rei, i'm up for hire!

finally finished dad's fleece jacket!  just in time for chinese new year.  i had gotten up to this far last weekend... everything was done except the sleeves because i wanted to wait until he got here so that i could measure out the length on him.

dad wanted his sleeves to be cinched.

i stupidly forgot to serge shoulder stabilizers into the shoulder seams as i stitched them together, so i had to sew them in after the fact... not as pretty as the ones in dad's christmas sweater.  =(

the rest of the inside seams are pretty though!

the front pocket!  double stitching along the edges!

i used new look #0951, view c, to make this jacket.  it was shortened by 2 inches to accommodate dad's staggering height.

and i end with an adorbs pic of bunks, cleaning his face.  good boy.

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!

cranberry chocolate chip cookies!

well, i survived acl reconstruction surgery.  still not feeling the greatest from the pain pills, but the pain has peaked and is now subsiding, thank goodness.  i could do without the nausea though.  no one tear your acl's.  no fun at all.  i'll spare you from a pic.  my knee looks like quasimodo's from the hunchback of notre dame.  huge, knobby, and swollen.  

mom and dad have been amazing in helping to take care of me.  the simplest things require help now.  =(  i baked mom some cranberry chocolate chip cookies tonight.  (with her help of course, hehehe.  sigh, my reality these days).  the cranberries were fresh!

i love the pop of color!  here they are done:

sweet with a pop of tartness.  love them!

i know the bunks has been missing me.  he's been caged a lot because i don't want him chewing the power cables and tubes of my ice machine.  but, when the coast is clear, he's allowed out for a little bit, and the furball always hops in bed to snuggle me.  such a cutie.

tomorrow, i endeavor to sew!  whooo!!  the grad school class is done... my final has been turned in.  let the sewing begin!

happy thanksgiving!

bunks and i trekked home for thanksgiving.  here he is protesting being trapped in his carrying bag.  (just before, he was hopping around inside the bag, trying to dig and stomp his way out.)  "let me out!  let me out!"

jimmy and i joined forces this holiday and we baked an apple crumble together.  jimmy's task was to cut all the apples into 1/4 inch slices while i mixed the filling and topping.  it took forever to bake!  imagine us peering into the oven like little kids, wondering when it would be ready to eat.  hehe.  we then served it up with breyer's peach ice cream.

it was delicious.  treats are always more fun to make when someone else is helping out.  wheeeee!

happy thanksgiving, friends!  12 more days until my acl reconstruction surgery.  =(

wintry biking cap

biking is all the rage these days.  when the temperature is sub-30 degrees, how are peeps supposed to carry on with biking?  with a wool bike helmet liner of course!  my friend steve was lamenting how he was due to purchase a wool bike helmet liner recently.  "what?" i remark.  "there's such a thing?"  i immediately text jimmy, the best resource of all things techy and bikey, and sure enough, he had already bought such a wool bike helmet liner!  (they range from $20-$90!)  the design seemed simple enough: a wool skull cap.  shirley had given me a ton of nice grey wool.  i used only a tiny bit to drum this up!

like the red cross-stitched initials i added on?  i'm always a sucker for monograms, cross-stitching, and personalizations.  i serged the edges of the wool together.  in hindsight, i now realize i can get away with using a regular sewing machine, as hats do not require stretchability from the crown to the base of the hat, but only width-wise, and thus serging the side seams is not necessary.  this would reduce the bulk of the seams.  i just handstitched the bottom ends back.

i tried to hire a model for this hat, but alas, he just would not stay put for the camera...

model:  bunks
pattern:  http://blog.jenmeister.com/2010/08/reversible-cycling-cap.html
camera:  cell-phone

happy bday, melissa!

last sunday was my friend melissa's bday.  i decided to make her banana cake cupcakes for her bday.  they were tasty although quite well done, as my apartment's oven likes to shut itself off after 20 minutes.  thus, baking for 30 minutes can take upwards of 2 hours.  (once the oven shuts off, it does not like to turn back on.  I HATE IT!)

anyhoo, i forgot to take pics of her banana cupcakes.  i made a cream cheese frosting, but with orange zest instead of lemon zest because this dumdum forgot to pick up some lemons before the baking.  i actually quite liked the slight orangey flavor.  since i had so much frosting left, i made some red velvet cupcakes yesterday as a vehicle for enjoying the rest of the frosting.  because my oven is the devil, the bottoms of the cupcakes were quite roasted... see below

happy birthday, mel!

blondies and pb cookies

student council gave out free goodies for our halloween events on nov 1... because at my school, we celebrate halloween the day after.  haahahhaha.  blondies were my contribution:

today i visited my football team and brought them peanut butter cookies.  haven't made these since middle school.  i'm about to sample the burnt ones that i left for myself...  they smelled divine!

bunks, being snuggled by dad.  this pic makes him look huge.  my 2.75 lb bunny.  hehe

i still have yet to fit sewing into my crazy schedule =(

homemade french toast with hot strawberry sauce!

was. so. good.

tiny star jar for jenny

after all these years, i still love making star jars.  this little one was for jenny, my welcoming colleague last year at my new school.  she was awesome, and has since moved to baltimore (along with my friend stef)!  when she was in town to visit at the beginning of october, i made her a jar of stars to thank her for the year of guidance.

love the colors!

other new news... i tore my acl, while playing touch football because i am a beast.  hahahahha  =(

hopefully surgery in early december.  here's hoping i recover quickly.  i will be taking off 2 weeks from school (and then will have the 2 weeks of winter break).  SEWING PARTY!!!!

tank for the goose

adrea, one of my oldest friends, saw the posting on the tank i made for georgia and noted that she would buy one had she seen something like it in a store.  lucky for her, i still have a lot of the cotton gauze from the kenya pants (though none in burgundy) and just enough of the vintage indian gold trim.  the perfect trappings to make her one of the tanks!

adrea is known as goose in my household.  at some point, her screen name was turbogoose.  thus, "goose" stuck.  seeing as this was the 4th rendition of the tank, her peter pan collar edges are now at an appropriate distance apart.  (in case you forgot, georgia's 2 collar edges were too far apart...)

around back.  goose preferred the deep v.  she loves a little scandal, that goose.  i JUST ran out of the gold trim, so this is the last of these tanks!  she promised me some pics of her donning this tank for this blog.  stay tuned!

i caught bunks in the goofiest sleeping position when i was working on this shirt a couple of weekends ago.  usually he sleeps stretched out or curled up in a ball.  here he is on his side with his right hind leg stiff and up in the air.  i've never actually seen him sleep like this before.  silly boy!

steaming baked goods

for a hot second this weekend, i thought my oven was dead.  it was letting out gas.  i feared for bunks's life.  in a panic, i called the gas company to come take a look.  the gas guy said no deal, the gas valve is dead.  my life flashed before my eyes: a life of no more sweets?  this could not be.  i had already mixed a batch of banana bread batter and didn't want it to go to waste, so i tried my hand at steaming the banana bread.  in 6 itty bitty ramikins.  best. idea. ever.

i mean, how cute are they?  and automatic portion control!

as you may know, asian peeps steam their breads.  think cha siu bao, or bbq pork buns.  here i was, channeling my inner asian.  the good news is that the super came to fix my oven.  it's now working!  my baking career has not ended!

on the bunks front, he has been shedding all his hair for the fall.  this weekend i vacuumed enough hair to cover 12 bunnies.  so gross.  here's a bald spot on his forehead, hehe.