Shirt Dress

A few weeks ago, I spent a couple of days cleaning out our closets and delivering garbage bags of clothes and toys to friends and to the thrift store. It's shocking how much stuff I got rid of, and shocking how much stuff we still own! Where does it all come from?!

Anyhoo, Kevin went through his dress shirts and made a big pile to donate. Among them was a plain black button up that I couldn't stop thinking about. It wasn't anything special, which was the whole point: it was plain. See, I bookmarked this tutorial forever ago and have had it in the back of my mind ever since. And so, when the closets were all shiny and clean, I got out the sewing machine and scissors and went to work.

I found some lemon-lime Fairy Frost fabric in the scrap bin and thought it would be perfect for accent.

And it is perfect, as long as you have a thing for fire fighters. Which I don't. Not that I am against fire fighters or anything, but I sure don't need to dress my daughter like one.

So I went back to the scrap bin and found some pale blue Fairy Frost to add.

Much improved, but still lacking in the charm I was going for.

At this point, Dana and I took a little trip to the fabric store, where we found cute ribbon and fancy buttons.

Ta-da!

I am still not totally in love, but considering it used to be a man's shirt, it looks pretty great. I love the idea that my girls could wear dresses made from Daddy's shirts, but I think I made some weird choices on this, starting with the black shirt itself. I will probably try this project again at some point, as it was really fun. I like the idea of a nice, cozy flannel dress. Hopefully Kevin won't mind if I raid his closet again.

Dress to Skirt

I recently went through the girls' dressers and closet, removing outgrown and weather-inappropriate clothing and things that required mending or a good stain soak.

And I came across this dress.



This is Dana's all-time favorite dress. She wore it for two summers, as often as possible, sometimes several times a week. It has been laundered about 10,000 times. The length is still OK, despite it being a 4T and her being in a 5 or 6 in everything else, so I was going to throw it in the summer bin in case it still fits her in June. And then I noticed that the stitching was coming out on the straps. So I brought it downstairs to stitch them back together, but it didn't work because the fabric on the straps was kind of rotten. There were so many tiny holes that there wasn't anything to sew together. I was trying to think of how to make new straps when it occurred to me that it's a 4T and the chances that it will be long enough next summer are slim to none. And if the straps are rotten, the rest of it can't be that far behind.

And so I converted it to a skirt.

I had Dana put it on so I could figure out how long to make it, and then, after she took it off, I carefully cut the bodice off and threw it away. I folded about an inch down along the waist to form a casing, and I stitched it down, leaving an opening for elastic. I had some 1" elastic in my stash, so I measured it around Dana's waist, cutting it 1" shorter than her waist is around. I fed it through the casing, stitched the ends together, stitched the casing closed and voila! A skirt!

I thought it needed something to spice it up a bit, but I didn't have any appropriate ribbon in my stash. I DID come across some ivory seam binding tape, so I fed it through my machine with the stitch length at 5, and then I pulled the bottom thread to gather it. I adjusted it so it would fit around the hem, and then I just sewed it along the hemline.

Dana thinks it's great! And the whole thing took less than an hour. I didn't even use pins!

Sheep and Wool Hat

Way back in February, I brought Nora shopping for yarn. She selected two skeins of Mirasol Tupa in her favorite colors: turquoise and pink (well, magenta in this case). I had a pattern in mind and she found it agreeable, so I went to work.

She asked about it regularly for 3 months. She was so anxious to get her hat!

Well...Nora was at a birthday party this afternoon and I sat down and finished it. When she got home, I tried to put it on her sweet blond head, and it refused. This hat was way too small! My heart sank to the bottom of my stomach. The thing is, I KNOW I knit really tightly! But I did a gauge swatch and this was right on.

Nora is so sweet. She told me to give it to Dana, which I did. And Dana loves it. Loves it!

I don't know what's going on with the mouse.

The pattern is called Sheep and Wool Hat, but I cannot find it anywhere! I mean, I know I found it on Ravelry, but I can't find the blog where the pattern actually is. If you want the pattern, you can sure leave a comment and I will look harder. It's out there somewhere!

It's a great pattern with a lovely secret: it's double thickness around the ears! My whole goal was to knit a nice, cozy hat for our horrific winter weather. Nora's other hat is pretty, but it's not super warm and it sure doesn't cover her ears. She asked me to knit this hat again, only bigger, in the same colorways. And so I will. It was a simple pattern, easy to memorize, and the yarn is pretty swell to work with. So watch for another post of the exact same hat in about 3 months. That's the pace I work at nowadays.

Flannel in April

Today we had planned to go geocaching, but instead it was cold and windy. And so we stayed inside to play.

I got out my sewing machine and went to work on a couple of flannel nighties for my little ladies. They picked out their own fabric a couple of weeks ago. It's been sitting, cut out, ever since.

Let's keep in mind that the girls are fresh from the tub, so their hair is wet and possibly unruly.

Nora picked out really plush flannel by Valori Wells. Actually, Dana picked out the same fabric in a different color for her last mama-made nightie. It's pretty sweet fabric.

Dana picked out baby boy flannel. I don't know what to tell you. Nora and I can't figure out what made her fall for this stuff. It's sort of thin, and the pattern screams "baby boy!" But she thinks it is fantastic, and as long as she's happy, I'm happy.

I have fabric cut for 3 more sewing projects. I have yarn for 3 more knitting projects. And 3 of my closest girlfriends are pregnant. I need to finish up my 6 projects so I can get to work on some teeny tiny things.

Another Knitting Bag

I sewed another knitting bag. This one is for my mother in law, the woman who taught me how to knit.

I liked the Amy Butler home decor weight fabric so much for my own knitting bag that I chose it again for this one. Dana helped select the fabric. Notice the pink.

So you can get an idea of the size, here's Dana modeling it. Keep in mind that she is a petite 4 year-old.

A shot of the interior. I am not even sure you can see the pockets in this photo.

I am really loving my own knitting bag, so I kept this one almost identical. I think the only change I made was to the zipper panel. I figured out a way to sew the zipper in uniformly and neatly. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, maybe you can see the zipper.

I gave this to my mother in law a few days ago and she is pretty excited about it. This makes me so happy!

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Really, doesn't the title say it all?

Well, maybe a photo or two will help illustrate the point.

Last week I bought a mini muffin tin. I had it in my head that, if I am going to insist on baking cupcakes constantly, it would be better to have minis. Because then the kids get the joy of eating two cupcakes, and I get the joy of knowing that 2 mini cupcakes are actually smaller than one regular cupcake. Don't you love that logic?

With Valentine's Day coming, I thought red velvet cupcakes were in order. The girls both adore Valentine's Day, what with the pink, the purple, the hearts, the sweets...

Nobody wanted to help bake them. They were too busy practicing cartwheels. Nora did come in to check on me at one point. Her comment? "Why are you filling those little cups with ketchup?" You see it too, don't you?

While the ketchup cakes were baking, I mixed up the cream cheese frosting. I used 1 1/2 bricks of Neufchatel. It was all I had in the fridge, I swear. But look at those flecks! Those are not poppy seeds. Those are specks of vanilla bean. I am slowly using up the vanilla I made last year.

Here's one rack of minis cooling. Yes, there's another rack cooling, too.

Dana sampled one by stuffing the entire thing into her mouth in one bite.

One rack of frosted mini cupcakes. Final cupcake count: 88. Not a typo- I ended up with eighty-eight teeny tinies. I know.

But aren't they so cute? Nora said, "Mom, the frosting is good, but the cupcakes are great!" Coming from a girl who normally licks off the frosting and throws the cake away, that was pretty awesome to hear.

New Nightie for Dana

Way back in August, I went to the fabric store for a specific project. Dana was with me, and she saw this soft flannel and went nuts! I was completely taken by this reaction to fabric by my wee 4 year-old. And so we bought it up, along with fabric for my original project. I went home and prewashed it immediately. And then I folded it up, put it on top of my dresser, and got busy with other stuff. For 6 months. Ahem.

I finally had a few hours to dedicate to Dana's new nightie!

Orange and yellow are such a welcome break from purple and pink.

Though the trim has both purple and pink in it. It's a coordinating flannel that also has the yellow and orange in it.

I debated putting the trim around the sleeve cuffs, but finally decided against it.

The fabric is Valori Wells. Like I said, softest flannel ever!

I finished it up this morning and surprised Dana with it. She told me she's going to wear it all day long, plus tonight. And then we had this photo shoot. I think she enjoyed it.

Busy Times

Oh, this fall. This fall has been so busy, I have hardly had a chance to breathe. It seems like there is something going on every single day, and many days, there are multiple things. Which is why I haven't posted anything in 2 weeks.

I have been working on this leaf beret for a long time-maybe two months! See how it's finished here? What you can't tell is that it is gigantic. I tried it on and it was at least 2 inches too big around. It fell into my eyes and looked so ridiculous.

And so I ripped it out. I unraveled the whole thing and wound the yarn into a ball so I could start over. And now I am almost done with take 2. And it is so much better! It fits like it should, which is lovely.

If you click on the photo, you can see it much larger. Which you should do, so you can see the leaf pattern. This was my very first time knitting from a chart! And while it was a little weird at first, I kind of love it now. It makes sense for something like this, where every round is different than the one before it. My mother in law bought me a really cool metal board and magnet set, so I can put the chart on the board and hold it in place with the magnets. There's one really long magnet to mark your spot with. So great, this set. I am not in love with the leaf pattern, but I do like knitting it and I love the yarn. So much. It's Mirasol Tupa, and it's half merino and half silk. It is so soft and it has this sheen to it. I love it.

And this is my new yarn for my new project, which I will begin as soon as the beret is done. It's Manos Del Uruguay Rittenhouse, which is a plied merino. It is incredible! So soft, so lovely, and the tag for every skein has the name of the woman who spun it written on it.

I am about to embark on the biggest knitting adventure I have had: my first sweater. Well, technically my second sweater, but my first sweater was size 6-12 months and was for Baby Dana. It took me 9 months to knit that tiny thing! This sweater is for me, and it will be significantly larger and more complicated. It's the Central Park Hoodie, and if you look at the pattern you will notice it is cabled. I am both terrified and excited to be starting this. Thank you to Tracy, who invited me and Dana over to wind my skeins into cakes on her swift. THAT was fun!

And a little bit of sewing has happened, too. Just a bit. I made Dana a skirt out of scraps. She loves it! Even though it isn't pink or purple, her two approved colors. She had no shirts to go with it, so I found a tank and a long sleeved shirt at Old Navy and spiced them up with the Amy Butler print and some Wonder Under.

Clearly she has had her photo taken before. Little ham!

Lavagirl

I haven't posted in a while because I haven't really finished anything lately. I am in progress with Nora's Halloween costume, three trick-or-treat bags, a hat (my first attempt at knitting from a chart), harvesting and freezing carrots, and various PTA duties.

The only thing I have finished lately is this:

And right now you're all scratching your heads, trying to figure out what the heck. Well, I will tell you what the heck. Dana wanted to be Lavagirl for Halloween! Her favorite movie is The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lavagirl. It's a Disney film, a few years old, and I could not find a ready-made costume. In fact, I couldn't even find a real photo to go off of. Everything I could find was much like this, which is so not helpful. But I found a superhero costume pattern and did some heavy improvising, mostly using liquid lame. Gorgeous!

I have since added a few details, but I don't have photos yet. I just added some fancy buttons on the belt and gauntlets that are supposed to look like control knobs and such. Dana loves her costume, and I have learned a valuable lesson: lycra isn't very fun to sew. It's slippery and hard to cut. And while the stretchiness came in handy a couple of times, it mostly was annoying. Yet it was still fun to sew the costume because the girls were both so excited about it.

Nora is going as Dorothy, and the pieces are all cut out. I started sewing early this morning but didn't get very far. Maybe tonight. We'll see.

Pickles!

Oh, how I had been dreaming of making pickles!

Nora and I got up really early on Saturday and went to the farmer's market in search of pickling cucumbers. I bought 2 pounds, but we ate those all up that same day! Crunch, crunch!

And so on Wednesday, I got up really early and went back, hoping to buy many more. Except that there were none. Fortunately, one of the farmers told me she was planning to harvest on Thursday. So I gave her my phone number.

Today, she called! It totally made my day. I have had a bottle of vinegar and a box of pickling salt sitting on my kitchen counter for over a week.

So this afternoon, we ventured out to the farm to pick up 1/4 bushel of pickling cucumbers. Luckily, the farm was not far from our house.

When we got home, we scrubbed the kitchen sink and then filled it with teeny tiny cucumbers and cold water.

Nora helped me scrub the little buggers with a vegetable brush (she scrubbed one and then asked if she could eat it). Then I cut off all of the blossom ends because I read somewhere that they contain an enzyme that makes pickles get mushy. Which sounds pretty gruesome.

Then, we put 10 pounds of ice into our camping cooler, put the clean cucumbers on top, and poured in some water. The cucumbers swam around in this icy bath for several hours while we walked next door to pick grape leaves, dill and raspberries.

Don't they look so eager to help me? Actually, they did an amazing job. We set up an assembly line, with a bowl each of peeled garlic, grape leaves and dill heads. Each girl put these into five jars, for a total of ten jars, and then filled them up with icy cold cucumbers. (FYI I also read in several places that grape leaves ensure crunchy, crispy pickles.)

While the girls played with Polly Pockets, I boiled the brine and ladeled it into the jars, then put on lids and did a 5-minute process. I also had to call my mom in to rescue me when I ran out of brine and had no more vinegar. She brought a bottle over even though she was busy with other things.

You're supposed to wait 8 weeks to try them, but I am not sure I will make it that long. I really want to go try one now, even though they are still warm, and warm pickles don't sound that great. I'll let you know how long I can contain myself and how they taste.

I am already dreaming of pickle spears and hamburger chips. Though that might have to wait until next year.

Lots of Baking

I am so thrilled that my freezer is full of strawberries and raspberries! My kids love frozen berries and I love smoothies, plus I love baking. Clearly.

So my parents have a little raspberry patch that is absolutely bursting right now. Every other day, we go out and pick big bowls of berries. So it only made sense to make a raspberry dessert for Sunday dinner.

I chose this gorgeous raspberry white chocolate cheesecake with homemade raspberry syrup. It was incredible! Except that it only used 2 cups of raspberries and hardly made a dent in the harvest.

On Monday morning, my mom showed up at my house with 2 dozen canning jars, including a dozen jam jars. And so I planned to make raspberry jam in proper sized jars.

This morning, though, Dana begged to make a raspberry pie. She even got out a big sheet of paper and "wrote" out a recipe for raspberry pie and then set to work getting the ingredients together. She filled a bowl with hot water, mixed in 2 cheddar bunnies, and started heading for the sugar. Adorable as it was, I couldn't allow her to proceed. I know of no pie that calls for a gallon of water.

But I did know a recipe that called for no water and four cups of raspberries. Dana did most of the mixing. She is becoming quite skilled at mixing, and didn't even mash up the berries.


Now, I must have rolled my crust a bit thin, because I had a big ball of dough left over after making this pie. So after I got it in the oven, I rolled out the leftovers and lined my mini pie plate. Then I went rummaging in the fridge and found some blueberries.

And, since I only had enough dough for a single mini-crust, I made a crumb topping.

Tonight, after dinner, I sliced the pies and passed dessert plates out. I set Dana's down on the table and she gave me a very concerned look. I was truly expecting joy, as I had spent the hottest day of the year baking this at her request. Instead, she said, "I don't know if I like this. I wanted to make it for everyone else." Which made me simultaneously annoyed and very happy. Because I myself don't really love pie, but my two blonds adore it, and it makes me happy to bake their favorite desserts. I know exactly where she's coming from, this wee one.

Anyhow, I have enough berries to make a batch of jam, hopefully tomorrow.

Independence Cakes

Happy Independence Day!

Last night, I dreamed that I made cupcakes and arranged them to look like the American flag. Not too hard to make that dream come true! Though I wish I had some fancy cake decors or something to spice them up a bit.

Do you have big plans for the Fourth? My sister is watching the girls while Kevin and I attend my friend's wedding. I am so very excited to see the group of girls I spent every moment with in high school. I haven't seen most of them in years. After the wedding, we're grilling with my sister and her family and then walking down to the lake to watch the fireworks.

I had just a tiny bit of batter left after making 2 dozen cupcakes, so I poured it into two silicon heart cupcake molds that were a gift from my aunt a few years ago. The teeny tiny heart platter might look familiar. I have a larger version of it, too, and they were wedding gifts.

Two happy cupcakes. They were so busy playing dress-up that they didn't even realize I was baking.

I hope you enjoy the festivities today!

Butterfly Shirt

Leave it to me to squeeze a project into the middle of four other ongoing projects. This one, though, only took about 15 minutes.

Dana has a thing for butterflies, and this shirt had a stain that didn't budge after an overnight soak on Oxyclean. So...I remembered back to the May Craft: along projects and thought I would give this a try. I just traced a butterfly cookie cutter. I didn't even have to sew a single stitch!

And remember back in April when I turned a pair of Dana's jeans into fancy schmancy jean shorts? It made sense to me to make this stained shirt match the shorts for a complete ensemble: shorts, shirt and purse (not pictured here). I figured she might actually wear the whole outfit, despite having a dress-only policy 98% of the time.

I was pretty proud of myself because her comment when I showed her the shirt was, "Thank you, Mama! I'm going to only wear this now!" So I guess from now on, she will either be naked or in this outfit. At least, that's her story.

Now, back to scraping old varnish. Bleh.