red dress with peter pan collar

I started out with a simple enough plan:  remaking an old skirt into a dress for the baby.  But the next thing I knew I was drafting collars and inserting pleats and what have you.  And three days later I had a dress.

I did the collar the same way I did last time except
1) I topstitched the finished collar to make it a bit sturdier and less likely to need a heavy ironing, and
2) I attached the collar to the front of the dress and then bound the neckline edges with bias tape.

I also topstitched the pleats for the same reason.

I haven't hemmed it yet because I'd like this to fit her for a while, so I need to figure out how to do a very deep hem without it looking bulky.  This probably means a blind hem.  Stupid missing blind hem foot.

apple pocket dress

apple pocket dress, originally uploaded by thebigcozy.

Well, it started out as a pocket and then I absentmindedly sewed all the way around it, so now it's just an applique. The linen leaves aren't sewed down around the edges (they're just attached with the button) so little hands can amuse themselves by grabbing them.

The blue fabric is a sateen sheet that I've used in other projects. Since sheets are huge and kids' clothing is tiny, one twin sheet set is an infinite resource. I have sheets I've been mining for literally years and there's still enough yardage left to bore me senseless.

Also: linen bias tape, I love you so much. You make my old sheet look so much better.

bloomers

Linen bloomers and tiny baby feet. I'm reeling from the sweetness.

They stared out as the bloomer pattern from Weekend Sewing in the 6-12 months size, but I had to make them smaller in every dimension to fit my tiny girl, even with her puffy cloth diaper.

The blouse/smock/dress she's wearing is from last summer's sewing bonanza.

Here's what I have lined up for the Kids Clothes Week Challenge:

• a few pairs of summer-weight clamdiggers for Joseph. My little man is strangely prim and modest (when he's not running around in the nude, that is); he's been refusing to wear shorts (also: must wear socks) so light weight calf length pants are our compromise.
• a few dresses for Violet
• more bloomers
• some diapers, which really ought to count as clothing since they're all my kids wear for half the day

Poor baby Harry gets nothing new since we have boatloads of Joseph's old clothing and it's not like he cares one way or the other.

curtain fail

These curtains are every bit as lurid in real life as they are in the photo. My dining room now looks like a place where people go to get murdered and dismembered. The fabric is gorgeous but it looks terrifying with the light shining through it. Are all colored curtains this gruesome? And yet I've see them in magazines and the Anthropologie catalog, so it can't be that insane an idea (but I also see rompers and toeless boots in the Anthro catalog, so perhaps they are not to be trusted). Perhaps I need to line the curtains?

flags, bunting, whatever you call it

I think I am the last person in the world to make one of these. My attention to detail has reached a new low: I just cut out the triangles freehand and sewed them to a piece of packaged bias tape. I didn't finish any edges or even pink them. I'm a rebel, what can I say.

bunnies

I used to tease my mother about how she had a cell phone for ten years before learning how to check the voicemail, but after spending the last six weeks futilely poking around my new computer trying to figure out where it's been hiding my pictures, and how to get them from my camera onto the interwebs, I've been humbled.  My problem is that I really believe my new computer should behave in exactly the same way as my old one; similarly, I expect every microwave on the planet to operate identically to the one we had when I was in grade school.  This is a constant source of disappointment and frustration.

Anyhoo, now I can finally introduce you to Pinky the bunny, made from one of Annie's excellent kits.   I had never bought a kit before but I think I will do so again--all the frustrating (sourcing supplies) and tedious (tracing and cutting) parts of crafting are totally taken out of the equation that way. My two (and a half!) year old helper found bunny-making to be very rewarding and has requested that we make Pinky some friends, ASAP.

This squishy fellow (also named Pinky) was made from this super tutorial.  The fact that I was able to assemble nearly all the supplies and get the rabbit almost entirely done without getting up from my computer tells you 1) how satisfyingly easy this project is and 2) the prevailing state of disarray in my house.  I have so many stray baby socks I could people the world in squishy bunnies, which I just might.

staying right where I am

OK, I alluded to this before, but I seriously need to stop leaving the house for a while.  The main reason is that I might murder the next person who lets their gross kid sneeze near (or on!) my babies.  The babies have each had five colds in the five months they've been alive.  When their noses get stuffy, they won't eat; this means they become even more distressingly underweight.  Violet is ten pounds; Harry is fourteen pounds and he's still so small he's off the growth charts, so that gives you an idea of how tiny Violet is.  We've all been sick this week, but she's had it the worst and I've decided that keeping her healthy has got to be the priority around here.  She needs to get strong, and her parents need a chance to recover from five months of taking care of three sick kids and being pretty constantly sick ourselves.  I feel awful that Joseph won't get to go to playdates, but he's going to have to take one for the team.  

The other reason I need to just stay put is that going anywhere with three kids is a circus.   Even just getting everybody in the car to go to the park is really stressful, and that's only followed by the babies screaming for most of the car ride.  And then there is the dumb shit total strangers feel the need to say to me.  "Looks like you've got you're hands full there, ha ha."  Unless the next words out of your mouth are "how can I help" or "I guess I should keep my germy hands to myself," you ought not to be talking to me.  And then there's the helpful advice ("can't you breastfeed them both at once?" "can't you put them both in a sling?") which I could respond to rationally if I weren't a total mess, but as things stand all I can do is fume and feel judged.

I am really tired, sick, and run down so this sounds more negative than I mean it to be.  Most people I know, even random acquaintances, are helpful, supportive, tactful, kind, and awesome.  And I am so grateful for that.  (And I seriously need to mention how fantastically helpful my parents are.  We would be so screwed without them around.)