Sew, Knit, Sew, Nearly There...

Christmas is just around the corner, and I'm still working on gifts. I finished three of them today (two of which I will share below), but first things first. I am so proud of my youngest, who is starting to go around writing notes, to-do lists, schedules, books for her friends, and sewing patterns with diagrams (albeit mildly confusing ones that take a bit of work to puzzle-out).

Here's her sweet little note for Santa:

And here she is with her completed doll quilt! We worked together to seam the strips by machine (she had hand-sewn the squares into strips of four), and then together again for machine quilting. I admit I did the binding (and I am so happy to be able to say that I remembered how to do the mitred corners without looking it up), but the rest was all my 6-year-old. She loves to sew, and has several ideas for her next few projects!

Now, finished gifts!

I am knitting exactly two things this year, one of which I finished this morning, and the other of which, I am casting-on tonight.

Here is thing one:

You'd think, with all the patterns for toques with skulls on them out there, whether free or paid, that I would find exactly what I had in mind, but nope, I did not. I made this one up as I went along, and I dare say it turned out rather well. My husband was very kind to humour us by getting his photo taken (never his favourite task, but he's sweet enough that he doesn't grumble about modelling duties).

The other thing that I can share today is a sewing thing.

I'm less ambitious than last year, and have only sewn my husband a quick long-sleeve t-shirt intended for a pyjama top. There were a few issues with the collar band (I need to practice those, but I don't sew knits as often as I'd like), but other than that, things went great. I highly recommend the walking foot. I think it looks way too big, but I measured against another of his PJ tops, and it's actually about the same, more or less. I can always take it in later if needed.

I also recommend not only cleaning your machine properly (not just the shuttle race, but pulling out all the bits you're supposed to, remove the plate, clean the feed dogs, everything) after sewing with fun-fur, but also to clean it again next time you use it in case you are incorrectly remembering that you had cleaned it last time, and even if it miraculously behaved just fine while quilting with your daughter, and worked just fine while testing your tension on a scrap. Ask me how I know.

One more thing to knit, one more thing to sew, and a few things to make in the kitchen...

So Busy Sewing

I've been busy sewing lately, and have two finished objects to share.

First off, for my husband, a lunchbag (from One Yard Wonders by Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Hoskins)

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 :

When we were flipping through the book, my husband saw the pattern, and thought it would be a great idea, and could I make one for him sometime.  He wasn't sure what sort of fabric he'd like, and settled on something plain, with the quilting to dress it up.  Later, I realized I wasn't up to super fancy quilting, so I decided to look for fabric that was a bit more interesting.  Luckily, my daughter found this Batman fabric, so we snapped it up.  I finished most of it while my husband was out of town, so the Batman part was a surprise for him.  When he saw it, he said he'd be the coolest guy at work, and that all it was missing was a label a-la Adam West Batman reading 'Bat-Lunch'.  I was happy to oblige.

Next, for my daughter, a bag to carry her shoes and things to dance class:

 The bag she had been using was falling apart, so my husband suggested making her a special one including pockets for her tap shoes inside.  I had been wanting to try the drawstring bag from Sewing in No Time by Emma Hardy (the journal cover I made here is also from that book), so here was an excellent reason to make one.

My daughter picked out the fabric with me, stipulating that it be yellow.  I wanted to use two fabrics for this one, and, being pretty sure there would be at least one ballerina fabric, kept an eye out for one.  There was indeed, and on a lovely pale yellow background so that it paired nicely with the floral one we had selected first.

The pattern didn't have a pocket in it, so I added one to the bag, and hopefully reinforced it well enough down the middle and corners to last until her shoes are too big for the pockets.  If the bag is still in good enough shape at that point, I could always do up another pocket.  My version is very slightly smaller, as I um, sewed the pocket in sideways (even after checking carefully against the other piece to figure out which way was up), so, as I was in a hurry to get it done in time for dance class (I was right down to the wire on this one) I just pinned it with the pocket opening upwards, sewed it, and trimmed the edges that extended beyond.  Even then, the bag is fairly big, so there is lots of room for a water bottle, snacks, journal, shoes, and a change of clothes if needed.

All in all, I'm rather pleased.