A few more gifts

My sister's kids have a lot of stuff, so I generally don't do gifts for them, but contribute to the college fund instead.  (They are starting to get old enough to know who gifts are coming from, so I'm probably the crappy Aunt- eh, they'll thank me later!)

However, I thought the twins might like the blankets I was making this year, so I made them a set for their birthday.  They are still just getting Christmas checks though.  I was told that The Hulk and Cars are the height of coolness, so that is what they got.  My sister assured me if I monogrammed them it would be okay, and not cause fights over who got the better one.  In her words "everything causes fights, this way I can say, 'no, that is not yours'" 

I think I finally got the binding down- heavy fabric, and starch!

I actually got my machine binder in the mail yesterday.  It has a learning curve though, so I don't think it would have been ready for prime time if I received it earlier.

My sister also told me that Cole "owns" a baseball team called the Osums (Awesome- she told him he spelled it wrong, and he said he was the owner, he gets to decide how to spell it.)  She asked me if I could make him a pennant for the team.  Of course I can!  This was a fun project- I basted the letters in place using steam-a-seam, and then used a blanket stitch to sew it in place. Kevin told me I had to add a white strip to the side, or else it isn't a 'real' pennant.  This is more a vintage pennant, as the new ones are very stiff, and this one is just felt.

Turns out Cole has the flu :( so we were suckers and let him open it early.  He pronounced it amazing, and then searched the house looking for somewhere to put it.  He found the perfect location.  What do you think? 

Cole told his Mom "Aunt Jessi is the best sewer in the world.  She can sew anything."  (He also thinks Uncle Kevin can make anything...which is probably true.)  If he keeps that attitude up, he'll probably get any sewn gift he wants!  (For his birthday, he might be getting an Osums t-shirt.)

Christmas Gifts

It is always a challenge to decide what to do for Christmas gifts.  Kids have so many toys now, and parents seem to always have so little space and plenty of clutter.  But I hate being the Aunt who never sends anything but a check, especially now that some of the kids are old enough to know who gave them what.

So for Christmas this year, all the kids are getting fleece blankets.  I just bound fleece and embroidered their names.  The girls are just 1 yard cuts- so they aren't square.  Conor's is a yard and a half.  It happened to be what I had, but also the girls are littler, so I didn't want huge blankets for them.

It was a very simple project, but everything handmade is time consuming- it took a decent amount of time to make the binding and apply it.  I can do other things while the machine is embroidering, but it does have to be monitored, so you can't just walk away.  I wish I had used a different font for Conor's name- the stitches are just a bit larger than I'd like which causes them to fold weird.  But overall it looks okay. 

Binding lesson learned: thicker fabric works way better than thinner.  Even better if you starch it!

The best thing about this project- it isn't heirloom. So if the kid wants to drag the blanket all around like Linus does in Peanuts, it is no big deal.

Family Tradition

My husband's family has a tradition.  An Aunt makes a stocking for every new baby.  I'm not the only Aunt in the family, but I'm the only crafty one- so I'm making my third family stocking.

This one I used my embroidery machine to put the name on- so it looks super fancy there.  It is fully lined.  I'm not 100% happy with it (I think I just need to iron it out, but I'm scared of melting the fleece) but I think it looks pretty good.  My SIL told me that the stocking needs to be pretty big, so I tried to make it big. 

 I put off sewing it for quite some time- but it was pretty easy to make.  And my machine just goes right on over the 8+ layers of fabric, fleece, batting, and rick-rack.  It is nice to not have to wrestle with it at all!

I hope they like it.

Snack Baggies

My sister saw some cloth snack baggies on pinterest and asked if I could make them.   She even sent a tutorial.  I did look at it at the time, but it was essentially: make bag, add velcro, so I didn't go back to it.   The tutorial called for a lined bag (neater look inside) but I read a few "mom blogs" that mentioned the crumbs work their way between the bag, so they don't like them lined- so I made two that are unlined (serged edges inside). 

I'll send these down to my sister and see which style she likes and, if she wants, make a bundle more.  I'm suspecting with twins the snack baggies go fast- and it sounds like she is trying to reduce plastic use.

Hopefully she'll go for the unlined option- as it takes only a few minutes to make.  These bags are practically free, as they just use scraps- only need to purchase velcro!

Quick Sunday Project

My sister asked me if I could make her some headbands, so this morning before I packed up my machine (I'm heading to Cedar Rapids for a class this afternoon) I gave it a try. I just copied a headband I already have. It takes about 20 minutes, and uses two 2" pieces of fabric 15 inches long, and just a bit of elastic. A nice remnant use!

Courtney wants ones that won't slip when exercising, so I plan to try different fabrics, and take them to skating and SPIN. If they don't come out when spinning, they should be good (of course, she has straight hair, so that might be more slippery than my hair.)

I wear headbands daily, so I am excited to make more.

You might recognize this fabric from a recent Fabric Mart purchase- this is the Marc Jacobs flannel. I made Kevin a pair of pajama pants yesterday, but we haven't done the photo shoot yet. I think to thank me for the pants he took the above photo at an angle that makes it look like I have not only ONE chin, but a very skinny one. I don't have too many photos like that!

Secret Project...

Has been received! I made my skating friend Melissa a blade towel to wish her good luck at Adult Sectionals. This is the same design I made for my coach for Christmas (though I forgot to take a picture of that- and his skate was a black fabric.)



Now I need to make myself one!

Christmas is seriously almost done...

My sister asked me to knit her a coffee cup cozy, but I'm not sure I'll be able to.  I whipped one up on the sewing machine...a 30 minute to one hour project.

I used insul bright in the middle for insulation and thin cotton batting on either side to protect her hands.  It is reversible, and.the inside is quilted (I quilted one side to all.the batting and then added the other side and turned it) . I just used a cardboard cup cozy as a pattern.

I hope she likes it!

Thanks Kevin for modeling.