Go Anywhere, Bow Anywhere

 

I recently got the opportunity to try out the Anywhere Dress (affiliate link) pattern. I was pretty excited, because this sweet little pattern is simple and perfect for a playdress, and the customization options are endless. Blank canvas. Love that.

This was absolutely perfect for Nicole, because she has A Problem. It’s not a new problem, for her or for my own self. We’ll sum it up politely by saying that in regular jeans/pants with a tshirt, she has wardrobe malfunction of the plumber-esque variety on the regular. It’s a problem that plagued me as a child, and I learned to dress for it and/or how to carefully avoid it as an adult. For her, though, the perfect and most comfortable solution is leggings with a tunic or dress.

I chose to make this Anywhere Dress with the elbow length sleeve with cuff variation, so that in the event that we ever experience this seasonal anomaly reportedly called ‘spring’ she will be prepared to go forth without layering up. Also, I just think this length is really cute. The fabric I used is from Girl Charlee fabrics – not an affiliate, this was my first time purchasing from them and I was very happy with everything I got. Also I silently applauded the shrewdness of the included sample swatches, as I was crushing on a new fabric before I even got the ones I had purchased out of the box.

Since I can’t ever just leave well enough alone, and I had some nicely sized scraps, I decided to embellish the dress and eventually settled on this oversized bow over the shoulder. I just hand stitched it in several places. Where the bow goes over her shoulder, its tacked down along the shoulder seam but the edge of the bow flies free. My husband suggested that if I do it again, I’d be better off doing it with solid fabric or a contrast bow, since it doesn’t really stand out. Ah, well.

Overall, the fit on the Anywhere Dress was just fantastic, spot on. Nicole felt comfy and loved it, the skirt is wide enough to allow for freedom of movement but not so wide as to be an issue with the shorter hem. Personally on my leggy miss I would definitely go with a longer length if I wasn’t using leggings, but I mean… we always use leggings. It’s a non-issue. There are easy instructions on how to lengthen the dress if desired, though. And as you can see above, she felt really cool in her new dress.

Or maybe just cold? Ha! What a great sport she was. I hemmed it this morning between dropping her off for ballet and picking her up, and she changed into it and we took pictures at this handy backdrop (?!) before heading out to buy fabric for the pattern I’m testing this weekend. Don’t worry, the snow isn’t literally quite this deep here, but there are giant piles like this at every parking lot! Oh well, the sun is shining and it’s warming up so we’re staying positive and buying stock in windshield wiper fluid.

Inspired: Dressing Olivia

Okay so I was totally going to participate in Boy Week of Project Run and Play. But somehow what I came out of the craftroom with was a washi dress. These things happen.

Right now I’m putting together some inspiration for Olivia’s dress for this week. She’s the most awkward to dress right now, with her skinny hips and general skinny-fat toddler body. But what I love about dressing girls? Dresses. Dresses for girls, and one-piece outfits for boys. Simple, cute, no tucking anything in, and no dealing with her giant tummy pushing everything to her tiny hips where her no-bum laughs and says “Good luck with that.”

To fit my wants and hers (Just linking to pinterest here, while I prefer to link the source some of these are from online stores in foreign languages with items long out of stock, but you can try access them via pinterest if you’d like)

-giant pockets. She is obsessed with pockets right now – and I love a good pocket too. She keeps trying to stick things in MY pockets, so clearly she needs more of her own. I’m loving the giant pockets on this pin..

Source: ellos.fi via Laura on Pinterest

 

A trim clean bodice where I can put some embroidery, and a full skirt for those pockets.

Source: alittlemuse.com via Laura on Pinterest

 

I’d also like to try get something done for Nicole this week as well, I’d love to get something matching or coordinating happening. But Olivia is my top priority since Nicole’s closet floweth over! Won’t she just be mad though, she feels I’m contractually obligated to sew exclusively for her.

I’ve actually got a sewing machine on the way for her from ebay,  bought for less than $100 including shipping, but reviewed as good for beginners. She got a toy one for Christmas from my grandma but it doesn’t even have a bobbin, just one line of thread, I don’t understand how it works so I’m not very helpful! So since she wants to learn, and it wouldn’t suck to have a simple backup machine that does reliable stitching, Chris and I decided I would start stalking ebay until I managed to get one of the two machines I was looking at for the price I wanted. So if it comes in this week, I’ll also be teaching her how to sew a basic bag, along with the basics of machine safety, how to wind a bobbin, how to thread the machine, etc. All the boring stuff! I figure if we intersperse boring stuff with working on the bag together, in small doses, I can teach her. I’ve cleaned up my craft room (still waiting to redo my fabric organization) in anticipation of sharing with her. I’m cautiously excited to embark on this journey of learning with her, I hope she takes to it as well as I think she will. 

Blue-eyed beauties 3-2-1

I wish I could say I’ve been busy slaying dragons and conquering new skills, but no. Mostly just housework, hanging with the littles, and reorganizing my house. Actually, we shall restate that first bit. I have slain a dragon. Our playroom. I have completely reorganized it into an entirely unbeautiful and very functional toy storage system a la Rubbermaid, that makes it way easier for the kids to spend five minutes cleaning up. Instead of me spending two hours reorganizing every toy into it’s special spot, I have a bunch of buckets that are either by theme or by type, and they get one at a time, and if they want another they throw everything back in the Rubbermaid first. Pinworthy and beautiful? Not particularly. Functional? Absolutely.

I’ve also been working on skills, actually. Firstly, on my houseworking skills. Let’s be real here – it does not come to me naturally. If I strike you as the homemaker type, I apologize. In reality, I am the artsy fartsy type, and if I leave myself in my natural state I tend to sit up every so often and wonder what the heck happened. I’m forcing myself to create new habits and routines and so far I’m doing pretty well. I mean, two steps forward and one back – I have a toddler and a baby after all.

Secondly, I’m giving running another go. It’s actually just happenstance that I took it up in the New Year. That’s just when my husband and I came to the conclusion that going to the gym was not fitting in particularly well in this season of my life. Jackson has been clingy off and on, and my husband struggles with him when I’m gone, and that’s stressful for everyone involved. So in lieu of not having a whole gym available we opted for a second hand treadmill. I’m nearly done my second week of it and I’m getting stronger, faster, and yes, losing weight as well. But mostly I’m feeling more energetic, which is really helping with that housework skills thing… especially since I’ve got less sleep lately than I ever got when Jackson was a newborn. C’est la vie, and this baby season is long days and short years, and all the snuggles and laughter are totally worth the lack of sleep.

However, I have resolved to do or create something every day, even if it’s just a photograph. So, on a particularly crazy day, I pulled out my dslr and took pictures of my crazies. Then I edited them another day. Every day a little bit of something! Running and creating even just little bits, that’s what’s keeping me in a happy, healthy place (mentally and physically) this cold cold winter.

How about you? How do you keep in the happy healthy zone?

A Christmas Dress

I meant to get this post up a bit earlier in case anyone was interested in making a Christmas dress for their own little girl, but after I took the pictures I kind of forgot! However, obviously this dress style is suitable for all year round, it’s just the fabric that makes it Christmassy.

This dress was made for Nicole’s first Christmas concert. Of course, an hour before the concert I was down in the craft room finishing the last bits! But it was done in plenty of time and she was very excited to show it off. The best part, in my opinion, is that because it’s cottons she can play away in it. She’s worn this dress about every other day for the last week or so, mainly with jeans underneath. It’s got some nice twirl to it, but not so much that you could see her underwear if she were to twirl with nothing else underneath.

The formula for the dress is pretty simple. It starts off with this peasant top tutorial, but I chopped a good 3 or 4 inches off the bottom of the shirt. (For a size 4, I had three fabrics and half a meter of each. I still have enough scraps to make an Olivia-sized tunic, although it’s a bit late since it’s Christmas already.)

This is more of a guideline than an actual tutorial… use the sizing for the bodice for the top, and for the height of the tiers, use your own taste. Because this is a winter dress I made it tea-length, but for summer I’d have likely made shorter tiers and had it hit below the knee. As to the width, I think the widths I give you here would likely work for up to a size six or seven, possibly even eight, and down to a two (it would just be super gathered on both tiers, but quite cute.)

For the top, use the plainest of your fabrics for the main bodice and the fabric you want to use for your first tier for your sleeves. You can sew the bodice up to completion here, don’t forget to do any topstitching you’d like to do as you go along.

For the second tier, I used the full 45” across from selvedge to selvedge. I didn’t gather this tier so much as sort of vaguely pleat it as I went along, since it wasn’t hugely ruffled. It would have probably looked better had I ruffled it, but I was running out of time. For the bottom tier, I did 1.5 the distance from selvedge to selvedge. To save time, I just ripped the piece twice and then ripped one of the two pieces in half.

First I sewed the two pieces for the bottom tier together to create one long circle, then I hemmed it. I went with a wide hem because that’s what I like the look of. Then I also sewed the top tier into a circle, gathered the bottom tier, and sewed the two tiers together. Finally, I sewed the skirt part to the bodice.

This is where I did a few finishing touches. I sewed a matching ribbon over the seam between the bodice and the skirt. I top stitched the bottom tier. Then I made a long patchwork sash, measured on my daughter where the sash would hit on her sides, and then stitched the sash on to the side seams of the dress. This made the sash slightly tighter than the bodice in the front, keeping it in place nicely.

Let me know if you’d like a real tutorial rather than this basic guideline. Nicole and I both really like this dress on her, so I’ll likely be making it again!

I love how you love her

Today I got my first real, big, squeeze-you-hard-around-the-neck hug from Olivia. It melted me down to my toes, one of those moments where you just fall further in love with your child even though you thought you’d already fallen about as far as a person could. When I went and took her out of bed after her morning nap, she wrapped those little arms around my neck and didn’t let go for several heart-bursting minutes.

This was, however, not her first hug. Nor was it her second, or even her third. No, she had been handing out fierce, adoring little hugs for a few days already now. To whom, you wonder? Well, Nicole of course.

I’ve said it before and I truly hope I’ll say it again, my favourite thing about my girls is how fierce their love and loyalty for each other is. At a few weeks old, after charming us all by choosing to smile instead of ‘root’ every time you stroked her cheek, Olivia made eye contact with Nicole for a few moments and cracked a great big smile. The next few smiles were reserved for her as well, and then eventually she spared some for the rest of us.

And naturally, when she started doling out great big slobbery baby-kisses, all open-mouthed and mildly disgusting, the first few batches went to Nicole. (And Chris has still received but a few; she follows him around the house with adoring eyes, but is not inclined to kiss that prickly face.)

And so it stands to reason that Nicole would get the first hugs, as well. It’s not as if she hasn’t earned them. She’s doled out more than her fair share over the last ten months. I can’t even really feel jealous, my heart is just so full when I watch them loving on each other.

Now, don’t be fooled into thinking life is all peace, harmony and slobberkisses between these two. Nicole occasionally gets frustrated and hides from Olivia… when she remembers that that’s how we are supposed to deal with it. She’s just as prone to push her away or screech out, “O-LIVE-EE-YAAAAHHHH!!!!” Olivia, being feisty and determined, sometimes accepts this challenge. With a shrill of excitement, she stalks and hunts Nicole, jumping on her and pulling her hair with delight. Sometimes this evolves into giggles and games. Others, not so much. As time has gone on, Nicole’s knee-jerk reaction to Olivia crying has gone from gentle shushing (as in the below picture) to hollering ‘It wasn’t me!’ (even finding it necessary to shout from across the house and when far away from each other) or even just flat-out ignoring it.

However, Nicole still runs into their room when Olivia can be heard waking up. Sometimes she sneaks into the crib to play, and I pretend not to notice for a few minutes. Or if Olivia is the first to wake, she has been known to either smack Nicole in the face, if she’s been freed from the crib, or just yell in Nicole’s direction until her big sister awakens. Nicole is rather notorious for being a wretched beast if anyone wakes her up, more akin to something you’d expect to have found deep in the jungle than under a bubblegum pink comforter, but Olivia somehow gets a pass.

I don’t know whether or not we will be blessed with more children. It would be nice, but I don’t think I’ll even pray for it; I’ll be too busy giving thanks for these full hands and this full heart.

(I don’t always feel so grateful for those full hands; just watch me try to load the dishwasher when Olivia is on the lam and you’ll note that ‘thankful’ doesn’t come to mind when trying to describe my demeanour)

Two little girls who love each other deeply, with hands that pat and hug more often than they push and shove. Mouths that smile and kiss and giggle far more often than they frown and shout and cry. I pray that my heart dwells on these important things more than petty little things like what people are saying about me, or not saying, or whether I’ve folded all the laundry, or where on EARTH I put my mop pads. (If seen, please return them to my floor; their absence is getting quite noticeable) 

Bonne fete a Nico-oooole…

Just kidding, we don’t actually sing it in French. Do I look bilingual to you?

Yes, I realize that was a nonsensical question.

And yes, I do have a french heritage, and no, I’m absolutely not bilingual. I can sing happy birthday, ask a few basic questions, and say “Je n’est parle francais.” I can also mostly figure out what written french means, but if you speak it at me I’ll probably stare blankly and mumble, “Je n’est parle francais. Tu parle Anglais? Non? Ummm… “

Anyways, the moral of the story is, I can’t pull up that other Nicole’s Birthday post up to edit it on my Live Writer so I made a new one. Don’t think too hard about it, for both of our sakes. Also, you should know that tomorrow’s post will be in the afternoon, not in the morning. But look, sparkles!

Okay, that’s a lie. But look, photos!

Those roses? Chris dropped them off for Nicole in the middle of the day. We weren’t even here at the time, we had a crazy day. First a friend dropped by to pick up some tutus. Then we went to a friend of mine’s house, her birthday is the same day as Nicole’s! When Nicole was born Chris called in the morning to wish her happy birthday and right away she was like “Did you have the baby?!” because how often does your friend’s husband call you first thing to wish you happy birthday.

After that, we picked up lunch and went to go get mother-daughter manicures. I thought that up this year and decided I want to make it a tradition with my girls, to take them to get their nails done every year for their birthday. I figure as they get older that tradition will continue to be ‘cool’ even when we go through the phase where they figure I am really not. I won’t start with Olivia til she is old enough to sit still, whatever age that is for her. (Possibly 30.)

After the mother-daughter manicures, partway through which my mom appeared and took Olivia for a bit, we went with my mom and youngest brother to an amusement park. This is another tradition, every summer – not necessarily on her birthday but generally for her birthday in a way – we do the amusement park. Last year I was heavily pregnant and sat out, this year Chris was working and sat out. Nicole is fearless and I pretend to be, not too hard as the park is aimed at mostly the younger set.

She has no idea what that gift is. She just knows it has handlebars. Oh, the enthusiasm of youth! I also love that you can clearly tell it is a scooter before she opens it, but since she is four, she can’t.

Our matching nails! I want to get a better picture, I think it might also be fun to get good pictures in good light of our annual manicures and watch Nicole’s hands grow and mine get old. I mean I won’t necessarily enjoy watching my hands get old but I think you know what I mean.

Speaking of getting old, if you’ll excuse me, I need to sleep for a week. I know, I’m young, I’ll shut up. I am too young to feel as old as I do today, ha. Tomorrow I have a big pile of laundry to tackle and the rest of a party to plan. A friend of mine had offered to help and now I’m thinking I might just take her up on that one!

I know I led you on with reference to emotionalism but I will have to save that for another time; I need to get to bed. I have a lot to do tomorrow!

It’s a TRADITION

You guys. Every July I realize Nicole is about to have yet another birthday, which I’m pretty sure we literally just covered, and then I do this post about how she grew. Well, okay, last year in the beginning of July I did a picture of her then and a year before. But I stumbled on it earlier this month and decided it must go on, and become better.

So for your viewing pleasure, or possible displeasure, here we have our annual Holy Cow, Guys – a – thon where I post pictures taken at the beginning of July for the past few years. And listen, the first picture is as early as we get because in the beginning of July in 2007 she was cozily tucked away in my giant belly. (PS, watch my photo skills improve!)

July 2007 – nearly one!

July 2009 – nearly two

July 2010 – nearly three

July 2011 – nearly… what? Four? Um, no. I’ll be over in my Denial Corner if you need me.

KCWC summary + Rufflicious Skirt Debut

Okay, so my kids have been tag teaming this whole getting sick/being miserable thing. I’m all about nurturing, nurture cuddle nuture, that’s me. But I wish they could just get it together and both be sick at the same time. Then I could lie about in bed with them both and listen to them moan and groan and make soothing noises back and them, and then slip off to Get Stuff Done when they both drift off to sleep. But no, one kid gets sick and gives it to the other kid and then that kid gets another thing while their immunity is down and gives THAT to the first kid… you know how it is. Anyways, I’ve moaned on about me being sick or them being sick for I dunno, a month now, off and on. It’s been grand. I’m sure you’re as sick of us being sick as we are. ITS SUMMER WEATHER OUTSIDE. I think it will all go away soon.

ON TO KCWC. My goal was to complete a sister set for my girls and at least one other thing. I completed the sister set (okay so the skirt was finished a day late and a dollar short) and called it good.

Olivia:

I want to do surgery on this yet. My calculations were a bit off and I did some past-midnight-sewing, as I mentioned, so there are some oopsies. Also my first applique attempt in a long time, it was kind of poor, to put it mildly, but oh well. I hope to put a waistband over the waist part and bring it in a bit, it’s a bit loose thankfully so I can afford to do that, and hopefully that will fix the ‘situation’ at least a bit.

Nicole’s outfit… well, I could just put it on her and then go skipping through a field of daisies with joy. Heck, I could skip through my yard full of dandelions with joy. LOVE. IT. I learned from my mistakes (look ma! Finally! It took 24 years but darnit, I’ve started learning from my mistakes!) and moved on to victory.

As long as you don’t examine Olivia’s too closely it still looks pretty cute. She’ll wear it. They’ll wear it together and Nicole will be pleased. Every day she says, “I want to match Olivia!” See, it’s not just me enforcing a rein of terror upon my children. THEY WANT TO MATCH. Well, the baby has no say, but whatever. She’s happy if she can chew a ruffle, so we’re golden.

left: Um, yeah, applique… suuuuuuper. Homemade? right: Nicely done! Still room for improvement, but definite learning curve. Handmade!

left: homemade, definitely homemade. It looks like the dog ate it, but really I just had a bit of a learning curve with the serger. right: yaaay! There’s still a few wonky spots on the skirt but I definitely have if not mastered then at least intermediate-ed the rolled hem stitch on my serger.

Dreamy sigh. I call this the Rufflicious Skirt. At first I called it Rufflemania but discarded that promptly because in my excitement I named it like it was wrestling related or something. No. Rufflicious it is. I’m going to grade it and make a pattern of sorts (it’s going to be diagrams and not printable pattern pieces, because it is a series of rectangles.) I’m trying to decide if I’ll do a tutorial or a .pdf for sale. If I do a pdf it will be size 6mos to 4/5, most likely. A tutorial I will do size 4/5 and size 6mos because I already did the 4/5 and I’m going to do the 6mos anyways. What say you? If you say paid pattern, how much would you be willing to pay? I’m thinking like $6.99CAD or something?

Look guys, look how yummy. LOOK. I didn’t pose this, she sat down to play Princess Dress Up on my ipod and the skirt did this on it’s own. I love it so bad. SO. BAD. It’s a little hefty but she loves it, seems comfortable, and the fact that the tiers are rufflier as they go along makes it so the middle tier holds in the bottom tier in such a fashion that I haven’t seen her panties ONCE today, despite no leggings. That is major, folks. She acts like a little lady sometimes but she rarely sits like one. (gets it from her mama, unfortunately. Sorry ma, I learned from my mistakes but I still sit like a boy.)

Project 52–week 9

I realize I am still a few days behind, but this is last week’s photo and this week is not over yet SO…. we are improving.

Nicole really enjoys baking with me! I’d get her to just do it for me but she can’t read the recipes or reach the buttons on the oven yet. Maybe I’ll teach her to mix drinks instead.

Just kidding. Seriously. There isn’t even any alcohol in the house. There was a beer yesterday but after spending five minutes figuring out how to open the dang bottle (I am not a beer drinker. You may chuckle at my expense. I know I did.) I poured it into my slow cooker to make a yummilicious roast. Beer + apples + BBQ sauce + seasonings = SUPER ROAST.

(note: I have no problem with alcohol. I make a mean amaretto black forest cake.)

Best Little Girl Cloche

Nicole was getting a bit jealous of the baby crocheting I’ve been doing, so I let her pick out a yarn and a pattern to whip her up a hat. We wound up with Bernat Cottontots in Blue Berry, and the Best Little Girl Cloche from Aesthetic Nest. I’m not sure if the pattern is sized a bit generously or if it was the substitution, but I found the size 3/4 fit her a little bit generously. I would definitely recommend sizing down one if you wind up using Bernat Cottontots. She’s been all about the blue lately, whenever I let her pick her own stuff out she chooses blue every time lately. It used to always be pink… HOT pink. I can’t help but be sad at the idea that she might be over her ‘pink’ stage already! Sigh… It’s too bad that I can’t wear blue. Nicole stretched the hat out after this photo shoot, and now it would fit MY head! I’m a little scared to try and shrink it up in the wash, I don’t know if the yarn would maybe pill up a bit if I tried shrinking it. Some does, some doesn’t. I’m going to just crochet another one in a smaller size. This free pattern is also available in baby sizes. It’s very cute! It involves sc, hdc, and dc stitches, as well as chain stitches. Easy-peasy! Not at all hard to follow, either. Check the pattern out in its various sizes, newborn and all the way up, at Aesthetic Nest. (PS, I love her older daughter’s haircut. I wanted the same thing for Nicole’s recent cut but couldn’t remember where I’d seen it. Then I found her website back looking for this hat pattern! Saved some inspiration pictures to show our hairdresser for Nicole’s next cut.)