So I "Made" Some "Jewelry"... And it doesn't suck.

And by "made", I mean "wrapped some wire around it" and by "jewelry" I mean "rocks the girls found in a drawer."

I've never wrapped anything before, so I didn't know I couldn't do it.  I found out, though.

The agates are from Montana, I think.  They are really beautiful when they aren't terribly photographed and covered with greasy fingerprints (mine).  Here's the back:

It's a hot mess.  But the girls don't care and new pretties are ALWAYS good.  They go in order, Prima's is the dark one, Secunda's is the pretty orange one and Tertia wanted the white one.  I just used some yarn to string them.  I have a friend (ANDIE!!) who actually went to SCHOOL to be craftier than the rest of us.  I haven't decided whether to send the pic to her...  

I was terrified to try it and it doesn't suck.  I'm putting this down as a "win". 

Personalized Field Bags

From Jeans!

I hemmed some shorts - well, I hacked off two pairs of jeans - and couldn't possibly throw all that POTENTIAL away.  So I hoarded them until inspiration smacked me in the gob.  And, boy howdy, it did.

The girls were allowed to choose the fabric for their straps.  I just laid out choices and they browsed, negotiated, and bargained until each got what I wanted them to have.  Because that's how I do it.  

I cut each bag from one pant leg.  I eyeballed the flaps because it's jeans ferchrissakes.  Each bag was finished with my most favorite sewing item, red bias tape.  I didn't even change the thread to sew the bottom.  I still love them. 

 Prima chose for her strap a really cute yellow floral.  Lots of pink, lavender, and white.  So she got a flower painted on hers. 

 Secunda chose Cat in the Hat.  Which is just so cool.  She doesn't even know yet how cool it is.  So she got a hat in the signature colors and style of her favorite literary cat.

Tertia wanted red.  And pink.  And orange.  And bubbles.  I got it.

Love you brave, scientific, smart, curious, honest, crazy, real girls.  Let's go play in the dirt!

Seen here!

And here.

Auntie Lynnie's Windbreaker Redux

Our Auntie Lynnie is very petite.  Very petite.  She's a powerhouse in a half-pint jar, retired from fighting the bad guys while raising two kids and generally being an amazing person.  So, when she asked me to alter her Traffic Team windbreaker, I said hells yeah. 

This is the finished product.

She didn't care about some stuff, like a working zipper, that made my job infinitely easier.  Plus, no elastic cuffs on the sleeves, either.  YAYS!  But it was way too long and needed about 8 inches cut off.  Eeesh.

I did shiny hooks for closures and kept the zipper.  It looks cooler than I thought it would!  For the bottom, I REALLY wanted to avoid the home-done look, so I hemmed it the same way I hem jeans:

Sort of.  I folded it under and sewed it to keep the cool drawstring detail.  Then, I trimmed the seam and zigzagged the edges down.  She didn't care about pockets either, on account of all the pockets on her uniform.

 Here's the inside:

 Aaaaaand, the back.  Nice and even, clean looking and not home-altered.

Now she can do her super-hero thing and feel comfy and put-together.  Because she is an awesome soul who deserves all the good things she can possibly wrap her head around.  We think she's pretty neat.  And I'm proud I could do this small thing for her. 

Superhero Dresses, Super Easy, Super Awesome

Secunda and Tertia, the twins, lovelovelove their superheros.  Secunda's heart will always belong first to her daddy and second to Spiderman.  Tertia is Batman's moll.  Prima is way into princesses now so she's exercising her Flower Power at every opportunity.

My super-of-choice is Wonder Woman, natch.  I had the underooz, watched the divine Lynda Carter religulous-ly, and truly believed I'd grow into a 6-ft Amazon that.  Kicked.  Ass.  As that did not happen, I compromised with a boss tattoo.  And lots of daughters...  But I digress.

I lovelovelove sewing some fabric to a shirt and calling it good.  ALL of us were happy with this project!

Prima's dress is a yard of fabric sewn to her tank top.  It took maybe 25 minutes, start to finish.  I just gathered one side and zigzagged it to the knit tank.

I wish I'd cleaned the sticky off my camera.

The superhero dresses were slightly more involved.  I started from the bottom and worked my way up.  Gathered the sparkle ruffle and attached; gathered the superhero panels and zigzagged those to the elastic band.  Last, I attached the tank tops.  The fabric is from Joanns, elastic too.  The tanks are from The Dollar Store, and I think we cleaned them out. 

And here's the obligatory "She's holding me too TIGHT, Mom!" shot that I usually get first.

  The whole point of this is to show how easy it is to sew in straight lines for about an hour and make some sweet babies so very happy.  They wear these straight from the dryer and don't take them off until they have to go directly into the washer.  They get positive attention, are idealizing human qualities through pretend play, and sometimes only answer to their superhero names.

I'll take it over the Princess Pandering any day.

Seen here!

Vintage Fabric Orgasm

Because I am a normal girl, I accept tokens of affection.  In. Giant. Boxes.

This is a giant box of VINTAGE FABRIC.  I'm geeking out because the previous owner of this fabric died in 1974.   1.9.7.4.  I just about laid it all out and rolled in it naked.  The linens, oh my god, the linens.  I found these two complimenting fabrics, a retro pattern I scored someplace, and GOT TO WORK.

 It took me all day, what with the momming and such.  But I'm absolutely thrilled with the results.  I love it, I love how it feels on, I love the fabric.

The skirt is a true circle and it's ALL ONE PIECE.  Goes over like an apron, ties in the back (underneath) and i added the bows in the front.  It calls for snaps, but I wanted bows.

 It's just bias tape.  The bodice section is a little long for me, hence the flaps at the shoulders.  I cut the upper back on the bias for fun.

I'm a big girl and I love this pattern for ease and the ability to customize everything...  I'm literally shaking with anticipation to make more stuff for me and my loves...

So more fabric inappropriateness very soon!!

Fair does not mean equal. Part 1.

Why I let Prima wear makeup and her sisters can't...
Our eldest child is going to be 6 this September.  She's all girl: princesses, pink, fluffy, Disney-fied to a fare-thee-well. This was none of my doing.  I declared a moratorium on any "girly" colors for anything when she was born.  She played with trucks and Matchbox cars as often as she played with dolls.  I DID MY PART, HERE.

She also deals with some mental health issues.  Part of being brilliant can be some instability and we love who she is as much as we hate that she has to deal with it.  She has two younger sisters (twins Secunda and Tertia) that are the bane of her existence as well as her closest allies.

As Prima is the eldest, she gets all the fun stuff first and has the dubious distinction of being our Stunt Child.  Also, we have to really pick our battles.  One battle I refused to have when she was a teenager was cosmetics.  Why, with all the sexualization of young girls, am I allowing a typically "mature" privilege?

Because she is still listening to me.  If I want some influence in this milestone, I need to set the groundwork for rules, limits, and expectations around it.  I chose the colors, the types, the styles of makeup I'd accept.  I choose when and where she wears it.  She can paint herself up like a $2 hooker if she wants while we're at home.  

Because she is not being sexualized.  She dresses very conservatively and makes respectful and respectable choices around this.  Until she doesn't, she has the makeup privilege. 

She gets it out of her system.  By the time she's 12 and her friends are just discovering it, she'll be over it.  And no doubt on to something more terrifying for me :).  

Will I allow her sisters to behave the same way?  Absolutely not.  Because they are radically different children.  Because fair does not mean equal.

Diva-In-Training

So I made a cute little sundress for my eldest and naturally forgot to take any photos of the project.  It was a quick one, just an hour start to finish and very simple.  After I gave it to her (matched with shoes she already had) she looked up at me with those GIANT blue eyes and asked for a hat.

A matching hat.   And a giraffe.  Did I mention she's three?

OK then.  It will be the first photographed and documented project for the site so it's only fitting it's for one of the princesses.  

I know a little something about making hats (she said nervously) so this should be fun.  Plus the added bennie of teaching my little hippie-fashionista that you should MAKE the cool stuff you want, not buy it.

We'll see how it goes.  I have until Thursday to complete these two projects.  My loving partner is off Bringing Bacon and I'm flying solo.  And Elmo is on TV doing Riverdance.  

All is right with the world...