Christmas update

Well, I meant to get to this a long time ago but I've not been up to par for a while.  I've kinda got the blahs and am seriously lacking motivation.

Anyhow, I wanted to share some of the things I made for the grandkids for Christmas.  I didn't get the stuff for the adults made yet, but I'm working on it.  Like I said, I've had the blahs.

Here is the nightgown I made for Alex, my granddaughter in Florida.  She lives with her mom's mom and husband.

full length view of nightgown

detail of ruffling on nightgown

I added the ruffles on my own.  I'd seen a tutorial for it a while back and it seemed simple enough....and it was.  You just take knit fabric, fray check the edges if it's jersey, stitch a gathering stitch down the middle, gather, and sew to the garment along the gathering stitch.  The two outer gathers are the same length regardless of how they look in the photo.  I measured them to make sure.  The gown was moving when I took the pic and the anti-shake thing made the ruffles look a different length.

According to her Grandma, Alex put this gown on and started twirling all over the place.  See, she loves princesses and feminine stuff and pink and flowers.  So....she's in love with her new nightie.  Apparently she likes all the nighties I send her because they're long and loose, unlike the rot you get in most stores that is made from nasty itchy fabric and is too tight to do much in at all.

Chickadee dress, Christmas 2010

Here is the dress I made for her.  It's made of cotton interlock, like the nightgown, with bamboo jersey for the sleeves.  I bound the neckline with foldover elastic instead of facing it - I think it looks better and it ties the sleeves to the dress.  I used my serger to ruffle the sleeve caps on this - I think it makes a nice alternative to a boring hem.

According to Grandma she also loves this dress.  It makes my Oma heart swell to hear that she likes what I make her.  I haven't seen the precious thing since she was 2.  I really need to make myself get on a plane and go see my babies.  It's hard being so far from them.

This year I finally remembered to send Alex and her brother's presents in pillowcases.  I usually do it with the kids up here and I keep forgetting theirs - at least till this year.  Like I said, Alex loves princesses and dresses and pink; so, I figured this was an appropriate fabric for her pillowcase/gift wrap.

Now for Tobie's gifts...Tobie turned 9 this year.  I called him a month or so ago and asked him if he'd rather have homemade gifts like usual or if he'd prefer something from the store.  I know that by the age of 9 some kids don't like homemade stuff and want stuff that looks like everyone else's, and their lives are rough enough without having to tolerate clothing they don't want.  He rather quickly informed me he loves the things I make him and he didn't want stuff from the store, but stuff Oma made.  What a way to soften Oma's heart!

Here is a pic of the pajamas I made him.  The top is interlock knit and the bottoms are made from flannel.  I had some fun with these.  Usually I don't mix fabric types but with a two piece item I can get away with it.

Tobie's jammies 2010

He is thrilled with them.  He says they're nice and warm and comfy.  And, thank goodness, they fit!  It's hard making things for kids who are 1200 miles away when I can't measure them myself and make sure their clothes will fit.  Tobie is wearing almost the same size as last year, which really helped me out since all I had to do was leave the pants a little longer.

I also made him a hoodie from the same pattern as last year, but this year I made it into a long-sleeved garment instead of short sleeved like last year's was.  I think the solid sleeve bottoms came out well and provided a nice contrast to the print.

The only thing is, I made two complete sleeves this time instead of attaching the sleeve bottom to the short sleeves like I've done before.  I really didn't like how that turned out.  The sleeves are enough different that attaching both of them to the shirt body was rather a pain in the butt.  I do the sleeves and then sew the seam from the shirt body to the end of the sleeves, and it caused a bit of a hassle to have the two sleeves there since they don't exactly mesh the way they do if it's one sleeve that looks like two.  Lesson learned....I won't do that again.  He really likes this shirt as well.

Here is Tobie's pillowcase.  I felt it was appropriate considering his age and where they live - half an hour from Tampa Bay.

I love this fabric!

The kids were with their Grandma today (Tobie lives with his mom's dad) and Grandma texted me to let me know they were there.  I let my son know, and he hightailed it over here.  I called the kids and talked for a couple minutes, but Alex kept asking where her Daddy was, so I basically said hi, Merry Christmas, and I love you, and they spent the rest of the time talking to their Dad.  Now Tobie's Grandpa doesn't let Tobie talk to his dad while he's at Grandpa's house, so JR hasn't talked to his son for several months.  I saw his face when he heard his boy (I had the phone on speaker) and he was in tears.  I think the best thing we could have given him this year was letting him talk to his kids.  He really enjoyed it and it lifted his spirit - he was walking lighter when he left here to go home.

Abby's kids got some games from us - a Memory game (for us, in our day, it was like Concentration - a matching game) and Connect Four; Domonic, the younger twin, got a pack of 50 markers; and his older twin brother, Stanley, got a recorder - the kind you play, you know, the instrument.  Domonic wants to be a graphic artist and Stanley wants to be a music teacher, so we tried to encourage them and give them something individualized while staying in our budget.

Their second gifts were a hit from the minute they came out of the wrapping.  I decided this year that instead of pajamas I was making them robes.  I did Patrick's from Minky, and man, that stuff sheds like mad!!  I did Kenny's and the twins' from bamboo velour, which is nice and heavy and warm. 

Brown - Stanley  Red - Domonic  Purple - Kenny  Beige - Patrick

They saw the robes and on they went.  They stayed on the whole time they were here.  I think I tied those things 4 or 5 times each.  I had to teach them that the ties don't have to be tight enough to suffocate you, and that you can untie them to take the robes off - you don't have to pull them over your head.

Oma's Boys

Silly me - I forgot to take a picture of Anna-Belle's pajamas.  JR is supposed to bring them back to me when they're clean so I can take a photo and have it for my collection.  I did, however, get one of the hat she needed and that I made for her.

The flower is my own design :o)

And, here she is in one of the dresses I made for her - the other dress was still clean so we let it be.

"I'm gonna be a model"

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve.  The family was here, my head didn't hurt too badly, and we just had a good time.  Donovan made a ham, and he and Abby made most of the dinner while I slept off a bad case of sewing-induced exhaustion and a minor headache.

I'll write more later with some Christmas Eve pics.  I just wanted to put these up for now before I forgot and got horribly behind.

Blessed New Year to all, and may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

working on Tobie's stuff

It was time for me to make my grandson Tobie some clothes once I got done with Alex's. This first shirt I made a mock layered long sleeve by adding the seam allowance and some room for the hem turn up to the top of the piece that goes from the bottom of the short sleeve to the bottom of the long sleeve, if that makes any sense. I put the pieces right sides together and serged them. I folded up the hem and stitched it in place. Voila - layered-look long sleeves! It was easier than I thought. I like how it looks. I was a bit concerned that since I didn't follow a specific pattern for it I might make it and regret I hadn't gotten out the patterns I have and used one of them.


This is camouflage Ooga Booga fabric with a forest green rib knit for the bands on the sleeves, which I just added because I wanted to, and for the neck band. It's actually the same pattern as the shirt in the first picture, I believe. It just shows you the different things you can do with a pattern just by changing the way you cut the fabric and assemble it; you can get many different looks from one pattern if you're creative enough. I like trying different things, anyhow. I dread boredom or stick-in-the-mud-ness. It would drive me crazy to always do something the same way all the time.


I made this shirt from a Burda pattern. Now I've not used Burda patterns before because a lot of them don't include seam allowances and I thought it was going to be a pain in the pants. However, it was part of a $1.99 sale at Hancock's, I think, so I got this one to try for Tobie. I have to say it went together remarkably well. I will have to use this pattern again and again. I'll probably make him another shirt for Christmas, maybe with long sleeves, and possibly all one color. The other option is to use a color-block style with different solids for each pattern piece - front, back, each sleeve, and either the whole hood or each half of the hood.


Here's a back view of the hoodie. I really like this shirt. I love geckos and other lizard-type critters. The one thing I think might have helped a bit was if I had bothered to go get my coverstitch machine from the quilt shop that does repairs. I've been under the weather this week, though, and didn't want to expose a bunch of people to whatever it is I have. I actually cancelled 3 appointments this week - one with the pain doc, one with the surgeon, and a sick appointment with our primary doc. That's okay because honey already had an appointment with the primary doc for Monday so they rescheduled me for an hour after his and we'll just go in together. We're going to get the machine after we go to the doc since it's in the same general direction, anyhow...nothing is close to home. It's all a nice hike. Most of the time I like it that way. The only time it's trouble is when there's an urgent medical problem.

Hubby saw this shirt finished up this morning when he got up and he really likes it. He says my stuff is like the kind of stuff you can buy at a store. I don't know. I keep trying to do better and better. I've never been one to settle for mediocrity, except maybe when it comes to dusting and keeping the piles of magazines and patterns and sale ads under control. I used to be a lot more anal about it but now it's like it doesn't matter so much any more.

I think this hood will probably fit better than any of the Big4 patterns I've used. I made a jacket from one last year and I declare, that hood is 4 or 5 inches too tall for my head! It's also so wide from front to back that I can't even tie it if I want to see my fact. I'd like to get busy this week, remove that hood, and cut it down to where it will fit like it's supposed to. Plus sized people don't have humongous heads, for crying out loud.

So, now I need to make Tobie his pants or long shorts - no, I still haven't decided which - and then some boxer briefs. Once those are done I can either send them off or, God willing, fly down to Tampa and take them to the kids myself. It's been 5 years since we have seen each other. That's a long, long time.

I need to go. I'm getting really tired. Maybe I can even sleep in the bed tonight! Usually I'm asleep for an hour, than awake for one or two, and it goes on like that all night. It's been this way for a few years now; it's getting old.