** I picked the winner of the Doli Tank pattern yesterday and emailed her, but I have not heard back. Be sure to check your spam folder! If I don't hear from my winner by Friday afternoon, I'll pick someone else.**

In case you didn't know, I am an energetic seamstress and a lazy blogger.

Anyway! It is Kids Clothing Week! Yay! This kind of marks a blogging birthday for me. I've been blogging in earnest for a year now. Not bad! The only two things I've done for longer than a year are be married and be a mom. Well done me.

For day one of Kids Clothes Week, I started a lot of things but only finished one. A Skater Dress made with some of the fabric that I got at Sir's on our Day Out when the Boy Scout was sick. This was the first time I actually did the arm bands (I follow directions so very well, you know.)

And I made this one in an 18 month/2T size. It fits perfectly! The 3T/4T was a bit too long and while this one may not last all summer, it will get a ton of wear right now. It is actually in the wash pile with ketchup on it as I type.

Elizabeth loves it. And I love it because the chance of unintentional moons is slim. This is the only pattern in existence that I can still make her a 2T in and it fit. Everything else is a 3 or sometimes even a 4.

Day Two featured a little less time, but I did finish up what I started the day before.

Pardon the car-hood pic. This fabric is SUPER thin and it is really windy. This is a patternless sunsuit that I put together from an old skirt. The top and legs are shirred with elastic thread and the straps have elastic. And I managed to get some snaps in the crotch (there has to be a better word. Really. We are intelligent people. Maybe we can think of something better.)

The original skirt came from the ether I think. I know that I did not buy it for me or buy it for my pile of recycling things. So I have no idea where it came from. But, it is pretty adorable as a sunsuit.

I also don't know if it is going to fit. Being patternless, I'm really second-guessing it right now. My hope is that it is going to fit and look a lot cuter on Elizabeth than it does on the hood of my car. I did manage to hold it up to her and I *think* it is going to be okay.

I started by making a dress - shirred top and straps. Then I followed this tutorial on how to turn a dress in to a romper. Well, sort of followed it. Again, with the following directions and just not doing it most of the time.

Then I polished off a couple of more Doli Tanks. Following directions is just not in my makeup this week, it seems. I just tugged too much at the bindings and got some wrinklies and bubblies. But, that doesn't change the cuteness or the wearability at all. And Elizabeth is already fond of the purple and white. She may take come convincing about the black and orange - but thankfully summer lasts until November here.



And today, Day three is Shorts-ageddon. Shorts-isbord. I made a bunch of shorts! The brown, pink, and purple are knit. The others are various forms of wovens. ALL of them are recycled from other things. Yay! For five pairs of shorts for $4!


There was another pair of shorts but it had an unfortunate accident involving a mud puddle and a gust of wind. So no pictures of those until they are washed. But, they original pants from those were free, so that doesn't add a cent to my $4 total.

Gosh, I love being cheap! Don't you?

I'm one of those DISGUSTING people who seems to be able to do just about anything. Tell me I can't do something and you better believe that I will. "Can't" only seems to exist in my world as a challenge. Really to the point of craziness - "You can't rob a bank!" Well, yeah I could. But *will* I? Nope.

And therein lies the difference! See, some people have gotten can't and won't mixed up. Just like need and want. I can do anything. Base jumping, dishes, vacuuming when Elizabeth is home. All things I can do. Also, all things I will not do!*

But in sewing I think I've finally found something that I'll not be doing again for a VERY long time because it just about become a big ole CAN'T right out of the gate.

And here she is. A Raggedy Ann doll for Elizabeth's birthday. I will start by saying that she is done with plenty of time to spare (about a week) and that she will have more clothes than just this one dress. But...

I go on record here and now stating that I Will Never Make Another Doll Of This Pattern Again.

It's not the hair or the wig or the clothes or the 'putting the body together with the legs and arms rammed inside the torso' or the seam ripping to restuff the head. It's her neck.

Less than an inch wide to start with and having to be sewn on to a curve with just enough room inside of the circle for the presser foot and half of my pinky finger the neck of this thing is the stuff of my nightmares. Sewing this thing should replace all forms of torture used and in some instances could be used as a substitute for the death penalty.

If I were not already nuts I would have been put in a home by now.

But, she's done, she's cute, and I don't think that Elizabeth is going to mind some of her wonkier points.

After all, she loves Annie almost as much as her Auntie M. does. And Auntie M's guest bedroom is decorated with Annie's.**

Fun things to note about Annie: The buttons on her shoes and the rickrack on her dress are both True Vintage - grandma's sewing room to the rescue! Also, her tights probably look familiar - I've still got BOATLOADS of that sheet left, too.

*In reality, there is only one thing that I simply can not do. And that is father a child. I do not have the biological capability to do that.

** Not like creepy-dolly decorated. There's a couple of Annie prints on the wall, M's own Annie doll for her youth, and a couple of figurines and a throw over the chair. And I think the bed linens are in the reds and blues of Annie, but are NOT Annie print.

Once I buckled down and set to it, getting my sewing area in order did not take long at all. After all, it is only a linen closet with the door off! AHAHAHA!

See, there's a weirdo hallway leading from the master bedroom to it's attached bath and that is where the master closet and the only linen closet in the place is.

All I did was rip out the bottom shelf and stick this old Singer sewing table in there. Well, it is the iron base from the table with a plywood board on top, but it works! Lots of yardage, buttons, trims, odds, and ends are on the remaining shelves. I even have a radio in there - and THAT is a treat!

We stashed the door in the bathroom and all my recycling clothes in the bedroom closet. Sadly, the serger has had to be put on a tv tray in the bedroom. I never use it a wild lot except for finishing things, so the aggravation of it being across the room isn't too bad.

But oh, the things I've made so far! I've started keeping a list of everything that I sew up just so I know later on where stuff came from. And who knows, maybe someday someone will read through it and laugh their heads off at my scribbled notes in the margins.

Anyway, here's some pics.

The first thing I worked on was another Oliver + S Popover Sundress. I really like this pattern, but this poor little dress seems ill-fated.

I made it from a $5 twin sheet that I got at Wal-Mart, a leftover bit of a pillowcase, and some bought red bias tape. I love the print on the sheet and I've been struggling to not use it on every single thing I've made so far.

And the dress is too cute on the sweet girl. But the first time she was supposed to wear it was to church three weeks ago. The Friday before, she comes down with a viral infection and can't go. Then, the Sunday after that I go out to the car with her only to find it overrun with ants. Inside and out! Cue me freaking out and not going to church.

I didn't even tempt fate yesterday. She wore something else entirely.

Next comes the big runs of things. Usually, I make one or two of something and never touch it again, but in the past month, Elizabeth has outgrown so much that I needed to replenish her wardrobe.


 Cue the Warhols! I don't think I did them right and I sure didn't do them in knit. Knits I'm hoarding for fall and winter. But these came out pretty good, I think. Good for the 100+ days since they barely touch Elizabeth at all. I've had the fabric for the one on the left since before the small girl was born and the green on the right is a pillowcase I picked up at Goodwill a few days before I made them.

Sidenote: we have an amazing Goodwill! First Saturday's are half off everything in the place. Every day there's 50% off a different colored tag. And Wednesday's and Sunday's are $.99 on the colored tag of the day. Guess where I'm going to be August 4?


Then came the racerback dresses. Now, I bombed making them before and I was determined not to do that again! So I cheated the binding, redrew the yoke on the back, and used tees that I'd found on sale at our local Dollar General for less than $2 each. There are actually three of them, but the lime and brown one was in the wash. That one is actually the best of the lot - the purple binding is a little too lightweight and there's not much stretch to the pink print binding. But none of that is bad enough to make them be tossed in the pile to be scrapped.

I've also made about four pairs of shorts and this adorable top, but shorts are boring to photograph so there won't be any pictures of those.


Now, Elizabeth is about to turn two. For her first birthday, I made a quilt for her crib. This time around I'm doing something different. I'm going to make her a dolly! She loves to read her Raggedy Ann book, so I found a pattern for a little Raggedy Ann. I don't think I have ever in my life pressed a pattern, but I am this time. And I'm also ironing the pattern pieces on to butcher paper - a temporary solution for making them sturdy enough to work with. Since Annie is one size, I'm not concerned about cutting this pattern. There are some little stuffed pets too, and another of her gifts is a vet set, so I see a pup or kitty in her future too.

Well, I've not got a thing to show for a week of silence save a handful of doll diapers. However, I do have a stupidly large pile of patters for myself cut out and one test pattern made up. Large pieces of paper and a ratty tank-top are not worth photographing, so here's the doll diapers! Aww!

 There are two sizes of them. The smaller ones on the left and the larger are on the right. Nice this about them (other than being really simple to make?) They cost me NOTHING. Every bit of fabric was one of those strange pieces left over from something else.

I never managed to get pictures of Elizabeth in all of her new things, but I did manage to get one of her in one of the skirt-and-top sets. I'm not so sure about the fit on it, but I did realize after these pictures were made that the top was on backwards all day. Oops!

I have learned this week that sewing for myself, I can't take an accurate measurement for anything. I must have measured myself eight times only to adjust my pattern waaaaaaay too much. I'm in no way petite and i have a very inflated sense (it seems) of how large I really am. So, patterns are made and I've started marking out fabrics for tops and dresses.

We will see what comes of it all.