AG Doll Footie Jammies... and other stuff

I didn't think I'd be showing you this for a while (I'll tell you why in a bit), but I guess I can do it, so here goes....

I happened to come across another Pixie Faire pattern a while back that was so cute I couldn't resist. (Have you heard that here before?) It was the Footie Jammies pattern. Could you have passed this by?

The pattern calls for 4-way stretch fabric, and I happened to have some stretchy velour that I'd gotten in an online grab bag several years ago. I also had some ribbing from back in my T-shirt sewing days when my kids were little... like 35+ years ago(!), and they worked together nicely.

The stretchiness was necessary for the jammies to fit properly. It was a bit challenging in places, but it also was forgiving when it came to seam allowances. The biggest problem I had was the ends of the ribbing above the zipper. They're kinda wonky, but Kit doesn't care. ;) I'm still very pleased with how the jammies turned out.

Soooo... the reason I thought I might not be posting for a while... here it is...

Yup, that's me. And that's my right wrist inside all the padding and bandage. (Of course I'm right-handed.) I tumbled down the three steps in our garage and landed on the cement floor. All because of a cat. If you know cats at all, you know how they yowl if they even 'think' you're gonna step on them... and you automatically jump, right? Well, I jumped and missed the step and it was downhill from there. Though it could've been way worse, I did a pretty good job, anyway. The surgeon put in a plate and 9 pins!

That was on the evening of Oct. 8th. (Good timing, as it was rainy and Grandpa was home and not out harvesting.) By now I have pretty good use of my fingers, but as you can imagine, typing is slow. Incidentally, the brace thingy keeps bumping the home key and sending me into a panic when all my painstaking work disappears! Ha! Thank goodness Blogger automatically 'Saves' often! Anyway, I'm really looking forward to getting my stitches out and a regular (less bulky) cast on next Monday.

Living one-handed, left-handed, is pretty slow. It takes forever to do anything. But I get there, and I'm blessed to be having no pain.

To make life even more interesting, we got this on Sunday. Exactly 6 months to the day, after our horrendous April blizzard. NOT a welcome sight to see!

Fortunately, it started melting quickly and was all gone in a couple days.

Actually, today it topped 70°! I'll take it! Crazy weather, anyway.

Don't look for me back here anytime soon. Not only is it too hard to type, but I CAN'T SEW! :( Well, I might be able to sew a little, but I can't use the iron. So 'bye for another 5 weeks or so... till I can finish the really cute project I had almost done before this happened.

Strappy Baby Shoes

If you saw my post about the tiny cowboy boots, you may remember that I said I'd also made a tiny pair of shoes from the same pattern. They've been gifted now, so I can show you, and here they are!

Yes, very tiny! Even tinier than the cowboy boots, actually, since I made the smallest size. Yes, they were fiddly to make. Very fiddly. But not as bad as the boots! :)

I didn't take many progress pictures, but here are a couple.

The soles have a layer of fusible foam for cushioning (although I don't imagine they'll get walked in much - ha) and to help them hold their shape. There were definitely some tiny curves to sew.

I chose these because of the three shoe designs in the pattern, I figured these would be the most likely to stay on a baby's feet. The straps are fastened with KAMsnaps. That was the fun part of making them, because the snaps are so easy to install. The rest was total fiddliness... but the cuteness factor kept me going. Every now and then I'd hold them up and go "awww" and giggle a little. :)

The grandparents of the baby are very good friends of ours, and we occasionally get together with them for supper, so I knew they'd deliver the gift for us. I wanted to see their reaction to the shoes, so I needed to wrap them somehow so that the gift could be opened and inspected without harming the wrapping. ;) I decided to make a little boxy pouch that could be unzipped! I had enough of the shoe fabric left, so the box even matches the shoes.

I used a free pouch tutorial I found online. I don't even remember which one, but there are bazillions of them out there if you want to make something similar. I measured the shoes and adjusted the pouch pieces, and it turned out just right.

So there ya have it! I'm sure the shoes will be outgrown quickly, but they could be used for a decoration on a shelf in the baby's room or something, right? ;) They were just for fun, and I got my kicks, so mission accomplished all the way around. The shoe pattern was by Ellie Mae Designs (#K113) for the McCall Pattern Company.