Growing Like a Weed

Does it ever happen that all of a sudden your children's clothes are too small?  Like one day they fit fine and the next a belly is hanging out.
The other day I noticed Meredith's pajamas had shrunk.  After purchasing this Peek a Boo pattern I dug around in my winter maternity clothes for something to re-purpose and made a trip to JoAnn's.

The blue top is an maternity top and the fun print is from JoAnn's.  The pants go together really quickly.  I'm looking forward to making more now that I've worked the kinks out.

Beyond My Skill Set

My Grandchildren Walk All Over Me

My husband's father is turning 70 today.  It's hard to think what to give someone who is turning 70.  The girls "helped" make this t-shirt for Pops.  The lettering made me sweaty.  T-shirt art is not my thing.  I used the Live Laugh Love Font I found on Pinterest as a guide.    The white paint pen did not show up very well so I had to go over the letters with white paint.

The multi-surface Apple Barrel paint I used for the feet and white letters says it works on fabric.  I sure hope that means it won't wash out.  Painting two little people's feet with permanent paint also made me sweaty.  Mallory did come away with some yellow streaks on her face.  Not sure when that happened.

This shirt had the potential to be great or really really awful.  Considering my lack of talent with paint pens I'm happy with the result.

Izzy and Oliver

 A friend of mine has a baby girl who just turned one.  True to form, this child will get her gift late from me.  She is getting a modified pair of Oliver +S Puppet Show shorts and Izzy top.

 The top is made from Cotton and Steel fabric and the shorts are an upcycled men's chambray shirt.

 The green rectangle is my attempt at a tag in the back.  Someday I'll pay for labels with my name on them.  Every time I look on Etsy I get overwhelmed with the choices and so choose nothing.

Worrisome Plackets

This pattern has been bouncing around in my pattern box for two or more years.  Every time I go to cut them out, I chicken out.  What's been stopping me?  Plackets, or the fly.  I just don't get them.

 Finally, I gathered up the courage and bought enough yardage to make 4 pairs.  So far two are done.  I'm not a huge fan of flat felled seams either but they do look nice.  The red pair was my first and I used flat felled seams.  The second I cheated and used my serger to finish seams.  For the next two I'll slow down and do the flat felled seams.  They do make a nicer pair of shorts.

Simplicity 9095

 It's cold, wet, and windy outside so what do I do?  Sew summer pajamas of course!  My husband's grandmother gave me a pile of 1970's sheets a few years ago.  I've been hanging on to them knowing that I would NEED them for something.  The pattern was $4.99 on Etsy.  Much cheaper than a pair of store bought jammies and so much sweeter.  There is a red polka dot pair sheets that are going to be next.

New Favorite

There was a time when I threw away old patterns I didn't want any more.  "Oh, they're always selling them for $1 at JoAnn's.  Why should I keep so many?"  Ahhhh!  What a stupid notion.  Now they're hardly on sale and I can't find the ones I want.

 Now that I know better I've been collecting vintage patterns from Ebay, Etsy, my mother, my grandmother, other people's mothers.  Ok, every where I can.  Butterick 4251 came from my mom and is a dress she made for me at age 3.  I have to note that there are a lot of size three patterns for me.  By the time I was a size four my brother had come along and my clothing needs got shoved to the side.  Well,  all my needs really.

 If I had left off the pockets the dress could have been reversible.  My goal is to have Meredith wear this dress for Valentine's Day.  Hopefully, her cold goes away by then and she can attend her party.  She missed her Christmas party due to strep.

Can't Stop--Must Sew

It's been decided...by me...that it takes three sewing machines to make one article of clothing.  The Janome for straight stitching, the Pfaff for twin needle top stitching, and the Juki for serging seams.  This tri-fecta has created several pieces of clothing that I'm completely satisfied with.  Usually on a garment there is always something I'm unhappy with.  This is not true lately.  There are no puckers or gaping.  Alleluia!

Meredith's summer wardrobe is coming along.  This weekend I worked on a pair of capris and two cardigans.  All from Simplicity 2469.  I got the pattern for $1!!!  So far I've used it three times and I have plans for another set of capris.  That's $.25 per use.

 I may have just ordered another cardigan pattern with long sleeves and a fitted neck line.  I'm hoping to modify the pattern to include a Peter Pan collar.  Why is JoAnn's so far away from me?  I keep looking at online websites for knit fabrics but I have a hard time committing online.  I am a tactile shopper.