[BenignDesign]

I am waiting for my mommy to call me back and tell me how to finish the project I have stupidly undertaken. So I thought in the meantime I would start a thread about it. Cuz I'm cool like that.

Anyway, roughly thrice per decade, I get the urge to become June Cleaver and make things for my kids. It never ends well and only serves to remind me how much I would have hated being a 1950s housewife.

This year, my kids asked if "we" could make ragdolls. I obliged. We bought the fabric, the yarn for hair, buttons for eyes, embroidery floss for mouths, and the kids spent about 20 minutes each with a needle and thread, trying to sew the doll heads together. After 20 minutes, they left the rest of the doll creation process to me.

The dolls, however, aren't the problem. In fact, the dolls are finished and were quite easy to make. The problem is that I decided it would be "really cute" to make the girls pajamas to match the nightgowns on the dolls. But I decided instead of making nightgowns for the girls, I would make two-piece pj's - flannel pant/shirt comfy pj combos. This is where the problem starts.

I cut out the fabric, I sewed the tops together with little problem (though the neck holes appear extraordinarily large). I started sewing the pants according to the instructions (mind you, the pattern is called 'See & Sew' and is marked as being 'extremely easy for a beginner seamstress' - HA!): Step 1) Sew seam along inside legs. Done. Step 2) Sew crotch seam. Say wha..?

You see, I have tried pinning the fabric together in various arrangements to figure out how to make the crotch work and have been thus far unsuccessful. Either I end up with two completely separate legs, two legs in one pant with a giant hole in the crotchial area, or a crotch and unusable legs.

I so fail at being domestic, but I will post pics of my atrocities should I ever finish them.

My question while I wait for mommy's call is has anyone else made homemade gifts for anyone? What did you make? How did it turn out? Was it a good idea or a bad idea? Did you have to call for help or did you stick with what you know? Was it a success or an utter failure?

Or... has anyone ever made a homemade gift of some sort for you? Did you love it or hate it?

TL;DR version: I'm an idiot and if you're too lazy to read my thread, GTFO!

This post has been edited by BenignDesign: 22 December 2010 - 09:57 AM

[macosxnerd101]

I live in the world of practicality, so if I home make anything, it will be food almost guaranteed. I've made crab cake benedict, french toast, fried eggs, pancakes, and spaghetti. That's about it. And all of it turned out well, if I do say so myself.

[blutrane]

I am coming from a fab stand point so it may not translate well.

Do you have a jig to set these pants on as you pin them?

Also, if you arrange the pieces in a manner that creates decent legs, but creates holes elsewhere, do you have material to patch with?



I hate everything I fab. I made my own toolbox (jobox really) and I find it loathsome and disgusting. I have fabbed all kinds of other things for work which could've been better. Same with any drawings I have made.

Thanks for reminding me macosxnerd101! I am a pretty good cook. Anything from a recipe that I have made has turned out well and so have all my experimentations, the only one that wasn't that great was fried chicken I make a mean stir fry And part of being a man is knowing how to grill. Which I can do.

This post has been edited by blutrane: 22 December 2010 - 10:11 AM

[P4L]

I'm with macosxnerd101, I rarely try to make anything home made, except food which I've rarely had a complaint about it. I have helped build houses if that can count as being "home" made.

Oh, and didn't skyhawk133 start a thread almost exactly like this one a few weeks ago?

[BenignDesign]

No. His thread was about the joys of making things yourself.

Mine is about my ineptitude at making things myself and how my children will soon be gifted some sort of deformed, retard pants.

[lordofduct]

crotch seams are a bitch!

even the simplest crotch seams are a bitch!



luckily you're matching a 'rag-doll', so the 'rag-doll' look could pass as presentable??? Errr... well that's what I'd say to the kids none the less. heh



this is actually why I prefer making women's clothes. I can make dresses and skirts all day long and never once have to sew a damn crotch! I don't cross dress because I want to be a lady, I cross-dress cause I'm fucking lazy.

This post has been edited by lordofduct: 22 December 2010 - 10:19 AM

[blutrane]

There's got to be plenty of resources out there for sewing (youtube videos?). When my wife comes across some crocheting concept she doesn't have experience with, there is usually a simple tut or video explaining it in even better terms than the pattern. Worse case scenario, another couple yards of fabric. I kinda feel bad for you If i fuck up fabbing a steel component, I can usually just cut it up and reuse the same subcomponents (even weld pieces I wasn't supposed to cut).

[jumptrooper]

The past few years my wife's family has done what we call "Craigslist Christmas", where all gifts are either used or homemade. This year we did a lot of garage sale hopping, but the first year we did it, my wife and I made four different board games. We got wooden boards from the craft store and various things to use as game pieces, painted them up and varnished them. They all turned out pretty good. We found the ideas for the board games online and printed out the rules. The only downside was that we did this all in our apartment and varnish and small enclosed spaces do not mix well... the place got smelly and we got a little light headed at times.

This post has been edited by jumptrooper: 22 December 2010 - 10:49 AM

[BenignDesign]

Thanks to my mommy, I now have one pair of pjs with an actual crotch AND fully functional leg holes! w00t!! On to pair number 2!!

This post has been edited by BenignDesign: 22 December 2010 - 10:50 AM

[blutrane]

Excellent. Good use of matriarchal knowledge.

@jumptrooper I call it entertainment

This post has been edited by blutrane: 22 December 2010 - 10:58 AM

[Magixion]

I make a mean macaroni necklace. Other than that, though, I suck at making anything myself. The only thing I really have ever made that was decent was a night stand that I made in high school in my wood shop class.

[NeoTifa]

I'd say I'm pretty good at that kind of stuff. The most major thing I've done, however, was hand sew a Papua New Guinea flag for a class presentation. Got a D for the presentation. He said we "didn't try hard enough." Mother fucker I staid up all night cooking authentic NG food and hand sewing a flag. Fuck that shit.

This post has been edited by NeoTifa: 22 December 2010 - 01:03 PM

[Craig328]

B9, you may not be able to sew a pair of pants for shit...but you can flat out make brand new words I really wanna use.

"crotchial" may just be my new favorite word. I WILL find a way to work it into the conversation sometime later today. People will likely stop whatever they're doing, look up in stunned surprise and ladies may drop babies. They will all bask in the majestic birth of a new word for the English language...and be all the richer, and more crotchial, for it.

[Choscura]

@B9, if you haven't already got these, get some cardboard patterns and use these to figure out exactly where the seam should be, and then use a series of binder clips to get it together exactly the way it needs to be and hold it that way while you sew.

[no2pencil]

One year when I was really really really poor, I took a photo of myself with my gf, put it in a tiki frame & gave it to my mom. I gotridiculed that it was a horrible idea for a gift, & a selfish one at that. But I thought, hey, I don't have but $2 for the frame, & what mother doesn't love pictures of their kids? They always complain that "I don't have any photos of you...".

Well, last time I stopped over there, it's still on the mantle by the television

At the time I thought it was funny. Now it's a depressing reminder of the time I was in.