Santa? Where's your pants? hehehe

Happy Happy Monday morning!!! It's the beginning of a glorious new week and one that I hope for you is filled with many amazing adventures. Get that coffee going and get YOUR day started!!

Well well well...it seems that Santa can't locate his pants...hehehe. Thank goodness he does have his underclothes on. Silly Santa!!

It was a rather lazy day for the family yesterday (the Mister and the Chazman never got out of their pjs...that kinda day) so I worked on Santa all day. I just love how his sweater turned out and his pants and his boots. OK OK I love all of his outfit.  ^_^

I really like making the felt boots and so wish I could make me a pair to wear. They look so comfy!! I may just have to try it one day, eh? They really aren't hard to make....here...let me show you

The first thing I do is place Santa's foot on a piece of cardstock and trace around it...trying to keep the lines neat. Why neat? Because this is your pattern to cut the sole out and the piece that will give the bottom more support. Next I take the felt (usually about 4 inches long and perhaps 4 inches across. Don't ya just luv how I measure things..hehe) and place it on top of the foot and up the leg to where I want the boot top to be. Clip it at the top to mark it and then clip it on the sides. You want to make sure that you leave enough room that the toe part comes over the entire toe area and that you have the sides down to touch the bottom of the foot.

 Like this!!

You will want to round out the toe area...it makes it easier to work with. (or not...whichever is easiest for you to work with)  Place the tongue on the top of the foot and fold the toe area down and stitch it on either side then place the sole on the foot (be careful..sometimes Santa is ticklish..hehe) with the cardstock in between the sole and foot. You can also use glue instead of sewing but I'm REALLY messy with glue. REALLY!!! Start doing a blanket stitch from about where the ankle would be all around to the other side. 

For the top wrap section I normally use about a 7 inch piece of felt and wrap that around the leg. You do NOT want to wrap it tight..it needs to be loose. Once you get the size you need make sure you leave about an inch so that you can cut your angles on the sides. The reason for the angles is that once you put it on the foot over the tongue felt it will angle itself. Turn the wrap inside out and stitch up the back seam. Turn it right side out and place over the sole and tongue pieces. Let the front angle like a real leather boot does and then starting at the back seam do a blanket stitch all the way around. For the angled part in the front I normally put a few hidden stitches in to hold it in place. That's the one great thing about working with felt and the same color thread..it goes invisible!! Now you have a pair of boots. I know....you're thinking "Hey Regi...there is still a piece missing from the pattern photo" and you would be right. The boots will look good just like they are but I like to add a braided piece all around the seam areas. It just gives them more style!!

Now...on to making his cape and hood and hopefully his sleigh blanket. I hope that YOU have some wonderful projects planned for today. I would love to know all about them. Share a link in the comment section so we can come and visit you right back. 

Until next time..........Hugs,

Regi

WIP photos on the latest Santa ooaks!!

Santa is a Happy man!! He is getting his clothes today or at least a shirt and some pants. Good timing to because it was a chilly 48 this morning and it's still only 55 now. HEY...don't laugh...that's cold here in my world. I mean I do live in a Southern coastal town. ^_^

I love going through my fabrics and finding just the right Santa ones. I really need to go through my stash and pull out all the vintage ones just for him. A sweet friend gave me a just perfect for that chest of drawers. I know.....I have some amazing friends. She even put some fabric in the drawers for me. Now, let's talk about the pile in the photo, shall we???  The top one is going to be his pull over sweater. I know that once he is completely dressed you will only be able to see a small portion of it and I guess because of that I could just make a dickey BUT I like him to be "dressed". That's just how I roll though....I'm quirky like that!! The next is a  beautiful faux burgundy velvet and that's going to be his pants, britches, pantaloons..hehe. The next one is going to be his coat and hood. The faux fur I will use to trim his hood. Can ya see the little yoyos poking out next? I'm going to sew them on top of the burgundy crushed velvet to make a lap blanket. I will probably use that to make his toy bag too. I forgot to post the fabric for his boots. It will be felt of course. I love making Santa's boots!!

Now...I need to get busy. I think Santa is shivering...HAHA!! Have an awesome Sunday and thank you for stopping by for a visit.

Until next time...........Hugs,
Regi

Say bye bye to October and HELLOOOO to November!!

WOW...talk about time swooshing on by. Where in the blue blazes did the month of October go? I didn't really want it to swoosh on by so fast.....because...well...I love Halloween and that's in the month of October and now it's gone. Bye Bye Bye!! HEHE  Before I completely let it go though...I wanted to show ya'll the Halloween makeup on the Chazman ummm I mean Jeff.....Jeff the Killer!!! He was so excited that some folks guessed who he was. Now.....Bye Bye October 2013!!

All the Halloween decorations are down and the Fall decorations are up in their place. I need to get some more Fall/Thanksgiving decorations, I really do!! Let's take a walk through and see what I DO have...shall we?

Welcome, welcome and Happy Fall ya'll. I've had this cute little wooden sign for what seems like forever. I bought it at (drum roll please) yard sale. That's one of the reasons I love to go junk treasure hunting because ya just never know what you'll find. This little sign was in great shape. It was just missing the hanger and that was an easy peasy fix. I just added some fall garland and "Well-La" pretty door sign!!

Our fireplace is the focal point in our family room and I love to decorate what little space the mister lets me. I mean...I can't block his big screen for heaven's sake. (well...actually, I could but I don't want to hear all the grumbling that it will cause..hehe) At least I have two corners and the front I can decorate, ri iight?? On the left corner are our little harvest bears and on the right is my little blackberry thief umm I mean faerie that I made several years ago. I love decorating with my ooaks. It's hard to let some of them go live with others because of it too but I do give a few up. Don't you just love the "Give Thanks" banner?  I found it at a blog called "At Second Street" and she even posted the letters for free and a tutorial on making one yourself. (just click on the blog name and go for a visit) I really liked hers better because she printed hers off on brown cardstock. I didn't have brown cardstock, I only had white cardstock so I used white. (next year I will print it off on brown..oh yes I will) Once I had my letters printed off I colored them in with orange and added a tiny bit of green. I made an extra card to attached my bow so it would flow right along with all the other letters.

Our dining area and like I said, I don't have a lot of Fall/Thanksgiving decorations but I put a few here and there to make up for it and I couldn't forget this side of the room. (Our family area and dining area are one BIG area together) I'm thinking of printing off some vintage Thanksgiving images and making some vintage signs with them to replace some of my tin signs. I did make a small wreath and hung it on the wall. ^_^

The Chazman has decided that he wants me to start decorating big bear for every holiday. So here is Chief Big Bear..HA!! That's a real bear tooth hanging down on the hemp rope. Hmmmmm....a bear wearing a bear tooth. Is that even right? Oh well...it is for now!! I had a beautiful ceramic pumpkin that I was going to sit next to him but remembered that it "somehow" got broken a few months ago. The ghost broke it I guess because no one would own up to it. I mean there's only three of us in the house and I know that I didn't do it. Perhaps some treasure hunting will turn another one up. ^_^

My last decoration to show you...I promise. This frame hangs over the sofa and I love switching out the images in it for every holiday that comes along. It's rainy here so the photo came out fairly dark and when I lightened it up it got to grainy. Here's a better image so you can see....HEY...you could even print it off and use it yourself.

So that's the tour...thank you for following along. I hope that you will come back often to visit. You are always welcome!! Now...time to work on a Santa and a few other projects before November flies on by too.

Until next time..........Hugs,
Regi