blindfold

So, I made the kids a each a sleeping mask in preparation for a trip where we would have a couple of late night flights.  Who knew they would want to wear them around... all the time.... 'cause it's fun just seeing how far you can get around blind.  I sorta forgot about the seam allowance so they are a bit small, but still very effective!

Seraphic tee... the next pair

Well, this is the best I could do to get the kids to show-off their shirts... they are happy to wear them though!  G's is a double sided knit, with little pink dots on the inside (she likes the sleeves rolled up to show them off).  O's is a nice light stripe with orange sleeves.  The light-weight stripe feels nice, but it was sort of a pain to sew without any seam tape.  It rolled up a lot, which made the collar a bit of a trial.  I made secret pockets matching the front one on the inside!

Figgy's Seraphic Tee... or adventures in sewing with knits

 So I took the plunge and bought Figgy's online pattern for this awesome raglan tee.  Last weekend I took both kids to the fabric stores up on Alberta and they chose these pretty awesome knits from Modern Domestic.  After a few days I got the gumption up to lay out the pieces and trace out the 4/5 for Grace and the 8/9 for Owen.  Frankly, that was the worst part, I was really hoping to just get the pattern on large format, but it is new, and I am impatient so...

 And knits!  Upon the advice of folks upon mentioning venturing into the knit world, I used the walking foot on my machine and a ball point needle and it actually went pretty smoothly!  Grace's sleeves are a little short because I did two of the same side (I should have thought it through, or the directions could have been more explicit in stating that they should be reversed... as a newbie I am not that good at thinking ahead.)

 It was a relatively easy assembly, they look pretty cute, AND the kids love them.  WIN WIN WIN!  The blue cotton is an awesome double sided affair that is so soft, I just reversed it for the dark blue.

Just a few other notes.  One of the reasons I tried this is because I discovered how to access my stretchy stitches on my sewing machine and made a quick nightshirt/dress for Grace that doesn't get worn at all.  BUT it stretches.  So I was happy.  I did the equivalent of a stretchy strait stitch on G's shirt, and it is okay, but at the hem it doesn't say very flat and sort of flares and rolls up.  It looks okay, but it is not great.  The pattern sort of casually mentions a twin needle, and I thought maybe I had one that came with my machine that had never been used because it looks hard.  Turns out... not hard at all.  Used it for Owen's hems and they are beautiful!  Just thread a second spool right on through there and sew in a strait stitch (the manual says not with a stitch width greater than 4), I did a 0 'cause it is a strait stitch, so that seemed fine and it was just like the pros.  One fold up, and the double stitch caught almost the whole hem, and it lies nice and flat.