Procrastinator!

I finished these last week, but my little brother came into town to surprise my parents with a visit over Memorial Day weekend so the weekend was instead stuffed with spending as much time with our soldier man as possible. I thought that was the perfect way to celebrate Memorial Day and HOO BOY was it fun to see the surprise on Mom and Dad's faces when they came over!

So here's what I've finished lately. I decided to turn my beloved Jalie 2562 into a T-shirt as well. Being clever, I call it my TNT-Shirt. I've made two so far, here's one out of the same fabric my polo is out of.

From 2009-05-24 Jason's Here!

I love it! The knit is super comfy and the fit is of course perfect. I think it takes me under an hour start to finish on one of these. I did a pink one Saturday morning before Hubby or Brother woke up, start to finish!

Last week I had gotten started on the vest BWOF 05-2009-109. For some reason the May issue isn't in the archives yet on the website, so you'll just have to go off of my finished one. The instructions were of course fabulous because it is the sewing course for May. I left out the piping and side thingies (tabs?) and made some shoulder and waist adjustments for fit- the neckline was gaping really badly. I LOOOOVE it now though! I probably over fit it just a tad on the waist, it fits absolutely perfectly standing, but sitting it's a little bit tight. I think I'd rather just lose a few pounds though than rip apart all that hand stitching holding the lining in place!

From 2009-05-24 Jason's Here!

From 2009-05-24 Jason's Here!

Speaking of lining, there it is! Isn't that cool? This vest/top combo is probably my favorite outfit right now with my white jeans and black loafers (not in the picture because Brudda helped me and isn't well schooled in blog photography...). I think I should put some edge stitching around the armholes to keep the lining from popping out because it doesn't really match anything. We'll see if I get that patient any time soon.

Last night I traced Jacket 107B from this same issue which will be my next project. I'm using black corduroy so I'm keeping the grain lines they recommend. This jacket was from the Madras section and has the two front panels cut on the bias to show off the contrast, I like that. Hopefully it will still look cool in baby wale corduroy!

BWOF 05-2009-114 Summer Dress

I completely forgot to take photos of my Mom's Mother's Day shirt- it turned out great and really looks good on her, but I didn't think to get photos.

In other news though, I did finish BWOF 05-2009-114 which is a great little summer dress! I didn't think twice about it when I flipped past the photo of it because the dress is completely obscured by all sorts of accessories and artsy camera angling. I did like the line drawing though. Ultimately I decided based on yardage though. I had some fabric that I recently found in a box that hasn't been opened since I packed up my college apartment (so it has moved three times with me unopened) and I decided it was about time to make something out of it. This dress fit the yardage bill and voila! Here we are!

From Grillo Originals

The fabric is some kind of cotton batik with a bit of stretch. I'm actually surprised I bought so much of it since I bought it in college, I think I wound up with almost 2 1/2 yards.

Yesterday the weather here was really nice, it was 80 degrees, but today was a bit cooler and I hadn't finished the dress in time to wear it yesterday so today I'm wearing it with a jacket that was given to me and that has never matched anything in my closet- until today! Speak up if you think it still doesn't match anything in my closet. Also- look at my shoes from the above photo- do they really go? Hubby says yes, but I'm not sure how I feel about the cream plus white deal.

From Grillo Originals

The sleeves are rolled up until I can find some matching topstitching thread to move the cuffs up. The sleeves are about 4 inches too long (my arms aren't THAT short). I think I can probably take at least 2 1/2 inches off without the sleeves looking too crazy. Then maybe they'll be sort of fashionably long instead of "Ok little girl, where's your mommy," long.

I'm about to go post a real review on pattern review. So if you want to see it it will be on the widget to the right momentarily. Have a great weekend!

Toy for Shaya

Another thing I made recently is a toy for my pup. A while ago I went thrift store shopping for some denim to turn into dog toys and came up with a size 24W pair of black jeans. When Simplicity patterns were on sale for $1 each a few weeks ago I picked up this stuffed animal pattern and voila- here's the result.

From Grillo Originals

I really like the pattern (Simplicity 9524). It was super easy with only 2 pattern pieces for this bear (4 fabric pieces.) He took up all 4 thigh panels on the jeans COMPLETELY, there's no way I could've done this with a smaller pair without chopping up the pattern a bit. I stuffed it with fabric scraps so the guts are easier to pick up off of the carpet when Shaya pulls them out. The unintended effect with the scraps is that the bear is incredibly heavy even though I didn't stuff it very full. When Shaya shook it back and forth it threw her off balance, pretty funny! Here she is chewing on it. She loves it. She hasn't even torn him yet, she's just carrying him around the house now. I even caught her sleeping with her head on it like a little pillow. Awwww.

From Grillo Originals

From Grillo Originals

It took me about an hour from tracing it to tossing it to Shaya so this was a perfect quick little project. I think the next baby born in my circle of friends and family is going to get an armload of stuffed animals instead of a quilt. I had a serious thing for stuffed animals ("stuffies" as I called them) when I was little so there's no reason not to continue the love affair by making them for other people's children.