New baby onesies - paw prints!

Somebody at work is having a baby, so I thought that baby onesies would be a great gift, of course.  So I did one with the baby's initial, but then I thought, we're a vet clinic.  Paw prints!  And my new obsession was born....

These are for baby Jay - each one is a different size.

And since it was a great idea, I made one for my nephew, too!  Along with his initial....

I'm thinking these would be great for a vet-related fundraiser item, too....Must ponder this....

Still in cross-stitch....

Might as well finish up all the cross-stitch posts at once, right?  So doing the Blackhawks logo and Blues logo made me decide that cross-stitch was a good project to take to work for lunchtime and down time, and I looked through my old stash to see what I might have on hand.  I found a barely started Thomas Kinkade kit - my mom's a huge fan, and I must have started this for her fifteen to twenty years ago.  I actually found two of them - this was the smaller one, and I hadn't started the other one yet.  So I decided to go ahead and finish this.  And then I realized why I'd put it away...

This is one of those cursed cross-stitch projects that has the background printed onto the cloth, and you're supposed to add stitching to embellish it.  Sounds great, until you realize that the background and what's printed on the chart don't quite match up.  And I have crafting OCD.  Oy!  This became a horror to work on, because I don't do well at winging my projects.  I was thrilled to finish, and I went ahead and paid JoAnn's to frame it so that I didn't have to spend another minute on the project.  I have to say that the final product does look really nice, and the framing employee made suggestions for framing that make it look amazing!  I'm really happy with how it turned out, and I'm pretty sure I'll never do another of those "printed background" projects.

And then awhile later, after completing the Cardinals logo, I decided that a small cross-stitch project would be a good palate cleanser.  This was a little kit I picked up on a whim at Hobby Lobby.  My aunt likes cows, and I haven't done anything cow-related for her in awhile, so I figured it'd be a good Christmas gift.  I found the frame and mat at JoAnn's, and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

More cross-stitch!

So I got hooked on having a hand project to take to work for breaks, and I really liked how the Blackhawks and Blues logos went.  And the executive director for one of the non-profit organizations I work with saw both of them, and she suggested that something like that would make a great auction item for their big fundraising dinner, maybe paired with donated game tickets.  

Well, I had no interest in doing another Blues logo, and I wasn't sure how popular the Rams would be.  (Good thing, right, now that they're relocating to LA?  Sooo glad I didn't pick that one!)  I figured that the Cardinals would probably be the most popular choice, anyway, and I really like how this one turned out!  

The pattern was once again full stitches only, which is nice.  It stitched up really well, and I got a LOT of comments/compliments while I was working on it (including at one continuing education meeting - I promise I really was listening, too!).  I chose to do this one on a grey background, and I really like how the colors look against it.  Then I had it framed at my local JoAnn's store - wanted this to look as good as possible since it's a fundraising item.  Here's hoping they raise a lot of money with it!

Aaaaand....I'm back...

Well, it's been forever since I posted, and I really have no excuses.  I'm just going to start throwing things back out there, and I'll start with something I was starting at the time of my last posting.   Thing 1 had decided, rather last-minute, that he wanted to be a dragon for Halloween.  I putzed on it for a bit, trying to find an actual ready-made dragon costume to buy, but apparently once you're beyond little kid size, nobody wants to be a dragon?

Anyway, someone posted about making their child a dragon costume, and I absolutely loved the mask.  They had used the Dragon Mask pattern from oxeyedaisey.  Though I really am not fond of handsewing, I showed the pattern to my son, and he also loved it.  So after a trip to the fabric store, in which he chose his own colors and placement, I got started.

I have to say that the pattern is very easy and straightforward, though time-consuming.  The vast majority of it is handsewn, making it a very portable project.  I worked on this basically everywhere I went, until I finished the day before Halloween.  (Like any good costumer, right?)  And I love how it turned out.

As did my son, which is what matters.

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!