dropping the ball on the kcwc

Like most things I set my mind to doing, I managed to fail miserably at the Kids Clothes Week Challenge. I started out spectacularly, even early, but then by Wednesday I failed to find time to sew. Ditto for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. But, it was still loads of fun to check out what everyone else made for the challenge, and found some fun new blogs along the way.

Even though I didn’t get to sew much this week, my mother-in-law spent a lot of time sewing and when she visited this weekend she arrived with three new outfits for Pia. Somehow we managed to get her to put on a fashion show for us. Here she is modeling a new pair of flared flower corduroys (paired with a Land’s End top):

An adorable comfy grey shirt with cat applique (in honor of our cat Darwin, of course):

And a purple and green stripy number with pockets to hold all her treasures.

Thanks Fish Grandma!

This is starting to get ridiculous

Kyle picked up a hitch-hiker while hiking.  Are they trying to tell us something?

kcwc: day 2 and a hopeful day 3

Last night was our monthly meeting of the Underground Knitters and I somehow managed to convince two of my three fellow knitters to trade in the knitting for a little sewing. We worked on one of my favorite projects, mittens from old sweaters. However, due to the usual amount of conversation and wine we only made it half way through the project. Hopefully tonight I will be able to finish up these by adding the cuff and detailing:

And yes, they are a wee bit too big on her, though she doesn’t seem to mind.

Traumatized or insipred?

Someone I know may or may not have fainted (for the first time in her life) when she received 3 consecutive immunizations in preparation for her upcoming travel to Thailand.  Tea may or may not have witnessed the event and then may or may not have screamed hysterically as she was or was not wheeled down to the emergency room to recover.

I thought that perhaps he would be scarred for life from such an event, but it seems to have inspired lots of creative play involving the wearing of scrubs and the tucking of dolls into bed for “naps to feel better”.

And perhaps it has also scarred him for life.

Hard to tell.

kcwc: day 1, this time for real

Okay, I guess I was a little over-eager yesterday, as kids clothes week didn’t actually start until today. But all that mending yesterday enabled me to sew for real today, instead of spending the time cleaning off my table, so, yay!

While Pia was at school I set my mind to sewing an Eddie Cap for her. I can’t say enough good things about this tutorial. First, I am amazed at how Irene was able to figure out how to make a hat. At each step I found myself thinking, this works so well, but there is no way I could have figured out how to do this! And each step was so clear that I never had to stop and decipher what she meant, which means I was able to whip up the cap in just under an hour. Whoo-hoo!

I chose to sew it up in red, Pia’s absolute favorite color, so there was on off chance she would like it. And I built it up, saying “there’s a surprise for you at home” when I picked her up from school. That did the trick as when she found it she was delighted and put it right on. Her poker face here isn’t giving anything away, but I swear she likes it.

kcwc day 1: mending

I went down to my sewing corner this afternoon, intending to have a lovely post-lunch, coffee-in-hand, kids clothes week challenge sewing hour. But, alas, my sewing table was covered in oodles of half-started, half-finished projects. Since I am now a grown-up, I decided to finish some of the started projects before embarking on new and shiny ones. In the past all the projects would have been shoved to an ever-growing pile on the floor, but not today!

I am a horrible laundress and as a result most of Pia’s clothes end up stained within days, if not hours, of acquiring them. But it is also hard for me to let go of clothes that are stained, but otherwise in good condition. So I am always in search of ways to cover up stains. Today was a stain-covering-up and mending sort of day.

Item #1

This shirt was covered in stains, imagine chocolate milk dribbled liberally down the front. I had intended to take a flower stamp and stamp acrylic fabric paint over the stained parts. This was a lovely intention, but then Pia caught wind of it and she wanted to do it. So there ended up being about 10 times more flowers and leaves than I had envisioned. The stamping part was done two weeks ago, and today I finished up stitching around the leaves and creating stems. I can’t decide if it is horribly ugly, or cute in that horribly ugly sort of way.

I do think the shirt needs a bit more embroidery, but not sure it is worth the effort.

Item #2

This was a really cute sundress that somehow got little brown speckled stains on it. The stains were small, but really dark and noticeable. I decided a button over each little speckle might  work.

I think this might become a favorite stain-covering method, mostly because buttons are quite fun. Of course most of the stains I end up dealing with are much larger and would need very large buttons.

Item #3

In an old pattern that I got from my mom I discovered some iron-on transfers that had never been used. I wasn’t sure they would still work since they dated back to the late ’70s, but figured it was worth a shot. Pia helped out with this and learned how to (carefully and with me hovering over her in a most annoying fashion) use an iron. This onesie, despite being brand new, met the wrong end of a marker (how do these things happen?) so we covered up the marker with a lion.  I stitched around the iron-on for extra style points and stitched a butterfly and a ‘roar’ to cover up the marker that wasn’t covered up by the lion.

Item #4

Another iron-on ended up on one of Pia’s shirts which she had gotten paint on. This brings up a few questions of course: a) being the laundress that I am, why does my child even own white shirts? b) why was she painting in said shirt? and c) why do I let her paint with non-washable paints? Alas, who knows. We covered up the front stains with a giraffe and I embroidered the word “giraffe” beneath it to cover up more stains. The bottom third of the sleeves were covered in paint so I lopped them off and did a blanket stitch around them.

And then I had her model it and realized the shirt is too small on her anyway.

Tomorrow: actual sewing!! Now, off to check out what everyone else has made on day 1. Can’t wait to see!

i think i am officially a grown-up

It seems there has been a major uptick in illness and injury in the people around me lately. My mom is down and out with an extended case of vertigo. Robin has been sick with typhoid or something of the like. Other friends have had a wide assortment of odd illnesses spread among them. And now our cat Haile is down and out after a nasty fight with our other cat, Darwin.  Darwin managed to bite through Haile’s paw, which in turn got infected, and made it impossible to walk on. Haile is now on antibiotics and Pia has taken to doting on him, wrapping him up in blankets and lending him stuffed animals to snuggle with.

All this care-taking and germ-spreading led me to one conclusion. It was time to grow up and get a flu shot. In past years I have stated that I would rather get the flu then get a shot because shots are so miserable. But this year I realized that one little needle poke might be worth it if it prevents me from being laid flat this winter with the flu. Making such a grown-up decision is making me feel a little smug. But I am wondering the following things:

1. Why can’t they make a stomach flu vaccine?

2. Do I still need to avoid all the sick people this year? Or does the vaccine make me invincible?

3. If I end up getting the flu, who do I blame? Typically I blame the person I suspect I got the illness from, but now I think I would blame the shot manufacturer. Right?

watching, part 2

Thanks to Pia’s Uncle Dan (who happens to be an entomologist) we now have a herd of walking sticks at our house. Most of them will end up at the school across the street as part of a traveling bug cart that Jim and I are putting together, but until then we are having lots of fun playing with them. They are so cool to watch, with their crazy long legs and their two front legs which seem to work as their eyes. Pia has gotten over her initial concerns about them tickling and now loves to let them walk all over her. I’m just waiting until they all end up with names.

Sugar-fuelled silliness

Pumpkin donuts, friends, and the most beautiful weather of the year.  Aaaaahhhhh.  Can you really blame me for neglecting the blog?

Quick! Pull up the ladder before they crawl out!

kids clothes week challenge

Meg at Elsie Marley is once again organizing the Kids Clothes Week Challenge and this time I am actually going to attempt to sew along instead of merely ooohing and aaahing over all the cuteness that the other participants sew up. Meg is rounding up all sorts of great tutorials this week, so I am trying to plan ahead and be ready to sew when the 20th rolls around.

I’m thinking of tackling the go to dress from the Train to Crazy, because I personally want a go to dress, but sewing for me is way more complicated than sewing for Pia.

I also want to attempt to make a hat, I think the type I have in mind is called a newsboy or pageboy hat (?), sort of like this one. I’ve seen some very cute girl versions done up in brown corduroy, though Pia has informed me lately (and often) that she ‘hates’ brown (and has taken to stealing my brown pants to I can’t wear them). Perhaps a blue or green corduroy will have to do.

Since our monthly Underground Knitters meeting falls during kids clothes week challenge I will attempt to knit up a pair of mittens. This will hamper my wine intake, but that is usually a good thing.

Anyone else taking the kids clothes week challenge? Robin, I believe the secret to brotherly bliss is matching clothes, so you should really take this opportunity to sew some for Pea and Tea. I’m thinking plaid. Or navy gingham.