homemade halloween part two

i finished up the details on the halloween tops for jason and i. i let him choose what we would be for our sunday school class's fall party, and of course, he chose pirates. of course.

i went to goodwill, and bought two whiteish very large men's button downs. one long sleeve, one short. i also bought a pair of pleather pants. i did some cutting and then taking apart, then layed all the shirt peices and a few extra strips of white muslin in a sink full of boiling water, coffee grounds, and tea bags for several hours. jasons shirt is in tact, except for the sleeve hems, and i took off the pocket. i cut the neck and sleeves off of mine, and used elastic thread to shirr the neck and arm holes for a little but of a ruffle. the fabric ruffles you see on both shirts are form the sleeves of mine, and the strips of muslin that i cut.

i cut apart the pants, and used the fabric to make my vest, which is pretty true to the pattern except that i took off several inches from each side of the front inorder to leave room for lacing it up rather than buttoning. i used... okay so i cant find the pattern right now, but im pretty sure it was a new look pattern.



both shirts need washed again so really fray up the cut bits, especially jasons sleeves, which were cut after the first washing. they wont look quite so funky after its gone through the wash again.



i should mention, that jason will have a sashy belt type thing, made from scraps of the pleather, and also fake suede that i will have after i make my skirt. its just not made yet.



and here is mine! i havent decided yet of ill let it go off the shoulder, or not. it will fit either way, but i think ill wait to see how it looks with the skirt (which is not made yet.)







i am looking forward to our party, and the fact that i wont have to make costumes for us again! these will just live in the closet for a while. and if im pregnant over halloween again, ive always got my pumpkin sweater. :)



(i was shaped like a pumpkin, so i thought it was fitting. and there is the little monster, as a baby! we matched. :)

home made halloween part one

i thought it would be just too cute to dress emma and her cousin up as pebbles and bamm bamm for halloween this year and sarah indulged me. i finished jesses costume on thursday and finally finished emmas today (it just needed buttons and some snipping!) so here they are!



i couldnt find the orange i wanted, so i dyed some white muslin orange. the fur is from the stash of fabric mom sent me home with in august, and i bought black felt for the triangles. the whole thing snaps together and apart (the fur from the shorts, and the bone from the fur) and he has a club to match that isnt in the picture.



then, there is emma, my little pebbles. jason helped pick out the fabric for her dress, which i left long so i can later cut off the jagged edge and hem it up as a regular dress for her. i love the pink buttons and orange thread.





the pink bloomers are from a dress andie gave emma this summer, so i didnt have to make any!



i attached her bone to a white bow headband and just stitched over the bow. she doesnt have enough hair for a pony tail so the head band will have to do. she is still wearing it too, so it must not bother her.





and, a cheesy grin from my little girl. such cute kiddos!

little green dress

i finished the dress! after dying it green yesterday i put the pieces through the wash last night and took advantage of nap time today to get it put together. i love how it turned out.



the green isnt quite solid, but it doesnt look tie dyed either, so im okay with that. i went ahead and tried the piping across the front, to add a little more bright white to the green and it wasnt as hard as i expected. i used my zipper foot, and scooted right up beside the piping. it was quick and i really like how it makes the dress look.



i had planned on buttons for the back, but that was before the dress changed colors. i dont have green buttons, or green thread for the button holes. then i remembered the snaps and snap press form my mom! what a perfect opportunity to try it out! i only wasted four pronged rings , and i installed ten altogether (with the practice one too) so for a first try, i think i did okay. hopefully next time i wont bend any.



and here is the back again, i used white thread for the little hem on the bottom, and i think it looks good. i am so glad i finally finished this dress- i hate having something half pieced together and just laying there.

its back!

remember this dress? well, its back. i am not giving up, and have been looking for the best way to come back to it. this week i was at joanns for a couple tiny bits of fabric (for another post) and remembered to pick up some rit dye. i bought the concentrate, so i could do smaller batches at a time, and not worry about how much powder was used. (i used the powder for a batik in high school and it works well, ive never used the concentrate.)



the concentrate seems to work well. :)

i dyed the dress, a onesie, and one of jasons tank tops. they are all slightly different fabrics and thicknesses so im curious to see how they each turn out. but look at that green! i am very excited about this little number again. i cant wait to finish it. now i only have to decide if i will keep it for emma, or add it to the growing pile of gifts.

hats, the adult version!

i finished the adult size hat today. it came together so well, i really like it. now if only i can get jason to wear it in public. so, what do you think?



heres a little grin. i took him away from watching the second x men so i could take his picture.



and the seam in the back looks nice too!



i am very pleased with this. next step- making it in three ish different sizes.

more hats and a little something extra

i am determined now to get the length and width of these little hats right, so that i can figure out how to adjust them to fit different sizes. the christmas hat fits emma fine, it is a little loose, and i would like it a little longer, but its not really a necessity.





i used some leftover white baby yarn and tried again. the first picture is a little stretched out, because she pulled it off her head several times. and the flowers arent attached, i am going to hook them to an alligator clip, so they can be moved.



ignore the toy explosion. emma has learned to entertain herself! it just means more picking up on my part, and watching your step. after i put it on her head i thought to try out a clip that sarah bought for her- and i think its pretty cute on there! it looks a little christmas-y too, against that white.





this one fits, but even it could be just a tiny bit longer, and a tiny bit wider. but it stays on much better than the green one. so then, i decided to try to make a little boy hat (i do have boys to make gifts for too!) and came up with this.



the little visor needs work. i found a nice little pattern for it this afternoon that i will try next. i may even tear this one out and just replace it if it turns out nicely. the length is perfect for emma though, i finally got that part right. it fits her head snugly too. im not sure if it would be large enough for jesse jay or not. i may call this size more of a 6-9. emmas head is 17.5 inches around.





this one shoes the seam in the back, where the rounds move over. this one is not at all straight, and a bit more noticeable than id like.





all considered, i think it is pretty cute. i have decided that i prefer a double crochet for hats, but i am going to try half double crochet (after i look up what it is) and see how that turns out. i think the smaller stitch looks better on boys.

so what do you think? i need some opinions, and maybe recommendations?

also, i signed up for an etsy shop this afternoon. all it has is a name, there is nothing else there. im still on the fence (and leaning towards doing nothing, because that is so much easier) but now if i find something cute and not very overpriced (that is my opinion, of course) then i can buy it without having to sign up later.

if i go for it, any ideas what i should list?

christmas gifts

i have already started thinking about christmas gifts, because all the fall birthdays are happening (beginning with the little monster in just a little more than a week! then you can see his gifts!) and now i need to work on a bunch of gifts before i run out of time.

emma benefits from this, because i am testing out possible gifts on her. today i made a christmas hat for her, and i think it is adorable. please, pretty please, forgive the terrible low light camera phone photos. i just couldnt wait to show it off, as i just tied off the tail a few minutes ago.





so what do you think? i know i could make the petals a little pointier, and even add a bit of green to really push the poinsettia look, but this was a first try.

baby hats

one of jasons coworkers daughters is having a little girl around january, and i have been trying to figure out whats best to make for her. i have had this hat pattern from martha stewerts website for a while, i first saw it at made by rae and thought it was so cute!

i enlarged the pattern by a little, and made the first one out of white felt. then i enlarged it some more (so it would fit a baby larger than a newborn) and made another. here is the pattern.



i did a blanket stitch around the outside of the hat with white baby yarn left over from some of the blankets i made for all the babies last year, and used the same for the braided ties and for a pom on top of the hat.



i dont have a newborn sized model... so emmas alaskan black bear stepped in for me.



this ones not finished yet, it still needs a brown pom on top.



and this one is not even started, but i am going to make a lined one out of this pink waffle knit and pink and brown fleece. i think it will be quite cute.

corvette shirt

i finished jasons shirt. its actually been finished for a week, he wore it to work on tuesday, i just didnt get any pictures until last night. jason chose the fabric, and the buttons i got from ash in august. the pattern was from my moms stash.



i did not plan this, but both sides of the collar say stingray. it worked out so well, even jason liked this part.




i love these buttons. i think the color looks so good on this shirt.



so there it is. the first thing ive ever made for my husband. :)

nine months update

After Emma's appointment, we went to the Boise zoo. The babies were asleep when we got there, and Jesse woke up as soon as I opened the door. I crawled into the back seat and fed him, then got the stroller out and Emma decided to wake and want food too! So I hopped back into the back seat and fed Emma, then got the babes in the stroller and on our way. Almost to the gate Jason called and said he would meet me just outside the gate, because he was on his way back to work from class. It was nice to chat with him for a few minutes and he was able to see Emma (several days a week he doesn't get home early enough to see her before she is in bed again.)



They didn't care much for the real animals, but liked the statues. I think they need to be able to get a little closer to the animals to really be interested. But, we had fun anyways.

At Emma's appointment we learned that she has grown only 1/4 inch in the last two months. And, shes gained less than a pound in those two months. I thought this was the case, because I haven't switched out clothes for her in a while and her 6 month sleepers still fit. Dr Freeman isn't concerned at all, she is still growing and learning new things. She is just growing a lot slower than a few months ago (when she gained two pounds in a little more than three weeks!)

She is getting more confident walking around furniture, and has started to bear crawl around on our new rug. I found the rug on sale at walmart for 20$ and was so excited. It matches the tile we have around the fireplace and kitchen backsplash and fits the floor well. It's 4x7ft so it doesn't hide all the hardwood but it is big enough that it will keep babies warmer, and my toes warmer when it starts to cool off in a month or so. With the extra grip of the rug Emma is getting a little faster. Its cute to see her grip her toes and walk on her hands and feet.

Because she is almost a year old, and Jesse will be one in just a few days, I installed Emma's big girl car seat in the car. But first, I made a much cuter and easier to wash car seat cover for it.





She has already fallen asleep in the car in it, and I think she likes sitting a little more upright in this seat instead of laying back in the infant carrier. Besides, its cute. I have a teal blue patterned one cut that just needs to be sewn so i will have two to switch between.

I know you are all super curious how jury duty panned out for me, right? Well, my number was called the first day, and I was given a green tag when I walked in the courthouse. After sitting in a crowded room for an hour, we all watched a little movie about how jury duty works, then a few minutes later all the blue tags were taken upstairs to begin the jury selection process for their case. The greens waited. And waited. Around ten thirty we were taken upstairs and that's when we found out that we were there for a criminal jury trial for a man charged with second degree murder. I was shocked. This was not what I wanted to be doing. I am not qualified. But after an hour of questioning 38 of us and replacing people as they were removed for different reasons, I was the last of 14 jurors chosen (there are twelve voting jurors in the end, but two extras are chosen to hear the case so that if something happens during the trial to one of the jurors there are still twelve in the end to vote.) We had lunch then began the case. It lasted for three days, the morning of the third day we heard closing arguments and began deliberation around eleven. It was a little after seven when we all came to an agreement and reentered the courtroom to conclude. I am SO GLAD it is over, but also very glad that I had the jurors with me that I did. I gained a little confidence in the jury system, and I feel like after we left, we made the right choice.

Being on this case was exhausting. I didn't get to run in the evenings, or all day, because I was busy with things that didn't get accomplished earlier. In the last three weeks, I have gained five pounds back, and I'm not thrilled about it. So- I made my decision this morning to go back to my stand by diet shake. its a little boring, but it gives me something dependable and takes some of the decision making out of the way for me. I also want to get back to DOING something every day. A walk around the block with Emma for ten minutes totally counts. I just need to DO something. That is my plan and I will let you know how it goes after a week or two goes by.

We are all busy lately, and getting stressed. Emma has a cold this week, she started getting snively yesterday and last night woke up at one am feeling terrible. Jason's neck is hurting him, he doesn't usually complain much but has been pretty pouty the last couple days. He is also taking two classes this semester, one of them is busy work (that just peeves him to have to complete) and the other has a prof who is so intelligent he cant get his point across without distracting himself. So Jason's reading the book to teach himself. This is his first real semester of classes and just a taste of what life will be like for the next several years. Be praying for us. :)

missing in action

or maybe missing the action? we spent the weekend cleaning, my sewing area and the garage. then got the bright idea to finally set up security on our wireless network and now my computer wont work. so, i am posting from jasons office compy and i have no pictures to show you of anything that i finished (like his camaro shirt) or started (more cloth books).

i hope this will be fixed by this evening. jasons office is cold! i like my warm living room to snuggle in and tell you about what ive been up to!