Making but not Sewing

Lots of making-stuff these days. Preschool had a car show last week. Ignorant me, when I saw this on the calendar six weeks ago I assumed they were *going* to a car show. Not *being* a car show. P decided he wanted to be an ambulance. Grandpa helped construct the body, I covered it with red poster board, and P decorated. He is especially proud of the face on the front and doors that can open and close in the back. I am especially proud of the blinking bike light and the fact that it looks like a kid made it. Worth mentioning, so maybe I remember in two years when we do it all again: the tankless water heater was the biggest box used by any kid, and he was the only one without straps to hold it up. He put his hands palm-up under the roof of the car, which worked fine. For the next one, I'll probably aim for something more like a diaper box.  Of course, by then diapers will be a distant memory, right?? This was a fun project, but of course we ended up with a stressed-out-time-crunch right at the end. I like making; I don't love deadlines. Speaking of deadlines, Halloween is a BIG one...

Progress is being made on one of the four costumes, anyway. I'm having a hard time finding fairy wings. Gah! Time to turn to Amazon, I suppose, but I'll have to do it soon! Time is a-wasting! Next year we'll just be the Tiger family. Two of the four of us won't even need pants!

School Bags and Moose Jammies

Most average human beings would roll their eyes at me for feeling like we've officially over-scheduled our kids.  PX has preschool 2x/wk for 2.5 hrs, and each kid takes one thirty-minute gymnastics class. You guys. That is FOUR DAYS IN A ROW I have to BE somewhere ON TIME with my ACT TOGETHER. And really, preschool days count doubly because I have to drop him off AND pick him up! ON TIME! Which, according to my observation, means fifteen minutes early.  Poor Bebe. If she naps after he gets home, she's up all night. If I toss her in her crib as soon as we get home at noon, I have to wake her up prematurely to go get bro. We'll figure it out. Or continue to suffer the sleep deprivation we've all felt the past ::double-checks math:: 42 months.

The boy's bag. It's the "Great Big Tote" from Virginia Lindsay's Sewing to Sell: How to Sell Locally & Online. Hm. More on the book another time. For now, let me just say I requested it from the local library BEFORE I found out about CPSC/local/state/fed requirements. So it is great, but the topics covered have taken a backseat to legal stuff for now.  Back to the bag: I completely redid all the measurements to make it more Finn-sized. It's about 14 x 16 x 2.5, with 18 inch straps. It's a bit large! The pockets are just right for storing contraband toys, like trains and dinosaurs. 

The front pocket is a squid, colored with heat-set crayon and gel pen. It is lined with a DS Quilts print, which I used again for the back pocket. The teal doesn't read quite right from far away, but up close I really dig it. The sperm whale fabric is from the "Don't be Crabby!" line for Robert Kaufman.

As soon as I presented the bag to PX, BH pointed to herself and said, "Ah-MAH!" Which means something along the lines of "Gimme!" and "Me, TOO!" She doesn't need a bag, but she sure could use another moose shirt. How many moms have had to say that? Every single day, we ask what she wants to wear and she signs moose. Every day. If she can see her moose shirt in the dirty laundry, she drags it out and tries to put it on. I guess it IS rather special--a four-times-handed down shirt from all her Conley cousins. Aunt Liz gave her moose jammies from Bar Harbor, but it's a wee hot for them yet. Mama to the rescue. A onesie and pants set.  These are upcycled from a pair of PJ pants my Aunt Mary Jo gave me (Christmas 2003) and were finally worn beyond repair.  The pants are loosely based on Georgia Leigh's Ankle Biter pattern. Mike said, "Hey! You have a pair that look just like this!" ::thud::

The onesie was leftover from the pile of blanks I bought for PX's monthly onesies. I had the Wonder-under (actually...not Wonder-under. Wonder-under is the "Kleenex" of fusible stabilizers. This was actually Heat and Bond Lite), thread, and elastics, so this little set cost me nothing but time. In other news, moose antlers are really REALLY hard to stitch around. The onesie stretched (knits! ahrg!) and the plaid stretched and it isn't perfect. Next time I'll try with an open-toe foot.

Not a bad week for sewing, really. Not the best week for photography (might need a spot besides the clothesline) or laundry (sweet lord, it is piling up!) but that's ok, too. 

Hello again.

Time to get back at this whole blogging thing. For now, I'll focus on documenting my sewing projects.  I'll probably share about our family's adventures--our travels, our wacky old home, our frequent invasions by neighborhood goats.

Our newest adventure started today as our first-born started school.  "Mama, I need a sperm whale shirt to go with my sperm whale backpack." OK, then. Not sure if he's spoiled or just has more-than-average amounts of autonomy when it comes to fashion design, but he got his shirt. He got his backpack, too, but that hasn't been photographed yet.  Not with the good camera, anyway!  It has been filled and dumped, and filled again, and dragged through the yard, and off to school.  But no photo (yet).

The shirt has a mommy whale, a daddy whale, and a baby whale. "But shouldn't there be a fourth whale? Maybe a baby sister whale?" "Nope." The child knows what he wants. Always. He chose exactly which whales, exactly where to put them, and exactly which color blue to use around their edges.