Another pair of pants

Also from my Hancock fabric stash. It's the same pattern as the last pair, different fabric. I'm excited because I think I have enough of this fabric left to make a Downton Duffle coat, and it would be really cute with plaid fabric lining. The pants are a little big, but I'm expecting/hoping the elastic will shrink up a little in the wash.

They are almost identical to these Hanna Andersson cords on sale for $24.

The Hancock Fabric Sew-a-thon: Hooded Sweatshirt

Since I invested so much into fabric when Hancock Fabrics was going out of business, I am going to chronicle my creations with this sew-a-thon. The temple dress I sewed was from the first visit once I found out it was going out of business.

I saw this pink and white striped fleece stuff a lot and it never sold. I bought it when Janet was here visiting this summer. We went back the day before she left (I think) and it and all the other variety (gray with pink and green argyle) was all gone.

I figured I could sew myself a hooded sweatshirt.  I took the sweat pants and sweatshirt pattern that Sarah used to sew her wonderful fleece pants from Mom's stash of patterns, so I knew I didn't need a pattern. I just hoped it would be easy.

With the weather being cooler on occasion, I thought it was good time to sew up the sweatshirt. I used the unisex pattern and added the women's hood. Super easy! I was going to use ribbing for the cuff and a waistband, but that was going to require a trip to one of the fabric stores. I didn't want to leave the house. I was still in my pajamas at 11am.

The final product is awesome! I will definitely use the pattern/general instructions in the future. It really was easy to sew. Too bad Janet didn't buy any of it to sew herself one!

I really tried hard when I was cutting it out to get the lines to match up, but some how I didn't get it to work. Oh well. I don't really go that many places, so it will just fine.

Jack-o-lantern baskets

Every year when I take out the Halloween decorations, Brian reminds me how much he loves his jack-o-lantern basket that his aunt made for him 25 years ago, and he mentions how cool it would be if I made some like his for the kids. Every year I brush off the hints because it's too much work when I am already working on costumes. This year I actually looked at it and realized it wouldn't be that hard, plus I'm not sewing costumes. So, I took on the challenge.

I looked at buying a pattern, but it didn't seem worth it. The closest pattern I found I still would have modified a lot to get it to look like this one. With some Google skills, I found a blog where someone made one just like Brian's, and it included a free tutorial of sorts. I used the measurements that it gave, but I ended up changing some things anyway because the measurements didn't work out perfectly. I probably would have been fine just winging it. 

See how lopsided the smile is on the right one. That was the first one I did, and I learned that it is much, much easier to sew the face on before you sew all the pumpkin pieces together in a sphere. I ended up accidentally sewing the back to the front with the extremely tight zigzag stitch and it made a huge mess and ended with a very crooked smile. Lesson learned. The second try turned out much better. See below. 

I really like the lining fabric. This was pretty much the perfect use for it.