Sewplosion

I got back from vacation last night and unleashed four days' worth of saved-up sewing.

Henry pants!



See?

They're for Henry, the most adorable baby in the universe. Ever. His parents were nice enough to let me stay with them Sunday night and took me along to a delicious dinner/pumpkin-carving/dog-petting/Muppets-watching evening.

I borrowed a pair of Henry's pants with the plan of drafting a pattern, but then remembered the simple pants pattern in the Simple Sewing for Baby book I have.

The pants from the book turned out the same size as Henry's, except the length -- they were about 3 inches shorter. So maybe he'll have capris. I got the hanger at Bitters Co. in Seattle for $12. It's from Paraguay.

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I also powered through this last night.

Potholder! I stopped in Bozeman on my drive home and got some Insul-Bright. Every store in Billings has been sold out of it for the last year, so I was glad to find some at Main Street Quilting Company. It was only $3 a yard!

I didn't follow a pattern, but I did get my idea for the back from Oh, Fransson!



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It was nice to be able to sew up pants and a quilted potholder in an evening. I bound it this morning, but still. A year ago, I would have no idea how to do any of that stuff. And six months ago, it would have taken me a weekend.

The first big thing I sewed/quilted was actually a quilt for Henry when he was born last February. Now, more than 10 months later, the list of sewing stuff I don't know how to do is still longer than the skills I've acquired, but I've got most of the basics down. If I was graded on a elementary school report card, I'd be "fully performing" in all the essential areas.

The coolest thing I've learned is how to hand-bind. Before my mom taught me, I never thought I'd like it. Now it's one of my favorite parts of quilting. It has a cool rhythm and it seems like the part of the process you have the most control over, I think because of the slow speed. Plus the final quilt looks so perfect and it gives me an excuse to watch dumb movies.

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And now it's back to a quilting project I started before I left... More on that later...