Play Tent

I made Henry this play tent yesterday.  He calls it his fort.  It was a thrift store play tent with a smelly vinyl cover so I just made a new cover for it.  I set it up at night so he saw it for the first time when he woke up this morning.  He was pretty excited.  But he soon remembered that he only likes cars and he wasn't too interested in it for the rest of the day.  Actually we played peekaboo with it a few times by his request.  But he was not taking blankets and books in there and hanging out.  

The cover doesn't fit super well, it's a bit tight.  That kind of bugs me and part of me wants to redo the whole thing.  But really I don't want to do that especially since it is likely going to spend most of its time folded up in a closet for now.  

Advent Calendar

I finished up my advent calendar that I planned and bought the materials for just after last Christmas, now I'm ready for December 1 to roll around.  It is a series of 24 little pockets joined together with some double fold bias tape.  I bought a Christmas-y charm pack so I didn't even have to cut the squares.  It was still quite a bit of sewing though.  And the numbers are just stickers.  I couldn't think of any more durable way to do the numbers that wouldn't take all year to do.  So we'll see how durable they end up being.

I will definitely be putting a chocolate for Henry into the pockets (must remember to fill only one pocket at a time so there is no temptation for a little boy to eat all 24 at once).  And I want to put a little slip of paper with a Christmas activity on it.  Even though Henry can't read the paper I think it will be nice to tell him in the morning what we'll be doing.  Christmas is going to be so fun this year!

New Pants for Bridget

Bridget has outgrown most of her 'newborn baby gift' clothes and others have been put away because they were for summer.  She still has enough clothes but now she doesn't have so many that it would feel silly to sew for her.  So she got some new mommy-made pants today.  Just super simple knit pants made using this old method.  I even kept the hem of the T-shirt they were made from so they were super quick to make.  

I'm getting her to practice her sitting too (looking forward to being able to just plop her on the floor).  At 4 1/2 months she can sit on her own for a couple seconds at a time and for much longer with just a few cushions for support.  

A Dress

I think I may have done it - made myself the perfect dress.  If there's one thing I don't like about nursing, it's that I can't wear dresses (and if I'm honest, as much as I love it, there are really several things I don't like about nursing but this one sticks out).  I love wearing dresses in the summer.  And of course it's really no big deal to not be able to wear dresses but it can sometimes feel like a big deal, just a nasty restriction, just not being able to do it makes me want to do it so badly.

So my perfect dress has buttons of course.  Yes I sewed all those buttons and buttonholes!  I learned how to use my machine's automatic buttonhole maker of course.  Undoing buttons is still more annoying than lifting a top but she's nursing less and less often so I am happy to undo a few buttons each time.

It's got lots of gathering around the shoulders/arms so lots of freedom of movement.  And with the belt I don't feel too frumpy (a little frumpy is ok in my books).

I had to change the sleeves because they were much too poofy at first which of course pushed the frumpiness past my limit and also meant I couldn't roll them up.  

I added some patch pockets because I hate not having pockets and I think it adds to the casual look as well.

And I used some fabric I got a while ago from the fabric store that has a nice drape - so hard to find fabric with a nice drape and I am learning more and more how important it is! 

It took me about 6 weeks on and off to make it (yes I think I am a slow sewer).  It was nice to work on something slowly for a change, not expecting to get it done by the end of the day leant a different atmosphere to my sewing.  

I have only worn it once but I really think it is a keeper.  And really even when I say that on the blog I often end up not wearing it.  But I think this time it's true.  

Sewing clothes is really a bit insane, at least in this day and age.  Not only are you putting money and time and effort into a garment without trying it on first but without even seeing it!!  So really I shouldn't be surprised that I so often end up not liking what I sew.  I guess the only surprise is that I keep doing it.    But for now I do, it's still fun.  I definitely still love the anticipation of seeing how it ends up.  And I love the 'coming up with ideas' part, can't give that up.  And sitting down at the sewing machine or crouching on the floor with the scissors with Coronation Street on the computer is just nice, I just like it for some reason.  

a Mommy-made Dress

Here's Bridget in her first Mommy-made dress.  I have enjoyed making little boy clothes for Henry over the past few years but there is something extra special about a little girl's dress.  

I just copied the general shape of a dress she already owns.  I like how it turned out even if it is a bit sack-like.  I didn't think a little baby dress needed any shape but I think next time I will try adding some sort of shape.  And of course I made it a bit big like you do when you're sewing for a 3 month old.  So that adds to the sack look.  But I think she is cute enough to pull off the sack look anyway.

I'm sure there are many more Mommy-made dresses in her future.  

Sun Hat for Henry

This is another project that I was working on in my last few weeks of pregnancy.  I made a sun hat for Henry since he has outgrown the hats I made him last year.  I used the same pattern from Oliver + S Little Things to Sew but in a bigger size.  

I chose to make it simple to go with everything and light to keep him cool.  And he likes it.  Luckily he is into wearing hats so far this year and he likes this one.  He has already gotten lots of use out of it, here are some pictures. 

 

Henry's Baby

In my last few weeks of pregnancy I was finishing up this project.  It is the baby doll and doll quilt from Anna Maria Horner's Handmade Beginnings.  It was a pretty fun project.  The doll is super super simple and kind of ends up looking like an alien.  And the quilt was fun.  But the quilt ended up being quite a bit of work and it turned out really well and if I'd known it was going to be that much work and that it was going to turn out well I would have rather made a real quilt I think instead of a doll's quilt, oh well.  

We gave it to Henry shortly after Bridget's arrival and he loved it.  I wasn't really expecting him to since he's been on a cars only kick for several months.  And he quickly got bored of it but the first day or two he did love it.  He said it was a "cookie man baby" since it looks like a gingerbread man.  And he likes to pretend to take bites out of it too.  

He was really into spreading out the blanket and getting Daddy to help him change the baby's diaper on it.  He wanted to do that again and again and again until Kevin couldn't stand to do it even one more time.  

 showing it to baby Bridget:

changing the diaper with Daddy:

wiping the baby's bum:

he still loves baby Bridget:

More Pants

I actually made Henry 3 pairs of pants last week, all just from tracing patterns from existing pants.  See other pair here.

I was inspired to make pants because so many of his store bought pants are too "wide" for him.  But these brown ones turned out even a little too narrow which is a shame because with those big cuffs, he could keep wearing them for years if not for that.

I think these stripey ones might actually be my favourite of the 3.  They are just made from sleeves from an old shirt so barely any sewing.  I need to keep using this technique before his legs get too long!  And note how well I matched up the stripes!

Pants for Henry and a Hike

All of a sudden Henry has no pants that fit him.  I put away the ones that were getting too short but the ones that are long enough just ship right off of him he's so thin.  I altered a few to make them fit but I also wanted to make some myself that fit him just right.  

These turned out pretty perfect I think - just the right amount of room.  I made them by tracing a pattern from a pair of pants that was too short and just made them longer.  And they even have fold up cuffs so, assuming he never gets any wider, they should fit for quite a while.

I used some leftover fabric from some pants I made myself last summer.  The fabric is grey with a tie-dye look, a result of my first attempt and failure at dying fabric.  I think Henry can pull off the tie dye look.

 

I took these photos at a park that we went to this morning.  I am feeling really good this week and even managed to do a bit of a hike with Henry.  Henry's favourite part was when he found a hole in the fence and we were able to go through it and watch the cars on the highway.  He suggested we hold hands and cross the road - I said no, not on the highway.

He is really getting too good at talking.  Today he not only told me "no smile" when I was trying to take his picture but also said "put camera in mommy's purse".  I did oblige and leave it in my purse most of the time.

Yes, it's dandelion season.  Not sure if we'll get round to picking some for dandelion wine this year. 

And when we got home we had some fun out in the backyard.