Christmas!

LI finished brother-in-law's fleece hoodie. Sorry for the lack of makeup and foundation garments and poor lighting; I was in my pajamas. I graded up from a large to a 2XL. 

Grandma loves her blanket. Minky is a slippery devil! 

I'm working on sister-in-law's fleece blanket now.

I got early Christmas presents: two new sewing buddies! 

Their names were sweetpea (the Siamese boy) and his sister Tiger (tabby). I renamed them Rick and Coral.

Yes, after "The Walking Dead" joke names. They are sweet as pie and cute as buttons. 

Sigh.

I'm using unisex Mccall's pattern 5991 to make Doctor Who fleece jacket for brother-in-law, leaving off the hood. The front is a princess seam and the center front is split upper and lower. I already graded the pattern from L to 2XL and put together the split halves to make one solid center front. I'm thinking about redrawing the side and center fronts to make one front since he's a boy and boys don't want princess seams, plus it would break up the fabric print if I left it as two parts. 

On a good note I finished husband's grandma's lap blanket last night. 

Still working on Christmas presents

We took a short family vacation to Disneyland. We already have annual passes and now my in-laws have theirs. We all stayed in their timeshare for two nights then we stayed in our cab-over camper for a night or so. 

Needless to say I did not get any sewing or crafting done for the time I was off work.

I am trying to decide how wide to make Grandma's lap blanket. The flannel is 45" wide, the Minky 58". I am using the edges of the Minky, pulling the selvages and cut ends around to the top of the flannel to self bind. I need to cut it and get it sewed. It won't take long, I just need to stop procrastinating. I even have the machine threaded and ready to go.

I have the pattern for the Doctor Who fleece jacket traced out and I graded up from a large to a 2XL. (I greatly need a cutting table since I cut on my floor and that kills my back.) The sewing on that should go fairly quickly.

I work today and until then, I'm watching my Craftsy class on sewing knits. She's a pleasant enough teacher, quite knowledgable, but says "um" a lot and constantly clicks and smacks her lips and tongue. It's a little distracting but she does give some good tips. 

She's here!

L

My new machine is finally in my possession! Woohoo! 

She's a Pfaff Smarter Creative Pro C1100. Her name is schatze. 

I used her to sew the last fleece blanket for my local customer:

She is quiet, stitches beautifully, and I hope to get a lot of mileage out of her.

The next things are Doctor Who fleece jacket for brother-in-law, a grandma lap blanket for Rob's grandma, sister-in-law's fleece blanket, and my son's 11th Doctor costume. 

Impatient me

I'm waiting on my new machine, a Pfaff this time. It's been at my in-law's house for a few weeks, waiting for us to give my mother-in-law the money since she used her card to buy it when it was on sale for 80% off. 

She bought one for my sister-in-law on my recommendation.

It's fifteen minutes away. So close and yet so far. 

Christmas presents

I got an order for three fleece blankets. A local lady, a friend of mine, wants blankets for her kiddos. Good thing I can sew!
I only charged her for the fabric plus a little extra; that helped cover the Doctor Who fleece that I'm using to make my brother-in-law's jacket for Christmas.

The first blanket is a cheerleader fleece from F&M Fabrics in Bakersfield (a family owned fabric store):

I chose a light blue fleece as the backing. Her favorites are black and blue and this blue matches nicely.

The second is a camouflage fleece with a deep brown fleece backing.

The third is a giraffe skin print that will also have the same deep brown fleece backing.

It took me an hour or so to draft, cut, and sew a sewing machine caddy for my mother-in-law's new Brother Dream Machine.  I used bias tape on the pockets and KamSnaps to attach a removable thread catcher.