The best laid plans....

Yes, I know, I just posted a list of what the next order of business after the prom dress will be. But I'm changing it. My sister Teresa needs a coat that will block the wind for her to take to Notre Dame with her next year, so I'm going to make her this coat. I'm not sure what collar I'll use yet. While I was browsing coats on the McCall's website, I saw this lovely coat. The green version, with the belt and rose, is to die for, isn't it? I need a lighter coat to wear in the spring and fall anyway, so I decided to get some fabric for this coat along with my seersucker and the fabric for my brother B's PJs.

Well, although seersucker was 50% off at JoAnn's, I really didn't see anything that I felt like buying. Even 50% off, it was still pretty expensive by my (admittedly cheapskate) standards. Besides, most of the prints were quite young-looking, and as an 18 year old who looks like a 14 year old on a good day, I think that wearing a print suitable for a 12 year old would be a bad, bad idea. So I didn't get any seersucker. For my coat, though, I found this lovely fabric, which is a light/medium weight linen:
Isn't it gorgeous? I wish I had taken a picture of it drying on the line--the effect of four and a half yards of it is wonderful. I found pink and black buttons that match quite well.

As an aside, I must say that I was greatly surprised when I checked the size chart on the coat pattern. Apparently I should cut myself a 4, the smallest size in the envelope. I'm generally used to cutting a 10 or a 12 in the Simplicity patterns I inherited from my grandmother. Have McCall's patterns been vanity sized much more than other brands, or have all new patterns fallen victim to vanity sizing? I loved being "large enough" by pattern sizing that it was easy to find patterns for me. Many of the McCall's patterns on the website now don't seem to come in anything smaller than an 8.

For B's pajamas, we bought this animal print:
This is most certainly not what I would have chosen, as it's stiffer than I would like. I am not a fan of animal prints, either. However, this was pretty much the only patterned knit in the whole store that wasn't pink or pastel. Is there really no market for 8 year old boy fabric? I didn't find a PJ pattern I liked, so I think I'll create my own. There are plenty of free shorts patterns out there, and I can trace a T-shirt he likes for the top. I also need to figure out how to make binding for the neck edge, but I know I've seen a tutorial for that somewhere on the internet.

On an unrelated note, I added up how much fabric I have. The total came to slightly over 68 yards, but that includes some remnants and other pieces of fabric that aren't even close to full width. On the whole, I'm okay with that total, although I personally find a stash intimidating rather than inspiring and would like to sew it down some.