Patch Pockets On My Pajama Pants And The Party Is Over

    Dear daughter decided that she wanted a pocket on the pajama pants I made her.  I added a patch pocket onto her pants by cutting two 6.5" squares, fussy cutting for pretty designs and checking for directional fabric.  I sewed the two squares together right sides together on three sides leaving one side open.  I clipped all the corners, and turned it right side out, turning the open end edges in and making that the bottom edge of the pocket.  I placed the pocket on the top of the right hand leg and sewed it on three sides.  The patch pockets look cute and you can now tell which side of the pants are the front.  I ended up adding a patch pocket to all of my pajama pants as well.

    Here are the last four pair of pajama pants I made for myself.  All told, I have made seven pair of pajama pants since Saturday.  This was a fun project and the product is completely perfect.  So comfy and warm.  And the pajama pants party is over.  On to a new project.

I'm Making Simple Skirts

A few years ago I made an elastic waist skirt from a bed sheet I bought at Goodwill.  It was a pretty blue floral sheet and I wore that skirt a lot around the house.  I found some holes in the fabric a few weeks ago and I knew it was time to say goodbye to that garment.

I cut the skirt up and kept all the good pieces to put in my stash.

Then I got on the computer to buy some fabric for a new skirt.  I decided to make a gathered skirt with doubled fabric.  I thought it would be great for the winter.

I bought 5 yards of cotton fabric for this project.  I ended up ordering the fabric from Thousands of Bolts website.  The fabric was $4.99 a yard, which was a price I loved.  I also had to buy more 1" elastic for this project so I ordered 12 yards from Amazon, because I'm going to make a few more skirts.

I washed the fabric, gave it a light iron, cut off the selvedges, and folded it in half lengthwise right sides together and sewed it up on all sides leaving an opening for turning it right side out.  I turned it right side out and sewed up the opening and I had my skirt.  I sewed up the side seam, made an elastic casing at the top, inserted my elastic, sewed up the casing, added a patch pocket, and my skirt was done.  It's super heavy and it will be perfect for curling up in the winter.

Here's a picture of the finished skirt.  It doesn't look like much, but I think I will get a lot of wear out of it.

While I was looking for more fabric to make skirts, I found some of the 16th Century Selfie in Plum.  I love this fabric, it's designed by Tula Pink in her Elizabeth collection for Free Spirit.  I found this on etsy.  I had a yard of this fabric a couple of years ago when it first came out and I used most of that to make a bag.  I cut up what was left into strips for my string quilt blocks.

The seller only had two yards of this but I had to have it and I think it will be perfect for an elastic waist skirt.  This skirt will not be doubled.

In between making skirts and fabric shopping I'm still working on my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt top.  I've gotten the first two flowers of row 2 sewn to row 1 and now I'm back to cutting fabric and making hexie papers to make the next three flowers for this row.  I'll post another picture when I get some more done.  It's a very slow project but I'm loving every stitch of it.

Fun Scrappy 16 Patch Quilt Top Is Finished

     I worked on this last night and most of today.  I'm glad it's finished.  It measures 63" x 87".   The only fabric I had to buy for this quilt top was the white fabric.  I bought 3 yards from Connecting Threads and with shipping that fabric cost me about $18.00.  That's pretty cheap for a quilt top this size.

    I'll be working on my ironing board cover next, then I continue working on my scrappy string blocks to make another quilt top.  I should have some blocks to display later this week.

Sawtooth Stars Wall Hanging

   I finished the wall hanging and it's been on the wall for the last few days.   It was really easy to make and I love it on the wall.

   I have resumed making my scrappy 16 patch blocks and I finished making all 35 of them today.  I'm in the process of putting the sashing and the rows together and in a few days I should have a quilt top.

   Here are the first two rows of blocks sewn up.

    After I finish up this scrappy top I'll start working on my scrappy string blocks.  I have to make 49 of them and I have only one made so far.

    I won't be assembling the scrappy 16 patch blocks quilt top into a quilt sandwich for quilting until I finish the scrappy string block quilt top.

   The pre-printed vest project called "Needle Art From My Heart" was awful.  I hated the stiffness of the pre-printed fabric.  I couldn't make myself finish it.  I threw the whole thing in the trash.

   I have to make a new ironing board cover and I'll start that this weekend.  It won't take long to get a new cover made.  I'm using this:

 

Another Great Way to Use Up My Stashed Fabric

      I started a second quilting project today.  I made my first scrappy string block using a paper towel as the foundation.  This was fun to make.  I will have to take some time to cut fabric strips, but that's as easy as sewing the block together.  I will make the center strip white on all the blocks so when I put the blocks together a border will be created with the white strips.  Very cool.

     And I'm still working on my scrappy 16-patch blocks.  I have 12 made so far.  I need 23 more for this quilt top.

     I have the fabric for my paper pieced stars (wallhanging) and it's been washed.  I just have iron the fabric and print out my paper piecing patterns to get started.  You can see the pattern and the fabrics here.

Pretty In Pink Quilt Update

   All the 9 patch blocks are made.  I made 34 nine patch blocks using 3 inch strips for this quilt top.  They will be alternated with solid blocks of the white on white rose print fabric.  I love, love, love the green center on these.  I'm really glad I did that.  I still have to iron and cut the blocks for the solid blocks.  The 9 patch blocks have been ironed and trimmed.