Minkied. Again.

Here's the second version of the Valentine's Day Coat. 

This one is also a size 122, then I widened it based on the measurements of a 146.  That wasn't wide enough apparently, it's snug across the chest on TLo.   Who admittedly is basically shaped like a barrel.

A really melodramatic barrel.

 

 

Um.   Yep.  That's all I have to say about the whole project.  Except that I'm extremely glad it's done.

Oooo, but look what came in the mail this week!

A gift from Big In Japan.   I should say, a really really AWESOME gift.  It's a Tintin file-folder.  Because seriously, you can just never have enough things with Tintin on them.  Especially office supplies (or at least, this seems to be the basic premise in Japan… and I’m totally willing to go with it).

The real kicker is the day my gift arrived, The Big One had pulled out this book to read for the very first time.

So imagine our surprise when I opened the mail that afternoon and my fabulous folder was in it!

 

I am not giving it to The Big One.  I am not that nice.

 

Next time: What to do with 100 extra sewing patterns.

No.  I'm asking.  What to do with 100 extra sewing patterns??  I cleaned out my pattern boxes.  It was... disturbing.  I'll tell you more about it when I've sufficiently recovered from the trauma.

Every Girl Deserves A Mink…. y.

A few weeks ago my mom bought the Evil Monkeys some minky fleece blankets with Valentine's hearts on them, with the idea of making them Valentine's Jackets.  Well.  With the idea that I would make them Valentine’s Jackets.  (I was not consulted.)

Now, I'll be the first to admit that minky blankets from the discount store are a bargain-and-a-half when it comes to buying fabric.  Each one of these blankets provided 60"x60" of fabric for $8.00.  You can't beat that kind of pricing.  I can't get a solid-colored minky for less than about $10/yard at the fabric store.  And the quality seems a little higher in these blankets.  Or at least, they’re a lot softer.  So it's worth it if you want to sew minky.

On the other hand, you then have to sew minky.  I hate sewing minky.

Seriously.  We will be picking fluff out of our hair for months.

Still, I ended up with a cute little cardigan/coat for The Big One. 

I managed to bribe her into wearing it by putting cat buttons on it.  She'll pretty much do anything for cats.

She's a freak.

The pattern is Ottobre 4-2011 #21.  The only changes I made were to use the original hemming on the blanket instead of the hemline of the pattern (it’s slightly curved) and I added cuffs to the sleeves (because I really really really didn’t want to hem the minky).  This whipped up really fast (like, it took me less than 3 hours to trace and cut and sew, so a normal person could probably do it in an hour).  Of course, I didn’t put the pockets in.

I decided to use the same pattern for both Evil Monkeys, which actually worked out ok because they're both a 122 in height.  Of course one of them is a 98 in width while the other is a 146.  So there's that.  But I just cut out the 122 as-is for The Big One (it's a little loose) and now I can just widen the pattern for TLo and I don't have to trace twice.  I'm thinking this might be useful in the future.  Or at least for as long as they stay close to the same height. 

Blurry, but happy.  And fuzzily warm. What more can you ask for?