Not a Bad Little Model

 Now that I'm actually adding a few clothing items to my Kids Shop on Etsy, I've been using Ara as a model now and then.  Oddly enough she loves it.  The only problem with this is that I have to make the dress in her size.  This leads to her having way more dresses than she actually needs.  It's almost Summer though, so I can justify it. Right?

 We have this spot on our deck that works great for shooting pics of the kids as our siding is white.  As long as the sun is brightly shining directly on the wall it works pretty good.

 

After we took pictures of the first dress she nicely smiled for a couple of front facing pictures for me in the second dress than turned around so I could shoot the back all on her own.  She's got it figured out already.

Both dresses are listed in my kids shop!

Kids Clothes Week Challenge - Raglan T's all Around

Did you know it's Kids Clothes Week Challenge over on Elsie Marley?  I didn't, that is until a couple of days ago.  The funny thing is I had planned to keep all my sewing this week to stuff for the kids as I have my niece all week and I didn't want to do anything to distracting, or finicky (like orders!)

The kids were super excited for new shirts.  I did a trial one of the Boy's Raglan Shirt in Sewing for Boys and it turned out alright but I wasn't a huge fan of the exposed seams so these ones I switched it up a bit.  The only problems I had were with my collar fabric, it didn't have quite enough stretch to it so it puckered up a bit, especially on the first on.

For Ara's I used the same pattern I made in this post  I still love the simple way it comes together but I think next time I'm going to bring in the sides a bit for a more fitted look.

 

 

I don't know what they liked more, the shirts or me taking pictures of them in the rain outside!

Patterns

The last couple of months I've been working hard to get a couple of PDF sewing patterns finished and for sale in my etsy shops.  I got the second listed today so I thought I'd finally tell you all about them!

I have one done for the Billy Car Roll-Up and Play Mat and one for the Mary-Jane Oversized Tote Bag.  After spending countless hours (literally) working on these I'll never gawk at the price of a PDF pattern again.  I had a lot of help thanks to my lovely Sister in Laws, a few pattern testers, and my Mom on grammar control so thank you to everyone who has been a big help!

Each pattern has cutting diagrams and step by step photographed instructions.  Every pattern is emailed out as they are purchased and the buyer can print it out on their home printer!  I love buying pdf patterns just because you get them so fast and there's no shipping costs.


I hope to do more patterns in the future, but I think I'll see how they sell first!

 

Mary-Jane Oversized Tote Bag Pattern

Billy Car Roll-Up and Play Mat Pattern

A Raglan T for Ara

I've wanted to start making knit t-shirts for the kids for a while now so when I saw a tutorial for a Girls Raglan Tee on Craftiness is Not Optional I gave it a go.  Aside from one small mistake I made it went really well and I ordered in a bunch more knits to make her some more.  Now we just need warm enough weather to actually wear t-shirts!

The salad greens in our cold frames are, in a word, flourishing.  We have more than enough spinach to eat every day and things like arugula, radishes, and carrots are all peeking their heads up, some with more bravery than others.

this cold frame was seeded just last month!

Among the spinach we had some open space which was quickly taken over by the fast growing chick weed.  Chick weed takes over just about everything so it had to come out but why just compost it?  Instead I turned it into chick weed pasta!  It was even better than I expected.

pasta all rolled out and ready to be cut

chick weed linguine!

Supper last night turned out to be a join affair, I made the noodles while Travis bbq'd then fried up some of his home made sausage.  Trav also made up a tasty alfredo sauce and added in some more chopped chick weed and some spinach.

It was good.  More than good.

I got the basic recipe for the noodles from Hunter Angler Gardener Cook.  He did a post a while back on Nettle Pasta so I just substituted the nettles for chick weed.  His nettle pasta recipe can be found here.

The only thing I will do differently next time is to at least double the amount of chick weed, or other greens than I used.  I want my noodles to be ridiculously green, just for fun.

Baby Blanket and Wash Cloth Tutorial

 

Last week I was putting together some gift baskets for a silent auction the youth group at our Church is putting on.  I wanted to do one for women and one for a baby girl but when I put the stuff in the basket for the baby girl it seemed pretty empty still so I decided to stitch something up quick.

Baby blankets are always a quick sew and I'm the first to admit you really can't have too many baby blankets.  Extra soft wash cloths are also really nice to have to so I made some of those as well.  While I stitched I snapped some pictures, in poor lighting of course, so bare with me.

On to the tutorial!

Flannel and Fleece Baby Blanket

 

Materials:

1 yard flannel

1 yard fleece (or another yard of flannel)

thread

sewing machine

Decide on the size you want your blanket to be.  I made this one 36 inches by 36 inches.  Nothing is more annoying than trying to swaddle baby in a blanket that's just not big enough!

Cut one 36x36 inch piece in both the flannel and the fleece.

Place fabrics on top of each other, right sides together and pin all the way around.

 

 Stitch around all 4 edges using a 1/4 inch seam allowance and leaving a 3-4 inch opening on one side.

Clip all four corners to reduce some bulk and then turn the blanket right side out.  Use a point turner if needed to get your corners nice and smooth.

 

Press all the edges of your blanket on the FLANNEL side.  If you used fleece for the other side be extra careful not to touch it with the iron or it will melt!

Top stitch all the way around your blanket to finish it off and to close up your turn hole.  I like to use a zig zag stitch but a straight stitch works just fine too!

That's it! Your done the blanket! Now on to the wash cloths!

Super Soft Wash Cloth

Materials:

7.5x7.5 inch piece of flannel

7.5x7.5 inch piece of minky dot fabric

thread

sewing machine

 

Basically we are making the blanket all over again only in smaller form!  Cut out your two pieces of fabric.  Lay them on top of each other, right sides together and pin.

 

Stitch all the way around with a 1/4 inch seam allowance leaving a small 2-3 inch opening.

 

Clip all four corners to reduce bulk then flip cloth right side out through the slip hole.  Use a point turner if you want to make the corners nice and smooth.

Press the cloth on the flannel side, taking care not to press the minky fleece with the iron or it will melt!

 

Stitch around all four sides finishing the wash cloth off and closing up your turn hole.  Again I use a zig zag stitch but a straight stitch would work just fine too!

 

Now make a couple more and you've got a great addition to a baby gift!

Adventure Challenge: Pirate Nature Hunt!

 

The lovely April of The Flourishing Abode came up with this fabulous idea of creating Adventure Challenges.  She posts one a week and most of the time the post comes with a free printable to make your challenge that much easier!

This past Friday, Kaed and I snuck out of the house while Daddy and the other two kids were napping and off we went on a Pirate Nature Hunt!

It was a spur of the moment decision so we didn't dress up but I dug out my point and shoot camera and I let Kaed take all the pictures he wanted while we searched for the items on our list.  He had never used a camera before so that proved to be a huge highlight to our excursion.

 

 The first thing we found were rocks of course, I had to convince Kaed to stick with small rocks as he wanted to fill his backpack with the biggest ones he could find.

We decided to add a feather to our list, just because there were so many around.  This of course meant that my little dude wanted to pick up the dirtiest one out there.

 

When we first started out I wasn't totally convinced he was having a good time but a little ways in he turned to me and said "this is SO much fun!".  That of course warranted a thumbs up picture.

 

Oddly enough the hardest thing to find on our list was the Swashbuckling Sword (aka stick) it was one of the last things we found and we looked long and hard to find it!  Later that stick became a fishing rod which later became a game of who can break the stick.

 

Our treasure at the end was a big cup of hot chocolate when we got home so once we had every item crossed off the list Kaed was more than happy to proudly hold up his completed check list and head on home.

All in all it was a great time spent with my oldest son.  Sometimes it's the best thing ever to get to spend some one on one time with your kids.  Thanks April for the fabulous idea!