Hello, everyone! Well, I've been rather busy since the wedding, and blogging has not been able to be part of my list of priorities. Do you like the ceiling at the Winnipeg airport? Its one of the only photos I remembered to take while I was there. Trekking around with a baby and trying to figure out rides, etc, everywhere was busy - so busy that I didn't end up taking many photos. One of my neices took some photos of my siblings and I, but I haven't seen then yet.

I started a job as a youth co-ordinator at my church at the beginning of September, so I've been scrambling to get everything sorted out there and figure out how to keep everything going at home as well. Between that and the disruption of my trip to Winnipeg and then (Canadian) Thanksgiving (although my American friends tell me its much more low key than American Thanksgiving), I have been running around trying to catch up with everything.

In any case, before I went to Winnipeg I thought I needed one more cute, comfortable blouse. So I pulled out some linen/cotton that I had laying around and Pattern 2 from Simple Modern Sewing, and I whipped up this blouse:

I could put this together in two nights because a) its really simple and b) I bought the bias binding from Fabricville last fall just because it was cute. Fabricville occasionally has these cute bias bindings for sale by the metre, and whenever I see them I always pick up two or three for occasions such as this.

 I lengthened the pattern a few inches, and did not gather it as much as instructed so that I had a wider neckline. I love this shirt and wear it at least once a week. It is linen, so I can pretend it is wrinkly on purpose, and I feel cute and snappily dressed in it with skinny jeans and just about anything else.

And it covers the pernicious post-baby / approaching middle age tummy. So what is there not to love? I think I might actually make another one in a mini dress length with pockets to wear with leggings. I have navy blue plaid binding, I just have to figure out what to pair it with . . . stay tuned. Or perhaps instead I will find some drawers for Owen's clothes instead of the change table and declutter my bedroom.

In other news,we rescued a lost / abandoned kitten that had hidden under our shed a few weeks ago. It is very patient and tolerant of the kids during the day . . .

 and much, much, much loved . ..

 and often reminds me of that book Olivia, because it looks like and gets carried like the cat in that picture book . . .

 and it gets is revenge every night, by attacking the children's feet while they are sleeping. He he he.

Ruby Dress Finished!

Its done in time! Whew.

 This is the Ruby Dress I stitched up for my nephew's wedding. It is a casual outdoor wedding, so I think this dress with heels and a sweater will be just fine. I don't know if I can swing the blue tights for the wedding, or if I should get a less dramatic / casual colour. Hmmm . . .

 I lined my entire dress - the top was a little see through, and the bottom was sheer, so it was pretty necessary. Rae made a great tutorial about how to line the dress, and it all worked out fine. The dress fabric was a little fussy, so the largest amount of time with this dress was taken just to get that fabric reasonably even.

The pattern was great - easy to follow and it went together flawlessly. I did add an inch on either side of the side seam to acccomodate my beefy arms and hide my post-baby (even though he's now a toddler) waistline.

I'm pretty happy with it (and will pretend the hem is not wonky - that's me being speedy with fussy fabric, not the pattern) and I think it will be a fun little dress for wearing around town, as well as working out fine for the wedding. There may be more of these in my future.

Also, as a side note - check out my new boots! They are a present to myself for my birthday / congrats on the new job. Dave got them about half price on ebay, and now that I've finally got them on my feet, I have to wear them all day to break in the leather. Thus the photos and the reason why I am still wearing blue tights under my pants to pick Emma up from preschool . . .

Should I perservere, or make someting else?

So, my nephew is getting married in two weeks, and I decided about a month ago that I was going to make a dress. Then I got a 20-hours a week job where half of the hours are on my own time .  . . so that would be my sewing time gone.

I'm determined to make myself some clothes anyway, since clothes sewing is not as slow as quilting, and so I've started a dress from the Stylish Dress Book. Well, I've traced pattern pieces and started a muslin. But the muslin of the bodice is WAY too short - think 2 - 3 inches too short - and I've heard the bottom is box-y and will probably need adjusting, too. This is what happens when you are 5'7" and none too slender and you try to make a pattern meant for someone Japanese.

So now I'm trying to decide whether to just make the alterations (I am experienced enough of a garment sewer to make them, its just fussy and time consuming) or to bail before I run out of time and make something quick and simple instead. Like maybe the ruby dress that I just bought the pattern for, with a cardigan and blue tights, or this blouse lengthened with a belt (or just blouse-y?). Hmm.

I think the Ruby Dress might show off the fabric nicely, and the brown voile would make a nice contrast (or possibly a brown corduroy? Would that be going too far in my corduroy obsession?) or some white linen. But then I wonder if it would be dressy enough for a wedding. Since its an afternoon in the park with a potluck reception wedding, I think it might be.

So I have between now and bedtime to think about this, as I'd like to start cutting then. 

Sewing Bits and Bobs

I have, as usual, made little pockets of time for sewing in the midst of family chaos. Actually, a couple of these pockets were courtesy of friends who took my older three kids to the park, and one was courtesy of a very late night. In any case, I must sew, or I get grumpy, and then all the baking and playing in the rain and doing last minute things that will require me to pack instant lunch and wrangle everyone in and out of the van and skip the baby's nap just aren't fun anymore.

So, first off, I am determined to finish some of my "to do" quilts despite having a few stacks of new fabric calling out to me. One is this windmill quilt, which seems to never go away - I bought the swirly Kaffe dots on ebay (my first online fabric purchase) and the pink and orange FMF are from the original run of the fabrics. I decided to make this quilt out of those fabrics at the same time as Katy which was back in 2010. I should have decided to make the blocks the same size as hers - 4" HST - and I would have almost a full quilt top already. Instead mine are 3" HST, which makes the finished blocks 12". I've discovered that I'm not a lots-of-small-blocks kind of quilter unless I'm making a small quilt. I get bored too quickly.

In any case, I digress. These 14 blocks are done. 8 left to go, plus a chunky improv-ed border and we'll be good to go. Hopefully it won't take me another 3 years to finish that!

As far as time goes, my next project was fast - it took me about 2 minutes. They boys were playing dress up, and Emma decided that she wanted to join in. She had an old dress up tiara, but it has been sadly beaten up, since she got it for her 2nd birthday, so she decided that a new crown must be made. Now.

Fortunately I have lots of wool felt drifting around for just such occasions. I folded a scrap that looked about the right size for her head in half, cut it into a crown-ish shape and added piece of 1" elastic to the back. That's my kind of dress up sewing. I shall add jewels later (I'm hoping to get away with felt ones, but I think I may have to find some faux baubles somewhere).

It really does make me happy when the dress up gets pulled out, as there are so many things I've made or found over my years of parenting in there. The wizard's hat (modeled by Owen) and Emma's "dress" were from my original dress up kit I gave Andrew for his 2nd birthday. The belt is a knight's belt I made a pair of for Christmas for the boys one year.

Andrew's jedi robe was from Halloween two years ago (note the unfinished seams - I don't make fussy dress up, otherwise I just get mad when they never wear it), and Aaron's vest is a pirate / cowboy vest I whipped up for Christmas when he was 3.

Now that Emma is entering that fabulous dress up stage, I have to start making girl dress up. Yes, chain mail and super hero masks and firefighter hats are fun, but seriously, what is a little girl's dress up world without wings, tutus and at least one sparkly dress? I was informed, in fact, that her friend Clara has both butterfly AND fairy wings. Just in case I'm feeling ambitious.

I also sewed a test run of the pants out of Simple Modern Sewing - a Japanese (English translation) sewing book. The fabric is this mystery colour - sort of a green - grey - brown I had drifting around in my stash. I think I bought it in Saskatchewan because I was excited to find something at the fabric store that actually contained 100% natural fibres. 

They were really basic. And I'm sure they would have been quick to whip up if I hadn't been so keep to whip them up late at night. I've made pants before - in fact I once made an awesome pair of fitted plaid pants with belt loops and darts and everything - but not in a long time. So I got the seams mixed up and ended up having to rip them apart.

They are a nice, simple pants pattern, and I'm sure I'll be making myself some more in the fall. As you can see, I've been wearing these around without hemming them, which I suppose I should get to soon. I'm just so short of summer pants right now, as my dryer ate all my Thai fisherman pants and I'm still not in my pre-Owen pants, that I needed to wear them right away.

And those of you who sew clothes can't tell me you've never worn a not quite finished garment out and about. Because I know you have.

Better photos to come when they're actually finished.

I was hoping to get a lot of clothes sewing in, and had optimistically purchased the English translation of the "Stylish Dress Book" so I could make some summer dresses. Now I'm thinking maybe some tunics for early fall and winter layering. Or some cute dresses for next spring. Well, since I've already ordered some Parsons Grey and Anna Maria Horner linen, I'd better make something . . .

ps - not to be an enabler or anything, but Pink Chalk Fabrics has a bunch of linen and voile on sale for $10 a yard. Just so you know.

2012 Making in Review

When I was thinking about what I had accomplished this year, I felt like I hadn't made anything at all. Maybe a softie or two, and a doll quilt and maybe something or another for the baby. But then when I went to make a mosaic I realized why I haven't finished anything big. Its because I did a lot of small project sewing - mostly for small people. If I look around my house, I see lots of handmade, but often I can't even remember when it was made. I guess this year I had lots of requests from kids, and lots of practical things that I wanted to sew instead of buy, and not so many friends having babies.

When I look at my mosaic, I'm pretty happy with my year. Considering I was working for half the year and I had a new baby in the house (and 3 other kids for the summer), and we went through the crisis of Latin (twice) which has ultimately led to the untimely demise of the PhD project my husband was attempting, I think I did okay to fit in any sewing time at all.

Here's to a 2013 with less excitement and more sewing.

Let the summer sewing begin!

Hello there! At two months old, I decided it was time to take up sewing, and I wanted to model these stylish dragon bloomers. Perfect for the modern baby.

Complete with a cleverly fussy cut dragon on the posterior.

My sister thinks they're pretty fun.

Okay, so Owen didn't really write all that. But he did watch me. The bloomers are from my favorite baby sewing book, "Simple Sewing for Baby" by Lotta Jansdotter, sewed up in organic quilting cotton from the "Happy Drawings" collection. I also made me a skirt - the "Make it Perfect Wrap Skirt", which is really simple and fits quite perfectly. The orange flowers are a Lotta Jansdotter print, and the brown is the inimitable Flea Market Fancy. I thought a wrap skirt would be perfect post partum, as it could shrink with me, and the pattern was pretty easy, so I thought I could manage it in my sleep deprived state.

This skirt would have been super simple if I hadn't tried to sew it 4 weeks post-partum. I actually sewed the three main skirt trapezoids together wrong, and didn't realized it until I had both the top and bottom stips completely sewed on and zig-zagged in place. The center fabric is an A-shaped trapezoid which gives the skirt its very flattering line. But upside down . . . not so flattering. So rather than ripping the entire thing apart, I thought of it like making darts, only down the entire length of the skirt. I folded over the length I wanted to get rid of at the top, and sewed down the skirt so that the new seam would join just above the already hemmed bottom of the skirt. It worked perfectly, so I ended up making a perfect skirt after all. Whew. Welcome to my new blog, by the way. Thanks for making the move with me. I'm back to tickling baby feet. Jill