Skirt

Someone I know is turning 3 and I made her a skirt. I used pattern #16, Bell-shaped skirt, in Ottobre Design 5/2006, with some modifications. And, the directions on that pattern totally don't make sense. But I was able to put it together anyway. It took about an hour, maybe an hour and 15 minutes, including tracing the pattern, rethreading and changing needles on the serger, searching for my brown thread, and threading the sewing machine. Oh yeah, and hunting down the child in question to get her waist measurement for the elastic.

recycled Koolaid pouch pencil bag

I made this little pencil pouch this afternoon using this tutorial. I'm probably going to make a few more for the rewards "store" in my son's classroom. And I want to find some other cool projects to take in also (I'm looking at things like Poptart box notebooks over at Craftster). I did the zipper wrong on this at first, and it turned out a little bit weird anyway. But it will go faster the next time I made one. Overall it didn't turn out as cool as I imagined; I'll have to see what my boy thinks of it. There's another picture over at my flickr if you want to click through.

Wrap Mei Tai Baby Carrier

Last week I finished up this wrap mei tai for Lorilee. I'm nearly finished with a second one for myself. They are made from a long Storchenwiege Inka wrap sling that Lorilee found and bought at the kids' resale store. I'm really happy with how they are turning out. The hood is too long on Lorilee's and we need to fix it but other than that I think it's going to be a great baby carrier. I'll post an action shot as soon as I can but it'll be a while yet.

"The Dangerous Days of Daniel X" by James Patterson

I recently read The Dangerous Days of Daniel X by James Patterson for the
Mother Talk blog book tour. It's an adventure alien story targeted for ages 10 and up and I found it pretty enjoyable. I signed up for this tour thinking that my 8-year-old son and I would both read it. It turned out that my boy started it but didn't finish it, and I was ok with that, because in our case he probably really wasn't ready for this book at age 8. It has some scary parts that would have been too intense for him, and some boy likes girl parts that he just wouldn't be interested in yet(that's what I keep telling myself). I don't have a 10 year old child yet but as I read it that age recommendation seemed pretty spot on.

The story was pretty interesting, and it got intense with Daniel battling some seriously bad aliens through much of the book. The language was clean and I was impressed with that. I did think the scary/intense part of the book went on a little too long. I was really surprised and happy with the ending of the book, really the last fourth of the book or so.... I don't want to spoil it but it was a good ending and resolution.

The short chapters make reading this book seem to go by quick. The story has some slightly graphic violent details (if you're thinking about it for a kid) but has clean language and a good message in the end. I will probably encourage my son to read this in a couple years and I'll probably look for the sequels when they come out. I think it would be a great book for boys or girls around age 10 as long as they are ok with scary and sometimes violent scenes.

maternity jeans

I have been needing maternity pants and jeans and am having a hard time finding some, mostly because I don't want to pay upwards of $35 for something that I'm going to wear for maybe 3 more months. Maybe longer, but depends on how early it gets cold and I need to switch to long pants vs. capris. So today I cut the waistband off a pair of linen capris that I've been wearing with the zipper half way undone and the drawstring tied, and then I sewed a stretchy band of fabric around the top. It worked, and I like them! So I decided to head to the shiny new Goodwill and see if I could find another pair of pants to cut up. I ended up with ultra low rise Old Navy capris, $6.99, and a size small black cotton lycra t-shirt, $3.50. Look what I did:



This is my version of that new (to me at least, last time I was pregnant was 2004) style with the "secret fit panel", and they're pretty comfortable. They're also staying up pretty well. It would be better if I'd found jeans that were not ultra low rise to begin with but this will work, for now. I still need to serge around the edges so the denim doesn't fray, and also patch that oh-so fashionable hole on the left thigh, but they're really cool, and they went together really fast.

fall sewing update, and one picture

I'm still having problems with the new camera, should have had my husband pick up batteries when he went to Walgreens for chocolate just now. Anyway, I got a picture of my two wonky log cabin blocks:


And, it's starting to lightning outside so I need to log off, but the fall sewing update is that I'll be sewing for our baby girl who's due sometime the first half of December. I'm working on a sewing list (with a little knitting) and will share that next time!

sewing day

I got a lot of sewing in today and am having camera issues, so I can't post pics until later. I made the first 6 blocks for my husband's grandma's quilt, made from Grandpa's shirts. He just passed away this March. I'm sort of using the Happy Hour pattern as inspiration (saw it on Crazy Mom Quilts), and making up 12" blocks. They are in blues, greens, and dark reds, mostly plaids.

And I decided to start making some wonky scrappy log cabin blocks, inspired by Krom Mama. I even tried taking a picture of these with my phone but it has no flash and the picture was horrible. I'm feeling like my wonkiness is a little too wonky but I'll get better at it I'm sure.

It was nice to have a day where I had the energy to do this again. Hopefully I'll be able to get pictures up tomorrow.

Paper Piecing

I am working on a Noah's Ark quilt for my sister's new baby. Here are the flamingos:

These are from the bookA Quilter's Ark by Margaret Rolfe. I've had this book for a long time and this project is the first time I've used the patterns in the book. I'm enlarging all the animals by 50% so the finished animal blocks will be 6" square instead of 4". I've also made some zebras that I'll show pictures of next time.

I'm having a hard time being motivated to work on this, but I need to get it done. So... I'll set a goal now to finish another pair of animals this week. I'm also going to sew up another maternity t-shirt and show pictures of the one I already made. I just got a box of fabric in the mail and have a few pieces of maternity clothing I need to make for myself.

The Pregnancy Journal by A. Christine Harris, Ph.D.

I'm 15 weeks pregnant now and I was excited to get my copy of The Pregnancy Journal for the MotherTalk blog tour. I had seen this book at bookstores before but just assumed it was a blank book for writing in while you're pregnant. Turns out, it has detailed daily entries explaining what is going on with the baby and what is going on with the mom's body, for the entire pregnancy. There are a few pages at the front with prompts for journaling about things like the planning of your pregnancy, ways you hope to be a good parent, and how the baby will change your family if you already have children.

The main part of the book is divided into lunar months and weeks. Along with the baby and mom information, there is a lot of information about nutrition and health, along with occasional sections on pregnancy in other cultures and pregnancy comfort measures. Every week there is about a half page or so set aside for writing about whatever you want; there are also prompts for recording stuff like your weight, waist measurement, mood, and cravings throughout the book.

The daily notes continue for two weeks after your due date, just in case you go over, and then there is another journaling section that has a few pages with prompts for writing about labor and delivery, and the new baby.

With both of my previous pregnancies I found day-to-day pregnancy websites that I visited almost every day to get a little bit of information about my pregnancy. This book is sort of like those websites, only with much more information as well as all the places to personalize it with my own thoughts. I think it will be really cool to have it as a keepsake after this pregnancy is done.

maternity clothes

I just spent a couple hours making this skirt:


The fabric is a remnant from JoAnn's, just under a yard. I had to do some creative cutting and piecing (in the back) in order to have enough fabric to go around me. I don't think it looks too bad though. I made it a little bigger than I needed at first, then took it in, and had to adjust the waistband 3 times since the ribbing I used for it was stretchier than my pants. I think I have a good fit now, and I even made a pattern so I can make another skirt or two, only more quickly.

Last week, I made these pants:

I'm not totally thrilled with them. I do like the pockets and the piping, but they're too big. I need to take in the elastic in the waistband a bit more. The pattern is a modified one that I used 4 years ago, the last time I was pregnant. Only the pants I made then fit me when I was 6 and 7 and 8 months pregnant, not 3-4 like I am now. If/when I make maternity pants again, I'll try the Ottobre pattern again.

4th of July sewing

I finished up these shorts for my oldest plus a pair for my younger boy last week. This is the 3rd year I've sewn for them for July 4th. I'm going to buy them patriotic t-shirts soon to go with them. I got the prepatch fabric from Atlantis Fabrics and used the same Ottobre patterns (issue 2/05) as I used for their shorts last year. Same sizes, even.

So, now it's on to maternity clothes.

little update

I got some tips from this blog and also used the new (to me at least) blogger template stuff and changing things around wasn't too difficult. The photo could be better, I know that. But it's good enough for now.

2 sick kids

The boys are sleeping on the couch and the big chair in the living room. I wish they could just get and stay healthy.

I worked on sewing some maternity pants last Saturday and they are too small. But very cute. Too bad. I haven't done any sewing since. I did make a banner for the top of my blog but I'm a little scared about trying to tweak things.

watercolor quilt top

Well, I didn't finish this by the end of March as I'd hoped, but I did get the watercolor quilt top finished.



I'd like to put a 6 inch or so border around it, and am considering dark brown or black. What do you think?

Unfortunately it is going back to UFO status because I have a bunch of other things I need to make before I'll have time to finish this one. There are more pictures and a bigger view, if you're interested, at my flickr account.

MIA...

Well I finished the watercolor quilt top a few days ago but haven't gotten around to taking a picture yet. My sister's baby is due in less than 2 months and I need to make her Noah's Ark quilt... better get on that. And my latest project was surgery on my son's baseball jersey--why they buy adult size t-shirts for 7- and 8-year-olds is beyond me. It looks pretty good on him now and isn't super weirdly bulgy when he tucks it in anymore. I also fixed up my friend's son's shirt as well.

I have a few other sewing projects lined up and ready to go... whenever I get some energy. The main reason I haven't been posting or sewing for that matter is that I'm working on a bigger creative project, baby #3. I'm about 9 weeks now and am having some good days but I'm tired a lot and dealing with some nausea issues too. Hopefully I'll feel much better by June!

Finally!

It seems like we were waiting forever for my oldest to lose his first tooth. He's almost 8 years old, and the dentist has been telling us for the last year or so that he would start losing teeth soon, and to call him when it happens. Well, last week, my son told me his tooth was growing "over the gum" in his mouth. I looked in his mouth and it turned out that his permanent tooth had already erupted... behind his decidedly non-wiggly baby tooth. We had the dentist take a look and were told that the roots weren't dissolving and D needed to get his teeth pulled. So... today was the big day! D got 3 shots to numb the whole area, but our dentist is so good that the shots didn't hurt and getting those two teeth pulled was no big deal for my boy.

We designed the tooth pillow together this afternoon. The mouth there is a pocket, you see. Cute, huh?

Quilt-Along, Step 1

I've been thinking about posting the directions for making a Square in a Square quilt... this one:

We'll start with fabric requirements. The yardage listed here is for a baby quilt, approximately 38x50 inches. I may or may not eventually do the math and post fabric amounts for larger quilts. We'll see how things go. In the coming few weeks I'll post instructions for the two blocks used in this quilt and describe how to add the sashing (the strips in between the blocks) and put it all together. For now, here are the fabrics you need:

*5 fat quarters of coordinating fabrics for blocks. These cannot be regular quarter-yard cuts of fabric, they need to be fat quarters (18X22 pieces of fabric available at quilt shops or chain fabric stores)

*1 yard of a fabric for the sashing and to be used a little bit in the blocks (the stripes, in my quilt)

*3/8 yard of binding fabric

*1.5 yard of backing fabric

So... get your fabric ready (I recommend prewashing, machine drying is optional) and check back in a few days for the next step!

couple of finished projects!

I finished these up last night while we watched Bee Movie. They are made from Berocco Jasper yarn, and the pattern is Dashing, from Knitty.com. It's not the right weather really to wear these anymore (halleluia!) but they will be ready for next winter.

And, my skirt.

This is made from the Redondo girls' skirt pattern, adapted to fit me and also be a longer length. The picture is weird; my assistant photographer was holding the camera at a funny angle. The skirt is really a few inches shorter than ankle length but longer than mid-calf. It is a handkerchief weight linen blend and it feels really cool when I walk. I might need to make myself another one. I might even make one with two different (but not hugely contrasting) fabrics.

It feels good to finish up some projects!

Back from vacation

We got back today from an unexpected trip to Utah last week due to a death in the family. I'm tired but feel refreshed overall and glad to be home. I'm a little afraid that I might have forgotten a load of laundry in my washer while I was gone. I'm going downstairs to make sure in just a few minutes.

In sewing news, I need to get started on my sister's baby quilt. I know I mentioned that. She's due around the end of June. I also told Grandma that I'd make her a quilt from some of Grandpa's shirts. She gave me a bag full of shirts and I need to do some calculations and drawing to see if I'll have enough fabric. I also need to work on keeping up my end of the deal I made with Jan back in January--I'm going to finish my ages-old watercolor quilt top. By the end of the month. Guess that means I'll be getting it out tomorrow. Fun!

things to check out

I ran across the Big List of Sewing Blogs a few weeks ago and submitted my blog to the list. And now finally I'm updating my links. Go check it out, there are some cool blogs on there!

Another site I wanted to mention (have I mentioned it here before?) is Pattern Review. It's a great site for researching sewing machines (something I should do some time so I can start saving up and quit complaining about the machines I have now). You can also look up pretty much any pattern, from any company, that you're interested in making, and see how it went together for other sewing folks.