Born on the 4th of July

I did a little sewing on Saturday morning. I wanted to take a little gift to the daughter of the people we were going to be seeing at a pro-freedom rally/tea party protest, and I really needed a small sock bag that I could hang from my wrist while I wandered around. At some point, I'll try a drawstring version, but I liked this one just fine.

I stitched up two bags before we hit the road:

1. The one shown above was made using one of my favorite cherry prints (I hoard those pieces!). For the lining, I used a nifty red print from Jennifer/Feltmouse (I won a contest on her blog ages ago -- haven't done a lot of sewing since, but I'm ready to start working through it). I made it long, and kind of deep, so it holds a small notebook, a big ball of sock yarn and a sock-in-progress. During the event, I also managed to cram a bottle of water and my camera in there, along with some literature. Now, it's back to just holding the notebook, yarn & sock.
   
2. The green one, which you can see on my Flickr page, was made using some really cool green vintage fabric that reminded me of strawberry leaves (the recipient loves strawberries), also received from Feltmouse; for the lining I used a fruit print that I had in my stash (second from right, here).

I'd love to talk about the event, but I need some time to collect my thoughts. There were three excellent speakers, but the remaining speakers veered way off the course of pro-freedom discussion. In every other way, it was a great day; I met some fascinating new people and even got to take some video that John may use in an upcoming Think Twice News episode. After we got home, when it started getting dark, we were treated to a pretty decent backyard fireworks display (our neighbors had a professional set-up). It's a short video:


On Friday, I visited a local cemetery with KarenD. I'll be posting pics to my Flickr account in the next couple of days (need to do some resizing).

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Gifts by Request

Occasionally, I receive thinly veiled hints or direct requests for Christmas gifts. I like this very much... as long as what's being requested is something within my scope of experience (and the person is someone I would be giving a gift to). I would much rather give someone a gift I know they want! A couple of years ago, Jdub asked for bouffant-style scrub caps, and I delivered. A few months ago, she told me that her husband needed some too, but a different style. She said this would be an ideal gift for him, because he was sick of using the paper ones, so I asked her to get me a sample to work with.

She delivered a single paper cap, similar to the one pictured here (pulled from online; I have no idea who this model is).

I very carefully took apart that paper hat and traced the pieces onto the backside of some sturdy gift wrap, then made a prototype.

After a lot of trial and error, I finished two scrub caps last night. It was close -- after the prototype, I was sure I had it down, so I cut out pieces for two hats, only to find that the resulting hats were too small. Back to the drawing board! Luckily, the third hat worked out okay, so I cut the final one and it was perfect. I don't think there is enough of this fabric left for one hat. Whew! (So, I made four hats, not counting the prototype, but only two will work for this gift.) On the off chance that someone who knows Jdub's hub sees this, please don't say anything to him. He won't see the hats until Sunday afternoon!

I sent a quick camera-phone pic to Jdub last night and she is sure he'll love them. Double whew! Christmas with that group is this coming Sunday. I have most of the gifts done, but only one is wrapped. Two more gifts to make. I'd better get to work! (One person is getting a picture (she can't make it to see it in person) of a single sock (socks by request) and an IOU.)

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