merry christmas!

it should come as no surprise that everyone gets a pair of flannel pj pants from me every christmas. honestly, how could i turn down $1.29/yd for flannel from joann's black friday sale each year? for myself, i used owl flannel! (unfortunately i've already split the booty, as i forgot that the pattern is sized for mom and not me hehehehe. no worries. the stitching has been fixed and reinforced!)

next up, sarah is getting her 1st pair of my flannel pjs. red-scarfed penguins! aren't they so ridiculously cute?i was a huge dope when cutting out mom's pjs, and forgot to point the pattern ALONG the cherry trees. so, unfortunately, mom looks like she's wrapped in barbed wire. oops. at least the tie is cute, isn't it?and lastly, jimmy got his 1st full-length pair this year! (he was the recipient of the space jams pj shorts from 2 years ago.) his flannel says woof and ruff, and has dogs and bones on it (in honor of mia of course)! here he is, displaying the pants hehe. that's him underneath: finally, i brought home a pumpkin pie that i made from scratch, for the fam. i tried to make a scalloped crust, but it looks hideous!! alright, i'm off to finish up a dress that i'm making for my new year's outing in nyc!! wish me luck!

christmas birdies round 2!

for the math dept. 1st for kristin, 2nd is for david m, 3rd is for em, 4th is for david p.

em's bird flew down for a ride on bunks' back, but he was not amused! where's your holiday spirit, bunks???

punkin soup

mom calls and spells pumpkin as "punkin." hehe. so punkin soup is what i made her over thanksgiving break!

happy birthday, em!

today is emily's bday! last year i baked her pumpkin chiffon cupcakes, and this year, since i currently possess about 10 lbs of fresh pumpkin, i decided to continue the pumpkin theme. however, em is a serious chocolate lover. so, i made her chocolate chip pumpkin bread.

1 cup of pumpkin, down. 15 cups left. AHH!!! i wrapped it nicely, didn't i? em loves purple!

the cousins meet over turkey!

bunks and mia (jimmy's doggie) reunited this thanksgiving. mia wasn't really sure what to do with bunks. she had to be coerced into the same pic as bunks.

"now what am i supposed to do?" she asked. awwww, aren't they adorbs?

a plus a-line skirt

twinkle sews is definitely my favorite pattern book, hands down. the "a plus a-line skirt" is one of the simpler patterns in the book, but of course, i wanted to augment it as i like to go for the challenge, so, i decided to add scalloping to the yoke (apparently scalloped hems on skirts are the new rage... but of course, i did mine to the opposite end)! the book's sample used a bright blue wool. (see how boring it is with the straight-edged yoke?)

by chance, i had this bluish teal wool that my great aunt had given my mom ages ago! my great aunt apparently sewed lots of clothes too!designing scallops is no small feat, as i had to make sure i only had full scallops, which would hopefully be centered in front, back and sides. no worries, glad i have a trusty math major under my belt! here's the pattern i created for the scallops: here are the scallops traced onto the yoke: and here i have sewn over the scallops! sewing curvy lines is no fun. the skirt pattern was for a gigantically tall person. i had to trim 4 inches off the bottom! i debuted the skirt at school today (just ignore my calves of steel)! eee! i'm quite a fan of this skirt!

take manhattan tunic

"twinkle sews" by wenlan chia may very well be my favorite collection of sewing patterns (the navy and tan paisley skirt is also from this book). one of my favorite garments in the book is the "take manhattan" tunic. i had been dying to make it since i bought the book 2 years ago!

here, wenlan pairs it with a sweater underneath and with bellbottom wool pants. soooo cute!back when i lived in dc, i had bought this soft, thin grey linen from "g street fabrics" for the sake of the take manhattan tunic. bunks snuggled in it while i was cutting out the fabric. he's a little grey riding hood!the garment was pretty easy to make. it has a cowl neck with a decorative drawstring, a kangaroo pocket, and raglan sleeves. i used my new bedazzler to add silver studs to the top corners of the kangaroo pocket! here's the final result, laid out on my bed, as in the photo in the book! not bad, huh?and here's my outfit from last friday, when i debuted the tunic at school! the kids at school are writing an article about me and my clothes-making, and this was the outfit for the picture in their newspaper!

a pie for fall

fall = pies. apple pies. since i'm allergic to raw apples, the best way to keep the doctor away is to eat apples baked in a pie! 1st one of the season:

crust was made from scratch, of course!

night crawler

bunks, a noctural fella, doesn't understand the concept of SLEEPING AT NIGHT. he likes to hop into bed, demanding snuggles, at random times of the night. he also doesn't get that that big lump in bed is my body and that hopping all over it will wake me up. heheheehehe

new addition to the clothesmaking team!

this weekend, while visiting ct, i added a new member to the clothesmaking team: beadie the bedazzler! (beadie was the name of the docks inspector in season 2 of "the wire," a fantastic tv show!) in case you were curious, beadie will be helping me install rhinestones and studs to my garments!!

p.s. finding beadie has been a 2-year-long experience. bedazzlers tend to be sold out at craft stores. but this weekend, i found beadie AND was able to use a half-off coupon!!

new litterbox!

every year for his bday, the birthday stork (me!) grants bunks a new litterbox. past ones have been purple and silver (and i think the 1st was burgundy). this year, monster pets, the pet store in south philly, had a fantastic option: neon green!!!

the cutie and i took a road trip to ct so that mom and dad could bunnysit while i toured cape cod with friends 2 weekends ago. bunks uses his litterbox as a travel container so that he doesn't slide around the cage during the ride.

new pj shorts

confession: i last bought myself pj shorts in 2002... 9 years ago. granted, i bought 4 pairs at once during that 1 pjs shopping trip, and aren't you proud? they lasted this long! however, after 9 years, only 1 pair is left, and it is on its last legs. the elastics of all the others have since stretched out, so i figured it was time to use one of them as a pattern to construct some more. i used this light yellow fabric with giraffes, elephants, birdies, and rhinos, which i got from my spring break trip to kauai last year. i think it's baby fabric, because it is super soft and thin.

the whole project took 2 days (only because i had to intersperse sewing with the writing of 3 recommendation letters for my students. after having written 10, i'd rather never write any ever again!). i easily could have finished in a day, otherwise.i made a faux drawstring tie to finish off the look (well really to help me tell which side is the front and which is the back). the shorts are more yellow, as in the 2 pics above. they're not as light as in the pics below...here's my skinny mannequin modeling the shorts:

rabbits are dexterous

my little boy can cross his legs!!! hehehhehe

awesome flea market find!

there was a flea market behind my apt this weekend. i snagged this fantastic skirt, blouse, dress pattern for $1!

new skirt for the new school year!

a new school year demands the production of a new skirt! i had been dying to try a pattern from wenlan chia's pattern book "twinkle sews," as her patterns are whimsical, youthful, and unstuffy, unlike most sewing patterns these days. (fyi: she's wenlan from the clothing line "twinkle by wenlan.") the pattern i selected, called "little black skirt" was rated as easy. it has 2 pockets in the front, along with pleats attached to the bottom hem:

i happen to have 2 little black skirts already, so i decided to use this paisley from "knitt'n kitt'n" of portland, oregon and this navy silk for the trim:

the pattern was an absolute nuisance to put together. it was printed onto 40 pieces of printer paper, which i 1st had to tape together...

cut, then pin to the fabric.

bunks got bored.

real bored. he took to nesting on the fabric, deciding that i wasn't paying him enough attention!

the pattern called for the pockets to be sewn on parallel to the waistband, but i purposely tilted each for a more fun look. the pockets themselves were cut from the fabric so that it exactly matched the pattern of the paisley underneath! i know, i'm crazy. the effect was pretty

awesome though! you can HARDLY see that there's a pocket, except for the flaps:

the pocket flaps were made from doubled layers of the navy silk. sewing silk is less than fun, particularly for the super skinny trim along the bottom of the waistband!

i happened to have a massive bundle of vintage chinese "cheong-sam" material from my days of running the "project runway" club at the school at which i taught in dc. i personally cannot stand this material! (it has chinese characters woven into the fabric- gag!)

so, i used some to make the smooth lining of the skirt! look at the pop of brightness inside! (note: the pleats hadn't been attached yet at this point. no worries, i know to make the lining much shorter than the skirt itself!)

the 1st two days of school were rather rainy, so i waited until friday to wear the skirt to school! i love it! it's currently my favorite item that i've ever made!!

hurricane irene celebrates mom's bday!

hurricane irene graciously celebrated mom's bday by making landfall the day before and knocking out the power in ct for 5 days! poor mom had to spend her bday in the dark! down in philly, bunks and i were lucky to have light, although outside, dark stormy clouds loomed!

i made myself a turkey and apple meatloaf in case i'd be stuck without food, but thankfully, all was well.

during the hurricane, i finished up mom's bday shirt for this year (only a week late this time!). the fabric is this cream cotton with little red flowers all over. i got it 2 years ago when i visited erin in durham, nc!

i used the same pattern as last year's bday shirt, but this time i added a collar and made half-length sleeves with less of a poof (i drafted patterns for both!!). also, i didn't want to make her another ruffled shirt, so i made 2 panels of 1/4 inch pleats on both sides of the button placket. surprisingly not difficult to do, although very tedious. i love the result though. they come out so neat!

mom, modeling the final product:

she asked me to chop off a view of her head. hehehe. here's the back:

she's going to wear it for her first day of school tomorrow with new earrings that i got her in boston!! meanwhile, poor bunks has started shedding (it always starts at his nose!), thus resulting in many restless episodes of mischief-making. i set him loose on my barrel of fabric scraps to keep him away from this project so that i could actually finish it. he spent hours atop this barrel digging for buried treasure about which only he knew, hehehehe