KCWC-- day one

Today, I managed to finish off the collars and cuffs of what I'm now calling the "Psycho Billy Christmas dresses", sewed the beading lace on the bodices, and got the collars and cuffs pinned in place.  Doesn't sound like a lot, does it?  But the beading lace is scallops, and the trim on the collars and cuffs is sewn together with a faggoting stitch.  That's actually a beginning to why this is a Psycho Billy dress!  (Yes, Johnny Cash--One Piece at a Time... one of my favorite songs!)

See, fagotting was most often used in Victorian lingerie.  I need to work a bit on consistency, but it was a new thing for me. :) Next, came the dress bodice and skirt--which both patterns came from the 50s.  The sleeves are straight out of the sixites, and the pinafores are from the 30s in one case, and the 40s in the other!  And I'm frankenpatterning all of it together to make matching dresses for the girls...or mostly matching.

See, Imp's (story behind that in a bit!) dress only has two lines of lace on the bodice, while Bit's has four.  Smaller bodice, less lace!  Other than that, they match.

Nicole has earned the nickname Imp lately.  I wouldn't trade her for anything and I love her to pieces, but she has a mischievous streak a mile wide.  She gets into everything, no matter how much I have it locked up, and lately she threw away my buttonhole foot!  (So yeah, if anybody has an extra buttonhole foot for a Pfaff 1222E, part # 93-040 924-91, I'd be happy to pay you for it!)  And I'm sure that she's thrown out lots of things that we didn't catch her at!  Nikki gets this look on her face that by now we know means trouble.. which is why her new name is Imp!

KCWC

Kids' Clothes Week Challenge is coming up next week, and I signed up, so it's time for a bit of project planning.  Number 1 on my list is the Christmas dresses.  I've already started them, and my goal is to have them done by the end of next week--embroidery and all.  Actually, I'd love to have them both finished by this coming Monday (October 8).  That way, I have time to schedule Christmas pictures and talk it over with Joanna while Grace has the week off.  We're going with Sears, because they're far and away the most affordable.  My only hang up might be the silk satin ribbon that I have on order.  I need it to show up!

Number 2 is winter dresses.  I'm starting with one, because both kiddos have some just not enough.  I'm planning three each, though they'll be spread out. 

Number 3 is the jeans project.  I'm planning a jean jumper, coordinating blouse, and actual jeans in a bumblebee theme.  I have matching socks and hairbows already (I like completely coordinated outfits!) so that they can bee tricked out for Georgia Tech game days in real clothes.  (The mascot for the Georgia Institute of Technology is a yellow jacket names Buzz)  I recognize that due to the fact that I ordered bumblebee patches as the most cost effective way to get them, (They retail for $2.50 for two at Joanns, but I can get 20 for $8.54 off ebay.) I might not finish that project, either!

I'd like to do the overalls I have planned, but the McCalls patterns don't go on sale until next Thursday.  So, instead, project number 4 is bubble skirts with coordinating tops.  I think those are quite enough to get through by the end of KCWC!  I just hope I can keep up the pace and finish all of my planned projects before Christmas!

Wardrobe basics: the white shirt

While probably the most boring part of the girls' wardrobes, a plain white shirt is part of it.  As summer turns into fall, their summer sleeveless dresses would still be wearable... if they had sleeves.  So I usually make them at least one white blouse to wear underneath to stretch those dresses until their fall/winter dresses are finished.  I've only made something like this once for Lizzy--when she was just born, we found a new, tagged, heavy knit dress at a consignment sale.  The thing is, by the time she grew into it, it would be much too cold in Virginia, where they were living at the time, to wear it.  So I obtained a pattern--McCalls 5825.  I think it's early 90s.  The pantaloons and overalls are kind of goofy, but the shirt pattern itself is fine.  I just changed it to puffed sleeves for a little girl.  The first one was maroon to go with the maroon embroidery on the cream-colored jumper.

The one I just finished is basic white.  She's barely into 2Ts, and all her summer dresses were that size, so if we pop the blouse underneath and a sweater on top, she's good to go.  Basic white blouses are boring.  Peter Pan collar, button front, out of cotton/poly batiste and puffed sleeves.  What shocked me is that she's still in pattern infant sizing... though everything needed lengthened.  Lizzy was a tiny baby and while she's average height for her age, she's incredibly thin, despite my sister stuffing food down her every chance she gets!  Length was added to both the sleeves and the body, but other than that, it's exactly as the original infant pattern... which I'm planning on using again to make a shirt for Nicole.

The most interesting part of this is the cuff treatment.  Instead of making incredibly tiny cuffs, it uses a button and thread loop to bring in the shirt.  Having made tiny cuffs before, I approve!  Since most of her dress-wearing time is inside a church, I wasn't trying to go really warm--though the original was that way since the only fabric in the color I needed was polyester suiting!

If I"m making blouses, I really prefer doing more interesting fabric or a different pattern rather than simple, plain and basic.  But basics can be the most used part of a wardrobe instead of something that sits in the back of a closet!  

But I can't really argue with how it looks underneath a jumper or sundress!  (This is a Strausburg pinwale corduroy jumper we picked up second hand for $7.)

Toy Sewing Machines and Learning to Sew

I didn't learn how to sew on a toy machine, but my mother did.  She had a metal hand-crank machine when she was a child, that was later destroyed by her nieces along with the dollhouse her grandfather made her.  I learned under the watchful eye of my mother on her big sewing machine... which I use the just-newer model today.  My mother's sewing machine is a Pfaff 1222.   (The picture is one currently on sale on ebay)  My Dad bought it for my mom in about 1974, but it had been on the market for a while then--my machine, a 1222E, was state-of-the-art in 1965, and the 1222 predates it.  The 1222 and the 1222E were the last all-metal sewing machines that Pfaff made.  The only plastic bit in the whole thing is the gear assembly that controls the fancy stitching... which we've had to replace in my mom's old machine. 

While I did just fine learning to sew dolly clothes on a real machine, I wasn't all that interested at Gracie's age.  And, well, I've sewn through my fingers enough myself to no be wary of giving a four-year-old a powered machine... and like most new-model sewing machines that don't cost an arm and a leg, toy sewing machines just aren't all that functional--it's a case of newer not being better.

Since Mom's first machine was a hand-crank, I started looking around for one and I've discovered some weird things in my search.  Like a toy tractor made from a vintage sewing machine.  (That one almost made me cry!)  and sculptures made from toy machines. (After the tractor, I wasn't shocked anymore!)  And then there's the true toys that don't actually function.  While the actual toy might be good for, say, Nicole or Lizzy, it would just frustrate Grace.  Because she wants one that works, dangit!  So since Christmas is coming, I'm going to keep looking.  I'm hoping for a nice, simple, metal, hand-crank sewing machine in good condition.  I figure that hand-crank will keep her out of trouble when I'm not there to watch.

And, well, if I can work a kick wheel, I'm fairly certain that I can learn to use a hand-crank machine to teach her.  Next birthday, I'll find an 18-inch doll for her so that we can learn to make dolly clothing.  I guess slow but sure is the way to go... in the meantime, I do have baby doll clothes patterns we can work with... and the best part of dolly clothes is that they use up some of my scraps!

So wish me luck... so many seem to think that old=valuable.  And well, with things like metal toys, they last virtually forever!

Hal-Hal-Halloween!

This year, for Halloween, I'm only making one costume.  Grace is excited about being a bat--my SIL picked up the costume last year on clearance.  With her employee discount, she got it 90% off!  What's really making her excited is the fact that it lights up.  Remember, she's four, so anything that lights up is amazingly cool!  In the meantime, Joanna sent me a pic from Pinterest. Which you can find here. That's the blog it originally came from!

 She wanted to know if I could make a cute owl costume, too, for Nicole.  So I went to the pattern company websites to look around and lucky for me, Simplicity just came out with a brand-new owl costume pattern this year--Simplicity 1766.

It's view A... and while the owl face is cuter, I knew I'd need to make changes.  So when I had coupons, and the felt was on sale, we made a trip to the most dangerous place on earth--the fabric store!

I ordered some pink stripey tights for the bottom, and while I considered perhaps making some owl feet slippers, we eventually decided that her ivory mary janes ('fraid this was the closest I could find!) or brown boots would work better.  (Both were bought via ebay... brand new second hand.  My favorite way to get the girls shoes!)  I changed the crotch to a snap crotch and ditched the velcro fastening for a zipper.  I sewed hooks and eyes into the collar, added a tab so that the cape would button, and lengthened the hat and added a button so that it could button under her chin.

See, Nikki can untie things and undo velcro (and zippers, for that matter, but that's on her back!)  So I wanted to make sure that she couldn't strip herself naked--she tries enough as it is! (I'm starting to dread the twos... she's only 17 months next week and already spends almost all her time getting into things and into trouble!)

I also used a leaf template for the felt "feathers"  I printed twenty of them so I could cut out the feathers assembly-line fashion and spent the cutting time watching a movie while I did it.  All-in-all, there are 120 "feathers"  in Nikki's costume, and she's super excited about wearing it!  She even likes the jumpsuit and the feather cape!

 We're not really into posing for pictures, though.  This was the best one I managed to get... after over an hour of trying!

The feathers were sewn onto the cape and hat in long rows.  The whole thing is made out of cotton out of the nursery prints at Joanns.  Really, once I sewed, turned, and topstitched the hat and cape, according to the pattern, I was finished.  But what is an owl without feathers?

She had her little white sneakers with her, so that's what she's wearing, but her ivory shoes or brown boots will match the feathers and owl face mask a little better.  The beak is made from a scrap of donated pleather (I have a yard or so of it that's been being used up in drips and drabs for years) and the eyes are buttons off a dress and had lost some.  I salvaged the old buttons and sewed on new, so it's salvaged button as the eyes. 

 Despite how this picture looks, she's excited about being an owl, and tries to "hoot".  Next, we have to teach her to say "Trick or Treat"!

Yeah, I know it's early.  We've got a whole month until Halloween.  But to be honest, I expected the whole feather thing to take forever.  It was actually surprisingly fast.  It only took about oh, ten-fifteen hours to do the whole thing start to finish! 




So what are your Halloween plans?

Finally! McCalls 4424

Three years ago, I fell in love with McCalls 4424.  But Gracie was a big baby, and by the time I found it, she was almost grown out of it, so making it just wasn't worth the effort.  Nikki is a smaller baby, so she still has a few pounds to gain before she outgrows this pattern!

I've had this dress cut out for three weeks, but it's been one thing after another.  And Nicole kept bringing me the pieces... until I started sewing it together yesterday and she started throwing pieces in the trash can!

 The weather seems to be getting unpredictable this year, so I snitched the shrug from Simplicity 2375 and made it in matching colors.  Normally, she'd be fine this time of year, but we seem to be seesawing between chilly and hot, so I thought a bit more coverage wouldn't hurt.  Hopefully, she won't grow out of this before fall and winter truly arrive!  (And if she waits to grow more, and it gets cold, we can always pop a blouse underneath.)

As I said before, I used the green and white leftovers from Richard's frog.  The shrug helps.  Honestly, the back is the cutest part of this pattern--the front is a bit blah... which is why I added a frog applique!

I really think the dark green of the shrug balances out all of the white, and the pop of bright green from the frog applique works pretty well.  The worst part of this was that Nicole was having a mischievous day.  She's such a sweet baby normally, but yesterday the sweetness was overruled by that imp known as curiosity!    All kids have their days, and yesterday was hers!  I was just lucky that the straps and bows were easy to get out of the top of the kitchen trash and didn't get any ick on them because we took out the trash right before she got here!

I'm afraid I don't have any pictures of her wearing this one, though.  I finished it at ten last night and she was home asleep.  See what I mean about the shrug, though?  It needs that block of color.

The diaper cover is green, and it was pretty much the only challenge here.  I've seen complaints about the pattern on Pattern Review, but it seemed straightforward to me.  :)  My biggest problem was that I, um, cut creatively to make the most of my fabric and fell about 1/2" short on the diaper cover.  So it's got a slightly shorter rise and is a little less poofy that then original pattern.

That's what the big bit of green is in this picture.  I also wanted the bows to stand out instead of blend in, so it was green for those!  I considered making the centers white, but decided that if it was a tied bow, it would be all one color, so these needed to be one color, too.  I was lucky enough to dig out four matching white buttons from my stash.  I've got about $10 in this one, and most of it is from the applique!

Mischief or 'Satiable Curiosity

I swear, I'm going to have to take a page from Katy Dill's book and do a Once Upon a Thread after Christmas (sewing until then is pretty much booked).  Nikki is our Elephant's Child.  you know, the story of how the elephant got his trunk from Kipling's Just So Stories?

Nicole has always been a curious baby.  While Grace was fairly easy, Nicole wants to know everything and is into everything!  But today, today was the worst day we've had in a long time.  If it was something she's not supposed to do (and she knows it) she was into it.  (And then giving ups the "'I'm cute so you're going to let me do this smiles!) She tried to play with my sewing shears (I was using them at the time) the sewing machine, pins, the computer, climbing and standing on chairs...  Well, you get the picture.

My four-year-old nephew has spent his life climbing and falling off things and ending up hurt and having stitches.  None so far this year, thank goodness, but he's been for stitches five times before his fourth birthday.  I suppose my "No standing on the furniture" rule is directly related to that.  In the four years I've been taking care of Grace and the year and four months I've had Nicole we've had zero serious accidents.  Scraped knees and bug bites are the extent of our owies, and I prefer to keep it that way.  They're not allowed to touch my sewing shears, either, and both of them know it.  When Jared was around Nicole's age (I was about seven) I found him in my parents' bedroom.  He'd escaped Mom and found some lost knitting needles somewhere and had been trying to eat them.

When I found him, he was spitting up blood.

After freaking out, and yelling for my mom before calling 911, the ambulance was sent and he had to go in to get patched up.  I'm just a bit paranoid about babies and sharpish objects.

I know what's going through Nikki's mind.  Scissors, pins, and sewing machines are shiny and in the case of the pins, brightly colored.  The pins also sound nice when rattled in their box.  Add to those facts that we purposely set the sewing machines up in the living room so I'm not shut up in my room where the rest of the supplies live and so that (bear in mind that my Mom is here, too) I can sew and keep an eye on her as she plays.

In some ways, Mom and I are just the (unpaid) babysitters, but I wouldn't do this for anybody else.  I keep telling myself that "this, too, will pass".  It'll just take time to teach her that the rules we've set are for her safety and not to ruin her fun!