why do I sew for her anyhow?

Okay, so the purple bubble dress is not long enough... luckily I still had some good sewing inspiration left in me and I pulled together two Midsummer dresses... nice and loooong, right down to her toes (well, when she isn't wearing my heels, though she probably does so with more grace than I do).  Nope, though she looks happy playing the princess here, she still does not like them that much.  I think of the three though, this pretty garden dress is the favorite (At least it is the one she is most likely to agree to).  

It goes with her cell phone and her tiara that was made by a friend of Deepa's, It is her special occasion crown, which basically means whenever she declares it so.  

So I am frustrated, darn disney princesses,  We have been reading more generic (well non-disney) classic princess stories which she loves, and perhaps not the most empowered girl stories out there, generally as long as there is some good diversity, I am find with some of the classics.   She has watched tangled and brave without any issues... BUT, since she started seeing the disney Cinderella (first book and then for a movie night... the movie)... she thinks that princess gowns need to show a lot of your chest, so she spends a lot of effort pulling her dresses and shirts down around her shoulders and as low as she possibly can (the above dress has even been found around her waist) which she thinks is the best way to wear ... everything.  Sigh

 Some of my favorite mermaid fabric here for another bag, this one for for Pearl! I did a poor job fussy cutting the fabric though.... too bad, but it still makes a great bag!

 And a dino print for Andy, surprisingly difficult to find a dino print that I liked, this one is pretty good... but not exactly what I had in mind.

And soap!  So, in the cleaning out of their house, mom finally found her soap recipe that inspired my soap making to begin with.  She made it as a hobby years ago, but stopped some time after we moved out to California.  I hoarded, then would only buy fancy expensive soap, until she gave us some of her old supplies and I finally got up the gumption to try my own.  At any rate... voila soap.  This recipe... 1.  It makes a TON of soap, way more than my other recipes.  2.  Notice the slight difference in color between the bars and the molds... Well, for the first time I noticed a gel stage (some find it critical, I am still not sure what it does for the soap).  It was a warmish evening and the box mold is wooden and farily well insulated in and of itself.... so it gelled.  It makes for a slightly more translucent bar, the non-gelled mold soap has a creamier appearance.  I am still curing them, but suspect they both will behave fine.  3.  This is a long slow cure.  It was soft forever, like weeks,  I took the bar out within the first week but it was soft to the touch for three weeks.  It is still a little soft, (four weeks?  maybe....) but definitely more soap firmness.  We'll see how it holds up.  I am patient.

Update:  I still like this recipe, but it did take a long time to set.  I did it again with coffee grounds (about 20g) and some brewed coffee for the water. I also added a good slug of coco butter in place of some missing coconut oil, about 1/3 cup or so (I shoudl know g, I measured, but forgot).  Left it in the mold for 3 days, took it out and sliced it slightly thinner, about 1".  In a last moment inspiration, I added peppermint to make it smell nice (the coffee aroma was weak at best), I'm not sure it was the right plan, but it's what happened, now you have coffee peppermint soap, might be good for Christmas.  My plan is to have the stumptown coffee soap and some local hops soap to round out the whole PDX thing.

bubble dress from fashionable clothes...

 My favorite trees around here.... pink dogwoods stretching out in the sunshine.  Ahhh the sunshine this week has been quite nice.  I made this bubble dress for Grace from the cover of Fashionable clothes girls like.

 Looks like she likes it here  eh?  Nope, girlfriend does NOT like this dress, at least she didn't soon after she tried it on, it is too short she wants a LOOONG princess dress.  I thought a poofy dress in her current preferred color would be good but no.  She was harsh, wanted to throw it in the garbage, but in the end and after a pretty substantial guilt trip that I am not proud of, she came out with the dress (back on after a few clothes changes).

 We printed the purple Kona cotton with the stamp Brian carved from the Making an Impression book. There is one on teh front, one on the back and one on each pocket.

Well, regardless, it is very cute on her, and maybe it grew on her as she wore it, we'll see if we can get it into rotation.  Hmm, notes on sewing it, well, it takes a lot of fabric, and that means a lot of gathering.  Otherwise, it was pretty easy to put together,  I tried to figure out how to get the seam that connects the inner and outer dress pieces along the hemline to be an internal seam, and managed to sew the dress into an awful mobius strip before ripping it all out and just having an external seam as the pattern seems to suggest.  Some people online seem to have figured it out, but suggestions were cryptic at best.  I did take the suggestion of the Sew 2 pro blog and encased it in some bias tape, just to neaten things up a bit, esp. since G has a tendancy to show off the inside of her dress often.

Stamping! Making an Impression

 I've been fussing around with carving stamps for a little bit, they are pretty darned fun, I can even do some of Owen's designs if they aren't too crazy.  Most recently he has been into mushrooms, which are super fun, I'll take some pics one day.

 We got Geninne Zlatkis' book Making an impression and it is awesome.  She has a bunch of templates in the back, and while on some fronts, it is pretty great to create your own, she has some really beautiful templates, so we have used those.  Made this cute three little birds dress for E's birthday!  She will be three, and Grace loves how her version of this dress (from the Nani Iro sewing book M, this one is 100cm) spins so wonderfully.

 The dress is Kona cotton and the binding from some scraps.  The birds were printed with some of the fabric paint we use for freezer paper stencils dabbed on a smooth surface with a makeup sponge before applying to a stamp.  The black details were drawn on with a fine micron pen, which heat-sets up pretty nicely as well.  I washed a sample and it looked great, I hope it holds up on the dress too.

I will confess that I am happy to tackle some of the smaller stamps, and have done most of them, but I save the larger projects for Brian, whose confidence and hand is much steadier.  He loves getting roped into my projects, but he really does such a nice job.

 Even when I asked him for a really complicated butterfly!

  It is beautiful!  I want to put it on some fabric too, but started with just some new watercolors.  

 I don't want to give this book back to the library!  It has been a lot of fun, and I am just getting brave enough to (have brian) tackle some of the bigger pieces.  May have to get it for myself, or practice with what I have and put myself back on the wait-list.

Books

Okay, I need to start reading again myself, but after the Game of Thrones, I am afraid to start anything new.  Here's my problem, I need to start biking in, but if I have a really good book to read on the bus, the bus seems much more tempting.  SO, I"m off the very good reads until the rainy season again.  Does that sound weird?  It feels weird, but I need my motivation to do some other things while the weather permits.

but BOOKS!  yes books, I want to  try to keep up with what I am reading with Owen (and Grace for that matter)
Grace is easy:  Curious George, Belly button book.  WE work others in all the time, but those are her go-to.

Owen is becoming a reader himself and handles more sophisticated books.  At night he reads for at least 15 minutes... his choice, and I will read a chapter from a chapter book. 
Owen's choices:
Captain Underpants
Dragon - anything books, but he gravitates towards those that have a field guide feel.
There are some of these shorter chapter books that have good pictures interspersed, and he is getting more into these as well... Spiderwick chronicles (though it's still mostly me reading these), Stuart
Some of the comic books appeal to him in spurts... Tin tin, Asterix, but he still laughs out loud most at C.U.
Because it has his namesake, the Owen and Mzee books are also a favorite. 

I've been reading to him... These are mostly series of books.
Artemis Fowl (series)
any of the mythologically based tales by Rick Riordan
Books 1-3 of Harry Potter, we may almost be ready for more but we stopped because of nightmares from book 3.
Spiderwick Chronicles,
Song of the Winns
Redwall (but got a bit complex at times, and man, it is just tough to read, the words don't roll off the tongue).
Alvin Ho
We are on a little break from these but have read more Magic Treehouse books than I care to think about.  I think he is about ready to tackle these on  his own though.
We have listened to some spy/sleuthing books on disk, but haven't really read them at home yet, maybe we should try those, the 39 clues were okay, but seem better for the car than for bed.   

Here's the deal, if you think of any others that would be good, LET ME KNOW!  We go through books quickly, and have almost completed all of our favorite series... We must find new ones!  The Chronicles of Narnia have been a slow start/low engagement so far, and I got a mixed read on the black cauldron, but may try that one again, we need to get our hands on the new Spies of Gerander, and I think we have one more artemis fowl book to read. 

Hammer Hammer

Dear Grace,

I am glad  that after much work at it that you now know the correct lyrics to "Twinkle Twinkle" and you sing it so sweetly and I love it!  However, your Dad and I do miss a little bit your version that went :  "twinkle twinkle little star, hammer hammer what you are". 

xoxoxoxoxox

Easter outfits, more from ISBN978-4-579-11289-0, Simplicity 2226 skirt, and gingermelon dolls

Okay, in a flurry of sewing, the night before we were supposed to leave for a short vacation, I finished up this velour grey pull-over for Grace. I love the cute sailor collar, and Grace loves the bee buttons to match her shorts. 

I wasn't sure about picking the velour, but it is nice, very soft, washes beautifully, Grace thinks it is the same as dressing up as Totoro!  It was also from that cute Japanese sewing book... or just 11289 (Shall we call it Fashionable Clothes girls like).  I agree with another review I saw, the clothes look weird, oliver twist like in the book, but I actually really gravitate to it, I want to sew almost all of the outfits! 


Here's another shot of Owen's vest.  He doesn't love the reverse ikat but that's okay.

Here's the full Easter outfit.  The tank is great!  It was fun to sew, the back is interesting enough to make it irresistible. 

I only really have a bleached out picture of it but it crosses over and ties at the neck.  I can't even complain about the pictures because... HEY!  SUN!  It was actually warm enough on Easter to wear shorts and a tank top... and have a beautiful dinner outside with friends.


 
Today, I think the simplicity 2226 skirt I made is okay.  Initially, I'd say it is not my style... much more full than skirts that I like to wear.  But paired with a nice sharp button-up, I am once again sold.  It does have magnificent pockets! I was very grateful for the sew-along help, made this much more manageable. 

And finally for Easter baskets, a few bunnies from Gingermelon

I really love her patterns, they rely upon a lot of handstitching, which I am just sometimes in the mood for.  I do wish that some details like eye/face/inside of ears-placement, and the number of strands of embroidery floss to use (ONE!) were included, but otherwise, her patterns are quite easy to follow and super cute to boot.  She thinks of all sorts of fun little details, like slippers, and a wee bear.

ISBN978-4-579-11289-0... catchy title

 I have a new sewing pattern book, It's all in Japanese, so we will quaintly refer to it as 11289.  I made Owen this snazzy reversible vest with pockets (L in size 130 for my 7-year old, pretty average sized kiddo). Looking at the pattern, and being relatively new to pockets, i didn't realize that the striped fabric I thought would be cute in the lining of the pocket, actually sticks out quite a bit.  S'alright though 'cause he loves the colorful stripes.  The inside is a white and blue ikat.

 These awesome pants are actually why I bought the pattern book.  They have a zipper and pleats.  Grace chose the fabric from a great fabric shopping trip up to Bolt.  I say great because she was a fab. fabric shopper, and came up with two beautiful pieces.  These for the pants, and a pretty offwhite for the shirt.  It's also done but I don't have a picture yet.

The shorts are "R" in size 110 for G., my slightly above average sized 3 1/2 year old and fit her perfectly if you sew the correct seam allowances (1.5cm on the outer edges.  I didn't at first and had to take them in.  I so very much want her to try them on, but unlike Owen who LOVES anything that I make for him, Grace is a bit more opinionated.  We got this for Easter, so she certainly is NOT going to wear them until then, except for the fastest try-on moment for fit.