Juggling Balls

juggling-balls2

So much for not posting daily. I was trying to cut myself some slack, but when I spent time thinking about this past year, I realized that one of my favorite parts of it was blogging. M told me the other day that for the last 18 months or so, I’ve been happier than he’s ever seen me. We’ve been together nearly fifteen years, so that’s saying a lot. There’s something about this medium of visual and textual storytelling and community interchange that fits my temperament.

This morning, I was thinking about a dinner party I thoroughly enjoyed on Sunday evening. During the meal, we casually took turns voicing our 2014 resolutions and one of my friends said that he wanted to simply enjoy each day. Such an understated yet good resolution. If I were the type to make resolutions (I usually try to avoid them), I would piggyback on my friend’s goal to savor each day and would add trying things outside of my comfort zone. Instead of overarching resolutions, I have a frightfully long to-do list of the mundane sort, and I am on the opposite spectrum of being zen at the moment.

But I crossed off quite a few things from my list. I drew that satisfying line through a project on which I was dragging my feet: juggling balls from Oliver + S’ Little Things to Sew book. As fun as these are to make, my grinchy attitude about sewing the same thing over and over threatened to hijack the fun.

juggling-balls3

I made four sets and okay, I also promised to make a set for K that I haven’t delivered upon, but I high-fived myself for the ones that got done. In the interest of time, I didn’t make the matching bag from the book and just banged out a much quicker drawstring version without a lining. The balls aren’t perfect – they’re not completely round and some of the pointy ends don’t match up neatly as that is what happens when you sew until 2am the night before you’re meant to give these out. I briefly noted to myself that I would be a terrible quilter and then moved on. If there’s one thing I’ve gotten good at this year, it’s accepting and fully embracing imperfection.

I started to add a mini beanbag with plastic pellets to weight them (a la Froo and Boo, whose juggling balls are a thing of beauty), but then I had visions of my uneven stitching bursting open and making a right mess everywhere, so I stuck with polyfill only.

juggling-balls4

They were a massive hit, though no juggling happened. We had fabric balls flying everywhere with kids squealing and laughing, while adults became unwitting target practice. I’m not sure that the parents appreciated them, but those kids sure loved ’em. The fabrics are all bits and bobs of scraps I dug out, and my favorites are the Nani Iro, pastel-toned ones. I’m sure I could blather on about the metaphor of juggling and life, but I’ll spare you.

juggling-balls1

Another thing I want to cross off the list before the end of the day is underwear for K. Yes, underwear! When I was a little girl, my mom always got me new underpinnings for New Year’s Eve. It was this weird tradition in our family that you start off the year with brand new undies, and though I haven’t kept up the tradition too faithfully, it’s something that I’ve always wanted to do with K. Because everyone needs odd traditions in their lives. So I got this pattern, and I’m off to stitch up one more set of juggling balls and some cute undies!

2013 Recap: Sewing for K

Good morning! The end of 2013 is around the corner, so I’ve been looking back on all the clothes I’ve made for K this year, and I’m sort of flabbergasted with myself. Do I not have a life? I made a total of 129 items (!) for K. I’m trying something new and testing out the gallery function for the first time, which is a little funky since you have to click on the image, and then click on another link to get to the original post, but I like being able to see the monthly breakdowns this way.

Without further ado, here is K’s 2013 “collection”:

JANUARY

Total January items: 9

Most worn: Grey wool coat and wide-legged pants. These are still both in heavy rotation. The coat in particular is one of her all-time favorites.

Least worn: Ayashe blouse (K said it was really uncomfortable and only wore it once)

 

FEBRUARY

Total February items:  9

Most worn: Oliver + S After School Pants and Mustard Tunic. She actually wore almost everything regularly from this month, but those pants match everything!

Least worn: Pink voile dress. We had an unfortunate washing machine incident and the dress ended up trashed. Such a shame…

 

MARCH

Total March items: 10

Most worn: Tiered knit skirt and zip pocket knit top. The skirt has built-in shorts and is much beloved. I was actually surprised by how much K wore the zip pocket top since I thought the pocket linings might be scratchy. The top has shrunk quite a bit, but she still wears it all the time!

Least worn: Teal bow top and flannel grey pants. The linen was too stiff for this design and I think the neckline was a bit too low. As for the pants, the cheap flannel I used for the pants didn’t hold up well at all.

 

APRIL

Total April items: 20

Most worn: Popsicle Knit Coat. Hands down, this has been K’s number one loved creation. It’s completely pilling and gross and stretched out by now, but she still wears it every chance she gets. I ended up taking the teeth off of the shark hoodie, and it’s become a go-to wardrobe staple. This was a busy month with KCWC spring, and I attempted to go whole hog. I was very, very tired by the end of the month.

Least worn: Lavender lace dress. That back was too low, and for some reason she never reaches for that dress. I still think it’s pretty, and because it was ginormous when I made it, maybe it’ll grow on her in time.

 

MAY

Total May items: 13

Most worn: Anchor jacket. Need I say more? It would be the thing I would wear most too.

Least worn: Faux rompers. She just didn’t like it. Something about it making her feel like a baby…

 

JUNE

Total June items: 10

Most worn: Gold dots knit top and skirt (with built-in shorts). I also made her an infinity scarf out of this same fabric that I never photographed, and I think this ensemble is in the top five for sure.

Least worn: Dungarees/Salopette/Overalls. These shorts created quite an animated discussion, but alas, the thrift store odor proved too much for K, and she never wore them.

 

JULY

Total July items: 16

Most worn: Second only to the popsicle coat, the leopard print coat gets a ton of wear. In fact, she likes anything with any kind of animal print. The green knit top is also a constant fave. What I loved about this month was my personal KCWC challenge to try to sew based on K’s designs. That stripey dress is my all-time favorite.

Least worn: Sadly, the luscious silk halter has not seen the light of day since I made it. Goes to show you that using precious fabric for little ones may lead to disappointment…

 

AUGUST

Total August items: 7

Most worn: Summer and holiday months are always the hardest times to sew. Still, the tunic and jeggings are worn all the time, so it was a good yield.

Least worn: The crazy adorable Five and Ten Design top. I’m getting the sense that K really dislikes clothes that expose her back.

 

SEPTEMBER

Total September items: 9

Most worn: The stripey pullover – I really really want one in my size too.

Least worn: The khaki pants from the same outfit. She wore them once to school, had a terrible time with the drawstring waist during a frenzied bathroom break, and refused to wear them ever again.

 

OCTOBER

Total October items: 8

Most worn: Pretty much everything from this month was a winner and is frequently worn. She’s drawn most to the mustard stripes dress, however, which is completely understandable, no?

Least worn: By virtue of being a costume, the owl outfit hasn’t gotten much use. As far as proudest moments go, though, this one is at the top of my list.

 

NOVEMBER

 

Total November items: 8

Most worn: Without a doubt, the bear jammies. Clearly I need to make more of these. The quilted jacket was getting a lot of love too, but then she lost it at school. It happens.

Least worn: The swing skirt is so cute, but still way too big for her, so we’ll wait another year for it to be part of her regular wardrobe rotation.

 

DECEMBER

Total December items: 10

Most worn: Surprisingly, despite having just made the metallic aqua party dress, K has already worn it three times. It’s safe to say she is smitten with this dress.

Least worn: Well, since I’ve just made the dolman sleeve top (self-drafted), it hasn’t even been blogged yet much less worn for a full day. It’s a good basic top, and I’m pretty sure it’ll be a staple.

***********************************

Whew. Except for three weeks, I made and posted at least one outfit a week for the entire year. Of the three weeks I missed, one was because I was out of town on vacation, one was due to extreme illness, and one was simply bad time management on my part. Am I nuts? Probably.

Some months I was in uber overdrive mode with Kids Clothes Week or with guest posts/blog tours so I made more than I normally would, but when I look at the monthly breakdowns, aside from April, it doesn’t look too outrageous to me. I think back on when I used to buy clothes for her, and I’m almost certain she had just as many garments in her closet/dressers. Maybe I’m just an excessive kind of person all around. But c’mon, kids go through clothes like bulldozers through a manicured lawn. The only marked difference for me is that I used buy in bulk every few months instead of sewing a couple of things a week.

It’s been so incredibly fun. My skills have improved though I still have a long way to go. My two big goals were to become comfortable with sewing knits and to use as many patterns from my Japanese sewing books as I could. I fulfilled both goals. I am, however thinking about how to approach this next year. I won’t have nearly the same amount of time available, and despite my justifications, sewing 100+ garments a year for one child seems…ridiculous. Hmmmm. What do you think? I will have more thoughts on this soon.

For now, I hope you enjoyed looking through the 2013 kid-sized creations as much as I did, and hope you’ll continue to join me on this crazy ride!

Happy Friday + Randomness

mini-gingerbread-houses1

Happy Friday! We had a superb Christmas filled with friends and family. K raked in some squeal-inducing gifts (the expression when she saw the gigantic Yamaha keyboard box with her name spelled out with red camo duct tape was pure gold: “Mommy! There’s a present for me that’s bigger than our couch!!”).

mini-gingerbread-houses2

One of the things I really enjoyed on Christmas Eve was making miniature gingerbread houses that perch on the edge of mugs. I used Not Martha’s template and recipe recommendations, and though they were time-consuming all around, I was totally into it. I need to re-examine my priorities, as it was actually a little disconcerting how zealous I was about this. Also, I’ve said I don’t like to make the same thing over and over, but I realized that only applies to sewing. I could have made dozens of these (I ended up with 6 that didn’t fall apart). K jumped in to help too, wielding the icing bag recklessly. The icing got smudged in parts and I obviously need some training in the decorating department (K was far more expert than I was), but they are almost painfully adorable, no? We went to a fabulous Christmas gathering at our neighbors’ and the kids enjoyed the handmade peppermint cocoa with the mini gingerbread houses. Talk about a sugar rush.

*******************************************************************************

vogue-8511-not-done

And as I suspected, with all this celebrating and baking and gift-wrapping and giving, I had zero time or focus for sewing for myself. My poor dress is still lounging about in a semi-done state. I usually barrel through projects until completion, but despite the subtly shimmery fabric, this dress was starting to emit a stodgy uniform vibe, and my motivation flagged. It’s Vogue 8511 (I’m sewing the sleeveless version), and I’m shooting to get it done in the next couple of days.

So, I have quite a few things brewing behind the scenes over the next few weeks, and there’s a mighty good chance that postings will be on the haphazard side for a while. I love to post every weekday, so we’ll see. I will definitely be back on a regular schedule by about mid-to-late January, but in the meantime, I’ll most likely be popping around with what I hope to be fun posts every few days.

*******************************************************************************

A friend showed me this linguistic quiz that determines your home city, and it’s uncanny how accurate it is. It’s US-based, but a world-wide version would be so fun!

*******************************************************************************

M and I are going away for the weekend! We’re driving up to a little town about an hour outside of Seattle, and we’ll be staying in a charming little B&B. It’s our first ever overnight trip away from K, and it just shows what big softies we are that we’ve waited until she was seven-and-a-half for something like this. My intrepid mom will shoulder the responsibility of our coddled child, and I’m sure she’ll be peppered with the question, “When are they coming baaaaaaaaaaack??” every two minutes. And what’s even more embarrassing? We’re only going away for one night…

One more week this year
twenty-thirteen has zipped by
Twelve months of awesome*

*And you, my dear readers, made it extra awesome! Thank you, thank you, thank you. Have a wonderful weekend, all!

Joyeux Noel

clay-ornament-tags1

One of the holiday projects we worked on included these clay ornament tags. I’ve been using them as decorative touches to gifts as well as gifts themselves. K, my mom and I spent an evening cutting them out using cookie cutters and then painted them a couple of days later when the clay pieces had thoroughly dried.

clay-ornament-tags4

We used this brand of air dry clay, and initially it looks dull, like dirty snow. But as it dries, the clay turns bright white, just the way I like them. One of the things I hadn’t expected was that the clay would curl a bit as it dried, so many of them don’t lay totally flat. Ah well, it adds that homemade charm, I say.

clay-ornament-tags2

I used whatever paint I had on hand. The Dala horse was done with copper gouache, and the others are a mixture of acrylic, watercolor, gouache and calligraphy ink. K added beads (which actually fell out after it dried, so we had to glue them on later). A fun and easy project perfect for kids!

clay-ornament-tags5

I love these clay ornament tags so much, I may make other non-holiday themed shapes for future gifting use.

clay-ornament-tags3

I’m signing off for Christmas for some merry-making, and will be away from here for a couple of days. I  hope you and all your loved ones have a peaceful and joyous day, my lovely friends. Happy Holidays!

Monday Outfit: Shimmery Aqua Party Dress

metallic-aqua-party-dress1Good morning! It was, of course, essential that I make a Christmas dress for K, and for the occasion, I pulled out a fabric that I’ve been saving for a long time. It’s a metallic aqua linen, and I knew it would be perfect as a festive frock.

metallic-aqua-party-dress2

The metallic coating stiffens the fabric,which gives it a taffeta-like texture, and I found that I could finger-press pintucks quite effectively. This was helpful because ironing required a press cloth, and sometimes I would forget and my iron would get sticky with metallic residue. On a side note, I use this as a press cloth, and I really love it. I got the fabric from here many moons ago, and sadly, they no longer carry it.

metallic-aqua-party-dress3

The pattern is from this great book, but I made some slight changes. If you’ve been around here for awhile, you might recognize this dress pattern as the same one my lovely friend Cherie used for the clothing swap. I want to start by saying that Cherie is a sewing genius because man, I could not get those pintucks even (though we all know this is an ongoing issue for me), and things in general got askew. I had Cherie’s dress in front of me as a reference and I kept marveling at her precise stitches. Mine, not so much.

metallic-aqua-party-dress4

Anyway, the changes. I wanted to use beads instead of the tabs at the end of the ribbon ties, so I opted for a thinner ribbon. I like how it ups the fancy factor with the beads. I also lengthened the skirt a smidge and I hand-stitched the armhole bindings because I tend to have better control that way. I tried to get K to push her hair back out of the way for a better visual of the dress, but, she was married to the idea of keeping her hair solidly covering the front of the dress.

metallic-aqua-party-dress5

It’s very…sparkly. K is gaga over it, I’m happy to report, though if I happen to catch a glimpse of the dress out of the corner of my eye, it looks like a mermaid costume. As far as party dresses for little girls go, it has just the right amount of glitz and glam and I declare it a winner. The pockets are my favorite part. Now, let’s see if I can magic some Christmas Eve pajamas within 24 hours…

metallic-aqua-party-dress6