Sewing on skirts

A few weeks ago I made four bodies for my youngest in one batch. I used a pattern I had used before just two sizes larger. I felt confident enough to not first make one, I should have known better... While sewing I was surprised that the back of the body piece was not longer than the front. This had been the case with two sized smaller but I decided that the bigger size asked for a different snit. After finishing the neck line I felt the back was relatively low, but I assumed that I had not stretched my binding enough while sewing it on. It turned out that the body pattern I used had two different fronts and I had confused the back piece with the second front!

Okay after breathing in very deeply a few times I put one of the bodies on an existing one and saw that the total length should at least be enough for now. I was planning on making bodies that would be good for a few months but at least they would fit now. I started putting on snaps and was confronted with a next problem.

I made the bias extra thick because I felt that the snaps needed a bit more fabric between them. But I had become over enthusiastic apparently because the snaps did not wanted to stay on. After putting on around 15 snaps I was managed to make 8 snaps stick. When actually putting on a body I found out that the fabric I used for two was not as stretchy as I was used to, making the body hard to put on. You can probably imagine how I felt about the body adventure (and I did not even mention the fact that even later it turned out that the back of one of the bodies had a weave mistake which created two small holes)...

I managed to not throw them all out (although the 8 snaps that staid on came off again). After sharing my disaster project with my niece she suggested to just cut them to shirts. I light bulb went on in my head and I remembered something I pinned a while back.

The pin was about putting a skirt on a too small body. This is what I did to two of them that were made with stretchy (scrap) fabrics. My three year old now loves her new dresses, although they are a bit tight. I should put them in a box for a year for my youngest but I have not managed to do this because my three year old fishes them out of the clean laundry pile all the time while sorting it. In the pictures she wanted to show of her new "phone" she had just got and did not wanted to part from. It is still in her hand in the second picture but it is just outside the image.

I used my newly acquired trick of putting on a skirt to safe a friends daughters shirt. The friend wanted to donate the shirt (because it had become to shirt) to my daughter and mentioned her daughter loved the shirt. I decided to try the trick again and combined it with a skirt that was also on the "put away"pile.

Creative mending

As a mother of one boy and three girls (and being an academic) I know I can not statistically sound test if the behavior of my son is stereotypical boy (I would need at least 30 kids) but I do have a hunch that holes in trousers is more common with boys. I think my eldest daughter never had a whole on her knee and my son seems to have at least one per week! The pile of trousers that had to be mended was growing and the wearable was shrinking in a dangerous rate. Is it just me or is creating something new much better than mending something, even if mending takes less time? I seem to keep avoiding the mending-pile as long as possible.

I had not mended trousers yet, but I did pin a few nice patches already. I challenged myself to patch every trousers in a different way (not all got pictures). Both me and my son liked the results a lot, and I suspect him of purposely creating a hole in the other knee of green trousers a few days later because he wanted another monster (which he got ofcourse). My monster is not as pretty as many others on Pinterest, my main goal was quick mending (especially because I suspected the trousers knees to re-die quickly.). I have to say that the monster holds up surprisingly well, no new mending of that knee has been necessary for a few weeks (knocks on wood).

For those who do not recognise it immediately (I would be among those people) the purple "thing" is a squirrel. I clearly have to practise my embroidery skills, I suspect that my son will deliver enough practise material for me to quickly become a pro. Fortunately kids have a big imagination and a squirrel is a squirrel if mommy says so.

Another reoccurring cloth problem in our household (and I presume with most household with eating kids) is folds! My kids seem to love ruining especially new cloths with folds that do not wash out anymore. Last week I tried something new, I simply cut small harts out of transfer foil and ironed them on some black spots. Like with the trousers I think the shirt became even better.

Felting

Okay, I admit it, I am easily distracted and easily excited. Every time I see some new craft I kind a have to try it, and own all the things that are needed (I have a feeling more of you share this problem). A few weeks ago I came across felting crafts. I spend some time searching the web and found both needle felting (dry) and wet felting. The second type can be done in several ways, but the way that intrigued me the most was knitting wool and then wash it in a regular washing machine. I bought a small starting kit for needle felting and bought some felting wool.

The needle felting I used to spice up some crocheted ester eggs (this had been the original plan) but it was not as fun as I anticipated. I had read that you should not watch television at the same time while needle felting and this indeed seems a good idea. I of course tried it and hit my finger (a few times) with the needle. I also understand the appeal to watch tv at the same time because  the felting takes much more time than I anticipated. I did not fell in love with the craft.

I did use the material again a few weeks later when I bought my daughter a shirt of which I cut of a bow that I did not like. It turned out that the one that had sewn on the bow has not that great with the machine and had created hole while applying the bow (all shirts had the same bow so probably it was not put on to conceal the hole). I therefore ended up with a hole on her shoulder. I needle felted her initial on the place of the hole (I had seen on Pinterest that they directly needle felted on shirts to create an application). The T now perfectly conceals the hole, perfect.


The second felting project I tried was knitting myself a pair of slippers. It was a fun and quick project, I immediately bought a small package for a friend. If you have smooth floor like us (wood) then you will need to add some rubber patches on the soled of the feet to avoid slipping.