Hats

Got on a hat kick, and made some for the younger grandkids:

Put a picture up on Facebook, and now I have an order for three of them in Manhattan school colors!  It's sure a good thing I have a lot of orange yarn I want to get rid of!

Sewing, Some for Me.

Yesterday I finished Gracie's outfit.  I'll wait for her to model it before I put up pictures.  Then I sewed patches on six American Legion Auxiliary vests.  Did my own acupuncture on those-the patches are pretty tough and took a lot of pushing to get the pins through, and of course they would come through unexpectedly and bloodletting occurred!

Then I rooted through my stash and patterns and found this fabric:

Stan's mom gave me this fabric from her stash, actually she gave me her stash, since she couldn't see anymore.  It's a nice flat cotton knit.

Made a cowl top for winter.  It's an oversized pattern-I haven't tried it on yet-hopefully it works.  I've made the pattern before so it should be fine.

I cut down the cowl a bit-it just looked better and I can't stand a lot of fussy stuff around my neck.

This is the pattern-printed in 1995-timeless!

It's still too warm to wear it, so it will hang for a bit.  It's been in the 80's and still so smoky here.  I keep praying for rain, but so far my prayers haven't been answered.

My Baby

I promise I will get around to posting my work, I've been productive but haven't taken the time to sit down with my laptop.

The baby I'm talking about?  I've been looking for a realistic baby doll to use in my Etsy shop photos, and I stumbled across a nice one at Walmart yesterday.  When I pulled it out of the bag, both dogs went nuts.  It looked so much like a human baby they had to examine it closely.  They finally decided it didn't smell like a human, but I put it up in the sewing room, just in case they decided it was a toy.

Chloe is worrying over her new baby!

Now I just need to make some baby things to photograph for my shop!

Finally Done!

I finally got the log cabin blanket finished!  It got so hot this summer, I didn't work on it much, and I kept running out of yarn, which kind of defeats the purpose but there ya go!  It's 10:00 PM and I just finished it-no sunny picture but I did snap it on the floor of my office.

I stuck my foot in there so you could see the true size.

It kind of took on a personality of its own-I didn't plan on it being so bright-but I have a ton of bright orange and bright yellow that I've had for years so more bright yarn went along with it!

And since a couple in our church just had a baby I decided to tackle one of those baby slings.  I like it-wish I would have had one like it for my kids!  We did have backpacks, but nothing that a tiny baby could be carried in, and nothing cuddly.  Sydney was with me when I picked out the fabric, so:

I had a terrible time finding the rings they use for these.  I thought I was going to have to order them, but someone suggested the local farm supply store, and voila-hog rings!  There isn't a baby born that could break these things!

I'm working on an outfit for Gracie.  She is hard to fit, so I'm tweaking a leggings pattern for her.  I have some things ready for a fitting-tomorrow is Isaac's birthday party so we'll have a little fitting party too.

Now off to put the afghan on Stan's chair so he'll be surprised in the morning!

Purse

I made a new one:

It's quite big-I like to have room for everything!  This side has two pleated pockets-one for keys, the other for my phone.

This side has two pockets, too.  The last purse I made, I didn't divide in two-it was one long pocket.  This time I sewed it down almost in half.  Now my Kindle Fire will fit on the outside as well as the inside.  Much happier with this than the long pocket.

There are pockets on both sides, one has three, the other has two.  My Kindle will fit in the larger of these two pockets, too.

 I found the fabric at Jo-Ann's on the clearance table.  It's a Christmas print, but I don't think it really looks like it.  I lined it with some sunflower fabric I've had for over 10 years.  I close it with a button and loop.  The last purse I made I used heavy interfacing throughout, but it just wasn't stable enough, kept collapsing into a lump.  So this one I used lightweight fleece.  And I interfaced the handles, something I didn't do with the other one.  I love the colors and I think I'll love carrying it around.

Productive

I've finally been able to get some sewing done.  First a tee out of a 1 yard remnant.  I had to fudge a bit with the neckband to have enough fabric (didn't quite cut it crossgrain) but it worked out okay.  Then I made a pleated skirt with a yoke to go with it.  Only thing was I wanted inverted pleats so they wouldn't bubble over my tummy, but I was working on the wrong side of the fabric and got it backwards.  I wasn't about to rip it out, so I'll just live with it.  I'm not normally not very comfortable with skirts this short, but I thought it might be a cool thing to wear in the summer.

I cut a strip crossgrain of the knit, fold and press, then sew into the neckline, stretching slightly.  I serge off the excess and then press the seam down and topstitch on the blouse side close to the band.

Then, in the process of some digging and cleaning, I found this blouse that I'd cut out a couple of years ago. (Don't judge me, sewers will understand, LOL!)  The pattern is from 1986, believe it or not, and this is the first time I've used it.  Not wild about women's blouse patterns.  Men's shirts are pretty straightforward, but women's shirts can take some strange turns, which this one did.

Alice's hips are slimmer than mine, and her shoulders are more rounded, but you get the idea.

Because I have the dressform, I was able to do some shaping on the collar and neck.  Made it a lot easier.

I got a corduroy dress/jumper done for Gracie, too, but I'm kind of hoping she'll model it for a photo,  If not, I'll show it on a hanger.  I want to make her a couple more outfits-tops and leggings-but I want to take some good measurements for the leggings, the girl is a bit hard to fit.  (Kinda like her Gramma!)

And I'm really ready for a new purse.  Hopefully tomorrow I can get one cut out.

Really hot here-100 degrees today.  A big fire started 30 miles south of here, in an area we camp at often.  I was in Bozeman tonight to meet a senator (yay!) and the plume was huge.  I hope it is controlled soon.

The bulk of the grandkids start school tomorrow.  I went to Back to School Night with them the other night-what fun!  And talk about deja vous-I walked into Syd and Gracie's 3rd grade classroom and was immediately transported back 55 years-it was MY 5th grade classroom!  Grace and Syd are in the same class-the principal called and asked if it would be okay.  Sam is bummed, he's in 2nd grade and is in another building.  Which is where I had my second deja vous experience.  I asked him to show me his classroom.  We trotted up the stairs and right into-my junior high library!  When I told the teacher, she was tickled.  She asked me why there was a window and door into the next room.  I had the answer-the other room was the study hall!  They were glad to have that information, although there are still a lot of locals around who should know that.  Great experience!

Big day-time for bed-here's to a good school year for the munchkins!

The Four S's

Stan, Steve, Syd and Sam went fishing today.  Our four S guys!  They had a great day!

Excited about the day!

Best buds-they are going to be inseparable growing up.

The catch-they each reeled one in.

I'm glad they had the chance to do a last fishing trip before school starts-a week from Wednesday already!