a quick project

every sunday, sho's grandma leslie takes her for the afternoon.  it's the only block of time i have to myself all week, so i look forward to it a lot and then invariably end up missing her terribly and run around the entire time thinking to myself, "i should be doing something better with this precious time!  aghhh!"  it's good to know she's always off having a great, donut-filled time though.

with grandma leslie

this weekend, i decided to give myself a break from sewing for the shop and just sew whatevah i want.  it was heavenly.  i made a boatload of felt food, drew up some patterns for toddler slippers, and bought the fabric i'll need to make christmas gifts for sho's cousins.  (i'm on a total christmas rampage lately, trying to get everything made by thanksgiving so i can actually enjoy the month of december this year.  when you try to make all your christmas gifts, december's the worst.  and it should be the best!)  anyway, shoshi was due back in a half hour or so when i got the idea to whip up a silky-soft pillow with a pocket hidden inside for her.  that kid has never really been into any of the blankets or stuffed animals i've made for her, but she does love a good pocket.  here's what i came up with:

i used a small pillow i made awhile ago for her daycare nap mat (an old flannel baby blanket sewn together and stuffed with an ex-pillow) and made the pillowcase out of a silky material that was the toga portion of sho's medusa halloween costume last year.  i sewed a silky blanket edging (you can find it in the bias tape section at fabric stores) along one edge.  to make the pocket, i sewed two little squares of fabric together (right sides together), leaving one end open, then turned it right-side out.  (this way the pocket is more finished-looking on the inside, plus i didn't need to fold over and iron all the edges of the fabric before sewing the pocket on.)  i used a little of the silky blanket binding to edge the unfinished top of the pocket.  then i just sewed the pocket-and-edging onto the wrong side of the pillow, right up against the silky edging so the pocket kind of blended in.  voila!  c'est fait!  shoshi loved it.  man, it might be my favorite kind of sewing, making something cozy for my girl to cuddle up with.

the fair

yesterday afternoon, neesy and i took shoshi to the kalamazoo county fair, which we all loved. it was decided that one afternoon of fair per year is exactly enough fair.  although, i do have an ongoing fascination with the nomadic lifestyle of fair vendors and carnies. i'd read that ethnography any day! anyhow, the goats were less satanic than i remembered, and shoshi was awed by her first up-close inspection of horses.  me too, horses are BIG!  (this has been deep thoughts by sarah v.)  also i am officially such a parent that i no longer care how dorky it is to take numerous pictures of your kid eating ice cream and feeding goats in public.  

shoshi continues to be a fearless little person.  the three of us have been finagling our way onto ferris wheels since before sho could walk (even though she's still not quite tall enough officially), and she has never shown an iota of fear, unlike her mother. we pointed to the most terrifying ride there, a horrible contraption that whips around in circles while also hurtling back and forth through the sky, and asked sho if she wanted to ride it. "yes," she answered matter-of-factly. our little shorty couldn't ride any of the rides yet (not even the one called "bear affair," which kept cracking me up and consisted of large bears in coveralls and tiny caps, cavorting their passengers merrily to and fro. it's a bear affair, got it?)

the great thing about the fair is that even when you have regrets, such as why on earth didn't i get a delicious elephant ear? WHY?, you can take some consolation in knowing that there's always next year.  who knows, maybe by then our little half-pint will be big enough to master...the bear affair!

stars

my grandma is moving in to my parents' house on tuesday, which means we'll have four generations in one house!  in other words, my parents are saints.  i have a list of things i need to buy before moving out and into the arms of having zero money to spare, so we'll be holding off on our move for a few more pay cycles.  computer, contacts, car insurance oh my!  so we've begun the work of consolidating all of sho's and my stuff from two bedrooms into one.  although my knee is bruised and my clothes now reside in the entryway coat closet, it is a nice change of scenery for sho and me to be sleeping in the other bedroom, the one i grew up in.  when i was a kid, i was obsessed with moving the furniture around in my room every month or so.  i loved the way a freshly rearranged room felt, like you'd stepped into an entirely new life where the possibilities were endless.  i had a huge packet of glow in the dark stars, and every time i moved my bed, i painstakingly applied new stars to the ceiling above by sticking them on my finger one by one and jumping up to smack them in place.  over the course of years, i managed to cover the ceiling pretty thoroughly with those tiny glow in the dark stars.  then i moved away and promptly forgot all about it.

last night, after working nonstop on getting us settled in our new room, both of us finally bathed and pajamaed, we got under our clean new sheets and turned out the light.  rain was falling steadily on the thirsty earth, and i had that great freshly-rearranged-room feeling straight from my childhood.  all of a sudden shoshi gasped.  "ohhhhhh!  mama!  mama, look!  stars!"  she was in awe.  it was a pretty amazing display of glow in the dark prowess, if i do say so myself, magnified by the fact that she's never seen them before and therefore may or may not have believed they were actual stars.  (oh, to know exactly what goes on in a two-year old's head...)  it was such a lovely moment, like a gift from my kid-self to my daughter, all clean and cozy in bed with the rain pattering outside.  sometimes as a parent, you work pretty hard for those "ohhhh!" moments, like the toy kitchen for christmas i'm already saving for and sewing felt food for after she goes to sleep.  how great it is, when those moments just happen along unexpectedly, no scrimping or premeditation required?

p.s. the winner of the native home crown giveaway, as chosen by random.org, is...comment number 2, lindsay!  congratulations lindsay, email to follow.  thanks for reading everyone!

captain america

these are somewhat totally annoying, but in nervous celebration of the fact that i just asked my boss for a bigger raise (eep!), i present shoshi at her friend jack's birthday party last night:

captain america says: talk to the hand, bitches.

nature girl

this girl of mine sure loves mucking around in the dirt.  as soon as she sets foot outside, she says, "shoes off!" like a total hippie.  and more often than not, when it's time to go inside, i have to pick her up and carry her kicking and yelling, because she sure as heck won't come in voluntarily.  she works side by side with my mom - the most dedicated and talented gardener i know; you should see her gardens, man - with a look of great seriousness and determination on her face.  she did not get this from me.  i mean, i like nature and all (i'm hoping that soon we'll have a big vegetable garden where we grow a lot of our food in the summertime), but to be real with myself, i'd totally rather lounge around reading or sewing than work outside all day.  this is one of the many reasons that sho is a cooler person than me.  i'm grateful i didn't get one of those babies who hates grass, sand, and dirt though.  i think sho would sleep in the dirt if she could, reals.  and i think because she's such an outdoor girl, i will end up being a better one myself.  one of the eight thousand ways that shoshanna inspires and improves me, on the daily.  it's going to be interesting to see what she thinks of snow this winter...my guess is a big: "APPROVE."

sew your love + giveaway

i sewed a fair amount in middle and high school, mostly hand-sewn crazy quilts with my friend erin (totally rock and roll).  so when i was pregnant with shosh, it was only natural to haul out the ol' sewing machine and see what my crazily nesting ass could whip up.  blankets, bunting for her nursery, bibs and burp cloths, little fabric birds for a mobile.  clothing was always too intimidating, and i've never been able to follow a pattern (still can't, really).  my grandma, whose ancient and wonderful viking i inherited, was the same kind of sewer.  she was totally self-taught, making things up as she went along and rarely following a pattern. she'd take things apart to see how they worked, then sew up a new one, which is exactly what i do, fifty years later.  weird confessional sidenote: part of me wishes i'd saved the underwear collection we discovered while going through her dresser after she died.  she had dozens of pairs sewn from every scrap of fabric imaginable, bright florals and pink paisleys and everything silky-soft in between.  maybe someday i, too, will be the kind of woman who whips up a pair of undies from every soft-fabric project scrap i encounter...ah, someday.

the first time i ever made clothes for sho, it was her first fall and i had been reading a lot of little house on the prairie.  deep in my bones, i felt the need to prepare for the changing seasons in an elemental, simple way - to sew clothes that would keep my small babe warm through the bitter michigan winter.  i used old t-shirts to make many versions of the 90-minute shirt, some adapted into dresses, others into little matching sweatsuits.  it was incredibly satisfying work; a tangible, practical way to put my love of that little bald-headed baby of mine into action.  it was an amazing feeling to take a ripped old t-shirt, sit down at my sewing machine nook under the stairs, and emerge an hour later with a one-of-a-kind creation for my girl.  i loved that she'd be wearing soft, awesome-looking clothes made with serious mama love all winter long.  many have been passed along, but some of the things i made that fall still remain:

when spring rolled around, i found myself overwhelmed by the same urge to create new clothes for the new season in my girl's life, to celebrate the return of the sun and waving leaves and warmth on our skin.  ever since that first change of season from summer to fall, i have felt the pull of the sewing machine every time one season wanes and another waxes in.  for me it is a way of honoring the change in weather, of feeling connected to the cycles of the earth in a very practical way.  i'm thankful that we've never had a lot of money for clothes, because i doubt that i would have pursued my sewing so enthusiastically if i'd had the money to buy new ones.  this way is so much more rewarding.

for sho's second winter on this earth, i was obsessed with pants.  i took apart a pair of hers to figure out how it worked, and made a pattern out of a brown paper bag taped together, which i still have and use for new baby gifts today.  if you're reading this and thinking about sewing clothes for the first time, i recommend starting with kid pants.  they're quick, surprisingly easy, and so satisfying - you'll be hooked.  it's a gateway drug into the world of sewing for your kiddo, with this easy tutorial for reversible pants quick on its heels (i wish i'd thought to look at either of those links before battling it out on my own; they're great)!  you can use a pair of your kiddo's pants to make the pattern if the size in the linked tutorial isn't right - just be sure to use a non-stretchy pair of pants if you'll be using non-stretchy fabric, and likewise with knit fabrics.  i was totally hooked on making quick-change trousers from the book handmade beginnings, which i checked out from the library and drooled over for a solid month before regretfully returning it.  i'd really recommend her book, as well as handmade home (my fave) and growing up sew liberated for sewing inspiration and patterns that aren't too obnoxious to follow.  below are some of the pants i made that fall, a few of which still fit today.  (i just put those floral pants on shoshi this morning before i left for work, in fact!)  the cuffs allow these pants to be worn for ages; just uncuff 'em as your babe grows.

the thing is, i'm not a great sewer.  i get frustrated and rip out seams and swear at my machine, which is why these days i rarely try anything that's too elaborate; i know my limitations and would rather have fun while sewing.  i'm an immediate gratification type of sewer, totally.  if you're just starting off, i would advise you not to linger too long on those glossy pages in the books i linked to above that say "advanced" or "intermediate" sewer.  stick with really simple projects you can finish in a half hour at first - burp cloths or a soft blanket or a bib.  when you realize how easy those projects can be, and run through the house yelling "look what i just made! look what i just made!" for the first time...that's how you'll get hooked.  not with some elaborate baby hoodie with pockets and toggle fasteners and a hood, tempting as it may be.  if your kiddo has outgrown the bib/burp cloth stage, this stuffed bunny tutorial looks rather fabulous to me, and not too tough to make at all. you are going to make mistakes and rip out your seams and/or hair, but try to keep in mind that that's how you're learning (at least, if you're like me...).  when i think back to some of the mistakes i made, i just have to shake my head and say, "oh honey."  but i had to make 'em to learn, and i'm so glad i stuck with it!  [peep our shop if you'd like to see what we've been up to lately - new monsters and capes up today.]

this summer, i've been obsessed with making the dresses featured below.  i can easily make two during a little after-sho's-bedtime-before-mine sewing session, with no frustration involved.  perfection.  i'm already setting aside long-sleeved onesies and coordinating fabrics for fall and winter dresses for shoshanna.  i've made a few circle skirts for her as well, and have been pleasantly surprised by how simple they are.  i might just step outside of my kiddo-sewing comfort zone and make one for myself soon.... 

anyhow, thanks for listening to my rambles about my journey thus far sewing for my little shoshanna mary.  i hope all those blasted links might be helpful to some of you out there who are interested in sewing for your own little ones!  i chose them carefully and can recommend every one.  

i know this blog doesn't have a ton of readers yet, but i'd like to thank you guys for reading with a very little giveaway - with another in the works for later this week!  it's a crown, which i'll embroider with the initial of your choice on a patch in the front before sewing it together, with elastic in the back for easy on-and-off.  i'll ask the winner for the head circumference of their little one so i can make it fit just right!  [also, i know there's some pink in there, but it's a manly pink...however, if you win and had a boy in mind for the crown, and that boy would rather not have pink, i will happily make another crown just for you.]  

just leave a comment below (be sure to include a way to get in touch with you), and introduce yourself if you'd like to.  i'll choose the winner using random.org on friday august 7th. good luck, and thank you so much for reading!

xoxo

imagination station

it's officially on & popping when it comes to shoshanna's imagination skills these days.  it's somewhat super boring to sit there and build the fiftieth duplos tower of the morning, but sometimes you get this window into the remembering of how it felt to play like that, to staple bubble-wrap together into sleeping bags for the toy giraffe and his girl, and to use a cocktail umbrella to shield them from the rain.  she demands, "BUILD, mama, BUILD!" and i see her watching me turn the plastic blocks into a tree fort with a slide going into the ocean, mostly watching and figuring out how to create worlds of her own someday.  it's important work, playing.

check back in tomorrow afternoon for our first little giveaway from me to you!