Dotzy Handmade

The pants I wanted for the baby to come home in wouldn’t make it on time. So I took a pair Malina came home in, made a pattern and got to work! Took me about two hours but they are done! We have never made anything like this before so it was a small challenge.

If I don’t go into labor tonight/tomorrow morning, I am going to make another pair with some adjustments and maybe even a hat!

Just hemming some CS (Culinary Specialist) instructor pants today when this cute little helper insisted on being involved 💜

Working on some custom workout gear for PT days!

This is how serious I take the U.S. Coast Guard uniform manual!

Make sure when you have your uniforms done at a shop or by someone that comes recommended, that they know the manual! The majority of the uniforms I sew are outside of regulations and were done by aomeome who claimed to know what they were doing...

Also, 38 weeks 2 days pregnant.. my hands do not appreciate Service Stripes LOL This is the amount of space I have to work with when it comes to Bravo jacket sleeves. My fingers need to be able to work the jacket and make sure the patch is sewn on flat!

More Cricut machine work today! I am loving it!!! And hating it at the same time because I used the HARDEST material to work with for our baby’s onsie and pjs 🤦🏻‍♀️

Butttttt it came out soooo good! No you can’t see it yet because they say her name ;)

Me- Excuse me Ma’am, that is not your bed... I am trying to work here.
Maya- Excuse me but who are you? This is mine!

Rich and I said ‘see you later’ to some very special people as his ship left him behind due to my impending delivery of our little girl.

We decided to try out making some unit t-shirts for two of his officers on board; his OPS boss (Stephanie) and his XO (Nick) as they will be transferring soon. They came out so good considering it was our first time using our Cricut machine for this type of task!

Stephanie’s shirt was a long sleeve hooded t-shirt as she is will be headed to VA. I forgot to take a final photo of it 🤦🏻‍♀️

Nick is headed to FL to become a pilot for the Coast Guard! So naturally I made sure his shirt had 40+ SPF lol

Both Stephanie and Nick are very special to us and we are so happy to have them in our lives! They have been a HUGE support to both Rich and I. It is rare in my personally experience to have a chain of command that supports both the member and the spouse! We have been very very lucky and are sad to see them head off to their next great adventure. They will do great things and we are so proud of them!

We had some custom pajamas made for the hospital so that both of us were comfy. I ordered a size too big for myself, they were comfy big but far too long. I ordered Rich’s exact clothing size and they were a tad to tight to be comfy.

So, I used my fabulous skills to remove the monogrammed pockets and swapped them so we could both be comfy! Thank goodness for my skills lol

Maya and Ella, naturally, were close by keeping an eye on my progress LOL

Today I hemmed some baseball pants for our neighbor’s little boy. He is such an amazing baseball player! Kayden was always intimidated by his skills LOL Hoping he has a fantastic season!

I love that we get to live at USCG Boot Camp! No other place in the world would I have the privilege to sew this tape!

A Company Commander (CC for short), for those of you who do not know, are the Coasties who train the recruits as they go through boot camp and that may or may not end up joining the fleet. Their jobs are difficult to say the least! They work very hard to train to get this tape and earning it is a privilege.

Sometimes I dabble back into dress alterations!

Did you know that my Nana and I made my my Sophomore Semi dress as well as my JR Prom dress? I even made a dress for Christmas one year in college with my Mom!

This dress was altered by a professional shop and it was altered too big. The shop told her it would cost more to fix what they had done wrong 🤦🏻‍♀️ Luckily she knew I sewed thanks to her uniforms needing to be updated and brought it over to me!

I love learning new ‘tricks’

Yesterday I taught myself how to blind stitch! One of Rich’s shipmates needed his pants hemmed. Working on/with dress uniforms is always daunting to me because they have to be PERFECT! I am such a perfectionist when it comes to Military uniforms that I like to stick to what I do best!

Well I decided to dive in and test out hemming a pair of Bravo uniform pants that don’t fit Rich anymore. Needless to say it was a rocky start but within an hour I was in my way and fixing up him shipmates Bravo pants!

Not too shabby for my first try if I do say so myself!

Quality sewing thread is so important! Thread should never fade after a couple of washes!

The 1st photo is Navy Blue thread used by a professional shop. The uniform was only washed a couple of times and it turned a gray-ish color. I always remove these ‘patches’ because of this! 2nd photo is a freshly sewn ‘patch’. 3rd photo is a blouse Rich ‘retired’ yesterday after wearing it since 2018! No fading!!

Pro-tip: spend a little extra for the good thread! Or do like I do, wait until there is a sale at Joann’s and stock up!!

This is what a Chief’s Bravo jacket looks like. The gold is really what makes them stand out from other enlisted members. Every four years of service, the member will get a new service stripe.

These service stripes in particular, hated me lol

Today is a Bravo jacket kind of day! With transfer season coming up, lots of units are having uniform inspections. This means lots of uniform updates!

Bravo jackets are part of the dress uniform for the USCG. Typically I work on the rank/rate patch (their ‘level’ so to speak and their job) and the service patch (how many years in the service).

Service patches are very difficult and take lots of patience and slow moving skills! They go on the bottom of the sleeve where the opening for the hand is typically small and maneuvering the needle is slow and steady as to not catch the other side of the sleeve lining! More years in the service equals more red stripes, equals less space to work with.

Older photo of Rich in his Bravo uniform with Kayden 😍

Finally finishing up Elliot’s blanket!

Tatum’s baby blanket

Noah and Lucas’ quilts!! I forgot to take a photo of the finished products 🤦🏻‍♀️
Maybe their Mom can take some for me 😜

Back at it! Quality control is sleeping on the job lol

Can’t wait to give these blankets to my friend so I can share their progress!!