Showing posts with label sewing clothes for kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sewing clothes for kids. Show all posts

Saturday, July 19, 2014

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.  

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Super Kangaroo girl (unlined cape with ears sewing project)

Super Kangaroo Cape, with a hood, with ears
I love this picture :)

It's not Batman, Mom - it is a Kangaroo cave, in the DESERT. 

Looking at herself in the mirror. It is a nice length and this picture showed it off well.

McCalls pattern 6631
'red riding hood style cape'
size 6, 1940s
I bought this back in December 2011 and finally got a good enough ambition to make it.
 


 
A few shots of her playing in the garden with me this morning...
I told her she looked like a hobbit.. and she said no definitely a Kangaroo..

Thursday, July 11, 2013

two sleeveless dresses and two more previously unpictured

'What you doing with that picture, Mama?' 
This is her tough girl face, and a sleeveless home dress made from a pillowcase that Grandma gave us over a year ago for sewing scrap.  The sleeves are just sewn under a bit, not faced, and the back has a mock-up tacked on buttonhole and button - like the pink owl sleeveless shirt she has.. but that serves well enough for home and washes up decent.
 

I tried to do the yellow one here with actual faced sleeves and I have deemed it well enough to wear to school - but much too fussy of a sewing project to do many more... It takes so much longer for less - odd, huh?  I didn't iron the fabric and it had sat in the sewing case for a while rumpled up, so it will need a wash and dry before it is really school ready.  The center one I did last week out of green fabric I really loved at the store.  The navy one was my attempt to make one like the 2011 dress, but it looks very formal and 'winter holidays' compared to the pastel ones.  I haven't even seen it on yet - maybe that thought will change.  I hope with the varying sleeve length and varying weights of these and her other dresses will adjust with the weather.  As it is likely to just be HOT though.. I might have to get over the 'uphill' feel of the sleeveless pattern and do more of them anyway.

And I need to make shorts and pants.. but they are so 'boring' compared to this, it is hard to sit down and do them unless they are very much needed.  I just transferred three pairs of older pants into shorts because of tears and slashes at or below the knee that were too large to patch. 

Back to work tomorrow - and Esme has school.  Mark will have to drive around a bit more...  I could tell she was with lots of other kids today.. she galloped around with her toys, talked about 'getting married' for half of the Short Circuit movie (is he getting married to that cow now?  is he getting married to that robot with the voice that sounds like a girl?) and then later told me that her teacher said that toys don't cry. 

Thursday, July 04, 2013

bits before school starts...

It's the Fourth of July, and I have tomorrow off.  I just got home from work and we are watching Alpha and Omega with Esme.. but aren't sure if we are going to go try to view any fireworks...  I just had a discussion with Esme about which finger symbols are polite and which ones aren't... she informed me that the little finger and the thumb up in the 'y' symbol means 'rock on' and if you see rockers you do that to tell them they are cool... and I had to inform her not to do another one because she was showing me blackberry juice on that finger and it wasn't a good symbol... Now she is saying 'who is going to raise their hand up for the fireworks store - who will raise their hand up - anyone?'  She has changed so much in the past month or so... again.  Mark said in the truck the other night she 'talks and talks and talks and...' and he is wishing he had headphones on some days ;)  She has been telling a lot more stories and singing songs off the computer and wanting to reenact things off computer etc etc etc...    We had fresh corn from the garden today and Esme was scared of it so Daddy ended up eating hers... the puppies are outside wrestling and playing tug of war with the shucked husks.

I have made four dresses for Esme for school - which starts on Monday the 8th...  and four or five pairs of pants... I have some navy fabric for one more dress and would have to poke through my fabric to find another yard for more pants.  Esme had taken her blue dress out of the closet the other morning and put it on - but took it back off and hung it up again when she wanted to play mud.  She has not been so nice with the pants which she found out where I had been hiding them....

We are getting ready to head out the door to go see some fireworks...
It was a small show, but we had a good place.  Esme was hilarious with her 'I am going to go be mad in the truck with the windows closed' routine... stubborn.  'Stop making me happy.' ... 'I'm busy being mad!' etc..  She was trying to get us to 'socialize', go around and say hello to all the children and then she would take them by the hand and they would share their light toys and they would laugh HA HA HA and they would be friends.  She was quite upset that we didn't know anyone enough for that and it was dark.. so it wasn't a good time to try that.  She was sulking in the car when Mark said 'There's nothing in there except gummy bears'... then she turned on the car light, retrieved the gummy bears, and waited five minutes or so before apologizing for being mad and getting one of us to open them.  She kept saying the fireworks were too far away and we needed to go over there...  

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Purple Gray dress for Kindergarten

 Probably a touch on the 'formal' side - she said it was 'just like a gown', but it is the same basic idea as the other dresses I made for her last year, and which she wore to preschool.  This was fabric I had on hand and a remnant from her other dress for 'pretty'.  I had some pink fabric I wanted to use but it wasn't washed and dried yet.  The fit is just about perfect so it should be easy to whip up a few more time permitting.

I played with the front pleats a little because the back pleats were SO full... hopefully it looks like a happy medium.  The sleeves on this work out the most perfect of any pattern (this is Butterick 3600 again, size 6 with very few alterations, copyright 1960).  The zipper up the back does make it really easy for her to put on - doesn't sound like it would, huh?  She can get her head and arms into it without any 'trapped' feeling and then come to us to pull the zipper up.  It fits on a hanger nicely and she is learning to pull the zipper down to get the hanger out.

A few more of these and she will be ready for K this year - and a few new pairs of pants.  As Mark said last night, she will be 'teased' by those kinds of kids no matter what she wears - and this works for us on all levels.  Until she asks for something else in particular I'll sew her some high quality well-fitting clothing and send her off in it and we'll see where she leads me about it.

For pants I'm using size 5 Simplicity 6583 copyright 1974 and it is a perfect fit, as well - just the right length and with a 21 inch elastic in the waist.

Interesting:  We are watching 'Colonial House' on DVD borrowed from Grandma, and I am examining the set of their sleeves, and the arrangement of pleats and tucks while I was sewing this dress up at the same time... ironic :)  I know that those clothes were made by hand by someone for the show - but I doubt they were made specifically for those people, just to a general size.  The people on the show think the clothes are uncomfortable...  I am making these dresses for Esme because they fit her better and last longer than storebought..

I'm sure the insides of the 'period' clothing are much less simple though.. and multiple layers would not help with comfort, and being in an environment full of bugs without air conditioning in the heat or heat in the cold adds on to that as well.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Pink star jacket - McCalls 8005 circa 1960s

I cut this jacket out a few weeks ago while we were at the library.  I finally got onto it today and finished it a little while ago.  The embroidery on the back is something I had cut out long ago and had not finished - it was perfect for this as I had accidentally made a black line down the center of the back piece in the middle before I knew it!

She said she liked to wear this jacket a long time, it is really comfortable, and she likes that I made it for her to stay warm in all the wind outside.  Those are very good words for her :)  Every day lately Mark and I look at each other and know her language has improved - full sentences, new concepts she gets from tv or computer that we understand what she means without having seen it, repeating names she has heard that are difficult but I do usually understand them.  She is also comparing words that are 'similar' like 'Brady' and 'braided' and knowing they are sounding the same.  She has said that things sound like other things, and said she has heard or smelled something and described it - which I cannot remember hearing much of before.  And all the theories she is coming up with lately are interesting, too.. so many of them - families, protecting each other in storms or when the lights are off or what will happen when I am finished with my computer or sewing machine etc etc...  She saw the news on Grandma's tv and told me it was a bad commercial - a tornatdo commercial, and the playground was in trash and needed help.  She has also told me that things on tv are 'just new', not real... so we have learned the word 'imaginary' or 'just a story'...but that the news really happened somewhere.  She asked 'In Texas?'  Well, the last tornado she saw was in Texas, so I understand that...


pattern used: McCalls 8005, houserobe pattern copyright 1965 size 6

Sunday, March 03, 2013

Dahlia dress and almost first lost tooth



I know we've used this doorknob as a height indicator for a while in pictures - now her head is actually even with the lock above the doorknob. She is 46 inches tall.

This is also the Dahlia dress I made last night out of the modern (2012 copyright) pattern.  McCalls M6594.  The elasticized neckline took so long to make - and I worry that it will not hold up.  We will have to see.  It looks very different on her, as well - it is growing on me, but I am used to seeing a fitted neckline.  She says it is 'amazing' - so that is a good review there ;)

She said she had to have her arms all the way up... it shows the elastic on them pretty well. 


Making her cow into a walrus with stick on suction darts.  He has also been a unicow lately.

Esme is also about to lose her first tooth.  Fittingly, it is the first tooth she ever got as a baby, as well.  She is worried about it, and not sure what will happen when it is gone.  She knows what is supposed to happen - a new one grow in, but she is still worried ;)

I have also knit/crocheted a hat to match my gloves, it is nothing spectacular but it fits better than the other one I had made.  I have some yarn for dishcloths and a lot of laundry to do today.  

Saturday, March 02, 2013

Modern pattern... doesn't feel like dressmaking



This is one of the new style patterns I got in the mail the other day - and I am working myself up to working with it.  Reading through the instructions it doesn't 'feel' like dressmaking... the elasticized neckline is part of it.  But I need to sit myself down and start to cut out pieces... and maybe I will get committed to it.  I think the one on the left in a Japanese style dahlia fabric (not shown) would look gorgeous.  I wonder how it will hold up over time with that thin elastic casing.  Half of me wants to just run back to the raglan sleeve pattern and make two more of those.. I did buy more plain fabric for those.  The other half of me says - you should do this one, but it is a whole different cup of tea, so the waters may be murky.

Esme chose the ribbon as a compromise for not making an entire dress out of glitter tulle.  Now that would be an exercise in futility!  It was pretty, though.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

green raglan sleeve by the instructions...



 Simplicity 7228 - c. 1960s size 6
in progress

This is not the droid I was looking for - a pattern along the same line, though - maybe.  I am trying it out actually following isntructions for this plain green fabric we bought on clearance.  If I like it - it might be expandable into another design with the red and gingham fabric.  I also ordered two much more 'modern' dress patterns - the frilly layered shirred ones that all of the girls are wearing that look like broomstick skirts layered one on top of the other.  Esme saw a friend wearing one and then another girl on the computer when I was looking at fabrics, and she expressed she wanted one of those - was it too expensive?  No, but not something I have at the moment - or feel confident setting out to design at the moment... so cheap pattern it is - and it will probably be here next week, with lots of time to try my hand at them before summertime.

done - it looks about the right size, will have a try on later.
I laid it out over the blue dress from November and it seemed the same size, sleeve length and just a bit longer in the skirt - so hopefully? 
The back facing to zipper area was very fussy, and I made the cuffed sleeve version which is unusual for my style of sewing -- and I think it worked out okay.  There was a point I wasn't paying attention I spent ten minutes trying to attach the yoke upside down..and then righted myself and continued.  I used a fancy stitch on the machine to give a bit of extra to the otherwise plain color - Mark said I should stitch a symbol of the Dragonborn on it for Esme as we are playing Skyrim as of late and it does resemble some of their clothing.

Later:  Esme is running a high temperature after coming home from school with a stomach bug - she ate lunch and played at Grandma's but was home and sleepy over dinner, falling asleep by 6...  an hour ago (10 pm) I gave her some tylenol and a bath and it brought the fever down for a while... seeing if it will hold.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

run by posting

I have been on a blog hiatus lately - partly the season, and the time of week with work... and the fact that I haven't done anything photo worthy in a while.  Now we will have two days off and Esme is in bed with washed and combed and braided hair for school in the morning...

 I got a call on my voice mail the other day from my dad - saying my mom is not doing well again... she is in the hospital and they are running more tests.  She was very tired when I spoke to her a few days before that - could not stay awake.  I have been trying not to think about that, in truth.  I still have thought some about it - about how she has not seen Esme and I should do that to be a good daughter, but how dangerous the last trip was and not wanting to put Esme in that danger... feeling torn but Mama Bear at the same time.  It is hard.  And there is always work, and then 'recovery' from work, and work again... this was my seven day straight week and I am glad that it is done.  I have buried myself in my books and have also been playing Skyrim with Mark and Esme fighting dragons and vampires and sneaking around the countryside in the game with my bow and arrow, which is very satisfying. 

Esme is doing very well, happy - learning about lots of things and was very happy to advance to a new 'see behind your head' car seat in our truck ;)  She was very proud of it, and being able to see more things.  This morning she and Mark drove me to work and she said the sun was on the ground - it was just rising for the day.  She commented on that a lot all the way to work.  She was reading a lot of signs today in traffic and in the store - she is picking things up pretty well.  She was out with Mark all day long and they came to pick me up afterwards, at which time we bought her a toy at the store - a Nerf type soft dart gun - which she found a small toy dog at our house and rammed it inside the barrel -- almost ruined it but Mark fixed it. I have no idea why she thought that was a good idea... I even heard her talking about the toy dog going in there but it never dawned on me until too late what she was actually saying she was about to do...

I am laying out fabric for a few days of sewing - Esme picked out some ladybug fabric she wanted at the store.  There is also a good store of fabric still left from the box Sharon gave to me which has come in handy for several pairs of pants this past week.  I have some red gingham and plain red for a possible dress, some red with thin white lines that could nicely become a raglan robe coat (like her fish one) and several other fabrics that can become pants.   There is that yellow, red and green gingham I bought last year for a dress but have not yet brought myself to make -- as if I am saving it for something special?  Or maybe because it is just so much yellow...  the plaid reminds me of what my Mom dressed me in for my Kindergarten school picture, it was like something out of the 1950s....  I wondered again if I would still be making Esme's clothing for Kindergarten coming up... and I find that I really don't know and probably won't until it happens.  The last few days she has been wearing the dress tops I made in November, and they are still fitting well.  She tried on the velvet dress she wore at Halloween (store bought handmedown) and it barely fit at all..

Sunday, December 16, 2012

I need a pretty dancing dress for the show in the big town...


Esme had plans this morning at 8 am.. it is noon and I have gotten about this far... not bad for staring at the patterns for an hour trying to figure out what was simple enough for my brain today.  I have been down sick but her story this morning was quite coherent (if imaginary).  She said she had to teach kids how to dance in the big town, a long long way that a way, that is where it is - she needs a pretty dress, a dancing dress, so she can dance (ballerina moves) like that and like that, so I have to get up out of bed, not be sick, and sew a dress.  I was thinking to aspire to napkins today, or a little patchwork - so I stared through my stack until I found something simple enough I could perhaps not sew everything to the wrong side without noticing it... and then found a few fabrics that would suffice.   We will see how it works out.  I still sound like a Canada Goose when I talk, but not quite so much it is unintelligible.  Mark is getting a bit of it now, too - poor guy.  He says some childhood cold like disease has grabbed us and is going to make us suffer slow through it.

And she has been playing Creature saving on Wild Kratts on Pbskids.org all morning and having me come read the things she can't understand on the test questions - but she is playing the actual keystroke and mouse parts of the games just fine - with a few despairs but we have told her she can do something else if she can't do that game - and she just dives back in and tries again, usually getting it.

She is eating her lunch and saying she is thinking she will to Grandma's today 'I was thinking about - I go to Grandma's, like that.' I say she needs to finish her food and then we will call and ask. She says: 'but, I will get bored from that, and I will cry.'  Oh really, now?  Then, maybe you'll have to stay home anyway.  Oh, No!  I'm all done with the two food, the drink and the ravioli, but, there is a little bit of pudding, like that (shows me the yogurt cup, makes efforts to start cleaning it out with her spoon).'

She says she is all ready to go see Grandma, with her boots on her hands.  She says she is the hand shoe master, and how can she go to the show now.  I told the Hand Shoe Master (as she is running downstairs playing patty cake with her boots on her hands, still) to change her clothes, put her shoes on her feet, wash her hands and then we'll call Grandma.

The dress in question, blue seersucker and cotton fabrics from stash
A little glittery tulle trim around the waist to make an otherwise 'plain' dress fancier.
Simplicity 9897 circa 1972 size 6

She is quite happy with it, and the cookie, and the cartoon after having been in a bubble bath. She couldn't look more pleased as punch if she tried.. I think. Looking at it - it kind of (kind of) reminds me of Merida's blue dress in Brave, as well.. but that is mostly the expression and wild hair with the similar color.


Note: She says that singing makes her brain mad - and the cheetahs bumping her in her game make her brain mad.. she was in quite a tizzy about that last night - so much we told her she could just go to bed if she wanted to keep it up (7:30!) So, she settled down and watched Clifford, but I kept hearing about the cheetahs from her position underneath a bucket at the end of the bed... and how her brain was still mad. *sigh* Five! She went to bed easily, though - even though I was too tired to read a book. We'll see how the morning goes.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Bits


Esme: 'Not the old coat, I want the young coat - the younger coat?  Mama, which coat?' And I then explain the use of the word old/young vs. old/new.  She was also saying that on Mark's game all of the older soldiers were fathers to the younger ones... which was not true - I get her meaning, but so hard to explain.  She thinks differently - not incorrectly, just .. .differently.    She says we will be a human and a person and do things and she will be a girl human and I can be a man human and... I get lost as she is just going "60 per" with laying out the roles and then she gets mad if I interject that I am a human, and 'girl human' sounds odd she could just say 'girl' etc...  She told me she was wearing her pants seams out because then the pants were 'empty' inside, all okay...Mama, don't worry about it etc..   She has mentioned she dislikes the strings in her pants that come when they are washed often and the zigzagged seams start to unravel some.  She cried the other day when my Mom was on the phone because she wanted me to play with her - and she said that my Mama would be alright, don't worry about it, I need to play with her.  She also said it was okay - I was with my family, and we all love.  It blows me away sometimes how clear some of her ideas are, and so very unexpected at the same time.  I hear her singing along so often now to things on the TV - even when it doesn't seem like she is watching... she was sitting on Mark's lap playing a computer game and under her breath I hear her singing the Simpsons theme song that is on as background noise.

On other notes : I am starting to make more things for the shops again - I am thinking of maybe three of a toy - put them up and if they sell they do if they do not then okay, not much time wasted.  I am taking yarns to work and making scarves - a thing I planned to do last year but never did... save them for the year in containers and post them for Christmas/winter etc etc... Energy energy.  The scarves and the toys will be posted at MarieMeyer KnitOwl and all the drawings at Ink Strokes Etsy shop.

I finally finished the third winter dress and also two pairs of very long pants for Esme.  She is 44 inches tall now - and her pants legs are 25-26 inches.  I can so very barely squeak a size 5 pair of pants out of a single yard now... it is not safe to buy a yard and hope it will suffice... yard and a half at the very least.  (yard==45 by 36 inch piece of fabric.)  Her waist elastic is 20 inches now, which shortens to about 19 when sewn.

Peacock lady drawing 11/23 - somehow the scanner does not show the intense pink of the entire dress... *sad*  Drawn for Esme - she says it is so beautiful and she loves it.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Green winter dress, thoughts on five years old


Green winter dress
Second winter dress, an inch longer, different collar and different skirt gathering - same pattern (butterick 3200). I like to evaluate the fit of the first one before going on to the next, so yesterday I watched her wearing the other dress and decided the collar could be a tiny bit more open for her, the sleeves (which I worried about) were actually perfect and the gathering on the first skirt was so time consuming I tried this again to save some work. I used to do all of her skirts like this.

I am thinking of a button up shirt next, with long sleeves, and a pair of matching pants. I can whip the pants out in an hour - but the shirt takes more fortitude... This is my last day off for a while. I want to get the Swiss Chard and rutabaga in the ground and we need to put the plastic up on the windows today, as well. Mark just finished roasting pulled pork for the week and it is good... we are hoping for that to be part of our Thanksgiving to bring up to Grandma, with roasted apples and rice.

Esme is watching Emperor's New Groove. She likes the man turning into a camel (llama, really). We watched some Eskimo things on Youtube this morning, building an igloo and catching fish. She watched them cut the fish and said it was Ewww, but also that they could put them on a fire and make them good. I have been showing her how to 'check the weather' for me in the morning in the same way I had her start learning to tell time. She learns to read her numbers that way, too. It's fun to see what she can do and what she is interested in. We played 'train' yesterday where we put pillows on the end of the bed to drive the train and identified stops (sheep world, dragon world, word world etc..) so things could get on, get tickets, get off etc etc... Mark also found a brush yesterday that says it is a teasing brush - but does a very good job on Esme's hair without pulling on it. We want her to make attempts at brushing her own hair with it to keep it in better condition between washings.

We've also been testing her brain lately with logic. It helps to see her try to figure out what to say - and encourages her to think new things. That was what the Eskimo thing was about - she said she was not an Eskimo, she was a person named Esme. I told her about Eskimoes on that note, and how they used to live in igloos and still build them and catch fish. Other logic things : 'Don't get Mouse cat's tail stuck in the door' (she is a Manx), now she makes sure the cat has a tail before she tells me she is being careful of their tail and the door. We also told her to 'Go out and build a tree.' of which she said this to me : 'But, Mama can build a tree - with a door and a door and a house! Mama can make a tree house!' Where? 'Here!' In the house? A tree house in a house would be a house house? To that, she sighed and rolled her eyes and then told me it would be tiny, a tree on the floor, and like pretend, and she would have me build it with sewing tiny so she could put her pretend figure in it. She has repeated that request this morning. The kid thinks I can sew anything ;) Ha.

I was watching Esme sprawled out napping while watching a show last night and also watching Daphne puppy sprawled out on a beanbag asleep - and thinking about how all of our young ones are stretching and growing and becoming all feet and legs. Watching her run to Grandma's house, and then later walk back with Grandma, dancing and swirling around her as she meets Daddy on the driveway.. pulling on arms, spinning, waiting patiently as they talk, waiting impatiently... running, laughing and dashing for the door.... I see her growing in many ways lately - quickly, in spurts.. I walk into her room and find blocks everywhere, figures, 'stories' set up like miniature plays. She is reading and spelling more small words, using bigger words in her speech and working hard at her syntax.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

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.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

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.

Thursday, October 04, 2012

Yellow pants, red zinnia, purple beans


Cosmos are finally blooming prettily.

Almost purple Minion cat (and baby) 
The kitten looks so much like her she is hard to see!
A harvest from the garden today. I haven't been out there in over a week 
but the rain really helped everything perk back up.  There was twice this 
amount of nearly everything when I got done...

A proud hopper that was sitting on a bean plant.


Pretty red zinnia. 


Esme clowning around on the tires. 
She looks so tall and leggy...

The Tennessee Greasy Bean, planted back in May? It is finally coming into it's own and producing like mad. These are huge green and purple variegated beans that turn green when cooked. 


These are the yellow 'stardust' pants she picked the fabric for. They are 26.5 inches long from waistband to bottom cuff and a size 5 sewing pattern.  They take a yard and a half to make - which costs about 4 to 6 dollars and an hours worth of time to sew.  Pretty good budgetwise... just have to kick myself over there to the machine to make them once I've bought the fabric, as such a 'quick and easy' project doesn't always have the allure that a dress pattern would, even though replacements are so necessary when she runs through the woods, plays chase with the dogs or sits in mud for three hours and the stains don't come out!


Another shot.. she was being 'rockstar' and also 'careful not to step plants in the tires'. That is one of the few storebought T-shirts she has and it is already too small (a size 4) and showing her belly when she puts her arms up.  The long sleeved shirt is a gift from her grandparents for last birthday and is a size 5 - still fits and she likes it.

We have the parent teacher conference today...

Thursday, September 06, 2012

Clowning around before bedtime


owl dress with the color of pink
'that can be seen from orbit' according to Daddy


I made this shift dress with a scrap of the owl fabric I had left and some plain pink. She likes it, and it fits well enough to play around the yard or as a nightgown. After her bath last night she picked it out to wear for sleep. It has a simple button closure on it and was made with Simplicity 5937, size 5, which is also her current pants pattern.


A kitten named 'Junior' we have
That is her winter quilt unfinished in top left.



This puppy got her official name last night 'Daffy' short for Daphne
Esme tried to hold her up for a picture but decided she was too heavy now



I told her this was a blackmail picture
to show when she was older that her feet are either running or in the air.. hardly ever anything else




Simplicity 5937
size 5
bought April 2011 - getting used fulltime now!


We've got a few big things today. The windshield repair guy is supposed to call us to tell us when he will fix it today. Esme needs her last immunization and I had it scheduled for noon today before the windshield thing happened... we'll see if that can happen. She will likely be cranky after that, but she won't need any more shots for quite a while after this one.

She is outside running with Daphne and her siblings now, a whole pack of puppies at her heels. How many other kids can say they've been able to do that in this day and age? I should get on my sewing machine and make another pair of pants - with my work schedule and her 'mud' schedule, she has been going through every pair in the dresser between washings.

Memorable Quote Last night at dinner Esme had laid her head down on the table and was not eating. When we inquired, she said 'I just sleep here a little bit, so I love you again and not be mad.' She was in a pretty good mood for the rest of the night... Are we having mini naps now?

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Sunday pink dress


Size 5.5 dress
mixture of McCalls 8001 size 5 and Butterick 9644 size 6


She wanted a pink spiderman costume with a mask. I told her if I could get a pattern to work well I would put a spiderman emblem on a pink dress. I have one drawn out for her, and this pattern did seem to work fairly well. The sleeves need to be a little larger and the waistline could be more even and lower by an inch or more. But, as the lady at the store today said, 'I didn't even notice - and no one else should be looking that close, either.' Yes... *hmm* I still bought more pink fabric. It will be Friday when I have another full day off.

Pattern Alterations:

9644 Butterick circa 1960, size 6
could not find the front bodice piece this time



McCalls 8001 size 5, circa 1961
I've been using this one for nearly a year now


Sleeves: 8001 dress sleeve laid over coat sleeve, cut according to length of remaining remnant of fabric. Skirt: Butterick 9644, own version of gathering done all around. Bodice: 8001 dress with 9644 back bodice as length indicator..



being a little goat herder girl
leading the goat around the yard by waving a stick by her - so she gets curious and wants to try to eat it



Loula hanging out with Mouse cat in the background




Mark took this photo a few nights ago. This puppy was given away to her new home today - and I think the lady will really love her. It is also a great shot of Esme smiling :)