flannel series- sew much fun!

Over Thanksgiving my mother and in law asked me if I wanted to go with her to Joanns. I had skipped the "staying up all night and getting things on sale" madness the night before (Black Friday), but Joanns had their morning sales for the days following.

I was skeptical about being in the middle of the fabric store sale chaos...I had heard stories of how insane it is. Since I couldn't afford to buy stuff, I agreed to go to keep her company. Fabric is something we both LOVE to obsess over- it's kinda fun to have that in common with her :]

Well let me tell you- Joanns is the BEST place to be for Black Friday sales. Everyone there (the customers and the staff) was SO nice and patient. Yes there were a million people there and it was impossible to move down an isle with a cart, but nobody- seriously not one person- was mean.  As we walked into the store I heard one lady say "This is the one place where you don't get pushed over for wanting something!"

My MIL Michelle was grabbing flannel left and right and handing it to me, while I stood there motionless in awe of it all. Flannel was the big thing on sale- 75% off! So everyone was hoarding as much of it in their carts as possible- some with 2 even 3 carts full. I kept thinking "what on earth do you DO with flannel anyway?" But I love the stuff- its so soft and comes in so many cute prints.

Well she kept asking me "do you like this?" and "what about this one?" and before I knew it we had a ton of flannel. And like I said, the niceness of everyone was almost absurd. I saw a cute pink owl print that I liked, but there was none left. Michelle said, "No problem! I'll just go ask so-and-so for some when they are done- she's my visiting teacher!" (It was a small town). At one point a woman came up to me and said, "Here do you want this? I think it will go nicely with that one you've got there." Oh, and the numbered tickets. Everyone getting fabric cut has to grab a ticket, but since people were abandoning their tickets there was a lot of "Do you want my number? It will get you to the counter faster!" Amazing.
 
Anyway, we had lots of flannel. She got all of it for me. I was so surprised and grateful because it meant more projects to keep me busy. As busy as the kids keep me, I like to have an outlet. Sewing and crafts are my outlets.

So. When I got home I looked all over Pinterest for inspiration. I also turned to my Facebook pals and they gave me some fabulous ideas. I have MANY projects ahead of me! Yay!

I started off making these flannel pj's because we are having Christmas with just ourselves this year, and I want to start a tradition of unwrapping pj's on Christmas Eve. I made some penguin pants for Christmas and some dino ones just for fun :] This tutorial was simple and easy- no measuring required (just the way I like it!)

There is a slit in the scarf for the other end to pull through- this way it stays on his neck!

 For the drawstring I used a shoelace because I didn't have any elastic on hand. It worked fine but is a little long and T likes pulling on the strings. oops :]

I've also finished some more ties that I have had cut out for forever.  These are slightly longer and wider than my first batch of ties that you can see here. I liked the "skinny" tie look but Talmage has grown freakishly bigger over the last few months and they were getting just a little short. So this time I just drew out my own tie pattern to the size I wanted- and they turned out pretty good!. I really love the fabrics I used this time.

This boy certainly has a lot of ties to last him awhile. Pretty sure his dad doesn't even have this many...

and just for giggles...