Weighty

 I have recently started following Buried Diamond.  I like the sewing projects a lot, but it was the post about making pattern weights with resin that really set something off within me.  I have been interested in resin for years, but nothing quite made me want to finally acquire the necessary materials like seeing those pattern weights.

And it just happened that JoAnn had a big blowout weekend sale that did not include resin but did include a 60% off coupon that I could use on that full-price resin, along with a 40% off coupon I could use for a basic 4-cavity round soap mold (and another 40% off coupon put toward some moldmaking compound so I can make my own designs for jewelry use in the unknown future.)

And so I jumped right into my first resin project ever, with four layers each and loads of research into when the best time to add the embeds and the glitter and the next layers, and it being a lovely day so I could open EVERY window and put a window fan set to exhaust in the nearest one.

I demolded them the next morning and here they are

Blues

 I made the striped knit shirt two posts ago fairly randomly, and the blue corduroy shorts in the last post I made specifically to go with the striped knit shirt, and the temperature dropped a bit so I felt like today would be a good day to debut the ensemble.

Then I messed up the light levels for the pictures, so...blurry.

I ran errands today and 2/3 of the cashiers complimented the outfit!

I'm mostly happy with it--next time I make the shorts, I need to fiddle with the crotch curve, because things conform a bit in places where they should be skimming, but it's promising enough that there probably will be a next time.

Blue Cord Shorts

 When I got KwikSew 3854, it was for view A (shorter version)

When I looked up reviews of the pattern, I discovered that view B was what most people wanted out of it, some to the point of being...ah...very disparaging of view A.  This did serve to make me maybe possibly consider making view B at some point, but determined to make view A first.

Stripe Knit Shirt in Blue (and other colors)

 I can resist most of the fabrics that show up in the mill-end pre-cut bins at Walmart, but not all of the fabrics that show up in the mill-end pre-cut bins at Walmart.  The main saving factor is my dislike of wearing synthetics, but that...can be overridden by the cloth being really really cool...

So I bought a 2 yard for $4 roll of very probably synthetic knit in an interesting stripe (and texture, although that texture is on the purl side and I can never think of that as the face of a knit, so...just stripe) in shades of dark blue and burgundy and cream and black.

And when I took off the label and unrolled it, I discovered that there was only one yard.  Even at 60" wide, that still severely limited my project options.  I decided, yesterday afternoon, to figure out what to do with it, and turned to a pattern I've had for a long time--so long that it's been partly cut in a very small size: New Look 6068 (and...I had honestly forgotten that I'd used it for projects a few years ago).  But!  Not all of the views use the same basic bodice pieces, and the mixn'n'matchin' was obvious

View C, with the little sleeves, in my current size, plus the neckline and collar from View A (adapted from being cut in a smaller size.)

Well, y'know...more or less...

Zippy Zips

 So I had two decent-size rectangles of the Ikea fabric left over from the scrap-filled floor pillow(ish) project, and apparently what my brain wants to do with scraps of Ikea fabric is make zip bags.

So.

Here are two more zip bags made from Ikea fabric.

The pattern placement turned out as good as it would have if I had been making these intentionally--well, on the one with the bird, at least.  The other is...minimalist.

See?  Even the print on the back of the bird is a nice assortment and distribution of elements.  The other one is...a void. And what you can see on the other side of that one in the first photo is all of the print on it.  I think it's funny.

They both use yellow zippers that I remember Mom buying in bulk in a weird fabric store in the very early 1980s.  No lining, just serged the very few seams, so these were super fact to make.

No ideas yet what I'll do with them, but, hey: I'll have em when I do figure that out.

Quick Halloween Shirt (Not Terribly Well Thought Out)

 I've wanted to make another large-bow version of McCall's 5675, like I did with the pillowcase shirt project, but this time with fabric that...wasn't so excessively synthetic.  And maybe in a Halloween print?  And I wanted the whole project to be quick.

I managed to do all that, and probably will do a project with the same descriptors again, but I'm unsure about the wisdom of my choices in this particular instance.

Scrap-filled Floor Pillow...ish

 So, I recently finally dealt with all the fabric that had been in plastic tubs in the garage since I made the effort to downsize and organize fabric in my stash after receiving all of the friend's relative's destash in 2019.  I donated the usable yardage, keeping some I decided maybe I would use after all, and had a large trashbag left of scraps of fabric that were not suitable for patchwork or small crafts, or that were Very Unpleasant Textures, and also a lot of pieces of clothing that had had parts cut off in unrepairable ways.

I do know that there are institutions that will recycle fabric, but, if there are any around here, their web presence does not make that obvious.  I was almost ready to just sigh and throw it all away...but...wait...

So I looked up floor pillows stuffed with fabric scraps and found that that is indeed a thing.  I shuffled through my fabric and found two small pieces of decorator weight Ikea fabric (that I think cane from two different people's destashes.)  I measured nothing, just started ripping things to what seemed to be good sizes.

A lot of the projects I'd looked at had piping, so after some waffling, I got one of the bias tapes I'd made randomly and filled it with textured acrylic yarn I'd thrifted, made 4-ply with the aid of a drill.  Family members gave me some odd looks while I was doing that.

I basted the piping to the edges of the top and bottom pieces

Inserted a lapped zipper so I wouldn't have to deal with stitching anything closed later

Assembled it and started stuffing

It needed more than the scraps I'd had in the trash bag, and will probably benefit from more stuffing in the future, but, hey, that should be easy enough with the zipper, right?

Yes, it's a big lumpy mess, but it's also just the right height to put your feet on when you're sitting on the couch

Husband says the weight means it'd probably be a good punching bag, too...