Smocks and more

K has a birthday party to go to tomorrow. We needed a present and something special to wear, stat. I found the pattern for this "Swing Swing Smock" in Amy Karol's Bend the Rules Sewing and modified it to fit my six-year-old. Thanks to Amy's zig-zag method of applying bias tape, it was a cinch to make -- took maybe an hour, tops. The fabric is Amy Butler from my stash, and I have a yard of that pocket material waiting to become a Lazy Days Skirt (by Oliver & S) -- but we needed something warm enough for K to wear now.

Out there on the Internet are tutorials galore, and I found one to make a child's skirt from an adult's sweater and another to make a child's leggings from the arms and shoulders left over from the adult's sweater made into the child's skirt. As it happened, I had a brown cashmere sweater that I didn't enjoy wearing very much, that was just the size, shape and softness to make into a skirt-and-leggings set for K.

She was delighted with her new outfit when she came home from school today and it was all I could do to get it off of her at bedtime! I'm just relieved that both pieces fit and were comfortable for her.

For her friend's birthday present we found fabric featuring the characters from Disney's The Princess and the Frog -- K reports that the child is Disney-princess crazy -- and I made another smock. I didn't have an appropriate sweater to make a skirt/legging set so I purchased a t-shirt and leggings at Target that I hope will fit her. I am less enthralled with this outfit than I am with the one for K, but if it suits her classmate's taste (which I hope it does), then I'm happy.

Back in the studio

I took a break over the holidays and mostly worked on knitting mittens -- finished a pair for myself and nearly finished a pair for D, which he may yet get by the time the cold weather is over. But I'm back in the studio with a new sewing machine and plenty of new projects in the works.

Before Christmas I went through my stash of thrifted sheets and readied them for projects galore... They're not just for pajama pants anymore!

I spent most of today working on a long-overdue birthday present for my nephew J, who turned The Big Oh-Three back in November. I had fun making his superhero cape, though by the time I was done it had me singing my high school's alma mater (Crimson and gold, triumphant evermore!) and wondering whether J might look more like Ronald McDonald than a powerful crime-fighter. I think he'll probably enjoy it just the same.

My notions bin has yet to recover from the ransacking it received when I was looking for just the right trim for an improvised doll's dress that K's hand-me-down baby could wear to show-and-tell last Friday. It was constructed and donned with haste and I have not seen it since, or I would show it to you here.

Here are the pre-washed fabrics for the preemie quilt I'm making as a sample for the craftivism group I'm trying to get together at my church. I've been wanting to work with 30's reproduction fabrics for a long time, and I had a good excuse to buy some last week at my quilt store's Fat Quarter Friday -- they will be perfect for a baby, and they mix seamlessly (no pun intended) with some vintage scraps I bought when we were antique-scrounging in Michigan last summer.

So my hands are full and busy, and I must say I am quite happy with the whole deal.

Six!

Happy birthday to my new six-year-old!

Here she is in her self-made birthday crown:

And here she is in her mama-made oilcloth apron:

 (Naturally, I have a matching one.  Painting party, anyone?)

Happy Birthday, G.G.!

I made my grandmother a silk shantung Bias Blossom pin from Cynthia Treen's Last Minute Fabric Gifts to celebrate her 90th birthday. "This is different," she told me when she opened the box. But she wore it all day just the same. And everywhere we went, I got to tell everyone that she was my grandmother and that today she was Ninety.

I made her a memory board instead of giving her a card. I was a little worried that she wouldn't like it, that she would think it was weird or different, but she was immensely pleased with it and became very concerned about finding a proper way to display it in her home. Taking a photograph of the whole thing did not seem right somehow, but I did snap a few snippets of it. Here are two:

This photograph has been a favorite of mine for nearly twenty years, possibly because I compiled the album G.G. is browsing through while she sits in the rocker in my parents' dining room. It's full of faded snapshots from the Seventies, and the colors of orange, brown and green seem to dominate. The person you can't see in the photo is my great-aunt, another extremely special person in my life, for whom my brand new niece was named.

This one was taken on a sunny but frigid winter day not long after my daughter was born, and it will always be a treasure to me. There are other photographs from that day of me playing joyfully with my child, and of my mother and my great-aunt holding her, but the series of G.G. talking with her namesake and becoming her great-grandmother is most meaningful to me.

So happy Nintieth, G.G.! You are strong and funny and sharp and capable, and you have always done well in this world. I am proud to be your granddaughter.

Many Happy Returns

A rousing Happy Birthday to my good and dearest friend! It goes without saying that your companionship and support mean the world to me, and how wonderful it is that birthdays come along and give me the chance to try to show and tell you that!

This year the theme for your birthday gifts is "Out on a Limb" -- in other words, these gifts are my way of thanking you for standing behind me during the past year as I have undertaken new ventures and become just a little more daring. They may not quite be as perfectly matched to your personality as gifts in other years have been, but I'm hoping you'll find them fun, anyway.

First up is a set of "Mixy-Matchy Napkins," as they're called in Amy Karol's Bend-the-Rules-Sewing, a fun new book I picked up before Christmas. Since I can never get all of my napkins to match, I actually prefer it if none of them do, so I really liked this little project. (Also, I got to use all kinds of fun fabric, which is like being a kid in a candy store.) I don't know how you feel on the subject, or even if you use cloth napkins, but if you try it I bet you'll never go back, either to the matching or to the paper. And of course I had to make you seven of them, because what number goes better with a bunch of mis-matched items? Now, really?



Next is something that I hope I can label "Not Too Frou-Frou," though by its nature it is a little fussy. It seems that aprons are all the rage these days, at least among the bloggers I read and the authors of my favorite sewing books. Thus, I felt called to make you one. I wanted to make you a tea-towel apron because I love the simplicity and utility of them, but I couldn't find a towel attractive enough to make me want to sew with it. So you've gotten the standard vintage-style apron with the gathered waistband and the tapered ties, guaranteed to provide a perky bow (if you can handle that.) I chose a vintage-style daisy print that I hope manages to remain understated, and I left off the rick-rack and the frilly pockets. (This pattern also came from Bend the Rules Sewing.)


Things I learned while making these gifts:

1. How to make a narrow hem without burning my fingers
2. How to baste by machine
3. How to make gathers and sew them into a waistband
4. That I can make things that are not comprised completely of straight lines

Thanks for those, and for your continual encouragement and faith in me. You are a blessing to those who know you. Have a happy!

The big day, part II

We served K breakfast in bed (banana chocolate chip muffins, her choice) because she has decided, based on the fact that we did it this year for D's birthday, that it is now standard-family-birthday-tradition. That's ok. My birthday is next.

Then I told her to go look and see who was in her new doll trunk. She looked at me as though I were insane -- "It's empty, mama!" -- but went down to check anyway and came thumping up the stairs with a gleeful shout, dragging the trunk behind her. "This is the BEST birthday present you EVER gave me!" Inside the trunk was Li'l Susie Sunshine, a doll from my childhood, a bit the worse for wear but still attractive with long blond hair, movable arms and legs and eyes that open and close, dressed in a long pink gingham dress with a pinafore. I had hung up her clothes in the other side of her trunk along with a hat, a hairbrush, a pair of shoes and a pillow and blanket. Pretty spiffy, according to my little one.

After a morning of food shopping, cooking and cleaning it was finally time for the party. Guests started arriving shortly after two. Since it was only family, it was a relatively small affair. K opened presents and was universally pleased. She did mention to me later that nearly every present was something to wear, and that was sort of true. Probably her favorite present was her tutu, along with the accompanying ballet tights, slippers and leotard we found at Target. She changed into those before the present-opening was complete, and kept them on for the rest of the evening, performing endless renditions of her version of the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy.

The party was pretty much over the minute the cake was cut. Last year people stayed and talked and played with K and her presents, and I had a chance to take a picture of K with each person at her party, which I wanted to do this year, but people were kind of restless and grumpy and wanted to be off doing other things, so I let them go. I was ready for a nap myself.

We let K be the Sugarplum Fairy for a while before bed -- she seemed so relaxed and happy, not her usual tired, grouchy, early-evening self. She asked for ballet lessons. Again. And again I said, sure, someday you can have them. Someday being the operative word. When you're older. When I find a ballet school that is not Insane. Which I can only imagine will be in the far, far future. Till then, twirl in your homemade tutu to your heart's desire, and your father and I will applaud.

Back to normal

The tree is down, the ornaments are packed away, the boxes are ready to go back up to the attic. Thank goodness. I'm ready for things to settle down, once K's birthday celebration is over with. I worked on her crown with no success yesterday; I'm afraid she's going to have to do without one. I can't seem to get the trimmings on straight, and then I can't cut the lining the same size as the front -- I don't know what the problem is, except maybe that I'm rushing the process or that I'm just not into it. She'll have plenty of other goodies so I'm not worried about it.

I've started in on a prayer quilt that's long overdue, in a pattern I've never tried before that looks promising, with some awesome Michael Miller prints I picked up when we went to the Herrschner's outlet in Wisconsin over Thanksgiving. I'm not used to working with such high-quality fabrics and it's really a treat. I'm also getting back into crocheting an afghan, a bubble gum pink affair that I started last summer that's so garishly bright I can't help but love it. It's slow going but will be worth it in the end.

D got his desk put together and into the closet, and moved the new computer onto it, so he's officially out of his office. Now the next phase, clearing out the junk, begins.

Countdown to five

The birthday preparations for K's fifth are well underway, and since she is spending tonight and tomorrow night with her grandparents they can now take place out in the open, which is much nicer for D and me. I had a fabulous time making her a birthday bunting out of Amanda Soule's The Creative Family, and have started a birthday crown following instructions from that book as well. And last night D and I spent an hour (that's all!) making a glorious pink tutu after Design Mom's tutorial (I love how she helps her children create meaningful Christmas gifts for their siblings.) I think I'll save the pictures for the weekend so I can show them in use by Herself.

My mother-in-law was literally holding her belly as she roared with laughter at the sight of the sewing and crafting paraphernalia that has exploded in the dining room and expanded into the living room. She has this idea that it won't all fit into the front bedroom upstairs we are currently using as an office. Because of the slight possibility that that might be true, I am not including photographs of my current craft space either, lest I become a cyber-laughingstock as well.