Fitness Bits and a leather jacket

Now we have a weekend - but so many things to do.  I have a store meeting very early Sunday.  On Monday we are helping grandma with the cats.  Today we looked for jackets for Esme as it is getting cold in the mornings.  Mark found a black leather jacket at the outlet store.... adult size small - as in, Esme size... We decided to get it when we got our chicken.  I will have to get a picture soon of her 'coolness' jacket heh.

I still need to sew the shorts - but maybe now they will be more like knee pants.

I have been using the fitness tracker for about two weeks.  There hasn't been a dat that the fat percentage has been less than 35%. There were several days it was nearing 50%.  The reccommendations say 20-35% max for fat in the percentage ratios.  But the calorie count and sugars have been within the goal each day.   That is just the way I eat...  I wonder if my grandmother's Anishinaabe blood has something to do with it.

At least I am getting good exercise and stretching.  I can feel my muscles protesting heh.  Mark points out that I already have a quite physical job - throwing showers, toilets and vanity cabinets around (as well as pipe and boxes of plumbing goods) on a daily basis.  I also do a lot of walking at work, back and forth across the large store over and over and over... but it only works some of my muscles and leaves others with needing more.  The simple routines I've picked out for the yoga mat help get the shoulders and hips more, and the workout moves target specific areas in my arms (small weights) and legs that are not usually exercised by simply lifting and pivoting large boxes.  Considering my abdominals are now complaining to me about the bike and plank combination means I must be getting somewhere!

Simplicity 6824

 

It's been four years since I bought this pattern, thinking - the size 7s aren't that far away...since I was sewing size 6s then.  Well, we're finally there *ha* but maybe a bit beyond.  Esme is eight, now - but her measurements aren't far off from this pattern.  I did have to add an inch and a half to the shirt sleeve for comfort that she wouldn't grow out of the shirt tomorrow.  

 

in size 7, shirt without collar

The pattern is from 1974.

I made view 1 long sleeved shirt, but did not do the collar.  I have this thing I do with facing and turning over the front edge into a collar-like creature.  Esme said the shirt looked like a blazer, to her.  She had wanted the heart buttons on I think the watermelon backpack project - but they really didn't fit or have any purpose there.  So, she was happy when I said this was a project they could work in.

I finished it last night and she wore it to bed like a pajama shirt.  I promised her I can make a pair of pink cotton pants to go with it and maybe she can even wear it at a sleepover later this year.

If I made another one I'd make the tails a little longer.  The nice thing about shirts is that if they fit well in the breast and armhole areas - you can alter the length of sleeve and front as much as you want.

Sewing for School Clothes

These are the sleeveless dress tops I've made for Esme's first grade school year.  There are a few more things on my list to make.  I've completed two out of the four pairs of pants. 

 

 Esme says this is 'Horse City' - and she enlisted my help in making it a bit more than she had started out with - it now has a public library, grocery store, 'clock' tower with a pointy top, and her potions store, and my cloth store.  She put a big roll of purple cloth on top of the cloth store, and a 'bottle' on top of the potions store.  She insisted on there being a playroom and bathroom in the library.

 

The rail system and house she built entirely by herself.  Mark and I were both impressed by her use of powered rail and lever switches.  She had a disagreement with me about the pronunciation of the word 'lever'... and didn't know why we laughed when she said we had said it wrong.  

List for sewing school clothes

I have some of these done - but no pictures yet.  So, for now - I am just posting the list.
School starts in about three weeks -- I have to get cracking.

2 Sleeveless dress tops with zipper backs - because August is still HOT here. (pics soon)
1 Long sleeved 'fancy' dress - I'm thinking a repeat of her purple flower ruffled one from last year.
A short sleeved dress top with zipper back
A long sleeved or 'kimono sleeve' over jacket with buttons
4 pairs of new pants with pockets.  (1 pair is done)

Then to buy:
1 pair of storebought jeans or legging jeans
A package of socks
A new pair of shoes
3 plain t shirts or 2 tshirts and another shirt she chooses
maybe a pair of leggings to try for wearing under a skirt

// I am using a lot of the fabric I received from the lady at work a few months ago, and need to replenish a little bit of thread in order to get the rest of these done.  Her pants are so long now it is hard to find a piece of fabric that will cut all of the pieces out... that is the hardest.  The dresses are a bit easier as I can split the pieces up and find ways to make them work out of two fabrics.

I am drawn to pattern... perhaps I am a gypsy?

The striped knitted blanket I've been working on since December, and a patchwork quilt that gets a few rows put on it every few months or so... it's about two or three years old now.  Today I may be finally ready to put the yellow diamond/triangle area onto the square part of the quilt.  It has been in progress for the past month or so and finally got to the proper width.

I can say I am drawn to the 'Bohemian' pattern and decorating style.   When I search through home decorating catalogs and websites I always end up saving the things that are full of intricate pattern and color.   It really isn't a surprise.  We live in the middle of the woods with ten dogs, live close to the land all summer and make as much of what we own as I can.  I am always telling Esme we can make that - or do something like that... and she also appreciates how much of the house has been made by 'us'.

Everything I make ends up being so brightly colored, unique and full of pattern and details that sometimes take much longer than anyone else would spend on them..... I get bored with one pattern in something - I start another.. and it all seems to fall together.  My art is like this, as well - intricate pen drawings that curl and squiggle and burst into color here and there...telling stories with animals and flowers and geometries that blend into each other as they move from one side of the page, to another.  Layers on layers of meaning... histories... time and thought encapsulated into craft.

Oh, and I wove more on the rug last night, added several more color bands.  Esme said it would be her rug - as the one she had in her room (that was made on the loom last year) was trashed in the water incident in January.  I had been planning to make a chair cushion cover out of it... but I think it is probably about the right size for her room in front of her bed.

Also, because of the weaving I felt like I was beaten this morning - had forgotten how much my arms and shoulder muscles - and back and hip muscles as well - used to hurt from the sitting upright, balancing the loom and moving the yarn back and forth again and again... it is a workout these muscles aren't used to anymore...

//note for later
Esme is outgrowing everything again.  I need to patch a few pairs of pants that have now become capris (highwater by two inches or more!) and go through the fabric stash to see what is available to make her some more.  measurements 25ch, 22w with 24 inch outer hip-ankle measurement - hemmed pants to 26 inch total length from Simplicity 8717 size 6.

New blue shorts set and calico puppies growing up

 This is the matching set she asked for the other day... she needed more playclothes and said she wanted them to match each other like the purple set I made a while back.  She is playing Minecraft on the computer.

Caught a shot here with Daddy and the calico puppies Sweetie (left) and Spud (right).  They are growing up, and so is Esme.  She is getting so tall.  She had written a letter to Gw today and begged me to deliver it to her father at my work.  It was the first thing she asked me about this morning.. and the first thing she asked after I got home from work.

Second day of school drawing and a bit of sewing

Esme's coloring today, and a drawn in bus driver because, the children needed one.

When she colored her gingerbread man she gave him a nose and pupils in his eyes that were not in the original drawing, either.  I love seeing her extra details.

Made three pairs of blue shorts today... Esme wants me to make some matching shirts tomorrow - it's possible on the pale blue one, but maybe not quite on the purple one.  Her other requests were rainbow colors or maybe something green?

Handmade things by KnitOwl - and other bits

The KnitOwl shop is still open, and I will be adding things to it as I can.  There is so much handmade in this house and the 'fall to winter rush' for our own use is almost over - so there is time (I hope) to make some other things.

Scarves being made for the

KnitOwl shop 

 100% wool, basketweave hand knit 

brown variegated and (coming) blue variegated 

Esme talking to me about being out in the frost before we take her to school


Size 6 1960's smock dress with back zipper

Handmade toys in several styles
Bambi toy and blue summer - to - fall dress

Someone at Esme's school said they recognized her 'from the internet, somewhere'... if you made it here then 'Hi!' - this is our little corner, and where I post the clothing I make for Esme,   I was "just" a toymaker, making custom dolls and animals for people at my Etsy shop for five years before I had Esme.  But then I couldn't find anything that fit her right - and I dove into making clothing as well.   Women in my family have made clothes and toys for their families for generations. My mom passed along some general sewing knowledge but not much about clothes - so I had to learn as much as I could by doing, trial-and-error, and seeing what other people were doing on the Internet at the same time.

There are a lot of 'handmade' clothing shops out on the Internet - everyone is different, and my style of making is much more 'old school' than many of those out there now.  I don't know many who would hand work a buttonhole anymore, and my sewing friends think I am nuts to sew in a zipper by hand.  But, I do it because it turns out better for me.   I found out that these handmade clothes actually last a lot longer than storebought knits and were a better investment for our household in the long run.  And, I didn't have to fight dressing rooms and too-tight t-shirt necks.   Each piece takes about an hour to three hours of handwork and sewing machine work, and has zigzagged interior seams, turned and edged facings, handworked buttonholes and zippers sewn in by hand.  The clothes are sewn using 'antique' or vintage patterns (1940s to 1970s collection, size 2 through 10) and given alterations based on what the child needs.  I face with simple cotton fabrics and do not use seam or bias tape.

I do take custom orders - but only for those serious few who want handmade 'old made' things... the results will last a long time, hard washing in the washing machine and hard play outdoors in mud and rain.  However, they do require measurements and sometimes a try on to see where the 'problem areas' are.  For myself, the problem area is my wide shoulders.  For little one, it is also the wide shoulders, long legs and skinny waist.  When things are handmade, allowances can be discovered and made for such things that would require long searching in off-the-rack clothes!

All that said - I still work full time, and sometimes growth spurts here keep me from making much at all otherwise.  Maybe that will change over the next year - we'll see. I'll try to put up a few more things in the shop, and see if there is anyone out there willing to take the dive!

Black Friday, riding in the car in her handknit jacket, helping to take Mom to work

 

Size 5 Blue long sleeved dress and shorts from 1960s McCalls pattern with back ties 

Hobby Horse
 

Green dress (no pics)

My green "princess seam" dress is almost finished - need to do something with the sleeves, which will take another day I don't have right now. At this point it is NOT a princess seam dress at all... but a pattern all of my own that started back with a dress pattern that was missing two major pieces.. went through a muslin (base cheap fabric) where the holes were filled in, and then became a full almost-original pattern. I've kept with it because it really has been a brain flex.

It is wearable, fits reasonably well and doesn't pull anywhere when I turn, reach or sit down. I can get into it myself and if pressed, pull the zipper all the way up the back as well (but Mark doesn't mind helping *wink*) I kept from making it TOO tight around the waist for that very reason - didn't want the 'prom dress' feel where you can't actually move normally in the garment. I also didn't want a shapeless thing that wasn't made for 'me' at all... it's hard to come to a compromise there. The dress could act better though in certain circumstances - like a little 'flare' in the middle it does just before I sit down, that disappears when I actually sit down... I think I know how to fix that. And the back is somewhere in between a pleat and a 'what happened there?' just below the zipper... so need to add or take away fabric there. Mark said it was a decent attempt for a first draft. Even better it is not 'granny dress' at all... which I was worried about it becoming.

The main things I need to do to the pattern : Extend the front skirt panel triangle out on the bottom a little... to reduce that 'flare' happening higher up. Heighten the back neckline about an inch in the center - because my back is cold! Add or trim some fabric from the back center skirt at the zipper area and probably reduce the back center bodice a bit as well (because I needed to take in an inch on each side on the second zipper run). That is probably where that extra fabric in the skirt came from.

Nark says hanging up the dress on a hanger and seeing that it is perfectly symmetrical might help, too... because frankly, I'm not perfectly symmetrical myself - so a tiny bit of pull the dress has to one side might be better served if the dress was tweaked on one side or the other.

There might not be pics of it for a good while though... I have alien monster doll orders and a bit of sewing I promised to do for a lady at work. And Esme's birthday is coming up! I haven't even gotten a full coat of paint on the little playhouse but it is put up on a table in the studio and Esme has not seen it yet.

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.

---

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. ;)

What is there - a pants fairy?

Is there a pants fairy like the tooth fairy? That comes in the middle of the night looking for loose pairs of pants and takes them away? Just kidding - but some days I wonder. I just did the laundry after going through Esme's clothes. There are many more pairs of pants I _remember_ making that I have not found there.... who knows where they are. The most recently made pairs are there. I cut out another pair at work today and sewed it when I got home. I need to keep it up here and there to outpace the pants fairy!

Little Long Sleeved Dresses

Both size 3, zip up the back and long sleeves for winter. They fit her quite well. Both went through the wash beautifully. I'll hope to get a better picture of them on her than I did the other day.

Pattern: Simplicity 9641 from 1971

A Handmade Dress for Esme

I love how the light catches her eyes here.

I saw a handmade dress similar to this one on Etsy - but it was far out of my price range. Plus, I can sew... so I found a pattern similar to it at the local store and made this up out of flea market fabric.

The buttonholes are handsewn, which was the most difficult part. I could do them on the machine if I could figure out which parts to interchange. Somehow I never get around to that and instead spend an extra 10 minutes to an hour handsewing them.



It is a 'swing dress', that is put on over her feet and then brought up and buttoned over the shoulders.



and, even in a 'real-world shot' (not the best lighting etc) you can see the dress still allows her to move around, standing or sitting and playing with her toes. She can even crawl in it without it hindering her movement - although the middle looks a little funny in some positions. It should fit her as a dress for another few months and then graduate to more of a shirt with a simple alteration of where the buttons are placed.

Also: The pants I made Esme a few months ago are still fitting and are in and out of the wash all of the time. Soon I'll need to make a few more pairs in the next size up! I also bought some Alexander Henry dragon fabric like the dress I saw online -- and hope to get a dress and a pair of pants out of it for a nice outfit :)

Crafting365; day 17: Baby pants for the shop and Puck's wounds

Mark took Puck to the vet yesterday and he came back with a pretty good prognosis. She has three large holes/bites taken out of her (one shown in the picture). She didn't get any stitches, there wasn't enough skin around any of the wounds for stitching to be good. She did get lots of antibiotics and some wound spray etc... that we have to put on her often. And we have to keep a close eye on her, which is the hardest part since she thinks she feels better already.

Hope this isn't too graphic a picture. The wounds look worse on the other side, not so bad from this angle. I've already told her several times that I missed her when she was gone and that she had better take care of herself.



Crafting365: I've been stacking up baby pants to put in the shop. Esme has some to keep for herself, too :) She loves the bright colors of the fabrics I found at the quilt shop!


Handmade 3-6 months size baby pants at the shop

Crafting365; day 12: Some sewing patterns have sane sizing

Some sewing patterns have sane sizing
say that ten times fast... ;)


These fit!
Even though she is only four months old, most of the 'store-bought' clothes Esme now wears are 6 months size. I've made three pairs of baby pants, 12 mo, 6 mo and 3 month sizes. The 3 month size fits her. Apparently there are still 'sanely-sized' clothing patterns in the world. I also saved each of the other sizes on newspaper as I cut down the pattern to 'small' - so no worrying about when she outgrows this size :)


A custom dolly order for the shop
for a special little girl on her way to America.

Accumulating...

Accumulating
I've been to the flea market twice to pick up things, and a few garage sales. We found a stroller with big wheels and a baby bathtub this morning to put away. I'm accumulating a small pile of 0-3 and 3-6 mo. clothes here in this red toy chest. The things I've made are in plastic bags to the left, and hope to take patterns off a few more of the ready-mades. This little pink jacket (on top in picture) shouldn't be too hard to copy.

I've also been having those dreams pregnant women get ;) I've dreamt yesterday morning that I gave birth in the back of a bus - and this morning that instead of one baby there were quadruplets (who somehow magically turned into two year olds when I turned my back.. and I was really confused!).

Made another baby hat and am avoiding working on the baby sweater -- not for any specific reason except I haven't successfully made a sweater before. Mark's mom gave me a bag of her old yarn, and the Simply Soft has really come in handy. I also mail-ordered some cotton Knitpicks Shine, sport and worsted, to knit more baby pants, hats and other items out of.

Mark ordered a Roomba robotic vaccum cleaner a few weeks ago, and it arrived today. I'm not sure which web store he bought it from, but it was a remarkably good deal. The animals are a little freaked out, but so far they are taking it as a non-communicative cat that really likes to go around running into things ;)

Mark has given the Roomba a name - "Marvin", after the robot in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Because: What happens when it gets stuck while trying to get over something? It gets depressed and goes away...

A few more finished objects...

Two knit baby hats and a sewn pair of pants.
I used the size 3-6 mo. pink pair of pants from the flea market finds to make a pattern for some elastic-waisted cotton pants for Bazooka. This pair is a little smaller than the original, but I'll make a few larger pairs as well. I tried a few variations on baby hat patterns I found online. I liked the pattern for the pink hat much better than the green.

Pink hat: Size 6 DPN knitting needles and 'Simply Soft' yarn.
CO 66, split between needles and join to knit in the round.
Knit one row of garter stitch.
K5, P1 for 9 to 10 centimeters - then begin to decrease (row of K4, P2tog / row of K3, P2tog) etc decreasing the number of knit stitches until you reach a total P2tog row (Knit zero, purl 2 together) - break off long tail and draw yarn through all loops pulling tight and firmly secure ends of yarn.