Playing with Poof kitten

Wearing her first new winter dress, playing with Poof kitten I went through the fabric boxes yesterday and washed and stacked the things I will need to make her a few more after this same pattern. I have a green one with white sleeves cut out and ready to go. She will need at least two more dresses this size and a few more pairs of pants.   // Butterick pattern #3200, size 6, only alteration made was shortening the skirt //

The other day she was playing with Poof and her Mr.Frog toy and Daddy caught this shot of her with her tongue out.   This was just after I posted the magic show pics and had went to work.

We went to town today to get some plastic to insulate the windows, and a few other things.  I had her wear the dress and it fit well under her blue knit coat.  She has been watching Martha Speaks on PBSkids.org for days and now 'Martha' the invisible dog is always present and she feeds her steaks and leading her on a leash.





Butterick 3200
1960s, size 6
bought February 2011, and now in good use // Made the second dress today while Esme was at her Grandma's house. It is green with snowflake white sleeves, slightly different cut to the neck and treatment to the skirt gathering, but same everything else. It is nice to make some progress during days off. They take about a half hour or so to cut out, and about two hours to sew - and that can be hard to scrape that amount of time some days. Esme is watching Daddy play Skyrim now and telling him he needs to go to protect the village, she loves her village, it is safe now from the dragon.

Planning Winter dresses - first one

How to spend a Tuesday night sewing a dress and talking about the azimuth of the sun, axial tilt and how it pertains to day length and solar radiation...  Mark and I decided that Esme needs a better science book, as hers only gave half the story when we went to look at it.  I should have called my Mom - I have been hearing her voice in my dreams, her symbols - telephone everywhere in my subconscious.... this always happens.  But, I wanted to do this, and I didn't think it would get done.  Also, my sister and sister-in-law were having a catfight on my facebook page, so I decided to delete the message they were fighting over and have some peace and quiet for the night.  Esme began playing a weather dressup game on pbs along with her SuperWhy - and that led Mark and I into a scientific discussion about the weather.

Butterick pattern 3200 circa 1960, girls size 6 

Almost done, needs the sleeves finished, hem at the bottom, zipper in back.

This is the first for the winter, and if it fits well, several more will follow.  If it doesn't, I'll try another pattern in the box and see what gets me there best.

New dress for Esme, tunic shirt for Mama

Thank you to Daddy for taking pictures of both of us. I hope Novia sees them, as she was asking for them on Facebook.


putting on shoes

Bringing tomatoes to Grandma

the bag is wet
on second thought, she may be counting the tomatoes...

Mama has an upcoming career as a mad scientist, eh?

Esme's dress: Simplicity 5137, size 5, dated 1963. Sewn with no alterations except for the shortening of the skirt by half. It has a 7 inch zipper in it, and will need longer ones to keep her from growing out of them so quickly. With 9 inch zippers, these will make excellent winter dresses. My tunic shirt is the 'smash together' I was talking about a few days ago... needs a lot more work to make it fit me better, but this is usable, definitely good enough for working at home.

Both Esme's dress and my shirt were made with bits I had but did not have large investment in. There are other fabrics I will be happy using for her dresses now that I have a good 'plan of attack', ie: a pattern that is proven to fit.

//Note// The other day when I cleaned Esme's room I threw out almost everything underneath her bed. She saw it - and didn't cry as much as I had expected. Tonight she woke up in the middle of the night and had peed the bed - and I changed her bed. She hugged her Cookie Rabbit and Mr.Frog (her favorite lovey toys) and asked if they were 'ok' and they didn't get peed on, and they didn't have to go in the trash. I know maybe now why she shoves them way up under her pillow in the middle of the night - so nothing happens to them? It also affected me quite deeply that she thought I would throw them out... Mama is a meanie? There wasn't a lot under there that she really played with anymore, maybe a book 'The Magic of Everyday Things' that was not saveable, but I did know she liked. There was also one item that I did feel quite badly about throwing out on her, a cow flashlight she got last Christmas from a friend of mine at work. I dug it out after I put her back to bed and washed it with bleach downstairs - it wasn't really that bad, I just worried about the openings for the speakers hiding things I couldn't see.... It is bleached and waiting for her on her desk this morning. Mama is a softie, actually.