I did a ton of sewing this week, but the weather has been very Tennessee and I only have pictures of one project. However that project is the one I am most proud of!

I got the PDF Puppet Show pattern last fall and made a dress from it out of stuff I just had laying around. I have wanted to make another because the purple one is WAY too short now. But that just isn't to be, it seems. I keep having mismatches of fabrics AND I'm on a buying freeze right now too.

But, Elizabeth needs neutral shorts. I made the mistake of starting my shorts making with some very limiting (but extremely cute) options. So now we need solids and basics - like brown. And denim.

First, let me start by saying that I always get intimidated by all the little bits and bobs in Oliver + S patterns. I *know*! It isn't hard, follow the directions, it's really all very logical. But it gets me every time! That's why I never made these shorts. All those teeny pieces were overwhelming.

After making six basic shorts, I figured some of her more boring basics could be less boring with a cute pattern. And boy was I right.

I love being right. Don't you?

Ta-da! Now, they are sitting a little low on her in this pic. She's wearing a disposable diaper and the poor child has *no* hips or booty to hold her pants up. And the denim - yeah. Maybe not the best choice for this pattern. I had to trim out bulk til I was green in the face and the waistband still isn't snug enough. But, she wears cloth diapers most of the time (we were stripping them yesterday) so they will be fine with her artificial backside.

And they cost me next to nothing. After the pattern, the shorts themselves are made from a pair of jeans that a good friend of mine gave me to chop up! FREE! Whooo! Thanks Renee!

And yes, cold bribes are used in this house. Especially when it is 80 degrees outside.


I can't believe how big she is getting. Those legs are little kid legs! For real. You can't see it in this pic, but she had a BAD fall at playschool yesterday. There's a big bleedy cut on her knee, a big old purple bruise complete with road rash on the inside of that knee, and her opposite shin is scraped. GAK! went the mommy in me. She seems unphased.

** 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?

We still are not out of the woods yet health-wise. Elizabeth seems to be having a rough time of it now - she just got past a really bad upper respiratory thing, now she's got a raging ear infection in her left ear. Poor kid! It got so bad that her *eyes* hurt her.

Lots of ibuprofen and antibiotics seem to be helping, but she will miss the egg hunt that's supposed to be tomorrow. I can't let her be out in the cold wind with a gunky ear.

But I've been quite busy. Last weekend while she was at my mom's I guilt-sewed up several pairs of shorts (!!??) for her. It was so warn and wonderful outside! 70 degree weather, sunny, wonderful! NOW it is 34 and cloudy-rainy, but then.... Well, so are the wonders of living in Tennessee!

Aren't they cute? I was really worried about them being too big - I used my 4t pattern from late last summer. But my skills are much better this year and these fit great! The green plaid and the Pooh Bear ones are a touch long, but this is Tennessee and Summer lasts until October. I'll make a dress or something to go with the rainbow striped ones - I didn't even try to match the stripes and they don't look great. They were worse before I made them bloomers, tho! WHEW. Some things just don't need to be striped in rainbows!

The Sprinkle print is a cotton from Joann - I only got a remnant and it shrank so much when I washed it that I didn't know if I could get a pair of shorts out of it. But I did and they are adorable. And yes, we've made all the right jokes about carrying sprinkles on one's booty. The rainbow stripes are that wal-mart sheet from last summer. I have another whole sheet left so I'm thinking about making some sundresses to sell out of it. The green and the Pooh's are both recycled from old pants. The denim on Pooh is so soft! Elizabeth really likes these, but alas, hasn't gotten to wear them yet.

I also finishedup the Mickey Dress for the fundraiser auction! It turned out really cute - I used Rae's Geranium Dress pattern and added a collar to it.


You can tell that I don't really know much about adding collars. This was the first one I've ever drafted myself and if I'd been thinking, it would meet at the center. As it is, there's a little gap. I'm going with 'it's a vintage look' instead of the 'I'm kinda dumb and don't plan stuff very well' explanation. They have gotten it now and seem quite happy with it. I hope it will bring a nice high bid!

I've got a lot more stuff I've been working on - like Elizabeth's Easter dress and about four thousand Skater Dresses, but all the skaters are dirty and the Easter dress is not quite done (it needs buttons and my Boy Scout is at work.)

And by 'nifty,' I totally mean 'lazy cheater-pants.'

I've been churning out leggings by the truckload around here. I should have learned by now that little girls grow. Often very quickly and without warning. So, while she's still the same size *around* she is not the same height!

And I had all these adorable dresses that I made that still fit, they are just a wee bit shorter than makes me comfortable. I have issues with little girls in dresses that hit higher than the knee. Call me a prude if you must, but that's just how I am about that!

So, being the lazy sewist that I am, I really did NOT want to have to re-thread my serger every time I made a new pair of leggings! I also did not want to have have white thread showing at the bottom edge or hem after I'd sewn up the legs. That last bit is because the leg/arm holes for Elizabeth's clothes are always WAY smaller than my machine without the tray on.

Cue cheating! This is how I handle this set of challenges.

First, I hem. I hem before I ever start putting a leg together (or a sleeve, for that matter.) Turn it up, press it, hem it. My double needle and I are on the outs right now, so I just used a narrow zigzag instead. Then, when I start serging everything up, I start just at the top of my hem. Just skip the inch or whatever the pattern calls for and start above it. Once it is all together...

Starting just in from the bottom edge, stitch up from the hemline, backstitching to lock your stitch. Stitch all the way up into where you serged, backstitching to lock the stitches there too.

Trim everything up, repeat on the other side and TA-DA! No need to change thread, have goofy white thread peeping out the bottom, or try to sew that hem without stretching it. Sit back, and admire your work!

An hour, right? Weeeeeell.

How about 4? 'Cause see, my little person decided to hoot in her bed for two hours before finally falling asleep. (We have a 'you-will-stay-there' rule here. Mommy and Daddy need a little down-time, too.) Then she napped for two hours. So, in the four 'down' hours today, I think I got caught up.

Then these two from the same pattern! The print is a thermal knit that I got from Joann's off the Red Tag rack. I think it is some of the last that I bought before we left Knoxville. I've been saving it up for just now. The purple refused to be photographed properly in the drizzling rain, but it is an old tee of mine and shh. I didn't have to hem a thing!

Then there is this. I really think this is the GTSD at it's finest. I'd not done a waistband of any type yet and I *really* waffled about it. I waffled until both sleeves were in and I just had one side-seam left. Then I decide to just do it and if I hated it, I could rip it out. I'm so glad I did it! I'm also glad that I just did the internal casing - this fabric was so STUPIDLY expensive (to me, $9 a yard is a small fortune) that I want every inch of it to be as visible as possible. And it is so cute! And I'm so proud of it.

There is one more top that I didn't get finished - another turtleneck that is a turtleneck for the same reasons as the other one - a lack of matching or coordinating rib. But that can be done tomorrow. I'm making a serious dent in this pile! The serger being back in the game is helping so very much!