All Done and Shipped out in 21 Hours and 34 minutes!!

Well, it was actually pretty close to the 22 hours after all. I had intended to do this as 2 entries, but a temperamental hookup between computer and camera slowed things down.

Where were we??

Thursday night, everyone pitched in again so that I could work on the backside of the pants.

First of all, while supper was warming in the oven, I painted the background for the igloo on one leg and set it over the rocking chair to dry, but I forgot to photograph it alone.

After supper, I cleared off the dining room table and got ready for the evening’s adventures. I created the rough Moose shape to go on top of the trees on the back of the forest leg. It helped to have people here who see real moose on a regular basis because they were able to point out that I needed to make the legs skinnier. Apparently that is why they tip over to crush cars so easily when they get hit on the road!



I try to get all of the shapes and painting done before I work with the 3D fabric paint because it takes overnight to dry. It is hard to avoid areas at the bottom of the leg and work higher up if you have already completed a section.

I moved up to the seat of one side of the pants to paint the earth and a green garbage bag for the 1 tonne challenge section. Then, once that was dry, I bonded on the igloo at the bottom of the leg. I was a bit worried about the empty space between the two areas, but decided to move on to the fabric paint.

The moose received his outlines and details...



The buttons that I sewed on VERY LATE the night before got their caption...




Since the earth and garbage bag were dry, I added the 1 Tonne Challenge lettering up on the seat...



Then I moved down to the bottom of the leg to add the words above the igloo...



Since the area between the two sections still looked too empty, I decided that it really couldn’t hurt to have another maple leaf somewhere on the pants, so I added one with some decorative swirls on either side of it.



Just before 1 am, I decided that my vision was getting a bit too blurry to continue and left everything to dry with another 6 hours off the list and just 5 left in the 22 hours. Would that be enough? Would I have time to do a bit more in the morning before the jeans had to head off to Toronto??


Friday morning we drove to the airport to see Nick’s Dad and wife off on their journey back to Dawson City, Yukon. I had already decided that I needed to try the blanket stitching around the pine trees, so I grabbed some black floss, my needle, scissors and the jeans to come with me in the car. I sat there in the airport with my hands down Rick Mercer’s pants
(not with him in them!) working away as people gave me some rather interesting looks. I could tell the crafters among them because they had rather sympathetic smiles. I am sure that they have worked frantically on projects in strange places too! Others just gave me the “what is that girl doing to those nice jeans?” look. Of course the part of me that is a big Rick Mercer fan wanted to jump up on a chair and scream “Just look everyone!! These are Rick Mercer’s jeans and I get to decorate them!!!!” To my husband’s delight, I managed to contain the urge.

We saw our family safely off on the plane and Nick drove me home before heading up to work. The effect of the stitching was just what the pants needed...



The back pockets still looked a little bare and I had these really cool buttons shaped like leaves. I figured that Rick is masculine enough to handle a little bit of bead bling in the butt area... as might any macho guy that bids on these. It added just the perfect touch to the back pockets.



By now it was getting close to lunchtime, so I took the jeans up to spread out for the final photo shoot, only to discover that I’d never done a close-up of the Woody on the front pant leg...



So here is what the Final front of the jeans looked like...



And the backside...



After exactly 21 hours and 34 minutes of frantic creativity, a few too many late nights, a few wishes for more time so that I could have added in stuff about Newfoundland and a lot of fun working on this project, I tucked the jeans safely into a plastic bag and then into the courier bag so that they could begin their journey to Toronto.



Dare I hope that I’ll see them on Canada AM tomorrow or Tuesday?? That would just be TOO cool!!

Thanks to everyone who followed this adventure. Rick, if you read this blog then thank you as well for donating your jeans to such a worthy cause and for creating so many funny moments that inspired me as I worked on these jeans. By T’under... It was awesome!!