No Zipper? I Can Fix That!

My mother-in-law sent my husband and I these hoodies. They are sooooo soft! Perfect for chilly days... only problem was that they didn't have zippers. Neither of us like hoodies that have to be pulled over. But I had an idea. And while not the most accomplished seamstress, I'm no slouch either. Took me a while, but I found some zippers and got to work! 

Our local Hobby Lobby had zippers, but not the 26 inch I was hoping for. Since only even numbers are what they had, we had to go with a 24 and it was... a little short. But not too bad, I think. I figured out exactly where I wanted the zipper to go and cut from bottom to top. 

Even through the pocket in the middle. 

I pinned the zipper sides to each side and sewed them up. The bottom edge was longer and the top gave me trouble on the white one since it crossed a bit, but overall, I was pleased with the result. 

Sadly, it turned out that my husband didn't fit his. Too much muscle in his chest!

But that just meant that my daughter inherited a new hoodie. Win-win! 

Little things like this give me a sense of accomplishment. A sense of doing something worthwhile. It might not be perfect, but I can still be proud of what I managed to do on my own. And I also learned some things about sewing on zippers... 

What Have I Been Doing Lately?

Not writing, as you can tell. I've had projects lining 2 crafting tables. I've had a friend to help with editing. And cleaning up the clutter around the house. But I don't regret not blogging so much. These projects have been filling my time meaningfully. I feel accomplished when I get another one done. Take this one for instance....

My daughters wanted to have characters from the older Batman movies. The two with Michael Keaton. Then those two from the 90's. They learned about Cat Woman and Poison Ivy. So it didn't take long for the request to make a Poison Ivy dress came about. I have to say that for my first time making something like this with the sewing machine, it came out pretty nice. Now I want to attempt to make another for my own doll...

I've learned to make doll capes too. They wanted their own OOAK Attack on Titan dolls to be dressed like the Scouts. 

Not everything was doll related, however. I did finally create this marble art that hangs under our back porch. The kids had gotten a ton of marbles from a friend. They used the ones that would work with a marble run and the rest ended up in my room somehow. So I got to thinking... How could I use them?? Ta-da! This is what came from such a question. I used a round wooden charcuterie board, painted black. Wire for crafting, I suggest 16-18 gauge if you are making something for outdoors that has to withstand winds. I used old necklace chains from broken necklaces to hang them down.

It came out so well, that one of my sons even asked me to make him a pendant to wear as a necklace in the same style of the wrapped marbles for this project! Then he wanted to give some to friends and wanted some for the upcoming fundraiser. So, I made more. It was fun and has given me the know-how on making other projects! 

I promise more blogging will happen. Just not so frequently while projects are getting done! But I will share some of the better ones with you.