Christmas stockings (yes, I know it's February....)

I have a friend with a husband and six kids, and I thought it'd be fun to make her family a new set of Christmas stockings for Christmas.  Yes, I realize we're past Christmas 2013, which is what these were intended for.  Oops - my bad.  The saving grace is that they have no idea these were coming, and they'll be plenty early for use in 2014!

I used my trusty StudioCherie Burlap Christmas Stocking pattern - minus the burlap.  (Remember, I won this pattern as a prize for participating in a PatternReview contest?  It's totally worth the $2.50 it costs - I've now used this 15 times over, and I would happily have paid for it.)  I've been collecting fabrics for this for months.  I used the same brown linen blend for the main fabric as I did for my family's stockings.  And I used different fabric prints to reflect each person's interests for the cuffs and backs.  These stockings are monogrammed, using a free font.  (I like the uppercase letters in this font, too, but I thought that lower case would be kind of cool.)  The monograms and the piping are made from the recipients' favorite colors.

And here's what the backs look like!  The Bears fabric was from my stash - I think it came from WM 5+ years ago.  The book spines and golf fabrics are from Nancy's Notions, the tennis shoes fabric is from HF, the photography fabric is from JAF, the cars fabric was from a thrift store, and the tattoo and zoo animals fabrics are from a local quilt store.

I hope that they like these and use them for years!

Jumping on the bandwagon....

I've discovered the joys of ribbon.  Sigh....some ribbon is just way too cool, and then I'm not really sure what to do with all of it.  I make key fobs with some, and I put some on an Ava Knot dress for my niece, but a girl really needs some more options!  Especially when there are minimums for ordering ribbon from the coop, and sometimes you really only needed maybe a yard, but now what do you do with the other four?

Enter the Izzy top from Climbing the Willow.  This is a free pattern, complete with tutorial, and it is now available in sizes from 18m to 12 years.  People have been going crazy over it, and there are about a gazillion pics posted in one of my FB sewing groups - which is how I heard about it.  And when I saw the first photo, I thought, "That'd be great for a ribbon trim!"  

I had bought some lavender hearts ribbon, specifically intending to make my niece a dress for Valentine's Day.  Something appropriate and cute, but not necessarily screaming holiday.  And when I saw this pattern, I thought that might be even better, considering that it's winter, and this would work great for layering.

Since this was my first try, and my niece is not readily available for sizing, I went with the 2T (she's 2) for the "Valentine's Day" top.  Both fabrics are from the keepsake calico section at JAF.  I wanted a nice purple to go with the ribbon, but I couldn't really match the colors close enough, so I decided that separating them with a coordinating color might work well.  And if you click on the photo, you might be able to see that there are heart outlines in the pink fabric.  I thought it turned out really nice!

My sister-in-law loves horses, so when I saw this horse ribbon, I had to buy it.  I decided to make a second top in the 3T size (I cut both out at once), in case the 2T was snug - this one could be worn longer.  So I took the ribbon with me to JAF and walked around holding it up to fabrics, until I found a nice brown print that went well with the ribbon. :)  I really liked how it turned out, and I hope my niece loves it.

This was a relatively quick and definitely easy sew, and I would definitely recommend it.  I'm hoping to hear back that my sister-in-law likes the tops - if so, once I hear back on sizing, I'd be happy to make a few more.

Several new boxers

Yep, of course I made more boxers!  It seems to be what I do. :)  The first pair was a gift for my dad for his birthday.  I used most of the rest of the chili pepper fabric from the thrift store - I think there's enough left for a few hanging towels, but that's it.

And my husband got two lengths of fabric rolled up in his stocking Christmas morning, because I had run out of time and hadn't made the boxers yet. Oops....I had seen the fall Peanuts fabric on sale at JAF and knew he'd like it, and I saw the Boris & Natasha fabric on clearance at Nancy's Notions.  (As a kid, I loved Rocky & Bullwinkle, and I used to say that if I ever found a Boris & Natasha tie, I'd buy it for my dad.  So when I saw this fabric, I had to have it for my husband.)  Then I got the Christmas Peanuts fabric at the local quilt store, during their New Year's Day sale.  So I stitched these all up at once.  He doesn't know about the Christmas pair yet, though - I think I'll save those for his birthday.

New pillowcases - my DH was horrified

So I went into JAF early in January, and I was specifically only going to find two fabrics and buy them in small amounts - needed two more prints for Thing 2's Minecraft wall hanging that I have promised him (and so far not even cut the squares for....).  Yeah, so I walked into a sale on flannel and abruptly decided that I HAD to have some hilarious new pillowcases on my bed - you know, to add some brightness and cheer.  And I also discovered that red tag fabrics were 50% off, so I added two fabrics for boxers and one for PJs - all for gifts....But I digress....Pillowcases!

Blue is my favorite color, and orange is one of DH's.  So our pillowcases are clearly marked with ownership, and they add humor and cheer to the room, and OMG!  Flannel pillowcases feel so nice when I tuck my hand under my pillow - why have I not made these much earlier for myself???  And did I mention that these went from "Fabric In" to "Fabric Out" in less than two weeks?  I thought that was pretty good, considering that I tend to prewash my flannel 3 times before using it.  I hadn't been sure if I could railroad the print, so I got 2.5 yards of the monsters....since I could railroad it, I ended up getting 3 pillowcases out of this!  (Third one obviously not pictured - I used green for the trim, and it went into my gift stash.)

Oh, yeah - and DH hates them....I may have to just make him a beer pillowcase to soothe his ruffled feathers.

More PJ pants....

Once again, my TNT of M3006.

My BFF loved her walrus PJ pants last year so much that she told me she would wear them until they rotted off!  Well, I don't think they're in danger of that any time soon, but I did think that when the walrus flannel was available on Black Friday again that perhaps I should make her another pair for that sad day.  This pair has a red drawstring instead of white.

Another friend loves foxes, so when I saw this fox flannel, I just had to get it!  (It wasn't even Black Friday - can you believe it?)  This is a birthday gift for her.

And finally we have something for ME!  When Thing 1 was taking a college for kids class last summer, Thing 2 and I found ourselves with several hours a day to fill.  One of those days, we visited a new-to-me Hancock Fabrics, where I found this woven kachina print.  I figure that I haven't made myself a new pair of PJ pants in some time, so it was high time I did.  With the help of a 50% off coupon, this beautiful print has been biding its time on the shelf ever since.  I did make the buttonholes for a drawstring, in case I want to add one later, but I don't use them hardly ever, so I left it out for now.

And then I revisited the northwoods-ish flannel PJs.  My friend loved her birthday gift, but sadly, despite using the same pattern size as the previous pair, they were too snug through the hips.  Also, I had not written my notes clearly enough, and so I needed to add an additional 3 inches of length.  Since I couldn't get any more of the print, I used the navy to add "racing stripes" to get an additional inch of ease on each side, and then I added 3 inch cuffs at the bottom.  I think that they overall look as though they were intended to be that way, for which I am relieved.

"Christmas" PJ sets

I finished two sets of PJs last week.  These are both out-of-town Christmas gifts.  (In case you haven't noticed by now, I kind of take a lax approach to getting the out-of-town Christmas gifts done....they're often mailed sometime in January.)  

The first set of PJs is for my aunt.  She's gotten these cow PJs and these cow PJs in the past, and now she's getting these cow PJs!  (Can you sense a theme?  She works for a company that makes dairy products, and so she loves to collect cow things.)  This particular flannel print was purchased from JAF on Black Friday in 2009, so it's been well-aged. ;)  I am on a kick to try to reduce the amount of fabric sitting on my shelves - or at least ensure reasonable turnover - so I decided that this year she should get the last stashed length of cow flannel.  (Also, I just realized that there has been an eerie pattern at work, and she's now been gifted cow flannel PJs in 2009, 2011, and 2013.  I really had no such pattern in mind!)  The shirt is M5504, and the pants are M3006 - both size L.  I really made no changes, other than adding the drawstring to the pants.  Hopefully she likes them!

Then we have my friend who got the northwoods-ish flannel PJs for her birthday in November.  She had also asked for a pair of lighter-weight jammies, so I dug into my stash and found this Tigger print - pretty sure that was $1-2 per yard at WM in MS, so a bare minimum of 7.5 years ago!  I did have to buy the yellow print to go with it, but that was fine.  These are the same patterns as the cow PJs, but size M for both.  And I brought the print neckband to the front to try to tie the set together a bit.  Hopefully my friend loves them!

More blankets!

Since I was buying ridiculously cheap fleece as the backings for my sons' new Christmas blankets, I decided to finally get backings for two lengths of fleece that have been stashed for several years (at least three, probably longer....I'd have to check my records).  Both of these were purchased at HF.

I have always enjoyed the Mr Men/Little Miss books - they're hilarious!  I remember quite a few from my younger days - especially Mr Bump.  (I'm pretty sure that was the one most similar to me.)  So when I saw this hilarious fleece, I had to watch for a sale to buy it!  I briefly toyed with the idea of PJ pants or a lounge shirt out of it, but I realized my husband would never let me live it down.  Instead, it became a blanket!

And I've been a sucker for Veggie Tales ever since King George and the Ducky....so when I saw this Christmas fleece on the clearance table, well, I had to get it.  I love the tie-dyed green fleece I used to bind it, too.  That's the same fleece I used for Cooper's dinosaur costume.

These are snuggly warm - just in time for the polar vector that hit recently.  I was very happy to have them finished, and they used up quite a bit of yardage!