Making for a Birthday

Our littlest one recently turned two.  We had a small family celebration for him with a peach crumble pie and two little handmade gifts.

This third child of ours is so naturally balanced, so sure, and yet so open.  It was a wonder to watch him on this special day of his.  I imagine he feels himself a part of and inextricable from our larger whole and is comfortable with his place in the family.  I pray that the balance remains with him as he gets older.

Our eldest daughter made her littlest sibling a books about his very favorite thing in the whole wide world--TRUCKS.  And his Mama sewed up a little birthday crown that he absolutely refuses to wear so it had to be modeled by his older brother!

Quilted

I put Harvey's garden-inspired quilt across his bed to stay a few days ago and, I have to say, I am pretty proud of myself.  The quilt is far from perfect (quilting in the ditch is something that takes practice evidently), but this four year old's little eyes don't notice any of the imperfections.  He lit up so when I gave it to him that I felt truly awed and, at the same time, anxious in anticipation for the time when he won't want these handmades any more.

I started the quilt in May when the weather here in Northern New Jersey began to warm and all I could think about was what was growing then, what would be growing soon, and what might be growing after that.  So the garden was on my mind when I dipped into the greens, browns, and yellows in the fabric stash.

I used a very simple pattern found here and paced myself throughout the summer.  Like knitting, quilting takes time, patience, and the ability to undo and redo (not a strength of mine).  In the end, and despite its flaws, it is a little piece of our summer and of our garden that is keeping our son snuggley at night.

Making for Baby

We have a dear friend who recently had a baby girl and I have been itching to make her something since she was welcomed into the world.  Sewing is still something I am learning to do despite a couple of years of practice.  

In looking for patterns to sew for this new and dear one, I came across the baby kimono in Weekend Sewing.  I was a little concerned as sewing for a newborn seems so, well, tiny.  And I feel like a bull in a china closet around all of that sewing tininess.  

But I took the plunge and cut into that Liberty of London fabric and out came this tiny top.  I had some bias tape issues (as usual) and I still haven't really figured out tension on my machine, but all in all, I am pretty happy with it.

Getting Started: A Quilt for Harvey

I have been wanting to try my hand at quilting for quite some time now.  We have so many blankets around the here though that it did not seem like a good use of my spare fabric.  However, once the warmer weather arrived (and then left), I realized that I do not have a spring/summer cover for our middle son's bed.  Because he already sleeps in long sleeves, long pants, and socks, his down comforter is hardly appropriate for our sweltering summers.

I am still in the cutting portion of the process--and will be there for quite some time--as I have over four hundred squares to cut!  I have most of the fabric that I will be using in my stash already.  I chose mostly prints with shades of green, yellow, and blue inspired by our time spent in the garden.  I am on the lookout for small amount of brown to add (maybe a chicken print).

I have hesitated to quilt because it seemingly requires such attention to detail, and, errr..., this is simply not one of my strengths.  I have been paying pretty close attention to my measurements as I cut, and even still, my squares are varying sizes.  I am forging onward though and hoping for the best.

For The Love of Bread and Its Storage

I have long struggled with how to properly store our bread.  We don't have a bread box and I am unwilling to give up the counter space for one.  I try my hardest to stay away from plastic baggies.  Up until now, I have been left with wrapping our loaves with wax paper and putting them in the refrigerator.  While this is a good solution, it is not a great one.  The wax paper can be reused only once or twice--by the second time around it is a crinkled, ripped and crumbly mess.  

Then I remembered this post. On Saturday, with two happily playing together and another one sound asleep, I made some bread bags.  Out of old linens given to me by my mother-in-law, they were really very simply to make.  I sewed two rectangles together and added a drawstring.  An end to my dilemma and some happy crafting time for Mama.

This endeavor inspired some bread-making today.  Normally, I bake two loaves of bread and a batch of granola on Monday morning.  For the past couple of weeks I have fallen out of the habit so it was nice to get my hands in some dough again.  It is easy to forget the meditative powers of kneading bread; how sweetly it comes back to me when the whole process begins.  

I use this book each week (it remains permanently open on my counter).  I have been using it for a couple years now and have not ventured beyond the first bread recipe in the book.  In fact, until today, I had not even looked at the recipes.  

On bread-making days, snacks are so easy.  I try to time the bread to come out of the oven when my two older children are emerging from their quiet time.  Warm bread with honey and milk is just right on these windy March days.

I remember baking bread with my Grandmother in California--her white apron, her various  bread concoctions, her freezer bags, and the folds of her hands folding into the folds of the bread.  Days long long past and days that have yet to unfold in the endless cycle of bread-making and life.  It goes on.

The Harvey T

I find it so interesting the individual clothing style that develops with each child.  Our daughter loves to wear dresses.  This one was a hard one for me to accept, because I am more of a cords and turtleneck kinda gal; despite my grand efforts.  She likes dresses, the pinker the better.  So there it is.

Our middle child has very unique tastes in what goes on his body.  Over the summer, he wore only pajamas (long-sleeved ones in 90 degree weather).  He has since taken off his pajamas (glad that phase is over) and now (along with leggings and socks pulled over them) he dons all kinds of interesting t-shirts that reflect his very quirky, very lovable personality. For Christmas, I made a volcano t-shirt for him; for his birthday he got an {imperfect} H {for Harvey}.  He loves it and wears it like he is some sort of H-Man superhero.  I don't love the shirt so much but boy do I love the boy in it...

Some Sewing for the Baby(doll)

Some two years ago I made this doll for our middle child, Harvey.  Upon receiving him, he immediately named him Harvey and the doll has been known to all of us as Baby Harvey since that moment.  Baby Harvey comes in and out of style depending on which way the wind is blowing.  Some weeks, he is tended to carefully as he naps, eats, is carried close by our Harvey.  Recently Baby Harvey has moved his bed next Harvey's because he {Baby Harvey, that is} is scared in this night.  Other weeks, however, he will be unnoticed. 

After reading Children at Play (especially the chapter regarding doll play), I began to understand how our children relate to their dolls as themselves, how inextricably tied the one is to the other {the doll's name IS Harvey after all}.   Our middle child is definitely in a period of disequilibrium, as Louise Bates Ames would say, and his constant attention to his baby seems to be a way of calming the storm within, so to speak.  Sometimes the storms erupt over seemingly nothing, like a pair of newly made pajama pants: "Baby Harvey doesn't like STRIPES!" and sometimes it is quite clear: "Baby Harvey is tired and needs to sleep right now."  Whatever the connection, it is wonderful to witness such gentle care being taken of this little doll that I bruised and battered my hands for years ago.

Today Baby Harvey got some new clothes.  Unfortunately, he doesn't like stripes, so he is going to need another pair of pants.  I made them using a pattern in this book.  The pants were made out of some seersucker fabric and the shirt from a t-shirt that was destined for donation but now is remaining here, and on Baby Harvey.

Costuming #3

Hopefully our scarecrow will like his costume a lot more on our big day because to say that he is not a fan of it would be a gross understatement.  He found it tolerable until today, when we added the completed hat.  Not. A. Fan.  The only picture I could get that was not blurred by his swinging head (in an attempt to remove the hat) was this tear-filled one.  This one was also extremely easy.  Some felt, some rafia, some old fabric and an orange romper.    We are off to see the Wizard...

Costuming #2

Here is our scary lion!  I knew our second child would not need much convincing in the costume department--he loves everything about them, especially their roars!  We don't make much of the looking for his courage part and we have one happy trick or treater!  This one was a cinch to put together--got the idea here and made some modifications.  And tomorrow... the cutest scarecrow I ever did see!

Costuming #1

For possibly the first time in my life, I started planning our Halloween weeks in advance and finished the costumes over a week before Halloween.  Our costumes are almost always put together in the 11th hour and we generally look like a ragtag bunch.  Not this year.  The hubby and I had a costume party to attend last weekend; this jump-started the preparations.  My sewing machine has moved downstairs for the month and our dining room is, um, slightly messy [it is becoming harder to convince my children to clean up their toys at the end of the day when mine are all over the floor, and the table, and the rest of the dining room furniture].

First up in the costume postings is my dear little Dorothy.  I actually fear that she is going to be my dear little grumpy Dorothy, as she was persuaded into this one by her brother, her grandma, and her mother {first choice: baby mermaid}.  I modified the lazy days skirt pattern by oliver + s for the jumper by adding a bib and straps.  Buttons and buttonholes were new to me (so that is what that funny little square is for on my sewing machine.)  So today, Dorothy.  Tomorrow one very SCARY lion...

Done: Twirly Skirt

I bought a fat quarter of Heather Ross' Far Far Away last year with the intention of making this for my little girl.  I absolutely love the fabric--all of it.  It was on the top of my stash and whenever I wanted to feel happy in my sewing room, I held it.  You can not feel bad with this stuff in your hands.  It's lightness permeates into the air around it.  It seems to me that this kind of fabric belongs on a body, on a four year old body spinning into the wind, and now that this where it resides.  


I purchased this pattern from my local fabric shop.  Patchwork is new to me--I have never quilted.  In fact,  I am only now starting to appreciate the look and feel of patchwork goods.  I am not sure I will ever grow to love them but you never know...


The skirt has many many imperfections--the endless errant strings , an uneven hemline, squishes and squenches here and there, but this girl of mine does care about any of them.  She just twirls...