Not Even Cold Enough

Goofy weather; I finally got an old project completed, and it's not even cold enough to wear it.

When my daughter was a toddler, I bought a pattern, material and thread to make a poncho. The fleece fabric was clearanced, and I just fell in love with it. My daughter is now 15.

Our old house was small, and so in an attempt to make more space, my material got put into one of those Space Bags. Clever me, I even thought to put the pattern envelope, front facing out, in with it, along with sequins I had bought to embellish it and the thread in a small margarine container. Once the air was sucked out, I had a much smaller project, and everything was in one place.

Now that I've gotten more comfortable with the sewing machine, I rediscovered that shrink-wrapped decade-old project and finished it! Huzzah! Thursday night I cut out the pieces, Friday I sewed it up, and this morning I added the darts I should have put in to begin with.

I used Butterick #3649 (©2002, looks like it's out of print), view A, but modified it. The 60" material I bought had a wide border, and that was what I wanted. That view had two pattern pieces, one diamond-shaped front piece, and a triangular back piece (cut two). Bah. That wouldn't have used the border to its full potential, so I cut four triangles, carefully getting a chevron for the front and back, but the chevrons do not match. I would have needed another yard (at least) to do that.

It's a smaller poncho than I typically prefer, but it's probably a better size for me to wear so that I don't look like I'm dwarfed by it. And, after looking at it, and playing with the sequins, I decided not to use them after all. The border pattern is busy enough that it probably doesn't really need anything else. I have a ton of the upper half of the fabric to make a shirt or something, since I only used the border edge, and enough of the border pieces to make a hat, I think.

Fast & Easy: yes it was
Views C & D are basically, "Hem the edge of a huge rectangle,
sew on these leaves (C) or this fake fur (D)." For that, you need a pattern?!

Front and back, respectively. The little pink flowers on the maroon field is what the rest of the material looks like.

Totally do not match, but I can live with it, because my chevrons
line up pretty well in front and back views.

Detail of the darts I added this morning.

I also added some detail to a beret I made on Wednesday, using some wonderful rose-patterned fleece I bought that I didn't know what I wanted it for at the time. I cut out a rose and appliquéd it to the top, quilting it somewhat with a scrap of fleece stitched between my appliqué and the crown of the beret. I also knotted some embroidery thread as stamens for a little more dimension.

So now I have this awesome finished project, and it's supposed to get up to 42ºF (5.5ºC). Hell, that warm in January in this part of the Midwest, it's practically shorts weather! (Why is it that 40º in January is so much warmer than 40º in June? Isn't that a bizarre perception shift?) I suppose I could wear the poncho over a t-shirt... But not with the hat. I have a tiny bit more fashion sense than that. (The colors totally clash. Non-matching patterns don't phase me at all.)