Springing into action

I haven't really felt like doing much these past few weeks. I'm lacking motivation. It's all because I have some serious Spring organizing that needs to be done and I'm overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of crap that I have around my house.

The doll sits with half a head of hair patiently waiting to be finished. She lies among too many other unfinished projects that are piled on this spare dining room table. 

Spare dining room table? This table is a daily reminder that last Spring I brought it into the house out of storage so that it could be used during the re-finishing of our current dining room table. Now both tables are filled with junk and no re-finishing has been done. *Sigh*

Just writing this both aggravates and motivates me to kick myself in the butt and just get something done! So I'm off to tackle a small project that will make a dent in my cluttered house. Possibly something crafty.  

Doll Progress

I love you guys! Thanks for the comments on my last post. It's not like I thought I was alone in this crazy crafting madness, but it feels good to hear it every once in a while. It really got me thinking about how it all started for me. I have specific memories as a child starting projects and getting sidetracked by new projects. 

As an adult it has spread to not only include crafting, but gardening projects that are half done, a couch that is not upholstered so it's covered in fabric pieces, drywall primed and not painted for over 6 years now! 

There is no method to my madness.

Let me tell you something. The lighting is covering a ton of flaws on this doll. I should wait till night and take  some pictures with a flash.  

I made her with button joints and her arms and legs move nicely. Her legs are about an inch too long. She measures 17" and I was going for a 16" doll. 

Next step is her hair. She's going to have light brown hair even though Luca requested pink. I'll make a pink haired doll soon but I wanted this one to look like a mini Luca. The eyes are a bit too light but I didn't have good shades of blue embroidery thread on hand.

Too Many Projects

{pins as markers for eyebrow, eye, nose and mouth placement}

I have a problem starting too many projects at once. I see something on a blog or Pinterest and I feel an uncontrollable urge to run out and buy supplies immediately. 

Let's see...

- When Rae came out with her Toddler Backpack pattern I totally bought all the fixins'. That was two years ago and I have yet to make ONE backpack let alone the three backpacks I bought fabric for.

- I started two tops for the Spring Top Challenge... last year! Didn't even manage to make them THIS year.

- Last Spring I decided to refinish our dining room table and bought the stripper, sand paper, and stain. Maybe this Spring I'll do it.

- While planning on refinishing the table I bought oodles of fabric to make the kids personalized placemats so the table wouldn't get ruined again.

- I bought a giant piece of wood  for a ruler size chart. It's been sitting in my front hallway for a few months.  I bought the number decals ages ago. 

- Oh and we can't forget the baby blanket I was supposed to knit for Vinny before he was born! I did buy about $80.00 in yarn for that.

There are many more. It's sad. I'm bringing this up because the last thing I need to do right now is get into doll making. I don't even have a daughter that plays with dolls. The logical thing to say would be "then sell them!" Um, seriously, doll making is like 200 times more difficult than any of the garment sewing I do. I have mucho respect for people who make gorgeous dolls like these.

KCWC: Day Six

I made another nightgown using the Badminton Dress pattern.

I'm more motivated than ever to find a soft drapey beautiful fabric to make this nightgown again. It's a bit stiff like the first one I made. 

I had a terrible time taking photos of this white dress.  Sorry for these shitty pics. I also should have pressed it before it made it's debut. Sewing this a second time around was easier. I am happier with the topstitching.

KCWC: Day Five

I've been sewing like mad... between all the normal things like a screaming toddler, an IEP for Rocco and life. Sewing this much after the break in garment sewing makes me realize how much I really enjoy making clothes for my kids.

 I just wish I had more time. And I miss making clothes for babies. I want a little girl to sew for. No, we are not going down that road again. Three is enough.

So it looks like I'm stuck making slightly girly clothes for my little boy. Sigh. I imagine the striped leggings would look fine if we would actually cut his hair.

Yes, I agree that this star waffle print is gender neutral, but paired with the leggins and his long blond curls I think I'll get more "oh she's so cute" comments than ever before.

The shirt is another Flashback Skinny Tee

Pants are self drafted and I literally just finished them tonight so I hope they fit. They look like they will fit great. Fingers crossed.

KCWC: Day four

Just in time for a cold rainy day...

I made a short sleeved tee and a pair of clam diggers. After the heat wave last weekend I guess a little rain was in order.

I found the koi fish image on Google images. Not sure if it's copyrighted so I'm not sharing the download, but there were a lot of neato images if you are so inclined and handy with an Xacto knife. It actually didn't take all that long to cut out the image (on freezer paper). I did it yesterday afternoon while the kids were doing homework. I used So Soft fabric paint. I've had good washing results with this paint in the past. I dabbed the paint on with a sponge brush using three shades of blue.

T-shirt: Flashback Skinny Tee

Pants: Easy Fit Pant

Fabric: Probably from fabric.com. The white is a 100% cotton sweatshirt fleece. Stripe has a lot of Lycra and possibly some polyester cotton blend.

KCWC: Day three

I bought Rae's Flashback Skinny Tee pattern on Friday and I love it!

I kind of promised myself that for this entire week of sewing I wouldn't purchase any new fabric so there will be a lot of fabric this week that you've seen here before. 

I've made t shirts with both these fabrics before. The next two are fabric I've had for a while but I haven't made anything with these fabrics before.

I'm glad I set aside the dolls for this week. It's been so long since I've sat down and pumped out clothes like this. I have a pair of long shorts cut out in a totally inappropriate toddler color... white. What was I thinking? Well, I wanted to get rid of the fabric and I am doing a freezer paper stencil on it and white was the only color that worked for the design I am using. 

Well I'm off to the machines. It's a minimum day at school so the kids will be home early. I wanted to call the school and ask them if they knew that it was Kids Clothing Week Challenge. How rude!

KCWC: day two Spring 2012

I made my first garment for the week. I used a new Oliver + S pattern to make a summer nightgown for Luca. The pattern is the Badminton Top/Dress. I bought the pattern specifically to make nightgowns for Luca.

I used a quilting cotton and it's a bit too stiff for my taste. I wish I had a huge stash of Heather Ross Mendocino to make this nightgown because that's the kind of weight fabric I would love. 

I totally messed up on the neckline. My understitching is showing. I did it on the wrong side of the yoke but I'm choosing to ignore that little oopsie. One thing that kind of bugs me is the top stitching. That is an area that I'm particularly picky about.  

This pattern has some fiddly parts to it but as usual the instructions are perfect and I felt the pattern was pretty easy. I have a white nightgown cut out but it's Kona cotton so it's going to have the same stiffness to the finished garment. I should have used and old white sheet. One with high thread count to give it a softer feel to the skin.

KCWC: Day One... realization sinking in

On Saturday we had a bit of a heat wave and I realized I have no shorts for Vinny. Then I realized that none of the projects I had planned for the KCWC frenzy are shorts. I need to remedy that stat.

 I did pull out a pair of pants that I made for Vinny almost exactly two years ago for the KCWC challenge and they fit. As shorts. I was totally shocked. That's one reason I love the pattern so much. It's really quite a roomy fit. They are below the knee totally adorable surfer style. They looked cute for about 10 minutes.

Then he discovered a mud puddle we created for our duck. Our duck Quackers was pretty upset that he took over her earthworm hunting spot. 

Needless to say, these "new"shorts are totally ruined.

Doll Factory

I ran out of doll fabric so I'm taking a break. For like maybe a day since the nearest fabric store is closed. I'm not usually a puzzle solver but that's what this feels like to me. I want to figure out the doll that is perfect to me. I made one leg and didn't love it yet so I tweaked the pattern a bit more. The arm I like but the hand needs work. I'm labeling all my pattern pieces so hopefully I don't get too confused. Another thing I just realized is that this cutie pie is going to be naked once she's finished. Looks like I better figure out some clothing for her. I think she will end up being 16". To give you a modern reference an American Girl doll is 18". So off I am to maybe work on my Spring Top Sewalong top.