This was a busy week for me, sewing-wise. I almost completed that big stack of cut out projects from last week. I shouldn't need to sew very much for my kids for awhile! As well as sewing them some long-sleeved items, I added their Halloween costumes to the mix.

These may not look like much, but I hope once I've added the mask and tail I bought for my son, the hat I bought for my daughter, and the cowl and hat I'll be making, they will look like the various Pokemon they want to be. Left to right they will be Flareon, Psyduck, and Charmander. If that means nothing to you, don't worry, I knew nothing either just a few months ago, but they discovered Pokemon over the summer, and they all love it.

I finished a few custom orders this week, in addition to some nautical orders that I didn't photograph. Nautical is definitely my most popular style!

I ended up making one more purse to go along with last week's bridal order. Then there was a black purse with octopus, and a gathered silk clutch with keyhole.

I got sick with a cold this past week, and spent a lot of time sleeping. Sometimes the Sudafed would kick in, so I would go sew for an hour or so before collapsing back into bed. Kids clothes are actually pretty good for mindless sewing--just keep serging, pinning, serging, topstitch, and voila, you've finished several items!

Last week I concentrated on my son's clothes, this week I finished one shirt for him but mostly concentrated on the girls clothing. This was entirely due to the color of thread in my serger! I prefer to do all the projects that require one color at once. Last week was white, this week was black! In order of the slideshow, the projects were several Nina skirts by Blaverry, two Library Cardigans by Little Lizard King, another Patrick Curved Raglan by Fishsticks Designs, two Tulip tunics by Heidi and Finn, and two Star tops by Blaverry.

I was pretty happy with all of the projects. The Nina skirts are great for using up scraps. My girls love the large pockets of the cardigans. My son couldn't be happier with his pumpkin shirt, which also used up some scraps, and my girls immediately put on their Star tops and wanted to wear them to bed! Unfortunately, they barely fit over my girls' heads. I will have to alter the pattern in the future. I actually made two others in less stretchy fabric that wouldn't even make it over their heads. I'm likely going to have to trash them, which makes me pretty unhappy. And the Tulip tunics haven't even been tried on yet, I finished them late last night and today was a short-sleeved sort of day.

My big project this week, before I succumbed to sickness, was a spur of the moment sort of thing. I dressed my daughter for preschool on Monday morning and the temperature was about 40-45 degrees. I put her in a fleece jacket, but I knew she would be cold. After school, we headed to the fabric store for fabric to make a Sweetie Jacket by Puperita. I have been looking at jacket patterns for awhile, and when I saw this I immediately bought it. The hardest thing was choosing the fabric! I had to decide how heavy I wanted this jacket, and then how to have it be warm enough. I ended up choosing fleece for the outside, and flannel for the lining. But to add a little extra warmth, I bought cotton batting and quilted it to the flannel.

First I used basting spray to attach the batting, then I quilted it in perpendicular lines. I did this before cutting out the pattern pieces. It took about 45 minutes. I tried to figure out how I would do this if I make it again for my older daughter. I think I may cut out some fabric and batting that are a bit bigger than the pattern piece, quilt it, then use the pattern piece to cut it out. That may or may not be faster.

One thing to note about Puperita's patterns is that she drafts larger on purpose for jackets. Plan on rolling back the sleeves and wearing it for at least two years. Juliet really fit into the size 2 better than size 3, but the size 2 was a different pattern, and I want to use this for my older daughter too. So I made the 3, and it's pretty large! I'm happy she'll fit into it for awhile; I'm unhappy that it won't work in her carseat. We'll see how inconvenient it is or isn't to take her out of it whenever we buckle her.

It looks fantastic, huh? I absolutely love the fabrics and the look of the jacket. I like how the fleece kind of looks like wool, though I don't know that this would really work in super cold temperatures. It's big enough for wearing thick sweaters underneath, though. Also, it used sew-in snaps instead of buttons. My 3 year old helped me pick the fabrics and buttons.

And here it is on her! Ironically, as soon as we finished the jacket, the weather shifted and now it's practically shorts weather again! I haven't had a chance to see this in action outside. But inside, it's pretty cute.

This week: I have just a couple more kids things left to sew, but I plan on leaving them until the weekend. I also have two mens polos almost complete, but I need to do the collars, which is my least favorite part! I have some interested stocking orders starting to trickle in, and I need to add several new stockings to my shop. I don't think I've mentioned my Christmas stockings here before. It was a new venture last year, and it did very well for starting in November! This year I hope to have even more business and make up for the slowdown that happens in my purse shop each holiday season.

Weekly Sewing 10/17/16