If You Sew It...

So last Friday night, I met the wonderful Andrea at Crafty Planet for a little sewing workshop. While I consider myself a relatively skilled sewer, I'll be the first to admit that adult clothing scares the crap out of me. Kid stuff is one thing, but there are aspects of construction that you do with stuff you intend on wearing to work that you just don't worry about when you're talking a skirt for a three year old.

So I went to get a little help from Lisa's workshop. I needed to take an unlined skirt and line it so I could wear it for work. I also needed to make sure that I was on the right track about making sure it fit my rather non curvy body. Well, I don't have the curves you want.

I think it turned out pretty good. I want to make it again, and make improvements. However, I will continue to wear it in to work. It will be awesome for summer.


I even think that I'll be able to make the skirt work in something like a light corduroy for fall. I think I'll even be looking in to more patterns from Favorite Things. They have another even fuller skirt that I think would be fun to change things up.

Doll Carriers for Everyone

So apparently that header brought out a lot of opinions in people.

For those who are interested, it was a pumpkin, from when we went apple picking in September. There were a lot of them that were like that, but I'm not sure why. I meant to have the header up before Halloween, but well, you know how that went.

The new one was taken downtown Minneapolis, of all places. I love finding bits of green (now yellow) in the heart of the concrete.

Here is the finished doll carrier, being modeled by M and Sock Monkey. I still need to make at least one more, and I may make a couple, since I am enjoying perfecting different parts of it. So, M, my niece, maybe a little girl's who's birthday party we're invited too in December.




We even introduced M to the concept of good behavior for gifts at Christmas. Sort of a roundabout way that she'll get a carrier from Santa if she is good, and this one is for her cousin, but it works.

A Crafting Agenda

I finally feel better. I should be crafting, working on holiday gifts before I wait until the last minute and just end up buying the damn doll carrier from Pottery Barn, but I'm not.

Instead I'm browsing Etsy and dreaming about what I would do if I had unlimited funds.

How about I lay out my holiday craft agenda instead of actually doing it. Making a list and planning counts as progress, right?

Doll Carriers for the preschoolers - I had planned on making buying one for M, but then my SIL brought up that her daughter might like one. Well, that just made it a challenge. I have yet to find a pattern for anything I really like online, so I went out and bought enough fabric to experiment with a few designs. They are all sitting in a bag on my kitchen table waiting for me to get it together.

Quilt for M - Not that she doesn't have a million blankets, but I had to take away the blue one my mom brought for her. It had been mine when I was little, made by my grandma Lila. It had a few naptime potty accidents and had to get washed, and is falling apart way to fast to risk that. I know it should get used, but maybe when we master this potty thing completely. Like when she's 12. So, I got cool fabric to make her a new quilt, just need to spend some time at Crafty Planet pinning it so I can tie it. If I have enough time, maybe I'll hand quilt it.

Knit Blanket for the youngest niece - This may turn in to a birthday present. Not sure if I'll get it done in time.

Sock Monkey for the youngest niece - Have got to finish this one. M and oldest niece already have them. A and his brother both got sock monkeys from their grandmother. I loved the idea enough to make them for the first two kids, now the littlest one needs one of her own.

Doll Clothes - This is for M and the oldest nice. Found this awesome idea at Dollar Store Crafts (amazing craft blog). Love that I can get some use out of M's old baby clothes.

It may not seem like much, but I am a wicked good procrastinator.

Knitted Together

It is no secret that I treasure the things my grandmother's made for me, and if it wasn't for some seriously poor fashion choices on my part, I'd still have things I made with my mother. It just took me some time to appreciate how cool all of those handmade things were.

I know my window with M is small. It will only be so long before all she really wants is a gift card to Limited Too and a Hannah Montana CD (though really I swear we are working on her having better musical taste). I want to make sure I make as many things for her as I can while she still thinks I'm cool.

While on vacation I picked up some fun (and machine washable) yarn in bright colors. Fortunately she loves it.

She tells everyone that asks her about it that I made it. She wears it at daycare, long after I've left for work. She always wants to know where it is. She was incredibly excited when I started using the rest of the yarn to knit a hat for one of her teachers. A parting gift for how much they've done for my M. She couldn't keep it a secret, so now they all know they'll be getting hats from me.

She's also started asking for the quilt I made before I got pregnant. My first quilt in a gender neutral set of sushi fabrics. She calls it her food quilt and when she's feeling bad she wants me to tuck her in with it.

Now, when her two'ness can be so much for me to handle, when I feel my fuse shortening every time she uses tears to get what she wants (she's so good at it too), I just remember that there will be a time when all I'm good for is the keys to the car and some money for gas.