Butterick 4226: Stars gets a new coat.

Last time I made Stars a coat with Butterick 4226, I made the version with the collar.  This round I made it without so that it'd be reversible.  Both layers are polar fleece with the main layer having an appliqued star and patch sewn to the back. 

Side view with the main side out.  You can see the top stitching for the velcro strips.

This time I used strips of velcro instead of two large pieces, this allows me to adjust the size better.  The appliqued star is stitched with hand sewn blanket stitching and the patch is a military one found on ebay that says "Bring in the wolf".  Kind of fits his personality, lol.  The stitching took forever, but I like the effect.  There's also blanket stitching up where the collar would be at the neckline and on the belly bands.

Fuzzy shot, taken while chasing down a border collie with a camera...not the easiest task!

Okay, a better view.  Very superhero of him.

Stars had lots of fun running around being a superhero, defending the yard from cats, squirrels and the occasional jogger.  He's very conscious of his duties to protect against the forces of evil.

Stars giving his super bark.  Yes, in his mind there's him, Bolt and Superman.  In that order.

As you can see, I skipped adding the binding and instead opted to sew the two main layers together (with the belly bands in place) pillowcase style and then turn right side out.  The blanket stitching at the neck closes the whole thing off.  As the layers are polar fleece, there's no worry about fraying.

You can sort of see how the both the shoulder and belly bands wrap nicely around without getting in the way for movement or potty times.

Using velcro instead of snaps or buttons, not only makes it much easier to put on and fit snuggly, but Stars can also lay in it without any uncomfortable bumps.  By the way, this is the look he gives me when he's had enough of holding still and playing model.

 

B4226 is probably my TNT for Stars.  You can cut both layers, including collar pieces, in less than 30 minutes and, if you skip the binding, you can have one sewn up in less than an hour.  I have a few more already cut and ready for some much needed sewing time on Christmas gifts.

Stars loves this jacket--in fact, he gets very upset if you try to take it off of him!  Which incidentally is why you do not see photos of the reverse side, a lovely, bright multi-star print.  Oh well.

Did I see a squirrel?

Personalized Sewing Drawers

I am a big fan of personalizing one's space, maybe that comes from having the name Shayla which could never be found anywhere as a kid or maybe it comes from being squished in a small room with two sisters and zero personal space, anyway I love remaking things or just creating something new that represents me, especially for my sewing area.

Do you remember when I showed you this lucky thrift store find?

Turned out to be an Ikea drawer box, which sadly, they do not make anymore, and was just dying to be turned from bland into beautiful.  So after a bit of searching for some public domain designs, I found a bunch of fabulous children's book illustrations in primers and poem books from before 1922 (at least) to use.  Lucky me, I have a sister who is uber-talented at pyrography (wood burning) and traded her a vintage Singer sewing machine (her first real sewing machine, no, the toy one from childhood doesn't count... sniff, I'm so proud) in a sewing cabinet for some artwork.

Now check out my thrift store box...

You can see the natural color variations that come from the different bits of wood used when creating the box.  I love that little bit of quirkiness that wood has!

Gorgeous isn't it?!  And it is one of a kind!  I have two little wood boxes with children's book illustrations on them already, so I decided to stick with the theme--I just adore antique children's books.

Here's some closer views of the drawers:

Upper left drawer--currently holding my snaps, grommets, and hooks & eyes.

Upper middle drawer--currently holding doll/animal safety eyes and my sewing machine light bulbs which I always manage to misplace.

Upper right drawer--currently holding velcro.

Middle left drawer--currently holding my elastic, well some of it anyways.

Middle right drawer--currently holding my embroidery floss.

Bottom drawer--this one holds all my zippers, now they won't get bent!

When you consider that each drawer is only around three inches high, that's some crazy amount of detailing.  I tried to get images from similar time eras so that they would sort of coordinate. 

I also found larger images for the sides and top.  Here are the two sides:

This is me telling Stars, "You musn't keep running through my tulips!"

I just love this image of the little girl wading.  I wonder what she's looking for?

You can see how much little detail work there was on this one!

And the top:

 

I love swinging, so how could I resist this adorable image!

She also signed the bottom with a lovely little note.

 

 

I really think I got the better end of this trade.  My little thrift find is now an heirloom!  Have fun personalizing your sewing space!

 

 

I'm ba-ack!

Wow, did everyone else have a summer like I did?!  I sure hope not.  Mine was filled with people from a local organization and city giving us plenty of harassment and legal issues (with lots of stress to match it), not to mention the lies and slander, followed by a little over a month of double shifts at work.  Big yuck!  (Ironically, two of these individuals are running for political office and one even asked me to be sure and vote for her.  Ah, yeah, right.)  I didn't get any quilting done and hardly even touched my sewing machine--I had to dust it off!  Right now though everything is quiet, so I hope that means they are going to stop finally (if not, we've got plenty of documentation to stomp them). 

But, one of my quilting bees started up again in September--just the kick I needed to get back into what I enjoy and stop thinking about a bunch of jerks.  Woohoo for fabric joy!

September's block is called My Blue Heaven and is found over at Quilter's Cache.  It's a quick and easy block to make.  I cut the squares according to the size given, but rather than cut those in half and sew a bunch of triangles, I just drew a diagonal line corner to corner through the middle of each and then sewed a 1/4 inch from the line on each side, then cut down the line.  The block ends up just a smidge over 12 inches, so squares up to 12 even (not 12.5 inches, just so you are aware).

The block isn't squared up in the photo, but it would square up to 12 inches.

This block went to Michelle (A.quilter.2) who is making a quilt all in blues.  I think it'll look fabulous and am thinking of making one myself!

Glad to be back and I've got lots of fun things to show you, so stay tuned!