Urgent Bag

This week, I learned that Peanut hasn't been using the bathroom at school and that he strongly prefers to have his own clothes to put on after an accident. The bathroom bit I understand because it's a bit scary. Of course - it's stalls on his own and I neglected to ever take him for a look around. Today he came home from school and told me he had used the toilet, though, so I think that's taken care of itself.

The clothes bit presents different dilemmas. I try to keep his wardrobe a bit limited. My basic list is five bottoms, five tops, a couple overs (sweaters/hoodies), and two party shirts (dress shirts). Lately, though, we've been stretching between laundry days. Every once in a while, the last shirt or pants actually come out of the drawer once in a while, effectively announcing that it's laundry day again. Taking a shirt or pair of pants out of circulation can have a noticeable impact on our laundry/clean clothes balance. And the fact that I'm worried about this at all is fairly worrying in itself, but that may be entirely another topic.

The mama stand-by solution for an uncomfortable situation (like having to leave a set of clothes at school for a few weeks until we're sure there won't be any accident) is to pretty it up and sew. In this case we made a simple drawstring bag. Peanut picked the retro orange floral fabric, I picked the blue to contrast. The floral was from a second hand pillow case I found at a thrift store a couple years ago. The blue came from Ikea. I used a light twill tape for the straps, so we'll see how that holds up. The apple is hiding a little cheesecloth patch with his name stamped on it using a name stamp I made for him last Christmas. We'll see how that holds up, too. The bag's at school now, hopefully not to be used ever.

Out of curiosity - how do you figure out how many clothes the kids need?

And still, we craft!

The crazier life gets, the more peace I find in stolen moments of crafting and writing. Thus this blog and creative projects become more valuable the more I neglect them. Enjoy the crazy logic there.

Despite being an active boy, we've avoided worn out clothes because he's just grown too fast to wear anything long enough. That's changing as of now. A few weeks ago, I noticed that the knee of his jeans were worn out. The mama sighs, puts the pants away, and waits for inspiration. One day last week, it finally happened. We put together a thrifted 100% wool sweater and some silhouettes traced out of Look, a children's picture book by Dwell Studio and came up with this:

I did a blanket stitch around the edges to keep it in place. Embroidery thread would have created a more dramatic effect, but I don't have any on hand, so a doubled strand of sewing thread did just fine. Peanut loves his new turtle. He spent the better part of the day checking it on his leg and showing it off. That's my kid!

Dressing Funny

We're not particularly fashion forward around here at the best of times, but second-week-with-two-babes is a particularly bad time. I present the evidence above. That would be mismatched stripes paired with Mama-made-some-crazy-pajama bottoms. Topping it all off we have a head scarf from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross. It was a nice easy with clear directions. The only problem is that apparently I'm not really a head scarf kind of girl. Well - I think so, but the family disagrees. That means it's easy, but maybe not flattering. Thank goodness it looks good on one member of the family! Now to look for bits of time for a bit more sewing...

And I have no idea what he was doing with the spatula, but it's gone missing. Odd.

Ripping for Progress

This weekend, I frogged five skeins worth of knitting on a February Lady Sweater. It was a relief. It was becoming more and more apparent to me that however much I might like the pattern, it wasn't going to be a sweater I actually wore much. Here's a picture of how much work I'd already done.

How did this all come about? On Sunday morning, instead of sleeping in, I found myself out of bed writing about aesthetics and values. More specifically, the challenge of bringing them together. My values lean towards the homemade, the found, the thrifted, and so forth. My aesthetics (at least the pictures I like to look at) are challenged by the crafty look. I prefer something sleeker, more refined and modern without going for all white and chrome. It's taken me a long time to not feel like being pulled in both directions was a problem. Suddenly, it feels like an opportunity. What it will lead to... we'll see!

As for the sweater, I like the idea of the February Lady Sweater very much. The combination of the garter stitch yoke and full lace body are a bit too folksy for me, though. The swing shape is nice, but I tend to wear A-line skirts or wide cut slacks (given that I can fit into them). Experience has shown that swing on top of swing equals one chubby looking me. So, I'm thinking about a redesign. Updates will follow.

Rather busy

We've been keeping busy around here - both Mama and Peanut. There has been some painting.

This project was made possible by a very thoughtful gift from an artist friend. These Melissa and Doug Spill-Proof Paint Containers are fantastic. Peanut can pick them up, put his brush in, and pull it out on his own. It's got a funnel shaped opening that makes it easy to put a brush in and out, but nearly impossible to spill.

We're also learning to do more cooking tasks together.

Someone once suggested letting kids use an egg slicer to cut mushrooms. They were so right. This task was a huge hit. Peanut went through nearly a pound of mushrooms cutting them all on his own. He was completely consumed by this project and so proud of himself, too. This little find may be a major factor in our determining our menu for the coming months.

I'm also getting back to knitting.

This project was inspired by the Rib-A-Roni a hat I saw on Ravelry. It might have been better if I had actually followed the pattern, but I didn't. Saw the picture and then kind of went for it. It turned out ok except for having a bit of an unexpected peak. He likes it and wears it. That's plenty for me.

And just for the record - I'm not much of a photographer and Peanut does smile, just not for pictures!

What have you been doing?

Making again!

It's a sure sign that life is settling down a bit when there's time to make again! This morning, someone special treated me to a morning on my own and here's the result:

It's just the kind of project that makes me smile - one that went off without a hitch! The inspiration for the skirt is one that has been my summer staple for years now. I adore the easy style and comfort of this skirt, but the quality is not very good. The result is a pilled skirt that looks old when it's new. While visiting my parents this summer, some stash raiding took place and one discovery was this striped knit. There was just enough fabric for trying a pattern based on the skirt and the result is great. This 5-minute-skirt tutorial was my inspiration for working on the pattern. To my delight, the method works great. It would be interesting to try combining fabrics. My idea is to use a heavier (fall is coming!) fabric for the body and stick with the knit for the waist. Now, I just have to work up the gumption to order new fabric and make a couple more!

Peanut Pants on Parade

Three pair of pants and three stories. These were Peanut's summer pants and he got great wear out of them. I was inspired this post over at SouleMama to make some light summer pants and they came out great. I used a pattern from Knippie, a Dutch sewing magazine. I love the detail in this pattern, especially the panel on the back, which gives the pants a tailored look.



The linen pair is my favorite and a real crowd pleaser (although that was probably the model more than the pants). I'm pretty hooked on this sturdy linen from IKEA, which has also featured here and here. They washed nice and soft. The patches are quilting material from my stash. I learned a lesson about the different qualities of cotton out there. The green is quite thin and the yellow nice and thick. Will be more careful when I buy material next time.

The blue aloha pants are from material that my sister sent me when she was living in Hawaii. We went to her wedding this summer and it seemed only appropriate that Peanut wear something that celebrated the place where she and her husband met and fell in love.



The bottom pair were specially made wedding pants using material recovered from a pair of thrift store pants. I was trying to go for a cute, classic look without getting into wool. These had a bit of stretch that made them easier to get over that cloth diaper bum, too.

All in all, the "make pants for peanut" summer project was a huge success. These were favored over all others in his wardrobe. I'm sad that the pattern isn't any bigger and that I'm not ready for pattern size changing on my own yet (but maybe someday soon). We're retiring them now, which means it's time to think about winter pants!

Still Stitching

I've been busy with Peanut care for the past few weeks, but still managing to keep my hands busy. This little personalization project made for a cute gift for a friend who's just had a baby girl. They're everywhere, these cute little bundles arriving in the big wild world! The idea is borrowed from a crafty neighbor of mine who gave us a shirt with felt applique for our Peanut. I liked the idea of doing the name, though. This was a second baby and it's always hard to figure out what to give them that parents won't already have!



This big old shirt was the starting point for another project. It was given to me as a work "gift" a long time ago. Aside from the style (not me), it's also an extra large. It's safe to say that even the day before I gave birth, this would have been way too big! When I got it out I realized that instead of cutting out the regular pattern, those arms could be useful...



And they were! I cut the arms off as close to the body as I could. Then, I used a pattern for baby pants to figure out how much to cut out for the center seam. That was a combination of guessing and guidance. But it worked out well...



Voila, a second pair of pants (sans elastic here). The red pair I made from a knit tank top that I never wore. This is a great way to recycle clothes that are never going to be worn but are still in good shape. I tried the same with my favorite pajama pants. They got made into a baby romper. Unfortunately, the material is very worn out from being my favorite, so it's already tearing at the snaps and not holding much shape, either. Lesson learned.