Sew Miss Oz

Not too much sewing done today, it was a day of working on other family projects mostly. I did work on another pair of the Jalie 2327 briefs for DH tonight just briefly. What did I do with my day besides sew?

• Took care of the animals & swimming pool this morning, that generally takes at least an hour
• Watched Norte Dame mass on TV – I need to find a church to drive to
• Did my 2^nd coat of paint in the dining room, see my Family & Remodel Blog on the work I’m doing
• Made a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies – yeah we needed those, right? Yep the cookies from the other day are gone
• Scrubbed & cleaned the walls to a small room off a larger room off the garage, ready to prime the room
• Ordered more powder dry from Malden Mills for more briefs for DH (got 5 yards, some black silk weight powder dry was on sale for $3.99 per yard!)
• Looked for fabric for curtains in my newly painted dining room
• Did some sewing
• Made some dinner for T & I (DH is doing his Sheriff duty at one of the local fairs, they play security)
• Cleaned Kitchen, sweep the dining room & steps
• Then did animals again, there went almost another hour!

See how my day goes! Tomorrow I need to run to town for meds for the dogs, might take T to lunch while we’re in town. She wants to get some plants to make her own little garden also. Not sure if I’ll get any more painting done in the next few days so maybe time for some sewing !!

Pattern Info:

Jalie 2327

Pattern Picture:

Project Photo:

Pattern Rating:

Say super easy! These men’s underwear are simply a breeze to put together.

Pattern Description:

Men’s briefs, trunks and thong Men’s briefs, trunks and thong

Pattern Sizing/Sizing Used:

Pattern contains boys’ 2 (hip 22″) thru men’s 52 (hip 53″); I made size z which is equivalent to a size 42″.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?

I think they look very much like the pattern envelope, but I didn’t make any changes from the original pattern.

Were the instructions easy to follow?

The instructions are sparse on this pattern, but there are also very few pieces to put together. Mostly the diagrams show the best instructions. The elastic requirements and application were the least discussed.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?

I like the overall design, which is similar to DH,’s higher end hip briefs. The double layer pocket/pouch on the front is not something you find on the lower end (Wal-Mart) hip briefs.

Fabric & Notions Used:

The pattern wasn’t exactly specific as to the type of elastic required for the waist & legs, therefore I checked a pair of hubby’s RTW. I found RTW used a 3/8″ elastic on the legs and 3/4″ elastic on the waist. I decided to use my prior swimsuit construction as background, and use knit elastics. I applied the elastic in the same method as making a swimsuit, quarter making, using a 3-step zigzag on first application, than flipping elastic over and using a regular zigzag. I also used wooly nylon thread hand wound on my bobbin for all elastic application, including the actual construction of the underwear.

I used a silk weight powder dry for the two pairs, and then used lightweight cotton/lycra for the other four pairs. I didn’t have the exact color of wooly nylon to match the material, but since these are underwear, I don’t think anyone will inspect that closely.

Pattern Alterations or any design changes you made:

On the first pair hubby felt they needed to be raised just a tad in the back. I adjusted the center back up 1 inch, then drawing a new line from the hip seam to the center back. According to hubby that was a perfect fix aren’t alterations wonderful for men

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?

I’m sure I’ll be sewing these again, probably very soon. All together I have 6 pair I’ve made this week, but that isn’t quite enough for my washing and his wearing so I’ll be making a few more pair within the next few weeks. Hubby says the powder dry are the most comfortable in this summer heat, but felt the cotton/lycra would be great in the winter. So now, I’ll have to find more powder dry. I would definitely recommend at least the hip briefs in this pattern, very comparable to RTW.

Tips:

My only tips is the regarding the elastic. As I noted a 3/4″ elastic on the waist is what you’ll find on RTW. I also shortened the elastic by 1 to 1 1/2 inches from what the pattern suggested.

Conclusion

These will be made again several times over! Since hubby likes this style of underwear but in our area I’m finding them hard to find within the stores I see more in my future sewing plans.

There are those times that I think my family sadly deserves some homemade cookies, or maybe it is me who craves the sweet taste of homemade cookies These I made are made with my base recipe for chocolate chip cookies, but I used 1 cup of mini Reeses pieces and 1 cup of chocolate chips. They were hmmm so very good too! I made them yesterday afternoon, within 24 hours later they are more than half gone. I did bake them in-between sewing so does that count

Besides my vegetable gardening, and my orchard area I decided we needed some flowers and pretty plants for the front porch area. I have 6 pots I put plants and flowers in, along with 2 other garden bedding areas. While I was in the dirt I also thinned some of my bulb plants. I know this is not the perfect timing to thin the bulb plants, but I won’t tell if no one else does I love to sit out on my front porch for lunch or a break at my little table letting my eyes view my orchard, my flowers & plants, just the simple beauty God has provided us.

Here is a picture of 1 of my plants I got in my garden. I really didn’t think I would ever get my garden in this year with all the rain. We had lots of flooding in this area, my mother-in-law’s town was one that was evacuated giving me her extra company here for a few days. My mother-in-law was lucky, her residence set up high enough that it wasn’t one of the homes flooded. As far as my gardening went I bought all my plants, then the rain came! I kept them alive in my husband’s workshop, bringing them out a few hours a day for sun, getting them back inside before more rain. My darling husband had the garden area all tilled ready for my plants when the rain started, when it dried out enough I just had to run a couple of quick easy passes with the tiller to loosen the dirt back up.

I planted 3 cucumber plants (need to put up more pickles & relish), 1 watermelon plant, 1 cantaloupe plant, 1 egg plant, 1 pumpkin (need those jack-o-lanterns), 6 tomato plants, 4 bell pepper plants. All those tomato plants will definitely keep me busy in a few months. I generally can up my tomatoes as just cut tomatoes, then when cooking later will use them to make many different things like spaghetti sauce, hmmm.

I had 3 trees full of these beautiful cherries. I spent several days picking, removing seeds, then canning. We now have canned cherries for cherry pie or cobbler, plus 13 jars of cherry preserves. Really there was no way I could cover 3 very full trees by myself, nor could our family eat these many cherries, so I called in neighbors to share these babies with. These cherries are tart, therefore make up great canned cherries with a little sugar and/or Splenda. Why is this on my sewing blog, well do you know how much time they took away from my sewing time? I’m trying to improve on my picture taking skills, along with my editing in Paint Shop; what do you think of my cherry tree picture? I have a few more posts of things I am doing, along with some sewing I have been squeezing in with my summer break from school!

I’m back - at least for now that is! If read my personal blog then you know I had problems with my blogs and the databases for them. I have updated, corrected, and fixed the issues for now - but I lost my old posts. If I get time I’ll put back some of the reviews I did with my sewing, and my digital scrapping. I hope to keep my hobby blogging up, alas though with going to college my hobbies often fall to the wayside for homework and family.