Running With Scissors

Red Fleece Jacket for Fall

5:00 AM

A few different things inspired this jacket. I saw jackets at Target made out of sweatshirt fleece. I thought it was a good idea, a casual, comfy hoodie, but made with buttons to look a little nicer than a hooded sweatshirt, even though that's what it is.

Then I saw a coat from Anthropologie, which isn't on their website anymore, I should have saved the image. The coat I can't show you had the waist seam and the 3/4 seam on the sleeves.

So I got some sweatshirt fleece when it was 50% off and used a basic coat pattern I had to adjust for this coat. So far I really like it, I think my favorite thing about making my own jacket is the fact I can make the

sleeves long enough!

My family has really odd proportions. I have a short torso, then really long arms from my mom. Then I have these huge man hands with witch fingers from my dad. All of these traits together makes proportions like an ape or orangutan. In elementary your shorts had to be longer than your fingers, and the ends of my fingers almost seem to go to my knees, so there was stress back before bermuda shorts were popular.

So I've never had a jacket or coat with sleeves that actually made it to my wrist.

I think because of this, making my own jacket, these sleeves were going to be long enough and then some.

The pattern I used seemed to have a ginormous hood. I planned on making it smaller, but just went with it. It ended up have a huge hood, which is fine. It makes it kind of unique I guess when we pretend I wanted it that way. I lined the hood with charcoal yard dyed shirting that was on the clearance rack for $2.00/ yard. The rest of the jacket isn't lined, as this is a glorified hooded sweatshirt.

The back has the same waist seam, then to diagonal seams going up to the neck.

I decided to add pockets to the outside, and went with puffy rounded pockets. You can see I left a lot of the edges raw, the waist seam and 3/4 sleeve seam and around the pockets. I thought it would add a more casual look to the jacket.

So far, I've loved this jacket/ sweatshirt for fall. Keeps me warm without pulling out the big winter coat, and light enough for the warmer days. I think it's kind of cute too... for a hooded sweatshirt.

We were down visiting my mom and this is her porch filled with all the pumpkins she grew!

As kids we'd sell them, I think one year between myself and younger brother and sister (Lynette) each made over $50.00 which seemed awesome to us.

(his crusty face is what resulted from my mom telling him to make a scary Halloween face when she took the picture)

art & craft

How To Dye Fabric with Tea Bags

5:00 AM

art & craft

Lynette's Birthday Gift

5:00 AM

I am not a great quilter. I've made some quilts over the years starting with my first tie quilt in 7th grade, but I'm still learning and working on quilting. I have a lot of awesome quilters to look up to, I've shared a few of my mom's quilts: airplane bedspread, love quilt for the blind.

My family are purist quilters, quilting by hand on quilting frames. All my aunts and my mom will get together in my grandma's basement to all work on a quilt and chat. When you get married, Grandma Shirley and the aunts make you a ginanormous quilt with your names and wedding date.

As young girls, my cousins and I would learn to quilt, but it took a while to get it down before your stitching didn't get cut out. My grandma would say: "Who did these Frankenstein stitches?" meaning crooked, large, and uneven. So I feel like I've learned to be a decent quilter by hand, graduating up from the Frankenstein days, and I've had mutilated thumb and middle fingers in my day.

But creating a quilt from beginning to end is a lot different.

Also, not owning quilting frames limits me to machine quilting, something I'm a total novice at.

So this quilt:

I ordered a Moda layer cake of fabric for a quilt I hope to make for our living room, and as part of the order, I got to choose a free turnover pack--80 triangles of fabric.

Looking through my options of the bonus fabric pack, one collection caught my eye and reminded me of my little sister: Nostalgia by April Cornell.

So I got that and started planning this quilt for her birthday. I was so inspired by thinking of ideas for Lynette, I still haven't planned my quilt yet.

This little lap quilt used every single triangle of fabric from the turnover pack. I like to have some artistic aspect of my quilts lately, rather than just a geometric patterned quilt top. So I planned the large block to top the quilt: a couple in Paris meeting together under the trees with their bicycles, the Eiffel tower in the background. Very Lynette.

for info on applique, I used this starch applique tutorial for applique for quilts

link on making the thread drawings

The saying in french means the joy of living, and to me that phrase kind of made me think of the little moments in life where everything seems just perfect. Obviously if you were in Paris with your love, that would be a perfect day I think.

I liked the trees that go from applique to thread drawing, getting less and less detailed in the distance. I quilted leaves in the tree tops, and just straight vertical lines on the applique trunks.

So a quick little demo on the little quilt top:

SUPPLIES:

-turnover pack

-white fabric for strips

cut strips 2 1/2" wide, and the length of one side of the square: 5 1/2"

-light patterned fabric for sashing corners

cut squares 2 1/2"

**all seam allowances were 1/4" for this quilt

1. I sewed all the triangles together to make squares, just grabbing different colors to match them together.

I left 16 triangles unsewn for the edges.

So: 16 plain triangles, and 32 sewn squares.

2.. Lay out triangles in pattern below, rows with 3 squares, then a row with 4 squares, filling in the sides with plain triangles.

NOTE: 2 of your plain triangles will be cut in half to make the 4 little corners

3. Sew the squares together with white strips, making diagonal rows {shown above}

4. Make the sashing strips with white strips and patterned squares. {shown above} You'll make them for each row, adding a strip as you work to the center of the quilt.

Use the sashing to connect all your diagonal rows into the quilt top. You'll need to trim off the patterned little squares that will end up sticking out the sides in the end.

From there I added my scene block and the borders.

The white border was cut 5" wide, and the sage border was cut 4" wide.

I backed the quilt with the sage green, which was a full sized flat sheet.

I used warm and natural for the batting and machine quilted it.

{remember that blue bench we made? I finally got the dark baskets for the shelves at Target}

This is where I stunk it up. Machine quilting for me went crappy. I was glad I used invisible thread, so my quilting was less conspicuous. After the quilt was done, I talked to my mom about my issues, and have ideas to make the quilting better on the next quilt.

When I gave Lynette her birthday quilt, I told her it was the thought that counts in this gift, and not to look to close at the crappy quilt job.

Costume

Halloween Costume: Ewok

5:00 AM

This year was hard to decide what to make for my son's Halloween costume.

I had planned for him to be Gus Gus at 6 months right when he was born a huge fat baby.

Last year, I was excited to make him the Max wolf costume from the book: Where the Wild Things Are.

Making my kid's halloween costume is a big deal to me. I don't care if it's totally amazing, the Gus Gus was made with an old t-shirt and other scraps.

I just want to make a creative costume you wouldn't see at Walmart or find on Amazon.

But I had such a hard time this year thinking of what he would be. He's 2 1/2, so I only have a few more years of total control before the kid has an opinion on what he wants to be.

So all summer my plan was to make him a costume to be Willow.

But my husband thought no one would know he's willow and assume he's a hobbit from Lord of the Rings.

So I thought about it, and ended up going with the main Ewok from Return of the Jedi. It's actually the same actor, Warwick Davis. He played the ewok at age 11 in Star Wars, then worked with Lucas again when he made Willow. I think Warwick was 18 or something when he was Willow. Anyway, still Warwick, but not Willow.

The costume is actually a lot like the Max wolf costume. I used his zip front pajamas as the pattern and added the hood, making the belly a lighter color. The ears were sewn on the hood. I just hacked out the red hood, which seems kind of big to me. I think I'll hack some off. The hood has two slits for the ears, then snaps at the base of the hood to stay on.

I thought it was a fun little costume, but I'm not as excited about it as I was the past two years' costumes. But he does love it, and it is a fleece jumpsuit/ pajamas to keep him warm, so it's good, I just keep thinking of Willow.