the gloves

were a hit!!

I was a little concerned;

the black gloves gloves (made from swimsuit material)

were a bugger to get on

and Lily thought they were too tight.

But it turns out the blend and weave of the white fabric

is just perfect.

I just couldn't help myself

I know.

It'll take away a little of the thrill 

when she digs through her stocking.

But

Lily is going on a date with Daddy tomorrow

to see the Nutcracker.

So, you see,

I just had to....

butter bottom

It's no secret 

Lily has an ample derrière.

Ready made panties aren't a great fit for her.

When I finished the princess gloves

the house was still sleeping

so I wondered what else

on my Christmas list

could I tackle?

Panties!

They don't take long and I could easily

get rid of any evidence as soon as I heard Lily get up.

I dug out some shirts I'd bought 

just for this purpose.

I'd spent $1 total on all three!

In hindsight (hindsight haha ~ I kill myself)

I should have cut out the backs individually

instead of trying to save a few minutes

and stacking all the shirt fronts together to cut them out.

They're still fine

but the design should've been a bit lower down on two of 'em.

I don't think Lily will be as thrilled to pull these out of her stocking

as she will be her gloves

but they'll cover her booty

without crawling up her crack

and I'll get a kick out of 'em when I do the laundry.

fit for a princess

Like most three year old girls,

Lily is all about princesses.

She recently discovered Belle

and loves her long princess gloves.

So far

she's been content to use socks

or my disposable kitchen gloves.

Good imagination, 

that one.

I could have just ordered some online

but at $8 a pair

they seemed a bit overpriced.

Add to that

the sizing didn't seem to be real accurate

so I wanted to find some locally

to be sure they'd fit.

After the 7th store

I decided I'd just make them myself.

I started with a men's athletic shirt

- one of those polyester jobbies that  keep you cool and dry

while you work out.

It was a cheap-o one I bought on clearance at Dollar General

for a dollar.

I'd planned on making a nursing tank with it

but I never got around to it

and now I don't need a nursing tank anymore...

I turned the shirt inside out and

using the hem of the shirt as the top of the gloves,

I traced my cut out
just-barely-enlarged tracing of Lily's hand
right onto the shirt

It probably would have been smart to use a disappearing ink pen

but I couldn't find it, so I just used a pencil.

Leaving the shirt intact and well-pinned 

I used a triple stretch stitch

and stitched all the way around the gloves.

Then

I carefully cut out the gloves

about 1/8 of an inch away from the seams.

Turned 'em right side out

and that was it.

Fancy dress-up gloves

perfectly fit for a little princess.

I think she'll be pretty happy to give me back my socks!

Samaritan's purse purse

I'm not entirely sure why

- could have something to do with having a passel of kids -

but we're just behind on everything.

I wasn't sure we were going to manage 

putting together shoeboxes this year,

but yesterday evening 

the kids all had a late snack

and wouldn't need dinner till 7:30 - 8ish

so we just loaded up and ran to Walmart.

the boys' box

The boys shopped for a boy, around their age,

and I took Lily & Lex'

 and we picked out stuff for a 2-4 year old girl we called  'Emily'.

I thought Emily was a great name;

usually Lily picks 

umm 

different names

like

Delucia

or Beniko.

But then I heard her chanting,

"Rocky loves Em i ly" (from The Three Ninjas)

The boys had 'named' their gift recipient Rocky...

anyways...

We picked out 2 little baby dolls

and decided we would make a little purse / doll bed for them.

Lily helped me choose the fabrics

(two fat quarters)

before she had to head off to bed herself.

She had a hard time 'getting' that this was for a little girl

we would never meet

this side of heaven.

She was really excited to play with 'Emily's' new toys with her.

I explained several times that that wasn't happening.

So, instead of playing with her,

we took some pictures of Lily using her purse bed

so little Emily would know how to use it

and included the photos in her shoebox of girlie goodies.

With the scraps from the bag, I made a tiny quilt

that ended up being just perfectly sized.

I forgot to take a picture of it

(and all the other fun stuff we bought)

but I made a sweet pillowcase dress, too

figuring it could be worn by anyone from a 2 yr old to a 6 yr old

I'm thinking maybe another little doll purse / bed is in order

ya think?

back in the saddle again

Well.

I finally got to spend a bit of time sewing.

Well.

sort of sewing.

Is it sewing if it's paper?

I think it is....

I made 12 monthly journals as a gift for a dear friend
using double sided cardstock,
which I thought was a nice surprise on the inside :-)

I included 3 pages for listing 'gratitudes'
and 2/3 of a page per day
(3 days per 2 page spread)

These are really fun to make

and if you aren't trying to make a dozen at a time,

they go pretty quickly.

After doing a few, I decided I didn't like how it looked

machine sewing the pages in

so I ended up sewing that part by hand.

I pre-punched my holes with a thumbtack
so it went pretty quick

all ready for gifting

I hope she enjoys them.
And maybe,
I'll find some time to do other sewing soon, too!

Bloggers' Quilt Fest

I'm pretty bummed to not have a quilt to enter into 

this round of the Bloggers Quilt Festival

but it'll be fun looking through all the quilts

over the next several weeks.

Go take a look

there are already a ton of entries!

Just in case you missed it
or if you just want to see my lovely again :-)
here's my entry for the Spring quilt festival

well, that didn't go as planned

It's really nothing new ~ things not going as planned.

I don't know why I'm always surprised and disappointed

when it happens.

Guess it's that overconfidence thing.

It certainly explains why I'm so darn thrilled when I get it right.

I was so tickled to sit down and sew something;

it seems like ages.

I'd been to the fabric store

and really could have purchased more fabric than I did

but I was prudent

and decided I'd go back as soon as I'd sewn up what I bought.

Before going to bed

I cut out fleece jumpers for the girls

using a shirt of Lily's as a guide.

I forgot that the shirt I'd grabbed was too big in the shoulders.

I woke up before Tyler left this morning

so he could put caladryl lotion on my poor poison-ivyd back.

I didn't end up getting back to sleep

so I got up and sewed.

Lexi's jumper fits okay - bit it's kinda snug going on.

and she could do with a little more leg room.

Lily's.

Now, Lily's looks fabulous.

So long as it's hanging on a hanger.

On her - it looks 

well

just bad.

And then there were the pants.

I founded the softest  fleece with rubber duckies for $3.99 / yard

and thought I'd whip up a pair of 18-24 months jammie pants for Aiden.

And while I was at it

I'd make a pair for Lex', too

they are, after all, the same size......

Anybody need two pairs of 12 mo. ducky jammie pants??

~

I have decided that before I sew one more thing

(unless I cut into that jersey fabric I bought for sweats for Jeremiah...)

I'm going to take super detailed measurements of the girls

and draw them out on graph paper.

Surely

that will keep me from making such ill-fitting clothes.

I can dream....

overconfidence

I think

perhaps

one of the definitions of overconfidence

is

ordering crochet patterns

when you don't know how to crochet.

and you sure can't read a pattern!

ya think?

whole lot of nothin'

Sadly

there's not been much creating going on around here

the past few weeks.

I spent an hour

 a week or so ago sewing

and got 6 blocks made for my paintbox quilt.

I had hopes of entering it in the Bloggers Quilt Festival

but my progress has been pitifully slow.

I'm feeling rather 'meh' about my blocks so far,

and if I hadn't invested so much time already

running all over creation gathering fabric

and cutting it

I'd probably scrap the whole thing.

That

and the fact that

I really do have high hopes of loving it when it's (finally) completed.

I did manage to find a perfect duck fabric for Aiden

and made a simple batted & bound blanket for his 1st birthday.

Of course

I failed to take a picture of it before wrapping it up.

Oh, I whipped up a quick bib out of leftover fabric, too

And that

has been the extent of my crafting lately.

I should remedy that.

But with what??

soap on a rope -- or something

We had a little bit of money left in the gas envelope

when September ended.

Now

a die-hard Dave Ramsey fan would dutifully transfer that money

either to

a) debt

OR

b) next month's gas envelope.

a) We have no debt.     b) It was my birthday

so I spent it. 

I've seen felted soaps on the world wide web before

and it's been on my very long list of 'things to do someday'

but when I saw Ginny's tutorial in Rhythm of the Home

(I have no clue what steps I took that led me there...)

I knew

now was the time.

It was much less expensive to buy un-dyed wool roving

which was perfect, 'cause I wanted to dye some with koolaid.

We'd had so much fun dyeing playsilks for Lily's 2nd birthday;

I knew we'd find something else to dye someday.

Seriously

if you've never dyed something with koolaid

you gotta try it!
Lime koolaid is the coolest!

I probably should have found a tute specifically for dyeing wool

though - 'cause it began to felt just from the dyeing process

which - for our soap was fine - 

but it might not be okay for other uses.

Lex' was serious about her soap!

I love the mouths!

uh-oh!

whew! rescued

Felting soap was really very simple

but Jeremiah thought it 'got old after awhile'.

Lily wasn't overly enthusiastic about finishing the felting process either.

Josiah is pretty excited to use his soap

but I think he could take -or- leave the making of it.

Brandon and I want to make more
which is good, 'cause we've got a good bit of roving left.

mountain of bags

I joined a preschool activity swap a few weeks ago.

Here's how it works:

Everyone is assigned an activity that a preschooler can do on his/her own

while momma is busy doing school with the bigger kids.

Everyone makes 20 sets of their one activity.

Then we all get together and swaps activities,

giving 20 kids

20 different 

self-directed activities.

pretty sweet, huh?

My assignment

 was to gather a tumbler and 12 - 20 plastic colored clothespins

for twenty activity bags.

I'm supposed to draw a face on the cup

so that the kiddos can not only have a

 'drop the clothespin in the cup' game

but a 'make funny hair for the face' game, too

by clipping the pins around the rim of the cup.

I ran all over town choosing just the right tumblers

and collecting enough clothespins.

15 seemed like a perfect amount for the cups I bought.

That's 300 clothespins!

When I got home from shopping

instead of putting all my activity sets together
 like I should have done

I started thinking,

"Where are these little kids going to put all those clothespins

while they're playing with them - when they're not in the cup?"

So I decided I had to make them all 

little drawstring bags to hold the pins.

I would have liked to have made these with cute fabric

but decided to go with something I already had

so I cut twenty notebook-paper sized pieces from 

an old sheet I'd used to make a muslin for some pants for Ton'.

Now, these bags are admittedly small at 4 1/2 x 6 1/2

but they're perfect for little hands and this project.

I accidentally made 21 instead of 20

and let me tell you

that one extra bag is a hot commodity!

Once cut, these only took 5 minutes each to make

so even though I made a buttload - it didn't take too long.

(Lana has always wondered - how much, exactly, is a buttload?)

I simply folded  and ironed the top (one of the long sides) down 1/4" or so

and then folded it down again maybe 3/4" 

then I unfolded the second fold, but left the first one

and sewed down the side and across the bottom

leaving a bit of an opening for my drawstring

just a tiny bit past that second crease

Then I clipped the bottom corners

re-folded the top that I'd ironed down earlier

and did a row of stitching along the top of the bag

 and another just a bit below that 

to create a casing for the ribbon.

I threaded ribbon through the hole I'd left in the side 

when I sewed it up which - if in the right spot -

was perfectly centered between my two rows of stitching.

Now that I've got that out of my system

I need to put together the requested activity.....

Tutu for Lex'

  

I wanted to make just a little something yesterday.

I tried

twice

to make some boxer briefs for Josiah

using his too-small shirts.

Let's just say - he doesn't have any new underwear.

Which means 

I hadn't made anything;

I'd merely attempted to make something.

I remembered the tulle I bought several months ago

to make a tutu for Lexi.

I'd made a no-sew one for Lily and wasn't overly thrilled with it

so I knew I wanted to make Lex's differently.

I used every bit of two 25 yard rolls of tulle

which was the perfect amount for a size 2/3, I think.

I like the look of it sewn

much better than the tied style

and still it only took about 40 - 45 minutes to make.

It also doubles as a fabulous hat.