Toddler book sewing

Here are some spring toddler looks for Henry.  I love the way the Japanese patterns actually fit people unlike the big four (butterick, simplicity, McCalls, Vogue) which seem to be designed for creatures much larger than humans.   Japanese pattern books (well at least for the children) have yet to fail me.  You can pick them up on ebay, esty, or superbuzzy.

The fabric used here is all from old clothes picked up from garage sales. That is the great the thing about sewing for babies - it doesn't take much fabric.

New favorite pattern book

I have named this one "Toddler Book" but Marie' said the translation is something like..."clothes for children who are starting to walk".  Henry is starting to walk and since I can't shrink him I'll just keep sewing to keep him clothed. 

Wordful Wednesday: Poetry

This is a playful kid poem, something I composed for my baby who I can't believe is 1 today!

The Shrinking Machine

My kids think I'm mean
For, I've invented a shrinking machine,
I'll wait 'till they sleep and just stick 'em right in
And Zip! Zap! Beep! Whirl! give it a spin

From four feet to three, I'll stop it at two
Look at them now! my babies brand new.
With three on my lap and the rest strapped to my back
Now, where do I buy a six baby front pack?

A multi-task mama tries to get it all done
But diapers, dishes, messes soon take from the fun
The Caution! tag reads: "This spell will not last"
For babies and children, they grow up too fast

So hold them now kiss 'em, cradle them too
Play with them, listen, something else I should do
Look right in their eyes and capture their voice
Then let them grow up, there's really no choice

Tonight I'll just leave them and let 'em all sleep
Then shut down the shrinker with a beep, beep, beep, beep
But wait! an idea for the machine, something I missed
Instead I'll just load my growing to-do list

More Wordful Wednesday here

Batik dresses

Here are two of the finished sewing projects from last week.  The fabric is from Marie', she picked it up for me in Hawaii last year.  The pattern is from the lock stitch kids Japanese pattern book, Marie's mom picked that up for me in Japan.  

The horses are from a garage sale, I picked them up this morning for $.50 a piece.  

One of the horses has already lost a hoof and one of the dresses has already seen the washing machine all because one little girl got into a jar of spaghetti and tried to sit on her horse.  

Oh yeah, she also has tiger stripes down her arm and across her belly because she had fun with a pen. Can you guess which little girl I'm talking about?  

Workout Challenge

9 years and 6 babies - it's a hard road to get back.  The running happens only about 3 times a week and I still can't break a 10 minute mile.  I am actually giving up my spot in the Wasatch Back relay to my 15 year old nephew.  It's not that I can't face the challenge but I'm just choosing to be wise in how hard I push myself. But the idea of the relay was enough to get me back on the road to fitness.

To add to the fitness challenge I can't get through sit-ups, push-ups or stretching without at least 2 kids crawling all over me. Paul just laughs and says it adds resistance.

Even more amusing though is me trying to do yoga with the 3 littlest ones crawling around. My surroundings are far from the zen landscapes on the instruction videos, the instructors themselves look like robots perfectly sculpted, not a hair out of place smoothly moving from position to position without the slightest grimace. Meanwhile there is me kicking toys out the way as I stretch to downward dog and then attempt to hold tree pose with a 2 year old clinging to the one standing leg.  I'm suppose to be slowly exhaling but instead I just start cracking up and ask myself why I even try.     

Tired

I like to wear my huge tie-dye hoodie when I'm tired.

Two days, 10 kids under 10, playground, fabric store, garage saling, 4 dozen homemade bagels, and 32 patterns drafted.....too much fun! I wish Marie' lived closer so we wouldn't have to cram it all into one weekend.

The coming weeks will be full of some mad sewing (and maybe just a little running).

Challenged?

Breakfast was served at 10:00 am

Lunch was served at 2:30 pm

Dinner was scrambled eggs

But I got my jeans done! I had to because Marie' is visiting this weekend and I couldn't have this project hanging over me when there are so many more to start.  She is bringing her collection of Japanese books and most likely we'll spend our time drafting for Spring/Summer.  I don't think we'll get to sewing but at least my head and conscious will be clear of this "challenge". 

So was it really challenging? Once I got past the inconvenience of making a muslin, no.  I remember when Suz started making bagels I thought it was so random and such a waste of time.  It was hard for me to believe anyone could make homemade bagels better than a bagel shop, but I was wrong.  Now I kind of think of making jeans like making bagels - once you get the right fit and supplies you can make them way better (and cheaper) than you could get from ready-to-wear.  These were just my first pair and I'm not saying they are perfect but I was quite impressed with the results from the other participants in the pattern review sew along. I see more home sewn jeans in our future.

Pattern review is new to me probably because the only thing worse to me than using a sewing pattern is following a recipe exactly. But there is a wealth of sewing knowledge and support there so I'm hooked. Here is the very first review I posted.

I will also note that there were no baked in black threads this time but I forgot to clean the flour off my multi-purpose work surface so the back of my jeans are heavily dusted in spelt flour.

Also, I am still undecided about the button. These actually evolved into more of a trouser/jean with the front and back pin tucks so I'm wondering if I should just do a hook and eye closure or should I go ahead and order a real jean button? Any suggestions?

Oh yeah, I'm not even going to mention the running challenge......