mom's christmas jacket!

i've been wanting to test out butterick 5392 for quite a while now.  i was planning on making the magenta bell-sleeved jacket without the bows at the waist for mom for christmas, with leftovers of the teal wool that i used to make the scalloped skirt a couple of years ago.  however, there was not enough of this teal wool.

before shirley moved to oregon, she gifted me maybe 5 yards of this grey wool knit sweater material... i had planned to make myself the same jacket with this grey wool, and since there was SO much, i figured why not test the pattern out on mom anyway, since she's built more normally than i am.  so, one wool sweater jacket got started!  here are the outside front panels!

this wool was very easy to work with.  mom found me a bunch of ball-point needles, perfect for working with knits.  the wool was not all that stretchy, but was rather scratchy, so i used grey cotton jersey for the lining (also from shirley!  she's so sweet!  she gave me maybe 10 yards!).

here's the jacket before the sleeve installation.  it sewed up so well!

and around back:

before i finished up the jacket, i decided to try it on for fit.  yeah, this look definitely did not work for me.  i really don't look normal in poofy sleeves (the only one i've ever made for myself is that black swiss dot blouse from "twinkle sews"), and the shoulders were about 1.5 to 2 inches too wide each!  also, the sleeves were so voluminous that my little chopstick arms looked so silly sticking out from them.  i'm going to opt for the purple version's style with the 3 quarter-length regular sleeves when i make it for myself, also in this grey wool... one day.

here's the final product!  the button is from one of my colleagues who gifted me all her late mom's sewing goods from her days as a professional seamstress!  the collection is divine; so many wooden spools of vibrant threads and boxes of vintage buttons!  originally i wanted to use a bolder button on the jacket since there is only one.  however, with the loud sleeves, i decided to go for a subtler large metal button, so as not to detract from the jacket's shape. 

nice shape, isn't it?  'round back:

and the inside:

i love this jersey on the inside.  it is actually 100% cotton... hard to find nowadays, believe it or not!

hopefully i can get dad to snap a pic of mom in it sometime!  hope she likes it!  merry christmas, mom!

happy new year!

for new years 2013, i got to hang out with grace again!  we partied last new year's, when i made that cute teal vintage silk party dress.  i desperately wanted to make a dress for this year, but school got in the way.  so, i made red velvet cupcakes for grace's party and michelle did the frosting.  (my newest baking strategy is to do the baking and to commission a friend to do the decorating... because let's be honest, most people prefer to decorate baked goods, and we all know i can't decorate!)  good teamwork, no?

the sprinkles were a festive mix from barb, jimmy's gf!  here's grace and i in our requisite yearly new years pic:

my hair is getting long!  yay!  and here's michelle and i playing with sparklers off of grace's balcony.  we're a little blurry... grace took many pics and they're all a little blurry!

happy 2013!!

christmas snackies

energy bars for the 'rents... they had oatmeal, raisins, almonds, coconut, peanuts (essentially all random fruit and nut type things in my apartment).  oh, and chocolate chips!  how could i forget!

christmas spice cockaigne (or something similarly named.  i forget what it was exactly) from "joy of cooking."  it was quite fudgey and i included dark chocolate chips and raisins.  i didn't really like this recipe to be honesty.  too spiced!

merry christmas, dad!

well, a little over a year after initially cutting out this fabric... i have finished dad's christmas shirt!  from 2011.  hahaha!  and now for 2012 too.  essentially this shirt covered xmas of 2011, his bday from march of 2012, father's day of 2012, and now christmas of 2012.  valuable shirt, wouldn't you say?

i did a kickass job, if i do say so myself.  (sorry aunt stella and mom... but it's true, it's one of my best yet!)  perfectly aligned button placket on the front (as usual) and on the sleeves (i finally figured out how to cut them so they line up with the sleeves themselves!)

 perfectly aligned front pocket, as usual!

and i added cute little darts in the back for my skinny mini dad.  on dad's last shirt, mom showed me her little trick for evenly spacing the darts... a trick which i successfully employed all by my lonesome this time!

also, since mom and dad keep their house at the toasty temp of 57 degrees (HAHA!), i made dad a pair of fleece pants.

i used the pattern from jimmy's doggy pj pants from last year.  the fleece was from this year's black friday sale at joann fabrics.

i added a little strip of ribbon at the inside back so dad could figure out easily which side was the front and which side was the derriere.

unfortunately, i heard dad complain that he would never wear these around the house, as he claims he likes his pants to be wearable in public (although the man has been known to wear thin yellow sweat pants outside of the house...  as if those are presentable in public????).  he knew i was offended, and as soon as he got home from hanging in the city with me, dad calls me up and says "i'm already wearing your pants, by the way!"

muhaha, tricked ya into wearing warmer pants, dad!  merry christmas!

present delivery for meeeeeee

sophie, a student from my philly days, who is now taking a gap year in china to learn chinese, came up to the city today to go bootshopping (yes, bootshopping is such an ambitious endeavor that i have coined it a single term...  she wanted my stellar shopping advice hahahahahhaah) and brought me this really cute mousey pincushion (it also came with purple thread!) from the mansion in "downton abbey" in london:

and this really pretty green ikat satin from xinjiang province in western china, home of the uyghur people!

it's soooo vibrant!  i want to use it for these cowl neck shirt patterns that jimmy scored for me at joann fabrics... yes, i have my bro shopping for me at joann fabrics (and he then recommissions the project to his gf hahahha)

bunks' legacy lives on!

a former colleague just sent me the funniest note yesterday:

"Best to Bunks, the wisest and cutest creature of all time--oh--just reminded me, the other day, one of the newbies was saying--who was into rabbits?  the kids keep asking for math problems involving rabbits--can't you just put a few rabbit problems on the test?  ...  the kids can keep your legacy alive."

muhahaha!  my bunks is famous!

advisory secret santa

i'm an advisor for the 9th grade.  our team leader organized a secret santa, with a spending cap of $10, for all the advisors and i got my colleague ryan, who shares a cubicle with liz!  ryan has very expensive taste, so i had to make my $10 go as far as possible.  

ryan coaches the speech and debate team and travels with them to competitions, so i sewed a travel tote and filled it with lots of travel-sized toiletries: gum (in case he needs to mask the fact that he snuck away for a drink, hehe), floss (to keep the dentist away...), facial moisturizer samples from kiehls!, facial cleanser from kiehls! ($8 of the $10 limit), travel-sized toothpaste ($2 of the $10), antiwrinkle cream sample (never too early to get a head start), H tissues (his last name starts with h... and my 1st name starts with H!), hand-sanitizer (kids are d.i.r.t.y.), tiny nail-clipper, kiehl's amino acid shampoo sample, amino acid conditioner sample, a tiny empty container in case he wants to bring his own goodies, burt's bees chapstick, soap sample from sabon (my fav soap store in nyc)!

for lining, i used leftover fabric from robert's apron from years ago!!

my zipper installation was particularly stellar!!!  check out the straight sewing!  not easy though... as my sewing machine kept acting up because the zipper was thick!  i also scotch-guarded the exterior so that the fabric would repel dirt and stains!

happy holidays, ryan!  i love secret santa!

liz's christmas stocking

at work, we've been hanging stockings by our desks, to receive cute little goodies from each other.  my colleague liz asked me to make her one because i had to make myself one.  i haven't finished mine yet, but gave liz hers today!

the fabrics are mostly leftovers.  The green is from the st. patrick's day shirt, the woof/ruff flannel is from jimmy's pjs, the light blue is from june's graduation dress, the grey is from my sun dress of this summer or the cowlneck kangaroo pocket short sleeve top from a couple years back.  i cross-stitched an L on the faux cuff:

here's the back.  i was initially going to do matching zigzags...  however, time ran out.  so, i just sewed up quick colored strips:

the inside is lined with the owl flannel from the pj pants i made last xmas for myself that just didn't fit... (mom got them eventually).  i tacked down the owl flannel so it wouldn't wiggle around.

here it is, hung up by liz's desk!

can anyone spot the bunny?

hehe!

chocolate chew cookies

one of my fav cookies are chocolate chews from sunset's cookies book that my lovely godmother gave me for my 8th bday (? i forget which actually... i was quite young).  i've preserved the book.  it's got tons of quick recipes!

at work, we hang stockings by our desk and we each bring in goodies to fill them as we get inspired.  i hadn't contributed anything, so it was my turn! jimmy's gf gave me a silpat for xmas a couple years back. it is amazing! my cookies NEVER burn on it!

 i made 49 total.  yeesh!

 here they are, wrapped for work.  "happy holidays from the santabunny"...  bunks of course

blackberry pi squared

since i gave away so much of my last blackberry pie, i made another one this saturday... for ME!  i should have cut another pi on top, but against my better judgment, i opted to cut the outlines of a blackberry... yeah, fail.

this pie was actually tastier than the last one.  the filling was more gelatinous, less runny.

christmas stockings

at work, everyone hangs a stocking by their desk and receives cute little gifts from each other...  i lack a stocking so i'm endeavoring to make one for me and one for a colleague...  of course i blow up the task into something ambitious!

 quilted chevron stripes?  why not!  here is the projected striping scheme:

i'm not actually sure i'll finish before winter break.  sigh.

206 snickerdoodles

i've been asked to run student council at school.  even though the increased workload has been quite significant, i've been enjoying working with the kids a lot, particularly since most of the kids are not my actual students.  this past friday, i organized a pep rally, for which student council offered free baked goods.  each kid diligently went home and baked 2 batches of something, but since so many of the student council kids were going to be absent for various reasons, there was no way we'd be able to feed 400 people!  so i secretly baked 206 snickerdoodles to help out.

here they are in their tub for transporation to school...

unfortunately only 200 made it to the rally... i might have eaten 2 while the rest were baking... colleagues and students might have attacked me for 4 others before the rally!

blackberry pi pie

i found a great deal on blackberries this week (18 oz for $5) so i loaded up on them and made a blackberry pie.  never made or had one before.  it was delicious!

as a math teacher, of course my pie had to be a pi pie.  hehe

 final result:  (not sure how to rotate the pic on blogger...)

i worked really hard on the presentation of this pie...  isn't it neat and pretty??

love this boy!!!!

thanksgiving dress!

i actually started this dress, butterick 5755, this summer with shirley... she used silk jersey and i used cotton jersey.  both of us made view a:

i got the fabric from gaffney's in philly.  it's very soft and only cost 99c/yard!

here's the full view.  construction was not so easy... the pattern was huge.  i had to take in the sides, shorten the bottom, shorten the overlay, shorten the straps.  it initially looked like a muumuu on!

 here i am, giving it a preview at school!  i'll be wearing it to thanksgiving dinner, in pittsburgh!

byebye shirley cupcakes

i have a new sewing buddy, shirley.  i met her this summer.  she's a total sweetheart and is so fun!  anyway, shirley just moved to oregon this past wednesday to be a dentist in this beautiful coastal town. many many visits to oregon will be had, i'm sure.  trust that LOTS of sewing will take place there.  plus she's in the same state (but not all that close) to one of my fav cities ever: portland... hello knit'n kitten (best thrift fabric store EVER)!!!

in honor of her departure, i made red velvet cupcakes... my fav cupcakes... but with green dye.  and 100% recycled cupcake wrappers...  because where she's now living in oregon is VERY woodsy.

 it's no surprise that my frosting job sucked.  cream cheese frosting of course!

see... green.  i wasn't kidding.  so yum!  too bad she's not here to enjoy them.  i'll have to help her out and eat her share for her hehehheheh