Annoying mail order surprises.

Yesterday I finished DS#2's jacket so he could wear it today. It has been getting pretty chilly so getting it done was a must.

Here it is on the couch just finished:



And here it is on the happy, but sleepy-looking boy. He did NOT want to pose for the picture this morning!


I thought the jacket looked much better with the elastic sleeve hems, but he wanted NOTHING to do with them. I know better--if he doesn't like it, he will not wear it. Ever. Last May I seam-ripped the embroidery off the jeans I made for him over a year ago because he fought me tooth and nail on it. He didn't want any embroidery anywhere on his jeans, and he did not wear them all year. Now he's happy to wear them since I "fixed" them. And he's only 9! DD#2 is picky like that too. Heaven forbid if her clothes are too tight, are a little itchy, etc. This is my little guy that has to have every label cut off his shirts. I'm learning to respect his clothing wishes. He kept pushing down the collar too--doesn't want it sticking up near his chin.


Back to the post topic...today I received my fleece order from fabric.com. I am making the photo memory quilt for the softball fundraiser Chinese Auction basket and received some nice red, black, and white fleece which will be very suitable for this project. Here are the fleeces:




HOWEVER, I also purchased 5.5 yards of "curly-sided" fleece which I thought would be okay for 2 jackets and a pair of pants. It is not. It's not as stiff as a regular 200-weight Malden Mills fleece, it's thinner, and has much more drape than a MM fleece would have. It would actually make a good top, or a neck gator though as it is VERY soft on the inside. I'm mulling over what to do with it. Send it back? Or keep it. This was supposed to be fleece for DS#2's jacket and DD#2's softball pitching pants for winter in the cold garage. Decisions, decisions! It is absolutely not what I expected and was not a good surprise. It does have potential, though, for other projects, and I love the color.

Now it's time for me to get of my comfy chair and do some housework. I'll think about this dilemna while doing it.

Held up.

Here's the good news...In a few minutes, I'm going to iron and cut out the fabric for a rice bag warmer. It will be made out of a white cotton fabric to hold the rice along with the cover. My projects are coming along nicely.

However, for some of them, I'm being held up by zippers of all things. A zipper for DS#2's fleece jacket below and my canvas totes. The totes are being made from the directions in the Fall issue of Sew Simple. I'm thinking of using that project for the sewing class I'll be teaching and want to test out the directions and mull over where to put the project in the Intro project lineup. It is really turning out to be a cute tote. I embroidered the front with the name of DD#2's new travel softball team and will use the iron-on photo transfer paper to put the team pic (with their second-place trophy from their first tournament together which was last weekend BTW) on the back. I'm making the bags assembly style up to a point, but finishing my muslin bag first. The sample embroidery on mine is not as good as the other two--had to work out the kinks with the tension and needle used. My sample had two spots of loopy threads so I glued them down with FabricTac and hot-fixed a few clear crystals strategically placed so it looks better. Tomorrow I will pick up the photo transfer paper--first time using this so I hope it turns out okay. If you have any tips, I'd appreciate hearing them. I'll post pics of the bags soon.

I took a pic of DS#2's jacket last night. Here it is:

It is made from McCall's 4234 which also includes two types of casual pants, two styles of tops, and hat along with the jacket. I've made Kwik Sew pattern jackets for my kids but like this McCall's pattern so much better. For starters, I like the 5/8" seam allowances when working with fleece. Fleece likes to curl under my presser foot. Another type of foot would probably work better, but I'm a lazy sewer so the standard foot with 5/8" works mighty fine for me. I like the style, the directions, and the sewing instruction methods. My only issue is the pattern mentions fusible interfacing. I never use a fusible with fleece and always use a sew-in. That's really minor though, but it could throw off an inexperienced beginner. The pattern appears to be an OOP, and that's really a shame. It's a great, versatile kids pattern that I picked up on a $1/pattern sale.

Here's some really good news! My eye pressure check last month was 23 left eye, 26 right eye. Way too high for my comfort. (The specialist in the summer said I'm high risk but still no glaucoma. At least not yet.) So my optometrist checked it last month during my annual exam, then is doing repeat checks every month. Today it was 17 in both eyes! What gives with that? I told him I purposely skipped coffee. At my last appt. I had at least two cups before going. Who knows if that had any effect but I skipped my caffeine jolt this morning. It made my gym workout quite arduous however! Working out felt darn hard.

Now I'm off to the ironing board. And then hopefully check out bloglines. I'm SO behind in blog reading!