More (exceedingly late) Christmas makings

I'm just getting overwhelmed by all the makes there are to be blogged.  There's just so much stuff... plenty of it from Christmas.  Therefore, this post will (hopefully) be a more or less wrap-up of Christmas gifts, with an emphasis on the BIG ASS CHRISTMAS QUILT (OF DEATH?)  Why do I always feel the need to add "of death" to the end of my quilt names?  

Why do I always

I think quilts are kind of like young children....  Everything is sweeter in retrospect.  Let's be honest, a two year old can make you tear your hair out... but so can a quilt of this dimension on a regular (i.e. not a long-arm) machine.  Honestly, the quilting on it is pretty half-assed.  I started out doing two lines on each side of each seam.... but it's only one line towards the middle.  It was reeeally hard to maneuver this behemoth.  It's something like 7x9 feet...  I can't remember the exact dimensions but it's pretty frickin' big.

I tried to focus on purple, blue, and grey for this quilt, as well as plaids... but it's a scrap quilt so I worked with what I had.  The only things I had to buy were two sheets from Goodwill for the backing and, of course, the batting.  All in all, maybe $30... pretty cheap for a blanket of this size.  This was actually a special request from my mom.  She really wanted a blanket to cover their bigger than king size bed.  I told her no, and then I felt really bad about it so here's her blanket.  

Some of the fabrics were from the Goodwill Outlet, some are old clothes that have outlived any usefulness as clothing, and some are scraps leftover from previous projects.  I love that each fabric has a story, at least for me.  Some of the fabrics are my parents old clothes, too.  Whether or not they recognize them is a different story though.

The binding, as well as a lot of the squares, are made from the leftover sheet from my garden gate dress.  The back is pieced... there are two big pieces.  I'm not going to show you the whole thing, though, as it's horrendously ugly.  But it's pretty on the right side and so soft and warm so I'll call it a win and just be happy it's all over.

Aside from the quilt (it's somehow hard for me to believe I made more than just the quilt, but continuing on) I made hubby a new undershirt with my precious pirate fabric (that is true love) and a new pair of PJ pants.  The boy has matching PJs, but of course.  The fabric is from a flannel sheet I originally bought to back above quilt, but I just loved it so much it had to become pants.

Hubby hasn't worn his PJ pants yet, but he's sitting on them in this pic...  Not quite the reaction I had hoped for I guess but he loves the shirt.  The Boy's pants are waaay too long, but I'll eventually cuff them til he grows into them (hopefully before he grows into them!).

I guess that's all that'll make it to this post.  There's more (quite a bit more, actually) but it can wait til next time.

Baby Girl's Christmas Outfit

Opening pressies

Stealing strawberries

Twas two days before Christmas when, emboldened by success,

Mom decided baby girl needed a new Christmas dress!

Something white, green, and red with a round little collar

Something vintage, with ric-rac for my little crawler.

The pattern, the fabric; twas all in the stash

But the buttons Mom had, how they all did clash

So off to the store after work Christmas Eve

She found ric rac and buttons and fabric she couldn't leave

Christmas morning found her threading elastic

Surrounded by boxes, paper, and plastic

Just in time for the presents, candy and food

The outfit was finished and it sure did look good

So excited for hot chocolate pants!

Ugh.  Sorry for the totally unnecessary thing that just happened.  I'll try not to do it again...  I will probably fail, but I will try.  The holidays put holes in my brain, I swear.  In case you need further proof, the Sunday before Christmas I became convinced that Baby Girl must have a new Christmas outfit.  You know, because The Boy got new clothes for Christmas... and that's what kids really want for Christmas: homemade clothes.  Yeah.... ok.

I happened to have this lovely little vintage pattern that is just exactly Baby Girl's size (it's size 2 years and she's pretty big for her 18 months).  I got a big package of little people patterns together at Goodwill for $2 and this is only the second one I've used....  Unfortunately I better get crackin' on the rest of these if I want to use them, for as we all know, size 2 years is not a lengthy visitor.

I picked up the fabric for the top at the thrift store on the cheap; $4 for 4 yards.  Once it was made up it just begged for matching pants.  I'd been eyeing this hot chocolate print fabric since they got it in at the fabric store and just couldn't justify buying it with no project in mind...  problem solved!  I love the way the two fabrics look together.  The print on the top is so tiny and the cups of hot chocolate are so big.  Combined with the big red buttons and teeny little ric-rac....  well, it's starting to sound a little unbalanced but I think it comes together perfectly.

The fiddliest part of this pattern is piping and attaching the collar.  The neck edge is bound in bias tape, which  (being an adamant facing-hater, I dig) but gah, them's some thick rolls to try and bind with bias tape.  I think the trick is to just clip the seam allowances close, stitch the tape down, then iron the shit out of the whole thing to keep the collar in place.  That's really all I've got.

As you can see it's already covered in food

The pattern didn't call for the piping at the bottom of the front bodice piece, but it was easy enough to add and I think it looks really cute.  It's a little weird how close it is to the huuuge collar, but I think it makes the gathering pop a little bit.  And, you know, yay piping!

Look how well the bottom and ric-rac match up.  Boo-ya!

Oddly, I never seem to have red anything so I definitely didn't have any big red buttons.  Fortunately when I went to buy big red buttons, I also found the hot chocolate fabric 30% off..  Meant to be?  I think so.  Anyway, I think that's about all there is to say about this set.  I've already made up another one of these tops and there will be more (one is already cut out!).

Dear Baby Girl: You just get cuter and more loveable every day.  Stay sweet and happy please :)

Christmas comes but once a year...

Because it would kill us if it was any more often!  Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday, and I hope that you all had wonderful holidays where you didn't have to work and got to spend lots of time with loved ones eating yummy treats!

Baby girl walking with the help of big brother

We had a wonderful Christmas and I, for one, am breathing a sigh of relief that it's over.  Now that my sewing room no longer doubles as Santa's workshop things are slowly going back to normal.  The wrapping paper and boxes are mostly picked up, and the slew of new toys are entertaining the kiddies for minutes at time ;-)

Epic peekaboo sessions

It would feel incomplete to post without a little explanation of why it's been so long since I've been around these parts.  Not that it really matters to anyone wandering through here, just that I think it deserves to be recorded how terrible my luck is with technology and how awesome the guys in my life are.  A broken digital camera left me with nothing but (relatively) crappy iPhone pics.  Combined with a lack of sunlight before 8 or after 4 (it seems sooo long since I've seen the sun) there have been no usable pictures taken for ages.  Then, of course, my computer went completely berserk after downloading Conduit (Facebook, I'm looking at you and your big evil jerkface) and hasn't been operating really at all for months.

The boys class trip to the fire station

Then Christmas came and my lovely, generous hubby got me a really nice new digital camera (that's like 20 megapixels omg! I didn't even know they made that many megapixels) and my wonderfully clever father fixed my computer (hopefully it just stays fixed!).  Now I'm ready to share some recent makes (especially all the Christmas makes, cuz you know there were plenty of those!)  For now, though, I'll just share these few quick photos of the last few months.  In case I don't manage a New Year's resolution or year in review post in the next few days, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

it's not a purse it's a man bag!

let me start by saying pinterest totally completes my internet experience.  that being said i hate people who compile other people's ideas on their blog in those "200000 things you should know" or "40 toys to make for kids"  screw you.  seriously.  come up with your own ideas.  that being said i found one of those pins and repinned it because it had a car toy carrier shown.  i never have been able to refind that thing but here's my own drastically different interpretation anyway.

it folds up into a little bag with handles and button closures.  of course the fabric has race cars 

when it's opened up there is a pouch for cars, a zippered pouch for other necessary travel items (like small dinosaurs, ninjas, etc) and there's a race track all the way around.  I used the same fabric to make extra pieces that fit under the zipper pouch so you can extend the road (cuz like who just drives around in a circle amiright?)

here's where the cars go.  there are only 4 separate slots but they'll fit his big cars (the cars movie cars)

here is the zipper pouch.  holy craft don't even ask how i made that thing.  i intend to learn how to make a proper one sometime soon but this thing is serviceable if not pretty

so there you have it.  construction process?  man you don't even want to know.  did i mention i've never made a bag of any sort before?  let's just say i used all or part of 3 fat quarters, an old dark colored shirt, some scraps of white knit, and a bit of heavy duty interfacing.  that's not all, there's some other stuff in there, but you get the idea.

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.

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.

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?).

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