Projects ordered at the Holiday Festival

I just realized that I have not blogged the two projects that I needed to complete after the Holiday Festival because I got orders for them.  One was for big sister, little sister dolls like the one I donated for the raffle table and the other project was a raccoon like the one that I sold at the festival before the man could buy it that wanted it.  Both orders came from people who work in the school, so it was easy to get them delivered once I had them finished.  I did get them done before Christmas.

Big sister, little sister dolls from front.

Big sister, little sister dolls from back.

This is the raccoon which I like better than I did the other one that I made.  I used three colors in the ring of the tail which I think made it look more raccoonish and I made smaller eyes.  I thought the first one looked more like a lemur.

Tony's Shirts

Now I really am done with the delayed Christmas presents.  I  needed to wait until I knew how Tony's shirt fit before I could do the others.  With a little frustrations and take outs, I finally got the first enlarged one completed.  I had to figure my own enlargements because the first one was made from the largest size on the pattern that I had.  I did not want to buy a new pattern, so I just made my own adjustments.  I was happy to know that I figured everything out correctly and the shirt fit him nicely.  The second shirt was easier because I had cut it out at the same time as the other one and so the adjustments had already been made.  The only problem I had with the second one is that when I sewed the buttons on, I started with the top button and lined it up down the shirt.  When I got to the bottom, I realized that one side was much longer than the other side and that the stripes in the material were no longer matched up.  I discovered that when I made the neck on the shirt, I must have sewed the seam by maybe and eighth of an inch off so that the top button was not centered as it should have been.  I took all the buttons off and started with the bottom button and lined up the stripes.  When I got to the top, I had to sew that button a little off of the center so that it would not gap when buttoned.  It is okay with a flannel shirt because he never buttons the top button anyway.
Another thing about sewing with flannel is the striped patterns.  It helps in one sense because it is easy to cut it out and sew straight seams because of the lines in the pattern.  However, because of the pattern, you must make what I call "fussy cuts" because you need to be sure the parts will line up when sewed together.  That was the thing that made it necessary to sew those buttons in the right place.  I had lined everything up to sew the shirt right so that little mistake at the top threw everything off.  You wouldn't think such a little amount of a seam would make such a difference, but it really does.  I'm very happy to be finished.  My hands and fingers are getting so numb that it was very difficult to get the buttons sewed on the shirt.  I sure hope I can find a cure for these hands.  I don't want to lose my ability to sew.  It is my life.  I love doing it so much, but I won't be able to continue with my hands the way they are now.

This was the first enlarged shirt.

This is the one with the buttons lined correctly.