Laminated Cotton Into a Raincoat

It's always good to try something new!  Miss V's birthday is in May, so I wanted to make her something that she'd like, but something I hadn't tried before--voila, a raincoat.

I'd seen Amy Butler's raincoat patterns previously, so wanted to use the kids' one to make a raincoat.  They're sized in 3, 5, 7, and then in straight numbers, so I chose a 7 to give a bit of growing room.

 I found a good deal on laminated cottons at www. fabric.com, and it came on this large roll--bet the person delivering it wondered what I had ordered.  As you can see, the fabric is a bright cotton, girly print that was then laminated.  I also bought a teflon foot for my machine, which was a necessity, for sure.  The lining, which shows only at the neckline here, was a white cotton background with very small multi-colored dots that pretty much matched the colors of the laminated fabric.

Since I hadn't worked with this stuff before, I actually signed up for a class.  Truth be told, I'd missed one offered earlier offered  by one of my American Sewing Guild friends, so I begged her to offer another one so I could do this before V's big day.  She did and another sewing buddy signed up and made a size 3.

Laminated cotton is an interesting fabric to sew as there isn't much (if any) give as you're putting pieces together.  You can't pin into it (so you use hair clippies), you have to use a longer stitch length (for fewer penetrations into the stuff), and you're best off to have a machine where you can use both a teflon foot and the walking foot or built in walking foot motion.  Even with all that, it still is sticky sometimes.  The hardest part was making the belt loops and button loops because they were so narrow.  I have some really light tearaway stabilizer from my embroidery projects, and had to use it to help those little pieces feed through.

One other thing I did before it all got put together was to embroider Miss V's name inside on the lining.  I wanted to make sure if she left it somewhere they could tell who it belonged to.  When she outgrows it and K or E wear it, it still has their last name.

All in all, it was a really fun project!

Kit and Ruthie Have New Pajamas

Kit's jammies aren't really too new, but Ruthie's are hot off the sewing machine.  I had the pants done earlier, but Miss V really, really wanted to have new jammies for Ruthie, so what's a Grandma to do?  Now time to put the three of them to bed.

Shopping trip

I had to go to the dentist this week.  I imagine, like most people, it isn't always the most fun thing to do.  There's a catch here, though.  My dentist happens to be in the same city as one of my favorite website fabric shops, and when I go there I can stop in and shop in person!  Banberry Place (www.banberryplace.com) has terrific fabrics, most of which are from European sources.  The thing that fist drew me to the store was the huge number of knit fabrics that Corie had available.  A couple of years ago it was almost impossible to find any of these types in fabric stores.  I'm glad to say, that a few are available today, but not to the extent that this vendor has.

As you can see, I didn't go away empty handed.  I ended up with a couple of solids to make either shorts or capris for the girls and four prints for shirts or dresses.  I actually bought more for me than the grands this time, which is unusual.  I recently made up Kwik Sew 2900 for myself and really liked it, so plan to do some spring and summer t-shirts.  I bought some cute ribbon, too, to add to either doll clothes or outfits for the girls.

Kit Has a Quilt

I finally got Kit's bed quilt finished.  I took leftover squares from V's big bed quilt and cut them into four smaller squares.  I sewed them into a 7 square by 12 square quilt, then added a border of 1" blue fabric.  The quilting was done with a pink variegated thread by Superior Threads that I used on the bed sized one.  The binding even matches V's bed quilt, and the best part is I get to do it all again because Kit has a trundle bed, and of course I don't want to forget one for Ruthie.   It's a someday project as in someday I'll get to it.  Funny thing, though,  V's kindergarten class is studying the letter Q and she had to find five things that started with Q, so of course we used this picture!

Five Days of Sewing

I really can't believe what you can get done when you just get to sit down and sew!  What a luxury!  Now I can't wait to do it all again next year--or maybe before then if we can get another retreat together.  The creative energy that happens when you get a group of people who love to turn what's in their imagination into reality is really something!

Aunt Maggie came a day and a half early, so the day before we left for the retreat we sat down and had a sew fest.  I quilted all 8 of the placemats I'd pieced at last year's retreat while Maggie created pillowcases.  I'd been cutting out things to take with me, and I embroidered the names on the stocking cuffs so they would be ready to sew.  Never before had I planned out what I was going to do in such detail, and for the most part, it really paid off.  Of course there's always the elastic that was left at home and the ribbing that got cut 90 degrees off that brought some projects to a halt before they were finished. 

We got to the retreat about noon on Thursday, and unloaded (a real chore). I wanted to get pants sewn for the girls, so Miss E got the purple cord (remember, she LOVES both  the word and the color purple) and a deep rose cord for Miss K.  I had also embroidered hearts on denim for back pockets for Miss V.  All that's miss in these now is the hems, and I need to see the girls for those.  I started a heart shirt to match Miss V's denims, but the aforementioned ribbing that was cut wrong brought that to a screeching halt.  Something to finish this week.  I also made of blue stretch pants that aren't pictured because they don't have elastic yet that are from the same pattern I made the girls' mother a long, long time ago!  Yeah for Stretch & Sew.  I learned a lot of good techniques for working with knits from those patterns, and that was pre-serger days.  I'm constructing the top totally on the serger now and it is so much faster--love my cool tools.  The first evening I put binding on five of the eight placemats , but my fingers got tired so I moved on to another project, so three more will be done later.

I also remembered Kit and Ruthie while I was there.  They  get to share both denim and aqua stretch pants which allows them to dress like their Mom. Ruthie  got a new dress, too.  The best thing, though, is the quilt top made from scraps from Miss V's big girl bed quilt that will fit on the trundle bed they share that turned up at Christmas.  There's enough backing fabric from the line to match, and I even have matching binding.  There's an evening of quilting in my near future, and then another to add binding, I'm sure.  I'll have to use the rest for a blanket for the trundle bottom bed.

A few other projects were started--a new set of placemats are being pieced, a sweatshirt for  me that seems a bit big, but I'll probably finish and wear it, and a pair of "surprise" pants I found all cut out, from who knows when, and decided to sew up.  I need to make them shorter, but they will be a nice pair of navy stretch capris when spring finally arrives.  All in all, a very constructive time shared with good friends.  A true retreat in every sense of the word!

Sewing Weekend Here I Come!

While January has never been my favorite month of the year, mostly due to the fact that I HATE to be cold, it holds one distinct pleasure not found in any of the other eleven months--my ASG sewing retreat.  I dream about this retreat all year, because it's just like one big sewing party doing something I love to do so much.  Add good friends who also have the sewing bug to the mix and you get an all time favorite pass time that doesn't involve family.

Getting ready for the retreat can be quite an endeavor!  For those of you who don't know me well, the first task is to clean off the cutting table so I can use it for its intended purpose--cutting out projects.  It took me a full day to get everything I had stacked on it put away so it could be used, but I managed to do it.  Then I started cutting out items.  Since I sew for three small girls as well as myself, I started with some items for them, like pants and shirts, and Christmas stockings.  Yes, I said Christmas stockings.  Misses E & K have the baby ones I made, but they need big kid ones like Miss V, so I went through my Christmas fabric stash and picked out two prints I really like so I could make their stockings.  I cut out five pairs of pants, two tops, and will continue to cut today so that I don't run out of things to do.

Something else you have to do is pack what you think you'll need because you don't get a chance to come home and there isn't a fabric store you can visit at the lake.  Last year I just worked on quilting projects, but this year since I'm sewing clothes I'll need a serger as well as my sewing machine.  As I cut projects, I got the thread, elastic, zippers and any other things I might need to work with.  I also wound at least one bobbin per project so I could just go from one thing to another.  I remembered to pack a variety of needles since I'll be sewing denim, knits, cottons and who knows what else before I'm done.  I have a box with scissors and bobbins and markers and chalk and a brush to clean the machine between projects.  I'll have my bright light and my favorite sewing table and chair, too.  It's like a move, really, but it is so worth it!  Stay tuned to see what I have done when I return.

Pajama Day at School

Miss V's school had a pajama day the last day they had school in December, and it must have made quite an impression on her, but come to think about it, I guess if I had ever gotten to wear my pajamas to school it would have been memorable for me, too.  Between Christmas and New Year's I made pajama pants for both Kit and Ruthie, so when V got here she immediately dressed them in their pajamas and reenacted pajama day at school.  Then, after school, she put them in their karate outfits and reenacted her karate class complete with Ruthie being sent to the office for some offense.  Don't you just love listening to kids!  Art Linkletter was right, they do say the darndest things!