Super J and Chocolate

No, don't get excited, it's not a chocolate giveaway.  If I had any chocolate (and unfortunately I don't) I'd be scoffing it right now.  I am still dieting (got my stone last week) but I'm also kind of eating chocolate too...  To find out what the chocolate reference is, you'll have to scroll down.

Above is a bought onesie that I added an appliqué J to for Jacob, my nephew.  The fabric was one of the scraps from the scrap pack I bought from  Prints to Polka Dots.  I thought it would be perfect for this very use.

I stuck it on with Heat 'n' Bond and then did a zig zag stitch around it in blue thread.  I put the Stitch and Tear on the reverse, but my machine wasn't happy.  Can you see the skipped stitches in the photo below?  Not sure what that's about... any suggestions?

My brother loves his t-shirts.  He has loads and when I saw this tutorial for converting an adult t-shirt into a baby shortall, I had to give it a go.  He gave me three old t-shirts to use.  As usual, I dived right in...  I started by sewing the neck and all was going well.

But then it all went to pot!  I was using the correct needle and being very careful but my stitching was all over the place and to be honest, I think the pattern was a bit too advanced for me as I really struggled to understand what she meant a lot of the time.  I persevered, despite having to unsew and resew the sleeve and side seam of one side 3 times!

Unfortunately I lost half the C and E in sewing...  My brother reports back that it fits him (the pattern is for a 6 - 9 month baby and Jacob is 10 weeks!) but it's a bit slim round the chest.  I'll remedy that with the next one.

It's a very funny shape at the top due to the pattern parts not matching up after the sleeves are sewn on... I'm not sure why but the tutorial showed this problem too.  I'm going to re-draft that part of the pattern.  Check me out!  I've made 2 pairs of baby trousers and one short-all and I already think I'm a fashion designer!

My biggest problem by far was the snaps.  I hate the bloody things but didn't feel up to doing button holes, plus I was running out of time as I wanted to send it down with my parents when they visited last weekend.  I had a go with my plastic snaps, but they don't work with my pliers!  I'd run out of the metal snaps and so resorted to these sew-on ones.  I sewed them on on the machine.  They look bloody awful.

I'm going to have to seek out the proper equipment before I start the next 2 shortalls.

It doesn't look too bad done up and Jacob looks gorgeous in it!
I'm really looking forward to the weekend.  The week of the 21st I'm going to Tunisia on business (potential burglars!  Mr CA will still be there and he's the one you don't want to mess with) so I may have to get started on the Zakka Style week 9 project which is the messenger bag.  I also need to go to the tip but I don't think I'll blog about that!