Pajama Pant Party…

Awhile back, I posted about the stacks of fabric needing to be magically transformed into projects.   I am happy to report that I managed to complete 9 pairs of PJ pants…plus one.  Yes, I am insane, 10 pairs of pj pants.  I suppose technically they were 3 pairs of fleecy/sweatpants and 7 pairs of pj bottoms…. but 10 none the less.

studio pix

yes, this is what it looks like “in process”

The girls had picked out 3 flannel fabrics and a fleece fabric each.  As I was going through my stash (another post for another day) I found a big piece of flannel so I could make pants for Charlie and a length of orange cotton fleece that I had bought on sale to make Gwen something.  Since the pants for the girls would all take the same pattern, and it’s the same assembly routine for all the pants, I decided to go for it and make them all up at once. I sewed in two batches, two of the fabrics were on the light side so I made those up with cream thread and the rest were in black, this saves me having to re-thread my serger for each color.

puzzle pants

When I have a number of the same things to make, I do all the operations in batches.  I cut and mark everything at once, stitch all of the inner legs at the same time, press and stitch all the hems at the same time…you get the picture.  It is far more efficient to work this way than to complete one pant then start on the next one.

Each pant gets a ribbon "tag" at the center back so everyone knows front from back!

Each pant gets a ribbon “tag” at the center back so everyone knows front from back!

The bonus to this process is that when you’re done, you’re DONE.  And, I won’t have to sew pajama pants for awhile.  Of course, you will note there are no pants for me ;-).

a stack of cozy goodness

9 pairs of “cozy pants” as we call them.  They are growing leaps and bounds, hopefully this will hold them for awhile.  One last pair of pants…

fred and the orange pants

Of course, they need to be approved by the studio assistant.   On to the next stack of fabric!

 

 

 

 

 

Layout – Silly Hats

I managed to eek out another layout this week…working in bits of time between dinner prep and soccer pickup and finishing up in the morning after everyone left for school.  I am really fortunate to have a “room of my own” where I can leave a layout or project out on my worktable and let things percolate for awhile… or until my Studio Assistant knocks things onto the ground.

This layout was for a class at BPC called Stashbusters Anonymous and week 1 was layouts to help use up your paper stash.  I’m writing up a post now on de-stashing but wanted to share one of the layouts I did featuring chevrons … 1/2″ strips across the whole page…then I realized that my base paper was 12×13 not 12×12…needless to say there will be some trimming of the left side going on but that’s OK, it will only reinforce the asymmetry of the page.

SillyHats detal SillyHats

And while I will take a formal portrait of the page when it’s all trimmed and adhered to a piece of card stock (the edges are curling up right now) I really kind of like messy slice of life photos that show some studio details too.

Enjoy and here’s to a beautiful spring weekend ahead and a joyous Easter  tomorrow!  What projects are you working on over the weekend?

 

 

A sewing jumpstart…

photo

 

I will say that sewing is my first (craft) love.  I’ve been sewing since I was in about 5th grade when my grandmother bought me a sewing basket and helped me make clothes for my barbie…and I’ve pretty much never stopped.  Sewing may take a backseat to other pursuits, but never for long.  Tonight I cut out something for *gasp* myself!  A super simple top that (theoretically) will be quick to make.  Sometimes you need a jump start to get back in the groove.  I think I burned out on 10 pairs of pajama pants, and I’ve got stacks of fabric that need to be transformed into things to wear and use and boy do I need to get on those projects!  So here’s to a jumpstart and a cute new top!  Oh and yes, I did finish the pj pants…post on that coming!

What projects do use as a jumpstart?!

exhibit a:

…or how do I get myself into these predicaments ?

 

exhibit a 8x5

 

See these?? These are the piles that have taken up residence on my work table…no, now these piles have nothing to do with my 4 boxes and 2 bins of fabric that are already in residence in the studio (that were supposed to be cleverly sewn/stashed/gifted down to two bins by *sigh* the end of last year) no, these piles are the result of my children conning me into pj pants, my girlfriend finding a steal on fabric pieces and a “can’t resist” sale at the fabric store…

exhibit A:  a stack of too fabulous and super duper cheap to resist fabric pieces from our last foray into Zimman’s Fabrics… next to last on the pile is 3/4 yard of beautiful blue print cotton which is slated to be a cushion for the comb-back windsor chair in the front hall…

evidence:  super-cute snowman fabric for red-bench pillow, orange cotton fleece on clearance for pants for gwen, two pieces of cotton knit on sale to experiment and make tops for myself

exhibit B:  Lily’s stack of fabrics from last week’s raid on Jo-Ann fabrics.  Her pj pants are halfway up her legs so it’s definitely time for new cozy ones…but somehow “pick 2 pieces of flannel” turned into 3 pieces of flannel and one piece of fleece.

look here:  Gwen’s stack of fabrics, same particulars as exhibit B above.

Obviously, this week…it’s a sewing week… otherwise I won’t see the top of my table until spring.  (arrow stamps are from Splendid Fiins Evidence Arrow Stamp and Brush set #2)

Go!

What projects are stacked up on your table this week?

Goals for 2014 …. the lists

Goals for 2014

IMG_3948Oh boy is there a lot of stuff I want to accomplish this year!  Holy Moly Guacamole… But it’s a good thing I love lists, I live by my list that I make for the week, lists for shopping, errands, to-do, books to read…you name it, I have a list for it.   So I thought I’d start the year by making a List of the Lists for 2014 and break it down into manageable parts. I may even post this to a separate section on the blog here so I can keep track and cross things off as I go. We’ll see…the important part for me is to get the process started and add to it as I go along.

IMG_4129General Thoughts

-Start working on ‘life list’ – I resisted this for a very long time for a variety of reasons but I am now coming around to the idea that making a list doesn’t mean it’s the last life list I”ll ever make (far from it if history is any indication) but there is a power in words and in writing things down and I”m seeking to manifest that for the good

-Family Time-We have a good time playing games together and doing projects together, I’d like to do more of that in 2014, even if it’s just a movie night!

-Date night- we’ve never really formally had a standing date night but this year may be the year to start, it’s nice to spend a little time just us, without the kids…it’s a pre-cursor to what it will be like around here in 6 years when the girls are off to (*gasp) college.

IMG_1949Adventures & Travel – I’d like to travel more this year, even if it’s just locally to see things we just have not gotten around to seeing  (soccer, basketball, and social obligations not withstanding!) The girls are at a great age to do things with and are terrific travelers.  Even things as simple as going to the ICA with my girlfriends (or dragging my family there on mother’s day) qualifies as an adventure in my book!

-Getting the gang back together for Homecoming 2014 at Syracuse….I had an awesome time last year and want to go back again with my sisters from the class of 2014. Going to put that in the works as soon as the dates are announced!

-Connecting with some of my like minded kindreds who I’ve become very close with through the “Be Present” retreats.  I visited my friend Kimberly last month and we had a blast…. scheming to get a group of us together this year.

-Family vacation…we don’t take a big vacation every year but would like to maybe do some smaller get-aways this year, we’ll see…I’m sure we will spend some time on the ‘Cape with Charlie’s family this summer which will be fun in the sun!

IMG_2799Homekeeping…

-Being that my chief position these days is “Domestic Goddess” (yes, that is what it says on my tax return), this year I want to keep adding to my routines that work and re-evaluate what doesn’t and simplify as much as possible.  This also includes my position as the “Queen of Finance” and re-evaluating how I handle our day to day finances and make sure we are doing what needs to be done.

-Make a list of projects we are going to tackle (or have tackled) this year and make them happen.  We are fortunate that this house has not required quite as much intensive hands-on work as our previous home but as always, there is always much to do!

IMG_1248Family History

-Continue to work on the family photo archives from all branches of the family, organizing, scanning, printing and getting things annotated and in albums for people to enjoy

IMG_0100Memory keeping

-Finish the online classes I have started and abandoned OR not even started at all

-Make progress on the girls school albums starting from last year and working backwards, also tucking away things from this year that have already been delegated to go “in the book mama”

-Continue with a fourth year of Project Life documentation…although I suppose we should call it “Project CSLG” around here

-Map out other album projects I’ve been thinking about

-Switch out old post bound albums for new ring binder albums and possibly re-arrange the pages…still thinking about that

IMG_2142Fiber Arts & Sewing

-I want to get back to my roots so to speak and really start some serious sewing, I did a number of projects in 2013 but I want to up my game in 2014

-Play … whatever form that takes

Professional 

-There are a number of different professional options/ideas I’ve been tossing around the last two years and I have to say, dithering about which one is the best path to take has just meant nothing has gotten done, this year I”m going to pick one and pursue it and if it works out, great!  If not, on to the next one.  Onward.

IMG_3014Connection and Personal / Creative Growth (the big journey)

-These have been something I’ve been working on the last few years a little at a time and I’m really excited to see where this takes me in 2014!

The scary thing is that this is just a few off-the-top-of-my-head ideas, the more I type, the more I think of so must. stop. now 😉

OK now…. GO !