Sam's Christmas presents!

My friend Sam is now in Japan! I'm so envious of her because I've always wanted to go. My elementary nurse was married to a man from Japan and we always saw pictures and it just looks so beautiful! Oh, well. Until I win the lottery, I'll just live vicariously through her. :-D

Anyway, she's from a pretty warm state. And Japan is not so warm this time of year. Knowing that I love to sew, she asked me to make a coat for her. And I did.

I used Simplicity 2508. As a general rule, I HATE Simplicity patterns. I always have problems with them: sizing, seams not matching up, uneven bottoms. I use to think it was me, but I've heard other people have the same problems. *whew* Why do I keep using them? 1) Because they're on sale at Joann Fabrics for 99 cents, a lot (and after using them, now I can see why). And 2) even with the pattern difficulty, they still have really cute patterns. Now I just go into it expecting some problems, lol.

 She wanted something warm. Really, really warm. So I chose an ivory corduroy for the outer layer (I love cord during fall and winters months because I find it stops the wind from blowing straight through). For the lining I chose 1" diamond double faced quilt, with sew-in fleece sandwiched in the middle. When I was finished, I unfortunately couldn't see how warm it really was because it was too small for me.

Sam hasn't sent me any pictures with her wearing  it yet, but she said it was slightly big but still wearable (we live 1500+ miles apart and couldn't do any fittings, so the fact that it was only slightly big make me very happy). So what problems did I run into? Surprisingly, not many. I had to extend the collar to get it to look like the picture on the package. And sizing. I followed the sizing on the back and was mortified to find it was HUGE when I pinned it together. I called Sam and we agreed to cut it down, because we wanted to make sure it still fit. If I hadn't had done that, she couldn't have worn the coat because it would have been much, much too big. And the back center piece was shorter then all the rest. But that's it.

I also decided to send her her Christmas presents early. Money being tight this year, I was only going to send her one or two little things, but that one or two little things ended up being 6 things. I would finish one then have a great idea for another. She loved everything I sent her. We apparently have the same taste because I would wear/use everything I sent her!

(I forgot to get a picture of it before I sent it, but the white thing underneath everything is a laptop bag)

Pearl necklace made with 6mm faux pearls and hand knotted.

Cupcake earrings made from polymer clay and then painted and sealed. 

Rose earrings with crystal beads.

Tardis earrings made from Shrinky Dinks, painted on the back then sealed, with blue Swarovski crystals.