Rice Buddies

There was some chatter at SG about rice bags this week and I've been thinking about making some for a while before. I finally got around to doing this today.
First, I want to show you my really cool bag of rice. You can't see it, but there's even a zipper right above the purple line on top and a little carry handle.This is apparently what happens when you send your husband to the store for rice. It came from Safeway, which is in an ethnic neighborhood where he gets his hair cut, so I knew they would have rice by the bag. I don't know what I'll end up doing with it, but I love it. On another fun note, the barber shop was celebrating Chinese New Year and were treating all the customers a catered lunch and they were dressed in their best native clothing. Sorry I missed this.

I turned about 8 of this 10 pounds into rice buddies and pattern weights. I had some scraps left from the PJ's and thought this would be a good use for them. Here's the whole kit and caboodle. The small and oddly shaped ones are meant as pattern weights, the official rice buddies are the one at the top and top right. I made them a bit fancier. This was a lot of fun and I used up all the penguin fabric that makes me smile, so I'll get to smile more. Can't beat that.

And speaking of the PJ's, they're finally done. They' turned out pretty cute. I'm happy with them. Not pleased beyond words, but they're cute and much better than old sweat pants and a tee shirt. I detailed the trials and tribulations of the sleeves in a previous entry, and here's the neckline. I did do the green binding. It turned out ok considering I've never made my own binding and this fabric was a PITA to work with. And it doesn't look as wonky on as it does in the picture. I used a double needle at the edge of the binding with green in one needle and blue in the other. Pretty cool, eh? I really like the way it finished the inside edge. Click the image to enlarge. I used December BWOF #113. It makes a nice sleep shirt, but I wouldn't make a real shirt, it's really big - droopy under the arms and too wide. And I cut the smallest size.

AND I finished the Burda Slacks from the December issue. They've been hanging out in my sewing room for a long time waiting for the hemming. Took me all of about 5 minutes to do it. No excuses. I lightened the photo so you can see some of the detailing. Mostly I want you to see the awesome zipper. Compliments of Sandra Betzina, this is the prettiest and easiest fly zipper I've ever done and am no longer afraid of zippers. In fact, I cut another pair out today from some Italian (Zegna maybe, I have my doubts) wool from Michael's from BFF and my trip up there last February.

Oh, and I broke my Sewing Machine foot. Actually, I don't think I broke it - I didn't hit it or bump it or anything. It's broken. The T foot with plastic front. The plastic broke from the tip of one. It still works, but will snag some fabrics, so I have to find a new one. This pic is complements of SewVacDirect. I may just order form them while I have the site up. This is a Janome foot and my machine's a Pfaff, but a drop in bobbin without the IDT.

I still have one UFO - an unhemmed skirt. I'll likely do that tomorrow.

And I made up for no pictures from the last few entries.