Camper Work & Dalmatian Stocking

This weekend was the first nice weekend we've had in quite awhile. Read: dry. We can certainly safely say we are definitely out of our past few-year drought now.

Anyway, it wasn't extremely hot, and mostly the humidity was low....er than usual. I decided it felt like a good time to start working on our camper.

When I bought it I knew it had roof damage (yes, I know, bad, bad. But it was the perfect size, the right price, and I was in a hurry).  The damage had been patched, but there was still leakage. We sealed it with Kool-Seal and it worked for awhile but I guess couldn't stand the trauma of a 2,000+ mile Road Trip.

Ah-ha. that looks like the culprit. Either that or the seam connecting the roof and back wall. Either way, we'll fix both and hope that solves the problem.

The good news is the damage isn't as extensive as I had been afraid it would be.
The one board across the top there - along the seam, which is why I questioned the seam as being the problem - is rotted completely and needs replacing, but the lower boards (lower left of photo) are in good shape. Meaning it's not rotted all the way to the floor and doesn't need a total tear-apart, re-build.

Looks like - after we repair the gash and caulk/seal the seam - all we have to do is replace some sections of wood in that corner, plus the overhead board, insulate, and re-cover.  Luckily there are still several sheets of that same old pecan wood paneling on the carport.

For today's project, I made a Dalmatian stocking.

I had gotten a piece of Dalmatian print fleece in all that free material I got from Freecycle a couple weeks ago, but didn't know what I could do with it. It wasn't large enough for a blanket, maybe big enough for a small costume, but I didn't need a small Dalmatian costume and anyway I can't sew one even if I did.

Eventually I decided I could make Christmas stockings out of it.

I went up in the attic and found one of the boy's Christmas stockings to use as pattern.

I used the same technique as the pajama pants the other night, outlining it on Kraft paper to make a pattern.
I left the top part longer for a cuff. I cut two of the stocking shape and sewed them together.

Somehow, when I pictured the cuff in my mind, if I sewed the seam all the way out, when I turned the cuff down, it would be right.  Of course it wasn't right, though, because the seams were on the inside, but now were on the outside.

So I cut the cuff off and turned the stocking inside out and put the cuff inside and sewed around, only to end up with the seam now around the top of the stocking. What the heck?

Oh, and I realized I had sewed the hanging loop on the wrong side. Derp.

Somehow I finally got the thing figured out.

Hopefully the next one I can figure out the correct way to sew the cuff where I can just fold it down, without having to cut it off.

Now I just need some idea(s) about making it more Fire Department-y.