Wednesday, December 26, 2012

happy happy joy joy


 Here's hoping everyone had a merry whatever you celebrate (we do Christmas round these parts but as long as you are on board with handmade matchy-matchy baby pajamas then we'll get along fine.

matchy-match-match
I just drew up the patterns for the baby's PJs.  They're made out of an old knit sheet and scraps from my PJ pants.  All the other PJ stuffs you've seen already in spurts around the blog.  Mission matchy matchy Christmas PJs: accomplished.

By the way the quilt in all these pics is what has been killing my will to live I mean blog I mean taking up all my time for the past month week or so.  With the exception of that baby shirt and a little baby jacket for our Christmas voyage to the mountains.  \Pics of the jacket still to come but it's way cute.  As for the quilt; next time I'll do a regular one this one (a rag quilt) took for freaking ever.

Hope everyone is having a peaceful and safe holiday.

wip wednesdsay

with christmas over i can't help but breath a sigh of relief.  no more deadlines, no more shopping, no more getting all kerbobbled...

and now i can spend my time being selfish.  sweater #1 of (hopefully) 12 to be finished in 2013.  


i've got half a sleeve and a few inches of the body.  i love colorwork and i think it looks really good in these neutrals.



Friday, December 14, 2012

christmas bread and butter flies

crinkly and sweet, almost good enough to eat


i followed the tutorial here pretty much to the letter except, duh, i accidentally cut the the first two wing pieces as pieces and not on the fold.  i just used the opening to stuff in the chip bag and hid it under the butterfly's body.  by the way some parts of the instructions i thought were pretty vague.  like sew butterfly to wings.  wtf?  don't even get me started on those felt faces.  hell.



how's that for a face only a mother could love?  well hopefully baby girl will love it too.  even if those red eyes are a bit demonic.  i only had red, green, and white felt.  walk to the fabric store for one piece of felt?  apparently not.


all materials were scraps though, so yay for free goods.


Thursday, December 13, 2012

the great northwest cinnamon forest

This week at the Sew Weekly we got to pick whatever theme past we wanted a crack at.  I picked refashion since, well, that's kinda what I do.  Relove.  Get it?

the before
How distracting is this backdrop seriously?  I rearranged my sewing room and it's like a sewing block has been lifted.  All kinds of inspiration is brewing.

I refashioned this lovely 100 % cotton tee using the same not a Renfrew tee shirt block I used here and here.  But I couldn't just make a simple brown shirt and call it quits.  Oh no not me.  I decided my wardrobe is in all seriousness in danger of chronic boredom.  So I decided to try bleach painting.  I plucked some plant parts out of the backyard, found an orphan spray bottle, and boom.

I have ferns in my backyard obviously
Well.  I think the shirt fits pretty well.  And, umm... it's different.  Except it's not really because I see this kinda crap at the mall all the time.

And dammit the one place I didn't want any bleach was the neckline
All in all not awful for a first attempt but I went a bit heavy on the bleach in that one spot and I think if the design continued up the shoulder it might look a bit more congruous.  Those randumb bleach spots were an accident doh.


But here it is inside out.  Much better no?  I'm not sure this shirt ought to be worn inside out with it's big ugly seam allowances but maybe if I tack them down with a zigzag stitch or a twin needle.


There's a good reason I do not look amused.
It's more what I was aiming for.  Vibrant, interesting, but not huge and sloppy.  The leaf outlines are kind of lost but I think it looks like some sort of heavenly body.


C'est la vie?  What would you do?  Rock it proudly or wear it inside out?


Saturday, December 8, 2012

whadda ya mean christmas isn't during winter in oz???

Wait, winter isn't synonymous with Christmas?  That's just wrong.  I guess that makes it pretty lame that the Sew Weekly winter challenge said one thing to me: cozy flannel PJs.  In Christmas prints of course.  Which means: I'm finally done with all of the Christmas pajamas.  Forever?  We'll just have to wait and see...


Meet the most unflattering pants that ever did.  The tiny busy present print (butit'ssocuteandpink).  The unisex oversized pattern (why, just why?  was it not awful enough last time?).  The lack of length (I didn't buy enough fabric. doh.).  The weird pocket poof (cuz I cannot have PJ pants with no pockets).  


Those are little pink, red, and green presents.  OMG it's so cute I could barf.  In a good way of course.


 And to get just a wee bit more painfully cute: the cuffs, waistband, and pockets are all this white and rainbow heart print upcycled Care Bear sheet.  That I actually used to have on my bed once upon a time.  The pattern doesn't actually call for cuffs but I really didn't have even close to enough fabric to cut the legs in one piece.  Is it wrong that I die a little bit on the inside every time I see the lack of pink (or red) piping around the cuff?

Feeling queasy yet?  No?


There are matching baby pajama pants.  Whabbam bitches.

What possessed me?  I'm not sure.  I assume it's hormonal.  Or maybe the brand new baby girl with all her little pink outfits.  I'll try not to do it again kay?


Just a bit more cuteness.  I need a tripod.  Meet my new photographer.  Just his foot though.


That one is actually pretty good for a 3 year old I think.  He takes much better pics with my Iphone but it doesn't take low light pictures well.  You can see here just how awfully unflattering they are. 

I'm thinking hard about a new setup for picture taking.  I'm going to have to do something soon, that awful green wall in the kitchen just makes me look ill.

The Facts

Pattern: McCalls M5248 again

Fabric: 1.5 yards of Christmas print flannel from the local fabric store.  Which was like $12 on sale.  Ouch.  And the neverending Care Bear sheet for lining (again)

Notions: elastic

First worn: Just for these pics.  They're about to get washed, wrapped, and stuck under the tree with the rest of the Christmas PJs, a Christmas movie, and some mini marshmallows and hot cocoa mix.  (It's a new tradition I'm trying to start).  I won't lie, though: awful as these pants look I will wear the hell out of them.  Just around the house though.  I'm not one of those people to go out in my pajamas.  I'm not that trashy thankyaverymuch*.  

*(If you are one of those people and were offended by my last comment: seriously.  How hard is it to put on real pants?).


Friday, December 7, 2012

the pants that defy photography

i will only apologize once for the horrendousness of these pictures.  my bad.


Installation #2 in christmas pjs.  These are for hubby.  I used McCall's m5248, the same pattern i used for my robe, but obviously different pieces of it.  These have been done for awhile but I cringed at the thought of putting these pics up on the interwebz.  Time gives perspective I suppose, or perhaps just a sense of levity, so here we go:


The pattern does not call for pockets, but it's not a single pattern piece.  To me that's just begging for a pocket.  As you can see these are knee pockets.  As in they tickle my knees when I'm wearing these pants.  I don't know why they gape as such.  I just don't know. 

Fail.

The pockets are too low.  Too bad those sides are French seamed and I don't feel like unpicking that mess. 


I can't recall the massive earthquake that threw the house on end, but here I am apparently hanging on to my hat so as not to lose it in the shuffle.

And to remind you of installment #1 in matchy matchy Christmas PJs:


Aaaarrrrrrgh!

Hopefully everyone is nearing the end of their Christmas crafting (or shopping).  I know I am ready to move onto things for me!

Saturday, December 1, 2012

the most wonderful time of the year...

we got our tree earlier this week and for the first time the boy really got into helping





of course now that it's fully decorated he's been very busy undecorating it and scattering the ornaments throughout the house

if he doesn't pull the tree down on himself this year i'll be happy