KISS Play Dress or Shirt (Keep It Simple, Sweetie)

Pretty sure I figured out (one of) my problem(s) this week.  I often feel like I do nothing well, but I'm interested in doing almost everything.  You've heard the phrase Jack of all Trades?  Me to a t.  It's becoming clear to me as I see the same attitude in my tiny daughter whose favorite phrase right now is, "Me got this."  I got it, I'm good, I can figure this out by myself.  Apparently, from my own mothers stories, my similar phrase at age two was, "Do it by myself."  I'm sure it's quite common among two year olds, but I evidently never grew out of that!  I have this desire in me to figure things out by myself and just be as self sufficient as possible.  And most often this comes out in a joy to learn new skills such as cooking from scratch, animal tending, and homemade utensils and clothing.  But then I'm on to the next thing, often without honing my skills to an adept level, but just enough to get by in a pinch if I needed to. 

Ah, well.  Perhaps expertise will simply come with age?  Speaking of which, is it just me, or has time picked up the pace a little bit?  It seems to be screaming by with a 4 and 2 year old growing in our home!  Wow!  Every day they amaze me!  And every day I'm amazed by which of their clothes no longer fit! =)  Even a non-parent friend of mine commented yesterday how absurd he found it to spend a fortune on a child's wardrobe when they so quickly out grow (or wear through) it! 

And while children's clothes can be less expensive, great deals can be found a thrift shops, and little blessings of hand-me-downs sometimes appear, there's something very satisfying in making something specifically for your child.  While I love knit and crochet, the investment of time alone into the project makes it a precious commodity that I tend to reserve for occasions such as church or the like.  But more often than not, my children live in play clothes.  I've made (refashioned) several simple play dresses for my daughter, but have been hesitant to share them on here because they're not perfect, not well-finished they're just comfortable play dresses that she will outgrow in a couple months!  But for those of you who might have a similar interest and goal, I'll sketch out my quick process.  Usually this dress takes me less than an hour, start to finish.

1)  Select a shirt: I do this from my give-away pile.  Some stains and small tears can be avoided depending on where you place your pattern.  Select a long sleeved shirt if you want your new dress to have long sleeves.

I wanted to put this here because it's often difficult to determine the shape of the sleeve.  You want to shoot for this bell shape where the sleeve will connect to the bodice so that it will hang well. 

2) Trace pattern: take a shirt or dress that currently fits (or mentally add a slight margin if you know you want it bigger), turn it inside out and fold it in half.  Likewise, fold the adult shirt in half. Line up he collar and, after you've determined how long you want the bodice to be, trace arm holes, sides and waist, lifting the sleeves to trace the arm holes if necessary.  Continue the waist cut all the way across the shirt.  This bottom rectangle will be your (already hemmed!) skirt section.  If you need to make it shorter, cut away desired strip size from the waist side.  Then determine how long you need the sleeves to be and line up the top folded edge before tracing it'sbell shape onto the sleeves of the shirt.  Don't forget seam allowance of about 1/4".   

3) Cut pieces: remember to consider seam allowance. 

4) Sew:  With right sides together, I like to start with the shoulders and sides of the top first.  Be sure you sew from the collar side toward the periphery on the shoulder seams so the collar is sure to line up.

 

 

     After this you can do a slight gather on the skirt, but I often just pin the bodice (right side out) to the skirt (inside out over the bodice so right sides are facing) at the quarter marks and then gently gather as I go. 

 

And to finish off with the sleeves, you need to sew the seam the length of the sleeve first, set it into the armhole of the bodice, and (pinned and right sides facing again) carefully sew around. 

 

 

 

 

New dress!  Time: 1 hour, Cost: $0 Ready to play and I won't worry a lick if it gets muddy, stained or torn!  This easily translates into a shirt pattern and you know it's going to fit your little one perfectly!  Though I tend to make mine on the larger side so she can wear it just a little bit longer! =)  I've used this concept for all the tops pictured.  As I mentioned, I'm not much of a sewer (Haha!  "Sewer!"  I mean "seamstress!"), so if you have any questions or I can provide better instructions in some way, I would love to hear from you!

Variation: with this sweater dress, I omitted the waistline and continued my side seams to the original bottom hem.

Variation: Use a men's dress shirt (and keep the pockets!)

Variation: no waist, higher bottom for shirt style that I did have to hem myself

Sweet Sleep & Baby Booties

My current memory verse is Matthew 11:28, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."  What a sweet verse!  Ah, lovely rest! 

Thanks to all who have been praying about Fynn's sleep.  There has definitely been improvement this week.  We went over two months with him sleeping in only one hour increments.  He would generally fall back yo sleep right away, but that still equals two months with zero REM sleep for either of us.  I tried everything I could think of as well as suggestions from everyone.  We got into a very regular sleep schedule (any sort of schedule is a big challenge for me!) and bed time routine, I was careful what I ate and  made sure there were no infections going on.  I even elevated his head in case he got a runny nose at night.  The room was just warm enough with a snuggley blanket...still no sleep!  Yet he remains generally happy throughout the day.

The pediatritian and public health professionals I talked to said that at this stage in his life, he's either teething or learning some major skill that he just want's too keep practicing all night long!  And that would fit in just about right: he popped out 4 teeth and I think I see a fifth on the way, learned to sit independently, crawl, stand up, eat more solid food, and got a new car seat all in the last two months.

The only other thing I did differently this week was tell him that we were going to be close all night and that we love him, but even better than that, Jesus loves him and can keep him safe even if momma and poppa aren't right there.  He never sleeps and can send guardian angels to protect him.  So if he wakes up at night, it's okay, and he can just close his eyes and fall right back to sleep.  Do you think he understood?  I don't know for sure, but I know there has been a change.  Last night was the first time he slept through the night for as long as I can remember.  Maybe I don't give him enough credit for what he can understand.

I love that Fynn's a little chunk (love those sausage legs!!!), but I can not find a pair of shoes that will stay on him!  The best one's have been a crocheted pair that my friend Willow made.  So, how hard could it be, right?  I made them kinda big so they could fit over his pj's or big socks if need be Well, here's my first attempt and a pattern to go with if you should ever care to repeat my trial.

Baby Step 1: Open pattern full size, print, and cut two of each piece

Baby Step 2: Using a blanket stitch, work your way around the toe, like so:

Baby Step 3: Sew the tongue in place at the top and center of the toe piece with a running stitch.

 Baby Step 4:  Line up the corner of the heel to the corner made between the sole and the toe pieces.  Blanket stitch up the toe and heel pieces until you have overlapped the tongue by a few centimeters.  Then sew along the base connecting the sole and the heel.

Once you're all the way around, stitch up the toe on that side as far as you did the first.  If there's a little too much extra on the heel piece, you can clip it down so the corners match up right.

Baby Step 5:  I slipped these on Fynn at this point so I could determine the narrowest part of his ankle.  Here I secured a ribbon at one point at the very back that will wrap around to tie in the front.

Baby Step 6:  Finally, I took some puffy paint to give my little mover some traction.  Super simple little extra layer to keep those wiggly toes warm until breakup!  

Tip: Be careful that the soles are facing the way you want them to.  I almost ended up with two left feet!

Grandma's visit...

I love living in Fairbanks.  But the biggest downside is being so far away from family.  We are blessed with amazing extended family that we love dearly and miss greatly.  Technically, Washington is the closest state (even if it is a 5 day drive and you have to travel out of the country!=), but it is so expensive to get there!  Well, Dad got Mom a plane ticket for her Christmas present and we got to keep her for a week!  Fynn (and Clancey and Keagan and Keira) were in heaven and got spoiled rotten!  It was so much fun!





We didn't do a lot more than just spend time with each other, but that was more than enough.  Lots of peek-a-boo, playing with the critters, practicing crawling and walking, and the regular errands.   Fynn did cut his first teeth this week though too!  He popped out both of his front top teeth on Saturday!

Also, with Gramma babysitting, I was finally able to complete a project that Josh had asked for years ago: a firewood carrier.  I had already got the material, but just had to put it together.  I just eyeballed this one, but thought I'd share it, in case anyone just needed the idea.

Materials:

about 2 yards of duck cloth

2.5 yards heavy ribbon (mine was a hemp weave)

sturdy thread

First trial by error: set your machiene's tension all the way up!  We're dealing with super thick fabric here and it took me many broken threads before I realized what I needed to do.  Okay, so I tucked all the corners like so: 

and sewed the outside of all but one side, flipped it so the seams were inside, then finished the last side.  Again, I just eyeballed this, so the angles can be what ever you want.  You just want the two ends to be about the length of your logs.

Next I pinned the ribbon in place like so: 

Then sew down really good!  It's going to be carrying a lot of weight as you'll only have to make one log fun instead of 5!  Happy snuggles in front of the fire!

Great Big Christmas Stocking

Busy week!  Josh is still working six 12 hour shifts getting equipment ready to transport to Prudhoe Bay, so we've been missing him.  Monday I was getting stuff done around the house and fell down the stairs while holding Fynn.  He slid a couple more on his own.  Oh man, I can't get the nightmare of a scene out of my head and I can't describe how awful I feel.  Little boys should get bumps and bruises that they cause themselves and learn lessons from, not because their mommma dropped them!  I could see he bonked his head in three spots.  Oh, and I think I prayed harder than I ever had before.  And Fynn stopped crying and I knew God had protected him!   We got him checked out at Urgent Care just to be diligent, but by this time he was flirting and smiling with the nurses again.
Tuesday I had my CPR/AED re-cert, Wednesday I worked, power-cleaned the house, and had Bible study, and today I got that steroid injection in the inflamed tendon in my wrist.  Fun times!  But, Fynn slept 9 hours straight last night, so we're both feeling pretty good today. After I got home I started to make Fynn's stocking (pattern below).
I got Josh and his buddy some coffee on my way into town this morning and saw raspberry chai on the menu.  I just had to try it and it was amazing!  Totally gave me a better outlook on life!  Sometimes, even when life is so good for me in general, I see that this world is just not fit for life and I long for heaven.  So many sad happenings.  But a raspberry chai reminded me that God does still have good things in store for us here while we actively wait for Him.

Okay, so for the pattern, you're going to need to print out these 2 pages: (You can click on these thumbnails and they will open full size, or adjust as necessary before printing.  Then line up at the arrows)

Other supplies:

• 1/2 yard of back fabric
• 1/2 yard of front fabric
• Other fabric as desired (If you're using the same pattern as the back, you should have enough in the 1/2 yard
• 1 yard piping or ribbon
• Thread for machine
• May need embroidery floss and needle

You could do a bunch of variations of this ,but you will need at least one full cut out of the whole thing, two if you want both sides completely plain. (Make sure your fabrics are facing the right way!)  If not, then cut out one of each A, B, C, and D for the cuff, heel and toe.  Be sure to add just about a quarter inch where they connect for seam overlap.  You can choose your variations, just cuff, just heel/toe, etc.

I am by no means a seamstress, but I thought I'd try to figure this one out on my own as I couldn't find a stocking for Fynn that I liked.  I was making Fynns to be similar to these that Josh's folks got for us a couple years back:

Okay, once you have all the pieces cut out, completely assemble the front.  Sew the cuff, heel and toe onto the sock body.  Then fold the cuff back at the top and sew in place so that your top edge is the fold.  You don't have to worry about folding edges or anything if you do a zig zag stitch across the seam, the piping or ribbon will cover it.  Which brings us to you next step.  Since the piping I used was so bulky, I tacked it in place by hand every inch or using an invisible stitch with embroidery floss.  Front complete!

I had to double check that my back fabric was going to be facing the right way, then did the same top hem as on the front, making sure that the height was just a smidgen lower so it would be invisible when hung empty.  Then put the outside faces together and sew all but the to opening.  For this step I had to "jump" over every section of the piping because it kept making my sewing machine angry. =)  I then went back and sewed over these sections by hand also.

Before you turn it inside out, take a loop of your remaining piping and sew it into the back corner to hang on a hook on your mantle.  Flip it inside out and fill with lots of Christmas goodies!  I realized mine was a bit bunchey, but after I ironed it out, it was much better.

Pocket Hand Warmers

We got an exciting update at church this morning: we're moving ahead with buying a new building!  This is so great, we're sort of bursting at the seams and desperately in need of more space, so this will be great!  (For more info, see the link for our church at the right).  Something that I've had on my heart for awhile was addressed in the sermon today, and that is to get out into our community rather than just have all my human contact be with other believers.  So I'm using this page as a place of accountability today:  I'm going to at least call a couple outreaches this week and see if they have any needs I might be able to help with.  Okay, now I have to do it! =)  And hopefully something I can bring this little cutie along with me.

Here's another simple Christmas gift idea, or maybe stocking stuffers.  And the fun thing is you can really do any shape you want.  Just cut four pieces from felt, embroider a design on two if desired.  Then blanket stitch most of the way around the edges, fill with either rice or rice and lavender, then finish off!  Place in the microwave for a minute or two, then tuck in your pockets (or your sweeties pockets), and then your ready for the frosty day outside!  (PS: you can find mine for sale at my etsy shop "Way up North": link also at right.)