~E Made This!

[insert flashback music here]

I changed my mind about talking about my pajamas. Sew Mama Sew is doing a Pajama Party sew-along, so here goes.

These are my pj’s I made from this fabbo vintage pattern.

The pattern has bloomers going with the short pajama top, but I really wanted to have some knee-length bottoms, so I lengthened as much as made sense to me…really it was a botchy sort of affair–but I added a lot of seam allowance in the side seams and basted them together, tried them on and pin fit things until they worked which was a good solution.

The lace was super fun to use. I ran out of the lace I used on the collar by the time I got to my little shorts, so I used a cotton blend lace I had in my stash.

Then I overdyed the whole thing after I finished construction.  The fabric is a really nice white sheet I found at the thrift store. Generally I use old sheets for muslins because they’re so cheap, have good drapability, and offer a lot of yardage for their aforementioned crazy cheap price. But here I decided a sheet was good enough for the real deal. Really when you think about it–you sleep ON sheets, so sleeping in them is not too big of a stretch. Plus that nice crisp clean sheet feeling you have after you’ve freshly laundered your sheets–yes, you can have it in your pajamas too.

Right–back to overdyeing…I liked this sheet for its weight and its pattern (which seemed to fit the design and the era of the design fairly well), but I really wanted pink pajamas.  Since I use polyester thread, I knew it wouldn’t take the dye, so I used a pink thread to compensate.  The lace I used on the top, being polyester did not take the dye which was purposeful on my part just as I knew the eyelet on the pants would take a little being a cotton blend.  Actually the eyelet took the dye only on the edges which I really liked.

These are my sock monkeys for Craft Hope.  I’ve been dragging my heels (literally–haha–I love sock monkey humor) on this project.  I’m not sure why.  I love sock monkeys.  They are just inherently funny.  At any rate, I woke up early on Sunday and made the pieces before I ate breakfast and stuffed and started sewing them together while Nathan and I watched Masterpiece Mystery (love that show!–that and Jeopardy–I do love running an opera category).

Noah enjoyed them later–but in this pic he’s looking at the fan.  Such a mesmerizing thing, fans…

I need to make him his own sock monkey sooner than later.  He was really wanting to play with them, especially after they started dancing for him.  I kept them drool free for the sake of the kids who will receive them.

The monkeys in a family lineup:

And two of the monkeys just being monkeys:

I used fabric scraps instead of the heels for the mouths–some more successfully than others.  I like the contrast but it needs to be monkeyed with a bit.  Besides that, I used the tutorial that was on Craft Hope–I like the sock monkeys from Sock and Glove better, though I think.  They’re more primatey (I’m liking these monkey inspired adjectives and verbs in this post however incorrect they might be).

I’ve been ironing all of my dear little projects on a college sized ironing board on the floor.  Through 9 months of pregnancy and years before that, I’ve trucked around my little blue ironing board from college that I only ever used if I absolutely had to.  Given that sewing forces you to make nice with your iron and my projects are not getting smaller and the thought of being a little old lady wracked with creaks and humps from leaning over something on the floor for long periods of time every day seemed rather terrifying, I decided it was time for an upgrade.

Enter….I don’t know circa 1985 via the thrift store?

Lovely, isn’t it?  Starched to a glistening crispness, this floral beauty has been loved through many a tailored shirt.  What–this funky fabric is not for you?  Don’t fear, my friend!  Alexander Henry knew that this day would come.

Much better.  I used the super easy tutorial at U-Handbag to change out the old fabric.  Just some pinning and some serging and it’s all done.

Finally, this outfit is for the little boy in the Burmese family who is 4 1/2.  I’ve had this khaki fabric in my stash a long time.  I had it to make a skirt for myself, but what with not teaching, I don’t really need it and realistically it’s not the most flattering color for my backside.  It’s super high quality and denim weight–one of the few serendipitous JoAnn apparel fabric purchases.  I knew it would make excellent pants, but I also knew that it’d be too heavy for inseam pockets, so I used this fabric:

Tada!  I think all pockets should be made out of outrageous fabric just for kicks.  Sure, your hands are the only ones who get to enjoy that little surprise, but I think they know.  Making functional inseam pockets was my goal for these pants and they turned out really quite well.  The pants also have some jiffy side pockets too.  Just the thing for little boys wanting to cart around things to gross their sisters out with (like the frog put on me while sleeping one time).

The shirt I constructed entirely with the serger…so easy!!!  I did try to hem it with the rolled hem which really wasn’t a good idea.  It did okay on the bottom, but it made lettuce edges on the sleeves (mainly because I used a rib knit for the sleeves because JoAnn, typical to form did not have a single color of knit fabric that matched a solid knit and I didn’t want 3 colors on the shirt)…not so cute for a boy.  So I folded that mess under and hemmed them as best as I could, but they’re not super.  I still feel like my serging is getting better…I just need to use it when appropriate, not just when I want to save time.

As promised, here is another outfit for the Burmese family.  This is for their little 8 year old daughter.  I had this wild fabric in my stash that I got on super ultra mega clearance ages ago.  It was too sheer and didn’t have enough weight to make this dress have a satisfying stay-putness to it, so I lined it with some really nice nylon fabric that I had leftover from my green maternity dress I made for myself a while back.  I cut the bottom of the lining a couple of inches shorter so that it’s not obvious when moving around.  I pinked the bottom edge to finish it, but it doesn’t fray so it ended up being decorative.  I suppose I could have added lace if I had thought about it.  I learned how to do add lace on a vintage nightgown I made a while back (I’m not posting pictures because I feel weird posting about my undies.  Here’s a link to the pattern though which is super cool).   This dress was SUPER easy to line because the top edges are simply finished in bias tape.  On to the bias tape…

Girls’ dress

Goal: Have nice bias tape bound edges on the top of the dress

I picked up a GREAT tip from one of the ladies’ at my Janome store.  We were making quilts and she had us bind the edges as normal, but when you flip the edge of the tape over, she had us tack it down over the first line of stitching with a glue stick (I love glue sticks–actually, I love most office supplies–there’s about 8 million uses for each and every one of them–just makes my little practical soul leap with joy.  If I ever get post-its in my stocking at Christmas, I might bust with happiness).  Then you set the glue with your iron and stitch in the ditch from the right side.  The stitches sit right at the bottom edge of the wrong side…it’s so beautiful.  So simple.  And the glue washes out!  This was yet another moment when I think Nathan thought I was crazy for all the little happy dancing that was going on.

Like I said, lots of projects going on here.  Now that I’ve finished a pile of them, you’ll be hearing about them over the next few days. 

My church has been sponsoring several refugee families the past couple of years who come to CO from their countries for a different life.  There’s a new family from Burma and they need clothes for the family among other things.  I thought–why not.  They have 3 kids, so I made an outfit for each.  On Lauranie’s excellent advice I took advantage of Hobby Lobby’s sale on McCall’s patterns last week and bought patterns that would suit each kid.  I had fabric enough in my stash for everyone minus a little denim and a little bit of knit fabric.  The dress and shorts are for their nearly 2 year old daughter. 

I love the little shorts–they’re so sweet.  I always have a problem telling the front from the back on elastic waist pants without looking at them closely, so I put the little applique on the front.  Cute and functional!!  I seriously need to make Noah some cuteness one of these days.