Leather jacket

This is the new fall to winter jacket.  It has really long sleeves, so I tacked them up at the seams and we can let them down to probably wear next year.  It was at the outlet store, so it was not crazy expensive (like it was originally), but should last her for a good time.  I also have a 'parka' type winter jacket that was on clearance from WM coming in a week or so - just in case this doesn't make the cut to wear to school during the winter.  I picked her up some magic type gloves at the store.  It gets cold in the mornings at the bus stop!

She's a little leery of wearing this to school after Mom and Dad talking up that it is 'cool' but was a really big thing when we were her age.  We'll see.  I've got her name in it and she said she would try to be careful with it!

And this is the dog bed (a huge floor pillow) that Mark has been after me to make for Sweetie (shown) for over a year.  I finally collected up all the filling for it (remnants, old jeans and foam bits from an upholstery shop) and put it together.  It is approved of.  We have agreed I should probably make a longer thinner one for the futon for the other dogs.  And maybe before another year and a half has gone by.

I'm starting to cut out Esme's shorts pattern.

Pink star jacket - McCalls 8005 circa 1960s

I cut this jacket out a few weeks ago while we were at the library.  I finally got onto it today and finished it a little while ago.  The embroidery on the back is something I had cut out long ago and had not finished - it was perfect for this as I had accidentally made a black line down the center of the back piece in the middle before I knew it!

She said she liked to wear this jacket a long time, it is really comfortable, and she likes that I made it for her to stay warm in all the wind outside.  Those are very good words for her :)  Every day lately Mark and I look at each other and know her language has improved - full sentences, new concepts she gets from tv or computer that we understand what she means without having seen it, repeating names she has heard that are difficult but I do usually understand them.  She is also comparing words that are 'similar' like 'Brady' and 'braided' and knowing they are sounding the same.  She has said that things sound like other things, and said she has heard or smelled something and described it - which I cannot remember hearing much of before.  And all the theories she is coming up with lately are interesting, too.. so many of them - families, protecting each other in storms or when the lights are off or what will happen when I am finished with my computer or sewing machine etc etc...  She saw the news on Grandma's tv and told me it was a bad commercial - a tornatdo commercial, and the playground was in trash and needed help.  She has also told me that things on tv are 'just new', not real... so we have learned the word 'imaginary' or 'just a story'...but that the news really happened somewhere.  She asked 'In Texas?'  Well, the last tornado she saw was in Texas, so I understand that...

pattern used: McCalls 8005, houserobe pattern copyright 1965 size 6

nouveau shirt

This was made with some fabrics on hand - started back a few weeks ago when I had made a skirt for myself. I finished the sleeves and facings today - but did not put on the buttons it is planned for.  I want to wear it and let it 'relax' a bit before I decide where the buttons should fall.  The front flaps are very stiff still as they are lined with a thick green Kona cotton and the lighter cream fabric is a Japanese rabbit pattern fabric leftover from way back when I made Esme's rabbit pants.  The Japanese fabrics are a very fine thread count and it can be felt when it is worn and in how it sews.  The 'nouveau' fabric is something slightly lighter in weight that was on the clearance rack nearly a year ago... it helped stretch the rabbit fabric into something useable as it was a scant yard to begin with.

It fits fairly well - slightly shorter sleeves and there is a bit of a shoulder-to-neck gap that would be nice to fix in an upcoming version. You can see the gap in the first picture where it sort of 'rises' right at the top of the arm.  I'm a bit wider in the shoulders than most people - so I would need to widen the pattern there and taper it back towards the front differently.  The body pattern was made from an old sleeveless shirt I cut apart - and the sleeves were added on and approximated out of a shirt pattern I had in my stash this morning.

Sewing change of venue and Red Bravest Dragon jacket

For the record Esme was very good at our meeting this morning. She got a lollipop just as we sat down in the office and she played with her book, markers and a notebook and a paper dog I had made her. Except for being a terrible dictator to little baby kitty she has been a VERY good girl today. Cross your fingers - don't jinx that one ;)

For the past few nights I've been sewing in the kitchen downstairs - and haven't moved the sewing machine back upstairs in between. I'm about to do it for a permanent change - move the Singer table down there and sew down there all of the time. Esme can amuse herself in several ways down there and it is a more central location to what she is doing than the sewing corner is upstairs now.

The red fabric (labeled 'The Bravest Dragon' on the selvedge) went into a project for myself, another housejacket from the same altered McCalls pattern. I used the same alterations as last time but omitted the stand-up collar. It was altered from a size 14 sleeve and a size 10 body then those two items worked together to meet in the middle with more room in the arms and back shoulders. The grey fabric is what one fellow blogger calls 'television' (see right through it) with the red fabric trimming the facings and cuffs. It is very Japanese compared to the last one - with large sweeping cuffs. I'm not really sure where all the differences came from... sometimes that just happens. I think it actually might be a good enough job to wear it over a tshirt into work tomorrow... just until I switch out to my usual work zipped hoodie. Esme could care less that Mumum made herself a shirt... she didn't want me to use her buttons on it *ha* she wanted all her buttons to herself.

I think this jacket took about four hours. I was working on it for a good while before I went to see Grandma and Grandpa at six, and then it took me not quite until 8:30 to finish up the last sleeve and bottom hem. Hope to get pictures tomorrow and will post them here. go here for pictures!

Also a side note: Several times while I was sewing tonight I was thinking : 'I wish they made a LEFT HANDED sewing machine'... where the controls were on the left and the needle and fabric 'open working space' were on the right. I'm sure they probably do. I'm not sure why I think it would be any better for me, really.... but everything I put up on the machine seems to be 'backwards' from the side I want facing towards the outside of the working space, and I have to turn it around funny to get it in a good position to sew. I wonder if I'd just have the same problem half the time on a left-handed machine... since I'm actually ambidextrous :)
hmm....

I just looked it up. Sewing machines are actually left handed by nature - so I'm using the left-handed version and wanting the right-handed version for the first time in my life *ha*. Sewing machines used to be right-hand crank according to this article that is why everything else is done on the left-hand side. I'd rather have the controls on the left and the working space on the right. Apparently, I'm not the only one!