i wanted to show you one of olivia's recent sewing projects--matching receiving blankets for her doll twins. sorry, no tutorial, but the finished measurements are 21" x 21" with rounded corners, and this seems to be a good fit for a 15" doll.
other kid-friendly beginning sewing projects from the archives:
p.s. she wants to make doll clothes next. help!
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hullo, dahlings. it's been almost a year since i posted about installing a mailbox in the kids' bedroom. since then people have asked me where to find one, and unfortunately i had to tell them it was a seasonal item that target no longer carried. well, good news. i heard a rumor that mini mailboxes are back at target in the $1 section for valentine's day. can anyone confirm? did you get one?
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the thing about kids is they are not so much concerned with making things perfect as they are with enjoying the process. an enviable trait, i think, and one i will try (try!) to emulate this week.
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this little wheel is a fun and gentle way for beginning readers to begin to practice sounding out words. turn the wheel to make different words (silly words are okay too) and the child will be thrilled to discover how many words he can read just by changing a single letter/sound. start with two-letter words first and move on to three-letter words when the child is ready.
to make the wheel you will need the following supplies available at your local craft and/or hardware store:
begin by painting the disks with chalkboard paint. when they are dry, drill a hole the same diameter as your wooden peg through the center of each disk. stack the disks one on top of each other and thread the peg through the disks. mark where you will need to trim the peg so the end is flush with the back of your bottom disk. cut peg with a small hand saw.
assemble the wheel by threading your shortened peg through the smaller disk first. apply wood glue to the hole of the larger disk. slide it onto the peg and allow to dry.
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over the last few weeks i've been reminded how important it is to have good people in your life. and by good people i mean friends. and by friends i mean good friends, not just friendly acquaintances but the kind of people whose presence at the right time is both comforting and comfortable. they fill a kind of void in your life--maybe one you didn't even know you had? or maybe they just really *get* you in some way.
i have this tendency sometimes, without even realizing it, to slip into "isolation" mode. do you ever do that? i don't know what it is--life i guess--but sometimes i just don't feel like i have the energy to be around people. the irony, of course, is that those are the exact times when experience has taught me i really need to be around people the most. i know this about myself and yet it doesn't seem to make doing something about it any easier.
anyway, why am i telling you this? i guess it's my long-winded way of saying that the engineer has been traveling for work these last two weeks. and that my friend michelle invited us over on a lonely sunday afternoon to make gingerbread houses. ever the forthright hostess, she did warn us that some of the candy, namely the gumdrops, was at least as old as the toddler. (authors' note: michelle is awesome--and a candy hoarder), but for some people (coughcough...SCOUT) the words "candy" and "no" just don't compute. also of note: the gingerbread outhouse.
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i know i'm late to the party, but i hope everyone had a nice thanksgiving holiday.
oh yes i did. i spent waaaaay too much time sewing goofy pilgrim hats for the children.
back to regular posting this week, i hope. see you here tomorrow?
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this photo doesn't do them justice, but i promised i would show you their dad-made wooden knife collection. not pictured but equally awesome: the battle ax. (commence lame wife jokes now.)
[photo by k]
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okay, last halloween-related post of 2011. i think.
here's scout as a mouse. we kept it simple. she wore this new sweater + we added homemade ears and a tail.
she was not fond of the painted-on whiskers. (she's sitting on my lap as i type: "scout don't want those whiskers!")
or posing for photos.
biiiig fan of the lollipop, though.
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assembling the children's costumes is honestly one of the highlights of the year for me. i enjoy the creative challenge, and asher's puss in boots costume is definitely one that pushed me to think a bit outside the box.
for context:
- if you do an internet search for "cat costume", most of the results are pretty feminine looking
- of those results, a large percentage also fall under the "s-e-x-y" category (yeah, not so much)
- we actually owned a cat mask already, but it was too itchy
- i wasn't really up for sewing an entire cat suit (i wanted something more clever, less literal; also it just seemed like a lot of work)
anyway, you can see in the photos the finished product. i ended up sewing a mask. asher chose the colors and details, and supervised the labor. (i remember doing the same thing with my mom--hanging around + watching her work at the sewing machine. i don't know, she probably wanted to be left alone to sew in peace, but i thought it was so interesting and fun!)
i used a leather-like material i found at walmart for the main part of the mask and wool felt for the features. i love sewing with felt, but my experience is the kids find it uncomfortable on their faces; hence, the leathery stuff. i wish i knew what it is called. it isn't stiff like vinyl or shiny like pleather. it's soft with just the tiniest bit of stretch. and just like felt it doesn't fray, so it was a dream to work with.
i also used the "leather" fabric to sew cuffs for his boots. the rest of the costume was assembled with pieces from his closet and the dress-up box. the cape is repurposed from last year's vampire costume. my favorite part of the whole ensemble = the fur trapper hat (from the gap a year or so ago). a last-minute stroke of genius if i do say so myself.
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so yesterday's photos were sort of artsy + awesome (the kids tell me "awesome" is my favorite word, and they're right, except maybe it's a tie (?) between that and "great american" which is what i call them pretty often, and if you've ever listened to american talk radio you'll know why that's annoying/funny), but it's hard to see details in those so here come the close-ups.
for olivia's hermione costume, we borrowed the hogwarts robe and tie which were both handmade by a friend of a friend, and she didn't mess around. they looked pretty darn authentic, and the only downside is that i bought a pattern and fabric to sew olivia her own robe to keep for dress-up (sewing to be completed at some later date without the pressure of a halloween deadline looming) and now the bar is set at level: amazing. no pressure or anything.
i bought the skirt at a school uniform store online very inexpensively. the socks i got at target. the sweater and collared shirt olivia already had in her closet.
of course what really makes the costume is The Hair. i used a curling iron with a narrow barrel and--what else?--copious amounts of aquanet. blazzam! awesome.
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