Monthly Archives: May 2011

The T-shirt Would Say I Survived the Bike Parade Party

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I told a parent at the end of the party, “It was fun chaos.” Ely said it was his best birthday ever. Will called it a success, because no one got hurt and the cake was good.

Ely’s actual birthday isn’t until Tuesday, but we had his party today, our only free Saturday until the end of June. We wanted to do something outside and something fun, and the idea came to us to do something with bikes. I remember a friend talking about having a bike parade party, and that seemed like the perfect activity for us as we love to ride our bikes down to the end of the street and back.

Each child came to the party with their bike or scooter and helmet (a must for being in the parade). First we decorated our bikes. We made nameplates on cardstock using foam letters, markers, and crayons and attached them with ribbon and pipe cleaners. Streamers were threaded through spokes and tied onto seats. More pipe cleaners and streamers adorned helmets, resulting in a look I’d call teletubby maypole.  A pre-parade started in our driveway and yard, while we waited for several children to finish adorning their bikes. Finally we got to start the real parade. We lined up and went down to the end of the street and back (the line completely dissolved of course), then repeat, repeat, repeat. I loved watching the streamers fly behind the children as they rode past me.

By the 3rd trip, everyone was hot and thirsty, so we decided it was water, juice, and cake time. I made a simple sheet cake with chocolate icing, and decorated it with M&Ms in the shape of a bike. I though the cake turned out very cute, and was super easy as well, always a plus in my book.

After cake time, the kids were ready to go out again so we had a second parade. The party ended with present opening, tree climbing, bubble blowing, and sidewalk chalk drawing. Everyone had a blast.

Like I said earlier – fun chaos.

It’s raining today…

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but it doesn’t matter because the raincoat is finished!

Kids Clothing Week Challenge was the perfect excuse for me to stop procrastinating on hand sewing the raincoat lining to the exterior and just get it done. Of course once I started, it didn’t take me that long at all – maybe two hours – and I wondered why I had put it off for months. Don’t I say this about nearly every project I do?

When the Oliver + S school days jacket pattern came out 1.5 years ago, I fell in love with the raincoat versions made out of the new coated cotton laminates starting to enter the market. I had never thought about sewing a coat much less a raincoat, but once I saw the example raincoats I had to make one for Agnes. Unfortunately, the Anna Maria Horner laminates (which Liesl used in both the floral example raincoats) sold out almost as soon as they were stocked, then never went back into production. Luckily Anna Maria’s next line Little Folks also included some laminate options, and I bought enough yardage for Agnes’s raincoat immediately just in case the new fabrics went out of production as quickly as the old ones (which they didn’t – so many fabric stores still carry them).

The jacket pattern has a more difficult rating than the other Oliver + S patterns, but I found it really wasn’t hard at all. There are a lot of pieces (more than twice as many as most of the other patterns) and a lot of steps, but the sewing of the jacket isn’t complex. The laminate was a little tricky, as you have to be careful with keeping your pins within the seam allowance and you must use a walking foot on your machine, but the only part that was truly hard was sewing the hood onto the jacket without bunching up the lining or the exterior. In my case, third time was the charm as I used twice as many pins as before. Several girls in my sewing group can attest to the difficulty (and swears coming out of my mouth) with this step.

Of all the garments I’ve sewed, I’m probably in awe of this one the most. Sewing a raincoat sounds impressive, and the resulting coat looks impressive (I am trying to be modest here). I love how cute and colorful it is, and all the details like the pockets, the toggles with the leather cord loops, and the hood make it stand out from anything you could buy. I purposely made the raincoat in a larger size when I began it in the Fall, as I didn’t know how long it would take me to sew. Agnes is now a very tall 3 year old, and the 3T size is still a little big on her. I’m glad she’ll be able to wear it for at least the next year and maybe longer if I’m lucky.

I shot all these photos last night before it started raining. Agnes loved wearing the coat so much, she didn’t want to take it off for dinner. I hope today’s rain will help get the raincoat wearing out of her system, or else I’m going to have to come up with some good reasons why you can’t wear a raincoat to bed.

The Pink Version

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I had so much fun making the hopscotch knit dress, I decided to make another one the following day for KCWC, and I rarely sew the same thing twice in a row. I needed more knit fabric and wanted to try out Liesl Gibson’s interlock, so Agnes and I took a trip to my local fabric store (which is only 2 miles down the road – how am I so lucky?). I told her she could pick out the fabric. Big mistake. She only wanted pink. I tried to steer her to the blue or orange polka dots, but her answer was always pink. Ohhhhhkaaaaaay.

The dress was even easier to sew the second time around, and I cut out the notches correctly too. For fun I added a lettuce hem to the sleeves and skirt edge using Liesl’s tutorial for the sewing machine. I love learning new techniques, and it’s even better when they turn out to be easy. Poor Ely, I don’t think he is going to end up with any clothes by the end of Sunday and KCWC. I’m having too much fun with simple girl things right now.

Sewing as Cure For Broken Heartedness

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I’ve been really sad for the past week. I was already down about the tornadoes and the flooding in West Tennessee (and Arkansas and the Midwest), and then my friend’s husband died suddenly. He was 39 years old. Two weeks ago she was planning out the details of his big birthday trip at the end of the month, and this week she wrote and gave his eulogy. I still cannot believe he is gone.

You know those cliches about death and loss putting your life in perspective, and about how you appreciate and love your family more? Well, they are cliches because they are true. Very little about my day to day life has bothered me in the past 8 days. Late bus, tantrum-y kids, hot and humid weather – whatever. The 13 year cicada plague is here now, and I don’t even care that much.

Today, I was in an especially bad funk. Once I got home from work, I decided I needed some sewing therapy. Maybe whipping out a dress for Agnes would put me in a better mood. It did help a little. Actually, it helped a lot. Sewing was a good distraction, and I needed a good distraction.

I had never sewn with knits before, but once I got my ziz-zag stitch to be the right length it went swimmingly on my sewing machine. This dress didn’t even take that long to sew, and I am the slowest sewer on earth. If I had had a serger, I might have been able to finish this whole dress in an hour or two. I’m not sure I’ll be in a better mood tomorrow, but I do know that seeing my little girl with her curls in a new momma-made dress will put a smile on my face. Right now I need all the small happy things I can get.

Speaking of sewing as therapy, has anyone ever made something for a family following a death? I was thinking about making a quilt for my friend and her two young children. I thought they could use something soft made with love to surround them and keep them warm right now.

Spring Kids Clothing Week Challenge

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I haven’t sewn for my kids in a while, so next week’s kids clothing week challenge is just the kick in the butt I need. I participated last Fall, and it was awesome to end 7 days of sewing for one hour a day with some new momma-made clothes for my children.

Here is what I’m going to work on during the challenge:

  • finish Agnes’s raincoat – for months now all I need to do is slip stitch the lining hem to the exterior
  • make the hopscotch dress (or shirt if I don’t have enough fabric) for Agnes – this will be my first time to machine sew with knits and I’m excited to use this fantastic fabric I bought in Missoula, MT over the Summer
  • oilcloth aprons for both children – I just got Little Things to Sew (my mother’s day gift to myself) and I’m considering using the bias trimmed apron pattern – I need to buy some boyish looking oilcloth/coated cotton for Ely’s apron
  • make some lazy days skirts – I can use up a lot of 1/2 yards of fabric this way

Of course everything I want to make is an Oliver + S pattern, no surprise there. I’m sure I won’t get to half the items on the list, but a few items of clothing sewn are better than none. Maybe I’ll be really smart and cut out all the pattern pieces this week.