Dillon's boxers

(from 8/2005)
Dillon needed some new boxers, as he's outgrowing (and passing down to Lucas!) the ones I made him earlier this year. He picked all the fabrics for these.

More PJs for Luke

(from 8/2005)
More jammies for Lucas, this time a pair of short sleeved and shorts jammies, and a pair of long-sleeved and pants jammies, all from the same fabric, all from KSFT. I used a cute boxer elastic that I bought from a friend, that has monkey faces and stars on it. Both boys love this elastic, and at the rate I'm using it, it won't last long! Maybe 30 yards wasn't enough!

For the choochoos

(from 8/2005)
Lucas is just in LOVE with Thomas the Tank Engine, so when we found several prints of Thomas fabric at the store, he had to have all of it. I made him a pair of boxers and a pillowcase from the "train tracks" fabric.

PRR Bass jammies

(from 8/2005)
Pajamas for Lucas, KSFT 3T Tshirt and knit shorts, from PRR bass, undyed.

Greetings from Hawaii

(from 8/2005)
This is the original bucket tote bag. I love this fabric, it say "Greetings From Hawaii", and just feels very summery to me. I didn't interface the bag nearly enough, so it's very floppy and doesn't hold it's shape at all. The thing hanging off the left side is a clip for my keys. I didn't put any pockets in this bag, so I haven't used it much, but it sure is cute.

Back to School Swap

(from 8/2005)
I did a Back To School swap with a group of other sewing moms a few weeks ago. I sent a big batch of cloth lunchbox napkins for all the kids.

Each child got a pair of napkins. The ones on the far left are butterflies, the center is outer space, and on the right there are two pairs of RV fabric napkins, and one pair of "Greetings from Hawaii" napkins.

My new sewing area

(from 8/2005)
Since we moved to the new apartment a few weeks ago (mid-July), I have a new sewing area set up. My sewing table is at one end of the living room, and the closet that holds all my fabric stash is right next to it.

Sewing table:

The view from the sewing table into the "Fabric Closet":

Fabric stash in the closet:

August = Stash Game

Stash game has begun again, and I'm hip-deep in it. All my entries for August will be things I've made during stash game, using nothing but what I have on-hand, no new purchases allowed. Let the games begin!

Abbreviations

Thanks to Amy, who emailed to ask what on Earth some of my abbreviations meant! Here's a list:

KS = Kwik Sew, a wonderful pattern company that makes simple, easy-to-follow patterns. See their website at www.kwiksew.com. When I write "KS####", I'm indicating which pattern I've used for the item, and I usually try to link to it, b/c it's a pain to have to search it out.

KSFT = Kwik Sew For Toddlers, which is a book of master patterns that you can use to sew pretty much a whole wardrobe for your toddler. I have loved the hoodie, raglan shirt, and t-shirt patterns so far, but it also has pants, shorts, dresses, jackets, etc, in sizes T1-T4. For comparison's sake, Lucas wears a size 2T in RTW, and I make T2s from KS for him. And then there is also...

KSFC = Kwik Sew For Children. I don't have this one yet, but it's on my "must buy soon" list, so I can make Dillon more stuff. It has sizes 4/5 up to a 12, so will last quite a while.

RTW = Ready To Wear, or store bought clothing.

Big 3 = This means the "big three" pattern companies, or McCalls, Simplicity, and Butterick. I'm not sure where this term came from, but I believe it's referring to the fact that most of these patterns tend to run big on the sizes. You can buy their patterns at Joann Fabrics. If you sign up for their mailing list (in-store, or I think you can do it online), you will get notifications of their sales. At least once a month one or two of these brandsd will go on sale for $1 each, which is a good deal.

JA = Joann Fabrics, link in the previous. Never pay full price here!

WA = Walmart. Though not the greatest source for sewing needs, sometimes I'm surprised by what I can find here. My ever-popular ladybug flannel came from WA, and for just $2.84 a yard! I also buy needles for my sewing machines, cording and binding (it's cheaper than at JA's for these things), and interfacing here.

That's all I can think of right now, but if you see something I haven't explained, let me know!

Boring but functional

A few "boring" but functional projects here.

Here's my new ironing board cover. The one it came with got sticky/gummy-ed up while in storage, so I traced the old one and made a new one. Didn't have any kind of cord to do the drawstring kind of thing the old one had, so I serged elastic all the way around it. That didn't hold it tightly enough, so I sewed lengths of elastic across the back, as you can see in the 2nd pic. It was a VERY tight squeeze to get it onto the board, but it will stay there now until I have to CUT it off to make another one.

Made placemats for the boys, Dillon's (the red/orange) still needs binding, but they've been using them and love them. I need to get some of that outdoor tablecloth stuff that WA sells off the huge rolls by the cutting table for the next set of mats, b/c I'm washing these every day or two, and it's annoying.

And some mama cloth for me. I whipped these up one night on a whim, after seeing that I was out of P&T, and didn't want to have to run to the store first thing the next morning. They're just JA's fllece and flannel, serged into rectangles, but they're working so well, I don't think I'd change anything. I think there's a few more than the picture shows, I thought I'd made either 20 or 24, so some must have been *ahem* in the wash.

Mama's purple hoodie

(from 3/2005)
I've had this awesome sweatshirt fleece sitting around for as long as I can remember. Bought at least three years ago, with the intention of making myself a hoodie or jacket from it. Finally found a good pattern for it that I liked, and made it last week. It's very comfy, but turned out a bit too big, even though I used my own measurements to determine the size. Heck, at least it's not too small though!

The hood is lined inside with a cute ladybug flannel:

It's a Boxer-palooza!

I found a great pattern for boxer shorts for the boys. I'd originally intended it just for Dillon, as Lucas is still in diapers. He is going potty quite often though, at least two or three times a day, so when he saw what I had made for Dillon, of course he wanted some too. I had to size the pattern's smallest size, a four, down to fit his lil 2T bum, but it works, and they both love them. The pattern is KwikSew 2179, which does actually have an open-fly, but in my mind, that just encourages "playing" by my children, so I left it out.

Here are Dillon's:

And his modelling shots:

And Lucas. He's with the DD of another sewing-mama-friend, the beautiful Miss Svea:

And then we had to get into the "holiday undies". No idea where they got this idea, but once Dillon saw this shamrock fabric, they both had to have them.

I've made Dillon about 6 more pairs since I took these pictures, and maybe three for Lucas. Also a pair for Svea (from the ever-popular ladybug flannel), and one for another friend's DS (airplane/jet flannel). I'll try to get pics of them one of these days. Dillon's just went so quickly from sewing table, onto his bum, and then into the laundry that I didn't even have the chance to take a pic!

Sewing room, before & after

(from 3/2005)
My sewing mamas group had a challenge this past weekend, to clean up our messy sewing rooms/areas. Mine was certainly qualifying for the messy title, so it had to be done. Here's before and after pictures:

BEFORE:

And here's the "during" pics. Mostly just sorting fabric.

And the finished product:

A piece of my sewing history

(from 6/2006)
This so-ugly-it's-almost-cute flip-top chest lives in my sewing/living room. It used to be my Mom's, she always put scraps from her projects in it, and I loved digging through it to find something that I could sew with. She hasn't sewn in a few years, and didn't have the space for it in her sewing room, so when I moved here, she offered it to me. I finally got it a few months ago, in all it's orange and flowered glory! My boys have been asking when I'm going to recover it, but I'm not sure I want to. It's easily as old as I am, and Mom used a vinyl tablecloth to cover the lid, and shelf paper to do the sides herself way back when. So I'm tempted to leave it as it is. They think it's an eyesore, but oh well!

Anyway, I just wanted to share this little piece of sewing history.

Even though Mom used it for scraps, at my house, it holds a bin of maxilock (there's 2 layers of cones under what you can see), a few bits of scrapbooking supplies for my new project (a baseball album for Dillon that we need to get working on), Blindy (still blind, although his button eyes are in there with him) and my 2 extension cords.

I also use the chest to sit on in front of my machines sometimes. It's a tiny bit lower than my chair is, so sometimes it's more comfy for sewing.

Thanks for looking! I just :heart: this thing!