Christmas makings

Now that Christmas is over and the gifts have been given I can share some of the hand made gifts I gave this year.

For my son and daughter in law I wanted to make a tree ornament that said something special about 2008. So what better than to remember the campaign and election of Barak Obama? I snagged a photo of the Obama symbol from the campaign web site and proceeded to copy the shape for a round ornament. It was fun to do and turned out pretty nice. Andrew and Sarah really enjoyed receiving it and agreed that it will be a good remembrance of 2008.

For my each of my two sons I wanted to make a boxy shaped bag with a zipper. I followed the tutorial here, well I tried to anyway. The first time I got the width and length of the body transposed and ended up with a rectangle instead of a box.
It was amazing to me that I got almost all the way done before I realized that this object was not short and wide but long and narrow. Oh well. Andrew liked it and does feel he has a use for it. It actually is a good size for tools.











For my musician son I wanted to make a boxy bag that would hold CD's. This time I carefully thought out what the dimensions needed to be and actually measured a CD case. (how clever) I used a piece of fabric that Nathan had given me quite awhile ago, something that spoke to him while visiting JoAnn's with a girlfriend. I did not get a sewing room photo, so here you can see Nathan with it on our sunny Christmas afternoon.












Last but not least, the big ta da. I decided about 2 weeks before Christmas to make a quilt for Andrew and Sarah. My husband is making them a very nice blanket chest/coffee table and it occurred to me that a lap size quilt for the inside would be very useful. I selected a pattern with very large pieces and enlarged the lap size so that it is basically almost twin size. I went with a black and white colorway so that it will not show the dog hair of their black dog too badly. Needless to say I did not finish this before Christmas. It is pieced and pinned together, and that's how it was wrapped and given to them. They really liked it, here they are holding it up for a work in process photo. Since I knew they would not be going home with the quilt, I did whip up a set of 6 cloth coasters out of the black and white fabrics. No photo of those, sorry.









One more item to share. While Andrew and Sarah were visiting Sarah mentioned that she wanted to make a dog bed for their dog out of an old egg shell mattress pad, folded to a 36 x 46ish size. So, we went to Joann and found a really nice piece of purplish fur on sale. Sarah also wanted to line the bed with mylar insulated batting so that it would feel nice and warm to the dog. Sarah and I worked on this yesterday. We had to add a strip of black duck so that the piece was wide enough, since the edge of the fur had a very loosely woven selvedge. Here you can see Sirius quite contented with the results.

Rally co-driver accessory

I made a paper and pencil holder for my son's co-driver awhile ago. See post here. My son's previous co-driver didn't actually strap it to his leg, but Ryan, the new co-driver, found it very useful. It is made of denim and has Velcro on the straps that go around the back of the leg. I attended the Rally West Virginia race on Aug 1-2 and got to see the item in use. This allows the co-driver to get to his pencil or pen easily during the race, and the pocket holds a small notebook or papers as needed.
Ryan was very pleased with this item and said that several other co-drivers would be interested in getting one. I am not sure if I will make more, I did not save any notes on the dimensions or the design. I will see if any requests come my way.

Here's a shot of my son Andrew and Ryan just before heading out for the start of a rally stage.

Odd things for men

I have made some odd things lately, all connected to the needs of some of the the men in my life.

# 1
Flannel case for prescription safety glasses.




# 2 Fabric hat for Blacksmith work, keeps hot projectiles from burning your scalp or setting your hair on fire. It also keeps the dirt off of you head. I drafted the pattern by copying a paper disposable surgery cap, used in a hospital setting.










# 3
Pencil and paper holder for the co-driver of my son's race car. This has Velcro on the straps so that it could be strapped to his lower leg, making it easy for him to reach down for the pencil or paper. It turned out that he didn't like it on his leg, but did find it useful strapped to the roll cage bar.

#4 Another item for race car support. This is a large bag made to cover the head light set that goes on the car for night driving. I used a moving blanket, serged it into a big pocket and added a tie strap. Easy sewing, but will be very good for keeping the lights from getting scratched up in transit.

3 for David

My husband David mentioned that he needs grocery bags to keep in his truck, to use when he shops. So, I have continued my bags for men work and made him 3 cloth shopping bags. He looks ready to shop to me!

More bags for men, from small to large

My son purchased a new sub-compact camera. He thought that the pouches they sold at the store were just not quite what he wanted. He asked me to make him a case, just to protect it from getting scratched while in his pocket. I used some really soft hand me down denim (thanks Cathy) and lined it with a lining material. The button loop is a pony tail band (a tip I picked up at the Sewing Expo). I purchased a package at the drug store, they come in several colors. ; )

Nathan was very pleased with it. He is off now on a two week vacation, so should have plenty of opportunities to slip that camera in and out of the new case.








On the grocery bags for men front, I found some good base fabric at a thrift shop this weekend. For $5 I purchased 4 pieces of denim or denim weight material. I was able to make up two bags on Saturday, which I delivered to our congregation this morning.


I finished one more today, the body of the bag is a light green denim from the thrift shop, very nice weight for a shopping bag. I just couldn't resist the little line of rick rack on the pocket. Does adding rick rack make it less "manly". It is brown rick rack. Does a little bit of green check gingham make is less manly? I don't think so. Anyway, I am sure someone will find it of use. All $ collected for the bags is a contribution to our congregation fund. This is a great way for me to make a contribution while re-using fabric, promoting cloth grocery bags and getting more creative time sewing. Many wins. What a joy.

Bags for men

I was asked to make some more masculine grocery bags to sell at my congregation fund raising table. So I composed one with green corduroy and a GM old truck scrap of fabric for the pocket. The bottom I reinforced with black and white race fabric. So, it is definitely masculine, but it doesn't really go with the "save the environment by using cloth bag grocery bags" theme. Ah, we must live with irony I guess. This one just may have to go to my brother, the GM truck scrap is from a pillow that I made for him. I know he will find a use for it and won't mind the irony. So, I guess I still need to make those masculine grocery bags, it may be awhile till I make any more. I am going to the American Sewing expo for the next two days. I am looking forward to getting inspired about sewing!

My son Nathan's birthday is Oct 7, between his schedule and ours last Sunday was the day to celebrate. He is a record collector, so I made him a record bag. It's just the right size for an LP, I made it narrow in width, thinking he could use this for special records or light shopping. Although I am not sure if Nathan does "light" record shopping.

I had covered a canvas conference bag with black and white polka dot and domino fabric, Nathan's girlfriend admired it, and so it went home with her. It's nice to be able to give a useful gift!

I realized that my grocery bag tutorial does not include how I put the handles on my bags. So I took some pictures of the process and added them to the tutorial.