A little catch up– Man sewing, gloves, and a plushie

As I was cleaning my sewing room yesterday I noticed I had a lot of makes I never posted to my blog.  I like posting my makes even if they are fails because I look back often before I make something to see what worked and didn’t. Also, it helps me remember what adjustments I’ve made. Plus, it inspires me on days I feel like giving up sewing! So here are a few of the un-posted makes.

Jalie 2328 – Tank Top for Men
Waaaaay back in the summer (2016) I decided to make my husband and son a tank top.  Mr. T got a size Q in the shoulders and S everywhere else.  Mr. Sunny got a straight size Z with an inch added to the length because he is tall.


Mr. Sunny’s looked great on him fit wise. But He informed me he doesn’t like any sort of shirt without sleeves.

Mr. T loved his – for bed – but fit wise it ended up really long on him.  As you can see in the picture his is long whereas Mr. Sunny’s is proportionately correct (even though I added an inch to his).  T still wears his for bed and Mr. Sunny’s went to the scrap pile to be remade into something else.  (I used it to make this P4P raglan for me – way down on the page with the Viking helmet)

Fabric: Mr. Sunny’s: 1 yard Kaufman Laguna Stretch Jersey Knit Royal, purchased from Fabric.com in May 2016 $6.97.  Mr. T’s is Peacock blue Jersey knit, cotton lycra, from Fashionfabricsclub in June 2015, I think this used a fat half so $1.98

Patterns for Pirates – Papa Bear Joggers
I was so excited to make Mr. Sunny a pair of joggers when this pattern came out in Nov 2016.  I even traced and sewed them up the day they released.  I made a size 1X which matched his measurements. 
Fabric: almost 2 yards of Heather Grey Velour (80%cotton 20%poly) from fashionfabricsclub purchased August 2016 for $7.43. 



These sewed together well – the instructions were great.  However, they were hilariously short on my husband.  He still wears them from time to time but they look so funny on him.  I think he needs a good 4” or more added to the length and even though he is tall, his legs are normal sized. 

Green Pepper – Glov-Itts
Miss K asked for some fingerless gloves in January.  So I picked up this Green Pepper pattern and tried to make her some.  Well, some things are better of being purchased at a store.  This pattern was super hard to put together – super hard.  It took a lot of time and little details, not enjoyable by any means. 
 
The gloves turned out too small for her, the fingers are way too tight…….She did like them though.
Fabric: Scraps of Zelda fleece from Joann fabrics. 

Burda 12/2016 #134 Whale Plush
When my December Burda came in November, Miss K fell in love with the whale plushie.  So I made it for her for Xmas and when she woke up Xmas morning it was under the tree.
This was an easy sew, the directions were easy to follow.  I had a bit of trouble with sewing the fins.  They have you stuff them first and then sew 3 lines down the fins.  My machine did not enjoy this so for the other fin I tried to sew it and then stuff it… not a good idea. Stuff first, then sew.  It turned out cute, and HUGE.  K loves it.



Fabric: 1/2 yard anti-pill royal fleece fabric purchased form Hancock's in Sept 2015 for $1.66 and 1/2 yard of White short pile Fur that I purchased in 2012 from fabric.com.  I was so excited to use this up as it’s been in my stash forever. 

I'll try to get some good photos of my makes that I'm behind on posting.

Happy Sewing!
Kristin

Monthly Silhouette Makes ~ March

I have lots of sewing makes to share with you but I also have a non-compliant 10 yr old that won’t take pictures at the moment.  So I’ll share them when I can.

I do have some fun silhouette cameo makes to share though!  Here is what I made in March:

Bob’s Burgers PJs for Mr. T.  I bought the shirt plain and added a bob’s burgers decal.  The tee matches his PJ pants perfectly – I made the pants

Not one to be left out, I made Miss K these PJ pants, bought a plain tee, and added the “Timmy time” sheep to the front.  She picked this image.

I made Miss K some new undies to try out (Scrundlewear by Stitch Upon a Time) and added a BMO picture to them

She loved the above ones so much she refused to take them off so I made her another pair and added “LSP” (These are both Adventure Time Characters)

By far the most fun and exciting projects this month were the following four pictures.  This is called the PVPP method.  You paint a canvas your color (white), put down a vinyl picture (cut out with cameo), paint it, then peel off the vinyl when dry. It turns out to be a pretty cool image.

Here is Miss K’s picture she painted.  She picked out Link for her room.  These are pretty big canvases, which kept her busy one day she was sick.  She had a ton of fun painting it.

and an in progress shot:

Here is the owl I painted with this method.  It hangs in my living room now.

Mr. T watches a lot of YouTube videos.  He asked me to make him a “Lazy Harp Seal” hoodie.  I bought the hoodie, and then spent 2 hours designing and pulling out the layers to cut before finally finishing this for him.  He was over the moon. 

Miss K needed a new Library Tote so I surprised her with this one day.

Miss K also asked for a “We Bare Bears” tee so I spent way more time than necessary getting this shirt done.  I lightened the image up so you can see the top bear is brown. 

Mr. T also asked for a Rick and Morty tee.  I found some cool posters online and traced them.  I love the design that resulted from it. 

Mr. SunnySewing was feeling quite left out.  So I made him a tee (modeled by miss K).  It is a quote from “the  office”

Then I made him this fun mug.  Here is side two:

and side one.  He drinks a lot of coffee.

As you can see I really enjoy using my cameo.  I haven’t even scratched the surface of what I can do with it.  The artistic side in me loves designing and pulling layers and colors out of the designs. 

Sewing-wise I’m getting my Spring/Summer Plans lined up.  I see lots of maxi dresses, shorts, tanks, and other dresses in my future.  I also want to sew up another pair of jeans. And there is the quilt I need to finish for Miss K. 

Health-wise I have some more testing and an outpatient procedure this next week – it never seems to end.  So I won’t be able to sew until the following week.  I’ll try to do better about posting my makes; unfortunately this year has been hard for me so far health-wise.  It ebbs and flows so I just wait for it to swing back to ok.


Spring is finally here in the Midwest!

Happy Sewing!

~Kristin~

Silhouette Stuff ~ February

It’s time for my end of the month Silhouette post.  Here are some things I made in February with my Cameo! 

A Studio Ghibli shirt for Miss K. We are HUGE Studio Ghibli fans.

Miss K and I used my machine to make vinyl nail decals!  These were so fun! They lasted about a week for her too.

Mr. Sunny is a huge fan of Zoolander so I surprised him with this tee

It was my Mom’s birthday so I used my machine to make this awesome cut-out card!  This was super cool.  I also used the sketch pens to add the words.

Mr. Sunny showed me an image online and asked me to make him a shirt like it.  Here is my version of the shirt.  (the zombie dad is walking towards coffee)

After I showed Mr. Sunny his shirt he asked me to do this one for Mr. T.  They are huge walking dead fans and watch the show together. (the zombie son is walking toward an Xbox controller)

I made Miss K some pajama pants (to be shown later) and then we decided on making this shirt to match.

Mr. T wanted this made for a friend at school; it is some inside joke between them. He helped me do this one.

Miss K has pretty bad nightmares and was asking for a dream catcher; so I put this beautiful image on her wall next to her bed.

Mr. T needed something above his bed too, so I put this up there. 

As you can see, my favorite thing to use my machine for is Heat Transfer Vinyl on Tee shirts.  I’ve started to venture on to using it for other things like the card.  There is just so much this machine is capable of!  I love it!


On a side note:  I’ve traced, cut, and started sewing up my jeans!! 

Jalie Jeans and other things

 Jalie 2908

I would really like to make myself some jeans this year.  To prepare for this I purchased the Ginger Jeans pattern and I already have Jalie 2908.  Surprisingly Miss K asked me to make her a pair of jeans because “the stuff you make fits better.”  Yay!  Since children take less fabric I thought I’d make Miss K a pair first to iron out any kinks in the pattern before moving on to my own pair.  Also, to make them before she changes her mind.  Miss K hates jeans and never wears them.  She is a yoga pants girl. 



Jeans are made with negative ease so I started with Miss K’s actual measurements.  This meant I cut a size “Q” for her (13 US).  I had to take 3 inches off the height because her inseam is 26, not 29 like the pattern is drafted for.  I learned from
The Perfect Fit: The Classic Guide to Altering Patterns
that the proper way to shorten pants is to fold the hem to the thigh (crotch) line and make a crease; this is the knee line.  Then fold from hem to knee line and make a crease.  Finally from knee to thigh (crotch) line and make a crease.  You will shorten equally on the last two creases you made (between the thigh and knee, and between knee and hem).  As a side note, I highly recommend this book.  It has tons of fit information with pictures for lots of fit issues.  It also gives an easy fix as well as a more complex fix. 



I spread my sewing out between 4 days.  I had my regular machine with normal thread and my vintage Kenmore with top-stitching thread.  This worked perfect because I didn’t have to keep switching out thread in the same machine.  The instructions for these jeans are great. I read the words for each step, then looked at the pictures.  I had no issues sewing these up.  I’m very surprised at how RTW these turn out.  Jalie drafted a great pair of jeans!  I am now confident in making some for myself. 

                         

The fit turned out great for Miss K.  The inseam was perfect.  I think the waist is a tiny bit snug on her but that is all.  She of course isn’t used to jeans so she thinks they are tight and decided she won’t wear them.  I’m glad she at least tried them and I call them a success because I was able to try out the pattern before I made them for myself.  I snuck the completed pair into her drawer… one can hope right?

                             



In other craftiness, I have made more things with my Silhouette cameo.  I will most likely just show you once a month what I’ve made with it.  I like to keep an online account for my own personal reasons. 

Miss K and I love the Pixar movie short “The Blue Umbrella” and she asked me to make this design with these words.  She picked the color of the words.  “Rain showers my spirit and waters my soul”

Before the utterly tragic loss of David Bowie I made Miss K this shirt.  

We both love the Labyrinth movie. Here is the front:

and here is the bottom of the back of the shirt.

Miss K designed this tee.  I weeded out the red for the fox and the blue words, she weeded the yellow.  She pressed the design into the shirt.  The “O” in the fox is a monocle. . . She’s a creative child.  This tee used to be Mr. T’s but he didn’t wear it much and K likes it. 

Mr. T got a surprise when he went to turn on his light one day (Link from Legend of Zelda)

I’ve been working on a line of Studio Ghibli characters above Miss K’s bedroom door.  Here are just a few from L to R: Turnip head (howl’s moving castle), the cat, Jiji, from Kiki’s delivery service, Catbus (totoro), and Sophie and Calcifer (howl’s moving castle).  We hope to do a lot more.

My laundry room got a cute design.  Mr. T picked it out.

I added this above a door frame in our living room.  Our other door frame has “family” above it.

This shirt is hot off the press as you can still see the iron marks.  Mr. T has these moose pajama shorts that this shirt goes with as a set.  So I added a moose to the shirt to match the shorts better. 

Mr. T also picked this crazy Pokemon design (left).  As well as a Fallout 4 Vault Boy picture (right). 

                         

As you can see the Cameo is loads of fun. I learn something new each week, too.


I’ve rearranged my sewing room 3 times since the New year.  Funnily, I have it back where it used to be; that seems to work best for me.  I can’t sew in a cluttered area.  It stresses me out.  I will start sewing the jeans for me next week.  I also have 2 tunics that I want to sew up.  I have a medical procedure going on this week so I won’t get any sewing done.  I think I’ll just browse all my patterns if I’m able.  I usually get loads inspiration that way. 

Take Care and Happy Sewing!

~Kristin~