Girly Gifts

Finished up two girly gifts for Scott's niece today:

A sheer poncho (to wear over t-shirts; we're giving her two in coordinating colors from Old Navy)...

...and a purse made of glittery pink fur, lined with hearts, and a pink chain for a strap!

The poncho is Butterick #4545--incidentally the same fabric as on the little girl in view D! I made view C, which is a little longer, using french seams and a serger rolled hem (after a couple of hours of fighting with my serger, which was doing a perfect rolled edge until I rethreaded it in pink). The neck I did with single-fold bias tape as instructed, but I think it would have looked nicer with a self-fabric binding (the tape is a little heavy). Of course, I didn't want to work that hard, so it was a trade off. The bias tape actually looks nicer on the wrong side, so if I ever do this again, I may just put it on the outside. I'll be making this one more time this week, in a variegated fuschia fur for Scott's other niece.

The purse has to be the single cutest thing I have ever sewn! It's from McCall's Fashion Accessories #4727, view C. I pretty much followed the instructions on this one, except I used the pink hearts lining fabric on the inside flap instead of making it all fur, and topstitched it to make it nice and flat. I substituted a pink chain for the strap, and attached it by making loops out of coordinating bias tape (from the poncho-making stash), passing them through the last link in the chain and sewing them in where the strap ends would have gone. Naturally I forgot to leave the opening in the lining for turning, so I left an opening on the front edge while attaching the lining, and edge-stitched it closed. This had the desirable side effect of saving me from hand-stitching the inside lining! I skipped the butterfly embellishment on the flap, so now it just needs a big, fat, glittery button.

Now, whatever am I going to do with all this leftover pink glitter fur??

Aubrey's Little Jacket

So at my inlaws for Thanksgiving, Scott's 7-year old niece Aubrey recalls that I made her a fleece blanket that folded up into a drawstring backpack, and suggests that it would be really nice to have a shirt made out of that fabric because it's SO soft! Now, his nieces and nephew rarely talk to us (mostly because we're never around), so this tickled me pink, and I resolved to make her whatever I could squeeze out of the leftover fleece. Fellow sewer Lisa brought the perfect little button-up jacket pattern to class for me today. I had just enough fleece to cut all the pieces out if I added a center back seam instead of placing it on a fold. There was even enough to center the "girly-girl" design on each of the front panels, and a flower on each pocket (Lisa's idea).

I opted for view C, which has patch pockets and no collar. Since I was working with fleece, I eliminated all the steps for quilting and lining the jacket. Instead I used faux flat-fell seams (topstitching the seam allowance to one side), which had a nice, finished look. That was also Lisa's idea; she was full of them today! I adore topstitching and edgestitching, they hold everything together looking nice and flat and professional. The front and neck edges I finished with single-fold bias tape, a new technique for me which I really like. I probably should have used it around the bottom hem, too; it stretched and got a little wavy when I turned up the hem.

I'm still using the same spool of thread I used on the blanket last year, stretching it out by using a different shade of pink in the bobbin. I kind of feel like the biblical widow with the never-ending jar of oil; I was sure I'd run out halfway through the project, but there's just enough left to finish the sleeve hems! I'm going to raid the jar of buttons my mother-in-law gave me (it was her mother's) to see if anything matches; it would just be cool if the buttons came from Aubrey's great-grandmother's stash!

Off to L.A.!

I spent class today tidying up all the details on Hoth Leia I'd been putting off: belt loops and hems on the jumpsuit; closing up the gaps in the vest and tacking the necklines together; adding velcro to the boot straps and cutting them to the right length. As I type, everything is packed up in my trusty green Atlantic suitcase and ready to go! I've also packed up Jedi garb as a back-up costume for my friend Gabby, who's joining me from Phoenix.

If you're interested, I'll be audioblogging from the road on my main blog, Sojourn. Enjoy!