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Ta-da!  Last week at Ikea I was very close to buying a play tent.  Very close, dangerously close.  I didn’t buy it though and remembered this tutorial and thought I’d give it a try.  This is a highly modified version of that one because I had neither sufficient grommets nor plastic rings on hand.  Instead of the rings I sewed casings for the poles and didn’t add flaps so the tent is three sided.  I wanted it to look something like this 300 dollar job but mine’s not quite as slick.  300 bucks can you believe that??  Anyway, it’s surprisingly sturdy and the kiddies seem to like it.  

I wish I could get the pictures into the order of her discovery but Wordpress hates me so you’ll have to use your imagination and if you want to see them full size, you have to click on the pictures twice.  I know, I know sorry.  Oh, and that coat and those red boots?  Kid to Kid Consignments.  I didn’t get what I was looking for but that coat?  The price tag sure does say $5.99 I can only imagine what it cost retail at Baby Gap.  The boots are brand new, never worn and cost only $3.99!  I bought all that and still came out ahead by not spending three hundred bucks on a play tent.

You knew it was coming right?  It’s good but not great.  It’s more of a tutu apron than a tutu proper.  Here’s how it came about.  I’ve been picking up pieces of tulle from remnant bins for months and finally had enough to put a little something together.  I also splurged and bought a gathering foot.  First of all it’s the best thing ever.  No more fussing with rows of stitching and getting great gathering only to pull to hard and break the thread.  The only thing I can’t do is account for how much length will be left if I gather with x tension and y stitch length.  Does anyone know how to figure it out?   

There are obviously some kinks to work out.  I should probably stop taking pictures of projects before I cut all the thread ends and try to prettify it a little.  I just used a wide ribbon for the band and tied it in the back.  You can get a sense of how it looks in the back from one of those pictures.  The other reason Chase got a tutu today?  Last night I jumped up and tried to squish a bug.  Who knew that would precipitate hours… HOURS of EYE? EYE? That’s fly? in baby speak.  EYE?  all through bathtime… EYE?  all through bedtime, we even read a book about a fly.  First thing this morning… everything was ok.  Ben got up with her and put the tv on and I slept in.  When they came back upstairs his face was drawn and pale and all he could tell me was that he looked away for a second and that when he looked back at the tv there was a chicken, a duck and a frog on the screen and Chase had renewed her efforts at looking for an EYE?  What do I do he asked me.  What to do indeed.  

I let Ben go back to bed and went to work.  EYE?  was nothing a new tutu and a little Dragon Tales couldn’t take care of.   

Whenever I get my shoes on and say ok, let’s go!  Chase tries to hand me my bag.  The giant might-as-well-be Hefty bag that lugs around an assortment of diapers, toys and snacks that I can barely lift off the ground.  It got me thinking about making a little bag that she could tote around.  I used some brown fleece from my stash and just started cutting.  I wanted to give it a little structure so she could get her hand in and out pretty easily so I used the shoulder pads that I cut out of mom’s jacket.  And you’d thought I’d thrown them away, ha!  A couple of buttons and a tube of light brown fleece make a serviceable handle.  

Then because I still had an itch to make something but it was far too late to stick my fingers near anything motorized I devised a little card holder style wallet for her to tuck inside.  I just cut some pieces of craft felt out around a credit card and stitched them together with some embroidery floss.  

My first instinct was to make her a cute little cotton bag with a cute print that would be like a little purse but what I like about this one is that it can just as easily be a picnic basket as a coach bag with a little imagination.  So… I threw a felt banana and strawberry in with the wallet just for kicks.  I keep making the little bits of food as I come up with ideas for things that can be made out of the crazy colors I have.  I was just looking at the felt too and passed up buying some.  Now I’m kicking myself.  Anyway, no matter because she really likes it as it is.  She swings it around on her arm as if she’s been carrying a handbag forever.  

It’s hard to get a picture of a toddler swinging a purse but here are a few of Chase enjoying her new toy.  I added a strawberry and a carrot to the poor sad banana.  

I finally got around to finishing this little chair project for Chase.  I had already cut and assembled it but ended up taking it apart and completely reconstructing it when my plans for using bias tape coordinating with the seat fell apart.  I tried, I really tried but after the second failed attempt I had to call it quits.  I just didn’t plan ahead for the bias tape and only had scraps to work with.  That being said I’m much happier with the way it turned out without the bias tape.  It’s a completely fly by the seat of your pants design and I’m really happy with how it turned out.  

The backing is a green fleece type fabric from a blazer that was my mothers.  I’ve been moving the jacket around with me for a long time.  It was one of the samples constructed from her designs that she would bring home from work and even though it’s probably the only one I have I was ready to part with it in its jacket form.  It wasn’t something that I could wear.  I mean, it’s possible that shoulder pads could come back and that I could rock them in an olive green blazer but I just don’t like the odds on that.  So I cut.  I did save the tag from the inside and all the buttons I’ll use those on some other project later.  

The front side is made of linen that I bought at Ikea.  I made the seat pad earlier using cotton quilted together with a few layers of craft felt as batting.  I followed the same process of measuring and cutting for the back only this time I constructed it by turning under the linen piece 1/4 inch all the way around and then stitching the front and back wrong sides together with a blanket stitch.  

On Saturday I came into some chintz that a neighbor was willing to part with that’s where the applique bird and bugs come from.  I just stitched them down with a blanket stitch and sewed on some bias tape ties.  

Chase was adequately impressed and pleased with her little friends and so we are all very happy about it.  I found the little stool at Goodwill on Saturday.  I never find cute stuff like that and it matches!   I picked up a set of retro canisters too for storing upstairs craft supplies.  See you in hell shoeboxes!  

Hmm.. I would have bet money that I posted about the bottom part of the seat when I finished it but I guess not.  It’s hard to see but I machine stitched in her initial using contrasting thread.  

I kinda fell off the face of the earth for a minute there.  Earlier this week Kayris gave me this award!  

Cool, huh?  It makes me feel cool and lame at the same time because even though I loved getting it I have no one to pass it on to.  Not really anyway.  I think most of the people’s blogs that I read either already have a huge enough following that they know just how many people’s days their making or have already been awarded it not to mention that I am completely inept when it comes to how these things go.  So… Thank you, thank you!  And I’m glad somebody’s reading :o)  Gack, now I have to figure out how to get it into my sidebar.  

In other news it’s finally here along with all the good and bad that come with it.  

The good:

The farmer’s market is in full swing.  I can’t wait for tomatoes so I can eat insalata caprese everyday.  

It’s full on yard sale season.  I left the house with 5 bucks and came back with 3.  Also in tow, two giant dump trucks for backyard play, a cool vintage pattern to make for myself in the fall, three vintage books for Chase and a pile of fabric.  Not bad huh?  

I love watching the tiny veg grow a little everyday.  I finally got some perennials in the front so we’re not the weed garden people anymore.  It’s pretty bad when the guy playing without a full deck offers to bring you over some hostas from his own garden and then feels so bad for you that he plants them for you too.  

I took this book out from the library.  It has good ideas for ways to encourage children’s play outdoors.  The book has just been re-released with a few updates but the pictures scream I’m from the original publication!  A lot of the featured gardens are from the mid-atlantic region which makes is that much more useful and interesting.  I’m reading and thinking about how to interpret some of the ideas for our postage stamp yard.  We’re trying to think of ways to maximize the use of our space.  Ben built a door to cover the steps down to the basement that is not pitched so that it also serves as a little deck for the grill that freed up a lot of space and also provided a place to store our table when not in use.  I planted ferns underneath our plant beds.  I put some stones in around them and I’m hoping that they naturalize a little.  

We’re trying a new composting experiment.  We were on the verge of shelling out for a system when we found this.  

All of our hard work is finally paying off.  We’re having a lot of fun kicking around outside.  

Oh, and Pile of Craft.  I hardly slept last night, tossing and turning and trying to figure out what order to tackle the walk to the farmer’s market, block yard sale and craft fair in.  For fear of being run out of town I’ll keep my opinion to a minimum but I’ll tell you that I just don’t ‘get’ the whole hipster scene.  Craft is craft regardless of how ‘cool’ you are, where’s the craft love people?  I did buy one thing from one booth because the vendor was the nicest, most genuine person.  She had a truly warm smile and was so nice not to mention that her wares were super cute.  Only a super nice person selling super cute stuff could get me to spend 40 bucks on a child’s t-shirt, sheesh.  Don’t hold this against me when I’m calling asking you to borrow money.  Chase has a kitty t-shirt and kitty says MOW that’s m-ow not, mow.  

The cat is from a recycled T and the rest of the shirt is organic cotton.  The whole thing is ridiculously soft and beautiful… I want it.  Plus it looks like a cat I had once.  

Summer means it’s almost Chase’s half-birthday.  She’s having a little bit of a language explosion that results in more than a little verbal diarrhea.  I catch some of it that gets repeated, bug bite, Chase got socks, go outside, truck, chalk, toot toot!  and a lot of new animal sounds and actions.  A lot of it sounds the same but I’m fluent in Chase-ease.  She is also finally saying mummy and mom.  Of course it’s while she’s trailing behind me demanding to be carried.  I had to bust out the Ergo my back is killing me.  

The bad: 

Chase is being eaten alive by mosquitos and I haven’t had time to figure out how to effectively combat the buggers.  I finally went around today and put a few drops of citronella essential oil around where we sit and it seemed to work.  It’s cost effective until the bottle runs out because I already had it on hand but I’m reasonably certain that pouring essential oils around in the great outdoors isn’t the most effective way to fend off mosquitos.  

Must you play your music so loud?  Seriously, are you going to die if you turn it down a notch or two?  One day I’ll just snap. 

What will the kids DO all summer?  

It will be hot soon and the craziness that is summer in the city will hit hard.  

Have a good weekend!

Inspired by the halter top jumper I made last week I spent many restless nights thinking this project through.  It took me a trip to baby gap plus another 5 days to actually put pencil to paper on it.  The finished product isn’t exactly how I envisioned it but once I started to really think about it it took on a life of its own.  I liked the really soft knit style that I saw in the stores and I might give one like that a try next.  Here’s how it all started:

You could trace a pair of your child’s shorts but I played it safe and started with the shorts pattern from Butterick 4503.  An even simpler short pattern, i.e. 4 identical pieces for front and back, would be even easier.  Come to think of it, you could even eliminate one set of seams if you did it that way.  The project requires astoundingly little fabric, about a half a yard is enough to make the jumper and the belt.  

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I’m so happy it’s friday, so very happy.  It’s been a busy couple of days but in a good way.  I’ve been working on scheduling and figuring out a reciprocal childcare situation with a neighbor friend and as hard as it’s been for me to let go a little it really is a really fabulous idea.  If I don’t give credit where credit is due I know I’ll hear about it so let me just come out and say that it was NOT my idea and that truthfully I was incredible hesitant if not resistant.  Ben first suggested that I approach a couple of neighbors months ago but I couldn’t or didn’t want to do it.  Later, said neighbor friend suggested it and after some weeks we finally just jumped in and started figuring things out.  Most importantly Chase is having a blast.  

We picked up lunch today and while we were waiting for our order a big fire truck pulled up right outside the window.   Chase was pretty impressed by the truck itself but when the firefighters leaned out waving to her that really sealed the deal.  She was waving and pointing and was just generally beside herself with excitement.  Later, we went to Wal-Mart on an unrelated errand and came back with a new fire truck toy.  She really likes her new little tykes truck but of course I’ve spent part of the three hours that I’ve been sitting in this lecture to look at other amazing fire truck toys that are out there.  With a little more thought and planning I could have gotten her one of those from an independent toy store.  It’s hard to not go crazy with all of the info floating around in my head.. buy local, buy simple toys… etc. etc.  So I’m just going to chalk this spur of the moment purchase up to, I can only do what I can do and let it go.  It IS a fine looking fire truck after all.  

The real reason that I was al Wal-Mart was because I was looking for buttons.  In spite of the fact that their selection of fabric and notions is pitifully small they do still have a fabric and craft section and I think that they’re the closest store to us that carries any sewing notions at all.  That being said I bought a lot of cute buttons for use with my version of this cute halter dress that I found online yesterday.  Chase was not having any of it when I tried it on her today without the straps so hopefully she’ll let it stay on tomorrow once it’s tied.  I’m hoping that the cute flower button will be enough of an inducement to keep it on at least long enough to get a picture.  You can find the tutorial here, but there’s autoplaying music so turn your volume off if you don’t want anyone to hear.   It’s a great idea and very simple.  I modified it a little adding a scalloped edge at the bottom and some decorative stitching.  I’m really happy with how it turned out.  It’s always so hard to wait until Chase wakes up to try stuff on her.  It takes all my willpower not to go wake her right now.  

Now that I don’t HAVE to sit at my computer it’s hard to motivate myself to post. Sunday was commencement. I still can hardly believe that they actually called my name. I was sure that at the last minute someone would rip the rug out from under me and I’d find out I was one credit short or somesuch. Talk about an emotional roller coaster. I think Erin hit the nail on the head when she said it was probably some colossal mind game on the part of the administration. I barely held it together. Only the fear of being remembered as the only person weeping at their graduation kept me from totally falling apart.

Things have been pretty low key here since then. I am fighting the customary cold that always descends upon me at the end of the semester. It comes like clockwork as soon as the last task, in this case graduation, is completed. We’ve just been hanging out. Now that the rain has finally stopped we were able to get out a little today and walked to the grocery store this morning and then to the park this afternoon. It’s been a long time since Chase has fallen asleep in my arms but she was close tonight. We’ve had a busy week but I’m inclined to think that she is having a growth spurt or something. She strikes me as unusually sleepy.

I completed another project. I loved the first bubble so much that I made her another. This fabric was so much easier to work with than the last stuff. It’s impossible to be intimidated by working with knits after having handled that… whatever that hideous gauzy stuff was. I have to give credit to my machine though, I don’t think I could have done it without my viking. That machine has totally revolutionized sewing for me. I have the base computerized model but now that I have worked with a computerized machine I will never.. ever go back… ever. The instruction manual is about 10 pages long, thus I actually read it. The most important piece of information in there is that most problems can be solved by either rethreading or using a new needle and it turns out to be 100% true. I have not yet had a problem that wasn’t solved one of those two ways. Not to mention that the thing doesn’t have to be oiled ever! I think it’s time she was given a name don’t you?

We had leftovers for dinner tonight. I kind of like leftovers, leftovers are kind of my “thing.” I have something of a reputation among my friends for coming up with creative ways to turn leftovers into something a little bit snappy. Ben grilled ribeye steaks for us on mother’s day. I have a few go to’s for leftover grilled meats but as I am feeling a little under the weather I wasn’t in the mood for any of my old standbys. I poked through the fridge and freezer and came up with several half bags of veg and a sheet of puff pastry and steak potpie was born. I made a little roux and then a sauce with chicken stock and a little milk with a little dollop of horseradish. It was quite good. I stuffed the leftover bits of pastry with frozen raspberries for a dessert treat.

I have so many things to write about. I’ll begin by simply saying that you can tell you had a good day when your head is pounding from all the cheap tequila. Today was a great day in spite of the crappy weather.

1. Went to the doctor today for a checkup with my new GP. I brought Chase with me and got there at 9:15 for my 9:30 appointment. At 9:30 the nurse put us back in the exam room to wait for the doc and told me to don a paper gown. I donned said gown and waited… and waited. Do you have any idea how long you can chase a toddler around in a paper gown before it falls away in tatters? Yea, there’s a reason that we don’t wear paper clothes. It was already hanging on by a thread when Chase pointed in through the armpit to make sure I knew that the gown was insufficient to cover my boobs and then reached over to just completely rip it off. Clutching the shredded remains of the gown I searched the cupboards for a new one, stuffed the old one into the trash can and did a quick change. I was pretty mad at having to wait. I was almost at the point of just cutting my losses and going home when the doc showed up. It turned out that I really like her. I have high hopes that she’ll be as good as my last GP in PHL. He was the best.

2. I’ve been stalking a pattern for a bubble dress ever since I saw a little girl sporting one on one of our recent walks. The girl’s dress was just plain black and I loved the way that looked. Of course when I went to buy fabric I bought the opposite of what I wanted. Sometimes I just don’t know what my problem is. In the end I love the way the fabric looks but what a pain in the @ss to sew. I have another yard of it. I’m going to cram it way in the back of my drawer because I never want to see it again. It was like constructing the whole thing out of pantyhose.  I again was inexplicably unable to follow the directions as written but managed to cobble together something respectable.  The best part is that it went together in one night from cutting to finishing and you have to love a dress that doesn’t need a hem.  I think I’ll have C wear it to graduation on Sunday.

3. I took some pictures of some random cuteness we picked up in the last week. I found these egg cups at T.J. Maxx. I picked up the vintage cups at value village. It’s a set of 4 and they’re super cute. I figure why not let Chase have cute cups now that she’s able to use them like a big girl and if they get chipped, meh they were cheaper than the sippy cups ever were. The juice boxes are from Costco. Chase doesn’t drink juice at home but when we’re out I find myself spending lots of money on bottle water and the like. The idea with the juice boxes is to be able to have a sip of something cold in my purse that’s not all huge and plastic. They’re adorable and only 4oz, the perfect size.

4. The giant pink beverages were an attempt at a cocktail sometime earlier this week. I saw a recipe somewhere for a Jamaican refreshment brewed from hibiscus blossoms. I wanted to try it out but took the fake it don’t make it approach and started with red zinger tea bags (artistic license). It was great until I decided to add a shot of rum. I don’t think I care for light rum. I’ll make it again as iced tea, red zinger, lime juice and sugar over ice, yum.

5. We celebrated the end of the semester today with a happy hour playgroup. Chase had 5 friends and I had five friends and everyone had a blast. I made margaritas that were so good considering how little effort went into them that it’s just stupid. At almost 1.50 each I wasn’t shelling out 30 bucks for the number of limes it would take to make enough margaritas for 5 thirsty ladies and 2 thirsty hubbies. A little research yielded the following recipe: 1-12oz can limeade, 12 oz tequila, 1/4 c cointreau, 2 qts ice I worked in two batches, poured it into a pitcher, popped it in the freezer and poured into salt-rimmed glasses as necessary. As an aside, you should probably have a blender to make these. I, of course, do not have a blender. We replaced the last one with an immersion blender when the last one died. I had to improvise a little. I started with crushed ice and used the adapter of the immersion blender that’s kind of like a food processor mini chopper thing. It was an adequate stand in and frankly after a couple of drinks no one cared anyway.

The kids had so much fun. Chase may have a new boyfriend… or two!