Matching Western Christmas Shirt

I finished my Christmas Shirt. It's McCalls 6383, it's a very 70's western shirt. I have made this pattern several times for myself and I like it a lot. There are a couple things that changed on this one. Such as I made the back yoke larger or shall I say longer. It really didn't show off the material and since I have longer hair it would have been covered up, so I extended the back by about 6 inches. I also think I need to alter the collar; this collar is HUGE. It's VERY 70's. Looking at the pattern it's very hipster, a thiner body and the large collar. I also think I need to put some darts in the back of mine. I will wear it a few times first to make sure. On one of the other shirts I made from this pattern I added darts and made a smaller collar. The darts in the back help define the waist. The other thing about my shirt..the 70's patterns did not think women had waists or hips. I added about 1/2 an inch to the bottom sides of the shirts to keep it from spreading out at the bottom when I wear it. I have this same pattern as a black Christmas shirt I made with white pipping and when I wear it untucked the bottom spreads out..the white pipping forms an upside down Y...it looks a little funny. I also made my collar in the grey material because the pink fabric really washed out my face. All other things about this shirt are great. For my shirt I used the 3 yards of the 10 yards of pink fabric I bought at Scrap. The pink fabric is a cotton and a little stiff but I hoping it will relax after a couple of washings. No big deal if it doesn't as we will only be wearing these shirts in December.

My husbands shirt is McCalls 4530 in red linen. He asked why I didn't add a back yoke to his shirt. I told him it was because I made his first and I forgot, really I thought the red was so nice and bright...a very Christmas color. I think his would have benefited with a back yoke too. I told him if he wanted me to add a yoke I could take his apart and add a nice yoke if he really wanted one. Maybe later, he wants to wear it RIGHT NOW. Neither shirt has pockets which may be a flaw...of course I can add pockets too, but I really wanted to get this done before the holidays were gone. My husbands favorite part of his shirt is Santa diving into a pool, it looks like Santa is sunburned and naked.

Now that the holidays are over it's time to get down to finishing a couple of quilt projects that have been sitting around. We have some friends that were due the day after christmas but have not had their baby as of today. I wanted to get a quilt made for them. Now I will focus on their quilt. I have the top complete. It's the alphabet. I was kind of waiting to see if they had a girl or boy, but it really does not matter. I will make it unisex. Since it's a baby quilt it should go quickly.

A couple days late but I finished a Christmas Western Shirt for my husband on Saturday. I had wanted to get it done before Christmas but I was working on a wool shirt for him (a wool shirt was much more necessary than a linen Cowboy shirt). The pattern is McCalls 4520, it's out of print but there are a couple other similar patterns floating around out there if you are looking for a western shirt. I will say I'm disappointed by the lack of mens patterns at pattern companies. But then there is little variation to mens clothes, you can only do so much with a shirt or pants...other than using unique fabric...everything seems to be the same. That is good if you are going to make mens clothes as all you have to do is learn a few basic techniques and you have it. I have found a couple of small pattern makers that have some interesting styles like Buckaroo Bobbins. Though I have not made any of their patterns it was nice to see other options for mens clothes. Sorry kind of a rant there on mens patterns.

I just love the christmas material used on the front and on the cuffs, it's called Holiday Break & it's by Michael Miller. I bought it a couple of years ago with some other cute kids western themed holiday fabric. Now I will work on my Cowgirl shirt, it's going to be pink with the Holiday Break as the yoke. We will again have matching Christmas Shirts.

The Rumple Minze is from my brother...he gave it to us with a jar of hot chocolate mix, marshmallows, candy canes and chocolate mints. Just add hot water & booze and you have a nice warm jar of happiness.

Some leggings, a shirt and a quilt back

I love my light up Santa, if I could I would leave him out all year long I would, he always makes me smile. I completed several projects last week. My new goal is to do one thing every day. One day last week I spent on the internet choosing health care...that was a drag. So I had to get into the studio and make something. So I made a couple pairs of leggings for my husband, he likes to wear long johns under this jeans during the winter months. I bought him some silk long johns a few years ago, but he can only wear those so many times a week. These leggings are a little thicker and may be just a little warmer...at least he thinks they are. As you can see I did a zigzag stitch in the waist band. It took me about an hour to make both pairs of leggings. I'm going to Joanne fabric this week to look for some grey or red material to make a couple more pairs for myself. I love these leggings and as I said they are soooo quick and easy to make. I then finished the backing for the my Tula Pink Moon Shine quilt. I used the left over squares with some nice turquoise material that I found in my cupboard of fabric, I think the turquoise goes nicely with the bright Tula Pink fabric. This week I hope to put the entire quilt together and quilt it on my machine at home. I pulled out my Christmas Fabric in preparation of making a couple matching western shirts for my husband and myself. I was thinking of the grey or red for the base of the shirt with the Michael Miller Holiday Break fabric as the decorative yoke. I love this fabric it's very cure. 
I also finally tried to make a fabric basket. I have seen these on so many blogs. Ladies make the baskets to put in sewing rooms and fill them up with small scraps of fabric or thread destine for the trash. I have never made one before and found a nice tutorial on SewMamaSew during the handmade holidays posts the last few weeks. I like it but I do not think I will be making any more for my studio but I think I will make a couple to hold cookies as gifts this holiday season. During the winter months I like to wear long sleeve t-shirts under large sweaters. I tried the Alabama Chanin long sleeve shirt from her last book "Alabama Studio Sewing + Design". I used some cotton jersey that was not very stretchy thus the shirt is a little tight. I want to make it again because I like the flare in the sleeves. I think I have to do some adjustment to the bust, as that area was a little tight too. The fabric I used to make this shirt was some scrap that I bought at a thrift store so I have no idea of the actual content of the material. It was a white piece of material but I dyed it blue with a batch of fabric I dyed last summer on vacation. I really liked the color and was hoping that the shirt would work on the first try....it did not. I may just back to the Jalie 2805 pattern as I have made several of these t-shirts and they all fit really well.