Jedi Robes

Max really wanted a Clone Wars party for his birthday. And he wanted some more boy dress-up wear. So, courtesy of these great instructions, I made two Jedi Robes for his party. Cute, huh?

There were also two clone helmets (one from a year ago, one from a Captain Rex costume I got him for his birthday, which he really really wanted but has yet to put on).

Oh, and Colin made those excellent lightsabers out of pool noodles and duct/electrical tape. Very fun and hugely popular.

Must be sewing season

What is it with all the sewing this year? I got bit by all the other folks doing it lately and had to indulge in some myself.

What kicked it all off was a bench cushion.


I liked the fabric so much, I bought 15 more yards and made some lined panel curtains for the living room. These took forever and I was thoroughly sick of them by the time I was done, but they look nice and that's what I was after. Remind me that curtains are a good thing to buy.


Knocked off a couple of little bags for my manager at work (she was using Starbucks paper bags for her totes - couldn't have that!). These are so easy - placemat bags like Noelle made a few years ago. 2 hours max! Perfect.


And then, for the first time in years (and I do mean years, maybe decades), I had a hankering to try making some clothes again. Here are some summer skirts - can't get good shots of them on my own, maybe I'll try again with help.

Poppies on gauze - really full skirt with lots of panels & godets:


Brown embroidered linen drawstring skirt with cargo pockets (hard to see here, but it's all about the fabric anyway):

This one was a copy cat of Cyndy's camo cargo skirt - same pattern, although I didn't realize that until I was nearly done. I learned from her frustrations and skipped the fussiness at the waist - just threaded the drawstring through buttonholes instead of outside the band under twill tape. It did take me 1/2 an hour and lots of study to remember how to do a buttonhole, though.

Just a little something…

I was tired of the ratty old Ziploc baggie that I used for storing my hand quilting notions. But I didn’t feel like paying the $20 for a silk folding envelope (with zippered pocket) at the quilt shop when I have SOOOO much fabric lying around. So, I decided to make something up. I omitted the zippered pocket because life’s just too short to deal with a 3 inch zipper. Here’s what mine ended up looking like.

It took me about 2 ½ hours to whip up at Cyndy’s latest Day of Sewing. If you want to make one of your own, here’s how. These instructions may seem lengthy, but they don't take long. I'm just being too thorough (tech writer issue :-).

Sam’s Notions Pocket

Finished dimensions: Approximately 5 by 6 inches when folded up, 15 by 6 inches opened flat.
Holds: A small pair of scissors, a seam ripper, two spools of thread, several needles & pins, plus any other small notions you want to tuck in.

Fabric and notions:
You’ll need 1 fat quarter of an outside fabric and two fat quarters of a pocket fabric (might be able to get away with just 2 fat quarters if you mix & match colors on the inside), matching (or contrasting!) thread, a little sew-in interfacing, and ribbon for the ties.

When I made this, I used a finished-hem cloth napkin that I had leftover from another project. The instructions are for using regular fabric instead. If you want to use a napkin, simply cut the flap & pocket out of the napkin instead and cut them 16/17 x 4 instead of 16 x 8. Also, I used two types of bias tape for the ribbon, that I zigzagged together (like I said, I had stuff lying around).

Cutting:

1. Out of the body fabric, cut two 16 inch by 7 inch rectangles (for the main body of the notions pouch inside & out) and a 15 1/2 inch by 8 inch rectangle (for the flap).
2. Out of the pocket fabric, cut one 17 inch by 8 inch rectangle (for the pocket) and two 5 inch by 5 inch rectangles (for the needle & pin holder).
3. Cut two 5 inch by 5 inch rectangles of interfacing (for the needle & pin holder).

Assembly: Use ½ inch seams for sewing.

Make the body and pocket:

1. Lay out inside body fabric right side up.
2. Fold & press pocket fabric in half lengthwise, right sides out.
3. Pin to bottom of inside body fabric.
4. At one end (your choice), along the bottom, pin 4 small tucks to take up the extra inch of pocket fabric (this gives you extra room to accommodate spools of thread).
5. Lay the outside body fabric on top, right side in and pin together with inside body and pocket.
6. Starting in the middle top, sew all around, leaving a 1 ½ inch gap so you can turn it.
7. Press the seams, trim the corners, then turn inside out and press again.
8. Pin the opening and top stitch around the edge to finish.

Make the needle holder:

1. Lay out interfacing squares, and then lay out needle and pin holder fabric squares on top, right sides together.
2. Starting in the middle top, sew all around, leaving a 1 inch gap so you can turn it.
3. Press the seams, trim the corners, then turn inside out and press again.
4. Pin the opening and top stitch around the edge to finish.

Make the flap:

1. Fold & press flap fabric in half lengthwise, right sides together.
2. Sew along short edges, and then flip right side out and press.
3. With flap right side out, fold down the raw, long edge ½ inch and press (you can zigzag stitch along the raw edge if you like before you press, to give it a finished edge).

Make and attach the tie:

1. Cut a length of ribbon approximately 40 inches.
2. Fold the tie in half to find the middle, then fold the body in half (pocket to the inside) to find the middle. Pin the middle of the tie to the middle of the body.
3. Fold the body in thirds, to find where you want to attach the ties. Pin the ties at the folds, and then open the body up again.
4. Pin the top of the pocket in place at the fold lines, to prepare for stitching the middle pocket.

Stitch the pockets and attach the flap:

1. With the outside of the body and ties facing up, stitch along the 1/3 fold lines from bottom to the top to make the middle pocket, attach the ties, and create permanent folding lines.
2. With the pockets facing up, move the ties out of the way, and stitch vertically halfway between the edge and the fold line on each side, stitching from the bottom to the top of the pocket to create the smaller pockets.
3. Pin the flap to the inside top of the body. The folded, raw edge should be tucked under at the top.
4. Stitch the top folded edge of the flap to the body (try and stitch over the top stitching).

Put in stuff:

1. Slide some pins and needles into the pin/needle holder and tuck it into the big middle pocket. Tuck your scissors and seam ripper in the flat side pockets, and two spools of thread into the thread pockets, fold in thirds and tie it up with a bow.

Enjoy! If you'd like a Word doc of these instructions, just let me know and I'll e-mail it to you.

Catching up on the crafts

Random pics of random projects...

Book bag for Max - made of placemats, with coaching from Noelle. Thanks for the tips, Noelle.

He seems to like it. It's good for holding the hugely oversized books he drags home from The Little School library.

Class pillows to match the class quilt. Split up the work with another mom, so you only see 1/2 of the class's pillows. Max was disappointed that they were going to be so small. He wanted one big enough to sleep on! We compromised with a pillowcase (thanks Grammy for the inspiration on custom pillowcases - very handy!).

And here's a quick blanket I whipped up for Max. We were in the fabric store, looking for fabrics to make a quilt for Jim & Kris's new baby-on-the-way, when Max spotted this. HE HAD TO HAVE IT! I thought it was insanely cute too, so I bought two panels worth, and then we went home, dug through my stash for some fleece for the back, and in less than 2 hours, Max had a new alien blankie. The fabric is Alien Invasion from Moda, and it's hysterical!

The Blueberry!

Max the blueberry very much enjoyed his halloween and ALL the candy he got. Hoo boy did he get a lot of candy.

Before T&T at Riley & Reed's house:

Being a blueberry at ours:

We couldn't seem to get a picture showing just how darn cute he is in this. Ah well, you'll just have to imagine. And he's so happy to have a blueberry costume. Who knew?

All I wanna do...

Is start new projects! And, I'm pretty sure this falls under the obsession theme...I want to start working on them and have them done. NOW!

Project obsession: A felted bag. Not just any, although the cute ruffly ones are fun. But I want a big kahuna of a bag I can put my knitting stuff into, natch. Like this KnitPicks Farmer's Market Tote with Needle Felting (gosh, have to learn both felting AND needle-felting) or the Oregon tote (love the orange version). I'd probably better start with something smaller, but I really want a great big bag! I ordered some brown, blue, and cinnamony wool from KnitPicks for one of these. And while I wait, I used leftover yarn from my wool scarves to knit up a little square that could maybe be a coaster after felting. We'll see. I have yet to get it into the washer, even though I knit it up on Wednesday.

Project requests: Max wants me to knit him a sweater now. He wants to knit one for himself too. His fingers aren't quite coordinated enough yet to knit though (we tried a bit, with me holding his hands in position) and he certainly doesn't have the ability to stick to a project yet, so I think that'll wait a few years, eh? I'd better find something cute to make for him.

Projects waiting: Also, I got my 24 balls of Debblie Bliss Alpaca Silk in Berry, and now they're sitting, waiting for Jo Jo to complete, and probably for a felted bag too, because it's not the right season for a cable cardigan now.

Other ideas:

• Maybe I should just sew up some little ice packs like my friend Kris had - just little squares of fabric with dried corn or beans in them - throw them in the freezer to have on hand for bumps & bruises - cold, but soft and not too bumpy.
• Or how about a needle case for all of my needles? There's a ton of fun patterns, like this one.
• Or I could get busy and finish up my circle quilt. It's the right time to work with pink and orange fabrics again. Just wish I could find some lightweight blue ticking fabric for the back. It won't be right unless I have that.

I guess that's how you collect a stash (or stashes!), because when I am I going to get to all of this? I still haven't finished Jo Jo, even though I'm getting much closer. Almost at the armholes for the back. Sigh.