Periwinkle and red

So I thrifted a few yards of a...sorta...dusty periwinkle heavy knit, and decided I'd use some of it to make a hoodie for the kiddo, once again using Burda 9672

(yes, I know, the separating-zipper view is not the hooded view.  Minor quibble.)

 The only separating zippers in the appropriate length I had were white, gray, and bright red.  I couldn't decide between the white or gray, so I showed all of the options to the kiddo and let him decide.

He chose the red zipper.

Well...then...

Huh.

I'm sure he would have had no problem with a purely periwinkle hoodie with a red zipper, but my brain demanded that something else be done so the red zipper would 'make sense'...somehow.

Ah, but, I had about a half yard of a red double jersey knit!  As to what I did with it...

Scrappy

I like making patchwork...but generally only in the spirit of "use up this cloth you already have and probably won't use any other way."  This does extend to the tub full of scraps left over from other projects, of course...but...since most of my 'other projects' are 'making doll clothes,' which can use some rather small bits anyway, my scraps can be...small.

This still doesn't keep me from filling up a 53 gallon storage tub.

OK, actually, no--this is the scrap tub after scrounging through it enough to assemble (most of) a (roughly) 37" x 47" panel, plus four more 10" square patches.  I put it all together with some vaguely-coordinating cloth I thrifted in the form of a roll end cut-off (just visible in the lower left of the tub photo.)

And it looks like this (57" x 67")

...yeah, yeah, I go into projects like this with the expectation that there won't be enough of anything to make good proper patchwork blocks, with traditional designs, so I just...start sewing' stuff together.  Then I realize I could get into the "doll cloth" dresser and pull out larger pieces left over from other projects, which means I probably could have made proper patchwork patches, but...too late, la la...

I have an old sheet to use for the backing, but no batting and no real inclination to get it all put together, so it's folded up and put in the top of the cloth closet with the other patchwork blanket tops I've made and also have no idea when or if they'll ever be finished...

Arachnoleopard Cheer

A few months ago (what?  longer than "a few"?  surely not...) I posted this picture

with the note that I would post more about it later, after I gave it to the person for whom I (surprise!) made it.

...which I did a few months ago...  And now I'm remembering to make a post about it--the year's not done yet.

Don't be so angry little bird

I've decided--once again--that it's maybe time to stop acquiring random cloth and patterns and to start actually making things (well...non-doll things.  I'm still always sewing for dolls, as my Flickr shows.)

So, of course, I start with a re-fashioning of a thing I made a year ago...  The kiddo likes big piles of blankets, which is something we have in common, and I go through phases where I'm happy to sew lots of blankets.  I decided I'd use his too-small Angry Birds and Bad Piggies t-shirts to make a little t-shirt quilt...only...yeah.  I rushed it, and not a thing was on grain, and I tried to force it to align with the backing cloth...and it didn't...no matter how much stitching I did through all layers...

I don't think I ever showed it here, so...taadaa:

...and looking relatively nonwonky thanks to the magic of photography.  The camera lies.

I presented it to him and he immediately forgot about it, so I eventually--quietly--removed it from his blanket stash.  I didn't know what I'd do with it, but the time I'd taken to make the patchwork seemed to make it worth saving.

Since he loves jackets as much as he loves blankets, I decided I'd see if I could squeeze a jacket out of it, once the backing was removed, and I chose this pattern

which is from 1977 (and which I acquired in that gigantic grab bag'o'patterns from the summer.)  The kiddo likes hoodies, so I went with view 2...well...more or less...

Late August Thrift Cloth

So I've been putting little videos on YouTube with the intention of documenting doll things I've found and done, but, when it comes to reporting thrift finds, I can't help but want to show off the sewy stuff I find, too, and I brought home a nice handful of cloth this week, most of which were featured in the latest video (that still is such a weird thing to think about in reference to me.)  But, since me waving cloth around in a video isn't the best way to show off the cloth, and since anyone who might be here for the sewing, with no interest in the dolls, probably would like to see the cloth without enduring the dolly natter, I'm posting pictures of the cloth here.

Starting, as shouldn't be surprising given the directions my brain goes, with cloth that's not in the video at all.

Just a little thrift

Ventured to the out-of-the-way Goodwill yesterday, was confronted with a bin full of 49¢ patterns, managed to constrain myself to only four.

House Blouse

One of the patterns in that recent gigantic grab bag'o'patterns was McCall's 7956, a 1982 Laura Ashley shirt and jumper pattern.  Now, the jumper...no, it's not a thing I would wear, but the shirt looked intriguing, so I chose a print that Laura Ashley would very probably not have chosen and got started