Category Archives: Sewing
More Slow Progress on Christmas Gifts
OK, staying out of my office is really hard for me. I enjoy what I do. I like making awesome products for your families. I don’t like not making awesome products for your families. It’s frustrating to not be working.
Actually, what I need to do is take down my Planning Board, because it’s still got my plans through mid December on it, and it yells at me every time I see it, “You’re behind!! You were supposed to restock Cycle Pads last week!!” (And I’m currently plotting to see if I can’t get enough sneak to the office time to get them restocked anyway… shhhhhh.)
It’s not like I’m on bedrest or anything; I’m not. I’m just not supposed to be doing as much work, and I’m supposed to be resting more, and there’s the ever-dangling-over-my-head threat of You Might Need To Have A Baby Right Now.
But I have been sneaking down to my office every now and again to continue plodding along on Christmas presents. As I posted on Facebook recently, knowing that family won’t appreciate their planned handmade gifts doesn’t give me the money to buy them Big Box Store-ish presents like they actually want. Plus, I really do think that one of these years, I just might wear them down and they will suddenly appreciate the thought, time, and effort that goes into their gifts.
(please note: if you believe you are one of these people who might be getting a gift from me this Christmas, I recommend stopping here.)
Over the last two weeks, I was able to quickly bust out quite a few simple gifts. Actually, these gifts started a few months ago, when I happened across a clearance sale at Hanes.com. (No, I don’t normally shop there, I think I saw a post about it at Want Not.) Zip front hoodies were on clearance for far less than I’ve ever seen plain hoodies ever, even at Target on clearance, and these were the nice Hanes ones. Score! So I bought a hoodie for all the kids on my list, and one for me (I wear a boy’s large, lol), and then some adult size ones for a few adults on my list, too.
I was planning to do some screenprinting, but the process of screenprinting, while not difficult, is somewhat labor-intense for what was going to be REALLY small runs. I ended up switching to Wax Paper Stencils and Appliques instead of screenprinting. As a bonus, this allowed me to work in short bursts, whereas the nature of screenprinting pretty much requires the whole process to be done at one time.
This guitar sweatshirt is for my 16 year old nephew (who plays the guitar) and I also made one for Wally (who also plays the guitar). It’s a reverse applique, so the flames fleece was pinned underneath the sweatshirt before I stitched the outline of the guitar and then trimmed away the sweatshirt fabric from the inside of the shape. Super easy, but somehow seems “cooler” than an actual applique. The butterflies and the flowers are also reverse appliques, and are for a friend’s daughter, and my Miss G. (Genna’s flower sweatshirt also has a more traditional applique on the pocket.) I AM aware that these are really bad pictures.
These two sweatshirts are freezer paper stencil. The rocket for a friend’s 4 year old son, and the Jeep for her husband, who is the proud owner of a new-to-him Jeep Wrangler. (A Christmas present AND a gift to welcome him to the Wrangler club.) On the right is a set of four White Sox luggage tags. They, along with a White Sox travel shoe bag that’s not pictured, are for my Father in Law, who travels a lot and loves the Sox.
And I finished these socks for Miss Genna and the Spider Socks for Mr Wally. (Genna’s socks took about a week. Wally’s? The entire month of October.)
And these four little pairs of socks for the new baby, and for a friend’s baby for Christmas.
I’m NOT posting the details of what I made for a friend who I KNOW reads this blog, lol. So I’m all done with the sewn items. Now I need to learn how to make paracord survival bracelets! I’ve still got some knitting that I’m working on, as well - a sweater for the baby, a pair of socks for my doula (just the toe of one sock remaining), and possibly one for whoever shows up to watch the older kids while I’m busy having a baby. Um, and because some idiot (*ahem* me) made needlepoint Christmas stockings for everyone else in the family, I have to track down a nonugly needlepoint Christmas stocking kit that does not feature Santa and get that done, too. Fortunately, the baby won’t know if he or she doesn’t have a stocking for Christmas this year, but I don’t see me having MORE time to do needlepoint once he or she is born, so I’d really rather do it now.
Remaining giftless are all of my brothers in law, who are all really hard to decide about. I have trouble with men’s gifts in general, I’ll be honest. DH is not helping at all with ideas, and since they’re boys and he’s a boy (and two out of the three are from his side of the family), I’ve generally put him in charge. This means that they usually get Best Buy gift cards, and thus the most expensive gifts out of any. We’ll also purchase some sort of small toy for my 5 year old niece, and I’m kicking myself that I wasn’t focused on this need when I hit the clearance aisle at our local Giant Store to find a few small goodies for my own kids (foam bath letters and a suction cup bath mirror for $5!).
Personal sewing
I was an extra good girl over Labor Day weekend and worked hard to get my Work work finished. Then I snuck down and took some time to get my own projects finished. I continued working on these in snippets throughout the week – they’re all small, fast projects. I love having them done!
Three jumpers for the fall for Genna. I’ve been hoarding these corduroy prints for several years, so now that cord costs far more than I’ve ever seen it… I didn’t have to pay the higher prices for it. Yay! All based on the same pattern, but each with slight differences. Experimenting with how I like to do the facings.
Baby gown.
Found these all but finished in my Unfinished Projects box. They were originally going to be embroidered or painted and listed on Etsy, but with new laws in place now, I’m choosing not to list children’s products with zippers. And of course they’re too small for Miss Genna. Fortunately, I know people having babies.
Fleece sleeper for new baby, made with leftover scraps from the pouch (below).
New fleece pouch for new baby. Not sure I like it now that it’s finished.
Two fall/winter skirts for me.
New carseat cover for Genna. Her old one was FILTHY. This one is kind of busy, but I have several Disney prints I bought for a particular project that I never did and I’m kind of trying to use them up. She was delighted.
More spring sewing
I haven’t felt much like cleaning lately. I mean, I’m doing the minimum – picking up toys and washing dishes and cleaning up the 8,000 messes that the two kids and husband make every day. But I haven’t felt like REALLY cleaning – scrubbing and sorting and A Place For Everything And Everything In Its Place. Instead, I’ve been reading, knitting, and sewing personal stuff. I tend to hate February. Hate it. Longest month of the year. Cold, depressing. So very winter. ugh.
So, you know, I’m hibernating.
At any rate, I made myself three more skirts and Genna two dresses. A pair of new PJ pants has been requested by Wally, so I hope to get those done next week.
(please ignore the lack of ironing, but feel free to admire my awesome socks.) These two skirts are both made from linen – the green is a nice organic linen I picked up on clearance. The tan is the same linen I use for many of my Wallypop and Boulevard Designs products. I always have a bolt or two on hand. I used my Super Easy Patternless A-Line Skirt tutorial, but actually made myself a paper pattern for a two-panel skirt (a front piece and a back piece) and then cut it out on the bias for both of these skirts. I don’t tend to do bias-cut skirts often, because they use SO MUCH fabric, and I’m cheap that way, but I love the drape of bias skirts.
The green one, I cut out a wedge from the side of the hem and inserted a little ruffle. I think this might have worked out better with a less stiff fabric, but it still looks ok. The green one is made with a zipper at the side waist. The tan one, I cut wider and bound the waist with Fold over Elastic (the elastic binding sometimes used on diapers and covers) to make an easy pull on skirt. I totally borrowed the idea from, I think, Amy Karol at Angry Chicken. I’ve used FOE to bind gathered edges of tops, and on children’s clothes, but never on a skirt waistband.
This one is another made from leftovers from ring slings. It’s a four-panel skirt, using the ideas in the Super Easy Patternless A-Line Skirt tutorial, but making the waist wider to use elastic instead of a zipper.
Genna’s dresses. The blue one is made from a McCall’s pattern (I do actually own patterns, too!). The wrap dress is from this tutorial at Tiny Happy. It would have looked way, way cuter with handmade bias tape, but I was quickly running out of naptime and decided for forgo the pretty, wide bias tape in favor of something pulled from my Bin Of Bias Tape. The dress is actually quite large, and probably won’t fit her well until next year, which is a little disappointing, particularly considering that I could have easily figured this out by just taking a minute to think about it. Ah, well.
Sundresses are my absolute favorite for Genna. They can be made appropriate for winter simply by putting a long sleeve shirt underneath, and maybe some pants or Little Leg Warmers. In spring, or cooler days in summer, they are matched with a short sleeve shirt and Little Leg Warmers if needed. And of course, they can be worn as is for hot weather. Many sundresses also last for several years, if they’re wide and drapey, which is an added bonus.
Travel Documents
Some of you might know that our family has an upcoming trip, one for which we need passports.
Fortunately, Thimble, a blog I follow, posted a handy little Travel Documents project about a year ago and I bookmarked it! (And, in an unusual twist, a project I wanted to complete was actually still online when I went to look it up later. Usually, I go back to look at my bookmarks and the webpages have been taken down, lol.)
I made the mistake of doing the topstitching with the inside facing me, so it looks a little sloppy from the outside, but it looks like it’ll work perfectly for our needs. I think that she made hers out of all cotton – I used all bottomweights, because I’m running a little low on cottons, and that consequently make it pretty thick and hard to sew through in places. I was hand cranking my machine, and that’s saying something. (I have an industrial machine that will sew through practically anything.)
On a related note, if anyone has tips on air travel with two year olds, I’m open to suggestions!
Spring clothes
I put together some really super quick spring clothes for Genna and a little for me, too.
My skirt and some jammies for Genna.
Genna’s skirts
The skirts were all made from scraps leftover from Ring Slings, so you might recognize the fabrics, lol. I didn’t use a pattern for the skirts, I rarely do. Mine is simply strips of fabric sewn together into a tube, then folded over at the top with Elastic and hemmed at the bottom. One of Genna’s skirts is silk, and is just two tubes of silk sewn together at the waist. I didn’t even hem this one, since the selvage edge of the fabric was quite nicely finished already. Genna’s ruffle skirt is actually made from some nice organic cotton I picked up for a few dollars on clearance at Joann’s a year or so ago, and the ruffle is ring sling scraps.
Genna’s jammies were made using a pair of pants and a shirt that fit her well as a pattern. The fabric is more Joann’s clearance – waffle weave cotton – and the striped capris are again leftover ring sling scraps.
You might notice that my personal sewing is all really simple stuff. Often, people wonder why I don’t sew fancier things.
It’s because I sew every day for hours every day.
When I sew something for me, or my kids, or whatever, I really don’t want it to be some long, involved project that requires careful attention to detail. I used to sew those things. I just don’t have the patience to do it these days. I’m usually trying to squeeze personal sewing in between order processing, sewing for inventory, taking care of the kids, washing dishes, etc. If I can sit down and whip out two skirts in a half hour, that’s GREAT.
Sitting down to a dress or skirt that’s going to take 8 hours… not so great!
A few personal crafting projects finished up
Wally’s new winter hat. I started with a hat pattern, but pretty much rewrote it. That said, this is a really really simple hat pattern. Then I lined it with microfleece to make it nice and toasty. I love it, and he will wear it, so we’re all happy.
An apron for me. I couldn’t resist this fabric with the chickens, but I wasn’t really sure what to make from it. I mean, it’s not exactly skirt or blouse material… so I made an apron.
Appliqued Fleece Covers
Wallypop Fleecy Wraps made even more awesome with the addition of appliques! Some of these are listed at Etsy, and the rest will be added soon!
The current Craft Hope project is to sew pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer. “ConKerr Cancer was established two years ago to put smiles upon the faces of terminally ill children in the hospital. They provide bright and cheery handmade pillowcases for these children. They have succeeded in delivering 225,000 pillowcases up to this date. They have a goal of providing a beautiful pillowcase for every seriously ill child in North America by 2012.”
When I was 12, I was diagnosed with ITP, which is a blood clotting disorder. The only doctors in town who could treat it happened to also be pediatric oncologists (at that time, there were no pediatric hematologists who weren’t also oncologists). So, any time I was admitted to the hospital, I would be placed with the pediatric oncology patients, most of whom were much younger than I.
For a number of years, I couldn’t even really talk about cancer, cancer in children, etc. – it was just too much to deal with, when I could place actual faces and personalities with the nameless, faceless stories and statistics. I still chuckle whenever I think of one of my first roommates in the hospital. She loved movies and hoped her hair would grow back long and straight and blonde. (She was Black.) The nurses bought her a baseball hat with a long blonde ponytail coming out the back.
Anyway, this project was right up my alley. Pillowcases are easy enough to fit into my cramped fall schedule, and kids with cancer are near and dear to my heart.
This is only six pillowcases, but it’s pretty much depleted my current inventory of cottons. I don’t have very many cotton pieces that are large enough for a pillowcase! But I used some of my favorite prints – the Pez prints, John Deere, and Bugs Bunny. I hope the kids like them.
I’ve contacted the Iowa coordinator for ConKerr Cancer and will be mailing these off as soon as she lets me know where to send them!
