As if that weren't enough

I also started today on putting together the patchwork creeper blanket I'm making the kiddo for his impending birthday

Cat eyes (and cattails)

Buoyed by the quick completion of the witch cameo shirt, I decided to see about using the other yard of JoAnn Fabric Halloween print I already bought this year, a black field with scattered pale green cat eyes (which, alas, don't glow in the dark.)

I'd already decided I would see if I could squeeze the exterior pieces of McCall's 3905 (from 1973) out of that yard. (Apparently don't have a photo of the pattern envelope, so here's a link to the Vintage Pattern Wiki entry for it.)

This was my fourth time making this shirt, and it was the fourth time I decided to use the pattern piece for the long sleeves, but cut it short to make little puffy short sleeves, instead of making the bias ruffle "short sleeve" version.  This deviation helps immensely in squeezing this shirt out of small yardages, as well as just plain appealing more to my aesthetic sense.

It's also the fourth time making this shirt and moving the zipper from the center back to the left side--which does save a tiny bit of cloth (cutting the center back pieces on the fold instead of with seam allowances--at this point, the piece placement was nowhere near what's shown on the cutting layout), but, more importantly, means there's no need for a separating zipper. (I do have separating zippers in my stash, but most of them are outerwear weight.)  Also, as challenging as it can be to wiggle out of a side-zip garment, it seems like it would be even more of a challenge to get a separating zipper together and zipped while in the center of one's own back...

It's also the fourth time making this shirt with a Halloween print.  Huh.

Yeah, I couldn't resist getting the cat-shaped door hook in the photo.

I knew I'd need to use some other cloth for the facings, so I rummaged through my stash for something that was somewhat coordinated in color, but that I wouldn't mind using for facings (instead of, y'know, saving it for use in something visible.)  It wasn't until I was in the process of cutting out the facing pieces that I made the connection of why, exactly, it was an appropriate print to use:

It's cattails.  Ha.

Anyway.  I ignored the pieces given for the facing and cut them so that they extended to the armscyes  and got sewn in with the sleeves, because I like facings to be machine sewn to as many points as possible.  There's also lots of stitching in the ditch to tack the facings in other areas--there're facings on the hem, too, which got ditch stitched at all seams.  I've maybe mentioned before my aversion to hand sewing...?  Things're topstitched, too.

The buttons are purely decorative (YES I SEWED THEM WITH THE MACHINE)--I had considered eliminating the overlap and, subsequently, the buttons, but I thought the shirt would look a little plain without them.

I also tried something new-for-me with the way I applied the elastic to the sleeves, using a method that I've seen in readymade clothes a lot.  The elastic is stretched along the edge of the cloth on the wrong side and then serged to the cloth; that is then folded over to the wrong side, pulled taught, and stitched through the serging through all layers.  I'll probably be using this method again.

As with the witch cameo shirt, I haven't yet tried this on, relying on previous experience with this pattern to know how I expect it to fit.  I do have a skirt I think will go well with this, and plan to wear it on Wednesday.  October, yay!

(And, yes, indeed, of course, it's covered with genuine cat hair.)

Settled in & Sewin'

So, after the 'excitement' of ceiling repair and room relocation, I finally felt like sewing human-size things this weekend.  (Doll-size things have been sporadically sewn since moving to this new room.)

I started by shortening a thrifted skirt and repairing a torn dress, then, at around 3 o'clock on Saturday, deciding hey, there's black thread in the machine, why not go ahead and make that simple shell shirt from that mere yard you bought of the witch cameo print from JoAnn Fabric's Halloween selection this year? (OK, maybe the thought didn't exactly flow like that...)

I used Simplicity 3263 (from 1950) again

this time going with view 4,  without the collar detail.  As I mentioned, I had only one yard of the print--it's possible I could have also squeezed the collar out of that yard, but, honestly, I wanted to have a bit of the print left to use for other projects.  That means I used a contrast print for the facings, too...and I made the facings all-in-one pieces, which I attached in a variation of the WRONG WRONG WRONG way I detailed before (I sewed the arm holes first this time, which made the 'flip it right-sides-together without actually turning it inside-out' bit at least seem easier...although...there's no physical reason it actually should be...)

And here it is!

I tried making a lapped zipper again, and, like many other vintage sewing enthusiasts, I think I may be a convert.

I haven't tried it on yet, letting my previous experiences with this same pattern bolster my confidence about little things like 'fit.'  Besides, I don't have a skirt that I think would look just right with it.

I may have to make that, too.

*rip*

I was helping the kiddo fasten his seat belt when I heard a quiet rip from an arm hole of the strawberry appliqué dress I made a few months ago.

Oops.

Well.  I considered my options for repair, quickly discarding the idea of reshaping both arm holes (which sounded like work), settling on the idea of applying a decorative tab to that area--since it was on the opposite side of the dress from the appliqués, it could conceivably pass as an intentional design element.  Sure.

Patching and reinforcing the ripped area and creating and applying the tab were straightforward, but it turns out that I did not have any giant spectacular red buttons in my stash (nevermind being in just the right shade of orangey red to match the strawberries), so I went with an unimpressive red button.

If I find a spectacular red button, it'll be easy enough to replace.  Plus, cardigan season is approaching, so this 'design feature' may not be visible for a few months.  I...um...I just hope it doesn't feel weird...  I plan to wear this dress tomorrow, so I'll find out then.

Stopping by with some more cloth

Popped into a Goodwill quickly yesterday, convinced myself to get these

Yardages and detail pics under the cut.

Finished it!

I haven't tried it on yet, but, everything's sewn that's supposed to be sewn.

Note to self:  Five layers of cotton is not really enough--INTERFACE THE PLACKET.  Next time.  At least I caught myself before I ended up making any buttonholes off-center, because I have learned that I cannot eyeball stuff.  Rulers are my friend.

I do want to make a skirt to go with this, because it seems like, whenever I make a shirt that does not match any skirts I have, and then I make a skirt to match the shirt, then that the skirt actually works well with other shirts I have...or might make...  Yeah, yeah, I know, that shouldn't seem as weird as it does to me.  This idea of "make things that might go with other things, as well as being useful for everyday wear" instead of  "HEY MAKE THIS BECAUSE IT SEEMS LIKE IT WILL BE KOOKY FUN!" is still a new and strange thing for me.

Poking along

Felt rather uninspired the last week (cyclical chemical side effect, whee), decided I should make SOMETHING, but, when I confronted the fabric stash...there were so many somethings I could make that I didn't know where to start.

I decided, therefore, to try to be...random.  I turned my back on the cloth, stuck my hand in the "cotton of 3 yards or less" section, and started rifling back and forth until Chip meowed at me for attention, which put my hand on this

Oh.  Hmm.

Sewing Vapor

Well, vapor print.  Well, no, actually, it's a marbleized kinda print.

Anyway.

I used Simplicity 3263 from 1950, view 3, which is the same thing I used for the bodice on the last dress I made.

 This time I made it as a shirt and followed the directions.  Mostly.

Lacking Enthusiasm

I decided that the next thing I would sew should use that wax cloth I recently thrifted, and maybe ignore the instructions on a "never made by me before" vintage pattern, too.

This vintage pattern, from 1950

Which I used as the bodice for a dress.

Mixin' stuff up

So, combining these

and these

results in...

Some more new (to me) cloth

Had a chance to make a child-free stop in Goodwill today, came home with these

Have I mentioned that I like wax cloth?  I like wax cloth.  So I couldn't resist this little piece, 30" of 45" wide, in black and purple (and...ecru...), for 99¢.  It will be perfect for a skirt, since the border is on both edges; just need to decide between skirt-alone or skirt-on-dress, with probably a black bodice.

The center piece is 45" wide by 40" long--although I suspect it may technically be one meter long?--and cost $1.99 but I didn't have to try too hard to convince myself to buy it because, eee, it's a sheer brocade

Again, not a lot there, but enough for a skirt overlay, at least.  Not sure what fibers are involved, but do think it's highly likely to have been made in India--there were a few saris hanging with the cloth, too. (This Goodwill often puts saris with cloth, not sure if it's because they don't realize they're not 'just' cloth, or if they have no designated place to put saris, so, meh, might as well put 'em there. They always seem to sell fast.)

Lat piece of cloth is just a bit over 2 yards of 45", very polyestery (and crinkle texturey), and was color of the week, which meant that no-one had bought it for the previous four weeks (I haven't been in this Goodwill for a while, because the kiddo has lost his enthusiasm for going--there's no Minecraft playin' there...) so I took pity on got it for 99¢.  Not sure what I'll do with it, not sure about the shades of green, not sure if it's as vintage as it seems, but it is still neat-o, in its scribbly horse,  drip-dry way.

A "Wearable" "Muslin"

So, Simplicity 3799 from 1951.  Decided to finally give it a...try...

Hmmm...

No cuts/commitments have been made...yet...

WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG

Or, the way I do all-in-one facings on sleeveless bodices without center seams, because I dislike hand sewing.  (Although I don't dislike it as much as I used to...maybe someday I'll start doing this the way the patterns tell  me to.  Maybe.)

Franken Pattern that probably didn't actually need to be cobbled together

Since the 1990s, I've vaguely been searching for a simple sleeveless bodice pattern to use for dresses.  There are always scads of things like it offered by the major pattern companies, but, the few I tried, I just...didn't like.

Last year, I got a big bunch of vintage patterns, including Advance 8984.  The first time I used the pattern, I really liked the fit of the bodice, except for the way the arm openings weren't open enough and felt uncomfortable.  So, next time I made it, I enlarged the front opening a bit and all was well.

Since I haven't been motivated to sew anything for me lately (as opposed to sewing doll stuff, which I've been doing a'plenty), I decided I should just make something, and that using the Advance 8984 bodice might be a good start...but...did I really want that many dresses with the distinct "they don't really look like the pattern envelope illustration" cap sleeves?  Um...no.  No I didn't.

So I delved into the stash, pulled out Simplicity 3263, and started tracing bodice from the Advance pattern and the neckline from view 4 of the Simplicity pattern.  Like I said, nothing revolutionary, and I might have a pattern in my stash that has the features I was looking for, but...well...if a pattern's not already cut, my enthusiasm for dealing it declines immensely.  All that tissue paper can be overwhelming...

Anyway.

I used that really loud heart print I thrifted a few months ago, and a bit of a different print for the facings, since there wasn't much left of the heart print after cutting the bodice and skirt pieces.  When it came to cutting the fusible interfacing, I suddenly decided that this dress wasn't worth using up a lot of resources so I pieced the interfacing, like this

Once it's ironed in place, it works like a single piece.

I set the zipper into the left side seam.  It can be tricky to take off side-zip dresses, but it's nice, I think, to have less overall zipper length to deal with than with a back zip...and the zipper isn't so prominent, so the stitching doesn't need to be perfect. (Not that my zipper stitching is ever perfect, but...um...I don't have to feel so self-conscious about it...)  I used to have a big problem getting the waist seams line up when inserting a zipper that has to be open to be sewn like this, but I eventually figured out that I could pin the zipper, closed, to one side, then make a quick thread tack to the other side of the zipper tape showing where the waist seam should be.  That way, when the zipper is open, I still know where the waist seam should be.

(It really was marking the right place, I promise.) ((And this is the kind of thing that's probably all over the place, but I never happened to have seen...))

So, when everything was finished, I had this

Basic, but should be a good stashbuster.  (Side thought:  Is this a skater dress?  Just because I've been trying to get a pattern like this since the 1990s, and got here by mashing up two patterns from 1960, doesn't mean it doesn't qualify as a skater dress.  Do I want it to be a skater dress?  I'm so confused.)

A dress like this is entirely suitable for someone approaching her 40th birthday.

Today's thrifted fabric

$2.99 each, both just under 4 yards, both cotton.  The abstract auto print is 35" wide, so probably genuinely vintage, and the tartan is 45" wide.

I tried to adjust the color so the auto print would look more accurate on my screen--it's definitely not anything that I would call "salmon."  "Grapefruit" might be closer.  Maybe. Or a bluntly-phrased "excessively faded red."  Only not actually faded.  Maybe someone out there knows a precedent for this color?

I suspect the tartan may be at least edging toward vintage, too, based on the sticker I found as I was measuring it.  I know tags like that were printed in bulk and used for ages after, so it's not necessarily as old as that typography and expectation that all cloth would cost less than $1 per yard might make it seem...but...then again, it might be.

My recollection of the thought process upon seeing it: "Ooh, plaid!  Hmm, but...brown.  $2.99 per yard?  Hmm.  There's a lot of it, too--at least 3 yards.   But...brown.  Heh heh, just think of the wannabe Vivienne Westwood dress that could be made from so much tartan.  Even with brown?  Yes.  Even with brown."  So.  Will this hypothetical dress ever be made?

Um.

An Unexpected Pattern

In which I present to you a doll dress pattern I made this weekend.

...but you'll have to wait to see what a dress made from it looks like--unless, of course, you try it out for yourself in the meantime...

Quick, quick, thrift

Stopped quickly in a Goodwill this morning, got a few things including these

Not necessarily intended to go together--there's a bit over 8½" yards of the gray 60" wool (or at least wool-heavy blend)--definitely don't need that much for these skirts...  The wool cost $7.99.  As usual, I have only the vaguest ideas what I might do with it, but, if I need wool for a big project, I'll be ready...

I said I'd do this once I switched back to white thread

...I just didn't realize that would take almost six months to do.  Huh.

A few years ago I was inspired to make a Barbie-size version of Simplicity 8129, and I shared the resulting pattern

And in January I decided to photograph the steps to do a sew along...and finally did that a few nights ago.

Oh, wait. Sewing. Yes, yes, sewing.

I made enough doll dresses for Etsy to set myself up for two weeks to sew whatever I wanted, and I...didn't want to sew much of anything.  That's not saying I didn't sew anything, I just...didn't...sew...much.

Sewing! For humans! To wear!

Soooo, there was a Kindergarten Round Up Thingy this evening.  I asked myself, did I want to wear something that said "I'm not like you, but I'm nice" or "I'm not like you, deal with it"? (The other option, something that said "HALLYWEEEEN 5EVA!!!!!!," was fairly easy to reject...but also negated a large part of my existing wardrobe and quite a bit of my cloth stash...)  I decided the "nice" option would be the most polite, so yesterday I grabbed some black broadcloth, Advance 8984

...and some strawberry shapes I'd randomly made from calico and the dregs of the Pellon Wonder Under I've kept forgetting (for, like, 20 years) that I have. 

Force Day Sewing

Well, of course I decided to wear this shirt I made a few years ago

I used my old go-to shirt pattern, a modified New Look 6217 (fused the front pieces together), and still very proud of that pattern matching I am. *Yoda cackle*

Then I decided to make a few more things from the little bit of that cloth I had left. 

Another dress for my own dolls

Sooo, I picked up a 2 2/3 yard X 18" (cut) piece of very polyestery plaid cloth for 99¢ in Goodwill a few days ago:

 It's a fairly large pattern, but that didn't keep me from making this Barbie dress

Sewed some stuff for my own doll

I've been working through that stack of 4" calico squares I thrifted last month, mostly making Blythe dresses (because, at the moment, I feel like mixing prints is more a Blythe thing than a Monster High thing, but you know that attitude can change.)  But when I got to this set of prints I'd decided coordinated, it felt more like they should go into a shirt for slightly larger dolls.  And then I needed to make a skirt to go with that...

HEY GUESS WHAT MORE THRIFT CLOTH

Uh...yeah.  Had more things to mail today, decided to go to the post office in the other direction, which is near the library...and another Goodwill store...

The heart print, at $1.99 for 1½ yards, was a splurge (well, for me it was.)  Look at it, though.  Make jokes about how hypnotic it is.  It's a bit heavy for cotton broadcloth; we'll see how it feels after being washed.  If it still seems heavy, it has a high chance of becoming an A-line skirt, while, if it softens a lot, it may become an eye-searing shirt. *suppresses a cackle*  The green print was color-of-the-week, so marked down from $1.99 to 99¢.  It's cottony (I'm not sure if I'm fooling myself into thinking it feels like a cotton-ramie blend), 35" wide, and almost 3 yards.  I feel its destiny should also be a shirt, at least for Ken or MH guys.  For human-size stuff?  We may never know...

Oh, hey, more thriftstore cloth...

I have long had a weakness for wax print cloth...and Mid Century Modern styles...so, when they seem to come together, and in 5 yards of 45" cotton for $3.99...

Yeah, I'll buy it.

And the kiddo really liked this (1¼ yard 45" cotton), although he wants to use it as a map, not have anything made from it.

That's OK!  I already have a stack of prints he has picked out for shirts...

I really will sew something to share here, someday.  Look, I managed to sew a buncha doll clothes over the weekend:

I'd like to get at least a month of doll clothes sewn in advance before doing human-size stuff.  We'll see how those plans go...

Andrea's #1 Rule for Mixing Prints

If you sew them together, they go together.

(I have more complicated personal guidelines for choosing which prints I think coordinate well, which I might go into at some point, but, the above is the ultimate rule for me.)

I'll sew something, eventually

In the meantime, I'll keep sporadically finding yard goods at Goodwill.

Like this:

Here's a more artistic view

I decided it was worth the splurge and paid a whole $2.99 for what ended up being 4 yards of 35"--definitely feels cotton-rich, might be 100% cotton with the polyester-y feel coming from the heaviness of the screen printing.  I initially thought it was a modern print with retro style, but the 35" width and the fact that the ends are  ripped instead of cut make me wonder if it might be honestly older.  It's in beautiful shape if it is.  There's no information on the selvedges.

I'll probably use most of it to make something for me, but the print's a good size to use for doll clothes, too...

And I finally finished repainting some dolls, so I was then finally able to clean the paint supplies off of my sewing table--like so:

...sooooo I have fewer excuses to not sew now.  And I did sew one doll dress yesterday!  I just...um...need to sew more...

Oh, uh... Hi.

Still haven't sewn anything.  When I looked back at what I sewed last year, I didn't do anything until March, so this may be completely normal for me.  Looking forward to getting  more sunlight as the northern hemisphere slogs toward Spring.

"Not sewing right now" doesn't mean "not buying cloth right now," though...

Busy with the sewing *room*

Husband and I decided to swap hobby rooms, exchanging  his gaming books in the odd bedroom upstairs for my sewing and doll stuff in the odd bedroom in the basement.  So now I don't have to be a basement hermit when I sew, yay.

Here's the sewing desk, cheerful by the window, although it's a north-facing window, so there won't ever be a lot of direct sunlight in here, which, ah, is good in terms of keeping things from fading...?  I'm not sure if I'll fill that currently-blank wall with pictures--I certainly have enough that I could fill it, either with lots of small or with one huge, but I kinda like the idea of having one wall not punctured with nail holes.  (There aren't many of those in his house *grin*)

Looking to the left of the space above, you'll see the door to the strangely-large closet and the old display shelves now holding my cloth:

Ooh, that's messy.  Um.  Well, the stuff stacked in front is all destined for eBay, so it will go away. Eventually.  On the other side of this closet is the dresser that holds all my doll-specific cloth, now crowned with the doll photo stage:

...and next to that, just visible at the left edge of the photo, is the file cabinet with my patterns and interfacing and ironing accessories. (On the right are the pictures I mentioned that could fill the blank walls...)

And, lessee, what else...  Oh, yeah, zippers and notions and extra machine feet and serger cones and the like are in various decorative boxes on the bookcases by the sewing machines, along with a few sewing books

but the eye tends not to be drawn to those.

So, now, all I need is to get over this nasty cold and actually want to sew again.  Yay.

Bought some more cloth in Goodwill this morning. Oops?

A bit different than before--this is a stack of just over 200 4"² pieces of cotton.  Hello, so many doll dress bodices and pieced skirts...

Anyone interested in seeing the prints that particularly catch my eye (in good ways and in bad), or would you rather wait to see what I sew from them?

Of course, it's easier to buy cloth than to make anything...

Stopped in the Hermitage Goodwill again this morning, ended up buying the pieces below (and leaving lots of nice-but-not-me cloth behind.)

The top piece is a laminated Tula Pink print, 40" of it, but with a few inches cut off of the entirety of one edge; it's sill a solid ¾ yard in area.  I looked it up when I got home--the 99¢ I paid for it is  a...um...very good deal.

Next is a rare purchase for me--a solid that isn't black.  It's 37" selvedge to selvedge, so it may be vintage, and there's 1 yard 7" of it.  It is, I'm pretty sure, cotton pretending to be linen.  I may have felt some pity for it, since it was color of the week (so marked down from 99¢ to 49¢) AND it had remained unpurchased on Half-Off Saturday.  (Poor thing, I didn't even buy it on Saturday...oh...wait...)  I  think it coordinates fairly well with the laminated print, both in terms of color and texture contrasts.  Not sure what I'll do with them, but that doesn't (usually) stop a purchase...

Finally is a lightweight crêpe, 54" wide by 3 yards.  It involves at least some wool, I think, from the way it feels.  I won't know for sure unless I do a burn test (smells like burning hair) or start working with it (makes my arm itch inside.  Whee.)  It's a nice, slightly cool black.  Three yards of 60" possibly wool crêpe for for $2.99 is irresistible enough, right?  Then add that this tag was still on it:

...and I'd say we're looking at a piece of vintage yard goods as well...  Wikipedia says the last Stewart store closed in 1992, and I know tags like this tended to have been printed in huge quantities and used until they were gone, but I doubt the Stewart stores were still selling cloth very far into the 1980s, if even that long.  Plus, $2/yard for wool(ish) crêpe?  My guess is that it's been a while since it was that price... (I'll contain my gushing over the joy I get from vintage utilitarian graphic design like this.  Futura, ooh.)  I guess I'll attempt a hot-towel-clothes-dryer pre-shrink on this cloth, too.  Always a new adventure...

What do you think of these pieces of cloth?  Am I silly to keep buying completely random stuff at thrift stores?  Do you wish I'd JUST SEW SOMETHING ALREADY?  *grin*

First thrifted cloth of the New Year (either New Year)

Today is Half Off Saturday at the local Goodwill stores, and we hit two quickly this morning, finding a few pieces of cloth at the first:

At the top is some lightweight denim, about a yard and a half of 44", with scattered embroidered bugs'n'lizards'n'frogs.  The Child looked at it and said, "No, thank you," but he was pretty obviously feeling Lego Star Wars video game withdrawal at that point, so I don't know if he really actually doesn't want anything made from it or not.  That's OK, I have ideas for it that don't involve him, heh--looking at it now, I realize the space between the embroidered motifs is big enough that I can probably make A-line doll dresses with one critter each.

Next is some lightweight fine wale corduroy with a nice rose print, 2 yards of 44"--not sure what I can make from it, because 2 yards of a napped fabric has built-in limitations.  Has anyone else made anything from super light weight fine wale corduroy?  It seems too light for a skirt, but maybe too heavy for a shirt...or not?  (And, of course, it's accumulating cat hair already...)

The last piece is more or less a quarter yard, although cut along one edge (you can see the selvedge.)  It's cotton, and definitely going to be used for doll clothes.  There's some gold in the print, too!

I paid $3 for all of this.  Yeah, I may be kinda addicted to thrifting yardgoods...

A Thank You Tote

...well, maybe it's not quite big enough to be a "tote," but...y'know...puns...

Anyway.

Last week, someone I don't know very well did something very nice for me, so I made a zippered bag as Thanks, which I will give to her tomorrow (or at least drop it off where she works.)  The bag is constructed the fairly easy way, stitching a sandwich of one outer layer and one lining piece on each side of the zipper, opening it all flat and sewing around the edges, leaving a bit free to turn it right-side-out, then sewing across the opening. (There are tutorials for this, which I found after I started making zippered pouches this way.)  Where I made it overly-complicated and, I hope, an extra-nice thing to receive, was in what I did with the exterior pieces.

For this side, I cut and assembled 50 1¼" squares from my scrap stash.  I've made patchwork from very small pieces before--often for use in doll dresses--but I'm pretty sure this is the first time I made a small patchwork of even-size pieces, and pieces that I cut with a ruler and rotary blade, instead of pulling threads to make sure it's on grain.  Such freedom...

On the other side, I drew letters freehand and appliqued her name, which I'll show part of here:

I wanted a kinda late 1980s/early 1990s color scheme, and, hoo, yeah, I think I got it.  I didn't use any kind of stabilizer, and my Necchi 539's satin stitch isn't its best feature--which is entirely my fault for using a zig zag presser foot that's just a smidge short and then not wanting to mess with the pressure on the foot so that the feed dogs actually move things like they should.  (If I ever wanted to try free-motion quilting, though, I should be golden.)  So this looks rough, which is actually the look I was going for.  Really.  Really.

And the inside, which is lined with a poly-cotton blend, so it has a nice luster and is smooth but doesn't disintegrate quite as readily as pure polyester.  I hope.  I remembered to stitch the lining down on either side of he zipper, because I have a history of forgetting to do that, which leads to...um...frustration...as the lining frequently creeps up and gets caught in the zipper...  I know a lot of people line bags like this with cotton, and sometimes I do, too, but I like the change in texture you get with a synthetic lining.  See, I do think a little bit about the finished project before I finish it.

Sometimes.

What do you think, are zippered bags like this good ideas for gifts?  Have you ever made a zip bag with lots of outside decoration?  Would you like to receive something like this?

Did I show you the doll shirt I made the other day?

Yeah, I do like to make rather loud print shirts for the dolly fellas.  They make me smile.  This cloth was in a big bag of fabric I got at Goodwill a few weeks ago, $9.99 for what ended up being around 40 yards of cloth, mostly half yard lengths, and an amazing proportion of it in doll-appropriate prints.  This is one of my favorites, and a Ken shirt was one of the first ideas I had for it.

Here's a full-length shot, to show off the jeans I made for him a year or so ago

I always say I'm going to make more doll jeans, but all the other ideas I have for other doll clothes--y'know, the ones using the new and exciting prints I find--seem to get in the way...