Not too early for Football Remnants

With the temperatures in the 80’s and 90’s, it’s a bit crazy to think of making fleece blankets for football season. EXCEPT when you can get a decent-sized remnant of collegiate team logo fleece (which normally sells for $14.99 a yard) at 50% off!

Go Gators remnant!

We know someone who is a fan of two great college teams–one not in the SEC so they’re not playing each other…except when it came to basketball last year…but we’re going to stop bringing that up right now…

the OTHER team, what's it's name

So, I sewed the two remnants together using a reinforced zig-zag stitch. Then I put about 2 1/2 packages of Wright’s Extra wide Double Fold Fleece Binding all around the edges. Fleece binding is a bit pricey for a project like this, but I love the look of it. I used to make gator blankets all the time and bind them with Wright’s fleece binding in Royal Blue, which was a perfect match to the gator fleece. But alas, the company just stopped making it one day. I scavenged leftover Royal Blue fleece binding as much as I could for a few years, but I can’t find it any more. That was a real disservice to gator fans, Wright’s. Luckily I had some white fleece binding in the stash, and the common color unites the warring patterns of the two team fleeces.

Ready to warm

Just open up the binding, match the edge of the binding to the edge of the fleece, right side (fleecey side of tape) to wrong side of fleece fabric and sew along the fold line next to the edge. Then fold it over so that the top edge covers the seam and the raw edge, then sew it down. I used the reinforced zig zag, but you can use a straight stitch or any stitch.

Say what?

The WordPress prompter has suggested that one thing we can write about is Should you help the Homeless? Good question; in my mind no one would say no to this, but some people I know, say NO! Why? Because they believe that the homeless folks “got themselves into” their situation. Obvious, but who hasn’t taken a helping hand from someone? Are we not all beggars for something? Once, when I was on a committee that dreamed up service projects for our group to do, someone suggested working on a Habitat for Humanity house. “No,” said one guy. “No one helped me by giving me a free house to live in.” True, we all have the choice of acting like the ant or the grasshopper in the fable, either preparing for hard times or frittering away our time and resources. Sometimes it hurts to see the waste. But behind all the drama, he is me and she is he. I think everyone benefits from freebies. Big corporations that pay no taxes, stores and restaurants that dump unsold goods and get a tax break, tithes and offerings that are paid to church organizations and given to people in need, Medicaid for people who can’t afford insurance.

Gator Hat Giveaway

New gator hat!

Hello, I made a new gator hat with some remnants of other projects. This one is Butterick B4532 in size medium (22 1/2 ” head circumference), which is a little too small for mah big-gah head! So, if you want this hat, just make a comment on this blog, and I will randomly pick one winner. Deadline is Friday Oct. 22 at 5:00 PM EST. Measure you head and see if this would fit you, first.  And any Georgia Bulldog fans who enter will be subject to the utmost scrutiny as to their motives…

Sigh, with the way the gators have been playing lately, I might get no responses and the hat may have to go to the bottom of my closet.  But surely they will beat Georgia?

Oh, here is a pic of the bag that is from the same Butterick pattern as the hat. I’ve been promising my daughter-in-law a gator purse, so now I can deliver on that! Liked the pattern a lot. Easy to understand instructions, much more so than the Kwik Sew hat pattern, in my opinion!

Butterick bag (pattern view D)

Gator hat #2

Hat making

Loving the 2nd gator hat to come from the depths of my sewing room! [I should mention, for the sake of “cheapness” since this blog is founded on it, that I use coupons to buy most fabric and notions to sew with, so that I obtain these items at 40 to 50% off the retail price. That makes most of the projects I do more affordable than if I tried, perish the thought, to do them without coupons.]  I’ve found that –and maybe it’s just me–the pattern piece for the crown is a bit big, and after seam ripping a few times, had to be cut down so it would fit onto the side piece. Never mind. It had to be altered from the original use in the pattern (Kwik Sew 2236) to go with the cool alternative view in the June/July Sew News article “Thoroughly Modern Millinery.”

Go Gators!

From listening to the after-game radio show, I believe a large part of the 90,000 people who attended the 9/11/10 game called in to complain about the TV people scheduling the game for NOON.

“Why couldn’t they schedule a NORTHERN football game at noon, it’s not as hot up there!”  seemed to be the shared idea. As we left the game early, an ambulance was pulling in.  Skip’s sister-in-law said that one of the paramedics was saying the heat index was 107 degrees and several women had passed out.

One guy called in to say that he wanted to thank the military for fighting on our behalf, so that he could do anything he wanted to do on that day, namely, watch football. The apocalypse might be raging in Gainesville, but people are not going to relinquish their football tickets.

The Hare Krishnas outside the game were exuberant, as we walked up toward the slope to Ben Hill Griffin stadium.  As a bystander, I (kind of) wanted to join them, leaping and hollering in the joy of being alive, taking part in mortality that we’re all a part of: Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims.  Even Bulls fans. I felt no animosity toward anyone that day. I felt insulated from hatred and fear. The crushing heat of the sun beating down made me feel I was a part of humanity dealing with the natural world, like all of us in it have to do. Normally I wouldn’t walk to the store at noon, or anything else, but if it’s in the name of paid entertainment, bring on the 100-degree weather and I’ll sweat it!

At least I’ve got my gator hat…and can forget about war for a minute or two…