Baby Things

Here is my most recent project. I always wanted this piece of the layette with Bethani. You know, it is awkward enough when a new mother must get up in church and walk out with her baby. Adding the huge diaper bag on her shoulder, trying to wriggle her body (not yet back to its normal size) out of the pew and down the aisle only exaccerbates the situation. Diapers and wipes. That's all you really need--right?

This makes for a less conspicuous departure. :)

Dress for Savannah

Here is one of the dresses I made for Savannah. I was sad to see that it was too big, but I know she will grow into it.




Bethani and Savannah in their matching outfits:

Slipper Socks

About 3 weeks ago, I was out shopping between Sunday services at Marshall's. My feet were really hurting, so I felt justified in buying some slipper socks. My justification was that I would copy them and create more for us girls.

I just got my serger out of the repair shop yesterday, so after hemming 2 pair of suit pants (boo) I moved on to a fun project. Here they are:

Kitchen Make-Over

Last week while I was fabric shopping on Harry Hines Boulevard, I found this 2 yard remnant for $2. I thought it should be in my fabric stash, so I picked it up.



When I got home, I realized that the 2 Barnes & Noble cups and saucers I picked up for $4 at a consignment store last month were an exact match!



Now you have to realize that for the past few months, I have been drawn to Kitchen Aid's pink collection. Really it just started with the scissors for Christmas. But when I used them in the kitchen, it made me feel so very feminine. Really! My collection has since grown.



Bethani had started saying that I have a pink phobia, but when I explained that phobia means fear, she changed to, "My mom is on a pink frenzy!"

Will all of this in mind, my wheels began turning about a whole new set of projects. Having said all of that, here are my projects from Friday.






I searched diligently for pink kitchen towels to no avail. If anyone knows of where they are hiding, please let me know. So, what do you do when you can't find or afford what you want to buy? You make it yourself, right mom?














Oh, and dying white towels in the juice of freshly boiled beats doesn't work. Trust me.


Now, I realize that this pink and brown polka dot print is trendy and faddish, and one day my children will look back and remember with disdain "that horrible mud brown and candy pink kitchen," but keep in mind, I really don't have a lot of money invested. If and when I tire of this, I will simply start over with whatever else catches my fancy.

You may be wondering why I post the following day... many times, my projects keep me up late into the night...

(BTW, take my advice and don't use your pink spatula to cook Indian curry. Sad, very sad.)

Baby Gown

I saw a very simple baby dress at the Market, and decided that sometimes simple is sweet. One of the teachers, Vaune Pierce made the statement that stuck with me, "When people look at the baby, their comments should be, 'look at that sweet baby' not 'look at that beautiful dress.'" In other words, if people notice the dress, but not the baby, you have just missed the goal. Here is the simple dress I constructed yesterday.













Here is the petticoat to go under this and other projects.

Tea Bag Pocket

This was yesterday's project.

This little pocket is made completely from silk dupioni. I learned about this project from Beverly Sheldrick, a New Zealand teacher that was at Martha Pullen's Sewing Market last week.

Sewing Market

I have just returned from a 3-day sewing conference. Well, I didn't really stay away, it was just one hour away in Arlington. I left my house early in the morning, and returned late each night. All day I was exposed to more creativity than my mind could wrap around. I have so many projects whirling around in my little brain. I am currently in the middle of 4, and am anxious to start 4 or 5 more. I am hoping to crank out most of them in the next two weeks. Perhaps I will share with you along the way.

I must tell you about the funniest thing happened on the second day. I slipped in late to the first class (I know that is hard to believe) and caught just the last 15 minutes of a skirt-making class. After sitting a few minutes in this class, the speaker asked, "Is anyone here wearing a skirt?" I sat motionless, trying not to look obvious, when she asked a second time. People started looking at me, and so I raised my hand. She called on me and asked me to come up to the stage.

Wearing a long tiered white skirt, I made my way up the stairs and on the stage facing a group of about 75 sewers. The speaker asks the question, "So, is she wearing her best look? No. First of all, we would never put tiers around a skirt horizontally. White is never good on the bottom, and knee length is much more slenderizing. This long, flared, tiered skirt makes her appear short and wide. This is NOT her best look. Would she wear this to her 30 year high school reunion??" At this point I had taken enough, and called out, "I would have been 10!"

She pulled my skirt up to my knees and tugged it tight around my thighs. Now, I have had plenty of opportunity to analyze this body in a variety of garments, and I have to tell you that what they saw could not have been a pretty sight. She said, "Now, doesn't this look a lot better? If you can't see that this looks better, then you need to just stick to the rules because you are not seeing right."

Hmm, how presmptuous of her.

When I returned to my seat, I turned to the person behind me and asked, "And why did I just volunteer for that??" I was thinking, first of all, this didn't help us in skirt-making. Secondly I was thinking, this is not the way to win friends and influence people, and then I thought, this woman has no people skills.

I could tell the ladies in the class felt bad for me. Apparently they didn't know that I wasn't all that fragile. When the class was finished a sweet lady came up to me and said, "I think your skirt is beautiful, and yesterday I heard you tell someone that you had a 17 year-old daughter, and I could not believe it." How sweet of this lady to help me regain my dignity.

The comical thing was that all day long, about every 3 feet, someone was stopping to tell me how beautiful my skirt was. The icing on the cake was when the director of speakers stopped me the next day to say "Your white skirt yesterday was just darling!"

The Easter Outfits

For all of my growing up years, each Easter was the same. Here is the scenario that played out year after year:

My mom would sew my Easter dress--sometimes matching hers and Grandma's. Of course, true to her personality, it was almost always done last minute. The Saturday night before Easter was the same. Mom would be in the sewing room hurrying to finish my dress, while I would be in the adjoining kitchen dying the Easter eggs that she had signed up to bring for the next day's egg hunt at church. I would invariably have stained hands to go along with my new dress. (Mom always told me that is why the tradition of Easter gloves.)

After my egg dying was finished, and I could no longer keep my little eyes open, I would guiltily recede to my bedroom while my mom continued to burn the midnight oil. The next morning I would awaken to find my new Easter outfit hanging from the poster of my canopy bed.

We had purchased an ivory dress for Bethani some time back that needed a short jacket. It seemed perfect for Easter, so I decided on Wednesday that I should sew Bethani’s jacket. I went to my closet and found nothing with which to make it. I did, however, find a piece of salmon colored silk dupion. So, I made up a dress. Of course, it was a sleeveless dress, so now instead of ONE jacket, I needed to make TWO. I apparently didn’t help my cause any.






Thursday we went to the store and bought material for the ivory jacket. Friday I made the second jacket and helped Bethani make her American doll her own matching dress.






Saturday morning I woke up and wondered, “Hey, what about me and my needs???” So, I went to the infamous closet and found a nice piece of blue linen, picked out a pattern, and by midnight had a new suit for myself. It was totally unplanned, but typical of my Easter weekend--in fact it wouldn't have seemed normal any other way.

While I was upstairs sewing, Bethani was downstairs dying eggs. To her dismay, however, the next morning she could only find one glove for her stained hands.

Today, Bethani sleeps in the bed I grew up in. There have been several years when she too has awaken the next morning to find her dress hanging on the post of her canopy. This year she asked if she could hang her Easter dress on the post even though it was finished 2 DAYS EARLY!

Memories, sweet memories...

(The ivory jacket still isn't made. I wonder what the aversion is? I really need to get busy.)

Shoe Organizer

Today we overhauled Jeremi's room. You know, sorting through the closet, removing outgrown clothes; dumping out drawers and organizing, removing junk; sorting through his bookshelves, passing down books too juvenile. In the process he informed me that his 'shoe keeper' on the floor was bending his expensive size 10 shoes, and he couldn't use it anymore. Apparently we needed a new shoe keeper solution.

Now, I know that these can be purchased, and in fact, we have several in our house now, but isn't it much more fun to create your own?? I crafted this from material I had on hand and a cardboard box from the barn. It isn't perfect, but it is certainly functional--and free!



Overheard in the school/sewing room:

"Mom, what are you doing?"

"I'm creating. I learned it from my dad."

"Did Papa make things?"

"Oh no, my heavenly Father."

"Moooommmmmmm"