almost a quilt

This is a project that has been occupying a frightening amount of my time during the past month. I saw this from an old Wee Wonderfuls post and knew I absolutely had to make something like it. I had never pieced curves, and the last (and first) quilt I had made turned out quite wonky, with corners that didn't quite meet up, so I wasn't sure that I had the patience to piece anything as intricate as this. I considered appliqueing the roads on top of pieced squares, but my applique skills aren't any better than my piecing skills. So I made a template, and when that didn't work I kept making templates until I had a set that worked, and then I cut out eleventy million pieces of fabric. It turns out that piecing them together actually wasn't hard at all--you just have to pay attention (go figure) and take your time (which is always a problem for me).

Anyway, I'm pleased with myself. The next step is to embroider a dashed line down the center of the road and then actually quilt the thing. I don't know what the backing is going to be--probably a sheet, but if I can find something with little cars that would be good.

Now I officially have done so much sewing in the past few weeks that I don't want to look at my sewing machine for a while. Which is convenient, seeing as how after we move I indeed won't see it for a few weeks. So I have some knitting to keep me busy during the interim, and then I can return to sewing by making new curtains etc. for the new house (I already have ideas, hooray!).

things you can do in three hours

Out of the blue, Joseph has started taking some pretty substantial naps. Monday morning he slept for THREE HOURS. Considering that up until a week ago he was only taking half hour cat naps (which are useless for everyone concerned), this is awesome. I'd like to say that I've used all this time to wipe out my to do list (which includes minor things like packing all our belongings so we can move next week) but no, instead I pretty much bonded with the dogs while watching television and listening to my iPod. I've been listening to the Anne of Green Gables audiobook. Somehow I never read this as a child. I remember reading Bridge to Teribithia and several books involving mothers/sisters/friends dying of cancer while the popular girls got to read Anne of Green Gables and The Secret Garden. Seriously. Anyway, I'm very much enjoying Anne and it would have been nice when I was in third grade to feel like I wasn't the first girl ever to harbor fantasies of dying of smallpox, but whatever. I'm sure the nuns had their reasons.

Anyway. Knitting. I've been looking for something I can do while hanging out on the floor with the baby. Television is out of the question because he's starting to pay attention to it, and anything involving sharp needles is problematic. So, I spent fourth of July weekend figuring out how to knit, thanks to YouTube. It is seriously like magic. I can't quite figure out why making loops of yarn turns into, say, a sweater instead of a tangle, but I do like it. The green project is going to be part of a pillow from Knitting for Baby. The other thing I'm working on is a diaper cover because I figure it will be less of a tragedy if I make a few mistakes on a diaper cover, as opposed to a sweater. The diaper cover involves ribbing and increases and I feel like a rock star.

sewing spree part three: curtains, a problematic dress, and the baby loves yellow

These curtains are for my mother's house. It's nothing more than a hemmed piece of fabric the exact size of the window and then drawn up with tabs which close with velcro. The buttons are decorative. At first it looked awful because the bottoms were too floppy but my mother came up with the solution of sticking a dowel through the bottom hem and that gave it the support it needed. You can't tell there's a dowel in there because we arranged the folds of the curtain over the hem. The fabric is, I think, a linen-cotton blend.



This dress started out with a pattern and then I redid the entire thing twice. The pattern had an empire waist and loads of pleats under the bust line, which made me look huge. Pregnant, actually. So I got rid of that and added a wrap (surplice?) bodice and now I have a dress that I'm fantasizing about wearing over a bathing suit all summer.


And in non-sewing related news, Joseph is going through a phase where he really likes yellow. He has a rubber duckie that he likes to sleep with and he's always grabbing grapefruit off the table. Here he is trying to feed Scott a lemon. He also likes to play with my yellow tape measure and the shopping lists I write on yellow legal paper. I hope this doesn't mean he's color blind or something. I clearly need to make him a yellow lovey of some kind.

sewing spree, part two: skirt for me & pants for the baby

I think I'm happier about this skirt than I am about anything I've made in a long time. The scalloped hem is from this tutorial. The skirt itself is made of cotton (twill maybe? I don't know) cut on the bias, with an elastic waist. I copied the shape from another similar skirt I had. The front and back pieces are literally the same, that's how simple it is. No darts or anything. Making the skirt took twenty minutes, making the hem took much longer.


Do you like how there's rubbish on the floor? Awesome photo styling.


These pants for the baby are linen and have little pockets. The inspiration for the pockets (which you can't see because the pants have a wriggly baby in them) came from something I saw on this website but now I can't find the right post. They have a drawstring waist because I ran out of elastic. I made them much too long (again, problems fitting clothes to squirming baby) but I think they look very cute rolled up. Like he's going to go wading and get frogs to put in his pockets. Not yet.

a sewing spree, part one: diapers and a beach bag

My sewing machine went in for service last month for a few weeks that coincided with my parents coming to visit. So I was faced with the rare opportunity to hand the baby over to somebody else and hole myself away and make things, but I had no machine. The result is that I cut out fabric for a bunch of new projects: diapers & diaper covers, a dress for me, pants for Joseph, a beach bag, a laundry basket, curtains for my mom, the beginnings of a quilt, a very ugly never-to-be-seen camera case, and a few other failed efforts that I won't detail.

So when I got my machine back, I was ready to go on a spree, which I did. Here are some of the results:

First up: diapers & diaper covers.


Wow. These look awful. Wouldn't you think that I'd trim the strings before putting them on the internet (or on the baby)? But no.

I'm actually very pleased with these diapers and diaper covers. Since I am too cheap to buy a pattern (but not too cheap to ruin yards of fabric not knowing what I'm doing) I sort of winged it on these. What I did was basically trace the outline of a diaper I liked and then add bigger tabs. Because when you have to change a squirmy baby by holding him by one foot upside down you need big tabs. The covers are made from thrifted cashmere sweaters. They were five dollars each, which seems like a lot to pay for a thrifted sweater in summer in Phoenix, but I got a few covers out of each so they were worth it. I felted the sweaters as best as I could, then added elastic along the legs and bag with a zig zag stitch. Then I added velcro to the tabs. Done. You don't need to bind or finish the edges because felted wool won't fray. The diapers themselves are made of cheapo fleece from JoAnn on the inside, gingham cotton on the outside, and a cut up prefold sandwiched between. I used basically the same outline I used for the diaper cover and the same process, using the turn-and-be-too-lazy-to-topstitch method.

My father says the baby looks like a caveman in his wool diaper cover. He kind of does, in a good way.

Next up: beach bag.




This is from Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing. Or, it should have been, except for how I don't have the attention span or spatial relation skills to actually follow a pattern. Anyway, it has loads of lovely outside pockets in which to stow sippy cups made from toxic plastic, snacks, sun block, etc. Inside it's big enough for a towel or two. I added a button-and-loop closure. Because that's pretty much the only way I know to close anything.

In which I eat soggy Cheerios

Now that Joseph has learned to feed himself, he wants to feed everyone else. Yesterday I got fed several damp cheerios. I felt it would be too rude to refuse, considering how happy this makes him.

We think Indiana started this. Indiana is no idiot (at least where food is concerned); he lurks around the baby's chair during meal times and Joseph, naturally, reaches down to pet him. Indiana then gets to lick a food-encrusted hand. Joseph loves this--he laughs and squeals like it's the most wonderful thing in the world.

Joseph sometimes holds his hand out as if he's holding a piece of food and we think we're supposed to kiss his fingers, but we never get quite the same reaction as Indiana does.

standing & talking

On Sunday the baby stood up on his own a few times. He didn't even seem to realize he was doing it--he was busy patting Freckles/grabbing the remote control/etc. and then all of a sudden he was standing with no hands.

And then yesterday he said "mama." The first time he said it I wasn't sure it was real--he babbles so much that eventually he was bound to make a babble that sounded like mama. But a few hours later he said it several times, and Scott was home to witness it, and he agreed that it was the real deal. Granted, this has only happened when I'm saying "mama" to him, which I will admit to doing very often. But I do think (hope) he knows that I'm this mama he's heard so much about.

His other new trick (he has had a busy week: standing, talking, feeding himself) is taking off his diaper. Here he is, holding his diaper cover and wearing, thank god, a securely fastened fitted diaper made from monkey-printed green flannel. The next time this happened we were not so fortunate.


And here he is up against the porch door imitating a catfish (according to my father):


Actually, he's wearing another kind of cloth diaper there--I made it from a shrunken wool sweater from Old Navy. I have been on a diaper-making tear lately.