For the doggie and the cup of coffee

I just finished two little projects, neither of which came out particularly well. I had second thoughts along the way and decided I needed to finish them even if they would never go anywhere after that.

The first was a doggie "vest" made from a T-shirt. I intended it for my daughter's dog Floyd. I had measurements for him and originally was going to make him a little jacket from a book of dog clothes patterns. I ran into some irritating things about that pattern so I figured I'd start with something easier. I turned to another book:


I got these two books recently from Better World Books, relying on ratings and price. Of the two, Generation T: Beyond Fashion is the clear winner. Although I doubt I have use for most of the projects in it, the sheer creativity and tips on putting pieces together are worth a lot. You could make most of them without sewing at all, in fact. Most of the fashions are clearly for young women, and hip young women at that. I am not young nor am I hip and I have never been hip. Still, I really like this book and this is where I found the directions for making a doggie vest.

What I produced was this:



And because I didn't measure things very well, I chose not to offer it to Floyd. Besides, it just isn't that good-looking. I did try it on my cat Stretch:


Here's the thing. It isn't a great piece of work but I learned some things along the way. The experience was worth it.

The other thing I made came from a website called the object project. It's a corduroy coffee cup sleeve with a picture on it. I didn't trace the shape of the sleeve as accurately as I could so it isn't perfect. Still, it looks pretty good and I think I actually will give it to somebody. It satisfies my recycling need, too.


Tomorrow I start a beginning sewing class at Adult Ed school. It's six weeks long. I have a lot of hope for this class.