Spring Top, more animals, more roses

I whipped this sucker out in 2 hours tonight. LOVE IT. I used the pattern from the new issue of STITCH magazine (though I tweaked it a bit)... the turquoise is a rayon/spandex tissue jersey remnant from Joanns, and the eyelet is an AMAZING silk cotton from Mood. (I treated myself to a stop there today, since I drove past it TWICE to have lunch with the kiddos and C's dad)...

I have a whole day left to photograph it for real and enter it in the contest!

of course, it needed a rose to really make it awesome... luckily for me, I have plenty of fabric roses!

fabric and felt! (and a kitty, hiding in there, see him?)

now do you see him? this is the felt version of Kieran, the darkest kitty ever. I'd photograph him more, but he's very very dark, and always very sleepy, so all you'd see is a dark blob... (the brown bits lower left are going to be Guinness (our dog, not the beer), hopefully tomorrow night...)

and here's Babe, the Gallant Pig. We just finished reading it (D and I both LOVED it, he wants to start it again RIGHT NOW), so he needed his own Babe...

I've been doing 1 toy per night, and then having me time for the rest of the night... tonight was the pig and top, last night was the roses and kieran... and tomorrow afternoon, my husbie comes home!

he's been gone for most of the month, so we're pretty excited to see him... i just have to figure out how to keep sane in the am... we can't leave for the airport till at least 1:45, and D is DYING to see his papa....

summer clothes (to be) for the Bean

My daughter has begun to be very aware of her clothes, she is determined to choose her own outfits... (she'll be 18 months at the end of the month.) She's obsessed with PINK! such a girl! I've been so careful to ensure that all the colors of the rainbow recieved equal representation in her wardrobe, but now she is ALL about pink. and layers. (legwarmers, pants, shirt, dress, sweater, hat, necklace, socks, sneakers, no matter how hot it is!)
We went fabric shopping yesterday for quilt fabric, but I caved and finally bought some pink double gauze for her... I'm thinking ruffled long tops, to be worn over leggings (to protect her knees, she's such a climber/runner that she scrapes her knees A LOT)

the red moda on the right is just a regular cotton, but it was really cheap, and she actually pulled the bolt off the clearance rack, and there was only a yard left, so....

this one is actually for D... if you look closely, there are traffic cones in the circles, and race cars, tow trucks, and ambulances with sirens blaring... PERFECT for a little boy equally obsessed with construction, cars, emergency vehicles, and disasters!

here are the cutest for the bean, the frog print in pink from Heather Ross' Far Far Away (double gauze), some really cute apple dots (japanese, also double gauze, with the occasional leaf and adorable worm sprinkled in there), and a pinkish linen (also japanese) with duckies, flowers, and umbrellas. (the bean LOVES ducks)
so I need to pick some patterns and get to it, right?

D and I made cookies today... we used the recipe from "Best Recipes" by America's Test Kitchen (my favorite cook book EVER!), but instead of mixing in the chips, D smooshed them on top... He loves cracking eggs, so he did all the egg cracking, though I did the seperating, and he also did all the pouring after I did the measuring... he also whisked. he loves whisking. We used 1/2 n 1/2 semisweet chocolate chips and butterscotch chips (cause I like butterscotch, but not chocolate). they turned out SOOOOOO yummy!

The "thick and chewey chocolate chip cookie" recipe (versus the thin and crispy version) calls for 1 whole egg and 1 yolk per batch (we made a double batch today), so I had 2 egg whites left over... usually the whites go to the puppies as a treat, but since these eggs are now from our own chickens, I'm loathe to waste them... so we made meringue cookies!
I made a 1/2 recipe, from "Baking Illustrated" (also by America's Test Kitchen), and they came out SOOOOO super yummy!
I love using everything up, and getting yummy variety to boot! we've been eating these with some of the less ripe strawberries, like teeny tiny personal pavlovas.

This is why....

I need a baby-proof wallet. She did it again. I'm ordering hardware
tomorrow.

30-minute pants...

I did my workout tonight (yoga, which I like, but it's 2 hours long! plus a shower, leaving me not much time to play!), and then C said he was coming home from work early (sad that midnight-ish is early, huh?), so I knew better than to start cranking on the western shirt for him...

instead, I did a little more hooky stuff:

and then I churned out 4 pairs of summer pants for D.

Dana, from MADE, has her now famous 90-minute shirt... therefore, these pants must be called the 30-minute pants... seriously, cutting and sewing, all in under half an hour (of course, at this point, I've made about 40 pairs, over 2 years, so I've gotten faster, but even my first time, probably about an hour... Nowadays I don't even use a pattern, I've memorized the proper shape, so I just have to measure down from the top to the crotch to well past the hemline, and cut my "j" to make the right shape... LOVE IT

this time around I did natural linen, black linen, white-dyed-teal linen, and loosely woven green cotton...

They all need hems, but I have to see how long my boy is first, and, as it's midnight, my 3yo is asleep and un-fit-able.

I make them reversible, no outer side seam, just a crotch seam, with cargo pockets on the hip, (not the knee, too low for little hands), simple elastic on the waist, so my 3yo can put them on and take them off all by himself. He's a RTW 6-8 now, 'cause he's so big, but he can't possibly do all the buttons and zippers expected of a 6-8yo, so I have to make ALL his pants...

luckily for me, they're super fast!

More Easter prep...

while the Bean took a (short) nap today, we colored eggs...

C and D colored easter eggs...

(I made C wear an apron, and I only have girly aprons...)

this was D's first time, so mostly we did plain eggs, but he was thrilled by them.

look how pretty! (they're drying on D's geo-board)

there was plenty of dye left, so I made some small skeins of natural colored yarn, and just dyed all these in the microwave... (all shades of blue and green for my crocheted blanket)

I also made some yellow and pink felt so I can make some bunny peep pins tonight... so I'd better get to work!

Wet felted Easter eggs...

I was clearly overly ambitious. My plans were to knock out 18 of these
tonight... I did 6. Will start earlier tomorrow night...

(based on the tutorial found here)

Easter prep

here's a sneak peak at what I've done so far... Hopefully I won't run out of steam, as I still have lots planned....

check my flickr for details and more pics....

Easter basket and eggs...

pink stripes for the bean

blue stripes for D

eggs for both!

10 eggs done, 25 to go, and both baskets done. I loved making the
baskets, but they're really small. I might need to make more, larger....
I'm gonna try wet felting some eggs tomorrow, and I need to put faces
on the bunnies for the kiddos. And make them Easter outfits. (Even though we're not religious, and therefore don't really "need" the traditional Easter dress-up thing...)
Am thinking of sewing a shirt for D with a stencil of "Milo the Really
Big Bunny"

Sunhat for a baby with a big head.

D's head is already bigger than mine,(he's outgrown his adult small
bike helmet already), so it's hard to find sunhats that are appealing,
age apropriate, and will fit him. I made up this pattern last year,
but he outgrew it, obvi. Here's the new version. Green cotton
seersucker on the "inside," (it's reversible, but I think the linen
will be shown more), from joanns remnants, linen on the outside. The
train fabric was from Momen, today, but I only got 1/4 yd, so I did
the crown with the linen print, and the rest with natural linen I
already had... If anyone is interested, I can post the pattern... It
would fit an adult, and take about 2 hours to make....

How to make a toddler playsuit/romper from an adult t-shirt (part 1)

Today I'm going to show you how to make THIS:

I took OODLES of pictures, so every step should be really clear, but email me if it's not!

you will need:

a shirt (I used adult small. It needs to be as long as your child from shoulder to ankle.... (or to knee if you want shorts) too big and you will have to hem/fix the collar, and the whole point of this is to use what's already done....)

some coordinating scrap t-shirt fabric (for the crotch facings)

sewing machines, clothespins, thread, etc.

Measure your baby from shoulder to mid-crotch (where a onesie would snap). add an inch to get your "body measurement"

My daughter is about 17" from shoulder to crotch...

turn your adult t-shirt inside out, and then fold it in 1/2. Measure down from the top of the neckline to the legnth of the body measurement

My daughter was 17" so I marked (with a sharpie, since this will all be covered) at 18" down from the top of the neck

at the hem, measure in about 1.5 inches, and draw a line up, curving the corner to get to your measured body length.

cut it out. (so you're cutting through 4 layers of t-shirt)

discard the U's you just cut out.

Now line up the sleeves/the top of the shirt... make sure the shoulder seams line up!

find a shirt/onesie that fits your child, fold it like the adult shirt, and lay it on top, lining up the center folds and the top of the arms.

If the shirt is a little big for your kiddo, leave it there, but if you're grabbing something that fits perfectly, or you want to make the next size up, scoot the baby shirt over and down a little, equally.

I moved mine over about 1.5" but only down about an inch, because my bean has skinny little arms!

mark the corner made by the armpit (give yourself a smidge of seam allowance... I put about .5") It's pretty easy to go back and take a little more off after you've fitted it to your child, but if you cut too much off now, you've wasted a shirt!)

Ok, go put away the baby shirt, and grab a ruler.

make a straight line from the corner mark you made to the sleeve hem. Ideally, the line would meet the sleeve hem in a 90 degree angle.

Clearly, my world is not ideal.

Now draw a line from the corner mark to the hem of the shirt, ending JUST BEFORE THE HEM. (it's not actually that dire, but it's prettier if you don't cut/sew through the hem)

so here's the serging line you made. you only need one right now.

cut off the extra, leaving a little bit more seam allowance... (this is mostly just so you can put your clips on the seam lines)

now if you unfold the shirt, you should see the basic shape of a toddler playsuit!

measure your crotch "U"

do some math (or make google do it for you) to figure out what 70% of your crotch measurement is (70% of 17 is 11.9, so , as you can see in the next photo, I rounded to 12") to get your edging measurement

cut strips 5" wide by the length of your edging measurement. You can cut strips from ribbing, although it's a bit thick, and might be difficult to put snaps through. I used regular-t-shirt-fabric scraps.

MAKE SURE YOUR FABRIC STRETCHES FROM SIDE TO SIDE, not up and down.

cut 2

Use clothespins (really, it's a knit trick that WORKS! no snagging, no breaking pins on your serger blade, and easy to remove from either side!) to clip together the sides of your playsuit (or, if you don't have enough clothespins, clip the side with the marker)

so once you have the sides all clipped together, stop and move the kitten away from the machines so you can actually serge/sew!

I use both of my machines to make these, so if I say "serge," use a serger, or zigzag and then straight stitch (or whatever floats your boat when seaming knits), whereas when I say "sew," I mean straight stitch on a regular machine...

start serging on the side with the markings, starting at the arm, curving through the armpit, and heading down to the hem of the shirt...

try to end up so that you don't actually serge through the bottom hem (because that way you're guaranteed a nice even hem)

ok, so now you have one side beautifully sergered...

turn it over so that the WR of the front is on top (serge on the left) and fold it over, so you can trace the serge line on the other side. (you want the markings to show when you start serging from the arm down)

here's a picture of the markings, just in case you don't know how to trace)

serge the second side, again, starting at the arms, going toward the hem, and try to not serge the hem, so you have a prettier hem.

turn the romper right side out, and you should have something that looks like this!

now all you need to do is the crotch! and that's in the next post!