Bat Hat on Access Hollywood

Second doorbell ring... adorable little girl in my hat!

Little House on the Prairie

Luca chose Laura Ingalls Wilder for Halloween 2012...

I'm pretty happy she chose this costume idea because I have such a soft spot for not only the books but the 1970's t.v. show. We record the old episodes and watch them as a family. 

I used McCall's Costumes pattern M9424. Easy sewing instructions but sized a bit large. Would definitely recommend. The only alteration I made was to make the sleeve hem with a ruffle. 

I shared some of the process on Instagram. 

Roar

Last year I pinned a costume that I just had to try and recreate. I love this version and I see that she has one for sale this year. $225... I totally know why. It is a lot of work. 

A. Lot. Of. Work.

Max from Where the Wild Things Are. 

I used McCall's Costumes pattern M6181 with minimal alterations. I'm not used to sewing with big four pattern companies and I was a bit nervous because I've heard some negative things about the sewing instructions and fit. This pattern was really easy to follow and the fit is great. I made a size four but I wish I had made a size three (Vinny is an average sized 3 year old). I was just being cautious. 

I spent the better part of this year hunting down the right fabric online. The sherpa was pretty hard for me to find. The fur isn't exactly what I wanted but close enough. I'm pretty sure this is my one and only time I will sew with either of these fabrics. Not fun.

The whiskers are fake leather jewelry cord. I just knotted one end and poked it through the fabric and hand stitched on place. Although I didn't get a good picture of them they are one of my favorite details. 

I'm pretty sure just about no one will know what he is but I don't care because I love it! I'm furiously finishing up Luca's costume. She is going as Laura Ingalls Wilder and I'm pretty sure there will be a large portion of the community that has no idea who she is either. Rocco is going as Einstein... let's see who can figure that one out. Actually he's wearing a crazy white wig a lab coat and carrying a clipboard with E=mc2 printed out so let's hope our community can figure that out. If not we are hopeless.

Bat Hat

 

A few months ago Parenting magazine contacted me about making a bat hat for their October 2012 cover. In all the craziness that's been going on around here I actually forgot about it until someone kindly emailed me the link to this cover. I wasn't sure about which size they would need so I made them three. I also had no idea how the rest of the outfit would be styled and I love it. 

Now I need to find a copy of this magazine which has proven very elusive in my neck of the woods. 

The Deck *shakes fist in air*

Our deck needs major TLC. The kind that can really only be remedied by, oh, let's say $8,000. Srsly. The entire deck needs to be replaced. It's 32 year old redwood and it's HUMONGOUS! So instead I pretend it's not rotting under our feet and try to pretty it up.

Yay! It's amazing what some patio furniture and an umbrella can do. I bought the rug at Kohls a few months back when it was on clearance and had those Kohls cash things and and additional whatever they were giving away that day. I bought two rugs and it barely covers the splintering mess. 

Our back deck is really big. Like probably 1,000 sq. feet big. Not really sure since recently I tried to measure for the cost of replacement wood and I quickly gave up. We have two other decks that are also in dire need of replacement. Ugh. Damn you dry rot *shakes fist at sky*.

The umbrella is from Costco. Probably last year, but I think they carry them every season. We've been through a few because we are careless assholes. If you take care of yours I'm sure they last longer than one Summer and I highly recommend this purchase.  Fire pit is clearance from Target like 5 years ago. Copper and aging beautifully. Has seen maybe one fire. Hello... it sits on a tinderbox ready to go up in flames at the slight mention of a match.

Ahhh, my Adirondak chair. Or should I say the kids Adironak chair. Yup... it's childs size. I bought this at Ace hardware about 8 years ago and I lurve it. Not enough to actually use some sealer or anything but enough to make a cute little pillow for the dern thing.

Here's his big brother who I apparently don't love enough to recover his cushion. This is the original cushion it came with and I'm saving it for a template. One day. *shakes fist at sky*.

I recently made this ottoman by using some old outdoor cushion fillers that were rotting before my eyes. I just wrapped polyfil around the 4 square cushions and measured to make a square cover. I did manage to brush off the mouse poop. Yes, it was covered in little dark turds. I needed to add two zippers to squeeze the filling into the cover. It worked! Yay me.

 

Here it is being demonstrated by my lovely and willing assistant. It's comfy.

I also made a little succulent arrangement. Hope it doesn't die. It's cute. It's also been three months since it was planted and has stayed the same size. Is this normal? Feedback anyone.

Oh and the whole reason for this post is to say I planned on making a Moroccan pouf but Fabric.com sold out of the fabric I chose and the square pillow fabric was meant for a square pillow so now I've put that project off to the side most likely until next Spring even though where I live it's pretty close to Springtime year round. I saw this pouf tute and thought to myself "hey lady, you can surely do this in no time". And by no time I mean have NO time.

Soon the deck will rot beneath my feet and I will have no worries about how to best pretty up this outdoor space.

Back To School

Rocco and Luca start back to school next week... and then... can it be true? Yes, finally Vinny starts preschool (oh when I type it out I get excited). He's a handful and to finally have a moment of peace and quiet will be wonderful. I can finally pee without an audience.

I've been waiting three years to make a Toddler Backpack for Vinny's first day of school! He asked for a cookie monster backpack so he's not exactly thrilled with this one. It's hard to tell from the photo but I found a cookie monster zipper pull on Ebay to make up for it. 

Rocco and Luca are using the same backpack as last year. Luca loves hers so much she tells us that she's taking it with her to college. She has no less than twelve "danglies" hanging from the back. 

The lunchbox on the chair was Rocco's from preschool. It's an old metal lunchbox with the  Metallica Master of Puppets album artwork. I married an old school metal fan what can I say? I'm sure the teachers at school will have some comments on that one. 

I made the bigger version of the backpack. I used a chunky jacket zipper which turned out pretty cute. The piping kicked my butt. I also sandwiched interfacing in between the outer fabric and the "lining" to give it more body. I did not line this backpack like her instructions because I didn't think I could actually swing it. This way I had to use bias tape on all the seams which was a pain but gives a nice finished look. I forgot to take a picture of that. Oh well. 

Not exactly sure what fabric the lining is. I'm pretty sure I bought it intending some shorts for Vinny. See near my thumb the piping that has black thread? I need to use the seam ripper one of these days to remove the stitch lines. For now I'm over it.

I do love the backpack and highly recommend the pattern. Rae's instructions are great and easy to follow.

Doll Progress

I love you guys! Thanks for the comments on my last post. It's not like I thought I was alone in this crazy crafting madness, but it feels good to hear it every once in a while. It really got me thinking about how it all started for me. I have specific memories as a child starting projects and getting sidetracked by new projects. 

As an adult it has spread to not only include crafting, but gardening projects that are half done, a couch that is not upholstered so it's covered in fabric pieces, drywall primed and not painted for over 6 years now! 

There is no method to my madness.

Let me tell you something. The lighting is covering a ton of flaws on this doll. I should wait till night and take  some pictures with a flash.  

I made her with button joints and her arms and legs move nicely. Her legs are about an inch too long. She measures 17" and I was going for a 16" doll. 

Next step is her hair. She's going to have light brown hair even though Luca requested pink. I'll make a pink haired doll soon but I wanted this one to look like a mini Luca. The eyes are a bit too light but I didn't have good shades of blue embroidery thread on hand.

KCWC: Day Six

I made another nightgown using the Badminton Dress pattern.

I'm more motivated than ever to find a soft drapey beautiful fabric to make this nightgown again. It's a bit stiff like the first one I made. 

I had a terrible time taking photos of this white dress.  Sorry for these shitty pics. I also should have pressed it before it made it's debut. Sewing this a second time around was easier. I am happier with the topstitching.

KCWC: Day Five

I've been sewing like mad... between all the normal things like a screaming toddler, an IEP for Rocco and life. Sewing this much after the break in garment sewing makes me realize how much I really enjoy making clothes for my kids.

 I just wish I had more time. And I miss making clothes for babies. I want a little girl to sew for. No, we are not going down that road again. Three is enough.

So it looks like I'm stuck making slightly girly clothes for my little boy. Sigh. I imagine the striped leggings would look fine if we would actually cut his hair.

Yes, I agree that this star waffle print is gender neutral, but paired with the leggins and his long blond curls I think I'll get more "oh she's so cute" comments than ever before.

The shirt is another Flashback Skinny Tee

Pants are self drafted and I literally just finished them tonight so I hope they fit. They look like they will fit great. Fingers crossed.

KCWC: Day four

Just in time for a cold rainy day...

I made a short sleeved tee and a pair of clam diggers. After the heat wave last weekend I guess a little rain was in order.

I found the koi fish image on Google images. Not sure if it's copyrighted so I'm not sharing the download, but there were a lot of neato images if you are so inclined and handy with an Xacto knife. It actually didn't take all that long to cut out the image (on freezer paper). I did it yesterday afternoon while the kids were doing homework. I used So Soft fabric paint. I've had good washing results with this paint in the past. I dabbed the paint on with a sponge brush using three shades of blue.

T-shirt: Flashback Skinny Tee

Pants: Easy Fit Pant

Fabric: Probably from fabric.com. The white is a 100% cotton sweatshirt fleece. Stripe has a lot of Lycra and possibly some polyester cotton blend.

KCWC: Day three

I bought Rae's Flashback Skinny Tee pattern on Friday and I love it!

I kind of promised myself that for this entire week of sewing I wouldn't purchase any new fabric so there will be a lot of fabric this week that you've seen here before. 

I've made t shirts with both these fabrics before. The next two are fabric I've had for a while but I haven't made anything with these fabrics before.

I'm glad I set aside the dolls for this week. It's been so long since I've sat down and pumped out clothes like this. I have a pair of long shorts cut out in a totally inappropriate toddler color... white. What was I thinking? Well, I wanted to get rid of the fabric and I am doing a freezer paper stencil on it and white was the only color that worked for the design I am using. 

Well I'm off to the machines. It's a minimum day at school so the kids will be home early. I wanted to call the school and ask them if they knew that it was Kids Clothing Week Challenge. How rude!

KCWC: day two Spring 2012

I made my first garment for the week. I used a new Oliver + S pattern to make a summer nightgown for Luca. The pattern is the Badminton Top/Dress. I bought the pattern specifically to make nightgowns for Luca.

I used a quilting cotton and it's a bit too stiff for my taste. I wish I had a huge stash of Heather Ross Mendocino to make this nightgown because that's the kind of weight fabric I would love. 

I totally messed up on the neckline. My understitching is showing. I did it on the wrong side of the yoke but I'm choosing to ignore that little oopsie. One thing that kind of bugs me is the top stitching. That is an area that I'm particularly picky about.  

This pattern has some fiddly parts to it but as usual the instructions are perfect and I felt the pattern was pretty easy. I have a white nightgown cut out but it's Kona cotton so it's going to have the same stiffness to the finished garment. I should have used and old white sheet. One with high thread count to give it a softer feel to the skin.

KCWC: Day One... realization sinking in

On Saturday we had a bit of a heat wave and I realized I have no shorts for Vinny. Then I realized that none of the projects I had planned for the KCWC frenzy are shorts. I need to remedy that stat.

 I did pull out a pair of pants that I made for Vinny almost exactly two years ago for the KCWC challenge and they fit. As shorts. I was totally shocked. That's one reason I love the pattern so much. It's really quite a roomy fit. They are below the knee totally adorable surfer style. They looked cute for about 10 minutes.

Then he discovered a mud puddle we created for our duck. Our duck Quackers was pretty upset that he took over her earthworm hunting spot. 

Needless to say, these "new"shorts are totally ruined.

Doll Factory

I ran out of doll fabric so I'm taking a break. For like maybe a day since the nearest fabric store is closed. I'm not usually a puzzle solver but that's what this feels like to me. I want to figure out the doll that is perfect to me. I made one leg and didn't love it yet so I tweaked the pattern a bit more. The arm I like but the hand needs work. I'm labeling all my pattern pieces so hopefully I don't get too confused. Another thing I just realized is that this cutie pie is going to be naked once she's finished. Looks like I better figure out some clothing for her. I think she will end up being 16". To give you a modern reference an American Girl doll is 18". So off I am to maybe work on my Spring Top Sewalong top.

New Obsession

So sorry if you all keep coming back to see hand made kids clothes and stinky fowl...

 

 I've been obsessing  over these adorable dolls. So of course I'm spending a not-so-normal amount of time trying to make a doll just half as cute as hers are. I purchased a vintage pattern which is the doll on the left. It looks a little like a monkey. The curves of the face are a total bitch to sew. I wanted a wider face so I fiddled a bit with the pattern. The curves are still a bitch.  I am not good with pattern fiddling but I am pleased with the outcome so far. I still need to tweak it a bit to get the cheeks rounder. I haven't even worked with the body yet. Once I stuff the bodies I will probably have a lot more fiddling in my near future. After the bodies I will have to work with the limbs. I already know I will be changing the arms and legs quite a bit. I'm pretty sure when I'm done the pattern will barely resemble the pattern I purchased. If the doll turns out kind of cute and anyone wants the pattern I will happily upload the final pattern. I'm stressing about the eyes. Oh how will I make those gorgeous eyes?

Workin' Out the WIP's

I'm on a roll with the plushies. Remember this sweet face?

I finally finished sweet Gerald the Giraffe.

He's adorable. I'm really starting to get into the whole doll making thing. I will say I miss sewing garments though. If I can get my butt into the game I'd like to make at least one top for Spring Top Sewalong. Until then I will sit back and enjoy this new little guy.

Bit of Whimsy {Soul Sisters}

Luca has been best friends with two girls since Kindergarten. They are so adorable together. Their friendship is very unique and I hope it is a lifetime friendship for the three girls. They call each other soul sisters.

This weekend is a special slumber birthday party for one of the girls and she has invited the other two to an exciting evening including dinner at Benihana and doing all kinds of girly activities. The real exciting part is the next morning they are all going to get mani/pedis. I'm jealous. 

I made a little party favor gift for the girls. They each get their own Bit of whimsy doll that seemed like such a good idea before I actually sat down to make three of them at the same time! I've made one before and loved the way it turned out but forgot the actual process of making the doll was at times a little less than fun. I definitely forgot about the turning and the stuffing.

I morphed two patterns to make this design. I used the Jo head with the Jane body. I love the way they all turned out but they took me like a month to make. The stuffing! Oh the stuffing of a doll. You would think I'd learned my lesson a year ago but no, now I'm going to make a Maxwell plushy for Vinny. He felt a little left out of the doll party.

If you plan on making any of the Bit of Whimsy dolls I highly recommend the patterns. I have 6 of them! They really do turn out adorable. I use Kona cotton for the face and body parts that are "skin". For the face I use two layers of fabric so the embroidery doesn't get wonky and the face feels nice and firm after stuffing. I reduce my stitch length to 1.8 on all seams because the doll takes a beating during the stuffing process. I use wool felt for the hair. I also added bloomers for under the dresses to cover my wonky stitching. This is the one area of the doll that top stitching will show and I wasn't very precise with my stitching here. Oh, and when you are stitching the face seam line (around the head) make sure you keep as smooth of a stitch line as possible because your dolls face can easily get a little lopsided.

Zip Top Laptop Cover

A few weeks ago I finally got a new computer. Yay me! I'm glad I switched to Mac, it just takes some getting used to how different it is. I don't really take my laptop places with me since I have an iPad but I figured I better make a cover for the few times it goes along for the ride.

I used some of my hoarded Echino Scooters fabric for the exterior and Kona cotton black for the lining. I also used two layers of fusible fleece to make it slightly padded. This is definitely not the kind of case you would use if you were taking your computer out and about on a daily basis. If I did it over I would make it a teeny tiny bit bigger since the fit is a little snug. I made it pretty much using the sewing instructions for one of Anna of Noodlehead's zipper pouches. For this cover I just measured the circumference of my laptop divided by two and added seam allowance. I also added an 1/8" on all sides to account for the thin padding. Make sense? Math and measurements are not my strong suit.

Now that I'm writing this I realize I probably should make an iPad cover since I take it with me EVERYWHERE. I probably should have made that cover first. I do have the magnetic cover that Apple makes for the iPad but that's not helping things if the iPad gets dropped.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

Another raglan tee (yawn, right?) and Easy Fit Pants (yawn too, but I seriously love this pattern) for a new pair of pajamas size 3T.

{A little piece of gingham ribbon sewn in as a tag}

Seriously, I'd like to lament over the fact that Picnik is closing in April. I am such an old fashioned fart that I do not like change of any kind. I own Photoshop. Can I use it? No. Can I use Picnik? Hell yeah! 

So today I decided to try my first alternate for photo editing. Enter Pixlr Express. I think I could work with it. The photos above are using some of the interesting shit they offer. 

Well now where did this post all have to end up in the toilet? This is outrageous and I better just end it now before I soil the memory of such a ridiculously amazing children's book author.

Recent Upcycling

 I took some old t shirts that I just couldn't part with and made them into some t's for the little guy.

 You would think I may be getting tired of the raglan tee, but it's the total opposite. I love how quickly they come together. The pattern I have is getting a little snug so I need to trace the next size up.

On totally unrelated news my computer crashed two weeks ago and I'm making the switch to Mac. Any help/advice would be appreciated. I haven't used Mac since college and that was a very, very long time ago. The only problem I see with making the switch is that Rocco's BrailleNote is only PC compatible. The guy at the Apple store told me there is a program I can purchase to run Windows on the Mac when I need to interface with his BrailleNote. Any experience with that? I'd love to hear from you all before I make my final decision (but I'm pretty dead set on making the switch :)