I'm Craftiest When I'm Not Crafty

There's this thing that happens when I wait a loooong time to post. Partly an out-of-the-habit "maybe I can't do it anymore" feeling, and partly a list of things I want to share that feels so overwhelming that I couldn't possibly distill what I want and need to say. Having been in that place for a while, I'm finally ready to try to say something, even if it doesn't come out the way I'd like. I'm giving it my best shot. Bear with me!

There hasn't been nearly enough craftiness in my world recently, and certainly not much blogging. Many other things have been happening, though. We found out that we're moving next summer! This is both a good and a bad thing, in the way that most moves are exciting and terrifying at once. So there've been meetings with the realtor and lists of things that need to happen to get this house ready to sell, as well as planning to go to our next locale - Northeastern NC - to figure out where we'll live. There's also a lot of scratching my head trying to figure out how to neaten storage and toys and crafty workspaces so that prospective buyers don't turn around and walk out the second they walk in.

My girls have found lots of ways to entertain themselves. They've not suffered the same lack-of-craftiness that I have.

There's been a lot of winter hibernation and snuggling. You may've already seen this photo of one of my first two (beagle) children on Instagram. You may've also seen photos there from my trip to Alt, which I still want to tell you about, after I share the other things that've been happening.

There've been some sad days. I'll admit that sappy posts about passed relatives aren't always my favorites to read. I don't like to think about the sadness that isn't mine when I don't absolutely have to. I know how selfish that is. But now I better understand why people share them. Because they have to. I have to tell you how special my grandmother Augusta was. In early February Grammy died. She was 94-- no young'un, and completely happy with her long, full life-- and yet I'm still so sad that she's gone. More selfishness. I want her here. My greatest cheerleader, she applauded every creative effort I ever made and with crazy enthusiasm.

We made the trip to South Carolina to be with my family, and I dreaded it... until I arrived. It's been a while since I've had to go to a family funeral, and I was amazed at the comfort I felt in seeing all of those warm and friendly faces join together in celebrating her. I don't love photos from funerals, and my family isn't the most welcoming of photos anyway, but this one comforts me. My Dad, my stepmother and my Aunt all on their way into her home church for the service. My Grammy's children were the brave and cheerful souls that she worked so hard to raise. She faced heart wrenching pain and tragedy over the course of her life, and she was still so overwhelmingly optimistic. She had the sort of smile that you just couldn't resist smiling back to-- for the rest of the week. She had lasting effects.

The last conversation I had with my Grammy is a fantastic memory for me. She was normal Grammy, no sign yet of the respiratory illness she was about to face a few days later. She'd raised three children of her own, and I was able to share that we're expecting our third in August. "Ooooh, Suuuu-saaaan" she'd said in her delighted, singsong voice. We spoke for a while about the logistics of raising three, and about how I was feeling.  I will always treasure the sound of her voice as she laughed, knowing so well what a blessing and challenge my growing family has in store. On our Grammy-celebrating road trip I snapped this evening shadow. Not much of a belly yet.

Since about week 6, I've felt really, really pukey. I went a solid 8 weeks without making any form of meal for myself or anyone else. I'd tread carefully only as far into the kitchen as I had to to get crackers or something to drink, and if my husband or someone else helpful wasn't around I made a drive-through trip to get something edible for the kids. I've been doing as little as I can get away with. Not my style, and kind of depressing in the endless feeling of I'll-never-have-energy again. I cancelled or delayed as many commitments as I could just to try to rest and survive. I've tried eeeeverything. Small meals and snacks, ginger, lemon, peppermint, toast, apple slices, preggie drops, seabands, B6, teas, acupressure, accupuncture, B6 + Unisom and  Benadryl. The biggest improvement happened when the doctor suggested I drop the prenatal vitamins. That change gave me about four days puke-free. Google is tired of me asking for new things to try. 

In the last week or two I've had a little more energy, and every night I go to bed with the hope that the tide will turn overnight. As far as the rest of this growing family, the girls are ecstatic. K, 6, has a million questions about what she'll be able to do to help, and has accosted babies and brought them to me to show me what a great big sister she'll be. I'm trying to convince her that I don't need convincing. The day after we told her about the baby, she brought a new family portrait home from school. I think she was so excited about the drawing she raced through her own name and skipped the letter "y". M, 3, mostly bounces up and down and says with certainty that the baby is in her belly. And we just go with it. Also, she says it'll be named "Flower." 

This image from 11 weeks is shockingly baby-looking. I'm just over 15 weeks now, and still not really grasping the reality. I'm way, way, way more emotional with this pregnancy than I was with the other two, and I cry every time I see the baby on the ultrasound or hear its heartbeat. I guess this sounds normal in the world of pregnancy, but I'm not still not used to it. I'm not usually a crier. 

We'll go in about two weeks for the ultrasound where we'll find out the gender if the kid is cooperating. I'm excited to know, but don't really have a feeling one way or the other about what it is. Every outside guess I've heard so far (except maybe M's) is "boy". We'll know soon enough!

Recently I was finally able to stand at my craft table long enough to find the surface of it, which I'd not seen since before Christmas. It's progress. I make an effort to remind myself almost hourly that I am indeed involved in a crafty endeavor, and that the other less important craftiness can wait until I feel better. It's an exercise in patience. I definitely don't feel like my normal productive self yet. But I'm soooo hoping it's around the corner. 

I have some impressive lists of things I want to do. In my mind, I'm ready to get busy! (My Pinterest boards are about the only things that haven't suffered over the last 9 weeks!) I've just got to wait for my body to be ready to keep up. If and when it eeeever happens, I'll be back to show you! Thank you for reading this long and eclectic post. It feels like a small victory to be able to come here to write and share. And so nice to know that the kind folks who read our blog are the sort to put up with my occasional rambling.

Open Wide Zipper Pouches

(alternately titled: Open Wide Zipper Pouches, and How Much I Suck at Making Open Wide Zipper Pouches)

I have 3 good friends all having birthdays within a month, so I went on the hunt for something fun and cute and most importantly EASY to make for all of them and knock all the presents out in one fell swoop.  In came the Open Wide Zipper Pouch from Anna of Noodlehead.

But it turns out all sewing isn't equal.  Give me a ball gown, no prob.  Give me a small zippered pouch, THE WORLD COMES TO A HALT.  I can't even count how many problems I had with these.  And let me just state right now that it had absolutely nothing to do with Anna's amazing tutorial or instructions or pictures.  They were perfect.  Too perfect.  Deceptively perfect.  They really made it seem like I could make these all up in an hour.  Which leads me to conclude that Anna is perfect, and as previously noted on several occasions by such people as my mom and husband, I am not.

So that estimated hour turned to 6 and in that time I somehow managed to break a needle, jam my machine, seriously wound myself on two different fingers, sew a pin into the pouch, melt part of the zipper with my iron, and several other mishaps that have now been blocked from memory.  Not to even mention the uneven seams and many seam ripping episodes and zipper pulls that are downright scruffy.

In fact, after the first one, I was about ready to call it all off and buy all my friends gift cards.  But I already had the other two cut out, and the colors were just so purdy, I had to give it another shot.  Numbers 2 & 3 were much, much better.  Not Anna better, but better.  I had no major mishaps and there was no blood and I started to see why people rave about these bags and why Anna is such a genius.  And I got them done in an hour, boo ya.

See?  Purdy.  But don't look at my zip pulls or you're not invited back to this blog.

When they were finally done, I stuffed them with some girly goodies.  I love shopping for girlfriends, where the only criteria is: Do I want this for myself?

Yes.  Yes I do.  Those are pajama pants are from Old Navy in case you were wondering.  Totally didn't make them, although Anna also has a pajama pant tutorial that I've been wanting to try out.  Might wait for the bandages to come off first though.  If you're on the market for good pj pants that aren't sewn by you, I recommend these.  They're lightweight and always come in cute prints and are $12 (I got them for less with a coupon).  No brainer.  And no, Old Navy isn't paying me to say this.  But in case they're reading, I wouldn't turn down money, hey?!

And here's one shot for you in case you ever wondered how bloggers take decent shots of their stuff.  This was one of the less weird set-ups I've been involved in.  Whenever I'm doing something really crazy like taking a picture by the light of my stove hood on the back of my daughter's coloring book, I always think to myself: this isn't the weirdest thing a blogger's done for a good shot.  You may think our houses are immaculate and perfectly decorated and our kids are always bathed and wearing mama-made clothes, but don't for one second think there isn't some crazy stuff going on behind the scenes of our photoshoots. 

Valentines Day Skater Dress + mini tutorial

A couple weeks ago I volunteered (and/or threatened under fear of death) to test the long awaited and much proclaimed Skater Dress pattern from Amanda of Kitschy Coo. She generously (and in fear for her life) agreed and sent it over and I promptly made 3.

 I'll show you the other ones later but first up is my Valentine's version. I decided to go with a big heart on the front, which I know is not immediately what you think of when you think V-day, but I like to live outside the box like that.

There might be a million tutorials for reverse appliques, but I thought the internet needed just one more, so here's how I did it.

Because I was replacing a great deal of the thick heavyweight silver interlock with a very flimsy slub jersey, I wanted there to be as much stability as possible.  So instead of just cutting enough jersey to fit behind the applique, I recommend cutting a whole second front bodice piece.  Then layer them on top of one another.

And pin.  (coordinating pins not necessary but infinitely cuter)

Then print or sketch out the applique design.  I freehanded half a heart and determined the correct size by laying the paper right on the bodice. 

Lay your stencil on the bodice where desired and trace around it with a water or air soluble marker.  If you have lots of distractions (ie: kids), I recommend water soluble.  Who knows when you'll get around to the next step.

 

Then hand or machine stitch directly on the line you drew.  I use the triple stitch on my sewing machine which is meant to give susceptible seams extra enforcement, but also gives a nice highly-visible stitch line for machine embroidery.  You could also use a fancy embroidery thread and change your needle appropriately.  Variegated thread might be fun too.  Oooh, how fun would metallic thread be?  Ok, now I'm literally getting distracted by shiny things.  Back to business.

Now, ever so carefully, separate the two layers and cut a small hole in the top fabric only.  My pink layer is uncut underneath.

Then carefully cut out the shape with a small pair of scissors leaving a small, even edge of fabric around the stitch line.  You can get closer to the stitch line than I did, it's totally up to you.  Knit tends to curl at the cut edges though, so I didn't mind leaving a bit of excess.

Then just treat the two front bodices as one and sew up the rest of your garment as usual.  If you're concerned about them slipping around, you can baste them together around the edges within the seam allowance.

Here's my little Valentine in her new dress!

This one is very bossy during a photoshoot.  I get an estimated one shot my way before she starts calling out orders.  This time she told me to just keep "pressing the button" and then started voguing.  These poses were all done within a second of one another, just to give you an idea of how ridiculous she is.  She's 4.  So very very 4.

I {heart} this pattern so much!  I made the size 3/4 and you can see it's a perfect fit.  The only thing I did differently on this version was to hem the sleeves instead of using the sleeve hem band.  I love how it is such a nice blank slate for all kinds of fun fabrics and embellishments.  Keep an eye out for it at Kitschy Coo soon!  (Amanda accepts all forms of bribery if you need this pattern like, yesterday)

The Narita Dress: A New Pattern!

 

 

I am so happy to finally be releasing a new pattern.  It only took me months and months to get this one out but I am very proud of it.

Like the Greenpoint Cardigan, the Narita Dress is a digitally drawn pattern with fully illustrated instructions that is delivered to your email in .pdf form.  It comes in 8 sizes from 18 months - 8 years and features a button-back placket bodice, optional on-seam pockets, and a swingy skirt in 6 parts.  The options for customization are endless depending on the type of fabric you use, the number of different fabrics you use, and the print.  The bodice is also an excellent way to feature a small amount of embroidery, like I did with the anchor in the top picture.

 

I've made many variations of this dress, but this nautical-inspired one is my fave!  Check out those fun anchor buttons I found.

 

While quilting cottons are not recommended because of their bulk, you can work around that by cutting on the bias, like I did with this polka dot.  You can see how this gives it a bit more swing and drape.  (I also cut the green fabric on the bias so it would match, but it was a lighter weight broadcloth.)

 

This dress is particularly gorgeous and swingy in a soft voile, like the AMH featured here:

 

 

 

And here you can see what it looks like in quilting cotton.  It's certainly possible, it just doesn't have the same drape.

 

 

You may not know, but my patterns are being named after places I've been.  This dress always looked to me like something you might find in a Japanese sewing book.  Unfortunately I've only been to one place in Japan so far, and that is the Narita Airport :)  Luckily it has a pretty name.

 

So, are you ready to sew your own Narita Dress?  You can purchase it here!  And be sure to send pictures if you make one.  I'd love to see it! 

And as always, 25% of all profits are donated to a charity, currently a local orphanage for children with special needs.  Read more here.