Loving something I'm not good at.

I love to craft. I love to quilt. I love to sew. I'm not very good at these things, but I love to do them anyway. I've gotten a little better at some of these things the more I've tried, but sometimes a project comes along that reminds me that I'm not a natural. Mr. Nest still loves to tease me about my Sputnik wreath from 2 Christmases ago.

I was going for something like this

and ended up with something more like this (sorry, I didn't take pictures of my "masterpiece" for fear that I would be blackmailed with it for Christmases to come.)

But this was Tidymom's stage 1. Not the finished product. Sigh. This is how it turned out. I'm even more ashamed after seeing her beautiful finished wreath! 

I digress......

My point is that you're going to see things here from time to time that I'm excited to share not because they are perfect, but because I didn't make another Sputnik wreath. It's moderately good, so I'm proud. And that's exactly how I feel about the little fleece vest I made for Birdie last night.

I didn't have a pattern- just a sketch.

I used a jacket that fits her well as a make-shift template.

(it's being washed today! yuck!)

I cut out the back first.

Then the front 2 panels, then pinned them to the back. One side overlaps the other to compensate for the extra girth around her cute chubby belly.

Then trimmed.

But I trimmed too much. :(

(that's what I get for watching 90210 instead of concentrating!)

So I cut a new piece and was back on track. I decided to add a hood, so I used another hooded jacket as a template.

When I pinned the hood to the vest I realized I should have lined it. So I ghettofied it and sewed in another piece of fleece as a liner. The edges are really rough and chunky, so I'll add some bias tape and maybe some ruffled edging to cover it up. 

Here it is on the hanger at 11pm last night.

Not too bad, considering.

Except that I rudely discovered this morning that working on this so late at night was not a good idea. I tried the vest on Birdie, and at some point I trimmed the front pieces so that they didn't overlap anymore. Now it won't close. :(

(sorry for the crappy cell phone pictures)

Oh well. It cost me $3.42 in remnant fleece and 3 hours of my time. Nothing worth complaining over!

I love sewing and making things for my home and my family. I'm not very good at it, but that doesn't mean I won't keep trying. I'll just have to get more creative about covering up my mistakes!