dedication gown

Spring cleaning has begun around here. That means going through the girls' closets to put away the dark, long-sleeved dresses and start bringing out the brighter, short-sleeved ones (even if it means layering them with long-sleeved tee shirts). In the back of Trixie's closet I found this:

It's the gown I made for all three kids' dedication ceremonies. I suppose with the last ceremony being nearly 4 years ago, I can safely store it with their other clothes that I can't bear to give away.

This was my first and last attempt at hand smocking. An easy pattern, but plenty of a challenge for a beginner. I wanted something simple that would be appropriate for both boys and girls since I was making it for Glenn, but had no idea if we'd have more sons or daughters. The sleeves gather with a cotton drawstring. The back has two shank pearl buttons with elastic loops.

The fabric is batiste - incredibly soft, though sheer enough that I put all three kids in a white cotton sleeper underneath. Plus, all three were dedicated in colder months. After each service, I embroidered their initials near the hem.

This weekend Glenn, Chris and I will be attending the Bar Mitzvah of a friend's son born just a few months before Glenn. Hard to believe that this gown is close to 13 years old. I could swear that both boys were still into dump trucks just yesterday.

need a boost?

I suppose this could be a thrifty thursday post, but I was so anxious to have this ready to be used I can actually post it as a finished project!

Trixie has been too big for a high chair for a long time(she was also the kid that climbed out of it when I wasn't looking, making it an accident waiting to happen). I'd gotten rid of the portable booster we had for the other two when they didn't fit on previous dining chairs very well. For some reason, I never bought another one. Trixie would just kneel at mealtime(which she didn't seem to mind in the least) until a friend's son, came up with the idea of using one of their old car booster seats , so Trixie wouldn't have to kneel when we visited for lunch. (Adina, I still think that boy is a genius.) When we came home I pulled one of our extra boosters that I use for carpooling out of the garage and put it into service in the dining room.

Then I spotted this at the local thrift shop on Tuesday for $2.00.

Check out that harvest colored plaid vinyl - a blast from my past.

I know I had a chair like this growing up - not sure if the vinyl is a match, but the chair's design is. I'd have left the vinyl alone if it hadn't been worn through in several places. I needed to remove the metal arms to buff off a little rust with steel wool as well.

And now, with some oilcloth from the stash, it's good as new. Trixie says she much prefers the pink to the old colors.

(I'll post my score from thrifting with Poppy late next week. It'll be worth the wait.)

hand-me-downs

These jeans make me a little teary-eyed. A friend passed them down to Glenn over 11 years ago. The girls both wore them. We passed them on to sweet, little Nate. Considering he was at least the 5th child to wear them, it's no shock the knees finally gave way.

Not long after he outgrew them, his mom was invited to a baby shower that had a wonderful theme. The mother-to-be requested that all the gifts be used - either something your own children had worn or played with or something you picked up at a resale shop. It's so nice to know another little one will wear them.

The patches are thrifted, vintage, iron-on cordouroy patches that I cut into shapes and zig zagged for more stability. (So easy to do on pants that still snap on the inside seam.)

Chicks in New York pay top dollar for frayed hems like that.

Wear them well, Theodore Penrose.

hand-me-downs

Ellie gets a lot of great hand-me-downs from neighbors and friends. As she (and the children they're coming from) get older, some of the items have seen better days. This pair of overalls had a few holes and some wear on the knees, but fit her great.

The holes were covered with the flowers on the right leg above. Worn knees got some polka dot reinforcement.

Because I can't leave well enough alone, I threw some patches on the back as well.

Wonder under was used to iron the fabric onto the denim before stitching. Any other fusible web will do. Because these are so small, I opened up the seam on the inner leg from about an inch above the hem on one leg all the way around to the other hem. If they had been very baggy on her, I'd have just cut that seam allowance off, but since the fit was more on target, I had to use my seam ripper. With that opened up, it was easy to do the zig zag around the patches. I set my zig zag at its widest and much longer than normal. You may have to use the handwheel to stitch through areas that are very thick and uneven under the presser foot, like the pocket edges. When I didn't, I had a few skipped stitches, but this only happened a couple of times when the foot didn't seem balanced. I didn't want to use that plastic dohickey that you slip under one side of the foot. Once the leg appliques are done, you can sew the inner seam again and serge the edges. If you don't have a serger, just zig zag them.

I had trouble figuring out the bib pocket at first. I wanted it covered in fabric, but didn't want to sew it shut at the top. Cutting the fabric at the top about an inch longer than the pocket so it could be folded over the top and fused into place seems to have worked. We'll see how it holds up in the wash. If I have to hand tack it into place later, the stitches will be hidden on the inside.

One more back to school outfit finished.

crafting with crayons

I started this summer with visions of all sorts of crafty things the kids and I would do together. Then it got kind of hot. And I remembered that I don't like to be outside that much - especially when it's hot. This is my attempt to get one fun crafty thing in before school starts on Tuesday. (If they're lucky, I might whip out some paint on Labor Day.)

We've been saving all the little nubs of crayons that gather at the bottom of the bin, but no one ever uses. Between our house and the neighbor's we had quite a few. You'll have to take off all the paper wrappers that might be left and then chop them into little pieces - the size of peas. This should be done outside if possible, because there will be teeny tiny bits of crayon all over the place. May I recommend using something other than a cutting board from your kitchen. However, if you foolishly grab that one, I found that baking soda and a scrubby will clean it up rather well, though you may still have some technicolor residue left for your carrot sticks at snack time.

After all the crayons have been chopped up, you can throw them in a pile or get all anal and make the kids separate them by color. (I swear it was easier for them to make their color choices when they were organized!) This is also a good time to preheat your oven to 150degrees.

Using a thrifted mini-muffin pan(I did think ahead about this part of the project), let the kids fill each cup with colors of their choice. Then get all anal again and make a little diagram so you know which one belongs to which kid.

Stick them in the oven for 25 minutes or more - til they melt together. Do not get all antsy when you look at them 20 minutes into it and see that they still look like individual nubs and crank up the heat to 175 and go watch the news forgetting about them. If you do this, you will get mini crayon soups. All will not be lost though because most will still turn out pretty cool and you will know that next time, they just need to be in there a lot longer or that the heat should be turned up just slightly.

Color and enjoy!

tea towel to cushion cover

Here's another thing I've been meaning to do for the past year. The fabric used for the cover is a tea towel I bought ages ago when I worked for April Cornell. The color and design appealed to me, but I haven't much use for a fringed tea towel lately. For a few years I draped it over the back of a chair in the living room, but it was turned into a dress up item by the girls too often. I got a little tired of picking it up off the floor when they were done with it.

Now it sits on the sofa looking lovely as a pillow.

The transformation was pretty easy. The towel was folded into thirds(or close to it depending on your towel and cushion size). The following shows the first fold. The design that you want to show on top should be folded in first. Remember to have the wrong side out.

Next, fold down the last third(or so). This fold will be hidden inside. Pin a few places on the sides. I'm lazy with the pinning, so I only put a few in to hold the fringe out of the way as I sewed.

Run two seams that match up with the size of the cushion insert. Mine left a two inch seam allowance. I didn't bother to cut off the excess, it was just tucked to the back of the insert. (I might want to undo do this at a later date, so I decided to keep all the fabric intact.)

Turn the cover right side out and insert the cushion.

pimp my ride

I got a new-to-me bike a few weeks ago. (A hand-me-down from Basia) I can't tell you how much I've been wanting a bike like this. The one I do have has a zillion gears on it and I have no idea how to use any of them. Plus, the bar on it is so high I can't ride it in a skirt. In my defense, when I bought it 20 years ago, I'd have laughed at anyone who said I might one day want to ride a bike while wearing a skirt. But now the problem has been solved. Behold my Schwinn Collegiate:

The wicker basket looks much better on this bike than it did on my mountain bike, but it needed a little sprucing up.

The fabric is from an old pair of Laura Ashley dungarees. Yes, I wore them out of the house once upon a time. It was when I had no problem looking like an overgrown toddler in public.

The fabric was cut so I could use the already existing pockets inside the basket to hold my keys and cell phone when the kids and I are out.

The bias tape binding was thrifted. A couple well placed buttonholes allowed the straps to run through the lining.

It still needs a bell.

retro grocery sacks

When Blackbird came to visit a few months back, she brought some fun, reusable grocery sacks that she'd spiffed up with her own style. It's just now occurring to me that I should have taken pictures of those to show my inspiration for what follows.

In any case, my mother-in-law(Basia) liked them and we decided to cover up the nasty Jewel - Osco logo on hers.

I used white felt and some fabric from the stash. It's a fun, novelty print that I bought and realized I had no idea what to make with it other than an apron. So it sat for quite a bit.

I cut out a few motifs, zig-zagged them to the felt(which was cut to size with pinking shears) and then sewed the felt to the bag with a straight stitch.

Now Basia'll be the hippest lady in the check out line.

earth day

I think it would make me a bad Unitarian if I didn't post something vaguely green today. So here you go - juice pouches recycled into a tote bag.

When I photographed it this morning I found it's showing signs of wear after a couple years of use, so please ingore the breaks in the stitching on the side seams. This one has been home to coloring books, paper and markers that we can grab on our way out of the house.

If you want to make one this size, you'll need 18 juice pouches (after they're empty, slit open the bottom of the pouch and wash the inside), some webbing for the handles (mine are each about 15" long), thread, and a larger size machine needle (I think I used a 90 - also note that once you use the needle on the pouches, it should never touch fabric again.)


Use a large zig zag stitch to join the pouches together with about 1/4" of the sides overlapping until you have the size you want for each side of the tote. The bottom will require overlapping the pouches to be the same length as the front and back of the tote. (I realize now that it would have been helpful to have taken a picture of that - sorry.)It's much easier to sew the handles in place on the front and back of the tote BEFORE you assemble all the sides. Once you've done that, sew the front and back to the sides with wrong sides together having your zig zag stitch run down the edge stopping about 1/4" to 1/2" before the bottom edge. (I used binder clips to "pin" my pieces together so I woudn't make holes in the bag with real pins.) Be sure to reverse your stitching at the start and end of the seams for strength.

Putting the base on is the tricky part. I stopped my seams short of the edge so I could fold out the bottom of each side to match and sew it easier to the bottom of the tote. I found it's easiest to treat each seam around the bottom separately - reversing at the start and end of each seam to lock it.

The kids love carrying this around - it gets a lot of attention. I've also seen small purses made out of the pouches too. Just subtract or add as many as you like to get the size you want.

By the way, the irony of posting an earth day project made of wasteful packaging isn't lost on me. We do try to use the pouches sparingly - when we're on the run somewhere.