Story time!!!

FYI: if you left click your mouse on the picture, you get a BIGGER image!! You can save that one for your own personal use. ;)

William asked Doug to read him a story the other night, and Aldous decided to join them!! He was FULL of hijinks, though!!


William became annoyed with him and moved to the other side.


Aldous gets pretty involved with story time.





Moving in for a closer look!



I think Aldous succeeded in totally getting on William's nerves through TWO stories.

Black Friday Haul!!

I only went to two places today, both for fabric. I make most of our holiday gifts, so I don't do a lot of purchasing at the other sales, unless I need an appliance for cheap. I think wal-mart had a bunch of small appliances this year for $3 each or something crazy!!!

I went to JoAnn Fabrics first, at 6am. The one I go to is small and caters mostly to people who sew. They carry VERY few craft items, compared to some of the HUGE stores. They have to same amount, and sometimes more, fabric than the others. Consequently, this store doesn't have a huge crazy mean crowd for Black Friday. In fact, I saw two people I had met last year.

I picked up some of the flannel.
Here are some owls, and mushrooms. The mushrooms are on a more grassy green than the camera could record and I didn't have any look with the editing, so I just left it.



Some man flannel.


a skulls and roses, and ROCKETS!!!


pirate, also on green. My camera was off the greens today, I guess!!


At JoAnn I also picked up two of the .99 Butterick patterns, and some thread (50% off)

After I dropped all the flannel off at home, and had a second cup of coffee, I headed to Golden D'or with my coupon. I had already made my list so, it was easy to get what I came for.
This first fabric is also a greenish heather, a very heavy and soft rib. The other is a cream quilted knit.


a black stretch denim remnant and black/white stripe french terry


a light linen/cotton blend for my pattern drafting test, and a light jersey with stars.


both of these are soft and drapey like they may have a bit of rayon in them. a grey with dots and wings, and a nice brown.


This cute remnant. The stripes are horizontal.


and some buttons!! The blue and the stars are for the boys' shirts, and I got the yellow ones for myself.

Christmas Stockings!!

These are some CRAZY pictures...I took them late at night and I *thought* they were ok....oops!!

Anyway, our family has needed new stockings for years. There were only three matching stockings, for the girls, and Doug, the boys, and I were limping along with a hodge-podge of various sizes and conditions of old polyesther Christmas stockings.

In my never-ending quest to use up all of my wool scraps, I sewed a huge patchwork panel using the featherstitch on my machine. I steamed and ironed the panel flat, then cut out the fronts of the stocking. I used a brocade for the back, and some velvet scraps for the binding. I also had a bunch of this red satin cord lying about, and I used that to make loops for hanging.



The evil and contrary brocade...ick.


I embroidered everyone's names on smaller scraps and blanket-stitched those to the stockings.



The pattern I used for the stocking shape came from a set of two patterns by Viking. They are actually drafted by Kwik Sew and are from the 70s. They are TOTALLY cool. I changed the stocking to have more volume at the heel, and to add a bit of an arch, but the pattern was a good jumping-off point. My pattern envelope looks better than that, of course.


The second one is pretty cool, too, and I've used the patterns for all sorts of things, including embroidery, but haven't made any of the actual projects.


I really recommend having these for any Christmas crafting, as they drawings and patterns are simple and well done, a hallmark of all Kwik Sew patterns, in my opinion. They're old, but they are out there and available. I've seen them on eBay for a $3.

I'd love to have a go at those stuffed felt ornaments one year!!!

A lot of shirts without buttons, a dress, and CityCraft

I severely altered a Burda boys' shirt pattern to make it into a western-style shirt, complete with embroidered yokes and contrasting piping!!

This shirt is for a friend who is doing her own pearl snaps. I "cannot" apply set snaps by hand...there is something TOO intricate in the operation and it makes me sweat. So, I agreed to make the shirts, but the snaps are DIY.


The cherries embroidery pattern is from Jenny Hart.



I used the same pattern for William's Christmas shirt, but got the embroidery patterns from Needlecrafter: there are some great patterns on there for the hand-embroiderer. For Aldous' shirt, top, I used a Butterick pattern, also severely altered. These also have contrasting piping, and the back/bottom side of the collar is dark red fabric, too!



To finish these, I'm hoping to find some appropriate pearl snap-like buttons at Golden D'or's Black Friday sale, but if not, I'm sure to have something in the ton-o'-buttons that Bonnie gave me.


Since Aldous' shirt didn't have a placket or cuff, I did a band of the contrast fabric on the sleeve hem.


In coordinating Moda fabric, I did Audrey's dress, from Ottobre. It's a simple dress with a zippered back, contrasting yoke, and I added a bit of piping to the yoke, as well.


And a snowflake button.



Last night I went to CityCraft's SECOND EVER lounge night...it was so fun!! Everyone there was friendly and people were making the most awesome things!! I, however, made this onesie to go with Audrey's Thanksgiving bloomers. AND I didn't finish it there because I had to use my snap press here.


I put not-quite-matching-but-awesome-because-they're-Ooga Booga snaps on it. I got these from KAMsnaps.com, but rumor has it these are selling out!! ACK!!! I almost bought more, because she's almost out of them, but I have a gazillion so there's no chance of ME running out any time soon.


Off to crack the whip on those elves!!! Santa's to-do list is HUGE this year!!! work, work, work!!

"This is Hat Week!!!", so declares Aldous, in his more authoritative voice.

It seems my dear Aldous has discovered the joy of hat wearing!! William has not yet discovered this joy, but that's another story.

I bought these things to help with the hair washing in the shower. They're just foam visors but when I showed it to Aldous and told him it was a hat, he put it on himself!! He hadn't previously tried to wear a hat, but for some reason, this hot pink visor spoke to him.



For the rest of the day, there was no stopping him!!! He tried a bucket, next!!!


Then a construction hat.......



And then, again, today with the construction hat.


And the bucket again.


It's the funniest thing ever!! He puts the hat on, then has to walk around and around in it, giggling the whole time!! So silly!!

Crafty Day!!! Knit Fabric Scrap Scarf Tutorial

My Wrap Top from Weekend Designer

One of my favorite blogs is Weekend Designer. Shortly after I started following, the author stopped posting, but he left behind a BILLION tutorials for drafting patterns for the best designs!!

I decided to give his Show Topper a whirl this weekend. I had just gotten a bunch of matte jersey from Fabric.com. It was one of their Daily Deals, and I got it for about $4/yd. This stuff is so soft and drapey......I'm in love!!!! (pretty shift to sew, though, so use a lot of pins!!)


As you can see, I chose the red for this top. I was so torn about which to use, because I want to do a wrap dress from one of them.

I referred to my dress form a lot during the construction of this, as it has both front and back darts and I wanted to check the fit. Also, Weekend Designers suggestion for the collar length and sleeve length were both short (to me) and I had to make them longer, thus requiring a bit of finagling on my part.

Even though this pattern was drafted from my measurements, I was still suspicious that it wouldn't be the correct length. Most commercial patterns have to be lengthened by two inches to fit me properly, and after doing that for so long, it's a hard habit to break.

The front, pinned together, darts sewn.


back


close up of the final collar length



After finally deciding to bind the front edges of the top rather than hem them, I got it all put together.




Here I am in my finished top!! I'm REALLY happy with it. It looks great, and is super comfortable and I LOVE that it fits so perfectly. See Aldous trying to get in the pic??? that ham!!




a bit about hemming knits:

to hem knits, I usually use a double needle. This reduces the stretching quite a bit, and it looks nice. however, some fabrics STILL stretch, so I got a tip to use Stitch Witchery. I already had a bit of Heat n Bond lite, which I used and works great!! You iron down one side, the peel the lining off, fold your hem, then iron it down!! Double needle right over it for a perfect hem!!

But then I ran out. Because so many people recommended Stitch Witchery, I bought some. A lot of it. It turns out, tho, that I don't like it as much!! Because it doesn't have a peel away side, you have to catch the strip of it between the hem fold and iron it down. It's a bit tricky. However, once you manage that, it sews up just the same. I'm sure I'll use my 7 million yards of Stitch Witchery, but I can't wait until I run out so I can buy some Heat N Bond lite...that stuff rocks!!