introducing snoodsnood™

After several variations of the snood, I have come up with a design that I love! All seams are covered, the fit is snug without being too tight, and it does the job well!

Here is my handsome Gasparo modeling the final version. :-)

And here is Jack.

Now my boys will have long, clean ears! And I have an idea to support our dog show habit. ;-)

head coverings for all

Since the pants went together so quickly, I was inspired to make a few other things that would go together quickly. Much to my husband's dismay, I have a fondness for head scarfs, so I made a few more. Here is one of them.

Another project I've wanted to do was snoods for my dogs. You see, when a long-eared dog puts their head down to eat from a bowl, their ears get dirty or even worse, get nibbled off. To keep that from happening, you put a snood on them.

There is no pattern for something like this, so I've had to make several prototypes to get it how I like it. Here is my unwilling model, Gasparo, with one of the first ones. He was not pleased that I woke him up to check the fit. This one is functional, but not quite where I wanted it to be.

I decided to sleep on it and try to work out the details.

so comfy!

After the dress disaster (of which I have been to frustrated to fix as of yet), I started on MPB Jeans Sew-along. I made a muslin of khaki twill. After working on it for more than a week and nearly completing it, I had DH try the pants on. Much to my dismay, they are too long in the rise. At this point, I have to rip out the entire inseam and make adjustments. *sigh*

So... I decided to put aside that project and make something for myself. Many years ago I bought a pattern for maternity pants. Nothing fancy, just glorified yoga pants, but it is the first time I have worked with knit. Thankfully it is an easy pattern and went together in one day. And I am feeling more comfortable with the serger.

These pants are sooooo comfy! I will be picking up more knit to make more pants as I plan on wearing these for the remainder of the pregnancy.
(I'll post pictures soon!)

Aaaaaaaaggggghhhhh!

I've spent the past week working on a dress for my oldest. Yes, a week... sometimes things take way longer when you have to stop after every seam to chase after a two year old. But, today I finally was nearing the end. I just needed her to try it on so I could mark the straps and bottom hem. However, as I zipped it up I realized that it doesn't fit. *cry* It's too tight in the bodice. Clearly I measured her wrong.

My first thought is to salvage the bottom of the dress and make it into a skirt. However, I am aware that I am emotionally compromised right now and put it aside to think about it for a while.

*sigh*

I have the fabric cut for my 'muslin' for the MPB Jeans Sew-along. I'll get started on that tonight.

finishing small projects

A few months ago my sister sent me three super cute dresses for my youngest. However, since she doesn't see the little munchkin all that often, she didn't know the little munchkin is, well, little. She'll have to grow into the shoulders, and since she will also be taller when it does fit better, I decided to add some length to one of them.

I picked up some lavender fabric with tiny white dots and added six inches to the hemline.

Here is my silly model with her altered dress. Her comment to the dress... "Oh, I love it!"

finished the 'starter' shirt

With the husband back home, I was able to finish up his shirt. I made button holes, sewed buttons and hemmed. All in all I learned a lot from this first shirt... such as how many things I'll do differently on the next one (and how very cool an automatic buttonhole foot is!). Which is the point of doing what is referred to as a 'muslin'.

I did not snap a photo of the finished product. The shirt is not my best work and he'll never wear it outside of the house. However, I have fabric ready for the next one. Hopefully I'll like it well enough to show it off.

In the meantime, I have other projects. I'll be working on the oldest child's dress and I'm participating in MPB Jeans Sew-Along. Stay tuned!