You may well ask where I have been. I have been doing some very small projects, and for me that takes as much time as large ones! Oh I am slow. I think, then plan, then do and do very slowly at small bursts over time. First, before Christmas I did some glasses cases as gifts. Nothing stupendous there, but for me, crafting isn't something undertaken lightly. I wanted to make a few special gifts for folks who had gifted me with this and that last year, so I chose the
online pattern for the felt glasses case. I changed it to quilted fabric. I did some of the quilting with scraps I had, and used a few scraps of two sided quilted fabric left over from place mats. They turned out rather well, although not really as nice as some of the gifts I had gotten. I made one for myself as well, and the softness of the fabric really makes them a nice soft glasses case. The next project is a tea cozy.
It was going to be tea cozies large and small (one for the teacup) but the small one turned out like a tiny cat's dunce cap, and of course my tiny cat won't wear it. SO - it is now re-cut to a circle and will be a small pin cushion. Just for using right by the sewing machine. For the large tea cozy and the pin cushion, I made a pattern based on my measurements of my large teapot, and sort of pointed so I can just pop it on and off by the top. I found quilting cotton scraps and I have batting, so I made some free motion quilted pieces, and then serged them up.
The only thing left is the binding on the bottom of the large tea cozy, and sewing the little pincushion and they are good to go. I used my Elna 2100 for the free motion to see how she would do. After letting off the foot pressure, setting the stitch length to 0 and dropping the feed I attached the darning foot. I found I needed to up the thread tension on top to about 7 or 8 to get a nice even stitch. I am just a beginner at free motion, but I liked the result. I have done it before without knowing what you called it, and by just stitching all over in circles or pattens as I went. I had no clue you weren't supposed to cross already sewed lines! I tried to do it right this time and had a good time doing it. :) The stippling effect, only a larger pattern than some I have seen. I just meandered around. Not strictly a quilter you know.
Sewing for little boys when I actually had them in front of me to measure was a pleasure. Little rhyme there! I was also fortunate to have a chance to shop at a Hancock's Fabrics store, and there was a nice selection of flannel. Of course that meant more jammies. I am not sure they are on the right way in the pictures because little boys seem not to care about front-to-back jammies! Being away from home, I needed a pattern. I purchased the KWIK SEW Sewing for Children book, and I love it - the patterns are much better than the Big4. The legs aren't voluminous, and the pattern sizes are true to measurements. I wanted to use the directions for the "one seam leg" but the width of the flannel precluded that ploy. I love KWIK SEW for kids. The book is well worth the price because of all the options available - it has 
patterns for boys and girls and I couldn't think of anything you couldn't make except possible a formal suit or exceptionally ornate party dress, and you could probably do that as well. The pants fit - and the boys differing size was only an inch or so off (2 years apart in age) so one has a little more ease, but that works out fine in PJs. I counted the patterns in the book with some leeway on the side of the lesser number (differing styles) and came up with 14 but could have made it a larger number. There are pattern instructions for new sewers, and master patterns for making shirts, tee-shirts, outerwear, dresses, blouses, sleepwear, pants and many variables within these categories. I hope to make a couple of shirts out of cottons for summer for the boys as well. And maybe some pants - who knows! By the way, I decided to reinstate comments - I miss the good ones! ;)
