family health stuff

So.

There is no place in the baby book for "baby's first bloodwork."

According to our pediatrician, because of all the crap toys from China, it is now a NY state law that all children be tested for lead exposure at ages 1 and 2. We had Daughter tested at 1 because we live in an old house and don't know exactly what lurks within our walls. But back then she didn't know what was going on so it was only mildly traumatic (for all of us). They enacted this law after Daughter's 2nd well-check, so the doctor said we have to do the second test now.

(She also said they never see lead contamination from crappy toys in the area where we live because people are fairly well-off, as opposed to in the city or poorer areas where kids play with cheaper toys. But whatever. Due to my in-laws we have seen a few dollar-store toys enter our home, much to my chagrin. Moving on.....)

We got the order a week ago, but as fasting was required, I had to schedule an early morning appointment and couldn't get in until today. Plus Hubs had to come with us to hold her. I mentioned to her last week that she was going to have a turn at 'the lab,' which she understands because she comes with me once a month to get my thyroid bloodwork done. She didn't like that idea at all, even when I promised treats. In fact, she screamed in my face, "I don't need any treats, and I don't need any pokes!"

So I didn't mention anything else about it. This morning we scooped her out of bed, threw some clothes on, and took her to the lab. She figured we were there for me, but when we got into the room she willingly sat in the big chair with Daddy. I told her in cheerful! tones! that it was her! turn! for a test!

And she was totally cool. She hugged her favorite stuffed friends in one arm and stuck the other one straight out. Hubs held her around the waist while I held her arm straight, and the phlebotomist quickly stuck the needle in her arm while Daughter watched. She did not even flinch! Nothing! 3 little tubes of blood later and she was cheerfully showing off her bandaid to anyone who would look.

"That was a good poke, Mommy! Let's go get a donut!"

Yes, my dear. A donut, indeed. And a shot of whiskey for mommy. (I kid.)

***

In other news, my allergy problem has apparently left my body unable to ward off germs. As of Sunday morning I felt a cold beginning to settle in my throat. Now it's become a full-fledged chest cold with wheezy breathing and a hacking cough. I'm going to just go for the full whine here and say I feel like crapola. Really, really lousy. My nose is red and raw from all the allergy-related blowing and wiping, and the rest of the skin on my face has that tight, sore, dry feeling you get when you're sick, know what I mean? Ugh.

My OB is of the opinion that no cold medicine is good for pregnancy except for tylenol and sudafed, but they mean the junky sudafed they sell on the shelf that has no good active ingredients in it (as opposed to the good stuff you get behind the pharmacy counter where they take your drivers license, for pete's sake). Worthless! So I'm sipping hot (decaf) tea with big teaspoons of honey for my throat and coughing till I gag. I treat myself to one (1) Halls cherry cough drop per day when I figure I'm feeling the worst, because if people used to drink and smoke and still give birth to healthy babies I figure a few throat lozenges won't do any harm.

Baby is thrilled with all this coughing and is registering his disapproval with roundhouse kicks to my internal organs. I'm just praying I don't wet my pants. Yeah, I said it.

Awesome.

baby gift

I've finally just about finished up this baby gift for the girl who cuts my hair (I have trouble calling her "my hairdresser" - does anyone under 50 use that expression anymore?). I bought the stuff back in February before my last cut, thinking I'd complete the set for her back then, but HA. Fate had other plans for me and my nausea and tiredness were still in full force. Luckily she still has a month to go and is still working, so I will deliver these things tomorrow at my appointment.


Sorry if this picture gives anyone vertigo...it certainly makes me feel dizzy. I didn't mean to hit such a strange angle. I was in a hurry because Daughter is awake from nap in her bed and I want to get this posted quickly before she's up and around. Anyway, here's the whole set. Blanket, sweater, pants.


I don't remember the pattern I used for these, but I've made them seven thousand times and posted them here. Any basic pull-on baby pants pattern will give you the same result. These are a size small, which I am hoping corresponds roughly with twelve months. The fabric is a sweet flannel print I got at Joann's during a recent sale (well, back in February, I guess). The pants are completely finished with french seams and double-turned hems/casing because my serger is currently dead.


The sweater: Knitting Pure and Simple neck down cardigan in 12-month size. I have made this pattern so many times I can practically knit it in my sleep. Just a fabulous, fabulous pattern for a little kid sweater. Yes, I know, there are no buttons. They are here in my knitting bag and will be sewn on tonight. The yarn is wool-ease in, I believe, denim. I love wool-ease for baby sweaters because it's both warm and totally easy care. Needles: US 7 and 8. The color is a bit washed out here, but the light is funny today. It's really a bit darker blue. More like...denim. Imagine that.


And the blanket. Acres and acres of stockinette and seed stitch. When I cast this bad boy off I did a victory lap around the house. SO BORING! It is supposed to be a hooded blanket but I just can't bring myself to do it. Instead it is approximately a 28" square plain blanket, enough said. This was made with one of those "pound of love" skeins from Lion Brand, two strands held doubled, knit on US 10.5 needles. It's fairly heavy and warm, but drapes nicely because of the huge needles used to knit it. I have to say, I LOVE this little blanket, but I won't be making one for my own baby. Too mind-numbing. The colorway is also denim or maybe faded denim, so it coordinates nicely with the sweater, and the pattern came right from the ball band. Easy peasy, and can I just say this? Only $5. Do you know what Baby Gap would charge for a blanket like this? Sometimes it pays to know how to make stuff.

In fact, just for funsies, the whole outfit plus blanket only cost...hang on, I'll do the math...$4 for the sweater, $1.50 for the pants, and $5 for the blanket. $10.50 for the whole ensemble!?! I'm not trying to be cheap here, but hello, it's nice to be frugal and give a fairly nice gift all at the same time. Sometimes sewing and knitting for children really can save you money (as opposed to sewing for adults, which usually breaks the bank in my opinion).

Oh, and yeah, she is having a boy. Which is lucky, because I bought all the stuff before I knew that!

Aaaaaaand, happy day, I actually have enough flannel to make these same pants for my own baby! I loves me some frugality! What color sweater should I make to go with them? Would red be too obnoxious, to go with the little lion manes? I think I have some red in my stash.....

brain dump

Thanks for the kind birthday wishes for Daughter. She had a lovely birthday and received many fun gifts (I have played enough Candyland and Memory over the past 4 days thankyouverymuch), though she did not like when we sang the birthday song. She told us so after everyone was gone. And again the next day. Oh well, she comes by that honestly. Neither her father nor I enjoy being the center of attention, so it makes sense that she does not.

And aside from the freak 88 degrees we reached on Saturday, the weather has been perfectly perfect for the past week. Low 70s, abundant sunshine, everything bursting into bloom. Unfortunately my allergies are also bursting into bloom, and as of right now I can't quite open my eyes all the way. This morning my husband helpfully observed that I look stoned. Awesome! Just the image I want to project. I tried to put some makeup on to cover the purple undereye circles, but my skin feels like tissue paper and it actually hurt to pat on cover-up. So I guess I'll just have to look stoned for the time being. In addition, my ears, throat, nose, and mouth itch constantly and frankly, it's making everyday living pretty taxing. And no, I haven't taken any medication because I can't. I'm not allowed. Why not?

Because I'm 21 weeks pregnant, kids. Yep, this is the official announcement. And dudes, it's a boy. I'm just a wee bit freaked out by this news because hello, we have no boys in our family (I have two sisters). I hesitate to even post this news right now because I'm so scared of something going wrong, but it's not like I can keep it a secret forever. As of right now everything looks fine - the placenta is a tad low but not over the cervix, and I have had absolutely no symptoms of placenta previa so my doc is not worried - and baby is a-kickin' day and night. I have bloodwork for my thyroid issues once a month and my medication is being adjusted accordingly, so here's hoping things will work out right this time. Please, if you think of it, say a prayer for our son-to-be.

Due to my fear of jinxing myself, I have not been knitting or sewing anything for the wee lad. Not only have I been too tired and queasy (though that has mostly passed), but I also have no money due to the rising cost of EVERYTHING. Ay-yi-yi, every time I go out I see that gas prices have increased by like, at least 6 cents each time! (Most recently I saw $3.65 for the lowest grade.) What is the deal? We live in the sticks so I have to drive a fair distance to get almost anywhere...so we go to playgroup, a once-weekly trip to the supermarket, and usually a once-weekly trip to grandma's house. Otherwise we're homebound. LAME! Thank goodness there is a playground at the end of our street, or else we'd be insane by now.

Also, we are entering a new state of somewhat extreme frugality in our house because last week we purchased a new car. Wheee! The lease on Hubs' car was up, and while a car was ok for him, we did have at least one incidence of it getting stuck in the driveway after a heavy snowfall. So as it was my turn for a new vehicle, we chose another 4-wheel-drive SUV. I know, I know, that is so stupid in this economy, but we have a basic philosophy regarding the vehicle I drive, and it is this: as long as I am driving small fry around in a wintery environment, I will drive a brand-new car that has 4-wheel-drive capability. I realize that flies in the face of what many people believe about buying cars, but this is what we believe works for us. I will not say exactly what we got, but I will say we chose the 0% financing option which unfortunately is a 36-month payoff. Yes, we have to pay for this car in 3 years. It's going to be kind of painful, but not unmanageable. We're both so sick of sending interest out the door every month, and since my old jeep is paid off, Hubs is driving that to work, and we've taken on a large payment. On purpose. Hopefully in 3 years we will have 2 fully-paid-for vehicles in decent shape and can enjoy a little time with no car payments at all.

Oh, we also began contributing a chunk of Hubs' paycheck to his 401k a few weeks ago, so that changes things even more around here. But it's a necessity as we'd like to have some funds when we retire.

As a result of all this insanity, I spent several days (literally) working up a new budget for our family. I have always clipped coupons and shopped sales, but I'm now becoming a complete freak about it. Grocery shopping used to be one of my favorite activities, but now it's become a huge challenge to get everything we need at a reasonable level of spending. Add gas expenses to that, and the mortgage, our stupid, stupid student loans, and utilities...well, let's just say I'm constantly checking my spreadsheet and filling in numbers to make it all work. Hubs is taking lunch to work each day to help out, and I've cut out almost all hobby spending - my only recent purchases have been fabrics/notions for my bridesmaid dress and Daughter's flower girl dress for my sister's wedding. And due to Joann's awesome recent sale, I only spent $21 on all that. Anyway, our main goal right now is to leave our savings untouched, and in fact still save a tad each week, while also paying all the bills (I've mentioned this before, but it's worth re-telling: we use a credit card, but we pay it each month and never carry a balance).

So I may post occasionally about things relating to frugal living, just to keep myself honest. It's hard because I'm the home finance person. Hubs makes the money but I do almost all the spending. It's kind of a huge responsibility, when you think about it. But I've become really adept at working the sales, and I'm turning into a rebate queen as well. It might bleed into the blog because it's a big part of my life right now. We're working hard to create a more comfortable life for ourselves in the future, and we're doing the belt-tightening now, while Daughter is small and doesn't know the difference between W*Mart and Gymboree.

So that is my brain dump for today. There are some projects in the works...my hands have remembered how to knit, and I've been sewing a bit as well (some new things for the etsy shop, finally). I hope to get back into posting something interesting quite soon.

birthday girl

Not quite sure how we went from this:


To this:


But I can tell you that it's happened in the blink of an eye. How can 3 years go by so fast?

Happy birthday, sweet girl. You are the light of my life.

drive by

Hello! Very busy! Just dropping in to assure everyone I am alive and kicking.

Back soon with real content!

Oh wait, there's this!


We visited a working dairy farm this morning. Guess what? Even if you don't touch anything, you still come home stinking like cow poop! I'm getting in the shower now.

she knits!

Check it out...for the first time in, what, 3 months? Knitting makes an appearance on this blog!



Yes, I still do play with sticks and string. I don't know what my problem has been, but ever since I finished Killeany, I haven't felt any urge to knit. I've tried, but every time I've picked up a project it's felt wrong in my hands. I couldn't get into a rhythm and kept tossing things aside. Sewing has captured my attention more than knitting, so I gave in and did that instead.

But for some reason, now that spring is springing, I have this insane urge to knit stuff. I know, it makes no sense. Warm weather ahead** - get out the wool! Weird.

What you see above are 3 of the 6 or so projects that are started and in various states of completion (in addition are a shawl I started a year ago, and two socks). The large blue rectangle is a baby blanket for a wee boy soon to make his appearance. The girl who cuts my hair is expecting in about 6 or 7 weeks. She is a friend and also my former boss's daughter, so I felt compelled to make her something. The blue sweater is also for her baby, and is just the Knitting Pure and Simple top down cardigan in a 12-month size. I like to make slightly larger items for baby gifts because I figure people will always get lots of teeny clothes, but then have nothing for when the babe is growing. Also, since he is to be born in May, he won't need wool sweaters until next winter, so it makes sense to do a larger size. The blanket is about halfway done, and the sweater just needs sleeves.

The purple bit there is a sleeve. There's a small backstory here: last week when it was still mighty cold here, I told Daughter she needed to put a sweater on because it was freezing in the house. She never wants to wear a sweater, but I told her she could pick out whatever sweater she wanted from her drawer. She liked that idea, and to my amazement she chose Killeany. She has worn that sweater exactly ONCE since I finished it, and it has kind of broken my heart that every time I pull it out and suggest it she tells me she won't wear it. But lo! She chose it herself and I was tickled.

She then went on to tell me how beautiful it is and how much she loves it, but could I make her a purple sweater now?

I actually had some purple yarn set aside to do just that, so I told her I'd be happy to. She happily trotted off to the dining room (where she knows the yarn is kept in a cabinet) and pulled out a dining chair. I asked her what she was doing and she said, while clambering up, "I'll sit here, Mommy, and watch you while you make my purple sweater!"

Bless her little heart.

So of course I had to start her purple sweater. Can anyone guess what pattern I'm using from that little bit of sleeve?

**For the record, it is supposed to snow here next week.

newest frock

Ok peeps, this is going to be a fast one because it is 65 awesome degrees of awesomeness outside and my behind belongs in a lawn chair with a beverage and my knitting right now!

Newest dress for Daughter:


"Why Kate, we did not know you are Amish."

It is a bit puritanical-looking, I suppose. But it is so sweet and soft I don't even care. This is, once again, New Look 6745, size 2. The fabric is brushed denim I picked up at Joann last week (40% off sale, baby!) and I think it took about 2/3 yard or so. Very economical! I felt ok about my big $.99 splurge on the buttons after only spending about $3 on the fabric. :)

Here, the back is a little jazzier than the front:


Daughter picked out these buttons herself, and no, your eyes do not deceive you - they are different colors.

Here's a closeup:



The reason this dress is so plain-jane is because Daughter has several pairs of adorable and brightly colored tights languishing in her drawer, and I wanted to make her a plain denim dress that can be worn with all of them. This should fit the bill nicely. Despite our lovely 60+ degree days right now, we have plenty of chilly spring weather ahead before summer truly arrives, so this dress will definitely get worn right now, and should hopefully still fit in autumn.

Mmmmkay, I'm off to soak up some SUN!

mama's day off

Shhhhhhhhh...listen. Can you hear it?

Can you hear the silence?

I am home alone.

Daughter will be 3 in two weeks and I believe this is the very first time I have been totally alone in my house since she was born.

My mom picked her up this morning, took her on an adventure of some sort, and will be bringing her back for dinner. I almost don't know what to do with myself. I'm fighting the urge to do housework - though I did change the sheets and clear up all the dirty dishes - because this is supposed to be a day off for me. I've traced some patterns and now that I've eaten lunch I'll cut out some garments. I may get some stitching time in today as well.

People, Lord knows I love my child more than anything, and would jump in front of a train for her if need be...but oh my goodness, I am really, really enjoying this day.

anyone else have this problem?

I am not a very confrontational person. I have to be really upset about something to make a stink (unless it involves my kid...then I am fierce just like any of you would be). So here's the thing: I bought a couple packs of Huggies diapers last month for Daughter to wear at night. She is 99% potty-trained - we put a dipe on her at night for insurance but it is usually dry in the morning.

A few weeks ago I was doing the laundry and I noticed a funny shadow-like discoloration inside a light-colored sleeper. A nice, soft, sweet CARTER'S sleeper, which I fully intend to re-use for a future child and possibly pass on to family or at least charity when we are done with it. I unzipped it to see what was what, and the whole bottom area of the sleeper had a greenish cast to it.

The diapers I had purchased are printed with green ink. They have Winnie the Pooh designs on them, but the majority of the ink is green. It is rubbing off all over Daughter's pajamas. I have since checked her other sleepers and the flannel pjs I made her, and they ALL have green bottoms now. This is not an issue of a wet leaky diaper, because as I said, she has been waking up bone dry. This is obviously an issue of defective ink or something on Kimberly-Clark's end.

What the .....?!?

So I wrote to them. Oh yes I did. I filled out a comment form and I said, as politely as possible, that it will be a cold day in hell when I buy their diapers again, as I don't want all our baby clothes to be ruined. Who wants hand-me-down baby clothes - even those in perfect condition - with green bums? YUCK.

And yes, I have tried OxyClean, spray pre-treaters, Borax, and a couple of different brand-name detergents, all to no avail. The sleepers and pajamas are stained and that's that.

I would love it if they would send me a stinking check to replace the 4 pieces of ruined sleepwear, but who wants to bet they just send me a bunch of coupons for more Huggies?

quickie

This week is threatening to pull me under, but I wanted to pause and at least show Daughter's Easter dress in action. Sorry these pictures are somewhat crummy, but 3 year olds don't tend to be still for long. I did my best!

Here's the front:

I found last year's slip in her closet and I was psyched that I didn't have to make a new one, until I put it on her Easter morning and remembered that it comes up too high at the neck. Sticks out of every dress she owns (because I just used a jumper pattern to make it....duh). Don't mind that alien arm thing, please. Also note the yarn in the foreground. There is always knitting lying around somewhere.

Here's a view of the back, sort of. Like many kids, my child is extremely musical and LOVES to bang away on the piano. Anyhoo, the buttons down the back of the dress are the same pink as the ribbon.

At no point in the day was I able to get a full shot of the dress from the front, but I will try again another day. She was so cracked out on candy I could barely get any shots of her at all. She was whizzing around like the Tasmanian devil. Thanks, Easter bunny! She really needed 4 - count 'em 4 - Easter baskets. Fan-freaking-tastic.

Mmmmmkay, now I have to pay bills (if I can unearth them from the piles of crap on the counter), iron twelve thousand shirts, clean the floors before the dust bunnies attack, scrub the bathroom as the crud in there is achieving sentience as I type, procure toilet paper before we have a crisis, and prep & cook a chicken for dinner. It's already 2:45. Awesome.

just 'cause it looks easy...

...doesn't mean it is.

This dress is killing me softly.



It doesn't look like a killer, does it? No, it looks so sweet and innocent. But it is not.

I've been really struggling my way through assembling this silly thing, realizing as I go along that I rely VERY heavily on those step-by-step instructions you see in American sewing patterns. I guess I truly am a visual learner (which, yes, I totally know about myself), and that combined with the extremely vague instructions for this garment causes some real chaos in my wee brain.

This is being saved from the bin by my love of the color and my hatred of wasting fabric, so I'm pressing on with the finishing. The collar is only basted on in this photo, and I'm currently struggling with the "instructions" for the collar binding. I get the idea of what they want me to do...I'm just not exactly sure how to execute it. I'm sure if I dedicate some time to reading it carefully and playing with the pieces, I'll manage it.

Then I'll need to finish the facings, hem the body and the sleeves (they are raw, which is why they look so weird in the picture), and add buttons and buttonholes. I did not bother to finish any of the seams, so this will surely end up a raveled mess on the inside after a few wears and washes. OH WELL.

I'm not even sure how this is going to work for Daughter. Right now I'm afraid it's going to look like a baggy coat with short sleeves. I guess it will at least make an ok playdress.

Anyway, on a lighter note, I want to wish everyone a Happy Easter if you celebrate it. Enjoy the holiday, and here's hoping we all have a beautiful, sunny weekend!

more spring/summer sewing for Daughter

I got a good start on Daughter's blue dress today. It was cold and pouring rain and the ground was covered in pea-soup fog, so it was a good day for some sewing.

The pieces were already cut and marked, so I started with interfacing the plackets and collar. I chose to use a slightly heavier interfacing than I usually do - typically I use Pellon featherweight fusible, because I sew mostly lightweight cottons, but the one I used for this linen was a tad more stiff to give the linen some body (still fusible).

Because I only needed to interface a tiny strip of the fashion fabric, I decided to use my rotary cutter and ruler to slice up the interfacing:

Easy peasy!

Once the pieces were cut, I fused them to the edges of the front skirt sections:


Then I turned the plackets under on both bodice pieces and both skirt pieces:


All I managed to do after that was gather the skirt sections and sew them to the bodice pieces, because my mom called and we yakked it up for the rest of naptime.

I really, really promise that those gathered seams are straight in real life. Something about the angle of the camera makes them look crooked. Hopefully when I show the finished garment they will look better.

I must mention that my new favorite thing is topstitching. Lots of Ottobre patterns call for some serious topstitching, and it makes a HUGE difference in the finished garment. The seams lay nice and flat, and the garment looks much more professional and less "homemade." I love it, love it, love it and plan to incorporate it into more future garments...even though it hogs thread!

Next technique to try: binding seam allowances. My serger seems to be seriously dead now...I do not know what happened between projects but suddenly it is just chewing up my fabric and it looks like the thread threw up all over the place. Disaster. I'll be starting a change jar to collect up some money for a new one (ha! I'd better get a job). In the meantime I have to use some other techniques to avoid ravelly messes inside my garments. I'm pondering using thin bias strips of something lightweight (batiste?) to do something like a Hong Kong finish on the shoulder and side seams of this dress. I don't know if it will work or not. I just want something a little nicer than zig-zagging the edges. Thoughts, anyone?

in which i find out i'm not so smart after all

Once you've been in the online sewing world for a little while, you start to realize that many home sewers (or sewists, as some call themselves) pooh-pooh the "Big 4" pattern companies (Simplicity, McCall's, Butterick, and ? what's the fourth?) and instead create garments from European patterns.

These patterns seem to be more tailored to actual human bodies and come in lots more modern, hip designs. We're talking about Burda, for example. In many cases you are required to do things like add the seam allowances (where the American pattern companies print the seam allowances right on the pattern pieces), and while this seems like a pain in the booty, it's actually good in cases where you need to do alterations (or so I've read...I've never once attempted a pattern alteration).

One such European company is Ottobre Design. They make patterns for women and children, but it's the designs for children that blew me away. LOTS of home sewing mamas use this source, so I decided to give it a try. I figured I've been sewing long enough and made enough different patterns that I could certainly figure out these Euro patterns.

First of all, this gorgeous book of patterns is hiding an ugly secret:


This is what one of the 6 pattern sheets looks like. Is that not enough to make you want to poke your eyes out? You have to get out your pattern ease and a marker, sit in a very well-lit room, and carefully seek out and trace the correct pattern pieces in the correct size. By color. Oh my peas. It is ridiculous. But I did it, because dang it, I was going to make my Daughter some adorable Euro clothes!

I went to Joann's on Sunday for a shot of inspiration. There, I ran into my first roadblock. The entire book is in metric. I mean, duh, of course, it is European. I should have done a little prep work at home to determine how much yardage I would need for the designs I was planning to make.

I got through it, and came away with a plan:


Fabric for 3 pairs of cropped summer pants and linen for a dress.

The pants:


Two cuts of embroidered twill, and one of denim weaver's cloth.

The dress:


Linen in the prettiest blue I've ever seen. Daughter has blue eyes, so I like to make blue clothing to set them off.

Well, I got the patterns traced and cut out, as you can see in the photo above. Then I went to bed because after all that tracing and marking I was losing my mind. And my eyesight, I think.

Yesterday I began sewing, starting with the pants. Next roadblock: these patterns come with approximately 10 lines of directions. The gist is this: "sew garment together."

So I did:



I did ok, until I got to the outside leg seams. The pattern pieces include a mock vent piece that extends out from the leg. I wish I'd taken a photo if it before sewing. I had NO IDEA what to do. I can sew a real vent. But how to you sew a mock vent? The instructions were so very, very vague that I spent a full half-hour flipping back and forth from the instructions to the picture of the finished pants, trying to get a clue. I searched my sewing reference books. I looked on the internet. Nothing.

I finally quit, and I swear I laid in bed thinking about it for hours. I just have no idea what they wanted me to do. I still don't. I faked it.


I sewed the entire side seam, then folded the seam allowance and vent extensions forward (inside the leg) and topstitched over them. They still need two buttons sewn on to complete the vent illusion. That horizontal topstitched seam is supposed to be there - you cut the pattern piece off, make a separate bottom panel, and sew it back on for design interest. That part was no problem. But that damn mock vent...I hope I can figure it out because I want to make more of these! Oh, and the hem is straight. Through the magic of photography, it looks wonky. I assure you, it's fine.


For the pockets, rather than turning under the seam allowances I chose to line each with batiste and turn them, because the bottoms are curved. I knew I'd make a giant mess of it if I tried to turn those under. Plus a lined pocket should be stronger, right? Daughter likes to pick up all kinds of sticks and rocks and crap outside, and all that will probably end up in these pockets.

Part of what screwed me up on these pants (besides hubris) was the fact that I chose not to add seam allowances to my pieces. I took the advice of others I've read about on the 'net and simply cut a larger size, then sewed with a regular 5/8" seam allowance. This worked for the most part, especially because Daughter is so petite and thin. However, it seems to have messed me up in the waistband area. The directions call for wide elastic, and the picture shows a wide waistband. I ended up with a puny casing that will only hold very narrow elastic. I need to try these on Daughter when she gets up...I'm hoping the elastic waist will be comfortable enough. I guess on the next pair I will add length at the waist to accommodate a much wider casing.

So it turns out I don't know as much as I thought I did. I'll be trying again, though. Stay tuned for the continuing saga. I'll be trying the dress next. I need a little break from these pants.

beat THIS

So yesterday (Sunday) morning I schlepped out of bed and got Daughter up. She padded off to the corner of the sofa to veg and suck on her fingers, and I put on my coat and shoes (over my moose pajamas...hawt!) to get the newspaper from the mailbox. I was outside for maybe twelve seconds. When I came back in Daughter was kneeling up on the couch and fully awake. This is what she said to me:

"Mommy! Did you see that chipmunk?!?"

Now, I was still kind of in half-asleep mode myself, so I was confused. A chipmunk? Like, a toy chipmunk? We don't have any of those. Uhhh...

I asked her ,"wha-? What are you talking about? What chipmunk?" And she said:

"MOMMY! LOOK! Right there! A chipmunk!"

She was gesturing wildly toward the kitchen (I should mention here that my house is laid out like this: family room, kitchen, dining room in a row). So there I stood, in the doorway, newspaper in hand, asking again what on earth she was talking about. I think I said, "what chipmunk? Where?"

"RIGHT THERE! IN THE DINING ROOM!"

And dudes, I kid you not - I turned around and saw a FREAKING CHIPMUNK streak across my dining room.

Hijinks ensued, I can tell you that much. Hubs jumped out of bed and immediately closed off the bedrooms (which are off the dining room). I got the broom. Hubs got a bucket. Don't ask me what our plans were. We just grabbed what seemed like logical chipmunk removal items. Daughter grabbed the broom and proceeded to try to find the chipmunk and, I don't know, perhaps sweep him to death. We mostly stood around, spinning in circles and shouting, "there he goes!"

Finally, we got Daughter to calm down and sit in the kitchen to eat her cereal, promising that she could watch for Mister Chipmunk (as she called him) from her chair. Once it got quiet, Mr. C came out of the dining room and hid behind the stove. I got the flashlight and coaxed him out of there after propping the front door open, and he crept around the perimeter of the kitchen and shot out the door.

It was one heck of a morning.

The question we have is, where did the little bugger come from in the first place?!? Ay-yi-yi. Never a dull moment.

little stinker

Today we were playing with Daughter's pegs. I made a pattern in one row, and she copied it. She found this to be great fun. One time she made 3 perfect copies, then just stuck the pegs in any old way on the last row.

Me: Sweetie, that's not the same pattern. What 'cha doing?

D: Oooooohhhh. That's wrong. (Takes pegs out.)

Me: It's ok, try again!

D: I don't want to make a mistake again! (Makes growly noises of frustration.)

(Discussion ensues regarding the nature of making mistakes vs. just mixing things up.)

D: Ok mommy, I will try it again! (Proceeds to quickly stick all the pegs in exactly the right places.)

Me: Hey, were you mixing them up on purpose?!?

D: Hahaha! Now I'm doing it right ON PURPOSE!

an almost finished garment

I tried several times to write this post yesterday, but Blogger refused to accept pictures so it had to wait until today.

Also, wow, how did a whole week go by?

Anyway, I've been working on Daughter's Easter dress a little at a time, and it's mostly finished:


It has no buttons right now (just pins holding it together down the back) and that ribbon is not attached - I just wanted to see what it will look like.

Here's the back:


I wanted to hang it up for better photos, but Daughter was sleeping when I took them and it wasn't worth trying to sneak into her closet to get a kid-size hanger. So it looks nicer when it's hanging up or being worn, but you get the idea.

Last night I got her to try it on and she looks adorable in it. I picked just the right size and it fits well. Hopefully during today's nap I can get the buttonholes made and sew on the buttons. Then I just need to somehow affix the ribbon to the dress - crochet loops at the side seams, maybe?

It does need a slip of some sort (I chose against lining the actual dress). I got some batiste at Joann's last week (and is it me, or did Joann's used to have nice, 100% cotton batiste but now only a cheesy cotton/poly blend?), so I will probably make both a ruffled half-slip and a full slip to see which looks better. A full slip might be wise as it's still wicked cold here.

It feels good to get something (almost) finished.

i get by with a little help from my friends

I have to start out today by saying a prayer of thanks for this beautiful day. Winter is set to return tonight, but today it is in the 60s (!!!) and the sun is blazing. This morning we actually played outside - didn't even need hats - and Daughter's obvious joy at stomping around in the rapidly melting bits of snow was infectious. We sat on the porch for quite awhile and soaked in the sunshine, and it was just wonderful. Yes, we go back to rain/snow/sleet for several weeks now, but I have a feeling this is the day we start heading for SPRING! Woo hoo! Can't come soon enough for this gal.

And now a question for my sewing homies: my last post was about Daughter's Easter dress - scroll down for a refresher on that. As it was so lovely today, I chose to ditch my chores for naptime and sit in front of an open window, sewing in the breeze. I got most of the bodice done but quit when I realized I don't have matching thread to topstitch with. Whoops. Guess I'm going to Joann's tomorrow.

Anyway, I was thinking about the skirt, and more specifically how to give the skirt a bit more body. The gathers at the waist will do their part to make it stand out a bit, but as it's just cotton calico it doesn't have much...oomph.

My thoughts are to either line the skirt portion with something (batiste?) by basically making a second skirt, stitching it to the bodice along with the dress fabric, hemming it up shorter than the dress, and then tacking it to the seam allowances with little crochet thread loops (like you see in store bought dresses/skirts), OR make a slip with a ruffly bottom. I have this pattern and could probably fudge it down to a size 2 (viewB). I thought of making the half-slip but Daughter still has a bit of that poochy toddler belly and I don't think it would stay at her waist.

So I could use any suggestions you have. Thanks, peeps!

look out...i'm on a roll

Wow, I don't know how long it's been since I actually posted two days in a row. Spring must be coming because my mood is slowly lifting, and I'm feeling more like doing stuff. The sunlight is noticeably returning, thank heavens.

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm anxious to start Daughter's Easter dress because Easter is so early this year and will be here before we know it. March 23 in Buffalo is not known for being warm, but I'm making Daughter's dress short-sleeved nonetheless. She has a very nice fine-gauge cream cable-knit sweater that has seen precious little wear, which will go nicely over the dress. Plus she can then wear it through the Summer and early Fall.

I'm using this pattern:

New Look 6745, view c-ish, size 2

This is fast becoming my favorite dress pattern. It's fun and easy to make, has a brilliant back facing/finishing that results in stabilized buttonholes with little effort, and fits well. A miracle! I made it in flannel last fall and Daughter has worn it to death.

Using this very simple little pattern has taught me two main things. First, don't be afraid to Frankenstein your patterns. The exact dress I want doesn't actually appear as any of the presented views. I want a short-sleeved dress with a full, solid skirt. Luckily the bodice is exactly the same for all views, so it's possible to put together any combination of pieces to get what you want.

The second thing I've learned is not to always just blindly trust and follow the pattern layout and cutting guide the pattern company gives you.

Here, look how the company thinks this dress should be cut out:

Wha-? I took one look at this and said "awwwwww crap." This is view A/B, which I want to use with the addition of two sleeves. I know I have enough fabric to make the thing, but this layout makes me nauseous. I am ALWAYS wary of any layout that has you chopping up your fabric into multiple pieces. And looking at this layout I couldn't quite figure out where I'd fit the sleeves in. Using this plan you cut two of piece #2 separately, which I also hate because then they won't ever be exactly the same.

I decided to just fold the fabric in half, selvage to selvage, to see what would happen.

Well lookee here:

It's a tad hard to see because of the white pattern-ease and the sunlight, but all the pieces fit just fine using the traditional selvage to selvage layout. I even have a few inches left over.

So. There's my sewing tip for the day, I guess. Always check and see if there is another way to lay out your pattern pieces before just whacking the yardage apart with your shears. You can't put it back together, so it's worth trying other ways, especially with tiny kid pattern pieces like this.

I'm going to try and get this cut out and marked before naptime is over. Then it's off to the machine!

alert the media!

I actually finished something!


I call it "very cherry." It's the first thing that popped into my head and I'm too lazy to try and come up with another name.

This is a very wide, swingy tank with wide, comfy pants to match. The fabric is 100% cotton from Joann's, but it has a nice weight - it's one of their higher end cottons. The ruffle is maybe Michael Miller? Not sure. It's red with white pin dots.

It was a bit tedious because of that biiiiiig ruffle and the fact that the neck and armholes are all finished with bias tape rather than a facing (for the record, I prefer facing!), but with a working serger the pants were super fast and it all came together at last.

This outfit will be listed over at BonBons along with a few other Spring items, but I am waiting until I have several things ready so I can do one major update.

In the meantime I will reward myself by starting Daughter's Easter dress. I hope to get the pattern traced tonight. Stay tuned!

back in business

Hark! What have we here?!?


Egads, it's a serger and a sewing machine, both in working order!

That poor serger is certainly not new, as you can probably tell from the sex-ay brown and orange decals. It was given to me (!!!) by a great lady I used to work with, because she bought a new one and knew I did not have one at all. I have sewn probably hundreds of thousands of stitches on it over the past 3 years, until a couple of weeks ago when it finally just quit forming stitches. I could get it to work for a few inches of sewing, and then threads would break, and I was making more of a mess than anything. So I put it away and figured it was probably just finally dead.

But then I went back to old finishing methods (pinking, mock-french seams, double turned hems), and while those methods are fine, mostly I find them tedious and less-than-professional. Plus, I want to finish up a bunch of things for my etsy shop and without serging, they just don't look as nice nor will they hold up as well in the wash. Yick.

So I figured I'd bite the bullet and take it in for a tuneup. I had some birthday money left, and figured I'd just use it for the machine. If it required more than a tuneup, well, then I'd have to learn to live without a serger. But I was able to accept the $80-$100 it would cost to get the machine working again.

I took it in on Friday to the shop where I used to work. All the ladies working there are my old friends, and they said they'd try to get it toward the front of the line (the usual wait for machine repair is anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months - there aren't very many places to take machines around here so they get very busy). Turns out the woman who fixes sergers (also an old friend) took a look at it right away on Friday, determined that it did not need a full tuneup, adjusted a few things, cleaned all the fuzz and gunk out, and only charged me $20 for 1/2 hour of labor. I had the machine back on my sewing table by Saturday afternoon.

Sometimes I feel very blessed, indeed.


Since I had been fully prepared to spend close to $100 but did not, I felt justified in picking up a few cuts of calico for Daughter's Easter dress. This was no small expenditure (what is UP with $10 per yard for freaking calico?) but I think I will end up coming in at about the same cost as a store-bought holiday dress. I think it will be short-sleeved with a gathered skirt, with the main dress made from the dots and maybe the neckline and sleeve edges bound with the stripe, cut on the bias. We'll see.

I apologize for the lack of photos and lack of project talk in general around here. I thought 2008 would be a bigger year for making stuff, but I've felt very unfocused so far. There are lots of irons in the fire, but I keep flitting from one thing to another and not getting very far. Over the weekend I was reading two mind-blowing sewing blogs and I did start to feel a spark of inspiration and energy returning. Check them out and see if they don't get your creative juices flowing:

Laura's Sewing Room

Hungry Zombie Couture

These ladies can literally make themselves any garment they want. Go back through the archives and just look at the gorgeous wardrobes they have created. I wish I had someone to show me some of the wonderful tips and tricks and methods they use. I know zilch, for example, about lining/underlining, different methods for stabilizing fabrics, or resizing commercial patterns to fit me (or Daughter). I don't even know a lot about the different types of fabrics out there and how to use them appropriately (yes, I worked in a fabric shop but it was all calico for quilting). Some older ladies used to come into the shop when I was working and ask what happened to the tricot and stretch laces - they were looking for supplies to make their own underwear. Goodness, I wouldn't know the first thing about making undergarments.

So I ask those of you who sew reasonably well: who taught you? Did you take a class (or classes)? Did you learn from your mom? Your grandma? Do you just read books, or the internet, or subscribe to sewing magazines? And if you do know and use advanced methods, where do you find your materials? Because I am stuck with Joann's, Joann's, or Joann's...which I find ridiculous for a place like Buffalo. We are not so backwater that we couldn't handle one or two different fabric stores. Sheesh. There is always the internet, and sometimes the deals there are awesome, but I do like to fondle my fabrics before purchase, don't you?

I sort of have the wild idea that I might like to audit some classes at Buffalo State College. They offer textile classes and some fashion design, as far as I know, and I might be able to learn a lot that way. But more than that I wish I had an older grandma-type who could sit me down and just take me through some projects the right way, with care and patience and good materials.
I mean, I don't want to short-change my mom, who taught me all the basics and still helps me out here and there. I guess I'm just looking for some more advanced stuff.

Le sigh. I daydream. I guess I can ponder all this further while I dive into the giant ironing pile that awaits me.