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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 finished another project. You’d think that I love hand sewing and finishing if you saw me working on this thing today. I had to sew and re-sew and sew the snaps again before I had them right. I almost abandoned the whole thing after the first two failed attempts. These are from the same pattern I used to make the ladybug dress. The fabric is a lot busier in the final product than I had envisioned but it’s been in my stash so long that it’s practically vintage and I wanted to use it. Not to mention that Chase has a pair of blue shoes that I think will be cute.

I almost botched the pants irreparably. I can only imagine that I made a mistake in cutting but the pants had no ’seat.’ I tried to save them by adding a waistband made from 2″ lace and removing a row from the double stitched crotch seam. I figure it’s better to get some wear out of them even if they fall apart rather than never getting to wear them at all.  The lace is from a grab bag of notions that I found at the thrift store.  I’m never lucky enough to find stuff like this.  It’s perfect because it has a flower motif that’s similar to the fabric.  I thought the frog would be cute but now I wish I had made a little felt daisy for the front.  Next time.  

During an incredibly short lived bib making phase I bought a presser foot that applies bias tape, it might have a special name but if it does, I don’t know it.  It came in a package with absolutely no instructions but it was pretty self explanatory.  It was so easy to use and gave a really nice finish.  I didn’t have any of my usual problems with catching all the layers.  My last trip to JoAnn’s I stocked up on bias tape for an easy finish on upcoming projects.  

Earlier we planted the new box. We were able to use some odds and ends that we had hanging around.  Ben added the posts from an old headboard. We’ll use them and some garden twine to trellis cukes and stake tomatoes later in the season. We bought some plants and some seeds and did some flowers. I tried to keep it simple, flowers I have had success growing in the past, sweet peas, cosmos and zinnias. In spite of my best efforts I, of course, bought duplicates of about 3 types of seeds but I did find an awesome zinnia called envy. It looks like this: Continue