Picture Day

Today was picture day at my daughter's preschool/daycare/place she goes to be around other children and Mommy gets time to play with dust bunnies and fabric (guess which one I prefer playing with?). So the all important question became -- what to wear? A quick mental inventory of her wardrobe let me know -- um, not much. This is not to say she has no cute clothes. She does. Quite a few. Just -- well, I may be behind on my laundry. Just maybe mind you.

So, rather than tackling the mountains piles of laundry what does any self-respecting crafty mommy do? Oh -- yeah, make a new outfit. (we won't discuss the fact that it would have been simpler and taken just as much time for me to actually do the laundry now will we?? Nope, didn't think so) Besides, it was a great excuse to try something that was a suggestion from some of the commenters on my t-shirt dress tutorial. Yeah, any excuse will do folks! So, trip to the store for a new t-shirt. Dig out some seriously cute Heather Ross fabric (and hey -- I won this stuff, so, bonus). Measure child (harder to do than you would think). Make a few guesses as sizing -- some sewing, and, voila! Of course, getting a picture of said dress once it was on the child this morning was a bit more difficult.

There, that's better -- she held still for about a second there. Cool. My measurements were a bit off -- I thought it would be just a tad shorter -- but this is good, room to grow. Room to run.

Room to sit down in the grass and show off some really cute tights. I found the tights when I got the t-shirt. They are just cracking me up. Though, honestly, this photo is a little more Wizard of Oz than I might like (or am I the only one thinking of the witch under the house here?)

But seriously -- I'm tempted by these myself. Although -- horizontal striped tights should PROBABLY be left for those with skinnier legs, and, those who are young enough to pull them off. Darn. Oh well -- I can at least live vicariously!

Oh, and I also have to rave about the fabric I used. Oh My Goodness. I've loved looking at the Heather Ross fabrics online -- fun, whimsical, etc. Now that I've played with some -- the hand to the fabric is just short of sinful! It sews up beautifully and oh -- brings a smile to your face at the same time. I'm in love!

On other quilting/sewing fronts -- I've actually been really productive the past few days/week. I did finally mail out the gifts for my 50th Post give-away. I have photos but, they're not edited yet -- and I've been working on a couple of other things that I need to take pictures of/edit for public consumption. But, it's almost time to pick up the little one so -- I'll save that for later!

Shameless

Ok, just a warning here. This post is a bit of shameless self-promotion. Yet again. So, bear with me. A few weeks ago I got an e-mail from the folks over at the Sew Mama Sew blog asking if they could post a link to my t-shirt dress tutorial on their site for their Kid's Clothes Month. After running around the house giggling and chortling (I think my husband thought I was absolutely insane -- even after I explained why I was acting that way) I e-mailed back and said YES! The link went up yesterday in the "girls clothing" tutorial section (more giggling and skipping around the house -- this time my husband didn't even ask) and you can find it here (including some nonsense blurb I wrote about myself -- um, I really need to work on that whole talking about me thing). Check it out -- there are some great tutorials for children's clothing out there, including one for making a toddler's skirt out of charm squares...oooh, think I may have to check that one out! (and the one about making dresses out of pillowcases, and the twirly skirts, and...you get the drift!)

Oh, and if you found my site through the Sew Mama Sew blog -- please, leave a comment, say hi, etc. I don't bite -- really!

Been Busy

But instead of the cleaning (which, there is even more of than I thought. Does it NEVER end? There are advantages to living with a husband who just doesn't see the dirt -- but when it comes time to clean it, um, never mind...), I've actually managed to get some sewing done!!! Woooo Hoooo!

I'm still in Finish What You Have mode here -- I'm really liking the phrasing on this one. I may even borrow another phrase I saw in blogland over the summer soon -- Use What You Have (sounds so much better than "Fabric Diet"). So, no new projects to share, but progress on others -- oh yes.

First up is the t-shirt "dress" I made for my daughter a while back. (OMG -- I just looked at the date on that -- was it really over a month ago??? I have GOT to stop leaving projects 1/2 done -- especially ones that have the potential to be grown out of!!!! It's one thing for a quilt to take 6 months or more to finish, but a child's SHIRT?!?!) I finally got around to putting on the yoyo's I wanted to add. I'm still not sure about these -- not sure what is bugging me. The colors I chose, how many? I don't know. I could add more yoyo's -- super easy to make using those yo yo makers.

Taking any away may be a problem though. 'Cause, I'm not guaranteeing it or anything but I'm pretty sure I used applique to attach these things. Now, the thing is -- applique is NOT my thing. (at least, not yet -- I may be chaging my mind about avoiding it at all costs though) Applique is one of those scary quilting terms and skills I've managed to avoid quite nicely for the past six years. But, I think I may have done some. By hand. And I don't hate it. So, no, these yo yo's are NOT coming out.


Aside from the whole I finally did some applique thing -- these are also attached to t-shirt material! Do you know the pain involved in trying to remove them?? I don't THINK so. So, add some -- I can. Depends on other opinions -- what do you think? But for right now, I'm going to consider it DONE. DD can wear it tomorrow for its first test round of spills, paints, and other gunk to get spilled on.



My other progress has been with the %#@*&*#*& challenge of bias binding. Some of you may recall that I managed to screw up make a mistake while I was making my bias binding for 'Cause I Can't Crochet. I finally got up my courage and tried it again. This time, paying attention to what I was doing. (and thanks to dh for volunteering to do the grocery shopping with toddler in tow when I said "I NEED to sew today" -- he may not see dirt, but, well -- there are many other reasons I love him) So, binding done -- and on the bias this time. Quilt trimmed. Binding attached. Now all I have to do is sit and do the handsewing. (what IS it with all this hand work?) Luckily -- it's premier week for all the new fall network shows. I can sit, I can sew, I can watch TV -- sounds like a plan to me!

So, off to do some more cleaning, some more sewing, if I'm lucky I will get to the post office today to send off some goodies -- I need another me!

Go Fly a Kite...

So I haven't been posting a whole lot of my own quilt/craft work lately. That's partly because not much has been going on here. For some reason I've been in a bit of a "slump". Part of it has been the general clean-up going on at casa de cornfields, but part of it has been that there have been other distractions. Like apple picking, and this weekend, a kite festival.

There were all sorts of kites and flying banners. There were giant windsocks floating in the air attached to kites in the shape of just about any animal you could imagine. The sky was full of dragons, teddy bears, colorful fish and of course, giant gecko lizards. (which for some reason my dd was very concerned would be coming towards us -- she got over the concern eventually -- but it was kind of funny) Not to mention all sorts of fun geometric shapes and not just your traditional kite shaped kite.

There were demonstrations by "professional" kite fliers -- who made stunt kites zoom in time to music and made me wonder how often you have to practice to have that kind of control. And, of course, what would a festival be without vendors selling -- you guessed it, kites. So dd now has her very own first kite. A far cry from the plastic ones I used to get every spring and that
Dad and I would take out to the local school yard. But, oh, just as much fun to fly. (and no spokes in this one to worry about breaking -- which usually happened to my kites on the first or second day I used them!)

And a little girl who had fun holding the string and flying her own kite. (ok, so Nana was really doing the flying here -- but SHE doesn't know it -- and she was so darned proud of herself!) Yep, it's worth not getting much done in the sewing department to have memories like these...

BUT -- I've been going into sewing machine withdrawals lately. Soooo...I did manage to get back to my machine late last night. And unlike other times when I've had one of these slumps, I did not start a new project to jump start my work. Instead, I decided to accept the challenge issued over at turkey feathers to Finish What You Have. I've got at least 3 or 4 projects in progress that need some work -- and a few more that are barely in progress and need to get finished. It sounded like a good way to extend my deep cleaning into my sewing area and make room for all of those projects I keep buying fabric for!

Enter today's FWYH entry. It is a pair of cutie patootie pj's for dd. I used the puppy fabric I bought with Mom a month ago for the pants along with this pattern. And an adorable puppy design by Anna Maria Horner for the t-shirt. I started these before I began my cleaning spree and they've been sitting abandoned set aside waiting for me to finish them up. Since it took less than an hour to finish them I have no idea why I let them sit so long.

I will admit that I cheated a bit with the puppy on the t-shirt. Anna Maria's pattern and instructions (available as a free download here) call for sewing down the applique after preparing it. Um, well, since I reduced it to 30% of actual size to fit on the t-shirt AND I was working with an existing t-shirt (amazing what a little applique will cover up -- some paint/gunk from daycare that just would NOT come out in the wash is now irrelevant!) -- I made the design into an iron-on applique by using some fusible interfacing. It worked pretty well -- but, I think next time I will use a heavier weight interfacing -- I just used what I had which was very lightweight. Nothing a little bit of fabric glue didn't fix at the extremities -- but still.

And just because I can -- one final picture of the back of these pants. I LOVE the little pockets on the tush -- don't know why, but I do. I can't wait to see dd in these -- but I thought that waking her up in the middle of the night to change her pj's was a bit much. Even to satisfy my crafty glee. There's always tonight!