Carrot cake

We made a carrot cake for dessert. The recipe is in Annabel Karmel's Family Meals book. Coloring and forming the carrots from marzipan was fun, though next time I'll make them smaller. MissC calls it a birthday cake.

Two Wheeling

LX has taken over the balance bike full time:

When little ones start out learning balance, moving to a pedal bike is a quick to master skill. MissC has her bike and, at 4 years old, can ride it herself.

Blue Chantilly Dress

I had picked up this blue and brown voile on sale at the fabric store with the Swing Dress in mind. Then I started on the Chantilly muslin and decided that would combine well with the blue for my Resurrection Celebration (Easter) dress.

I added brown piping at the waistline. It seems as if I could have used an 8 at the waist instead, maybe I stretched it while adding the piping.

I did pick up some brown to use with the red muslin top, so maybe I'll drop down a size at the waist and see how it goes.

The only change i made on the pattern was to add 8" to the hem. Overall, it fits well, flatters my figure, and is very feminine. I think it's a keeper!

Grandma Made It!

My Mother-in-law, Barb, sewed these cute dresses for the girls for Easter. Adorable!! The pattern is McCall's M6312. These are the dresses that I had hoped to help with when she was visiting. We found this adorable silhouette fabric on discount at the local quilt store (no complete selvedges are left, or I'd let you know it's name). It took a while to find the right contrasts, too!



Barb sewed the dress together and left the buttons/-holes and hems for me to do. On this pattern, the straps are supposed to be buttoned closed, but the straps are so short, it didn't make sense to take that extra half inch to overlap the fabric far enough down to add the button. And, since it was cut on the pattern size of the girls' age, with added length, it was too big around. So, my simple solution was to move the buttons over to take in the fullness. The buttons can be moved as the girls grow -MissC's dress (4 year old) fit MissA (8 year old) with the original button placement.





I like to add something to make the dress individualized for each girl when I make them. Since I was on hem duty, I thought it would be fun to use hem lace -which I'd never used before- in the girls' favorite color. I went with muted colors instead of bright to go with the dresses. MissA has peach as it is close to pink, MissB has lavender or lilac, and MissC has Mediterranean blue.

Resurrection Day

Celebrating the Risen Lord!

Chantilly Trial Take Two!

I went with the size 4 on top and size 10 waist. I think it looks a lot better. The puffiness of the gathers should be lessened by the weight of the skirt.




The back has some movement, good. I had my oldest daughter take another:




This just looks a touch loose to me. Good. Woven fabrics need "ease" so the wearer can move. When this has a skirt, I'm sure it will look fine.

Chantilly Trial Take One!

Okay, I bit. There's a newer pattern company called Colette Patterns that have come out with some gorgeous patterns. I picked up Chantilly and hope to have it made up shortly. My dilemma? According to the pattern sizing, I'm a 4 on top and a 10 from the waist down! Wow, what childbearing can do to a figure! So, it's time to mock up. In sewing terms, making a pattern, or part of a pattern in a similar yet less expensive fabric is called making a muslin, because traditionally this is done in the fabric called muslin. I haven't any muslin lying around, so I'm using some pretty red fabric I have. There's only two yards, so I couldn't get a dress from it anyway. Maybe if it fits, though, I could get some contrast fabric for the skirt.



I read everywhere that Colette patterns run large. And they're made for a C cup.. Yeah, so first I tried it with size 4 on top and size 6? For the band. Obvious to me are the side-to-side wrinkles indicating that my well-rounded belly needs more space.



Again in the back, I'm on the right track on top. This size fit my ribcage fine, but I didn't widen it out enough below that.

More later!

Yellow Dress

Sunday morning I woke late. I had planned to wash a load of laundry, but there wasn't time! I looked around and found this "wearable muslin" that I had started. It needed only 3 things: zipper, sleeves, hem.

I cannot recall ever having made or purchased any item of yellow clothing for myself. Until now.





Elegant Musing's Casey hosted a Swing Dress Sew-A-Long recently. Sense & Sensibility Patterns sells the 1940's Swing Dress downloadable pattern for about $10. Why not? I need a couple new summery dresses.

I printed the pattern and taped it together, then traced it into interfacing, basted the bodice together, and pin-fitted it.




I took out an inch from the shoulder gathers and an half inch from the length of the bodice, but I think that was conservative as I still have about an half inch too much length! There's a bit of blousiness built in to this style, and I need some room to move, yes, but I think the bodice is still a bit long for my frame.





Overall, I'm happy with it. I lined the entire dress, flat-felled all the shirt seams, added pockets, left off the ties, used Casey's zipper instructions, Quietude's nursing adaptation (I still need to add snaps! I used safety pins so I could wear it to church Sunday), and

Here's the inside. The lining is eyelet. I set it so it just shows the tips of the lacy edge under my dress hem - I didn't want to have it fully exposed, but I can easily bring up the dress gem to show off a few inches of eyelet.





Ben says it's cheerful.

Next time:
-Try taking some under-bust gathers out (see Slapdash's "I Can Buy Cheap, Cute Bras Bust Adjustment" for SBA hints - I love the hint to reduce the length of the edge on a crossover/ surplice style blouse or dress), then decide if another half inch needs to be gone. I usually have to remove two or more inches from the over bust length of store bought patterns, and the pattern instructions say this is made for a long torso.

-Add a little more ease at the base of the waist curve for my belly (5 babies leave a softened curve).

-Try another style pockets, though these patch pockets are nice.

Adventure in San Fran!

Ben wasn't feeling well this morning. I wanted to let him rest and have some peace and quiet. So, after piano lessons, I drove up to San Francisco. And it only cost $430.50 to get my car back! Plus the parking fine.

There's a bike shop up there I'd been meaning to visit for a long while, My Dutch Bike.

A bicycle built for four:




Simple, right? Drive to the city, find a garage or meter, slice a vein for the fee, go to the shop.

Another bike that can carry three:




The shop was nice. I had the children look at magazines while I tried out the Bakfiets . Try one. Seriously. It took me a couple minutes to be comfortable with the length and steering, then it seemed so natural!



Then LX and MissC got to ride along. Hooboy, did he howl! He's not used to being ahead of me, so it may have been more like a roller coaster to him. Once he stopped screaming, he started calling out , "Oh, no!" each time we neared someone or as I cornered. Back at the shop, he scrambled out as soon as his seatbelt was off. MissC, on the other hand, didn't want to leave!





The children raced on Kinder Feets.




Then we walked back to where we parked. And kept going to check if we'd parked on the next street... And crossed one more for good measure when we came across a traffic cop.

So, yellow on a meter means delivery only. Don't park by yellow meters in San Fran.

The officer suggested we head over and take the 14 bus to the impound. Only, I was flanked by five children, so the bus had left moments before by the time we found the right stop.





We kept walking. I had checked my phone when talking to the officer and the impound was 1.7 miles away. The children have covered that distance before, but I kept updating my phone to see if I could hop on a bus.






I gave MissA the camera, TJ pushed the stroller with sleeping LX, and the younger girls held my hands.

The gal at the impound was sweet, complementing the well-behaved children. My tired children.

Oops!

I found some steel blue fabric and olive green taffeta on the clearance rack and thought that would make a pretty dress. I would make it blue with the green as lining. I bought plenty of each for that, and a grey zipper. After I got home, I just liked the green too much to hide it, so I pulled out some old sheets that had tears and cut that as the lining.

I didn't measure myself. And as much as I like this dress, I made it too small.

An Aside

My oldest boy is 13. I see him now and in a flood of time. Now is so temporary, so having this glimpse of his silhouette is like holding water. My musician has so much untapped talent.

Chloe in Pink

Tada! To form a good head of hair, I ran a line of hair down the center of her wig cap and around the edges. I think that used about 50 strands or so.





Then I filled in every other stitch on the two rounds inside that, every third or so for the rest. Altogether, I think I used about 130 strands of yarn.

Cat on the Mend

Hep Cat has seen better days. And, today became one of them! Is it just me, or do others occasionally find toys without pieces or just the missing pieces? The cat or arm have surfaced many a time over this last year. But this time someone put both on the counter. Hurrah! (I've got to set myself up a mending basket..)

Wiggy

Chloe needs a little something up top. The other dollies are starting to make comments about the new gal with a face but no hair. Since dolls have tender feelings, I thought it best to get started.

Normally, I'd make a round wig cap, like this one on flickr, but these gals have flattish heads. I figured an oval cap would help a bit, and I really like the fit. I'm using worsted weight, but this could be done in any weight. Try on for fit as you go, and increase as needed. Remember: it will stretch, so aim for a close fit. Here goes:

Materials:
Worsted Weight yarn
Size F or G crochet hook (you can go smaller, if you crochet loose)

Doll wig

Wig will be worked in the round. Do not join rounds.

Work in Back Loops Only throughout pattern!

Ch 6, place marker (move to first st of each round)

Rnd 1: 3 sc in second ch, sc in next 3 ch, 3 sc in last ch, continue on back of chain: sc in next 3 ch. Do not turn. (12 sts).



Rnd 2: (2 sc in first 3, sc in next 3 sts) repeat, (18 sts).



Rnd 3: sc in first st, *2 sc in next 4 sts*, sc in next 5, repeat between *s, sc last 4; (26 sts).



Rnd 4: sc in 2 sts, *2 sc in next, sc in next 4, 2 sc in next*, sc in 7 sts, repeat between *s, sc in last 5 sts. (30 sts)



Rnd 5 (if your doll has a more round or football shape head alternate a round of sc with the enlarging rounds): sc in 3 sts, *2 sc in next, sc in next 4, 2 sc in next* sc in 9 sts, repeat between *s, sc in last 5 sts. (34 sts)



Rnd 6: sc in 3 sts, *2 sc in next, sc in next 6, 2 sc in next* sc in 9 sts, repeat between *s, sc in last 6 sts. (38 sts)

(Just a bit more):


Rnds 7: sc in 3 sts, *2 sc in next, sc in next 8, 2 sc in next* sc in 9 sts, repeat between *s, sc in last 6 sts. (42 sts)

Rnd 8 (more rounds as needed): sc evenly





For a plain cap, sc around for Rnd 9 -or- to add the loop stitch across the front (to give her bangs):

Rnd 9: (I know it sounds off balance, but we're not keeping the beginning stitch lined up if we don't join and turn when working in the round. The first stitch very slowly spirals back from center, and we started off center. ) sc in 11, loop st in 12 sts, sc in 19 sts, st in next 2 sts, cut yarn long (so it blends in with the hair you'll add next, or finish by weaving in end).

I'm aiming to have the cap reach from the front of her face dart to her hairline:




Weave yarn in at least a little to secure stitching!

Now put that wig on the doll's head. Sew around the edge with a backstitch, I like to knot occasionally, and then tack down several places in the middle until you're satisfied that no Destructomatic can easily pop her hair off.

And if the ornery kid wants pink hair, the first wig cap can go to another doll!

Next thing will be to decide on her hairstyle and latch-hook-style some hair on!

Angry Bird?

We love this game!! Obessively Stitching has a tutorial on how to make these in fleece. If I'd remembered, id have made this on the bias because I just used regular quilter's cotton. The children want me to make green pigs, and MissC has me crocheting a blue bird.

Too Too

In yesterday's post, the new doll is wearing a jumper and tutu. Yep, that's Stitch's dress for her amigurumi doll. Again, I crocheted it awhile ago, but I didn't like the buttons I had. I found these the other day when I was at the fabric store. They're the perfect green post buttons.

The tutu was simple to make. I bought a roll of 6" wide tulle from the wedding/floral section of the local craft store. I picked yellow to go with her dress. I just sewed a long basting thread for a while and gathered it up. When I stopped gathering, the edge was too long to wrap around her waist just once, so I loosened the gathers until they wrapped around her twice. Then I pinned the skirt and marked it in quarters. I cut an elastic the size of the doll's waist, overlapped the ends and sewed it, then marked that in quarters. I pinned the elastic to the tulle at the marked points and found that I needed to pin more to keep it in place as I sewed. Then I used a 3 step zigzag (wavy line on my machine) and stitched the elastic in. My basting thread didn't want to come out, so I just stretched the waistband till it popped and voila: super quick tutu.

MissB Sews A Dress

MissB found the pieces she needed for her dress pattern. She dutifully cut out enough pieces to make a dress and she used the machine to sew them together. Right sides out. Seams blazing in the sun. But she couldn't figure out why the skirt was so much wider than the top! Finally, she asked for assistance. I helped her gather it, and showed her that if she put the right sides together, the seam is smoother when done. She did a great job!!