Independence Days challenge, week 12

lunch from the garden

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge:

1. Plant something: No, so thank goodness for things that plant themselves.

volunteer squash taking over the compost bin

2. Harvest something: Eggs, chives, grape tomatoes, comfrey (for the chickens), mulberries, feverfew, lovage, kale, good king henry, chocolate mint, spearmint, lavender, rosemary, red clover.
3. Preserve something: Dried mulberries, chocolate mint, spearmint, rosemary, red clover, feverfew, lavender.
4. Waste not: I remembered, for a change, to dry the bread ends for bread crumbs before they became stale chicken food or moldy compost as usual.
5. Preparation and storage: Made a diaper cover rather than buy one; am trying to save money for other priorities.
6. Build community food systems: No.
7. Eat the food: Altered a "Cheddar and Onion Muffin" recipe to use tons of chives from the garden rather than onions. Made lunch from the yard and neighborhood: "green eggs" (see basket of goodies above) and mulberries.

Bum sweater

Lucy's been desperately in need of some new diaper covers. She outgrows them so fast (and it doesn't help that we're prone to shrinking them. Particularly the totally-adorable custom-made one I just got from Etsy, darnit!!) I had made her several pairs of wool "longies" this winter, but hadn't yet made any "shorties." Yesterday, I gave it a try, using this pattern for a "baby bum sweater."

I had a little trouble with the waistband--where all the points come together, I ended up with a peaked-up piece. I'll have to figure that one out for next time. But otherwise, I love the pattern. They came out so cute! (Well, yeah...they would have been a lot cuter if I'd had the right color thread. But we were going for immediate results, here, people.) I can see a lot more of these in her future.

One adjustment I'll make next time that I learned from this pattern for a "butt sweater": rather than use the sleeve cuffs to make the legs, I'll use the neckband, cut in half. I was sad that in cutting the cuffs off the sleeves of this beautiful pink sweater, I ruined them for the longies I'd planned to make from them. Hmmm...maybe I could cuff them instead with trim or fabric? Will have to think about that. But first, some more shorties!

Muumuu to Skirt

Before:


At one of the first tag sales I went to this season, I spotted this muumuu peeking out from a box of ugly old clothes. I've been reading a lot of wardrobe refashions lately, and have been inspired to look at fabrics, rather than whole garments. I knew this could be cute, and for 50 cents, I couldn't pass it up!

At home, I studied it a bit closer, and discovered that it was handmade. Perhaps it was already a refashion--a sheet remade as a dress, maybe? I also discovered that it had pockets; bonus! I cut off the top, added an elastic waistband, and voila! New skirt. I love it. Easy, comfy, cute, big pockets...the perfect preschool-teacher garment.

After:

Distraction and lessons learned in blogland

I admit it...I have a short attention span when it comes to crafty things. I get started on one thing, then I get distracted by another, and so it goes until I've got many unfinished projects in the works or just in the planning stages, with nothing to show for it all. So, yes, two quilts in the works, diaper covers to be sewn, a Craft Hope deadline, a baby gift overdue, pillow re-covering only begun, and yet...I decided Lucy needed a new romper, and I had to make it now.

In my defense, Lucy has a wonderful hand-me-down wardrobe of lovely clothes...but it has its limitations. For example, right now, she's trying so very desperately to learn how to crawl, but most of her clothes are dresses. I love dresses on a little girl, but not when she's learning to crawl. She gets tangled up in all that dangling fabric, making the whole process even more frustrating than it already is. So, of course, she needs me to make her more clothes. (What? You say I should just put her in a onesie? But then her diaper shows. I know, I know, I'm ridiculous. But I can't help it! She's so beautiful; who wants to ruin it with diaper shots?)

So I looked through my small-but-growing collection of vintage patterns from thrift stores and tag sales, and found this one. Look past the overly-frilly examples, and you can see a nice basic romper, with room in the butt to cover that big cloth diaper, and nothing to get in the way of crawling. (I'm making view C, top right.)


It's been a long time since I sewed a garment from a "real" pattern (i.e. not the internet or a simple sewing book). The last few I attempted are half-finished somewhere. I learned how back in 7th grade Home Ec class, but that seem to have failed me on a few points.

For example, thank goodness I've read enough blogs and books now to realize that you don't necessarily want to cut the pattern to the size you're making. This pattern, for example, has sizes S-XL, and if it turns out that I like it, I might want to make it again in larger sizes. I used to think sewing was crazy expensive, because I had bought a pattern and new fabric, used it once, and moved on to the next thing. This pattern cost me 50 cents, so imagine how affordable it'll be if I use it more than once! Of course, not cutting it means you have to trace it somehow--and oh, my gosh, that is rather overwhelming for impatient me (so, yes, as you may have noticed in the photo, I cut corners on that one by folding the pattern out of the way in some cases). And then there are all those markings to transfer. And then only after I got started did I notice that part where I was supposed to have cut out lining pieces, too. Yikes. Not the best project for my short attention span.

But wait--I added even more steps. I learned something else from all the wise bloggers out there--don't try a new pattern (especially with beginner skills like mine) on your good (expensive, precious) fabric. So I dug through the heap and found a hand-me-down fabric from my mother's sewing days to try first. A good idea, but it means I don't LOVE it, which means my motivation is not all that high.

So, the question is...will I ever finish it? Will she still fit into it if I do? I can't answer that one now, because I have to get back to work on my Craft Hope quilt, which has a very specific deadline (clearly, something I need).

Sharing scraps

Ronit, at 2Hippos, made an absolutely gorgeous quilt for Craft Hope...so beautiful, in fact, that she was asked to make more to use as wall art in the orphanage. But she'd used up most of her red, orange, pink, and yellow fabrics in making that quilt, so she's asked for help replenishing. She says "I'm open to a range of fabrics, the pretty and the ugly, the excellent and the not-so-amazing, because in a scrap quilt, the diversity of fabrics helps make the quilt."

As I've said before, I don't have a very expansive stash, but I thought I could come up with some things to share. Here's the little pile I'm putting in the mail for her tomorrow. I'm eager to see the new quilts!

Independence Days challenge, week 11

My woefully small Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge update for the week:

1. Plant something: No.
2. Harvest something: Lettuce, our first 3 grape tomatoes, thyme, eggs.
3. Preserve something: No. (Oh, no...we were really lax this week!)
4. Reduce waste: Nothing in particular.
5. Preparation and storage: I did get to a bunch of tag sales and thrift stores this week and got great sewing notions which will go into clothes, and lots of books for future homeschooling.
6. Build community food systems: No. Man, what did I do this week?
7. Eat the food: The kids have been having smoothies for snack this week. I've been using the last of last year's frozen berries, plus milk, plus a dollop of maple syrup, plus whatever green stuff I feel like throwing in (such as the broccoli and cucumbers they hadn't finished at lunch). Blend it all up, and yum! Whatever's left gets poured into popsicle molds for later snacks.

T-shirt refashion

I've been having a rough time with sewing lately...I haven't had time to do much, I've been too tired when I do have time, and then when I finally get to it--like this morning--the results are disappointing. Last summer, the parents in my early childhood program designed and had printed beautiful t-shirts with all our names in balloons held by chickens (way more cool than they sound). I'm too big for the cute girly tees all the skinny moms wear, so I got the shapeless men's version. So, inspired by all the refashion-your-t-shirt books out there, I took scissors to it and tried to reshape it in a more flattering way. But it's a lovely soft stretchy material--not all cotton--and it turned out to be very hard to sew. It kept curling up and refusing to stay held in place by pins or stitches. In frustration, I stuffed it into the back of the closet. But it's been causing me so much guilt. I'm sure the parents would like to see me wearing my gift. And tomorrow, we're going on a group trip to the circus, and I thought it would be cool to wear my shirt; I know many of the kids and parents will wear theirs. So I finally pulled it back out again today and finished it. The sewing went much more smoothly, and I incorporated a new skill I've learned since starting it--sewing with elastic thread. But in the end, I don't like it: the shoulders aren't symmetrical; the arm elastic isn't comfortable; I don't like the neck. I was so disappointed.

So I abandoned the project and read a few blogs for inspiration. That's when I came across Amy Karol's brilliantly simple refashion. Just exactly what I needed to get out of my funk: an instantly-gratifying, super-simple project. Sure enough, I'm sitting here now in my new t-shirt cardigan, thinking I might just be able to face the sewing machine another day.