Dust covered sewing machine

It’s now September and I realized this past weekend I have not done any sewing in a few months. My poor machine and fabric pile feel neglected I am sure.

Not to say I have not been enjoying the fruits of my previous projects, I have! Lots of traveling the this summer and generally enjoying the lovely summer weather. I am at my best in the warm sun so I have crammed as much into July and August as possible. June was Scandinavia and while I LOVED seeing Norway, Sweden and Denmark it was not warm or even sunny most the time.

I have enjoyed wearing the sundress I made this spring, it’s quickly become my go to item for working around the house and gardening. I must admit not having to wear a bra with it is very liberating in the heat. I’ve used the heck out of my wheelchair handle bag and seat cover. I love the heck out of these things.

But now fall is coming fast and it’s time to focus on the holidays and gift giving. I already have plans and fabric purchased so I am ready to get to it when the weather turns cooler.

Hope you had a wonderful and productive summer as well 🙂

Pants, we made PANTS!

One of the things on my list of projects for the first part of the year was a pair of sleep pants for my loving husband to wear on our Norway cruise this summer.  Something fun that fit with the trip but was still soft and warm for cold damp nights. 

Finding fabric my dear husband liked that worked with the pattern we bought was the first problem.  Nothing too thick, not too thin, not girly but yet still fun with bonus points for Disney/nautical print.  Yeah Olaf from “Frozen” would be great but it was all the wrong fabric or a bit…girly for him.  Settled on dark blue with white anchors.  Works great, can’t see through them on those quick late night runs to the hot cocoa machine but still FUN for a cruise.  Hubby loved how soft and cozy the fabric felt-WIN!

We have had a heck of a time getting these pants done, from buying the wrong sized pattern to being intimidated by the whole thing.  I freely admit there have been moments I looked at the fabric with it’s pattern sitting on top just waiting to come to life and thought to myself “I can just go BUY sleep pants from Disney, they are even on SALE” but I said I would make them with the hubster and now that it’s over I am so proud of what we did.

I must say right now we have crappy luck with patterns, even “easy” ones assume you have enough experience to figure out the missing information or steps.  I think we sewed and then seam-ripped these pants three times before we figured out what we were doing wrong.  Hubby is an expert seam ripper, I just jab myself and bleed all over the place.  Division of labor  and knowing one’s skills is important!  All in all once we truly got down to putting the garment together it went relatively quickly.  A few scraps of fabric became something right before our very eyes and that was pretty darn cool.

I learned I need to learn more about hemming pants, I eye balled these and got them pretty darn close but it was a total fluke they turned out OK.  After all they are sleep pants so folks are not looking too closely.  I will pay more attention to the cording I pick for drawstrings, the thick cotton the pattern called for was a PITA to thread through the space left and it’s just too thick for the feel of the pants.  Thinner and smoother is key and finding a good way to make shoe lace type ends on cording would be a huge plus.  Though the red cording was a great color choice, the contrast really pops on the dark blue background.

All in all very happy, I may or may not make myself a pair though I will have to figure out how to modify the pattern to fit my shape, “unisex” does not work for curvy very well. The best part, the hubster is wearing them around the house and making sure I know he loves them.  Happy wife

Project plans for 2015

A simple list of projects we want to tackle in 2015.  The list is simple, the projects may be more exciting than we think knowing us.

– Lounge/sleep pants for our Norway cruise.  We want to stay warm sitting on the balcony watching the world slip by right? Mostly for him but making matching, likely Disney themed, is not out of the question. Never tried sewing with fleece so this might be a good time to try.

– Rain slicker for the dog.  The dog’s slicker is too small and does not have “mudflaps” aka undercarriage coverage nor is it really very water proof so new slicker.  The dog hates to get wet, we hate to clean her up after her twice daily walks so win for everyone.  I am thinking this will be more complicated than the sleep pants but she wont care if the sewing is akimbo just a bit.

– 20 some hair dodads to give as gifts on our cruise.  I found the most amazing Mickey damask fabric for headbands or scarves.  This should be pretty simple just a lot to sew.

– More table runners.  Seems the one I made my sister is too short though it fits her TV stand.  I think I will make some to coordinate with the seasonal napkins I made this past year.

– More napkins.  I need spring and summer themed ones, very easy but can get mind numbing if I do a bunch at once.

– Cane bags.  My sister wants a couple of bags for her folding cane so she can slip it in larger bags when not in use without getting grime on stuff.  Should be pretty easy when she sends me the size she needs. Might make myself a couple as well to hang on the wheels when traveling.

– Modify my wheelchair seat covers. The ties did not work in some of the locations we put them, cut those off and find better ways of attaching.

– Blanket. Maybe look at creating a lighter but warmer/water repellant blanket for my legs while on wheels. Current blanket is too bulky and not water repellant.  Norway is going to be hard on my body so every little thing helps.

Wow with all of this list done it’s more than I thought we had planned! Most of this is stuff to get done in the first few months of the year so I guess this weekend it’s time to pull back out the machine and get to work.  Off to the fabric store…

Travel sewing, it was a thing this summer

So we like to travel, explore the world and take in new experiences whenever we can.  This frequently is problematic as I am handicapped and rely on wheels part time.  So we came up with the idea of personalizing whatever wheels we are using and make them more functional.  Cool lets make a fun and functional seat cover.  Easy enough right?  I figured there would be lots of examples online but I was wrong.  I did not want just a cushion to sit on or bags that looked very…grandmotherly.  I wanted FUN!  Heck the big trip this summer was a Disney Cruise and we are the biggest kids (without kids) around.

So we created our own padded classic Mickey & Minnie Mouse seat and back cover.  No pattern, no examples to draw from just an idea and lots of late night head scratching.  We learned a lot from this seat thing: working with batting, making ties, valuing form AND function and many others.  Good stuff!  I am not sure we can easily document what we did, I wish we had while we were doing it, but we are proud of our work.

The day before we were to leave out for Orlando we realized we needed some sort of bag for the back of the chair and nothing in CVS or other quick places worked.  I did not want my big backpack on the back but something small and easy to hold a folding cane, a water bottle and some small odds and ends.  We actually whipped up a cute little bag to hang between the hand bars in less than an hour.  Again no pattern but a few photos online of things others had made.  Again why so grandmotherly for the vast majority???  I am a young…ish active woman I want fun and color and style.

Having a basket of left over fabric was a big help as we used basic red and black fabric and that worked great with the classic Mickey and Minnie Mouse of the other items we made.  Nothing fancy, if it got lost or taken it was not a huge loss, it was light weight and easy.  SCORE!

We got many compliments on our creations while on our trip and the fun fabric invited others to speak to us rather than the usual “the person in the chair is now invisible”.  The TSA guy in DC was very impressed with whole seat cover and wanted to know how hard it was to make. Any time TSA is not being a PITA is a big plus in my book.  I was a person and not a body or problem for them to deal with. The batting and fabric kept the plastic seat from feeling gross and sweaty on my body, a huge plus in Nassau.  The chair stood out so it was easy to spot being unloaded from buses and planes.  The bag ended up being invaluable holding all sorts of stuff including a matching scrunchie to keep my long hair out of the way.  These items will definitely be going with us on our other trips.

So I guess this post really is about us having a need, feeling creative and creating a solution from scratch.  We learned, we laughed, we argued but it was fun.

Wheelchair seat cover

Wheelchair bag