bit

 So our internet was down when I got back from the short route today - and you would think I would get some things done?  Well, I made rice to put up for making fried rice for dinner... but other than that I played an hour of Stardew Valley (in French) and did language lessons on my phone and took a nap.  I thought maybe I'd read some of my library book (did a little bit the past few days, it is 'Beautiful World, Where are You?' by Sally Rooney) but it was a bit depressing in the interpersonal relationship descriptions and felt like 'rolling in mud and leaves' the other day, stuff sticks, and rolls along, and then stuff falls off and more sticks, and it just keeps rolling without much too much significant, but then maybe it's still building the story.  

When the net came back up I finished the other two language sites (Czech and Russian, I did French on my phone earlier) and we made dinner.  Mark has finished the rest of my 192! tile set for spelling Czech - I was playing with the first 48 and it hadn't been quite enough.  Mark made a pizza for him and Esme - which opened me up to try to make a Black Sesame Seed Chahan recipe with the black sesame seeds I had bought at the natural food store.  I couldn't really tell the difference from regular fried rice - but maybe if I make it again without the seeds and then with it again I can see what the added taste is.  I have a longer, hot route tomorrow - and am needing to make liquid to bring with (Sharkleberry Fin Kool-Aid) in my thermos - and probably head back to bed again.  I have done a little bit more on the blue 'whale shark' weaving, but it still has a long way to go.

They've also announced the application for the September arts program I did for two years, but skipped last year.  I told Mark I am not deciding tonight about it - I'm tired, and I'm not sure 'what I have to say'... I have the new book, but not a lot of copies to bring to a sale table.  We have a nice sale setup now, a canopy and a folding table for the flea market, so it would not be so hard to make a nice setup - but I'm not sure what exactly I have to sell (Mark says I have so much, and then, there is the 3D stuff we have that he has made, as well)... but still, I don't have to decide tonight.  And it's better not to decide when the highest things on my mind are sleep, laundry and getting through tomorrow's 110 degree Fahrenheit heat index.  I work Sunday and also Monday again, as well.

recipe : 

2 eggs fried in olive oil, set aside on a plate

add butter to pan - fry green onions (the white parts), yellow squash (diced) and orange pepper

once that is sizzling and cooked through, add two large heaping tablespoons (probably more equal to four regular) of cooked rice (it had some white sesame seeds in it, but no sugar this time, just put up in the fridge after being made in the mid-morning)

bring back to sizzling, add 1 tablespoon ground black sesame seeds ( I ground 2 tablespoons, but one looked like way too much in the pan), add back the egg and stir it through and some green onion tops (which I keep in sep. bag from the white onion parts in the freezer), add a good big dash of soy sauce 

once that is heated through serve up on a plate

note: the other day I did make some fried rice (yakimeshi, apparently, is a word for this in Japanese) with some sushi rice that had sugar, rice wine vinegar and white sesame seeds in it - I just put an array of vegetables in oil and then added the rice and then the egg and soy sauce at the end, simple .. but with the sugar in it almost made it taste like what I've had in imitation crab cakes ... which I found an interesting comparison. 

the thing I didn't have that was in the recipe was Japanese mayonnaise (which is made with duck eggs?) but they do sell it at one of my stores.  I'm not sure if that would have contained the black sesame seed from staining the rice gray - which it really did.. but since I knew everything that was in the recipe I didn't find that unappealing (although, Mark screamed and said it looked like zombie food - zombie chow!  oh no!) and put a piece of pizza on my plate with it (for protection)

work weekend

my work weekend extends to Monday this week - and it will probably be a long day... still just working on a few things here and there, want to do more yarn work, crochet, weave or knit - but I don't have a lot of energy after doing other things - water garden, feed animals, cook dinner (often they make their own but then I'm still poking around finding something for me and asking if anyone else wants something) and doing laundry.. I've also fallen asleep for three hours a day nap several days in a row here because the heat really gets to me out on the route, come home, drink and eat, and then try to work on language but end up drifting over and going to sleep until actual dinner time, feeding animals etc.

Am at about 40% on the A1 Russian course I've been taking.  It says I've been working on that for six weeks now.  My Cyrillic reading is doing much better, and I can understand the Bulgarian things I was trying to learn a little better.  It sends me a daily word in Cyrillic and often I can read it and guess what word it is before I click it and look at the picture and hear it.   And yet, Russian sounds so much like Czech in so many places, which helps - because I have gotten pretty far along in Czech over the past few years.  Playing babadum vocabulary though, I realize how limited the vocabulary I've learned is - lots of grammar words and verb words, but a limited amount of nouns - and that needs some extension that babadum is perfect for.  I've stalled a bit on the Latvian and Lithuanian just because I haven't had as much time and have been tired with the heat.

Mark has been working on a Scrabble type word game player that pulls word lists from multiple languages and can play the words.  He's talking a lot about statistical linguistics and occurrence and distribution of alphabet characters in the word lists ... I get some of that, but when he gives me the word lists I'm looking for meaning first.   I've been able to recognize his word lists of Welsh, French and Czech, and some Romanian (although fewer of the words that his program pulled up were ones I knew there).  I am quite interested in him making a Czech spelling set for me, and maybe Greek and Cyrillic as well, but he wants to do this first so he knows how many of each letter is required for every language.  Also, reminder to myself that he is waiting for a replacement part for his printer, so he's working on this while he's waiting for that.  For study, I've been doing mostly French, Russian and either Czech or Spanish lately, a little Greek thrown in.


the main profile on Duolingo

French        L 25 XP 51194 21194 XP beyond Level 25
Welsh          L 25 XP 30004 4 XP beyond Level 25
Spanish       L 23 XP 25020 +980 XP to next level
Japanese     L 19 XP 14335 +665 XP to next level
Czech          L 19 XP 13734 +1266 XP to next level

Romanian    L 17 XP 11143 +857 XP to next level
Portuguese  L 16 XP 9632 +868 XP to next level
Italian          L 15 XP 7625 +1375 XP to next level
Greek           L 14 XP 7141 +359 XP to next level
German        L 14 XP 6046 +1454 XP to next level
Finnish         L 13 XP 5515 +485 XP to next level
Catalan (es)  L 12 XP 4052 +848 XP to next level
Swedish        L 11 XP 3689 +211 XP to next level
Russian         L 11 XP 3299 +601 XP to next level

 I downloaded a two dollar pattern with a lovely crochet camisole in it (among other things).  I don't know if I can ever finish something like this - although, without a pattern, once upon a time, I had started one.  I normally find the typical crochet threads itchy to wear - but I hold out some hope that I can find something that would wash well and not be itchy.

link for later, similar creature and a good blog to revisit : https://www.crochetology.net/2015/05/camisole-exercise-no-1.html

Summer Solstice 2024

 

*outside, it is still dark - and I want to sleep*

I hit the snooze button to try to slip back into dreams...

 

Get up, get up - you'll miss it - the spirit animal tugs at me, it's not my dog, she's downstairs sleeping, but it does the trick as good as any real nose

 

ten more minutes, for the 101 year old woman to tell me what I did wrong with the brown sugar, oh, she's not going to, I have to figure it out myself... 

 

 

pull myself out of bed, remember it is the day, assemble myself and heat up a cup of coffee, stagger out into the already bird-chirping sky-lightening world, long after the moment I would normally push myself out into the world on this day - which is usually before the full veil of dark lifts, when I am still uncertain of even where to put a foot down, much less my wits

 

I think about how I have 'two tries' this year, solstice, and my birthday, days following each other, to see the world as this - and I wonder if I will use both of them, if that is what this is for, comparison...

 

But I am here, moving through the world - and ready to see what it has brought me here for at this moment. And a bird passes overhead, up above the power lines above me, as I am admiring the pale blue light of sky... long before actual sunrise, before any pinkening has come to it. And as I walk, make the turns as I am using to making them - it strikes me at one moment all this sense of scale of the environment, as the colors begin to resolve themselves into pink mimosas and yellow rudbeckia - as the gray of the road and the green of the forest separates into layered and tiered colors...

 

I walk home even before true dawn, look back at the road one time to see the pink fingers coming across the sky - my alarm has not even rung yet - I step into the house and grab up some pens, sit with my dog on the porch and try to capture this - yes, I am small in the world, and it is in motion, and I am here to experience it.

cucumbers, salad and relish

Our garden is putting out cucumbers daily.. and I found a few little recipes to do something more than 'slather in mayo'.. which is generally what I do with the first flush of produce, and it works well until there are just too many to eat that way.

Cucumber mayonnaise salad
Wash, peel and chop up  cucumbers, you could salt them for a bit and then  drain it later, but I usually don't when it is just for lunch the next day etc.  Layer the cucumbers into a dish that can be covered with a lid.  Take real (like Hellman's) mayonnaise and slather about a tablespoon and a half over the top surface of the container.  Put on the lid and the mixture will become a salad overnight.  Good with turkey on a sandwich, or beside curry rice.

But now I'm branching out a little and trying to preserve the cucumbers as a relish or pickle without going through all the trouble of canning a big batch.  I've tried 'refrigerator pickles' before, and didn't really like them.  So I'm leaning more towards the relishes.

Did a Japanese relish last night that is meant as a side dish to rice and vegetables.
Ccumber cut up fine, salted and let sit for 10 minutes, rinse and drain.  Combine in a pint jar 2 tablespoons of white sugar, 4 tablespoons of rice vinegar and a little ginger.  Add a cup to two cups of diced cucumber.  Mix up by covering and shaking the jar until all is combined.  Let sit overnight in the fridge - keep for up to a week I would think.  These turned out sweet and sour, good beside some fish sticks and cantaloupe, but still very cucumber-tasting.

I'm going to try this one tomorrow - it is a bit more involved. I like the celery seed and turmeric in the recipe.  Even the Japanese relish with different spices in it could be a really good way to use the cucumbers.

This is the base recipe I'm going to try:
Spruce Eats sweet relish

It requires the cucumbers to brine for 24 hours... which means not any progress until tomorrow night.  I'll come back and update the post with what I _actually_ put together in my jars.. as I never actually follow the exact ingredients.

Mark says I need to get more pumpkin recipes, as we have a dozen pumpkins coming on the vines.  I actually have a cookbook for that!  I need to do more with the peppers, too - probably pick them and save a few for the relish but mostly bring them to work for a giveaway.  They go over really well.

//In the meantime.
We have almost all of our school shopping done.  Esme wants to tie dye some t-shirts so we bought a kit and some shirts.  We got her shoes, and I have almost everythign washed and ready.  A few school supplies are still coming in the mail, then we can put the binders together we are supposed to have.  We went to the library again today and she exchanged her Warriors books for the next in the series.  She has read four of them now, and the Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, which Mom insisted upon (because of the vet series Callie Vee, she read one of).  She is also getting into The Sixty Eight Thorne Rooms.. which I tried to read to her but it lost the magic when you aren't right at the keyhole with it... trying to explain things, trying not to skip over but not take forever reading a paragraph - it is different than reading it yourself.  We also stopped for ice cream with her certificate from the summer reading program.  We're both playing with new mods from Minecraft - IndustrialCraft is the big one.

Out at the Beach

We all went out to the beach, Mark took the photos (and didn't get wet).  Esme and her friend were swimming for hours.  I got definitely sunburned.  I had my hat and shirt but I should have worn them more of the time we were there.  We had a lot of fun sitting on the beach after a bit and watching the girls bounce around. One more day of vacation and then back to work.

Tiger world

Painting - that is a cow, in tiger world.

She wants to send the painting to her Aunt Dot.

We're into school again August 3rd or so.. but Esme is ramping up ideas now.  I'm still hoping the oral surgery is not going to ruin that entire few weeks following it -- I'm a mess sometimes now with the infections I am fighting...but I am much closer to functional than I have been in weeks previous.

The library was closed today - for the holiday weekend coming up.  We did go to the park and Esme met several little girls.  They said they did 'Itnernational School'..and had been homeschooled at one time.  They were on a trip East for the holiday.  She really enjoyed playing with them.   We also discussed why 'the fourth day in July was the important day'... we shortly discussed the American and French Revolutions.   She also decided that we would study some more countries this year with geography and a sticker passport she found at the dollar store.  There is an online service for that -but it sounds like we are going to 'wing it' and combine it as an idea with our other studies.  I'd love to get her a few foreign coins and stamps as I loved those as a kid - that I would spend some money for as keepsakes.

I've printed out a set of photographs for Aunt Dot now- to go with my letter I just keep not sending.  I'll have to write an update letter, too. 

Art Easel and red dress

The art easel we had ordered is here - an early birthday present and a supply for our upcoming school year at the same time.  The fabric I bought in Murray yesterday has been finished out into a red dress - with maybe enough left over to do a sundress bodice with later - if I make the skirt of something else.  I like being able to stretch a yard of fabric enough that I don't feel so guilty paying 5 dollars a yard for it in the first place.  And it is just what I wanted pattern wise :)

Dress info: I used Butterick 4543 in size 7 with alterations.  I made the front bodice a double-thickness for the facing...no way it can pop out and be visible like her herringbone dress has been bothering me with.  Her dress looks like view C with short sleeves, no inverted pleat in front or flaps or collar.  I did pleat the skirt and sleeves-- it is my make-do, but it works. The zipper remains to be sewn in by hand - but other than that it is done.  I tried it on her before I set the sleeves and it seemed to fit her just fine.

Esme has been very artistic today.  She has drawn a beach scene (hint hint to Mama - she put me in the picture under an umbrella reading my Kindle, so she could play with the kids at the beach).  And the other drawing  pictured is a tree that is a home for cats - and she left room for me to draw something on the other side.  I made a school house and the kittens are all marching to school.

That brings to me something she said yesterday.  We had bought a clearance geology kit and put it up with her supplies for next year.  She asked when we are starting school again.  I told her August 2nd.  She said 'Why can't it be August 1st?' She dived into 'summer projects' making decorations with stencils and markers and her drawings today.  She wants to work more in Minecraft today again - making another house by the bank in Freeway world.  In short, she is starting to want to 'do things' a bit more ...especially when Mom is home on her days off.

//am getting some more of her curriculum together... poetry, geology things, some ideas for projects and trips...I would like to take her a few more places this year but not sure how we can do it (time, distance etc.)

Esme's train, yucca plant and bits

Esme built a train in Minecraft, after the Harry Potter train idea (I think)

 

Outside of the train with iron block wheels

 

inside seats

'control room' and 'snack cart'

I've cut out a sundress with ruffled layers - but haven't gotten anywhere on the sewing of it yet, as I close all this week. Took some time out to the garden.  The bad news is only half of our corn wants to come up at all in this weather -and it is too late for a third planting.  The good news might be that it is easier to weed in the gappy rows.  More bad news if we get more wind this year.  //sigh  More good news in that we still have corn in the freezer from last year.

The yucca plant is blooming.  Mark says it is the prettiest it has been in nearly ten years.  Esme drew this picture of it in her journal the other day. (it is on the right hand side, the purple radish is on the left)

Summer Journal and writing adventures

 Her sentence today was 'There were no aliens.'

The better organized writing area and her favorite pen we bought at a store earlier this year.

We started working on a story called the Adventure of the Twelve Charms.  I am writing it out for her and she is telling the story. Then we will go back (hopefully) and smooth it out some.  She started telling me this long 'dream' about elves and vampires and portals and a mission from the king.  Daddy said 'write it down - make it into a book!'.

So, we'll try and see where it goes!

There were lots of other Esme-isms today... the Force was running strong in this one. 

'This toast is firm.  That means solid.  I saw it in a cartoon I was watching.  I forget which one.'
 'The Ancient Egyptians didn't have hairbrushes.  So, why do I have to brush my hair?' - told her they did, beautiful ones actually,.. she hadn't seen it in the artifacts book we looked through...I told her to brush her hair and I would look some up for her to see.  She did, and we saw several beautiful bone combs and others.  I told her we might have to look up the Senet game, as there was a beautiful set shown in one of the pictures.  We saw African and Native American combs and brushes in the pages, too - she was impressed.
I told her that the story was just a first draft.  No, not a giraffe, a draft.  Err.. nevermind (as Daddy starts to joke about the second and fourth giraffe) -- we will go more over that after we get it written down.  It means we might have to change some things as we go.
You mean I have to clean up  this whole room tomorrow, like,everything, all gone?  Is that what you want me to do? //No, and you know it.. pick up some things and get them off the floor // so, on the ceiling then? *It's bedtime (Now she has the octopus toy on her head and is pretending to be a sleeping octopus..but removes it before I can kiss IT goodnight..as she wants the kiss goodnight.)

//and tomorrow is another day!

bits as July dwindles

I am coming to an end on Esme's pink blanket for her bed.  It is about the size of the blue and brown one I made more than a year ago for myself.  I just have to tie up the ends.

We came back in from visiting with another family and trying to give away kittens.. but it was too hot, and we brought all of our kittens home.  Both of the girls start their schools after next week.  I went out in the garden and pulled a few things in, started some soup going on the stove that includes Whipporwill cowpeas.  They are going gonzo out there...

Esme has made her own bed every morning since we put this blanket on it.  She says she is 'making it pretty and perfect' by 'mixing it up, pull here and here'...(making it up, pulling the corners) Very worth the effort.

Whipporwill peas on top and out of shell - 'lady' cowpeas that seem a bit like purple hulled peas, second from bottom, rattlesnake bean on bottom.

Lemon cucumbers, and a regular cucumber.  We sent a few to Grandma and I chopped the rest up into a ranch dressing sauce for lunch.

Pretty zinnias this year again... yellow and pink.

We are still watching Downton Abbey, borrowed from Grandma.  It is the second season beginning tonight.  I can hardly believe it is almost August and as Esme keeps reminding me - she will be six this year, in November.  What will things be like in a year or more, when I look back at this.... ?

//note: // The pajamas seem to be a regular thing now.. she thinks she has to do that before she brushes her teeth, so formal!  I finished tying up her blanket and put it on her bed.  We played with redstone circuitry in Minecraft - she had tried to reproduce something that she saw on Daddy's computer (a picture he was looking at in a comment thread) and had the basic idea, shape and materials pretty well worked out from just one look... but of course she didn't have any of the circuitry done, so it didn't work.  I couldn't even get it to work... after some work and staring at the pictures provided.  However, we did do this one (shown below), and it did work, finally, after I adjusted and fiddled with some things.  I bet next year she'll be showing me those as her afterschool homework ;)

copied from a youtube presentation.. to show little girl Mama could follow a picture :)

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. 

Back to work

Back to work.. *sigh*...  It would be better if I could just serve my customers and not worry about political / numbers type tracking.  Esme has become a little more grown up during this week - doing more for herself, able to take herself outside and be loud instead of running around the house madcap (usually...)  I've heard her language improve quite a bit - used someone's name at work, told me that 'herbivores have flat teeth and carnivores have sharp teeth' and her theories are getting a bit more complete.  But still, she is five and it is the difficult and still 'flip floppy' line between 'play with me all the time all the time' and 'I have things to do, make them happen.'...  but it is nice to see the 'maybe I can make that happen' switchover happen sometimes... and I am giving her more room and encouragement to do those.

On the last day of vacation we put some things in order in the house, dressers in place, bulletin board on a wall -- got rid of some old clothes and cut down others for garden use..  I will try to trend in that direction more as we go.  I was impressed by the Singer Heavy Duty's being able to put seams in tshirts if I went slow.  I cut the backs down the middle of several shirts and sewed them back together with less room in the waist (as I need much less than they were offering) while keeping the shoulders wide.  I cut some of the necks down and seamed the edge over so they will be tank tops, and cut the sleeves off and seamed them over.    I have one more to cut down will try to take some pictures of the process as I do think it is fairly cool and useful!

tank top patterns

Very simple tank top patterns. Use the back of a t-shirt that fits you well to get the armhole shaping - then add at least two inches to the sides to make in regular cotton. Choose something very light-weight that will gather softly and breathe well in hot weather. To make the garment easy to put on and take off (as there are no buttons or zippers) make sure the bottom hem distance is wider than the distance across your shoulders.



For this style make the front and back sides alike, then estimate how large the side panels should be by holding up the front across your chest. Sew side panels to front and back on both sides.



dotted line shows facing shape

Lay flat so the armholes are in the center. Trace armholes for facings on plain fabric. Cut two facings. Zig-zag or serge bottom edges of facings and pin right-sides together with the armholes of the garment. Sew edge and turn right-side out. Sew 1/2 inch from edge to secure armhole facing down. Top edges of facings will be turned under in the elastic casings, so don't worry about finishing them.


orange dotted lines show where to turn under for casing and hem. red squares show attachment for straps after casing is elasticized

Fold top edges of front and back sides down to form casings for 1/4 inch elastic. Sew casings down and use a safety-pin attached to the end of the elastic to draw the elastic through the casing. Sew the elastic down firm at one edge of the casing and pull other end (on safety pin) to gather the front to nearly 3/4 the original distance. Sew the elastic down firm at the other end of the casing in the 'elasticized' position. Repeat for back of garment. Sew bottom hem all the way around. Make straps for shoulders as long skinny tubes turned inside-out. Measure over shoulder to find the right distance for the straps, add 1 inch to each side to give enough room to turn under raw edges and tack in place at 'points' of either edge above armholes.


very simple attachment and finishings - shown in 'whatever' thread colors as this was to be a house item for me

NOTE: I made this out of two old items, a pillowcase and a curtain sash that were both in a box of remnants I received. I used whatever thread was in my bobbins as I did not care about matching thread colors on this first run.

I really wanted more tank tops - but what you get in the stores are very overpriced for what they are, knit t-shirts that will tear up in the washing machine and start to tear out at the seams with frequent washings. Thus - this. It will work perfectly for what I've intended - walking in our yard, down to the lake and staying cool in the house in the summer and/or as a nightgown. It feels nice to be able to whip up something basic and decent quality out of what I have on hand and not have to pay money for something that will not last very long. Plus, because I made it - I can reproduce it, whenever I get some time.

Sewing toddler clothes for Esme again

Most of the patterns I make now I get on Ebay or at the thrift store. Some of them are older than I am - but if all the pieces are there then I can work with it. Some have summer and winter versions in the same pattern (dresses that can be long sleeved or shorts and pants). It really is possible and affordable to make your own toddler clothes! It does take time though, these 'easy 1 hour' usually take longer than that. Also, use recycled old clothing and cheaper 'clearance' rack cloth as you start out so you have the willingness to scrap a project or two along the way and start over. Mistakes are learning opportunities. When you are sure of yourself then spend a little more on the fabric to get character designs etc... Also it's never a bad idea to take a size larger for a children's pattern.. but a size smaller may end up in a garment that doesn't fit by the time you finish it!


In this case (33 months old) a modern pattern was used but the sizing chart showed her measurements as a size 1!


A size 4 vintage dress pattern seems to fit her well at 39 months.

She fit size 3 vintage patterns for more than a year, much longer than she fit size 2 patterns.. always check the 'inches' measurements. Now at 3.3 years she is 'ok' in a size 4 with a size 3 being iffy depending on the cut of the arms. I really don't think kids are that much larger than they used to be... she looks normal three-year-old size to me!

My lens on vintage patterns


March, 2010

In contrast, this was a vintage size '4' when she was smaller. I purposefully made it with some room to grow in. This dress still fits her now. Sometimes I also take pictures of her in the dress after it is made to 'analyze' later and decide what might need to be changed about the pattern. The light blue dress with long sleeves above was one of those - and five more were made similar until I got a great working pattern. Of course... she could grow out of them before long but I count it all as a learning experience.

Link: step by step directions on how to construct a dress

Link: pictures of how to finish facings

I started out making her clothes when she was 5 months old - and have improved greatly since. Now I make about half of her clothes, and the other half are garage-sale or clearance rack. She really loves to pick out her own fabrics for the handmade clothes, and to watch me sew.

Buttonholes and zippers were something I avoided for a long time - but have now mastered by hand since my machine is tough to work with on those regards. I found it best to work a few patterns the size she was - to perfect my technique, then start working on similar patterns one size up because she will grow into it.

I really prefer older pattern from the 1970s.


1971 pattern that has short and long sleeved tops and pants.

The designs were simpler and more practical. Some recent patterns that don't cost a lot have simply drawn instructions but depend upon a lot of notions, elastic or specific fabrics. They often care more about the 'look' than the practicality of putting the child into the clothes - or washing them. A pretty dress is not worth a thing if your child's arms can't fit into it easily, and they cry every time you try to get it on/off.


homemade shirt and pants for toddler
the shirt pattern was 'combined' from two patterns
one was raglan sleeve but not the right size.

You might need to try quite a few times to get something 'just right' - a shirt that buckles at the neck, like this:



might need to have the neckline on the pattern cut a bit deeper, and then try again. I took seven tries on this raglan sleeve pattern until I got it 'useable' and still have trouble with some of the thicker fabrics on the neckline, mostly when she raises her arms like this... but she can still wear them and they still look cute and wash well.

Original post:
As it gets closer to real hot weather and Esme gets closer to growing into size 2 clothes and out of size 18 months I've made some time to try sewing again. I was complaining just the other day I haven't been crafting much - so hopefully this breaks that streak.

Here is a little jumper I made today after work. The pattern was three dollars and Esme had grown out of the old pattern (plus I lost some pieces). I had made her some stripey pants last night that are already in the wash.




Esme definitely knows what a phone is for (has for a while) but this is the first time I've given her a 'real' phone in months. Usually she tries to call people on her blocks or a ring toy she has. She was wandering around Grandpa and Grandma's house yammering and carrying on a conversation with thin air.

Summer Solstice

I usually get up at dawn to watch the sunrise on the Solstice, because I was born around 7:30. However, this morning I didn't feel a need to go sit in the sun and ask for 'answers'... I woke up with the sun coming in our windows and across the trees in the yard - and Mark asleep across from me. I had a soft pillow drawn up under my stomach, and our baby nestled there (not kicking, although she had been moving actively just before I went to sleep). I didn't need to go look for answers - because this feels sweet and right. I smiled and went back to sleep for a while.

About nine I went for a walk down to the lake. I sat on the big sandstone rock there and looked out over the mirror surface of the water. The sun was warm, and the blue of the sky was reflected with all the greens of the trees. There are a myriad of grasses, mosses and other life at the lake. I watched fish jump and swim just under the surface, small spiders build their webs betweeen blades of grass, and dragonflies danced out over the lake, fishing for smaller bugs. A mockingbird flew in from a tree to snatch a dragonfly right out of the air. A blue heron took flight across the lake.

Instead of looking for answers I was just soaking in all of the experience. The structure of life, and its many forms, all of what I could see from one small spot on Earth. The colors, and sounds and warmth of that place was alive yet serene. Instead of looking within for a birthday mediatation, I was looking outward and letting it come in.

I'll still be looking for messages, if not expecting them to answer anything. The universe is full of messages and experiences to contemplate on and interpret. It's just part of what I've been exploring all of my life - the journey of being human and stopping to try to understand the moment as well as the destination.

Dreamweaving

Still working on the dream bag weaving. It is now 8.5 of 13 inches. The summer solstice is in two days, and it probably won't be done in time. But, at least it has spurred me to work on it some more. It has gotten noticeably narrower as I go up. In past weavings I've taken a 'guide-string' out from the sides and stretched the weaving taut across the frame here and there as I go up. This is such a large frame and such a small weaving, it didn't seem plausible. I'll have to get a small lap-frame later to make small weavings and save this large frame for vertical belts and larger pieces.

I've been feeling our baby move more and more - and Mark has been able to feel what he called a 'squidge' or 'squirming' at one point when I felt she was being really active. We are twenty weeks today and it's about time for others to be able to feel her movements besides me! She really doesn't like it when I put dishes in the dishwasher - she starts to squirm a lot (for something so small) and then calms down when I finish. I guess that is because there is a lot of bending down and getting back up and that must be rocking her 'apartment' walls so bad she can't sleep ;)

The little 'tickles' and 'swishes' I was feeling during the last month are giving way to taps and tiny thumps, especially towards the lower part of my belly. Up on the top of my belly (where I first felt her) it still feels like little twinges and swishes under the surface.



Also, we still have orchids blooming! This is the last one to bloom so far.