fleece pants for the pops

remember the light blue fleece pants i made last year for my pops?  well, he never wears them... ever.  (in fact, i wore them when i was home for my acl surgery!)  not acceptable.  i found a source for $4.99 new fleece blankets (xl twin size, so LOTS of fabric) and decided it was time that i master a pair of fleece pants that he'd actually wear.  so what'd i do?  i traced a pattern from his current fav pair of sweats and then made these:

check out the double stitching at the waistband!!  SEWN WITH A TWIN NEEDLE!  ahhhhhh!!!!!!  i've finally mastered the sucker.  it was a breeze.  not sure what i was so scared of!  i sewed a ribbon on the back of the waistband so dad knows which is the front and back easily.

like my "russian navy by opi" nails?  thought it'd be a nice coincidence to document (navy nails while sewing navy pants)!  dad likes his sweats to have cinched legs: "so my legs aren't cold while i run," he claims.  alright dad, i'll make you cinched fleece pant legs.  with twin needles again of course!

coolest part of a twin needle?  you sew with 2 stacked spools of thread!  so awkward looking, but so cool!

verdict?  he loves them.  he's now plotting the next color of fleece pants for me to make.  i'm now using the rest of the blanket to make him a navy fleece jacket.  hahahhaha.  and the scraps to make a winter hat.  should i make navy fleece gloves too?  hehehe.

oh, yeah, that's a little pink bunny sticker on my sewing machine.  yup, a bunny sticker.

blueberry chocolate chip oatmeal cookies for christmas!

mom and i were on a fruity chocolate cookie kick this christmas break.  this time we added oatmeal for the additional nutritional benefits.  we also mixed fresh and dried blueberries.

the dried blueberries were actually too sweet.  way too sweet.  good to know for the future.

almost done with the dress i was sewing for myself throughout my acl recovery while staying with the 'rents.  too bad i can't wear it until i can stop wearing my full leg brace... which will be in a million months.  the velcro straps would snag the dress and it'd crush me if something that took so long to make was destroyed so easily!  first up, 38 million report cards left to write.  i mean 38... just feels like 38 million!

i made dad a badass sweater, falalalala lalalala!

surgery can't stop me from sewing!  my sweet coworkers sent me a can of flowers, so armed with that to cheer me up and taking over the entire dining room table, i set off on my task to make dad a nice sweater for christmas: the strathcona henley from thread theory patterns.

you might be wondering how i managed to sew with peg:

ice with the left, sew with the right!  peg was hooked up to an ice machine for much of the time...

here's the right foot pressing the sewing pedal... with a little assistance from this awesome new sewing patterns book that my friend nikki got me for christmas!  nikki, i swear i will use the book for its patterns soon instead of just stepping on it!

this was not an easy project to sew.  remember the nice grey knit wool and the grey cotton jersey that shirley gave me, which i used to make mom that bell-sleeved blazer last christmas?  i thought it'd be cute if i made dad a matching sweater, hehe.  easier said than done, of course, because the strathcona henley is not made to have a lining, so i had to baste 2 layers together on each piece first...

here's the construction of the button placket.  ugh, a total nuisance.  origami with cotton jersey is nothing like origami with paper!  however, this lucky girl was gifted a sweet pair of gingher scissors from shirley for christmas!!!  look how evenly they cut these 3 layers of fabric:

i seriously don't know how i ever survived without ginghers!  they are amazing fabric scissors.  this project also involved a lot of topstitching.  check out how evenly and close to the edge i got my topstitching:

final results for the button placket:

not too proud of the boxed X at the bottom of the placket.  gah.  the lines weren't that straight and it was a little lumpy.  i got the buttons from "knitt'n kitten," my fav thrift sewing store in portland, oregon.  they're metal... stainless steel or pewter?  i made my own pattern for little shoulder straps!

here's the inside:  no wool exposed to the bare skin!  itch-free!

everything was attached by the serger except for the button placket!  sergers are so amazingly powerful and can barrel through anything!

at the shoulder, the pattern cleverly suggested serging a ribbon to the fabric to prevent the shoulder from stretching.  so clever!  i had to choose a super fun bright one of course!

the finished product!

meanwhile, here's bunks, back in his old stomping grounds!  he spent our sojourn to ct in his old cage!  here he is chomping on his dinner.

merry christmas to all!  now off to write some report cards!