Monday, October 14, 2013

Pumpkins and good causes

Every other week (sometimes more) I go pick up the boys from their mom's house.  Its about 2 1/2 hours, plus at least one stop because Inara and Connor aren't all that cooperative for that long in the car.  This last week I was meeting a friend in Olympia to drop off some stuff for the upcoming LMNOP Kids Consignment Sale.  So I decided to take the southern route off the peninsula.  What I did not consider is that most of this drive is through Olympic NATIONAL forest... a NATIONAL park... so all of the camp grounds, picnic areas, view points, BATHROOMS were closed off!   Don't worry, we made it to Nicole's in time.

This past weekend was my birthday, so we took the kids to the local pumpkin patch.  It was *really* spendy and rainy, so we got pumpkins, did a pumpkin toss and then took some funny pics of the kids.
I love her face in this picture

Connor was thrilled to shut Cole into the jail.

It's hard to look tough with a MLP

No idea why they aren't smiling, they really were having fun!

So birthday fun over I had some must do sewing to do this weekend.  I know the government shutdown is causing stress for all sorts of people.  In our house, we are both disabled vets, and at the moment have no idea if we will get our disability next month, which for us is a big amount of our income.  But then to put things in perspective, on October 6th, Special Agent Peters (CID) was killed in Afghanistan. His wife Ashley is pretty active in the cloth diapering sewing world, so I'd seen her name around before, but didn't put two and two together until I saw a post from Operation Support Ashley and Gabriel.  The thought that this stupid shutdown has left this woman and her child in such a horrible position, especially after the sacrifice her husband made makes me feel sick.  And well, not much we can do money wise, but I can sew, and it may not be much, but I wanted to help.

So I pulled out my very favorite fabric this weekend (this fabric was an awesome accident in a custom group and is a dreamy poplin)  and  went through my embarrassingly large pattern collection and decided on a dress.  When I first saw this dress I wasn't sure I loved it, but the more people who posted theirs the more I wanted it:  Bumblebee Dress by Sewing Mama Raeanna. 

I think I love how it has the option of being summer perfect or fall/winter perfect. The instructions are clear, and it has great pictures to go along with them.  All in all, I highly recommend it.  So here is my Bumblebee that I put in for the auction.  It's a size 2t, so if  you know anyone who needs that size, please send them that way!

Look, I finally made my logo!!  And I am so happy with my fussy cutting on this!

Then I decided I wanted to do another pattern, so back into the stash (I really should show you all my disaster one day...).  And I decided on this awesome Sesame Street Thermal knit. And of course, had to pull out my favorite hoodie pattern: Peek-a-boo Patterns Hangout Hoodie.  And here is my Sesame Street Hangout Hoodie.  The accent fabric is a nice cotton lycra, and the button is a random Riley Blake button.  It's also a size 2t, so again, if you know anyone....

I did line the hood on this one because I thought it looked nicer.


The auction starts Wednesday and goes through Saturday.  If you go to the Facebook page you can see the previews for all of the items - if you cloth diaper you will LOVE some of these items!  And its really for such an incredible cause so please come out and support.

**UPDATE** Here is the link to the auction itself which goes live Wednesday :  http://hyenacart.com/stores/cutecountrychild/

Previews can be seen here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/237304856426793/






 

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Ties and apologies (twist that last syllable and it almost rhymes!)

Goodness, I fell off the earth for a few days there! But I'm back and have missed writing!

So today I wanted to talk about ties!  When I was making Connor's outfit for my brother's wedding I wanted him to have a tie, but there was nothing at the local stores in his size.  So I hunted around a bit.  I have a couple of patterns from Fishsticks Designs that I love (it all started with a paper version of the Austin Lee Romper that I got from a destash and really, they have a a great variety of BOYS patterns (which are really lacking in the market -- hint hint pattern makers!!).

Anyways, their blog has this great free pattern for the The Totally Terrific Ties.  They call it a tutorial, but its is really a great little pattern.  It has pattern pieces and instructions to make three different sizes: 2-4, 5-8, and 8-14.  2-4 and 5-8 are sort of neat, they are the body of the tie and then either elastic or a band that it ties onto. 

The pattern calls for velcro if you are using the band, but I found an alternative that I like better... (keep reading!)

Anyways, I made a Jake and the Neverland Pirates tie for Connor to match his shorts, and a matching set for my friend's son.  Then Inara wanted one using my favorite batik, then Logan (the oldest) wanted an Avengers one, and then Cole wanted a flame one.  The boys got real ties since they are a little older, and dad had to teach them to tie them.  Who would have thought ties would be so popular with kids??

Well, my friend asked me to make some more boyish ones for her son, so I picked out some boyish prints.....
But this little man loves trains, so I kept my eye out while doing the mini-shop hop this last weekend, and found this: 
These don't take a lot of material (for size 2-4 about 1/4yd of two fabrics for non directional prints, and you need like 1/2yd of each for directional, but can probably get 2 ties out of it - I'll explain why you need more in a minute).

The first ones I did, I used elastic for then neck and I found that even Inara at nearly 5 had trouble getting hers on over her head, so I decided to do the fabric band on the next ones, and these as well.  I serge these, so I did the bodies of all the ties first...
 

And that left me with all the bands...

The pattern calls for 16" x 3 1/8" bands for the "velcro" option.  I do mine at 3 1/4", but that's mostly because it's just a bigger line on my ruler. :)    You see though, the Robot print and the fish and the Avengers were all clearly directional, so in order to have a 16" piece that results in the print going the right direction, so I round it out at 1/2".  Since it is such a small print I think you could probably get 2 ties out of that amount and still have enough for the bands. but it would be close. 

So then I sat down to sew all the bands... and I'm so picky about threads matching that I had to keep switching and switching...


 Then I got to sit and relax to finish them out... what I do instead of velcro is use snaps.  (I love how randomly useful snaps are...) And its fun to pick out snaps that will stand out enough that little guys can find them easily, but still match the prints... So here they are...

I'm pretty sure the recipient was thrilled with them, and I think I will do some up for the upcoming consignment sale that I am doing.

Here are some pics of other ones that I've done... the shorts in both pics are from Seamingly Smitten.

Using Jake and the Neverland Pirates Fabric from Lori's Country Corner

Using the Jason Yenter Return to Atlantis Line for ITB from Ozark Fabric

Using my favorite batik and FOE from Ozark Fabric


Again, I apologize for the long break and will be back to posting more often now!!