Recent Projects

Here are a couple projects I managed to finish up the latter part of the summer.  I realize we're well into fall now, but I had loaded these pictures as a draft and apparently forgot about finishing the post and publishing it, so here they are now.  One of these days I'll get back in the swing of things. (Maybe.) (OK, probably not.)

Taggie Blanket Version 2.0

I had made a blanket like this when Melanie was a baby.  It was actually the first thing I made for her, and all three girls used it.  Then when I was shopping at a fundraiser garage sale this past spring (on my birthday actually) I had left it on our stroller as I carried Amelia around and chatted with some friends that were working the garage sale.  During that time the blanket went missing.  Whether it was stolen outright or someone thought it was for sale and bought it we'll never know this side of eternity, but needless to say I was very upset that the blanket was gone.  Scratch that, I was heartbroken, which I realize is a pretty big statement to make about a blanket, but I was.  I cried, and those of you that know me well know I don't cry about much unless I'm pregnant, and even then it's few and far between.

  A generous friend gave me a gift card so I could go buy some new fabric to make a new blanket, and I searched multiple stores in the hopes of finding the same fabric again.  I finally settled on a new print to make a blanket, but just thinking about it made my heart feel heavy.  The other blanket had lots of sentimental value to me since it was the first thing I made as a mother for my child. I felt in a way that someone had stolen a part of the memories of my daughter's early months, which I realize isn't true, but that blanket held so much sentiment of those precious first months I was seriously having a difficult time letting go of it.  

So imagine my joy when I found some of the same fabric in my fabric tub after scouring stores in the hopes of finding it again (4 years later) and checking my fabric stash multiple times.  I was thrilled!  It was folded and tucked inside another piece of fabric.  St. Anthony really came through on that one!  I still had a lot of the same ribbon I used on the first blanket, so I set out to make a second blanket, buying a little more ribbon to supplement the ribbon I had used up.  There was one important difference in the second blanket though.

I added a couple "tags" made from some of my personalized sewing labels.

While I realize this won't ensure the blanket may not go missing again, I feel it will help I.D. it as ours if it accidentally gets left somewhere (not that I've let it leave the house on very many occasions so far!)

As silly as it may seem, I am thrilled to have a second chance to wrap some more memories up in this new blanket.

I also finally finished this sock giraffe for Amelia.

It wasn't a difficult pattern to do, I'm just an incredibly slow knitter that doesn't take much time to actually work on projects. As a result, seemingly simple things such as a small toy take me around six months to finish (I started the giraffe shortly after Amelia was born, when I finished knitting her blanket)

 I sewed on some pink felt spots for a finishing touch and I'm very happy with how it turned out.  

I do enjoy knitting quite a bit, it just isn't relaxing for me to do when the girls are running around since I get distracted by their antics, and since I gravitate towards projects that require quite a bit of counting and actually paying attention to what you're doing I just tend to not knit when they're awake and needing my attention.

Amelia seems to enjoy her giraffe as well.  I would like to find some sort of little rattle insert I can put in toys I knit/crochet for babies, but it's nice to have a quite toy as well.  And leaving it quiet will probably extend its longevity beyond infancy as a toy that is enjoyed and doesn't just sit on a shelf.

I personally find this picture to be especially sweet.

The chew test is definitely the real seal of approval, and the giraffe passed with flying colors!

Melanie's 4th of July Top

For the 4th of July this year I already had a top for Claire and was planning on having Amelia wear the outfit I sewed for Claire when she was a baby.  I realized on the 2nd that I didn't have anything for Melanie to wear to the family's yearly 4th of July celebration at the ranch, so I impulse bought some patriotic fabric and used this pattern to make a top for her.  I'm just OK with how it turned out.  I used the width of a size 3 and the length of a size 5, and it was still way too big around and shorter than I would like (it barely hit the top of her shorts).

I'd really like to know where the kids are that they take these measurements off of for these patterns, because my kids are both short and skinny, and even after taking their measurements I still have to significantly make adjustments despite what the pattern says should fit them. I fiddled with making a ruffle to put on the bottom for some added length, but decided it wasn't that big of a deal for a shirt she would wear twice and just wasn't worth my time.  I had also bought red ribbon to use for the shoulder straps, but upon getting it home discovered that it was too wide for what I needed.  As a result I had to improvise the braided straps I ended up doing.  In retrospect I think I would have liked the braided straps more if I had ironed them after braiding them to give them a crisper look instead of the semi-rounded shape they took on, but whatever.  She looked cute for the day at the ranch and again on the 4th, so the top fulfilled its purpose.

Claire's 4th of July Outfit

So I've just finished Claire's outfit for the 4th of July (at 2:30 am on the 4th of July!) I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Hopefully I'll like how it looks on her in the morning after I get some sleep. Until then, goodnight (morning!) and have a wonderful 4th of July!

A New Top for Melanie

Instead of cleaning like a good mommy and wife I took my first spin at "re-purposing" some fabric today (using fabric from my stash qualifies as cleaning, right? It does make the pile smaller after all...).

I had bought a pillowcase off of eBay last year with the intent of making Melanie a pillowcase dress. Since she's so tiny I had to re-size the pillowcase by taking the sides in as well as cropping it quite a bit, so it's not a true pillowcase dress/top, just made from some material that formerly was a pillowcase! And I still have enough material left over to make another top or a skirt as well as add a ruffle to the bottom of this one if I want :) And no Michelle, I would not have her wear the matching top and skirt at the same time so as to avoid your scathing criticism and teasing, thankyouverymuch! :P

Here are some pictures of Melanie and her new top.

Please ignore the weeds in my front flower bed. I know they're there. We are peacefully coexisting at the moment, although I'm sure that won't last much longer.

This is probably the picture that best represents the shirt itself, the rest were just too cute not to post!
She had just jumped off the step, thus the odd pose

Bye!

Cheese!
(Mmmmm... cheese!)

Telling us to "Shhh!" because Claire was asleep.

Oh, and I have a new found respect for those photographers that take pictures of kids for clothing ads. I realize this would be easier if she wasn't at home with all her play things around to distract her, but still! It takes quite a bit of effort to get a descent shot of a kid to show off the outfit they're wearing!

Some Recent Creativity

I found a website with instructions on how to make different kinds of hairbows, and since I have tons of ribbon left over from the Taggie blankets I've made I decided to give some a whirl!

A skort I made for Melanie with a matching bow.
I was getting tired of bottoms not fitting her, and when I saw this fabric I knew I wanted to make something for her out of it. I found a good basic shorts pattern and, with the help of my mom, figured out how to make the adjustments to make it into a play skort.

I've got a whole stack of fabric and a head full of ideas for additional outfits for both of the girls to wear this summer, so hopefully I'll be posting pictures of those in the near future.

Here are our attempts at getting a shot of her modeling her outfit!

And just because it doesn't fit anywhere else, Melanie stealing a cookie

Tiny Baby, Big Outfit

So I made Melanie an outfit last summer that I had hoped she could wear at the time, choosing the 3-month size on the pattern. Well, apparently this pattern came from the land of giants, because it was HUGE on her. I couldn't even feasibly alter it to fit her at the time, it would have been easier to just make a whole new one. So I tucked it away in her closet, hoping it would fit her this year. While the top isn't too bad since it's a simple A-line tie-at-the-shoulders number in which a little extra space isn't necessarily a bad thing, the bloomers are still massively over sized. To prove my point, I submit the following photographic evidence.

She looks like a baby sumo wrestler!

It's Hammer Time!

as compared with another set of bloomers I made that actually fit her

(one came from a McCall's pattern, the other was Simplicity)

The top looks cute with jean shorts, so she'll get some use out of it.

If she stays as skinny as she is now, the top may even fit next summer too!