CHRISTEPHI

We had a few warmer days after the snow melted before it got cold again. Since Little Guy learned to walk only shortly before the on-set of winter, he doesn't remember ever walking outside before. To his recollection, when we go out, one of us always carries him.  But since it was finally so nice, I took the kids outside to play!  He thought it was the most amazing thing to be able to walk around outside. He wasn't quite sure what to make of uneven terrain (quite different from the level floors of a house!), but adapted quickly.  He had loads of fun throwing and chasing a bouncy ball his sister got from one of the gumball machines at the grocery store.  While they were playing, I snapped a few shots. A leftover sycamore leaf, a green patch of moss, a cardinal feather, and an acorn. A stand of cottonwoods (see the little bits of snow left over?) and a view of the amazing sycamore tree that a photo will never do justice.

We have two bedrooms in our home. Hubby and I have the larger master bedroom and it encompasses not only our sleeping area, but also our hobby stations. Hubby plays the saxophone and has various music equipment for making arrangements and recordings and the like. I, as you know, sew and knit and do a variety of other crafts.  From the time we moved here over two years ago, we were short on storage space. But storage devices require money and, frankly, we didn't have the money to spend on shelves. The room got worse and worse.  As I did projects I had to quickly whisk things up off the floor out of the kids reach.  Things piled higher and higher on what was supposed to be my crafting table and with nowhere else to put it, it all just sat there.  It was embarassing.  It was depressing.  It was a block to our creativity. I finally decided something had  to be done about it. Hubby said I could buy some needed org...

When we were at Hobby Lobby and Hubby bought Dora fabric for Miss M, he also bought a yard of Cars fabric for Little Guy.  Right away Hubby said they should be made into pants.  After finishing the Dora dress , I looked through my Ottobre magazines for a suitable pants pattern.  I settled on the "Kaarna" lined pants from Ottobre 6/2009, only without any frills at all: no pockets, no drawstring, no yoke, no mock fly. And put together in such a way that they can be completely reversible.   One side is Cars fabric, the other black polar fleece. The waistband is black ribbing with elastic in it since I didn't make a drawstring.  I made size 74 which is a bit long for Little Guy yet, but I figured that way he can wear them for a good long time (and I can use the pattern again later without having to re-trace it!).

This one was cut out before Christmas! I finished it some time in January, and finally got it photographed now that it's February.  I prefer Miss M to wear long dresses for modesty's sake.  She is, after all, a very active little girl.  To that end, I added 2 inches to each of the skirt panels.  I also added an inch to the length of the sleeve because my girl has freakishly long arms just like her mother. The pattern is the Snow Flakes dress (Ottobre 6/2010, #7), size 86. (Incidentally, did anyone notice that the pattern only goes up to size 86, but in the magazine it lists size 92 as well?)  In the magazine it is pictured on an infant, so I was curious to see how it would look on a bigger girl.  I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it's darling and I love how it fits Miss M, but on the other hand, adding 4 inches total length did unbalance the design a bit.  In future, I might add the length by adding a ruffle or eyelet to the...

A Friday evening out on the town. Hubby, two munchkins, and me. Where do we spend our leisure time? Hobby Lobby, of course! Miss M spied some Dora the Explorer fabric and insisted, "Mama, we need this!"  I politely ignored her. I'm quite adept at it. She tends to talk nonstop most of the day, so I'm a pro at tuning it out. Hubby, on the other hand, is wrapped around her little finger and quite easily caved in and bought her a yard of Dora fabric.  I asked her what she wanted out of it and she promptly said she wanted a dress. I shuttered inwardly.  Most of the garments made of character prints are rather garish and umm...generally repulsive.  Still, I vowed to do my best.  I used the Jänönheinä tunic from Ottobre 4/2010 as my base pattern since it was already traced off. I added a 9-inch ruffle about 1 1/2 times the width of the bottom edge of the tunic and lengthened the button band to make the tunic into a long dress. I needed something to balance the h...