My boy, the pirate

Hallowen came and went this year. It was almost even a blur to me. I procrastinated making Luke's costume, mainly due to the disinterest I have had in sewing lately, but also because I have been very busy. I stayed up way too late the night before, and worked on it up until 10 minutes before we were to leave for stop # 1, 3Form, Tom's  work.

He was the perfect pirate, aside from the fact he was terrified of every other costume out there. He demanded to be held while traveling from office space to office space, not quite how we pictured it. But he mellowed out after he met up with his girlfriend Dotty, the lamb, or bunny, and they had a terrific time playing together. I think Luke might have even forgot it was halloween.

Stop # 2 was down to Orem for a "trunk or treat" extravaganza. Nothing can compete with trick or treating up and down the streets of Brooklyn lined in brownstones, but I have to say, this block knows how to throw a party. There was not a brownstone in sight but there were cars back to back with trunks open and filled with happy costumers and lots of candy. And if that wasn't enough, the end of the street offered music, dancing, and hot apple cider. Luke had a bawl, and so did I.

For Luke's costume, I wasn't impressed with the patterns available, so I improvised a little. For the pants, I did find a pattern for little girls knickers, McCall's # M5457, and used brown cordoroy. For the shirt and vest, I traced one of Luke's dress shirts, and played around with it until it looked piratey, using elastic thread for the hem, adding a collar, and of course, the deep vee. The vest was just a version of the shirt without sleeves, black twill,  and lined in red to to tie in the tights.

A Makie dress x4

 

 A good friend of mine recently had a baby girl. I always stew over what to make my friends when they bring a new bundle into the world, and it is never an easy process. This one was no exception. I debated between vintage patterns, new patterns, my own patterns, and I settled on a simple dress pattern in this Makie book.

And then I remembered that this is what the pattern looks like, not to mention all of the instructions are in Japanese.

All in all the pattern is simple, and the illustrations and beautiful pictures certainly help guide even the beginner sewer. Because I can't read the pattern I'm not sure if the dress is meant to be reversible or worn four different ways but I knew that I wanted my end result to be just that, a dress that could be worn over and over. 

Denim for the fall

And a print for the spring

Fabric necklaces

I've finally figured out what to do with all of the scraps of fabric I have laying around.
Perfect with a white tee and oh so summery.

Wrap skirt #1

This might just be one of my favorite things I've ever made. I know I
say that every time, but I really really love how this one turned out.
So much in fact that I had a real internal debate about selling it, and
I'm am headed back to the fabric store today to a) buy more fabric to
make myself one and b) put another one in the shop.

The fabric is still very summery, hey we still have a month and a half
of it yet, and is a pin stripe sort of robin egg blue. Pair it with a
white tee and red shoes, and you have a perfect fourth of July outfit for next
year! I feel pretty confident high waisted stuff will still be
lingering for at least another year, so no worries there.

I also just ordered some solid blue chambray which should be here early
next week. My goal is to get another wrap skirt up by Wednesday, so
check back if you are interested.

Unrelated but very much on my mind this morning, did anyone see Andrew Bird play last night? He is seriously amazing, and to me very inspiring. How have I not known for the past couple of years that he was the one playing the violin? I can't as much talk and play the violin at the same time let alone sing. I want to be him when I grow up, really.

Weekend Quilting

Cramming cramming. That's what I've been up to. With a list of to-do's piling up and the impending return to Banana Republic in a week, I stayed up all too late this weekend sewing up two baby quilts that have been collecting dust for way too long.

The first, a baby quilt for a dear dear friend I haven't seen in about 7 years. We were pretty close in college, but the distance between Seattle and New York was too great for anything but emails, Christmas gifts, and yes baby gifts. With a boy due any day, I thought a western quilt with a polka dot backing would be perfect for the little guy. This was my first attempt at starting and finishing a quilt in a 24 hour period, with help from You Tube tutorials and a beginning quilt book I picked up over a year ago I was able to start it Friday afternoon and send it off Saturday morning.

And for Saturday and Sunday, I finally got around to quilting and binding this quilt. After many many great suggestions from friends and fellow bloggers, I finally decided on the cherry blossom polka dot from Amy Butler for the backing, and a orange from the kona solid fabric line for the binding. I really love how it turned out and hope it will add just the perfect touch to Luke's almost finished new room.

And as for the rest of the week, it will be spent cramming in as much play time with Luke as possible, finishing up my recipe book (this one has been "in process" for 2 years), making iphoto books for the last three years, sewing up a few wrap skirts for the shop, and hopefully getting some much needed catch up rest.

Oh, the car. yes, it was an accident. It was late, dark, and we backed right down into the ditch apparently not realizing the road took a sharp turn, well I realized, Tom didn't. We got it out the next day with a tow truck. Really though, what good are SUV's if you can't go off roading in them?