prelims

the boys took a practice pic!!

sibling photo day

my friend amanda's kids go to a school that has separate photo days for individual portraits and sibling portraits.  how cute is that?  the older son aaron (age 7) is passionate about fashion and insisted that he and his younger brother (age 5) coordinate their outfits for sibling photo day.  aaron and jacob both had birthdays several weeks ago, and since i was late in making them gifts (as in i still hadn't made them yet), here was my chance to redeem myself!  for aaron, the bow tie fanatic:

how cute is that little bow tie?  it's attached to the shirt.  i used more of shirley's grey cotton jersey knit and some navy jersey knit.

jacob, the little guy, is less into fashion, but i wanted him to have his own design rather than making 2 bow tie shirts.  he gets a shirt with a necktie sewn onto it:

here's the necktie stitched down.  i swear it's not that asymmetrical!

not sure if you can see it, but i topstitched 2 sets of 3 pairs of diagonal stripes on the necktie to help secure the tie to the shirt and for visual interest.  i also topstitched the bottom hems and jacob's cuffs with navy thread.

happy very belated bday, boys!

foray into t-shirts

in all my years of sewing, i have never made a t-shirt.  i only started sewing with knits 2 years ago and have only made 4 knit garments ever.  knits scare me.  my serger scares me.  however, fear not, i have begun my foray into t-shirts!

here is my first t-shirt ever!  the pattern is the "strathcona henley" pattern from thread theory designs, the pattern i used for dad's and shirley's wool strathcona henley sweaters.  the pdf pattern came with a t-shirt crewneck option as well.  the sleeves are a bit long... not a fan.  'round back:

i then lopped off about an inch from each sleeve.  much better!

the neckline features some kickass topstitching!  look how straight!

unfortunately my intended guinea pig was a smidge too broad-shouldered for this t-shirt, so dad will be getting it for christmas!  whoo!  first christmas present, done!  

look at my nugget!!!  i love him!!!

houndstooth sweatshirt

remember when i said i was going to make myself a sweatshirt for my bday with this orange and pink houndstooth poly knit?  well, it's now november and my bday is in august... so don't think i'm only late on gifts for others.  "do to others as you would have them do to you."  

this project was rather unpleasant; i should have figured as much given that the instructions said it was advanced.  there was much topstitching.  here is the back yoke.  i did my best to line up the little houndstooth (houndsteeth? hehe):

the pattern called for buttons along the front yoke.  i wasn't sure whether to do fabric-covered buttons or pale pink ones.  since the houndstooth is so loud, i opted for pink ones that mom got for me ages ago at a dollar store.  thanks, mom!

the color is actually ridiculously bright, identical to in the first picture.  this last one and the next one are from my phone as it was dying (and thus the flash would not turn on).  front view:

a good fit was rather difficult to achieve.  i'm very short and narrow, and thus i had to lop a lot off the sides and bottom.  i had to try it on a million times, even in my blue striped pj pants, hehe.

i first wore the top on sunday on an excursion to storm king, the sculpture garden in rockland county.  i was rather proud of how i styled the top: black skinny jeans, low grey boots, black puffy vest.  i subjected eric to a hell of a photoshoot, hehe.  (pretend i'm smiling like a normal person here, as i sit atop the storm king wall, probs illegally...)

of course i wore a similar outfit to school on monday, but with different jeans.  my friend amanda tried her best to snap a flattering pic of me, but alas, failure:

the camera lens on my phone had a fingerprint on it.  we tried for another pic.  failure again:

i'm just not skilled at posing.  i also need a haircut.  on the bunks front, he's really been into these dance parties to which i subject him.  hehe.  here he is wondering when i'm going to pick him up:

happy belated bday to me!

rubber duckie, you're the one

you make bathtime lots of fun!  yup, i decided to be a rubber duckie for halloween this year.  here is my sketch for the design.  i used the jacket pattern from mom's and dad's fleece jackets for the body, drafted a hood pattern from an icebreaker hoodie that jimmy got me for a birthday, and used the pj pants pattern from my kenya pants for the bottoms.  the yellow fabric was another fleece blanket. (at one point i had 5 of these fleece blankets in my apartment!)

first up, the hood:

i might have worn the hood the whole time that i was sewing the rest of the costume...

for those that think i am a master sewer, fear not!  i make a ton of mistakes.  here i sewed the left half of the costume correctly and the right side was sewn inside out.  oops!

i sewed flaps between the bottom of the sleeve seams and the bodice side seams for wings:

the whole costume was utterly ridiculous, but so much fun to sew up!

without the tail or beak yet.  i resembled a yellow speedskater at this point, hehe.

the beak is my favorite part.  i made it from orange canvas that i got at jem fabric warehouse in manhattan.  unfortunately it closed, but it had a ton of awesome fabric for decently cheap.  i was worried that the stiffness of the woven canvas would not work well with the stretchiness of the fleece.  it ended up not being a problem at all.  (i'm wearing a me-made dress while trying on the duck beak!)

my coworker brian captured the best picture of the costume.  the duck tail was attached to my lower back and was stuffed with polyfill and fleece scraps.  the eyes were made of scraps from dad's navy fleece outfit.  my algebra 2 students and i had a long planning session about whether the eyes should be just blue or whether i should include whites above it: they determined that whites were a necessity.  i bought orange tights at ricky's to finish out the costume.  the tights cost $7.99!!!  more than the cost of the rest of the costume!  the blue zipper was a random one i found in my stash.  i believe it was from an old pillowcase.  my coworker erika is to the right.  she was a cootie queen, a costume she made herself as well!

hope everyone had a fun halloween!

perfection

it was my friend amanda's bday sept 6.  she's also lucky enough to sit next to me at work!  hehe.  since my oven can only bake 20 minute goods, cupcakes were in order.  unfortunately i ran out of sugar, so i had to use pink decoration sugar as a substitute!

the butter and sugar mixture were already pink before i added the food coloring!

i made a half batch to assist with portion control.  

topped with cream cheese frosting... perfection!

other signs of perfection: using vintage sewing machines to decorate stores!  (all saints, one of my fav stores)

AND, bunks' first day of school portrait.

ain't he CUTE!??!?!?!??!

wrapping my own bday present

jimmy got me a kindle paperwhite for my bday, so off i went to make it its own case, using some of the same couch cushion cover i used to make my yoga mat bag.  

i included a small navy zipper along the top

and even added some of this plastic binder divider to protect the screen from being cracked.

i tucked the plastic screen protector in between the outer layer of the pouch and this cheap lining layer (that was also the underside of the couch cushion cover).  unfortunately this pouch is REAL snug, so i have to use it more to stretch it out.  i currently have to peel off the case to get to the kindle.

thanks, jimmikins!  i'm making mom and i matching bday presents using the orange and pink houndstooth fabric below.  still cutting the pattern out...  this may take a while.

happy bday to meeeeeeeeeeeeee!

lululemon's got nothin' on me!

lululemon sells yoga mat bags for $48-$58.  that's highway robbery.  sewaholic had a simple pattern for a yoga mat, so off i went to indulge my newest yogic tendencies.  i used a $4 couch cushion cover i snagged from the as-is section of ikea for the body fabric.  i wish my couch was made of this fabric.  there's a nice thick grey weave with black in the background so that it isn't too light.  (my couch is cream... i'm scared of how easy it is to get it dirty.)

i was surprised that this bag used most of the fabric (the back side isn't of the same fabric, but of something cheaper).  i made a little pocket for my keys and wallet using scraps of the couch cover and this little blue zipper from a sweater that i used to make a small grey throw pillow for my bed ages ago (not sure if you remember it from this blog).  yes, i saved this zipper.  i couldn't throw away such a cute combo of shiny silver metal teeth and baby blue.  

the drawstring was half of a drawstring from another sweater that i eventually tossed because it shrank so badly in the wash.  i had stripped it of all its buttons and drawstrings...  i'm thrifty, what can i say?  and also terrible at laundry, hehe.

i made a strong strap to sling over my shoulder from the body fabric.

here's minnie-me modeling the bag with my yoga mat in it.

i love it!  too bad my fav yoga teacher is on vacay for the next 2 weeks.  i'm scared to go to someone else's class because no one else has been as attentive to my pegleg as this teacher.  i'm stoked to go show off the bag though, hehe!

concealing the dirty laundry

you know the expression "to air dirty laundry in public?"  yeah, i'd rather hide my dirty laundry.  i mean who wants to see your filth?  it's embarrassing.  so, i made myself a little cover for my laundry basket, something i've been intending to make for the past 2 years, hehe.  better late than never!

nothing too complicated.  double layered natural cotton canvas with 2 flaps which tuck into the handles of the basket.  i put velcros on the flaps 

so they can stick up to the body part of the lid

to keep the cover on top of the basket and not drooping in.

i topstitched around the top to tie it into the shower curtain, next to which the laundry basket sits in my wee bathroom.

puppy #6

last puppy, hopefully for a longggg time.  my fingers hurt.  whew.  i saved the best for last.  this puppy is for stef's high school friend's baby's 1st bday.  max.  he's a cutie.  here's the puppy as i'm sewing on the ears.  peekaboo!

shirley dug the color combo.  i agree.  i did a terrible job on the nose.  not gonna lie.  not gonna zoom in for you.  nope.  secret.

main body color on the tail!  hehe so cute.

the contrast fabric is hilarious.  it's leftover from the bballin' bugs bunny flannel of the pj shorts i gave jimmy years ago.  stef's got a great sense of humor.  i picked this just for her, hehe.

happy bday, max!  i guess i'll forgive you for stealing my thunder on my bday  =)