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8 in 2013 :: Uptown Girl jacket

As I'm going through old posts to link to the previous jacket I made from this pattern, it becomes obvious to me that...I never blogged it! Well, too late now. But there's at least a photo of it in action in this post.

So! This is my fourth, unless I can't count, which is entirely possible, 8 in 2013 sewing project. (For previous projects, go here, here and here.)

The pattern is the Uptown Girl Jacket, and I adore it. Two years ago, when I first acquired the pattern, it wasn't available here in the US. (Or at least not in any way I could easily get it.) So a friend, who had made the jacket for her daughter, let me borrow hers. But now, you lucky folks, it's available as a PDF! Yay! And, oh the excitement, it now comes in larger sizes! Hooray!

Last time, I made the size 2 for E, shortly before her 2nd birthday. This year, I made her the size...4? Or 5? Oh, how easily we forget... Anyway, I made it a trifle larger than was strictly necessary, because I didn't get around to making it until rather late in the spring and I wanted to make sure it would fit through the summer and into fall. Perhaps even into spring of next year? We shall see...

The only change I made to the pattern was to omit the hood. I made the hood last year and we never really used it - it was too shallow to stay on her head properly. I didn't feel like re-drafting the hood part of the pattern (and would I even know how?) so I simply left it off. No big loss to us - she's got plenty of hats, if she's actually chilly, and for rainy days she has a raincoat with a nice deep hood.

We spent a good long while in the fabric store, trying to come to a decision about fabric that we both could live with. Oy. She specifically wanted it to be black and pink. The black was easy enough - it's just a simple solid black flannel. The pink was...a challenge. She kept picking out pink fabrics that were probably quite lovely to a nearly 3 year old, but which I knew would absolutely drive me insane if I had to sew with them for any length of time. Not to mention being seen in public with a child in a pink jacket adorned with garish birds or giant flowers. Silly? Perhaps. But I do have my (somewhat arbitrary) standards. We finally settled on this nice pink and white print, that actually somewhat resembles the aqua print from last year's jacket.

Surprising me, she prefers to wear the black side facing out, with the pink only showing where the sleeves are rolled. Maybe the pink lining is like her fancy little secret...

8 in 2013 :: owl pillow

This was not intended to be my third 8 in 2013 project. In fact, I didn't even know this was going to be a project at all! The story is this: I took E to gymnastics one Saturday morning like I always do and on the way home we stopped at JoAnn's so I could pick up a couple things I needed. While waiting to get fabric cut, E spied this half yard of pink owl fabric in the clearance bin and just had to have it. For under a dollar, how could I argue?

She played with the fabric for a few weeks and then one morning, I asked her if she'd like me to make it into something for her. "Yes!" she said, "A pizza!"

OK then.

I gave her some options. Skirt? No, a pizza. Drawstring bag? No, a pizza. Finally, a pillow? Yes.

We have a winner!

It was incredibly simple - I simply folded the fabric in half, right sides together, and sewed it up, leaving a hole for stuffing. Then I flipped it right side out and sewed a little border around it, making sure to leave the hole for stuffing. I stuffed it with enough stuffing to make it puffy but not overly filled, as I wanted the pillow to be flat-ish when she actually got around to lying on it. (This was an excellent excuse to use up a whole bag of polyfil that I bought years ago for stuffing, among other things, the black and white pillow in the photo below!) Once filled, I sewed up the hole and voila! Perfect toddler pillow! The whole thing took perhaps 10-15 minutes, with a baby to tend to simultaneously.

I love quick, satisfying projects like this - they're so gratifying! Especially when the intended recipient is in awe and "love love loves it." (Her words.)

Unfortunately, I'm about out of quick projects for my 8 in 2013...anyone want to come help me bind a large lap quilt?

8 in 2013 :: brown pajamas

This is the second of my 8 in 2013 projects - brown flannel pajamas for M. And this is an example of my 8 in 2013 projects being defined by being finished this year...not necessarily started. These PJs took an embarrassingly long time to make. I picked up the flannel (in three colors!) on Black Friday of...2011. Yes. Over a year ago. *ahem* I also picked up the pattern - Butterick 5537 - at the same time for 99 cents.

Now, the problem with this pattern or, possibly, the problem with sewing things for M, is that nothing fits him. He's...very tall. So in order to have these jammies fit him, I bought the pattern for the XL-XXXL. Great! Except that M is extra tall, but not extra wide. So, while they fit around him, the length is strange. And part of this must have to do with the pattern itself - otherwise, the lengths would all be too short. Right? The length of the shirt is fine. Possibly too long even. But the length of the sleeves? Way too short. As you can see, I didn't even hem them. I'll need to do something about those raw edges, but I didn't want to subject my husband to 3/4 length sleeves on otherwise warm and cozy pajamas in the middle of winter in Maine.

The actual cutting and sewing went fairly smoothly. It's not a complicated pattern, it just took me forever to finally get around to it. (And, in all fairness, I did sew the pajama pants quite some time ago. It was the shirt that was missing...) It's a pretty straightforward pattern - sleeves, two fronts, back...and some weirdness with the collar pieces that may or may not have had some degree of operator error. I'll let you know when I sew the next set...

Because remember? I bought three lengths of flannel! So, coming up soon (hopefully sooner than next year...) will be two more sets of pajamas! Stay tuned for blue and green...

8 in 2013 :: snuggie monster

I've created a monster.

A snuggie monster.

What?

Backing up to the beginning... For the first of my finished 8 in 2013 projects, I've made a giant snuggie. Or slanket. Whatever you want to call it, it's a warm blanket with sleeves.

Wait, 8 in 2013?

Backing up further... A Twitter friend decided to start an 8 in 2013 project. (Read more about it here.) The general idea is to do 8...things...in 2013. Myself, I decided to finish 8 sewing projects. (Notice I didn't say start...) These sewing projects will be big and small, some are already started, some are only planned. But I decided to tag along, as are a bunch of other folks, and try to challenge myself to complete eight sewing projects.

Why sewing? Eight knitting projects would frankly just not be a challenge. And I have neither the time nor the money to travel to eight new places. Since it's taken me 6 months to read a handful of books, it's probably unrealistic to read eight books. (Sad, I know...) But sewing? Sewing is something I love to do but am finding it hard to find time for. As H gets older, it gets easier and I expect it to continue getting easier throughout the year.

If you want to join in, read the blog post I mention above, check out the Flickr group, or search Twitter for #8in2013.

M is always cold, so I decided to make him a snuggie. I ventured out into the wildness of Black Friday at my local JoAnn Fabrics and picked up something like 5 or 6 yards (yes, yards) of fleece for super cheap. Finally, after some measuring and finagling and googling, I sewed him a snuggie. It was incredibly easy and super fast. Basically, it's just a giant rectangle with two holes for arms and the sleeves sewed in. I more or less followed the instructions here, not that instructions are really needed for a project of this complexity. Fleece doesn't fray, so there was no hemming. I left a lot of fabric at the top because M likes to bury his head in the blankets, so I thought he might like to do it in his snuggie too. And it's ridiculously long, because a) he's very tall and b) I wanted to make sure he could cover his feet if he wanted to while he was sitting down.

So what was the verdict? It's a big win!