Today's Random Tidbits - 5

Monday was AWFUL. I had the stomach flu, and I thought that death might be my best option. It was the kind of bug where movement of any kind makes you positive that you are going to throw up again. Since you already know exactly how awful that would be, you just do your best not to move. Luckily for me, I have a wonderful grandmother who came over to play with my baby and also did my dishes. I know that she feels like she didn't do anything, but I'm pretty sure that she saved my life. She also brought me flowers:


I feel MUCH better now. Possibly the best I've felt in over a month. Now I just need a nap...

Lily Ruth and I ventured up to New Braunfels to see a good friend. It's only 30 minutes away, yet we never seem to make it up there. Before I had a baby, I went up to New Braunfels once a week in the summer to go tubing down the Comal River. *sigh* It has now been close to two years since I've plopped my butt into a tube and floated my cares away. Maybe next year Miss Lily will be old enough for a life vest and her own tube.

The friend that we went to visit always makes me want to be a better grown up. She has a great house (old, comfy, furnished, painted...), a garden, and always serves beautiful food that looks effortless. We had quiche for lunch. It has not occurred to me to make a quiche in AGES, yet I love quiche. I feel calm and more like myself when I'm around her. She is one of the first friends that I made that I wanted to model myself after. Twenty years later, that still holds true. She also sent me home with herbs that we clipped from her plants as we walked out the door:


There's Rosemary, Thyme, Lavender, Thai Basil, regualr Basil and Chives :-) She also gave me eggs fresh from her chickens:


That's not a trick of the light, they really are beige and pale aqua! My Mama tells me that you know what color eggs a chicken will lay by the color of their 'ears' (the membrane over their ear openings).

Lily Ruth is starting to figure out crayons! She is obsessed with pens and markers, but is just as happy to walk around holding them and running them through her hair while their lids are on. This was the first time she focused long enough to put anything to paper:



I know - toooooo cute!

Oh, I mailed my Dress Up Skirts off to Samster Mommy! I managed to include a rambling hand written letter that will surely convince her that I am crazy. Good Times.

I think that's all for now. It should come as no surprise that I have forgotten anything else that i intended to add. I really do need that nap.

Dress Up Skirts (Batch Two)

Ya'll, I did it! I made 4 more skirts in time to donate them to Samster Mommy's Tutu Drive!

I learned a lot the first time around. Also, I read another tutorial about little girl dress up skirts, and realized that there was a MUCH easier way to deal with slippery fabrics. I had been fighting with them in a single layer. Naively sliding fabric along my cutting mat and attempting to wrestle it into submission and straight lines as it slid off onto the floor. Well, if you fold and pin it:


your life will be so much easier. Mine was :-)

I decided to make 4 skirts in 4 different sizes. I even made tags for them so that I could tell them apart:


I wrote 'you are loved' on each tag. Have ya'll heard about The Hidden Messages in Water?

This go-round was much faster. I managed to completely finish 2 of them and get the other two to (tutu - heehee!) the 'layers assembled, time to iron down the casing' phase in less than 3 hours. I finished up the last 2 in about 30 to 45 minutes yesterday.


What's that? You want to see close-ups of the trim? Okey dokey:


Oh, and remember how I felt like Lily Ruth's skirts were too long for her tiny body? Well I made adjustments this time. These two skirts have the same length of fabric and the same length of elastic. The only difference is the height of the fabric layers.


Live and learn, right? I'll know for next time... and there WILL be a next time. I have black and orange for a Halloween skirt, and aqua for gift skirts. If you want one, you should let me know :-P

All that's left to do is to mail them off tomorrow! So excited!

Dress Up Skirts (Batch One)

Alright. Show of hands - who knew that I was going to have trouble sleeping last night because I had not yet finished my skirt? Darn you obsessive-compulsive tendencies!

Before retiring for the night I had affixed all of the trim, completed each layer and pinned all 4 of the layers together. As I hung out in bed, my mind began turning a bazillion miles a minute, and I mentally made some adjustments. I decided that 4 layers of fabric was too much for a tiny skirt. I decided to take off the bottom (aqua) layer. Then I decided to use the aqua layer in another skirt. Then I had to decide what fabric to use with it. I decided on the white embroidered organza. Then I had to decide how to trim it since I had used the finished edge of the fabric already. I thought that there might be a coordinating ribbon in my sewing box, but I wasn't sure. It was REALLY hard not to get out of bed to check. It was AGES before my brain shut off!

Anywhooo - here are a few things that I learned while making this first batch of skirts:

- Slick fabrics SUCK. They are almost impossible (for me) to cut evenly. I ended up using my cutting mat & rotary cutter for most of it, and it was still really hard.
- This craft is very forgiving. Uneven edges blend into the 'fluffiness' of the skirt. This is good, since my edges were pathetically ragged.
- These skirts are fairly heavy as baby clothing goes. I used Lily Ruth's waist measurement, but due to their weight, these sit under her baby belly like she's a fat guy with an overhang instead of a stick-thin baby girl.
- The chart given lists 9" as the fabric height for Lily Ruth's size. This is too long. It looks cute, but is unwieldy - especially since it sits so low on her 'hips'. On the plus side, they will fit her for longer. It will be very easy to put larger elastic into the waist band.

Enough Lead-in. Here are the AWESOME finished products!!!


and individually:



and a close-up of the trim on the purple one (because it's so pretty):


and my model (who thought this was pretty funny!):


The verdict? I love these. I will definitely be making more to donate and for friends! I need to find a good source for trim. It took almost 2 yards of trim for each layer on a tiny skirt! Oh well - it was worth it :-)

Dress Up Skirt Preview!

Let me just begin by saying (again) that I LOVE SAMSTER MOMMY! I went out today and bought (way too much) stuff to make THIS skirt.

My plan is to make one for Lily Ruth first to hone my technique. Then I plan to make one for Samster Mommy's Tutu Drive... and two more after that (look out Maddie & Lola!)

I have to share pictures of the fabric that I bought for these! Please keep in mind that the light is very weird today, and my dining room is poorly lit - the colors are MUCH more vibrant than the pictures show! When completed, each skirt will have 4 tiers. Each layer will be trimmed with the baubles pictured.



Keep you fingers crossed that these fabrics will be as gloriously mis-matched as I am hoping. My thought is that they will blend in a weird way once layered and finished out...

This will be my first experience working with slippery fabric, and my first time to mail off something that I made with my own hands. I am giddy with nerves and excitement! Giddy Up!