I Finished Something!

This morning I found a project that should have been added to the list, but wasn't.  My daughter got three really cute pairs of sweat pants for Christmas.  They're size 3T, which fit over her cloth diapers perfectly, but they are WAY too long in the leg.  And they're the straight leg kind, with no elastic at the bottom.  At first I was excited - I don't think the elastic leg opening is cute at all.  However, we had to roll all her pants up last year, and they never stayed up.  She also got two pair of pants that do have elastic legs, and even though the legs are too long, the elastic keeps them from slipping down over her foot.  My daughter asked to watch Elmo this morning, so we snuggled on the couch - she watched her show, and I fixed her pants.

The first two pair were easy.  I opened a small hole in the hem with a seam ripper, and threaded a piece of elastic through with a safety pin.  I hand-stitched the elastic together and then stitched the hole closed.  The third pair (the flowery ones in the picture) weren't put together the same way though.  The fabric was hemmed BEFORE they stitched it together into pants, so I had to open holes on both sides of the seam. There's a little piece of elastic showing, but I don't think my daughter will mind.  So there's project #34, added and finished in the same day.

I also managed to get a few loads of laundry done today.  It was 30 degrees this morning, but DH assured me that laundry does dry on a clothesline even in cold weather.  I tried it, but I guess there wasn't enough sun.  Five hours later the jeans I hung out were still damp.  So now they're inside on a drying rack by the radiator.

This afternoon I cut some more fabric for daughter's quilt.  Some of the pieces need to be stitched together in strips and then cut down into smaller 2-block pieces, and I got all of those made too.  I have a giant piece of cardboard from the box for an enclosed blind we bought for a french door, and today it turned into my quilt design wall.  I reached a point where I didn't feel like cutting anymore, so I started sticking pieces up with pins.  This was good because I realized I miscounted my drawing and didn't cut enough of the strip pieces.  I started to go back and make more, but then realized I'd lost my long fabric ruler.  I can't imagine how I did that.

Behind the wall of crafts, there are three college degrees.  For a while I thought about moving mine to the basement laundry area, but I guess this is just as good.

For the rest of the evening I'm curling up with a cup of tea and An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon. I checked it out from the library over a month ago and it's due tomorrow, even though I've already renewed it once. Thankfully our library lets us renew three times, as long as no one else wants it.  I'm only a quarter of the way through it, so I'll probably need all of the renewals.  I used to be able to fly through Gabaldon's books, but with a toddler and a project list, there's just not as much free time as there used to be.  Plus this one is Tolstoy long.

Tomorrow: Finish cutting pieces for daughter's quilt.  Shop for batting and additional fabric for duvet cover.