My sewing room - built in November 2021 - is still a work in progress. Once I divided my sewing area into two separate stations, I no longer had a good space to set my (giant) design wall, but fortunately my husband and son came to the rescue.
Definitely a wonderful upgrade for my sewing room.
White pants for littles is always a dicey idea, but I have had surprisingly good luck with custom fabric resisting stains. This "Peekaboo Vader" print came up during a special "May the 4th" event at Knitorious Fabrics, and I... just couldn't resist the cuteness.
I was able to get two pairs of these (3m-12m) out of a yard. Needless to say my SIL kicked up her heels in joy when she learned they were for her twin boys.
One of my favorite fabric hosts puts on a lovely Blank-A-Palooza every year, and it's my favorite time to buy fabric for gifts. Blankets are fast to sew up, and all my nieces and nephews are crazy about their "Magic Blankets." Normally I stick to kid blankets when I buy Double Sided Minky (it's expensive, for one), but when this showed up on the site, I knew only an adult-sized blanket would do for my Mother in Law.
It turns out an adult-sized custom blanket topper (which clocks in at a luxurious 72" tall by 60 inches wide) weights in at 3.5 lbs... and that's before you put the backing on! I backed this with Kammie Lou Lou's Signature Brushstrokes in Emerald, and gifted it when my in-laws visited. That put a smile on her face.
And fortunately, the US postal service brought the shirt to grandpa safe & sound.
You can never have too many Magic Blankets, right? This one might be a little feminine for my Rescuers-loving nephew, but Rescuers fabric is hard to find & he loves his magic blankets so... when I saw it I jumped on it anyway.
This blanket was gifted in March of '22, making sure my three local nephews always have enough magic blankets to last until laundry day!
For the most part, my kids are aging out of wanting my creations. But my son is a huge Godzilla fan, and when I saw this print I just had to take the risk.
And quite the risk it was: this print came from a fabric host in the UK, so it cost more and took longer to get here. But, I needn't have worried: the second my son saw it, it was love at first sight.
Picking a pattern proved to also be a challenge - the print is very stunning, but very busy if you get too much together - and there was no panel option for blending. So, I settled on the Max & Meena Max Raglan (a kiddo favorite) with the featured print on the hood and sleeves. I tied it together with a tan from PurpleSeamstress that made the print pop. Here it is from the back:
And here it is up front!
It took me a little while to put this together, but my son was very pleased with the final product. And I was happy to have an enthusiastic live-in wearer of my sewing again!
This set consisted of shorties, a baby cap, a blanket, and some pillows. The shorties and baby cap are from the Peekaboo Patterns Lullaby line - the Chicka Chicka Bum Bums and the Hat & Mittens Patterns respectively. I really can't recommend Peekaboo Patterns enough; that line is my go-to for baby things and I've been happy with every pattern I've downloaded from there.
The blanket is, as always, a "Magic Blanket," meaning it's made of incrdibly soft, incredibly cuddly Luxe Double-sided Minky. This one had a great Mario scenic, and I always just sew wrong-sides together, turn, hand-stitch the turning hole closed and then do a line of zig-zag stitches 1" from the outside to help the blanket keep its shape.
This time, I also couldn't resist the urge to add pillows. This particular custom offering came with a set of pillow panels. I ordered them in the "magic" fabric, and then (having learned my lesson on the Final Fantasy pillows, where hand-stuffing them got lumpy pretty quick) I put them over 12x12 pillow forms from Joanns. Double-sided Minky stretches a lot, so I'm not sure how the pillows will wear in the long run. But they looked pretty cute when I finished with them!
This set was gifted in Jan 2022, and in retrospect shorties were not the best gift for a winter baby, but the hat got plenty of use!
My Colorado nephew might have received a Bob's Burger blanket (CL backed with JoAnn's Minky), and a Game of Thrones blanket (Custom Minky) at his shower, but this was his first true "Magic Blanket:"
One of the most exciting things to come out of 2021 was my three new nephews: a local pair of twins, and then a new cousin in Colorado.
But closer to home - and more relevant to me and my sewing journey - was my new sewing room! Technically it's not a new room - just new a wall that separates my sewing area from the dining area. And it's also not a dedicated sewing room, because I share the space with the Kids' entertainment center. But it's still a closed-off, private space for me to sew, with doors I can close to keep distractions out. That's pretty exciting.
2021 also had lots of sewing for gifts; babies, nephews, even my mom, dad and brother got in on the action. I also dipped a toe back into the water of quilting, although starting new quilt projects was still shelved for the time being.
