On Making Dresses, the Geranium, and Being One of those Moms

One of my goals for 2013 was to sew Hannah a piece of clothing from scratch, aka something that didn't start with a onesie.  (I'm not knocking the onesie dresses because they are adorable, but I've made several now and wanted to take on a new challenge.)

In April I had the chance to pattern test for the Zig Zag dress and I was so excited!  I pulled it off in a weekend, despite lots and lots of newbie sewing mistakes, but I did it.  Since then, I have made Hannah EIGHT dresses.  Oh man.  And two others that are not for Hannah.  And a few other things.  It appears that I have gotten the bug.

I seem to have gone (rapidly and unintentionally) from one of those moms who has sewn dresses to a mom who does sew dresses.  It's kind of funny.  My explanation for this crazy behavior is that I'm indecisive.  I lay out different fabric combinations and see different patterns and styles, and instead of just picking my favorite, I pick three favorites, cut them all out, and sew like crazy. :) 

The most recent dress is this polka dotted one.
It's the Geranium Dress, of which Hannah now has 4 versions.  I'll show you the other versions this week too.

This pattern comes with different options for the sleeves, neck, and length, and after I tried them all I wanted to add my own variation.  I used an old dress to draft a pattern for this cute little Peter Pan collar and the puffy sleeves.I used a 2T bodice size and pleated the "skirt" part of the top because I wanted it to be really wide and billowy.And I used these fun green buttons for a bit of color since the style and pattern are pretty simple.This was my view for most of our photo-session, Hannah was on the run, exploring our street.At the end of our block is a little pier to the River Thames, so we went down there.  It has never stopped amazing me how different it is at different parts of the day.  At this point in the morning it was (practically) bone dry.
But that night after dinner with some friends, we stopped at the same spot to feed the ducks and it was practically full.  Crazy tides. 
Anyway, Hannah loved spinning in this dress when I first put it on her, but once we were outside, the main event was just to run away from me.  Not too surprising, I don't think.  

The little rascal.I thought I'd do a bit of a show-and-tell this week of some of my projects that I've been cranking out.  I'm currently borrowing a sewing machine from a friend and I need to return it on Friday, so I'm cranking out a few things between now and then.  Wish me luck finishing up my vacation sewing before I actually go on vacation. :)

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Let's Decorate: In the Living Room

My goal for March was to decorate.  We've been here long enough now that most things place, and I haven't rearranged the living room in 4 months, which means that I've finally found a layout that works best.  So now for the fun part, the sprinkling in of details and personality.  The bummer is that by the end of the month I felt like I had barely scratched the surface.  But I DID get some things in place.  And to make me feel better about it, I'm numbering them.  Numbers make me feel like progress has happened. :)1.) Cushion for my desk chair.

2.) Kids seating solution/Rollie Pollie.

3.) Add mood lighting.  

4.) Hate the new lamp's shade and re-cover it.

5.) Hang peg board in my little office nook.  (Notice on the blue paper Jayce drew a picture of me with my hair in a high ponytail and my bangs!  The details he takes into account are so funny sometimes, and I love it.  My Mother's Day card says "I love my mommy because she always kisses me."  Sweetie.)6.) New pillows!!  I love these so much, yes, I made them and yes, those are zippers!  Questionably installed or not, they are zippers.7.) Conceal the monstrous eye sore/air conditioner that you can see here.8.) Wall art above the piano.  

(Plan A didn't really turn out, and I hate to be a one-trick pony, but a big chalkboard in a semi glitzy frame, in the middle of a light-colored wall just looks cool to me.)

9.) Add color.

10.) Add plants.  

Run out of cash to buy plants, so clip pretty branches with budding white flowers and stick them in vases around the house.
11.) Add some sort of Easter decor.  (Remember, this was in March.)

That's that for the living room, but I think that 11 things in one month in one room isn't too bad.

The kitchen got lightly decked out as well, but that is for another day.

Like tomorrow.

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I Made Hannah A Dress

Last weekend, I made Hannah a dress.  On Friday I put the pattern together, cut it out, and started sewing.  I sewed again on Saturday night, a late one, while we watched the Cards play in the Final Four. The weekend was good luck for us of all apparently.  On Sunday I was finished.  And happy.
I couldn't get a picture of the front of the dress because Hannah kept running away, as toddlers do.  So I did what any sensible mom would do, I put her on a tiny little table. (I know, I know, I'm shaking my head at myself as I type, but I was right there and it was low and she thought it was cool.)

She did what any toddler would do when put on a "stage" like this.  She danced.  And sang.  And stopped occasionally to sip on tea.

At one point she stood still for 2 seconds because she heard a noise outside and I got a picture of The Hannah Doll.  Seriously, she looks like a doll, right?! :)
Then I gave her her bear to reward her for her 30 seconds of sweet dancing and concentration, and she excitedly squeezed it tight and said, "Ahhhhhhhhhhh!"  

She was a little more subdued with her bear and a ponytail.  This is her serious look apparently.  She was triumphant with her bear at the beginning, but by the end she was over it.  So I took her down and let her play.

The pattern is this zig zag dress pattern that I was lucky enough to be able to try just before it was released and I had so much fun with it.  

 I also screwed up a few things, cut my fabric wrong a few times, and spent a considerable amount of time with my seam ripper.  BUT I still am really glad I did it, even though it stressed me out.  I learned a lot, and now that I've done it I don't have to be so nervous about making another one.  Sewing a dress from scratch just sounds so daunting, doesn't it?  But it wasn't, it was just one step at a time, and eventually it was a dress! :)  And that makes me happy.  I also made button holes with my machine for the first time and I was really proud of myself afterwards.

Now I have all of these ideas for dresses and fabric I could use.  Too bad my goal for this month isn't "make Hannah a wardrobe of dresses."  Or maybe I can try to squeeze that in too.

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Let's Decorate: The Rollie Pollie

There is a slight problem in my house surrounding the kids table and chairs in my living room, namely, that my kids are forever getting injured on it.  I would just move it, but they use it for normal "table things" on a daily basis.  It's just that they are always rocking backwards in the chairs, climbing on top of the table, tipping the chairs over and then tripping over them, etc.  But for some reason, that is often where they want to sit to watch tv or a movie-the couch and chair are only for jumping, it seems, and maybe too far away from the tv?  I'm not sure.  

One afternoon the stroller was in the flat and both kids just wanted to sit in it quietly and peacefully.  I knew I needed a non-stroller option.  I finally found one.  It's a happy-maker.

I have wanted to get them some sort of soft chair/couch/bean bag type of thing, but space is an issue here.  I don't want a bulky "kid's couch" taking up what little floor space we have in our living room.  The search has been on, and I finally settled on something.  This.  I bought the pattern a month or so ago and just sat on it, there were a few obstacles, but in the end I made it work.  Not in the Tim Gunn way, but, well…kind of in that way.

And it works.  Can I just tell you how happy it makes me every time that I see my kids lounging in it?!  SO happy.  For the first week whenever they were sitting in it I would sit and smile at them for a second and mentally pat myself on the back that at that moment they were, 1.) not falling backwards in a wooden chair, 2.) more comfortable than they ever were in their wooden chair.  And I MADE it.  (It took lots of quality time with my sewing machine that weekend, but I just kept plugging at it, and eventually I was done.)

It was totally worth it.  It is big and squish-able enough for two little ones to peacefully sit on it together, something they won't really even do on the couch, and that makes it worth it for me.

Now, as to the whole "decorate" thing.  You might be thinking to yourself, "Erin, why did you choose to accessorize your cream-colored walls and carpet with a plain gray ball?"  This is a valid point and one of my "make it work" things.

The pattern calls for you to make an insert, full of soft fluffy bits, and then an outer cover that you can zip off and wash when it gets dirty.  This makes perfect sense.  Also, it calls for the outer and inner fabric to be a canvas type of material for the sake of durability.  I was a little bummed to read this because I have lots of fabric on hand, but not lots of canvas fabric, and canvas tends to be a bit expensive unless you have an Ikea trip in your near future.  I didn't, so I sat on this for a bit.  

Then I remembered that I used a canvas drop cloth for my stenciled pillow covers and those had turned out great!  They were sturdy and soft, and you got a lot of fabric from one drop cloth. Chris was in the US at the time and had a small list of things to bring back from Walmart, so I asked him to add that to his list. 

I was going to stamp a little pattern on them, but once I figured out a solution to my other problem I was itching to get sewing, so I decided to just leave them as is.  I did the topstitch in black and it adds a fun little bit of detail.  It kind of looks like when you are little and color a picture, and you go back and trace the lines in black to make them stand out.  (Am I the only one who did that?)

Anyway, my other "problem" is that I couldn't figure out a good stuffing solution for this bad boy.  The Rollie Pollie is big, and the amount of stuffing that I was going to need was making for a very pricey project.  Then I had a lightening bolt moment and it was a good one.  I already had stuffing.  Want to see?

Yep, that's a spare duvet, a pillow, and a few different blankets that we keep downstairs for snuggling into on the couch.  And keeping the blankets in here has freed up the basket that I had been storing them in.  So I feel like this was win/win, the kids get a very soft seat and it is storage for my blankets! :)  Ikea would be so proud.  

Whenever I do make it to Ikea I will probably grab a few yards of a fun canvas print and this gray ball will turn into the insert because it will get pretty beat up if not.  But in the meantime this is working really well and I'm happy with it.  Plus it has a fun blue zipper….that I installed terribly.  My 4th zipper, I've yet to do one just right.  Oh well.

Back to pictures of my kids lounging in it. :)So cute, right?  She was sitting so still that I just couldn't resist. :)

  

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Let's Rearrange, Shall We?

Yes, let's.  Let's rearrange my monthly goals.  I have a few reasons and I feel the need to hash them out here, so enjoy.

1.) April is my "Blog" month, and I was hoping to catch up, way up, all the way up.  It just that blogging, at least for me, requires chunks of time to edit pictures, crank out my thoughts, edit them into coherent sentences, and occasionally weave them all together nicely.  I can typically accomplish this while Hannah naps, but the thing is, Jayce is home now for spring break, and his spring break is half of the month.  

Let me say that again.  He is literally out of school for half of the month, not returning until April 16.  So there have not been tons of large (or small) chunks of uninterrupted time during the days around here.  This is fine, I adore my boy and I love having him home with me.  But I'm just going to let myself off the hook because of this and say that I'm not going to get super caught up on blogging this month and that is okay.  There was no reason in particular that I picked "Blog" for April, so it is fine to do a little switching.  It works great because...

2.) I'm switching April to "Sew."  There are tons of good reasons for this/I am justifying it, just roll with me here.

-I cannot blog in small chunks of time, but I can do little sewing things in that time, so my "goal time" is not wasted.

-I was contacted last week by a blogger to test a pattern and it was due yesterday.   I sewed and sewed this weekend, (and cut and ripped and re-stitched), but now I'm done, which scratched off two of my sewing to do's: sew a buttonhole and make Hannah a dress from scratch.

-On Friday I finally got my new sewing machine!  This is my belated birthday present and I'm so thrilled with it, but haven't tried it yet.  It's sitting there staring at me in that, "I'm new and intimidating, go read your manual" sort of way that new electronic things do.  But I'm excited about it and using my "spare" time to get acquainted with it seems more appealing than trying to crank a blog out of that time.

-I have a few bits left to finish from March's "Decorate" goal, and they are sewing-related.  So I will kill two birds with one stone.  That or my new goal will help me accomplish last month's goal.  Something like that.

3.) So when will I actually catch up on my blogging?  June.  Mom and Chelsea are coming to visit in May and I'm not blogging while they're here, but I will want to blog about what we did once they've gone.  So it will be June.

Sounds perfect, right?  Right.

 *I am still planning to do my three posts per week pace so that I don't fall behind/further behind.  There is plenty to share that is still current enough to not fall into the backlog.  Stay tuned. :)

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