Progress!

I took a vacation day on Friday so that I'd have a three day weekend to get some work done on Christmas projects.  Because everyone on my team at work has to travel for the holidays, I knew I'd be stuck working right up to Christmas so I decided I needed a couple 3 day weekends to get on track.  I sewed up a storm on Friday and today and I made some great progress!  I made this denim western shirt for Billy and I'm pretty damn proud of it, if I do say so myself!  It's much more involved than the usual instant-gratification projects that I tend to make for myself.  However, it was pretty straight forward when I sat down to put it together.  I think, sort of like with knitting, the hard part is getting enough experience so that the terms and jargon are familiar - after that it's just doing what the instructions say to do.  I did a bunch of measuring against his existing shirts and I think this should fit well (fingers crossed) - just hope he likes it!

Because the denim is dark, its hard to see the details, like the yoke and the pearlized snaps - but you can see them a little in this shot.  I think it's pretty snazzy!

Then, for my niece, who's big into Japanese stuff, I made this kimono-ish robe.  I figure she can wear it as an actual robe, or as dress up.  That tie around the neck is just the belt.  It's got a few imperfections because slippery fabric is harder to work with, and because I just didn't feel like doing a bunch of ripping and resewing for something that might get worn during water balloon fights or trampoline-ing.  I think she'll still like it!