chicken bits and footies are nearly done

6 pm
I'm still working on the footies, they'll take me a bit. I've thought I could alter her pants pattern mishmash with the footies pattern to have feet, and line the feet with some extra flannel or muslin fabric and she'd have a warm pair of pajama pants and socks at the same time :) With a little tiny elastic around the ankles and the regular elastic around the waist that might work really well.

Mark went to town this morning while I got Esme up and rolling with her breakfast. He got cat food - so the cats would not eat us - and some other basics of what he and Esme will eat over the next few weeks. He fried up the chicken and froze it in bags for easy meals for them, and did all the dishes afterwards. Major kudos to him for getting all that done!

I have one more day 'on' tomorrow and then Friday off. We're going to go see what we can do Friday about straightening out some financials. We've been working all week on what can be trimmed and how to get some majorly needed insulation in the house before the winter heating bills start to hit. I'm doing the footed pajamas as an extension on that - if I know Esme is warm even without her blankets on all night then we won't have to turn the heat on so early etc etc... Always looking forward so it can't get the best of us.

In other news our poor Ninja cat, who was spayed last month, has some sort of terrible wound on her neck. We're worried about her even more because the usual treatments are not working on it. Mark is worried about staph or something she could have caught at the vet. We're watching it and may have to scrape things even harder at the moment if we need to take her in... such bad timing and a big source of underlying worry for me - but not sure what else to do.

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LATER: about 11 pm here now... I took my sewing machine to the kitchen and Esme blew bubbles for about an hour while I worked on the footies. Then she dumped the bubble solution on the floor (poor girl) and I made her come upstairs and talk to Daddy for a little bit... then she played blocks downstairs near my feet and had a cookie and some milk.. then she threw a fit over the cat not enjoying being chased with a rollerskate, and I put her to bed. She went to sleep pretty quickly and has been asleep for more than an hour. WOW. She usually stays up until eleven herself!

And I am NEARLY done with this complicated project. I never want to use this knit fabric again.. unless I get an overlock machine. I had to stitch nearly every seam three times. So I wanted to say I've moved from 'beginner' level clothing to 'intermediate' - but Mark says it is definitely "advanced sewing" after these footed pajamas! At least by modern standards..he said. But then - with a 1940s pattern, do modern standards count? *ha* I only have the zipper and a bit of inside finishing left to do and it looks good! I think I want to sew some 'naugahyde' vinyl stuff to the feet on the outside, too.. so they hold up longer. I have a little bit of it somebody at work gave me (leftover from a pillow project of hers.. really, a fake snakeskin vinyl pillow?) that will do the trick nicely. The whole thing might even fit her -- or be too big.. not sure yet. Initial measurements with a flexible tape said the length wasn't bad. Then a few minutes ago I laid it down on her while she slept and it looks like it is going to fit .. holding it up in my hand it looks LONG and HUGE.... maybe she is just getting bigger? Mark says that happens. He's right. ;)

working on the footies

Simplicity #3493 from 1940s - original unprinted pieces

I bought this pattern on Ebay last year. I didn't really WANT a 1940s footed pajama pattern - but it was hard to find any recent ones and this one was somewhere around five dollars. That is a lot for me to spend on a pattern, vintage or not - usually I'm looking at 25 cents up to three dollars shipped. Also, the construction of this type of clothing - with FEET, intrigued me enough to have to buy it. And now, I'm trying to put it to use.

I have the pattern all cut out and am examining the way it is put together to start some basting tacks in certain pieces. I had to use two different fabrics as the one I had bought specifically for the pattern fell short a bit. I'm only making the facings, belt and sleeves out of a regular lightweight flannel, and the rest is in a knit that is stamped 'suitable for children's sleepwear.' The lightweight flannel is leftover from backing Esme's baby blankets quite a long time ago now (or so it seems).

These pajamas have a backside that drops open when the belt is untied *giggle*... well we might need that soon, so.... **correction: umm... I was mistaken, the rear is just gathered funny right there - but it is enclosed**



I thought the pattern pieces looked very very LONG for Esme's height - and it is a size 4, not a size 3. BUT - I took a measuring tape from her shoulder to the start of her foot and across the top of her foot to the very tips of her toes.. and then the measurement seemed about right. So - I cut it out and am going to try it as it is. If anything, she'll grow into that one and I'll downsize it and try again.

Footies needed, gotta get to work

It is starting to get cold, and Esme won't use her blankets without constant guarding from me, getting up in the middle of the night and putting them back on every hour etc... I have a pattern for some footed pajamas for her - and need to dig out the fabric I had bought for it long ago (flannel, but meant for pajamas).... Then I might feel a bit better about her sleeping without her blankets. I feel a little better the electric bill wasn't as high as we had expected. That gives us a bit more to go around at the moment.

//gotta get to work - first at the store, then on the footed pajamas

Red raglan shirt with the birds

It was so cold last night! I got up in the middle of the night and put on a second shirt and another blanket on the bed! I tucked Esme into her blankets as well, but that lasted maybe five minutes before she threw them back off....oh well, we try. I think I sewed for about three hours last night and Esme fell fast asleep watching Spongebob, which she calls 'BeeBob'.

I was 'bad' last night on the way home from work - I was supposed to buy a can of coffee - for myself - and instead I couldn't resist this bird fabric and put the coffee off until after the weekend. I still have a little coffee at home, and inspiration is worth it. If you know me well - that is a big statement to hear! I just saw little raglan sleeves made out of the bird fabric! I had also bought some regular sleeve fabric (white on white) and fell for a red fabric with white flowers that was actually not even unwrapped yet. I kept staring at it while she cut the other two and finally asked if it was for sale yet - and she unwrapped it and cut me a half yard ;) I spent five dollars on all three fabrics but being unexpected I still count that as a splurge. I know I have so much fabric I can use at home - but they keep threatening to close down the department at that WM and when I see something I would really like - I worry it won't be there soon. I think they have it all planned that way - because I saw a LINE at the counter that night to buy fabric. The red fabric this shirt is made of is a regular polycotton. It is from my stash. So, I am using my stash fabric up as well! Polycotton doesn't stretch as much or lay as nicely as pure cotton but I wasn't willing to cut into the other fabric without having the pattern planned out better.


I did not brush her hair out before the picture - because then she would expect to go to town/Grandma's house and bug me mercilessly. I'll brush it out later when we really will go to Grandma's house (we hope)

I searched through my patterns and could not find the front pieces for the raglan pattern at all :( So I tried once again to make it up - and ran into a tiny problem with the underarm of the sleeve in the front. It was not as bad as I thought it would be when I tried it on her - it just pulls a tiny bit when she reaches far forward. I'll try to fix that when I cut into the rest of the fabric I bought.


If you look right under and behind the arm you see the 'pull'
The neck would lay better in a different fabric
but I might also cut it a bit deeper on the next.


The black fabric has little white quails on it in leaves

I put the circle in the front of the bodice while Esme was playing longer in the bathtub. I felt bad about losing that odd corner of the fabric without anything to do with it - and decided that was a good use for it.

happy alphabet blanket

Happy smile over 'mine blanket' and being able to sit on it on the floor

A-Z animal panel

I cut out all the patchwork I was going to do and just joined it to some primary flannel I had sitting on the shelf. I 'quilted' it with a border all around the edge and following the lines of the squares inside the panel. It is very pretty - and she really likes it. I don't think it will see much bed use though, unless I can convince her. She doesn't think the bed is 'fun' - and she does think the blanket is fun, for sitting on the floor! I put it in the wash and hope to dry it before I put her to bed tonight. I was thinking about saving it for her birthday but Mark suggested I wrap her up in it immediately after it was done. It was a hard decision!

asleep kid

This was the other day. Mark snapped the shot when I was at work, to show me when I got home. Yes, we have changed her out of those clothes since then - but there are days we have the camera snapping all day and then days we go without snapping a single shot. Que sera, sera. I did think it was really cute :) She has been asleep tonight after a long trip with Grandpa and Daddy today. They had to go pick up something that Grandpa ordered in the truck. She ate lots of donuts and 'chicken leg' on the way there and back and was entirely passed out when I got home. Mama always feels a little odd when she is asleep when I get home. First thing, I know she will wake up sometime in the middle of the night. Second thing, I wonder how to get her back to sleep early enough for me to sleep for the next day's work! YEEP!

ha.
We watched 101 Dalmations last night rented from Netflix. She loved it. She stayed up until midnight engrossed in it. She loved it when the mommy dog and the daddy dog found all the babies and she said 'They saved! yay!' when the collie came and pulled them all in from walking in the snow and they ate food and slept. She has surprised me with the concept of being 'saved' - she understands when someone is in trouble or in danger and they are helped by someone else. I was astounded to see her say 'they saved' to the screen all by herself.. really I was. She was so excited about that. And when the mom and dad were surrounded by puppies she said 'awww they so CUTE, all the puppies, SO CUTE, mumum doggie and daddy doggie and lots of puppies they FOUND them they are SO CUTE.' etc etc... Her language is just getting more and more complex lately again - I can't even explain the subtle changes we've been hearing, and with syntax that often is 'upside-down'. Example: "Mumum no go work you STAY COME HOME." And more and more, she sounds EXACTLY like me when she is saying 'no' about something. It is the same tone of voice, same spacing of words.. like a tape recorder in a tiny toddler voice. She even makes some of my exact same faces. HOW? And once in a while she will do the same thing but a take on Mark - something he says like 'refill your cup' or a thing with her eyebrows. It is amazing to me ;)

I cannot wait for Sunday off.

Other NOTE: My dreams have been so crazy lately - SNOW, so many of the dreams have been about snow it is not even funny. Driving in it, walking in it, getting lost in it.. having it come into buildings where I am. I think I'm terrified about getting stuck in it again this year. And last night I dreamt of cooking potato gnocchi and strawberry creme fraiche... ??? I have no clue where even those names came from. I must have been hungry. I could never cook such things, and couldn't in the dream either. I didn't even have a recipe and was trying to figure it all out in some 'test.'

There was something very 'deep' the cooking teacher (who was someone close to me) in the dream said - If I were to put it in babelfish it is closest to 'trésor dans le plus petit des herbes'- the treasure is in the smallest of herbs/crumbs.... that part was about life - not about cooking... it had a deep impact on me when I woke up.

Also, it is strange, in my dreams nobody really truly 'talks' - they speak in my mind, in written words... because I do NOT know how to pronounce that sentence, or even the word 'gnocchi' or the word 'fraiche' - but they were all spelled out in my memory in the dream. What is that about? I 'see' words in my sleep, instead of hear them *haha again*