A Finish - A Snake Suit

I joined the Finish Along this year again and I've completed my first UFO.

This is a snake suit for my oldest niece. She wanted one that matched a snake stuffy she has - she picked out the fabric, zipper, and cuff fabrics. She wanted me to sew with silver metallic thread but I managed to talk her out of that. Our trip to the fabric store was fun - the kid has taste, because I couldn't talk her into some very ugly Xmas sombrero/cactus fabric.

The pattern is this one:

My younger niece got a dalmatian costume for Hallowe'en using this same pattern last October. I had to lengthen the torso, arms, and legs for both girls - I don't know if that is a reflection of their body proportions or the pattern design. Either way, the alterations were simple enough and the pattern easy to follow.

Here's my finished product:

And a close up of the hot pink zipper (which coordinates to something on the snake stuffie).

E will get the costume next weekend when she and her sister are over for a crafternoon and sleep-over.

Q1 Finish-A-Long

Last year some wonderful bloggers set up a finish-a-long, and there are great prizes. Happily, the group is continuing this year and I'm going to join again.

If you're interested, you can find all the details here.

For this quarter here are my entries:

1) A Christmas tree skirt I started in time to finish for Christmas, then I came down with a nasty sinus infection and it got put to the side. It's #1 on the list.

2) A one piece snake suit for my eldest niece. The fabric was bought around Hallowe'en but she said she wasn't in a hurry, so it's still sitting in my sewing room. Honestly, I'm stalling a bit because it's a knit and I haven't sewn a real knit for quite some time.

3) A pair of red and white mittens for myself. I've had the pattern for a long time and finally got a suitable yarn for them.

4) A quilt for a friend at work who is having her first baby, a little boy, and she wants a sports theme. I know the pattern, I just can't find it in the mess of my sewing room right now.

5) Finally, this fabric (plus a few others currently in my dryer) will be turned into a variety of pillow and bolster shams. The colour looks awful here, but in real life they look much better.

I'm linking up to She Can Quilt to sign up. Wish me luck!

Happy New Year!

I knew I hadn't posted for awhile but I didn't think it was that far back in September. Life sometimes gets in the way of blogging. I've continued by sewing and other crafts, but work got in the way of reporting on it.

I'm not big into those posts about reflecting on the past year and setting goals for the new one. My primary crafting goal for 2017 is to make something for members of my family to commemorate Canada's 150th birthday - I've made the offer to everyone to request an item. I have a few ideas cooking but I don't want to rush into anything. I also want to clean up and organize my crafting space because I spend too much time re-arranging things and looking for things, when I could use that time for sewing. (The same goes for the rest of my house lol).

Here's what I'm working on right now...

I started a new Christmas tree skirt for myself a couple of weeks before Christmas and I was making good time until I came down with a wicked sinus infection. This is immediately on the radar to finish so it can go away and is ready for next year.

On the knitting front, I decided I needed warmer mittens for when the weather is really cold. I found this pattern years ago and even bought yarn, but I couldn't get the right gauge with that yarn so this holiday I got some finer yarn and my gauge is now much better. I also found a hat pattern I like to go with this (I'm not a big hat wearer, but it never hurts to have one around).

Since I last blogged I finished a few things as well, unfortunately, I don't have photos. I did some sewing for a colleague at work and made some window seat cushions and some throw cushions as well. I finished knitting a sweater for my oldest niece for Christmas and didn't get a photo of that either. I also fixed a snow mobile cover for someone at work. And I knit myself a shawl. I must have worked on more, but alas again, no photos.