Simple Wallet

Christopher and Patrick have recently started doing "money jobs," which are little extra chores around the house to earn $0.50 or $1.00 depending on the job. Patrick has been asking for somewhere to put his vast stash of money, but I've been unable to find a small wallet at Target, etc. So the other day I decided we'd make him a little change purse-type pouch for his money.

He's one happy guy, always wanting to do work so he has money to add to his wallet. He looked through the fabric in the closet and homed in on a spaceship print...which is flannel. Yup, kid has a flannel wallet. Oh well, it makes him happy!

I drew out a simple pattern and we cut and stitched it on the machine. He learned how to put in and take out pins, how to line up and sew the seams, and how to press VERY CAREFULLY with a grown-up. The only thing I did myself was putting in the lining and topstitching (with very bad tension, judging from the mess on the inside). Then, of course, the piece de resistance, he got to pound on the snap. Oh happy day! Couture it is not, but it serves its purpose and was a great little learning project.

Great Sewing Room Cleanup

OK, maybe room is pretty generous for my little sewing space, perhaps corner would be better.  Whatever it is, it got cleaned within an inch of its life this weekend.  I was going crazy losing things under the piles of fabric and having everything tangled around random lengths of elastic.  So, I spent an embarassingly short time (far shorter than the time I've spent putting it off) cleaning up and throwing out snibbles and threads, filing patterns, organizing notions, and folding fabric.

First, the before:

And behold, the after: 

Complete with OCD-inspired labeled boxes: 

OK, really I was trying to keep the kids out of Mike's hair so he could brew beer, and they LOVE to play with the label maker (are they my kids or what).  As you can see, there may be no money for fancy organizers, but we have no shortage of kids shoe boxes.  And now that I think of it, I'd rather have little feet growing out of shoes faster than I can buy them than enough money for fancy organizers.  Although both wouldn't be too bad :-)

Chair Cushions Finished!

I finally finished the new cushions for our patio chairs. It was pretty boring, easy sewing times 6, so I'm glad they're out the door, literally. They fit nicely and look much better than the old ones, which were literally crumbling to dust when people sat on them.

 They are just plain box cushions with no welting, because as I said before they'll just get baked.  The fabric is from Hancock's sun resistant line, which means they have a prayer of lasting a year.  The ties are just brown twill tape also from Hancock's, which is a better color match in real life than it appears in the pictures.

 Of course, since I was complaining about how easy the sewing was, I goofed.  They always say "measure twice, cut once" when woodworking, but here it should be "read the notes you made and cut the pieces the right length."  I inexplicably cut the edge bands two inches too short (despite having the right measurment calculated and written down), and had to go back and piece in a little bit at one corner.  I had enough fabric left that I was able to match the pattern, so it's not really noticible, just annoying to me as I hate making mistakes, especially stupid mistakes.

I spent this evening working on my Vogue 8295 skirt, though I've taken it back to more like a 3/4 circle and reworked the yoke to be more of a wide waistband since I didn't like where it was hitting my hips.  It should get a zipper tomorrow and hem soon after, so hopefully I'll have that up soon as well.  Then it's on to some seersucker I got a few weeks ago that I need to find a pattern for.

A Gypsy Skirt

This little skirt for Elizabeth is actually from a month or so ago, but I forgot to take pictures of it then, so when I put it on her today, I snapped a few pictures.  The fabric is a linen blend I picked up at Hancock's at the end of last year.  The pattern, as such, is the Gypsy Skirt from The Handmade Dress.  It's actually what she calls a sewing recipe.  It's a collection of proportions and formulas to give you a garment of a certain shape.  In this case, it's a seven gored skirt just right for a little girl who never met a meal she didn't like :-)  And yes, every shot is an action shot with this girl - sorry!

On her, it's a really cute style and I like the extra fullness in the back to compensate for her diaper-clad bootie. 

On her, it's a really cute style and I like the extra fullness in the back to compensate for her diaper-clad bootie.  I also drafted it for myself, but after seeing hers, I think I'll make a few changes for mine.  I'm going to take out the extra gore in the back (and adjust the other measurements accordingly) and maybe take a bit of the fullness out of the waist.  I like the easy elastic waistband, but I don't want it so bunchy on me.  Is it something I could've come up with myself, yes, but Sam's recipe gave me a great starting point and confidence in the outcome.  Plus, she's a super-sweet mama of 4 with a really cute blog with great ideas - that's worth the $6 right there!

After I finish the chair cushions (more on that mess later!) and my little skirt, I think I'm going to do  matching cousin dresses for Sarah and Elizabeth from her Miss Madeline pattern, so look for more extreme cuteness coming soon!

Parting shot - here's my super reader who was very miffed I wasn't taking pictures of him!

Home Dec Sewing - At Least It's Easy

I have to say I can't get very excited about home dec sewing.  I try, but mostly it just turns into me fighting with very large pieces of fabric and nothing ending up quite square.  Which is why I was less than overjoyed when our patio chair cushions started to fall apart.  After scouring every conceivable store for replacements under $15 each, I decided to bite the bullet and make new ones.  By waiting for a sale at Hancock's I was able to get all the fabric for 6 cushions for about $40.

Last night in between putting a sleepy girl with a runny nose to sleep again, and again, and AGAIN, I finally cut out all the pieces. 

They will be simple box cushions with no welting because welting would take just that much longer and this is Arizona after all. The sun will bake and fry these babies in a year or two anyway. And yes, I'm way too lazy to take them off and put them away after each use. Are you kidding me?! 

Hopefully I will get these done or mostly done this weekend so I can get on to the skirt I want to make myself.  I cut out and decided on alterations to the pattern the other night, but then decided I needed to hold it out there as a carrot or the cushions will never get done.

My photo assistant was helpful, as always.  I think she wanted to make sure you had a sense of scale!

Easter Sewing

I wanted to put up a pretty quick post on Elizabeth's Easter dress.  I'm really happy with how it came out - its probably one of my favorite things I've made her so far.  Excuse the wrinkly pictures - I didn't sew the buttons on until 11:00 Saturday evening, so I didn't get any pictures before she wore it.  She also ran back and forth like the Energizer bunny, so I didn't get a clear picture of it on her.

The pattern was The Tuck Dress by Collars Etc. I made the size 1 dress. The fabric was satin batiste from Chadwick Heirlooms. The original dress was Bridget from the February 2007 issue of Creative Needle (sniff, I miss them). Bridget was made from Ulster linen, but that was really spendy and not at all in my budget, so the satin batiste seemed to be a good comprimise - a little nicer than regular batiste for a dress without much extra embellishment, but not $50 a yard. The lace was also from Chadwick Heirlooms, I believe from the Heavy Lace section. It is an insertion and edging stitched together to form a band with the feel of tatting, but not quite as heavy.

Close up of the collar with lace

Also put a band of lace down the sleeve

Check it out, I even matched the tucks at the shoulders :-)

From the back

The slip was from Simplicity 2900.  It ended up being a bit long, so I cut off some length before attaching a 2" long ruffle. My mom had made Elizabeth a slip for a dress for her first Easter (back when she was still a baby :-( ) and it had a little ruffle on the bottom. I really liked the way the ruffle helped the a-line dress have a bit more body, especially made in such a soft fabric, so I added one this time. The neck and arms were finished with a shell stitch.

So there it is - an Easter dress fit for a princess!

{pretty, happy, funny, real} - The Spring Edition

I have a sick big boy at home, so this will be pretty short this week.  I didn't want to completely disappear again, though.

{pretty}

I love these pretty yellow flowers that popped out in my garden a few days ago.

{happy}

Miss Elizabeth has made the developmental jump to walk-first, crawl-when-I-fall.  It makes me happy because, at a year old it's time and means she's growing as she should.  It makes me sad because she looks so darn big doing it - what happened to my baby?!



{funny} 

This is sad-funny.  This is my sewing table right now.  Apparently I thought that if I took my whiteboard and made a list of things I need to finish and mend, and then sat it by my machine, that would shame me into getting to things.  Yeah, it's not really working.

{real}

My pretty yellow flowers in the garden - they're on the broccoli.  I have no idea what happened there.  I planted about 30 broccoli seeds, and this is the only one that came up.  It went from having a tiny head (maybe 5 florets) of broccoli to this in a few days.  Clearly my gardening skills still need a lot of work.  I'm thinking I'll just bring the stalks in and put them in a vase and enjoy them.  I'm sure the broccoli is not edible now that it's shot to flower.

I have a bunch of other things to put up, but I have to go get Patrick from school and then we'll see how everyone's feeling.  Hope everyone has a great weekend!

{pretty, happy, funny, real} - The Craftastic Edition

I got a box of fabric from Gorgeous Fabrics the other day thanks to Jen, who gave me a gift certificate for my birthday.  It's pretty much been the highlight of my week!

{pretty}

I love this jersey, which is going to be a wrap dress from Vogue 8379.  The color is aubergine and it's a fabulous deep greyish purple.

{happy}

These two sweaterknits and a grey jersey will be tops of some sort, although I'm not sure quite what yet.  Sounds like a good excuse to search the web looking for cute tops.  If you need me,  I'll be on Pinterest :-)

{funny}

I scrubbed my tile floors downstairs yesterday.  Normally I just mop, but every now and then (not really often enough), I get down there on my hands and knees and get all the corners and baseboards.  Why funny?  Because I think it's funny (and more than a little sad) how happy it makes me to see my (relatively) pearly white baseboards.

{real}

I'm holding out my new dress project as a carrot for after I finish this sweater.  This is the sleeve that never ends.  I have 8 more lace repeats and if I could manage to knit more than two rows at night before I fall asleep, I might actually make some progress.

Looking Ahead to 2012

2011 retrospectives and New Year's resolutions seem to be the order of the day, and maybe getting mine written out and in the stark light of cyberspace will help me accomplish some of them - at least it's worth a try!

For 2012, I would like to:

• Establish a regular prayer time and routine - Nothing elaborate, but I need to find a few minutes each day.  Most days this past year, I think my prayers consisted of counting how many Hail Mary's it took for Elizabeth to go to sleep or praying, "Please God, let her sleep until morning now."

• Finish projects - I have a great fear of actually finishing things, especially for myself, because they never turn out exactly as I build them up in my mind.  I want to do some new things, birthday and Easter dresses for Elizabeth, something for the boys, etc. but blue sweater, grey sweater, and coat, you're on notice! 

• Create a home for our family - I have come to the realization over the last few months, that what I need to do is not "decorate" precisely, but create a home where my kids and husband feel comfortable and where they feel good about having friends come visit.  Yes, this means I need to put some paint on the walls, but I also need pictures of us and preschool art masterpieces.  Not every closet must be organized within an inch of its life, but things must have a place and go there regularly.  The house will never be spotless and glossy like a magazine, but it must be reasonably clean most of the time.

• Parent more consistently - I need to stop giving a warning, walking away, coming back, giving another warning, moving the wash, giving another warning, etc.  I need to get to one warning and then consequences.  I also need to be consistent with expectations regarding help around the house - toys will be picked up EVERY night, not just when they make me so crazy I can't stand it any longer.

Well, that's as much deep thinking as I've done in a while.  Hopefully some of these things will actually happen!  I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year's Day.  Don't forget your pork and sauerkraut or you'll be left hopelessly in 2011.

Christmas Angel

In the nick of time, noon on Christmas Eve, I finished Elizabeth's dress.  I had it all ready to hem the night of the 23rd, but when I looked at it, it looked way too long.  Thinking it would be down around her ankles, I left it for the morning when I could try it on.  Of course, it was perfect - just below her knees.  I didn't get any really good pictures of the dress, since it was being modeled by a perpetual motion machine.  I felt like I had gone 10 rounds in the ring walking out of Mass, between her and boys with visions of Transformers, not Baby Jesus, dancing in their heads.  Here she is after Mass with her brothers.

And here is an OK crop of the dress.

I ended up using my second idea for a smocking design, but in black and white.  I was afraid all black would be too heavy, and I think the white showed up well and lightened it up a bit.  Definitely not a dainty, frothy heirloom creation like the original shoulder button bishop, but it worked great.  There are definitely things I would like to improve upon for next time.  I think the cable row at the top should be MUCH more even, and the join between the smocking and placket could be tighter, but all in all, I'm pleased with it.  Elizabeth didn't mind it too much, except that the length made it difficult to crawl around under the table and eat things, which we all know is her favorite pastime.

The Only Snow We'll See This Christmas

Yeah, so the only way we'll see snow this year is to put it on pajamas!  Here are the kids Christmas jammies, just in the nick of time.  The boys just got pants from Butterick 4222, although I fancied them up a little with a cuff.  It's quick and easy and as an added benefit, it gives a little weight to the pantlegs so they don't stick to them in our uber-staticky 10% humidity climate.

Princess Elizabeth got a shirt from The Handmade Dress' Miss Violet.  It is a straight 6-12 month size with the sleeve made long and larger elastic around the neck, but that's our secret, right Miss Butterball?!  The pants are McCalls 6152 made in the largest size with some of the excessive rise cut out.

All in all, I like how they turned out - now on to finishing Elizabeth's Christmas dress.  I'm getting there - the smocking is done and the placket is in.  I "just" have to bind the neckline and sleeves and sew up the sides and hem.  It'll get done, it always does!

Smocking Suggestions

So this post is mostly for my mom, who I'm going to call soon and beg for help getting started with this.  I smocked a few repeats of some candidate patterns for Elizabeth's dress.  Now I just have to decide what to do.

Option 1: Red and black only - this was my first idea based on the smocking design that came with the pattern

Option 2: Red, Black, and White

Here they are on the larger field of the dress.

Not sure where to go from here.  I'm not overjoyed with either of them, so I may end up with an option 3, but I REALLY need to get started!  Suggestions, anyone?

Oh yeah, for a little bonus cuteness, here are Shepherd Christopher and Angel Patrick (really?!) at their Christmas program at school yesterday.

Finally Getting to Christmas Sewing!

I'm finally getting a start on my Christmas sewing.  I know, no time like the present, right?!  I mean, I still have 17 days to make three pairs of pajamas and smock and finish Elizabeth's dress.  Not to mention the cookies to bake, a few presents left to buy, all the presents left to wrap and ship, etc. etc. etc.  Yeah, I'm going to stop thinking about that now.

Here is Elizabeth's dress blocked and ready to smock.

Now I just have to decide what colors to use and put needle to fabric.  Tonight.  I'm going to bind the neck and sleeves in black to match her brothers red, black, and white vests.  Looking at the thread, though, I wonder if I should just use black and white for the smocking.  The red looks like it will get lost.

Here is the cute flannel I found for pajama pants for the boys and pajamas for Elizabeth.  She'll get the shirt version of The Handmade Dress Miss Violet (below) and some long pants.  The boys will just get pants and purchased shirts - the one year I made them button up tops, they complained about the collars.

I suppose I'd best get out of here and clean up the kitchen and finish the laundry so I can get down to it tonight.  Wish me luck!

Scatterbrained

I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off lately trying to get Halloween costumes done and then having three sick kids and a teething baby.  Never mind that Christmas is bearing down on us with amazing speed, which is great if you're five - less time to wait for Transformers - but not if you're Mommy.  So of course, what have I been doing in my spare time - knitting on a sweater I started at least 3 years ago.  I decided this morning I'd post a few UFO's (unfinished objects) so I can get them out of my mind and move on for now.  There will be ample time after Christmas to knit away, but there are so many things to be done between now and then.

UFO #1 - Navy sweater

This yarn is cursed with being in between a sport and fingering weight and it took me forever to find a pattern I like.  It only needs one sleeve and a neckband, though, so its almost done.

UFO #2 - Gray Shrug

It will eventually be a lightweight drapey shrug, when it gets past the boring rectangle phase.

UFO #3 - Winter Coat

This probably goes in the category of "Yes, I can make it, but do I need to?"  I mean, there are a million gray coats in the stores, but I got it into my head last year that I would make one.  Never mind that I only got as far as the lining before I was too pregnant with Elizabeth to fit myself any further.

And then there's my current obsession - laying laminate floor somewhere, anywhere.  Maybe even by myself.  I just measured the master closet and it's only 78 square feet.  I could do that in an afternoon, right?!  From the interwebz, it doesn't look that hard and we have a nice chop saw to make square cuts.  I'm so tired of nasty carpet and Elizabeth trying to eat nasty carpet.

I think I need to get some Christmas fabric and start on the kids pajamas.  Maybe that will help me move on from all this.  Yeah, just buy more fabric and start something else.  That's a great idea, right...

Halloween Costumes and Changing Gears

At 4:00 Monday afternoon, I finally finished the Halloween sewing!

 
I made Elizabeth's princess dress from Simplicity 2569, size 1, and it fit reasonably well after I cut off 4 inches at the hem.  Apparently the girl is the width of a 1, but the height of a 1/2, but I sort of already knew that!  I didn't put on the crazy layers of tulle, figuring that she would hate me enough for putting her in a long skirt that was hard to crawl in.  I learned that I hate costume satin, and that I need A LOT more practice inserting zippers (really just the topstitching - it worked just fine, it was just ugly).

I also made Christopher's Lego Ninja costume after his favorite Ninjago ninja, Jay.  Because, really, how many blue ninja costumes have you seen lately?  It was made from Butterick 4222, a pajama pattern that I've made a bunch of times.  I used the shirt back to draft a crossover front and put ribbon to tie it shut.  This costume was easier to construct, but it took forever, owing to the fact that he kept reminding me of more parts he just had to have.  I made a shirt and pants, then had to make a black belt, then had to make a sword-holder strap (with gold "lightning guy" buckle), and then he just had to have a blue ninja mask to go with it.  But, it was all finished in time and he was the happiest ninja on the block.  For those of you wondering, Patrick was SuperWhy from PBS, courtesy of the internet and a $5 off coupon.  I wasn't about to figure out how to do that book on the front.

Now to change gears and figure out what to do next.  I always seem to have trouble switching to the next project, maybe because I have too many ideas and not enough time.  I think this week I'm going to work on getting the house cleaned up, getting the sewing area cleaned up, and planning/ordering for Christmas sewing.  I'm hoping for pajamas for all, a bishop dress for Elizabeth, and ties or something to coordinate for the boys.

Halloween is fun for the kids, but I'm getting excited about Advent and Christmas.  I can't wait to get out the Jesse Tree I made last year and start our (liturgical) new year - there's just such a hopeful feeling about Advent.