  I didn't know favorites for the other two, so I used the Things' favorite colors.  Thing 1's gifted teacher got green (with blue, because it just looked great that way!).  I had choices other than lime, but I thought that would be very summery.  Thing 2's teacher got orange, and since I'm an Illini, it had to be a blue contrast!

I adapted the suggestions from the blog posting and put in a beach towel (from WM, chosen to match the tote colors), plastic tumbler (WM), a pair of flip-flops (K-Mart), spray sunscreen (WM), jar of strawberry lemonade mix, and Barnes & Noble gift card.  And I had the Things make thank-you cards for their teachers, with Summer Subway Art on the front of the card.  I was super excited to see that I could print colorways that went with the tote bags.  In the end, these went over really well, and I even made another for a friend who needed a cheery package in the mail. :)

More applique

So when I made the previous dinosaur-appliqued onesies, I thought to myself that my niece really needed a set, too!  So I got a set of 18 month Child of Mine onesies and enlarged my dino appliques a bit.  I really like how these turned out!  There's just something about dinosaur shapes in girl colors that is unexpected and really fun, I think.

And then I decided that my niece also needed some girly Star Wars shirts (since my brother is, in fact, the world's biggest Star Wars fanatic).  So I got 18 (white) and 24 (pink) month Garanimals shirts (WM) and appliqued a Tie fighter and an X-wing fighter on them, using leftovers of the dress fabrics. I think these turned out pretty awesome, too!  :)

A baby dress!

My sister-in-law sent me a link to a baby/toddler dress probably a year ago and asked if I thought I could make something like that.  I said, sure, probably, let me look for some patterns I can Franken-pattern together to get it.  Then a few months later, I saw The Ava Knot Dress pattern by Pink Poodle Bows.  It was almost exactly like the dress she had wanted!  So I downloaded the pattern, but since I am multi-fabric-matching-impaired, I gave her the yardage requirements and told her to buy the fabric she wanted and send it to me.  Here is the result:

Not anything I would ever have put together, but it was what my SIL wanted, and she is thrilled.  When I made this, my niece was about 16 months old, and I used the 18 month size.  The feedback I got is that it fits her perfectly right now, but the bodice will likely be too small in the fall.  So next dress will be 24 month size, I think.

This was a fairly quick sew.  There are no pattern "pieces" - just cutting measurements.  (There is a template to cut the armholes out of the bodice pieces.)  Everything fit together perfectly, and the instructions were easy to read and follow.  I did get confused on one spot, but that's only because I misread the directions.  I emailed the designer for clarification and was surprised to get an email back within an hour!

Like I said, my SIL was thrilled with the dress, so I will definitely make more.  (The next version is one that I bought fabric for, so it will be more sedate.)  I've told her already that I'm happy to make whatever she wants - but she needs to get the fabric, because this multi-fabric-matching is not my style. :)

Easy table runners

So apparently I've never blogged about it before, but I've made a couple of cute table runners in the past.  Nothing fancy, just two complimentary fabrics and the 10-minute table runner pattern.  (Which, by the way, has never taken me only ten minutes!  I'm too OCD about the pressing parts - but it is really quick.)

Anyway, I've previously used the pattern and liked it, and I got the brilliant idea that several people on my gifting list could use a "Table Runner of the Month" club.  Aka, at every birthday and Christmas, give them a few table runners to go with monthly themes or holidays.  So when I find appropriate fabric for each holiday or monthly theme, I'm snapping it up for some assembly-line table runner sewing....

I was not originally intending to do any specific birthday runners, but I thought this fabric was too bright and cheery to pass up!  I found it at JAF in the novelty section and immediately bought enough for 4 runners - one for me, three for gifts - plus some extra for birthday hanging towels.  The blue and purple solids are one of the quilter's solids from JAF, and they have a habit of wrinkling more than I like.  But I couldn't get those colors from Kona cotton, at least not at JAF, so it was worth it.  The yellow is a Kona cotton, and a much better quality fabric.  

The green of the birthday runner is a Kona cotton, also - very nice.  The patriotic fabrics are both from HF and were an impulse buy back in February.  They weren't even on sale!  But I really liked them and decided they were worth it.

If I remember right, the ladybugs (top runner) and chocolate chips were the inspiration for the "table runner of the month" idea.  Neither of these are really for any specific month - I just thought they would make good table runners.  My mom loves bright yellow and cheery prints, so the ladybugs were a no-brainer.  And who wouldn't want chocolate chip cookies on their table?

The vintage-look Valentine fabric was a lucky find.  I like a lot of the more cutesy Valentine's prints, but not for leaving on your table all month.  I wanted something that was a little more restrained, a little less sappy, a little more grown-up.  This fit the bill!

I have plenty more themes planned and some of the fabrics purchased.