The Eyes Jacket

Once upon a time, there was a little boy who had a beloved hoodie.  This hoodie was a Target Halloween product, printed with black stripes on gray sweatshirt fleece, with staring green eyeballs scattered throughout.  The little boy wore this Eye Jacket until it was threadbare all around.  The jacket was then disassembled and a good piece of it used to make a pillow (because the little boy also loved pillows.  So. many. pillows.)  The little boy's mother had carefully picked apart the stitches holding the separating zipper, and then used it on another jacket--made of black, white, and red thread dyed plaid--just for the little boy.  The little boy also loved this jacket, but, as most little boys do, he grew and grew until it was no longer comfortable to wear.  And, so, when an all-over eyeball print was acquired from JoAnn this year, quickly followed by a copy of a Burda pattern for children's JOGGINGANZUG sweatsuit (the mother thinks she likes the German word better), well...things came together, and that zipper from the original Eyeball Jacket found its way into another Eyeball Jacket, and the little boy was happy.

Well, I wasn't expecting that

Knew I wanted to spend time today sewing, expected I'd start a jacket for the kiddo, made this instead.

And before that...

When I was procrastinating sewing the pirate costume, I sewed this

I remember this place...

Soooo...yeah.

The kiddo had decided to be a pirate for Halloween, so I grabbed good ol' McCall's 8701 and asked him what colors, and he eventually declared that he wanted it to be Mo Willems Pigeon colors.  It didn't take long looking through my stash to find appropriate fabric.  It took longer to motivate myself to actually sew the stuff--although my speed and willingness did increase when I realized that, no, really, I didn't need to create a lining for the coat.  Everything went together quickly, once started.

Then not only did it rain all of Halloween (and the night after that), but the kiddo was also sick.

So.

He says he'll wear it next year, and it will probably still fit, but, for now, here's a picture of everything on the floor

Yes, that's vinyl.  Outer Space Pirate had come up in conversation at some point, and I have lots of this periwinkley pleather, so, enh, why not.  The shirt is a variation on McCall's 5675 (which I always forget how easy it is to make until I make it, then I think "Ooh, I should make a million more of these!" and never do.)

The only other real note (besides Hooray for leather and vinyl sewing machine needles) is Hooray for presser feet that hold buttons so they can be machine sewn.  Hooray.

Angry Bag

I made the Angry Birds storage bag today--not as involved as the Terraria bag, and also conveniently emblazoned with an Angry Birds print, so no inclination to improvisational appliqué.

That didn't keep me from doing it entirely simply, of course.

Square bag for a square game

Well, Terraria isn't as overwhelmingly square as Minecraft, but...um...

Yeah.

I made another bag.

I can hear the music now (I mean, not just because it's playing on a computer in the next room.)

There are sewing bloggers who make beautiful purses. I am not one of them.

I didn't even realize I was going to make a purse this weekend.  I just stumbled across a set of prints I'd forgotten about wanting to combine and decided I would Do Something with them right away.

The first impulse was to sew a skirt--of course it was.  It always is.  Which means I have...several...mixed print skirts.  So maybe not a skirt this time.

"Y'know," said that voice of ill-conceived impulses, "You haven't made any purses for a while..."  And I hadn't--checking file dates on photos, it was 2011, and it was this one

made during my PIPING I CAN DO PIPING phase.  Also before the whole "Hmm, I might very well be goth, huh" thing.

As with the few purses I'd made before, there had been a lot of planning and measuring and consideration for exactly what things I would be carrying in this purse.

The purse I just finished...not so much.