Monday Morning Quarterback

If all the cars in the United States were placed end to end, it would probably be Labor Day Weekend.

Doug Larson

I can't believe how much sewing I got done this weekend! First up, a Hawaiian shirt for Scott. You may recognize the fabric - this is the shirt that has been languishing in my queue for over a year...

All I have left to do is buttonholes and buttons. My husband picked red buttons. I'm pretty happy with the pocket - the lighthouses actually line up even a little bit better than it seems in this picture!

Next, I spent Monday morning with a sewing friend, Susan. We got together to draft our own pants patterns, following the instructions in the January 2008 Threads magazine. We spent about 3 hours together and, working leisurely, took complete measurements for both of us and drafted the front and back pants pieces for Susan's pants. Here is Susan with one of our tools, a French curve:

And here is her front pattern piece, after we finished it:

I would say that we found the instructions to be 90% crystal clear and 10% confusing. Between the 2 of us, I think we worked it all out, and I also think that we'll be able to draft my pattern pieces much more quickly - now that we've been through the process once.

It was a lot of fun - but have your calculator handy! There were lots of calculations. (It also helps to put together a chart showing the decimal equivalents of all of the eigths - 1/8, 2/8, etc.)

And it was a big week for Ana and Juana also. I had asked them to cut out the pattern pieces and pin them to the fabric by themselves, before our Sunday afternoon lesson. Each of them made a couple of small mistakes, but overall did a pretty good job. We re-pinnned as necessary and cut out the pieces first thing on Sunday afternoon. Then we got busy sewing!

Here is the fabric that Juana is using for the jacket. The main fabric is a bright red fleece, and the collar, cuffs and waist band will be in this darker red ribbed knit.

Juana was able to assemble the main body of the jacket and attach the pockets, collar, sleeves and cuffs in one afternoon. I think that she'll do the waistband this week on her own, and then we'll do the zipper together next Sunday. It's coming out really nicely so far!

And here is the fabric that Ana selected for her pajamas and matching robe. It is very soft and stretchy.

She is of the opinion that the animal is a cow, or possibly a horse. Personally, I'm leaning towards hippopotamus, but I didn't know the word in Spanish, and as pajamas are a private sort of outfit, I let it go... ;)

She was able to complete everything except for the hem on the pajama pants on Sunday afternoon. We cut the waist down by 3 inches so that the pants sit on her hips. She'll do the hem this week. I'm not sure if she'll start on the robe or not - I told her it was her choice.

It's really nice that we're at the stage where they can make significant progress on an outfit in one afternoon. That is very reinforcing! Also, both of them used the stretch stitch for their fabrics, so that is another objective of mine checked off the list.

Not bad for three days, huh? ;)