Archive for March, 2011
My Crafty Side. Sewing for My Little Girl
March 28th, 2011 | 
Author: From looking on my blog and sites you may get the idea that I’m not all that crafty.
I’m not.
I craft when need be.
And now the time has come that I’m fed up with what I find in the store to clothe my little girl (I have to dig up my modesty button for the blog) and I’m going to attempt to sew up what I can for her Peanut self.
As my daughter gets older I find that the clothes in the stores become more inappropriate and the ones that are appropriate make it not cost effective (is that a sentence?) to buy something she will grow out of in 6 months. She is growing very fast and I’m having a hard time keeping up. While fabric is expensive I have a bunch already purchased and my mother has been throwing fabric at me. She doesn’t need a whole lot because it she will grow out of it quickly.
What am I looking for? Simple dresses for church mostly. I like things below her knees not gracing her behind (pardon me). She is very active and I like her to be clothed enough to help keep her modesty. I’m also looking into making her some pants one I find a style I think fits with her.
I learned to sew in middle school. Tabled it until sometime in college when I wanted this beautiful jumper from Laura Ashley that I couldn’t afford on a student part time working salary so my aunt took me under her wing and helped me fashion one closely resembling but in a heavier fabric. I still have the jumper to today and added 3 more to it.
So fast forward about 10 years. I have an old Singer Slant machine and a Singer serger (recent purchase) so I thought I REALLY should use these and do what I did years ago. Make what I couldn’t buy.
So….
I recently found a very cute pattern. Oliver + S Music Box Jumper Pattern . I liked the simplicity of this style. We (Peanut and I) like jumpers. She LOVES pink and I like that it comes in various sizes.
Oliver + S Music Box Jumper Pattern
I made it in pink corduroy .
Pink Music Box Jumper in Size 6
My issue is button holes.I have an older Singer so buttonholes are not the quick and easy press a button method. BUT I did find that there is this buttonhole machine for sewing machines such as mine. I found one on eBay and IT WORKS! This was so marvelous I can’t tell you. So easy. I just sat there and watched the buttonhole sew!
I really liked the blue on on the Oliver + S blog so I found the fabric (kind of hard since it’s an old pattern and the new spring stuff is out) and so I’ll make her one for Spring/Summer in the light blue fabric.
The Oliver + S Music Box Jumper Pattern seems true to size. I made size 6 for my daughter. The length is nice and mid-calf. The bodice just fits her so I’ll be making the 7 with the light blue.
So what do you do when you have a multi size paper pattern and you want to use it for several sizes? Trace the size you’ll be using on pattern tracing paper or even butcher paper or something.
What patterns do you use to fashion clothes for your child?
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Birthday Time. Picking an Educational Toy
It’s birthday time again. Time for me to start looking into birthday ideas for the Peanut.
This year she is being pretty vocal about wanting a cash register. This is actually a good idea because money has been covered a bit in her schooling and I looked ahead to see that it is coming up again in a few weeks. She gets to pretend to shop at vegetable stand etc.
So the problem came down to which toy register.
The choices are enormous and really starting to make my head hurt. I initially was going for the rustic look and liked the cute wooden ones THAT NOW SEEM TO BE OUT OF STOCK EVERYWHERE! Sorry to yell but that was my frustration. I didn’t even mind that the prices were double that of the plastic toy registers. Then even as much as I liked the look of the wooden ones I found this one which also includes a scale which we have also been doing a bit of in school. My husband really liked the Teaching Cash Register so we’re going with that one.
It’s also time to start teaching her some arts. We’ve done a little bit with lacing but my Peanut moves to the beat of her own drum and sometimes it’s hard to remind her that the yarn is for sewing together such and such not making a swing for her stuffed animals. I checked out this Petal Purse Craft Kit and might consider that to help inspire her that sewing creates things since she has a passion for purses. She usually limits her purse carrying to church but lately has been brining it grocery shopping with a few dimes. So these two presents could go together.
Oh well! I’ll let you know how it all goes.
You can buy both toys at Kazoo Toys which I like because they have Made in the USA section (which this cash register is not in) and a section for Special Needs which has some great items in it.
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