Eight is great...

 Today is the Wub's 8th birthday. Every year I look back wistfully at how much our sweet pie baby has grown. Each birthday takes her farther from that sweet tiny baby that she was and turns her toward the amazing kid that she's turning out to be.

At one you were fun, smiling and clapping, learning to walk and cheese for the camera.
Two was not terrible, but merry and sweet with shiny red shoes on your cute little feet.
Three was beast because you were our beauty and you know there's no such thing as a Gruffalo
At four you keen to sing us Jolene and explain that you were not a "minja"
Then five came along for our fierce "masketeer" and a sweet pixie haircut that showed off your ears.
Six and in school brought you glasses to see and a party so fancy with cookies and tea
Seven danced in and twirled us about with tutus and tap shoes dancing recitals
Eight is upon us, what will it bring? No matter the journey, the places you go, I'm glad that we get to enjoy the show.

The Beautiful Birthday Girl

I have to say these are probably the best birthday pictures I've ever taken. Probably because both of us were relaxed and happy.

 

She was just singing and smiling.

 Here she is reading Horton Hatches the Egg to Horton The Elephant.

 Appropriate for a girl born on Dr. Seuss' birthday

Every year we buy her a new charm for her bracelet. She gets to open it on her birthday morning.

This year it was a teapot. Next week she'll be having  a friends/girls tea party at the bakery

There's always one photo that she looks mildly demented. This year it's this one.

Her cake was pretty awesome and ridiculously delicious. Sextuple chocolate cake (she is six) with home made chocolate pudding filling, whipped cream icing and chocolate ganache. Plus a gravity defying bottle of chocolate sauce. Mmmmmmmmmmmm!

Happy Birthday Little Miss Six.

Two birds with one sewn...

It's Kids Clothes Week. I am seriously going to try to follow the rules although I am a day behind. (probably a dollar short too)

Wub is in desperate need of new pajamas. Over  the summer she had a ridiculous growth spurt. Barely 5T at the beginning of summer is now pushing her way out of size 7. What happened?

I decided to make her the Alex and Anna Winter Pajamas from Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop. I scored a set of  yellow jersey sheets on clearance at Target and made the neckband, cuffs and leg bands from a scrap tee shirt from the striped dress I made her earlier.

The directions are fairly straightforward and the whole thing came together super quick. The only modification I made was this, a freezer paper stencil of flames.

Why pray tell would I want to freezer paper stencil flames on her pajamas?*

Because in addition to needing new pajamas Wub also needed

The Most Awesome Halloween Costume EVER.

Since she was Spiderman last year this year she wanted to be Firestar! 

One of the Amazing Friends from back in the 80's. 

The wig is an Ariel's but it's pretty perfect fit for Firestar too. I still have to finish up the mask. She's actually got a paper mask from her birthday party taped to her face for blogland's sake. The real mask for this costume is going to be much more flamier. (her word)

If I get a chance I'm going to try to make her some red duct tape boots to wear. But if I don't she'll be wearing her shiny red, shiny shoes and red socks. 

All in all it was a pretty easy project. The pattern was great, fits perfectly and went together in a snap. Gotta love it. She does. 

*Funny thing about the freezer paper stencil. Originally I was going to sew the flames out of orange and red knit scavenged from tee shirts. I had half of an orange tee that I had been saving FOREVER but when I decided to get started on her costume it was nowhere to be found. I finally gave up looking and decided to go buy some orange knit after work the next day. 

I went to bed that night and about 2:00 am I woke suddenly, sat straight up in bed and said "Paint the flames on using freezer paper idiot!" then I said "Okay thanks God for saving me from myself." and fell promptly back to sleep. The important part is, I remembered in the morning. 

The Maggie May Dress from Shwin & Shwin

 I have to be honest I wasn't 100% sure  I liked the Maggie May Tunic/Dress when I bought the pattern. I was very on the fence. Mostly because I wasn't sure I could come up with a fabric combo I would really love.

 But there was something about the pleats that whispered to me. I know, I know but I HATE gathering stuff. It's so fiddly. Frustrates me. And ever since I made myself a pleat flipper from a Jenga block, two bamboo skewers and some scotch tape I've chosen to pleat over gather whenever practical.

 There are only three pattern pieces to the Maggie May. Two multipurpose back and front pieces and a pocket. The rest is measured rectangles. So there wasn't a lot of tape this to that and line up this with that. Considering the last pattern I cut out and put together was the W Pants by Blank Slate Patterns (a fantastic pattern by the way) this was a welcome relief.

 The directions are wee bit sparse but a confident beginner could definitely figure them out. I mostly followed the directions except I put the pleats in the skirt before I sewed the skirt pieces together. One other thing I would change the next time I sew it. (And I will definitely sew it again because it looks a-mazing on Wub.) would be to attach the contrast band to the bottom before I sewed the skirt sides together.

  Because Wub is in a size that doesn't actually exist commercially I'm pretty careful to measure her before I sew something. I sewed the size six and it was spot on for sizing.

 I managed to get this sewed over three evenings. If that sounds like a long time, take into account we get home from work between 5:30 and 6:00. We cook and eat dinner, get Wub's lunch ready, do any homework she has, bathe and sometimes we pretend we care about housework. Also if I stay up past 10:00pm that's like 4:00 am in twenty year old time. So all told maybe three and a half hours. At least a half hour of that time was me picking out the same button hole four times because I kept bleeping it up.

  As for the fabric combo? I kinda feel like I knocked that one out of the park.

The linen is a fabric remnant I got at JoAnn's for maybe a dollar fifty. The floral is from a brand new (circa 1971) Canon Blossom Festival  full size sheet that I bought on Ebay. I think I paid $14 for it. I still have several yards of it left.

The back doesn't quite line up but I'm 98% sure this was a "user" error and not the pattern itself. 

 I let Wub pick out the buttons. She had the choice of deep clear green, pale yellow or these orange ones. Even though it meant a lot of buttonholes and button sewing. I think they are the perfect choice. 

You can't see it when it's all buttoned up but the second from the top buttonhole is the one I had to pick out four times. It's actually still slightly wonky but I was afraid I was going to damage te fabric if I picked out any more stitches.

And the pockets? Love them. They are perfectly sized and perfectly placed. If pockets hadn't been included I probably would have added them in a future version.

For all the wonderful and special details the Maggie May is a pretty easy sew. I will definitely be making a couple of few more.

I have quite a bit of the Blossom Festival in the pink colorway. I think it would be GORGEOUS and on trend with a navy blue top and bottom. Maybe in maxi length.

I also picture white, red piping, black maybe more red piping and black again.

I have to say I'm a weensie bit jealous of Wub. If my pattern making skills were a little stronger I'd attempt a grown up version. Oh well maybe they'll come up with a plus size version. I'd definitely buy that.

Did I mention the pleats?

And the pockets?

Yup, we love it and would absolutely recommend it.

Happy Easter

Thank you Easter Bunny! Bock! Bock!

Pinspiration...

So I've never really done one of those Pinspiration things but this dress just killed me. I loved it so much I wanted needed to make one for Wub.

Now in my normal, not the normal way to do it, fashion my actual "Pinspiration" was not an actual pin but part of a linky party for both Sew In Tune and Basic Bodice Design. Call Ajaire had a fantastic tutorial on adding scallops to a bodice. The gorgeous Andre Courreges dress above was her inspiration to make a sweet scalloped dress for her sweet girl.

She had amazing directions on how to make the scallops. So lucky remnant at JoAnn's yielded a red and white polka dot that I used for the top. The bottom is white 90 inch muslin. I drafted the pattern using one of Wub's t-shirts and made the dress ultra short on purpose because I wanted that 70's little girl feel to it. The circle cut out in the back  was just for fun to see if I could make it work.

Then I drafted a pair of shorts and added the scallops to the bottom to tie it all together. I wanted the shorts to be shorter and tighter than they turned out. (More hot pants-y, less showing) I'm 90% sure I am making at least one maybe two more versions and I'll get the shorts micro the next time around.

Bottom line? Love it. Can't wait to make another one.

50's Vintage with a 70's Retro Twist

 I have to admit this really wanted to be a little bit of a fail. The Peter Pan blouse was adapted from a 1956 dress pattern (that I'm totally making her Easter dress from.) I added 4 inches at the waist to give it proper length and it still wasn't quite long enough.

Then for some reason when I drafted the pants pattern I totally disregarded seam allowances. And yes, I did sew the entire pair of pants minus hems and waistband before I realised.

In my original vision the pants were going to high waisted to compensate for the short blouse and the only floral was going to be secret pocket lining.

I decided actually being able to put the pants on Wub was infinitely more important than "vision". I ripped out the side seams and added a two inch wide strip of the floral fabric.

This was going to be her Thanksgiving outfit. She wore the blouse. The pants sat there reminding me of my lack of skill until last night when I decided to finish them up. (Sound familiar?)

I sewed in the elastic waistband this morning and put it on Wub.

Not a fail at all.

And yes that is the exact same fabric I  used to make her Jammin' Jammies. The green was her alternate choice for her Christmas skirt. We couldn't decide between the brighter green with a gorgeous sheen or the Grinch green "lemon" fabric. 

Chocolate Ice Cream

6 cups whole milk
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch salt
1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips

In a large bowl combine sugar, cocoa, salt and eggs beat until well combined and set aside.

Place the chocolate chips in a different heat proof large bowl and set aside.

In a large saucepan over medium heat warm milk stirring frequently until bubbles begin to form around the edges.

While whisking pour one cup of the hot milk into the egg mixture. Then whisk the egg mixture into the remaining hot milk.  Stir constantly until mixture thickens slightly. Pour the mixture through a strainer onto the chocolate chips and add the vanilla. Whisk  to combine.

Refrigerate 8 hours or overnight then churn according to your ice cream makers directions.

We put ours into individual containers (Portion control!) But whatever has a nice fitting lid. Allow to ripen (get more frozen) in freezer 2-4 hours before serving.

Yum!

Down on the farm...

This afternoon we went to visit the Martins. Wub had a great time drinking fresh milk and helping feed the calves and steers. Now she want to be a farmer and a Musketeer.

Chloe-"Mommy, are bears delicious?"
Mommy-"Well, I've never eaten a bear before so I don't know. But my Uncle Pat has eaten a bear."
Chloe-"Why did he eat a bear?"
Mommy- "Well he lives in Montana and a bear attacked his house so he shot it and killed it. And My Uncle Pat is a lot like Mommy and believes if you kill something you have to eat it. Otherwise it's a bad wasteful thing."
Long pause...
Chloe-"Well if I ever have to shoot a person, I am NOT going to eat them."

And that is of course, how it should be.