A Project for Hubby

This hunting season hubby wanted a new digital camo hunting pullover.  After lots of looking, he found the fabric he wanted, Powershield MARPAT DWR gridded fleece.  I bought a pattern from…

Hmm…do you sense something wrong here?  It looks like there’s been a ghostwriter on my blog.  Since E-boy can’t read, E. is not home and A. doesn’t spell so well, the process of elimination points to Hubby.  Yes, the hunting posts are his idea.  I gave him my blessing to post them as long as he posted as himself, but I think he’s a little shy.  Maybe in the future he’ll find his “voice” and join in the bloggy fun.

So Hubby left me to finish his post, and he took E-boy with him so there’s quiet in the house.  Can I tell you how rare it is for me to be in my house all by myself?   Yeah, I can’t remember the last time.  On to the pullover (this is the part that stumped Hubby when he was trying to write it, he said, “I don’t know if it’s flat-felled or double-faced or whatever.”)  I used this green pepper pattern to start with.  Obviously, I eliminated the front zip, and I added length to both the body and the sleeve.  The fleece fabric was actually super-easy to sew with, and it came out looking awesome.  You can see it close-up here.  The outer is a woven nylon and the inside is the gridded fleece.  And if you notice the USMC emblem up-side-down on the shoulder, let me assure you that they really do go both ways on the fabric, even though the only ones that are noticable on the finished pullover are the wrong way.

A New Quilt for E-Boy

I’ve had these Heather Ross goldfish fabrics in my stash for a long time, and finally decided to sew them into something.  Here’s E-boy’s new bedding:

The quilt is sort of “calculated randomness”.  Each block has a center and borders, but I didn’t want the centers to be the same size or the borders to be even, although the blocks need to be the same size.  In the end, I had some blocks that needed to be trimmed to square before proceeding.  Luckily none of them ended up too small…that would have been a trick to fix.  I had some scraps, so I made up a couple pillowcases to match.  And the blanket that Great Grandma crocheted for E-boy when he was born is a perfect match for this handmade bedding set.

Here’s a view of the whole thing, laid out flat:

And the obligatory “cute kid” picture, E-boy sound asleep under his new quilt.  Yes, he always likes to have some toys in his bed when he sleeps:

Some More Scrappy Sewing

Today, I dug to the bottom of my scrap basket for the “just right” fabrics for these two purses.  When Hubby arrived home and peeked into the sewing room, he exclaimed “what’s all that?!?” at the mess of fabrics laying all over.  It’s amazing how many little scraps fit into my bin, and how enormous they look when they’ve been dug into for a few hours trying to find this or that.  I’m pretty pleased with what I found in there, each purse has a wide variety of prints, with the color being the unifying factor in the design.

They’re newly listed in my Etsy shop, click on the picture to view the listing details.

Need a New Wallet?

If you don’t feel like using my tutorial to sew one yourself, I just added some to my Etsy shop.

More Fall Sewing.

I just adore these dresses I made for my girls!  The pattern is from the most recent issue of Ottobre design.

For the denim dress, I did topstitching with two threads through the needle, hot pink and red.  I love the emphasis this gives to the topstitching, and the color combo is just plain fun!  I used large pink buttons on the pockets and sewed them on with red thread. 

The corduroy dress is cute, too.  But, it taught me an important lesson.  When sewing a complicated pattern, with lots of pieces and topstitching, patterned fabric is not the best.  All the work I did sort of blends into the bold heart print.  The kids love it anyway, though, and that’s what counts.

Fall Fashion Trend: Corduroy.

This is the time of year when I feel inspired to sew for the upcoming season.  So, even though the weather has been swelteringly hot, I’ve been  sewing with corduroy.  The first project, a “round neck dress” in corduroy coordinates.  I love the colors in these fabrics, perfect on my blue-eyed-blondes.  Thanks to Mary for the inspiration to use this summery pattern for Fall sewing, it worked out perfectly! 

Actually, I have to let you know, this is the sample for the next size range of my round neck top/dress pattern.  I had so many requests to make this style available for older girls, I drafted three more sizes, which fit girls approximately size 8 to 14.  Look for it coming to my Etsy shop soon!

I also faced one of my sewing fears: the zipper fly.  I’m really proud of the way these pants turned out, even though they’re not perfect, I know what I should do differently next time.

The Start of Fall Sewing for my Boy.

During the last week, I’ve been sewing some of the items I have planned for my kids’ fall wardrobes.  I had put off so many personal sewing projects while I was working on my undies pattern, I was itching to get started.  Here is what I made for E-boy this week:

This tee was super-simple, but I love how it came out with these stripes.  The jeans have green topstitching to accent the separate curved leg panels and knee darts.

This hoodie is made from cotton/lycra french terry.  I actually made one for each of my kids, and they have been trying to find excuses to wear them even though the weather has been hot lately, so they must like them.

And another reverse applique tee, this time with a robot motif.  The colors are actually lime and chocolate, which looks great in real life, but horrible in the photo.  Can I say again how much I love this technique for little boy tees?

So, after I had made these pieces (oh, and one more striped tee that somehow didn’t get photographed) I went through E-boy’s things from last Fall and found that many of them still fit him, so with the addition of these adorable mommy-made pieces, he’s pretty much set.  Not that it will stop me from sewing for him if I want to, just I’m assured he won’t be going naked anytime soon.

Check it out!

My latest pattern hit my Etsy shop this morning.  Pull out your knit scraps and get ready to sew up some new undies for your children.

Today I Dyed.

I had this adorable fish print twill to make into a pair of shorts for e-boy, but the background was white.   Not only is white not exactly a practical choice for a toddler boy, I already had made him a pair of shorts this summer with sharks on a white background.  So, when I had sewn up the shorts, I decided to garment dye them in this royal blue that reminds me of water.  The end result: I love them!

I’ve Succumbed to Peer Pressure.

Thanks for all your comments on this post.