Second beret and fingerless gloves done

OK, now I think I can put McCall 5996 away ... just finished up hubby's solid brown pair.  As I mentioned in my earlier post today, this is honestly not a complicated pattern.  Four pattern pieces, only a few steps to put it together - and here we are:

That's the second beret I did up yesterday but didn't snap a pic.  I decided to put the seam on the inside this time.  And those are hubby's gloves, one face-down and the other holding my NON-heatset fabric marker.
I forgot to mention this morning a recent addition to my bookmarks folder: Adonising's tips for fleece.  The right side/wrong side tip was definitely used this morning while laying the fleece out to cut!

For those of y'all who might like the fingerless glove idea without the mitten-style finger covers, here's the in-progress pic pausing at this step:

There's a pair of stitch lines at the wrist area on the bottom front piece - I like this little feature.  Just run a set of gathering stitches, and barely gather them to keep the inside wrist portion from stretching too much.  It's part of the pattern ... I can't take credit for it.

I'm still putting the seams on the outside for these gloves.  Hubby asked about it ... I personally find this more comfortable as opposed to the seams being against the skin.  Is this just another peculiarity of mine?  Or do others feel the same?  Hubby thinks it a little odd-looking, but too late now because I was snapping this pic when he mentioned it.  What do y'all think about this seams-on-the-outside idea?

Fingerless gloves for hubby

I'm still playing with McCall's 5996 view E - the fingerless gloves with mitten covers for the fingers ... this time for hubby in solid brown fleece.  The brown fleece does quite match the brown canvas coat, but he doesn't see enough of a difference to change his opinion/preference.  Apparently a few think this is a complicated pattern - it isn't!  In fact it is surprisingly simple.  Start off with four pattern pieces:

The finger cover on the far right is repeated for a total of four of that piece, but other than that ... that's all.  Did I mention how nicely the red dot stuff sticks to fleece by static electricity?  All I do is add a pattern weight in the middle - and recently discovered votive candle holders make excellent pattern weights once they are dusted off!  I have quite a few glass and metal votive holders ...

While cutting out the first piece, I also discovered my Olfa rotary blade is still very sharp!  I barely nicked my finger between the last joint (most distal) and the nailbed, and immediately started bleeding like a stuck pig.  It's a technical medical term ... yeesh, but a simple small clean cut will bleed more than an abrasion (like barking a knuckle trying to unstick a bolt).  So, I decided to blog while waiting for the blood to quit oozing after running it under cold water to encourage capillary shrinkage.

Not the recommended way to start off the day's sewing.

Pink faux fur revisited

No, I haven't pulled out the faux furs that shed even more than my cats, but the pink faux fur is still a bit of a running joke in the chat room.  Folks who missed the pic the first time around tend to disbelieve it exists ... those who saw it say they still can't believe I would buy such a monstrosity.  Especially the small but vocal "Anti-Pink Brigade".

The whole pink fur idea goes back the the Tacky 80s, when I was a kid and begged my mother to buy me a dyed hot pink rabbit fur coat one year.  Mom not only told me I was dreaming, but that the only way I'd get one is if I buy my own when I grew up.  If I could find on in good condition, I would ... but until then this pink-mauve faux fur will have to do and it is destined to become the vest in M 5983, another which just recently went out-of-print.

So, for those who missed it, here once again is photographic proof that my tackiness knows no bounds:

Now, to my surprise, maggie says she not only likes it but would like some for herself (just at a lower price point than what I paid, which was half off!).  And yes, "Fabric Ripper" is another chat joke ... one frustrating night someone asked what "dfr" stood for and I quipped that at the time it meant "Diningroom Fabric Ripper".  The nickname stuck - particularly on evenings where I mention doing a lot of seam ripping.

Of course maggie has no call to be the least bit jealous of my fabric acquisitions, especially after this latest round of bragging about what nice fabric she scored from a Fabric Mart mystery bundle.  I said a few words that I wouldn't type here or in her comment zone ... mostly about the silk suiting, which stung even more since they sold out of the herringbone wool suiting they ran for only $5/yd last month.

So ... am I bringing all this up to avoid admitting to not accomplishing much today?  Meh, I suppose it depends.  I did cut out and sew another faux sherpa beret from M 5996, this time in medium ... and gave the large to my partner-in-crime for Renn Faire since he not only wears a larger hat size than I do, but also collects hats like some women collect shoes.  I also cut out another left handed fingerless glove, but haven't sewn it just yet.  It's a good thing only one glove needed to be redone, because there isn't enough left of the scraps now.  A smidge over a dollar's worth of uber-sale sherpa (26 inches and I think it was 60 inches wide) and I have two berets and three fingerless gloves.

My mom called while I was sewing the band on the beret, and when I mentioned the fingerless gloves she said that was something I can make her (and she doesn't need to give me her measurements still!).  I've asked if she just wanted the pattern, so she can make multiple pairs.  Yup, so at some point soon I'll trace off another copy of the gloves, or just send her the tissue copy since I have it traced off on the red dot stuff already.  Oh - the red dot stuff sticks to fleece and sherpa nicely.  I guess there actually IS a good use for static electricity.

M5996 sherpa fingerless gloves/mittens done

Fabric purchased 21 hours ago ... now the second planned project is finished.  Of course, I also have a little under half the faux sherpa fabric left over ... that was NOT planned.  Here's both projects together (proof, if you will):

Now for the spotlight on the fingerless gloves.  First, the fingerless idea:

A hand model I am not.  LOL  This was the first one done, and the finger cover turned out a bit big because the pattern allows for fixing a lining in there where I skipped it due to my fabric choice.  On my second one, I trimmed off about 1/4 inch from the bottom of the finger cover and increased my seam allowance around it, which turned out better but now my gloves are lopsided.  I could remake the left hand one if it bugs me too much.  Now for the covered finger/mitten look:

They may be a poor color for me, and definitely not "expertly" made since this is my first time playing with faux sherpa, much less double-sided faux sherpa, but they certainly will be warm and useful!

Now ... I am debating remaking the hat in a medium instead of a large, and redoing the left glove ... and lunch.  It's 2 in the afternoon and I just realized I cut and sewed through normal lunch time.

Sherpa bought and sewed this quick

So I headed out to Hancock yesterday afternoon, waiting for the warmest time of the day to leave because not only do I despise cold weather but this cold snap is lasting too long this time.  My goal was to grab about 3 patterns  on sale and snag as much of the on-sale cotton muslin as I could ... last time they ran a good sale on muslin the quilters bought it up in less than 24 hours after I got my 10 yards.  I know because I tried to go back for more!

This time, I bought 15 yds of 45" wide unbleached muslin ... for $0.59/yd.  That should do me for a year ... Renn Faire is coming, and I have things to line and undergarments to make!  Hopefully this year I'll get outer garments made so I am not walking around the Realm in my underwear LOL

Now, I mention sherpa in the post title ... on the uber-sale table in the back near the muslin aisle, I discovered a double-sided sherpa piece.  Not much left of it ... it measured only 26", but at $1.50/yd I could so live with tan.  The sun had set and the temperature was dropping like a rock as I left Hancock.  My plan: warm hat and gloves!

This plan was accomplished quite quickly: I think I spent more time hunting up all the pattern pieces on McCall's 5996 than I did sewing (not counting time to stop and wind a new bobbin).  This is the beret after a run through the washer and dryer .... did I mention this fabric is quite stretchy?

I'm not exactly a fashion model in the morning ... and I may actually need a medium instead of the large I made ... but it covers the tops of my ears and will keep my head warm.  For S&Gs - err, the fun of it - I sewed the seam on the outside instead of the usual right sides together, and also sewed the band in "wrong" side out ... although I'm not sure this fabric has a real "wrong" side.

It took maybe 10 minutes to actually cut out, and roughly half an hour to sew once I figured the best way to cuss ... err, persuade the fabric to stick to itself and go under the presser foot the way I wanted it to do.  Definitely lengthen your stitches if you use this stuff!  It's really fluffy.

After seeing the pattern picture for the fingerless gloves/mittens combo in this same pattern, hubby wants one also.  He's reminded me I mentioned a fleece cap for him, so I showed him M 4681 that I bought for that purpose.  Of course, he likes the more complex fingerless gloves from that pattern more ... He also prefers a solid colored fleece, instead of the remnants of his plaid fleece from his coat.  I boxed up the solid fleeces and put them in my closet already because I had planned to use up the remainder of the plaids ... so much for that.

We'll see how motivated I get today and tomorrow.