Birthday boys!

June is a popular time for our friends to have birthdays, and this past weekend I made four different little birthday boys their "age" shirts.  Can you tell I wasn't feeling especially creative about picking out fabric?

Happy birthday, boys!!!

Wonder Women

My dear, sweet friend, Joslyne (whom I have yet to forgive for moving to Boston, even though that was about four years ago), shares my adoration of Wonder Woman as a horribly kitchy yet awesome heroine.  She is the author of the wonderful blog Fight Like a Mother, which is about her journey with fibromyalgia.  If anyone should be considered a heroine, it's someone trying to live life with fibromyalgia.  But I digress.  Joslyne's daughter, Zoey, was Charlotte's first BFF, and we look forward to reuniting them one day.

After I made Charlotte her Wonder Woman shirt, Joslyne got so excited about it that I knew I had to make some for her and Zoey.  Looks like they like them, huh?

I'm ashamed to admit that I made myself a matching pink Wonder Woman shirt but wasn't smart enough to try it on until AFTER I had washed it and stitched on the WW symbol.  The shirt turned out to be obscenely tight over my chest, so I gave it to Erin (who is still on MY LIST for being my identical twin yet weighing at least 25 pounds less than me).  So at least Erin and Joslyne (who have met and hung out and even planned a surprise baby shower for me together) can be matching Wonder Women.  Looks like I have to find myself a new blank t-shirt and get sewing so I can match too.  Let's hope we can all have a little Wonder Woman convention together again someday!

[By the way, Zoey, Charlotte is SO JEALOUS that you have already lost some teeth!  I'm just about ready to accidentally-on-purpose bonk Charlotte in the mouth just so she can lose a stinkin' tooth.  It's pretty hard for a six-year-old to be patient about such an important milestone!]

Some Happy Birthday shirts for Charlie Jo

Sweet Charlotte turned 6 this week, and I made not one, but TWO appliqué shirts for her.  The first was the traditional (or what has become traditional in this household) number shirt:

It's short-sleeved, so she was wearing it over a white long-sleeved shirt.  I took this pic as she was modeling her new sunglasses, necklace, and denim vest.

The second shirt is one I actually want to make for myself as well.  Now everyone will know that Charlotte is really Wonder Woman!

Silvana's birthday backpack

Charlotte has declared Silvana to be her bestest friend in the world, except for Shelby.  Keep in mind that these girls have never had a playdate outside of school in their lives, and you will quickly realize that Charlotte has a penchant for hyperbole similar to Corey and me.  Regardless, when Charlotte was invited to Silvana's sixth birthday party I knew I had to make something adorable for such a sweet little girl.  When I volunteered at school this week, I asked Silvana what her favorite colors are, and she answered (of course) "pink and purple".  Charlotte has also talked endlessly about Silvana's love for cats, so I figured a pink Hello Kitty lined drawstring backpack would be just the thing for her.

The outside is a gaudy hot pink duck cloth.  I grabbed a few things from the Target dollar bins to put with the backpack to complete the gift.  The drawstrings are black parachute cord.  Here is the backpack closed:

The lining is the same quilting cotton fabric as the appliqué on the outside.

Somehow, I conned Corey into taking Charlotte to the party this afternoon.  I have been to plenty of parties at Pump It Up and have no desire to attend any more if I can help it.  Not sure when the kids are finally old enough that the parents don't have to go to these birthday parties and stand around awkwardly pretending to have fun, but it can't be too soon for me.

State of Michigan pillow for Stephanie

Erin is always amused by the amount of state pride shown by people who live in Michigan (at least as compared to Illinois residents, who don't really seem to have much).  It IS pretty amazing, actually.  I can't drive a mile without passing a car sporting a Michigan bumper sticker, and I have never before seen so many people celebrating their state in the form of silk-screened t-shirts, keychains, flags, beer cozies, and welcome mats (among a billion other things).  I think the fervent Michigan pride is partly a defensive response to a huuuuuuuuge bad rap given to the most notorious city in the state and the very high profile economic collapse of the state's most famous industry.  Another part of it is a genuine love for the state and its easily recognizable shape.  Other than that, I think it's just sort of fun and trendy to have a mitten-shaped image on your car, t-shirt, etc.

I have lived in many states (specifically Washington, Alabama, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, California, North Carolina, Tennessee, and finally Michigan) and really don't see a whole lot of differences between them other than climate -- they all have nice people, irritating people, grocery stores, malls, parks, good neighborhoods, bad neighborhoods, etc.  I don't understand why people think the quality of life or the personality of the community members will be so wildly different from state to state.  When I told people I was moving to Michigan last year, everyone acted like I was moving to Section 8 housing in the middle of a violent ghetto.  I guess when the rest of the country really only hears about the horrors of the abandoned buildings, ridiculously high crime, and abject poverty in Detroit, it's hard to imagine that there might be a thriving economy with really nice suburban life just a few miles away.  (For the record, our house is right at 28 Mile Road, so we're only 20 short miles from 8 Mile -- the northern border of Detroit.)

BUT I DIGRESS.  My sister-in-law, Stephanie, moved back to Michigan from Minnesota less than a year before Corey and I moved up here, and she definitely has state pride.  My mother-in-law spotted some pillows with a Michigan appliqué on them when she and Stephanie were shopping in northern Michigan last summer, so she was the one who gave me the idea to make this fun pillow for Steph for Christmas.

It's about 18 inches square, and I used some heavy-duty tan fabric that I found in the "utility fabrics" section.  The fabric I used for the state shape was a bit of lightweight canvas I had left over from a tote bag I made for Erin a couple of years ago.  I used light blue piping, and this is probably the best job I have ever done with sewing it on properly.  I rounded the corners a bit to make it easier with the piping.

My only complaint?  The ridiculously irregular borders of this state!  I just about made myself cross-eyed trying to get it sewn on decently.  I just hope nobody looks too closely at it.  I had even simplified the shape quite a bit when tracing the darn thing from the map, but it's still kind of a crazy mess thanks to those pesky Great Lakes shorelines.  Too bad Steph doesn't live in Colorado or something.  Then again, that would have resulted in a pretty boring pillow.  (Somehow, I don't think people run around with t-shirts bearing the silhouette of Colorado -- not without in image overlaid of their cool flag.  Now THAT would be a fun pillow to make to commemorate having lived there!  Maybe someday I will make a pillow for every state I have lived in, using each state's most recognizable symbol.)

An MSU Rose Bowl souvenir

Does it count as a souvenir if you don't bring it back from actually going to the Rose Bowl?  Probably not.  Anyhow, to celebrate Michigan State's upcoming Rose Bowl appearance (the first in two and a half decades, or something like that), I made two of my favorite Spartans (my sister-in-law, Stephanie, and her husband, Don) a nice fleecy blanket to cuddle up in while watching the game.

The green and white chevron fleece caught my eye as I was shopping at Jo-Ann's a couple of weeks ago, and I knew I had to get a couple of yards of it to use for something for someone in Corey's Michigan State-obsessed family.  I showed it to Corey, and while I was brainstorming out loud about making it into a blanket with some sort of appliqué, he had a flash of inspiration and suggested sewing on this year's Rose Bowl logo.

He pulled up the image on the computer and I immediately fell in love with it.  Then I counted -- there are 19 different pieces making up that damn thing.  We debated how large to make it, and how to even blow it up to a decent size.  Corey figured out how to print the image over a bunch of 11" x 17"pages and then I taped it together.  Then, I traced it on to Wonder Under, being careful to label each one with a number so I could keep them straight.  After that, I fused the Wonder Under shapes to the appropriate color fabric (I used some Kona cotton from Jo-Ann's), cut them out, and got them laid out onto the blanket.  I was afraid of how the iron would affect the fleece, but I kept the temperature low and the pieces fused onto the fleece with no problems.

Appliquéing all those pieces onto the blanket was awkward, but ultimately easier than I thought.  It took a few hours to get it done, and I had to re-fuse several of the pieces that kept wanting to peel off after getting munched up and manhandled as I worked on stitching adjacent pieces.  Wonder Under doesn't typically fail like that, but I wasn't able to use the high heat necessary to get a good fuse, plus the fibrous nature of the polyester fleece didn't provide a very good adhering surface.  It all worked out in the end, though!

I bound the fleece in some store-bought quilting binding.  I actually hadn't bought enough and Corey volunteered to pick some up for me while he was out Christmas shopping.  I had very low expectations of him finding anything close to the right thing, but I sent him a cell phone picture of the package and crossed my fingers.  Amazingly enough, he was able to come home with the exact right binding!  He was so proud of himself.  Good boy!

The only problem is this is definitely one of those projects that is killing me to give away.  Corey started whining for one of his own and I told him to simmer down and give me time to recover from this first blanket.  It was definitely my most ambitious appliqué project yet!  Here's hoping that Steph and Don love it, and that Michigan State does well enough in the game that the Rose Bowl logo won't evoke horrible memories after the game.

Birthday shirts for Alex and Peter

I appliquéd a couple of birthday shirts for a couple of birthday boys this afternoon.  The "1" shirt is for Alexander, the son of one of my sister's best buddies.  Last time we hung out with his family, Charlotte glommed on to Alex and decided she was his baby-sitter for the night.  It was hilarious, and Alex loved the attention.  The fabric for the "1" is from an old onesie that his mom, Toni, was very sad that he outgrew.  Perfect use for such a cute vehicle print!  This was the first time I had appliquéd a knit onto a knit, so I used a tip I had read recently and placed a paper towel on the back side to serve as a tearaway stabilizer.  Worked like a charm!

The "4" shirt is for Peter, whose birthday is tomorrow.  Gotta make sure everyone knows how old he is tomorrow at school!  Strangely enough, every time we remind him that he will be 4 tomorrow, he tell us that the day after that he's going to turn 2 again.  Um, okay.  The fabric for the "4" is from the sleeve of one of Corey's old shirts.

I skipped the stabilizer on this appliqué because I was too lazy to run upstairs to grab another paper towel (I moved my sewing stuff back into the basement before Thanksgiving) and it didn't seem to make a whole lot of difference.  This was a heavier knit shirt than Alex's and the "4" was from a woven fabric, so I wasn't as worried about the stability.

An unhappy Batman

I have had a black t-shirt I was planning to appliqué with a Batman logo for Peter for months.  I finally sat down this afternoon and sewed on the logo (cut from garish yellow ripstop nylon) and hoped it would pull Peter out of his funk (caused by a bad cold that kept him home from preschool).

Three-year-olds are not really known for their gracious acceptance of gifts, but I was a little surprised when Peter outright rejected the shirt.  Then, he softened and told me he would want it tomorrow.  A few moments later, he wanted me to put it on him.  Then I tried to bribe him with watching some TV if he let me take a photo of him.  I guess I should have put some shoes on in since it's barely 50 degrees outside, because this was his reaction to the outdoor photo shoot:

"IT'S TOO COWD, MOMMY!  TOO COWD!

Yes, he's still wearing his pj bottoms, because he stayed home sick today and why get him dressed if I don't have to?

I carried my little superhero back inside and tried to catch a few quick snapshots, but he refused to stand somewhere with good lighting.   I think he was telling me here that he was DONE.

I guess this photoshoot just wasn't meant to be.  I really should have used some sort of stabilizer on the back of the shirt because the design was so thin and spread out.  I also don't think the Wonder Under stuck to the nylon very well, so it probably wasn't the best choice for appliqué material.  Peter seems to like the shirt now that I have him safely back inside the warm house with an episode of "Paw Patrol" on, so I guess all's well that ends well.

Bag to hold the Camp NanaB Car Wash

At Camp NanaB this year, we had a car wash!

Well, the kids mostly just rode bikes and scooters through it, but we called it a "car wash" anyway.  That's my nephew, Quinn, zipping through on the bike.  Barb had cut out directions for building this from a magazine years and years ago, and this year she enlisted the help of Larry and Corey to build it for the kids.  It's made from PVC pipes with holes drilled in them and it hooks up to a hose.  It was a huge hit, to say the least.

Now that fall is coming, it's time to pack up the car wash until next summer.  Barb asked me if I would make her a bag to hold it all.  The PVC pipes come apart, but some of the pieces are still nearly six feet long.  I grabbed some green duck cloth and added it to the brown duck cloth remnants I had left over from sewing Larry's 5-Gallon Bucket Organizer.  Then, I sewed a basic drawstring bag and boxed the corners.  The drawstring is parachute cord and the drawstring stopper is the same two-hole kind I used on the Double Skein Yarn Bag.

I forgot that boxing the corners would take a little from the height, so I hope it's still long enough!  If you mash it down flat, the middle part between the boxed corners is still six feet long though.  The lighting for this picture is terrible because it's really cloudy and rainy outside, thus it wasn't possible to take a nice photo with natural light.  Plus, this sucker is huge and not easy to photograph when your only potential photography assistant at home right then is less than four feet tall.

The bag would have been pretty boring if I had left it plain, so I added an appliqué car (made from the green duck cloth and some black felt).

I'm bringing it over to Barb's later this morning -- I hope all the pieces fit inside!

Birthday backpack for sweet Maisie K.

For Maisie's third birthday this weekend, I am at a complete loss for what to get her for her birthday.  I already made her a bucket for her bike and a "3" t-shirt, but what do you get the girl who only wants to ride her bike and play with her older brother's cars and trucks?  Well, I hope she likes this backpack.  Maybe she can stick her lovies in there for safe-keeping?

I am bordering on stalking-level adoration for the sewing tutorials that the lady behind Sweet Bee Buzzings puts out (I have recently made her Straight-Sided Flat-Bottomed Pouch, her Double-Zip Wristlet, and her She's a Brick Pouch).  I want to be her friend and have half the sewing mojo she does.    So, I guess it was only natural that I continue this trend and sew SBB's Lined Drawstring Backpack.

Maisie's favorite color is green, so I appliqued some green flowers onto some dark denim.  I used my favorite parachute cord for the backpack's drawstrings (seriously, I need to start buying that stuff in bulk).

The lining (and the fabric for the flowers) is from an old sheet that my mom and I cut apart and hemmed to be used in a pack 'n' play a few years ago.  So this is actually the third life for this fabric.  I love using old sheets -- they are nice-feeling fabric and usually the print is actually on grain (unlike a lot of quilter's cottons I have bought).

I tried to get one of my kids to model the backpack.  Charlotte said "no thanks."  Peter put it on, but then proceeded to tear around the house and refuse to actually stand still for a picture.  So you will just have to trust me that it's the perfect size for a three-year-old (though I am toying with creating something to hold the straps together in the front so the bag doesn't slip right off Maisie's little shoulders).  I love how it turned out and now I kind of want to make myself one in a bigger size for carrying supplies when the kids ride their bikes to the park.  I tried sticking the things I wanted to carry in the kids' bike baskets, but they informed me there was no room after their own toys had been stuffed in there.

Happy birthday to Ben with a shirt and basket

Peter's good buddy, Ben, has his fourth birthday party today and we're coming armed with (what else?) a "4" birthday shirt and a fabric basket to match.  We're headed to the store in a few minutes to buy some treasures to put in the basket with the shirt.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute, right?  I made this basket pattern for the second time, and it turned out pretty cool.  Peltex (actually, Pellon 72F) is a monster to wrestle with when you're sewing, but it really is the best thing for any project that needs strength and permanent shape.

I love that shark fabric (from the remnant bin at Jo-Ann's) and wish I had a whole lot more of it.  I have no idea what else I would make out of it, but it's just fabulous.  I just bought a new chunk of that flame fabric, because I used all that I had on hand making 20+ car caddies last year.  I have a few ideas of things to make for Peter with it.  I love the blue tints around the edges of the flames.  Ben's party is train-themed, so I tried my best to find some train fabric at Jo-Ann's with zero luck (except for some babyish flannel that would have looked terrible as an applique).

Two and a half hours until party time -- better get shopping!

Joann's yarn bag

Even before I sewed Erin's yarn bag, I was already scheming to make another one for her friend, Joann, who also crochets.  I didn't have enough of the same material, so I decided to use some other fabrics from my stash.  I stitched on a "J" so her little monkeys (Evan and Daniel) wouldn't somehow think it was theirs to stuff with Batman or Daniel Tiger amigurumis.  Heh.  Anyhoo, the bag was photographed before it got the cord stopper, because I ran out and Erin was going to put one on from her stash back up in Illinois.

Birthday shirts

I have been busy making the number appliqué birthday shirts for a lot of little friends.

I am still kicking myself for not taking a photo of the "7" shirt I made for our friend, Mia. It was the highest number yet!  These ones were made for Whitney (the pink with the "2"), Harry (the orange with the "2"), and Declan (the black with the "3"). The 3T-sized shirt I bought for Whitney at Jo-Ann's looks remarkably bigger than the 3T shirt I used for Harry's shirt.  I hope Harry's fits!  I guess we'll find out when I give it to him tomorrow.

These are for Maisie and Quinn. I'm not sure why I didn't make one for Quinn when he turned 4 in February, but I decided he needed one if I was making Maisie one for her 3rd birthday in August.

I know I'm not super consistent with the sizes of numbers, but I always use Ariel Black for the font.  I have considered other fonts, but that one allows for the greatest surface area (to showcase the fabric better) and doesn't have a bunch of fiddly things on the ends (easier to sew around!).  Maybe someday I will branch out to another font.  Maybe not.  Next up is a "4" shirt for Petey's buddy, Ben, for his birthday!  Gotta go find some trail fabric for that one.

Still more past sewing projects

Here are some of the projects from the past few months that I found pictures of on my computer!

A Batman cape with waaaaaaaaaay too big of a neck, from a self-drafted pattern:

Birthday "3" Batman applique on a store-bought t-shirt:

Another sundress (upcycled from one of Corey's old t-shirts):

Reverse applique t-shirt for Valentine's Day (made based off an idea I saw on Pinterest but can no longer find -- I used a different technique than it specified, anyway!):

Even more Easy Lounge Pants made from an old t-shirt:

Fleece Hat with Ear Flaps for Sonia:

Birthday shirt with applique "5" for Charlotte:

Ladybug Girl Circle Skirt (to replace the tattered and loved-to-death ladybug Halloween costume that finally self-destructed) from my favorite ever skirt tutorial:

Simple elastic waist ballet skirt (made from no particular pattern) from a great remnant I found:

Hobo Dance Bag for Charlotte to use for ballet/tap class:

Ruffled Fleece Scarf made from a great remnant I found:

May Day Skirts for Charlotte and Shelby:

Projects from the past . . .

I found these photos on the iPad (Corey says taking pictures with the iPad is the new social faux pas, but I just tell him to hush) of things I have sew over the past few months.

Simple elastic-waisted skirt made with no direct reference to a tutorial (though I have made a few skirts in the past by using various tutorials!) but using a flat-piping version of the skirt pockets from this tutorial.  Charlotte Doll has a matching skirt with simpler pockets.  I made the skirts in honor of Charlotte's class field trip to the hospital where her daddy was born:

Easy Lounge Pants out of leftover fleece given to me by Barb:

More Easy Lounge Pants made from Corey's old t-shirt:

And yet still MORE Easy Lounge Pants out of my old t-shirt:

T-shirt quilt made by looking at a ton of different tutorials and ignoring them all (even though I probably should have listened to some of the things they said!):

Sporty Skirt out of a couple of old t-shirts (and a really cranky model):

T-shirt sundress (made from one of Erin's old t-shirts for Sonia, but modeled here by Charlotte):

Another t-shirt sundress (made out of one of Toni's old t-shirts for Sami, but modeled by Charlotte):

Reversible apron for Charlotte for her birthday (to go with the cookbook and cooking utensils we got for her!):

Catch-all Bag for Anna's 6th birthday:

Peek-a-Boo Toy Sack for princesses and other treasures:

Upcycled T-Shirt Dress (though it ended up a little short, so it's more like a tunic) made from a bunch of different old t-shirts.  I plan on shortening the sleeves on this one so it can be worn through the summer with some shorts!  Notice Charlotte clutching her beloved Dashi Dog (an Octonaut) crocheted for her by Auntie Ernie:

Origami bag (originally made for Erin, but I ended up giving it to Mrs. Dawson -- Erin, I owe you another origami bag!):

Appliqued t-shirts, flannel pajama shorts (made referencing this tutorial, but I made my own pattern), and a little zipper pouch (made referencing this makeup bag tutorial, but omitting the boxed corners) for Lauren's 5th birthday:

Fleece pajama shorts for Charlotte (to test the pajama shorts pattern referenced above before making Lauren's birthday present!):

Pillowcase dress made for Charlotte from one of Corey's old short-sleeve buttondowns:

When I gave the pillowcase dress to Charlotte, she told me she thought it should be "prettier" and in "better colors", so it looks like this dress is going to Sonia or Sami instead!