Dachshund Pajama Pants

I love all things Dachshunds, so when Pockets and I were out shopping yesterday, I saw this adorable Dachshund flannel print at Joann.  I had to buy it!



I decided it would make cute and comfy pajama pants.  So I found a tutorial on Pinterest and got to work!

Materials:
About 2 yards of fabric
Thread
Sewing machine
Elastic

First, use an existing pair of pajama pants as a pattern.  Fold the fabric over and place the pajamas along the folded edge.





I placed mine a little further from the edge so that the legs would be wider.

Next trace about an inch away from the pajamas; this will give you a seam allowance.


I used a pen, so the lines are a bit hard to see.

Next, cut the line, going through both layers.  It'll give you a weird looking piece like this:



Repeat on the other side of the fabric.


I just put the cut out pattern on the opposite side and traced it that way.

So you'll have to identical pieces:



Place them together, right side to right side, and stitch only along the curve.



So it's only sewn together by both curves.



Now, open it up and place both of the SEAMS of the curves together.





Next, sew up the curve of both legs.  I started at the middle and went down each leg separately, but you could do it from one leg up then down to the other leg.



Flip it right side out, and sew up each leg's hem.  I folded it under twice, then did a double hem.


Make sure you try it on before stitching your hem.  You may need to take more or less depending on your height.

Next, pin the top hem down about an inch (or however much you need to make a pocket for your elastic).



Sew all around the top, leaving only an inch open.



Use a safety pin to get the elastic through the sewed up pocket.  Sew the ends of the elastic together.



Stitch up the last inch on the waist hem and you're done!









They are oh so comfy!

~Buttons

Jellyfish Lamp!!

Hi guys!!!  It's Pockets!!!  Sorry I've been kind of AWOL lately.  I've done a few projects but they had such tight time constraints that I didn't take any process pictures. :'(  I do intend to make version 2.0s and I'll definitely do tutorials for them.

But anyway, I actually did do a tutorial for the project I finished today!  It all started with this:

It is an octopus umbrella.  Buttons' teacher friend drew this and it made her want to draw her own surrealist art.  That brings us to this:

The instant that I saw that jellyfish lamp I absolutely knew that I couldn't live without it.  :D  So I've been thinking about it for a few weeks and this is what I came up with.  I was going to buy a lamp and attach ribbon and beads to it's undersides.  The universe favored me in this endeavor because almost immediately I found THE MOST PERFECT LAMP EVER!!!  Behold!!!

I thought the ridges on the shade would look way more awesome than a smooth shade.  

Next I got some white wired ribbon (it's imperative that it be wired so you can curl it) and a bag of miscellaneous opal-ish colored beads.  This particular bag ended up having five sizes.

Attempt one at beading involved transparent quilting thread and it ended in disaster!  I thought about it for a few more days and decided that I was going to jewelry it up and use wire.  I bought some pale pink copper wire and my very first set of needle-nose pliers! YAY!  This method worked out much better.  I would bead from smallest to largest, make a tiny loop at the end when all the beads were on, and then flip it upside down.  This made a nice looking gradual tentacle and I just cut the wire a few inches above the first bead.

For the ribbon my first attempt worked out pretty darn well with one exception.  Fray check must be used.  The ribbon frays like crazy and looks terrible.  The other bizarre thing that happens is when you curl your cut segment, the wires will come out the other end.  Just snip those off once your ribbon is curled to your satisfaction and you'll be good to go.  I used my trusty Magic Wand:

Attaching these things to the lamp is still in its budding stage.  As of right now nothing is holding the strands to the shade other than a bit of bending and gravity. 

 It makes for an extremely fragile jellyfish.  Buttons suggested hot glue, and I think that would work for the ribbon but I'm not so sure about the copper wire. 

I think I'm going to leave it as is for now (except I'm toying with the idea of adding more strands).  I don't intend to move it much so I'll see how it holds up and for how long. 

Here it is with it's little light shining:

That's my lamp!!  What do you guys think?  Can you tell it's a jellyfish?  Any other animals we can make out of furniture?? 

Pockets!