A little trip for busy bees

Oof. Pregnancy + toddler is hard work! I've managed to keep sewing, baking and making, but blogging has fallen by the wayside. I don't know how some of these bloggy mamas do it. Those broads are amazing. I've got lots to share so I'll start with our recent little summer vacay.

We decided not to deal with air travel this year and opted for a cabin on the Wenatchee river, only an hour and a half drive from Seattle. What a treat! The weather was great, we were in a little community with a playground and a pool just steps away and Lake Wenatchee was literally a 5 minute drive. We swam, we threw rocks in the river, we sat in the mud, we giggled and sunned. Before we left I did a little vacation sewing. A couple of pairs of maternity shorts for myself, some shorts for Jack and then while we were there, I finished the hand stitching on the next sized bucket hat (I'd already made Jack one in small).

They were all fun projects. For the mama shorts I drafted a pattern using a pair that fit when I wasn't preggo, leaving the fly open to accommodate some extra room in the waist area. I also cut the front extra low and made a simple elastic waist. One pair is thrifted brown corduroy and the other is a Laura Ashley print that I got on clearance a million years ago. Comfortable and easy. For Jack's shorts I did pretty much the same thing, using a pair of shorts that fit him well, I made a pattern and used an old linen shirt and one of Bruce's old polo's for the fabric. The hat is from Little Things to Sew. God I love that book. The patterns are so well written and easy to follow. This hat comes together pretty quickly especially considering how professional the finish is.  

We even caught a fish, and what are mini vacations for, if not for getting a little slimy?



My sorbetto

"I'm accomplishing goals!", she shouted. I really wanted to start sewing for myself more in 2012 so I made this sorbetto top for a couple of reasons. Reason one, silly me, I thought that a blouse would be sooooooooooooo much easier then pants. Reason two, it was free. Reason 3, I had this image in my head of red gingham in the summer. It took me 5 or 6 hours all together. I made this a size 12 but I did mod a couple of things. When copying the pattern, I added about six inches to the length. I did end up taking in the hip area but I should have anticipated that from the beginning since my hip to waist ratio makes me a classic apple shape. Boo. I added sleeves using the free pattern at sew weekly (which needed a mod itself being way too small for me at the first cut). I also added 3 vintage buttons at the pleat to balance my idiotic choice of white bias tape around the neckline. I dunno, its OK I guess. At least its wearable and doesn't look completely home sewn. You can see the darts are a little high on me. I should have adjusted them but after taking in the sides and re-cutting and sewing the sleeves I was kind of done. I've gotten so much better, but I still need to learn to be less lazy with my sewing. Half an hour of adjustments can mean the difference between a well fitting garment that you wear over and over and something that you spent hours making that just sits in your closet, judging you. At least it looks pretty good with stretch trousers and motorcycle boots.

Varying degrees of fail and win.

I've recently completed a couple of projects, unfortunately they did not all come out completely as planned. Exhibit A: The Child's Placket Neck Pullover from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. It's a lovely pattern, well written and easy to follow even for someone who had never done raglan sleeves or a placket neck. It only took 2.5 skeins of Vana's Choice from Lion Brand. Yes I know its trashy and I am a little embarrassed but 1, I'm too cheap to buy cotton and 2, I have felted every wool sweater I have ever known. It's a good choice for me. It also washes surprisingly well which is great for kids clothes since I refuse to hand wash anything and will inevitably throw everything we own in the dryer at some point (read 2) but I digress.

I did not swatch this project first. Let this be a lesson to us all. When changing both suggested yarn type and gauge, go ahead and swatch. Ive already got a second one on the needles though and he'll grow into this one eventually. (I'm realizing that these photos don't do justice how huge this thing is on him, but maybe this helps, he is a large 17 month old and this sweater came out at the 6-8 year old measurements) So its a sizing fail, but a definite experience win.

The second completed project is a lovie for a little boy that Ive been meaning to get to FOREVER. His mama asked for my help recreating one that had been destroyed. Pretty simple, or so I thought. Let me tell you, these minky and sateen blankies are tough to sew. They are diametrically opposed and super bitchy fabrics. Seriously, they hate each other. Also the minky hates irons as evidenced by that top left corner. Jeeze, thanks for telling me in advance minky, WTS? I totally winged this one. I eyeballed some rectangles making the sateen about 3 inches wider on all sides than the minky, slapped them together and machine sewed around the perimeter about a quarter inch in (insert plenty of swearing at this point). Then I ironed the sateen's edges over about a quarter inch and folded and pinned just inside the sewed line. Finally I hand stitched the folded edge of the sateen to the minky. This really didn't take long, maybe 2 hours total. Pretty good for all that hand stitching right?

I guess it doesn't look THAT bad, though the bunching is killing me. I can see it in this photo and it is making me crazy. Despite my grumping I was informed by the mama that her little man basically had a happy baby heart attack over it. So I guess that makes it a win?

The third thing I guess isn't really much of a project and isn't really mine to take credit for but it was such a win that I had to share. CRISPY FRIED SHRIMP! They had those bags of frozen, uncooked shrimp on sale at Safeway last week so we grabbed one. Dinner rolled around the other night and we decided to make shrimp tacos. Bruce, who has no fear in the kitchen (blessing and a curse) made a flour, cornmeal, cayenne pepper and salt dredge and an egg/milk wash. I'm sorry I cant post a recipe, Bruce is wont to literally throw things together. Luckily, they often the look like this.

 Oh god, it is so good. Is your mouth watering right now? These were so delicious it was kind of ridiculous. We added home made tarter sauce, corn tortillas and shredded cabbage. Mmmmm. This was of course the big win of the week. We'll be making these again for sure.

Its about time!

I've had several failed projects lately, hence the lack of posting and general making malaise. A trip to JoAnn's last week helped to fuel the fires and after one more semi-fail (not terrible, but certainly not good enough to blog about) I dove into my version of Dana's Lined Kid Pants. I think I may have even used the same fabric she did. It was super easy and a great way to use up Dad's old t-shirts as the lining. Basically you just make 2 pairs of pants, turn one inside out, stuff them together and sew. Now that I've got this pants making thing down, its not much of a hassle to make the second pair. I'm pretty sure I put these together in under an hour, including a sizing snafu that required additional sewing.

My latest pattern iteration is a little on the long side, hopefully allowing for a longer wearing pant. This lined version is a great realization of that with the built in contrasting cuff from the lining.

And everyone knows that its important to have a comfy pair of pants to rock out in. Even if your headphones aren't plugged in.

A little variety...

I made some more pants for Jack. It gets easier every time. Seriously, if you have never made pants for your kids you have got to try it. Its so great to be able to get a perfect fit.
Jack has got a different body shape than most kids I guess, because store bought pants that fit are hard to find. He has one pair that fits wonderfully and I wanted to add a little more variety to his wardrobe (he kind of lives in them). I drafted a new pattern and made a muslin last week, all in one nap I might add. With just a couple of tweaks they became these brown cords.

Sorry for the blur, this kid is in perpetual motion. The fabric is thrifted. Man I love thrift stores. I got about 5 yards for 3 or 4 bucks. I wanted these to look a bit more polished so I top stitched all the seams and added a faux fly. Not much more work for great results. I left a huge hem so I could take them down as needed.

And there you go. A great pair of pants that fit like a glove. I may never buy pants for this kid again.

A Valen-tiny

First off ack! We had a redonkulous round of illness after illness at the McCoyalicious homestead and I'd not been in a bloggy mood of late. I didn't completely stop making stuff though so Ive got a couple of things to share. Bit number one is the shirt I made for Jack for Valentines Day. We aren't super big on Valentines Day around here. Bruce and I don't even buy each other cards anymore but I'm starting to see the value in celebration with little ones and so I'm making an effort. Who says I cant change the meaning in our house from that of sappy romanticisms to a celebration of my favorite emotion (aside from YAY, that's an emotion right?).
I wanted to make something cute and boyish and the first thing that popped into my head was an old school "Mom" tattoo. Tell me I'm not being self indulgent because Bruce teased me.

I compiled a few ideas from the interwebs and made my own embroidery appropriate sketch. Then I pinned it on the inside of the shirt and used my light box to trace the drawing in fabric marking pen. I almost did this in white, so thank you's are in order to Bruce who convinced me to do it in red. I love the way it turned out.

If anyone out there is interested in making their own, I'll scan in my sketch and post it here for you to use. Happy lovey dovey stitching!

Update: Here is the sketch I made (its already sized to 8.5x11 so you should just be able to right click, and print), feel free to use it for your own Valen-tiny.

Happy 2012!

Yay! Its 2012! Pardon me while I attempt to wade through this food/drink coma. Hubbs is starting a new job this week but we worked it so that he had the last couple weeks of December at home with us. We have been merrymaking aplenty. Eating too much, drinking too much, going to the park and the children's museum, strolling through Candy Cane Lane (a Seattle staple) and visiting friends. Its been so wonderful to have all this time together as a family. That being said, we are all looking forward to getting back to some sort of schedule and I have been looking forward to non-holiday crafting and sewing. I have a list of course, some of which is not super glamorous (mending that has been put off for waaay too long) but I wanted to start with something fun. I asked for Little Things to Sew for Christmas and I am so glad my Mom obliged. I LOVE this book. There are so many cute and fun projects I had a little trouble deciding what to make first. I finally settled on the Cozy Winter Hood.

It was so easy and fun to sew! I used a felted sweater as the outer and an old t-shirt as the inner. Its warm and soft and in my opinion, ridiculously cute.

And now that this little man never wants to come indoors, he can't have too many warm hats can he?

More handmade gifts: T-shirts for my girls

After I made that dolman sleeve top, both Brenda and Kayla said they each wanted one for Christmas. How flattering! Of course I had to oblige. I picked out some fabric at Jo-Anns about a month ago and got to work. I've been working on these on and off when I had time, amidst other things so the month time frame is really misleading. In total (including pinning at which, for some reason, I am painfully slow) these probably only took a couple of hours each to complete. I adjusted my original pattern slightly by dropping the armpit on both of these. I like the look a lot. The striped one is made from a super stretchy knit that was a nightmare to sew but I LOVE how it came out all drapey. Its really soft and comfortable to wear too. To be honest, I kinda wanted to keep it. The photo makes it look a bit pink, but its actually bright red and navy.

Kayla's was a little less frustrating to sew with but isn't as stretchy so its a bit more structured. I think the cut of it will be so flattering on her. She also got to peek at the fabric before I started and claimed she loved it. I forgot to take a picture before I wrapped it so I'll have to try to get her wearing it.

Kayla's whole present includes the top, a jar of homemade pickles and a little something Jack picked out for his auntie. Brenda will be getting her top and a picture that Jack scribbled just for her. Now, off to the post office! Auntie Brenda's gift has to travel all the way to Australia... if we hurry, it might not be too terribly late.

Another Christmas present for Jack: floor cushion

I've been kicking ass this year in the handmade gift department. Perhaps the universe is making up for last year but everything seems to be coming together quickly and almost exactly as planned (wouldn't be hand made without a couple of bumps). I've had this project on my gift list for Jack since forever. Its the land of nod inspired floor cushion from Living with Punks. There are so many great tutorials on Susan's blog and this one didn't disappoint.

I didn't have any piping so I used strips of corduroy along the edges and I think it worked out just fine. I can see that the thickness of home dec fabric would have probably made a pillow with a bit more structure. I would definitely go that route next time. It looks a little overstuffed. That's OK though, Jack doesn't seem to mind.

Part of the beauty of this age is that I can check out the sizing of my mama made presents and then whisk them away at nap time. He wont remember a thing. Win.

Sweater Refashion: Big Man Sweater to Lady Sweater (a tutorial)

Ive been wanting to do this forever. Especially to THIS sweater which the hubbs refuses to wear because its pilled pretty bad but its a cashmere/cotton blend from Banana and I just couldn't throw it out. So when we got home from lunch today with my lovely ex-coworkers and Jack was passed out, I decided to give it a makeover. I forgot to take a before picture of me in it but just imagine a L man sweater on a broad who generally wears a ladies M.

First I hacked off the sleeves. I have kind of long arms and when I realized that the sleeves wouldn't be long enough after taking the shoulder up I decided to make them 3/4. Since I wasn't worried about the length I just went to town. If you want the sleeves to be full length, you might want to be careful here.

I marked where I wanted the shoulders to attach (using the a lady sweater that fits as a guide) and cut the armhole to match.

Next I adjusted the curve of the shoulder to account for the smaller size of the new armhole.

I turned the sweater inside out and pinned down the sides where I thought I wanted to take it in. Note: Since I didn't try it on like this I ended up having to take in more before I sewed on the sleeves. Which is a good reminder. When you are winging something like this... keep trying it on throughout the process.

After you've sewn up the sides, you'll attach the sleeves. This is a perfect project for a knit since the sleeve doesn't have to exactly fit the hole. The fabric is stretchy and you can sort of fudge it, but here's how I pin to avoid major puckers. First, mark the top of the sleeve with it folded in half (I just use a pin). This is not strictly necessary but it will come in handy in a minute here.

Next, with the wrong sides facing, line up the underarm seams and pin.

Then before you start pinning around. Pin the shoulders together at the top using the marker on your sleeve as a guide. This way you'll know you have an even amount of fabric on each side of the opening. Then just start pinning around. You can finesse the fabric in whatever direction you need.

Sew around the opening beginning on the backside of the armpit, so that your back stitch wont show on the front (it probably wont show anyway, I'm just kind of paranoid about messing up the fronts of garments).

And there you go. A super cute lady sweater from a big man sweater.

As you can see, I misjudged the 3/4 sleeve length. However, since I am super lazy, I rolled up the cuffs and it looks just fine. Good enough for me anyway.

Review of Microcrafts from the people who brought you Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Right after Jack was born I "met" Eric from Quirk books. He had seen my skeleton from Creepy Cute Crochet and since then has generously offered me several books to review. The latest doesn't disappoint. Microcrafts arrived yesterday, and this morning Jack and I set to work, looking through every page to decide what we should make.

With Halloween approaching, the monster babies seemed like a no-brainer.

Our version ended up slightly less micro than the book's version mostly due to the fact that Jack is still prone to sticking things in his mouth and I didn't want a choking hazard on our hands. It also ended up a finger puppet, while although I didn't get a good shot of it in action I can assure you Jack thinks it is hilarious.

The whole thing came together so quickly we decided to make a little something for baby Eva who we will be visiting for the first time later this month! Eva has lots and lots of delicious dark hair so we knew that a ribbon bow would make a lovely little pressie.

Jack agreed to model. Man this kid is cute. I need to get knocked up with a girl ASAP so I have an excuse continue making stuff like this!

So here is my review. This book is fun! Both of these crafts came out looking great, we were able to complete them within an hour and with stuff we already had on hand. I think that a good craft book has projects that inspire and allow you to put your own spin on stuff. We found it easy to up size AND finger puppetize the monster baby which I think is fantastic because its already turned into something we will play with again and again. There are lots of neat things in this book that I'm sure will get any one's creative juices flowing. If you're interested, get it (at 36% off AND with prime shipping) on Amazon here. Happy micro-crafting to you!