Robots Grrrr

There's been a lot of grrr going on here in the last week.
The regular grrr of a moody-growing-up-too-fast 4 year old (although he did enjoy our robot making session shown above).
The understandable grrr of a very, very sick little (almost) 10 month old with tonsillitis.
The (I like to think) quite understandable if somewhat sleep deprived grrr of a mamma who was tending to said sick little (almost) 10 month old through the worst of it (The longest 48 hours of my life. Even longer than the first 48 hours of her life I think. Or her brother's life for that matter.).
The inevitable grrr of mamma and dadda resigning themselves to handing the craft room/study back to the sick little (almost) 10 month old because it was the only way to enable at least some people in the house to get some sleep.
But with time, things are starting to get back to normal.
A is much better, sleeping much better, and smiling again.
C's moods do pass.
And we're planing to reclaim the craft and study space for ourselves later this week.

(Before the wheels fell off I managed to finish sewing C's Robot T, another scrap T I cut out for KCWC. The black and white stripe was pilfered from a friend's scrap bin- nearly enough for a T shirt front, with a scrap of red attached to the bottom. The robot print is another from the Kristen Doran craft panel.)

KCWC wrap-up

KCWC ends today, but as I started a day early I gave myself the day off, and instead we headed off for an outing with C sporting some of his brand new clothes.

Refashioned jeans received his tick of approval, as did the T shirt I made last night. I used some leftover remnants from other projects- some green T's I made for myself, and some navy blue summer sleeping sacks I made for C.
The patch on the front (identified by S as a BMW Isetta 600) came with the Clothkits corduroy car pants (still awaiting their turn with the sewing machine) along with some other patches including a Citroen DS. Saving that for a bigger T in the future. I played around with some of the hitherto unused stitches on my sewing machine (Yes, I've had it 20 years and there are stitches I've never used) to find one I liked as an edging to attach it to the front.

As well as the pants there is also another remnant T waiting to be sewn, and quite a few things left on the list. But overall, I have to say I'm pretty chuffed with the results of this KCWC. I really needed that little extra push (and encouragement from all the great feedback, both on-line and from C) to get on with it, and to make the most of any small sewing opportunities that arose during the week. I'm hoping I can maintain the sewing momentum in the coming weeks, although sewing will be competing with the needs of our laundry renovation- the final house renovation phase, finally starting after putting it off for three years (*gulp* Has it been that long? Really?).

KCWC day 4 & 5

Craft time has been a bit sqeezed here over the last few days, competing with the day to day household chores and gardening and napping for a chance to play.

Yesterday I felt too brain dead for sewing, but managed to knit a few more rounds on the Korrigan I'm knitting for A before I turned in for an early night. 

This morning, I managed to find an hour to finish off the pants remake. C now has a new narrower pair of jeans, with a more tapered leg. I tried to modify them to match another pair of pants (they were based on the same pattern) that he does like wearing, so fingers crossed these won't now "feel a bit funny around my legs" when he tries them on.

KCWC continued

So it's day three of KCWC, but no sewing today. There is a sleep deficit that is taking priority over sewing tonight. But I'm pretty pleased with what I achieved on days one and two.
Snatching sewing time here and there (A has had some decent daytime naps, although the hours of 4am to 6am are somewhat rocky right now) I've finished a little shirt for C and started altering a pair of denim pants that he doesn't like to wear (too baggy).
As Meg said on her blog yesterday, as kids get older and their clothes get more detailed, an hour of sewing a day can't achieve finished garments. So true! But I do find that having my dedicated craft space back, so I can leave projects and materials laid out, means I can sit down when ever a short snatch of time materialises and get on with a bit of pinning or sewing or pressing.
Or even seam ripping, recutting a collar, or stuffing up buttonholes if you're a bit sleep deprived.

Getting on with it...

24 hours of kid's clothes progress:

I cut out pants, a shirt and two T shirts for C, and decided to alter some existing pants in the hope he will then want to wear them.

I altered some old pants to work as shorts for him this summer (He's been wearing these pants in various forms for over 2 years just with alterations to the length).

I half sewed the red shirt, although in the process of merging two patterns (one simple, the other already traced out in the right size) I took a wrong turn in the collar construction and am experiencing a "make it work" moment.

And in a burst of "I want to make lots of stuff" I bought some fabric for Summer pj pants for both kids too. Although I know those won't be getting done this week.

What's more, not content with jumping on the KCWC bandwagon, I've just signed up for Leslie's inspired Handprinted Fabric Swap, and am planning some robot building sessions with C with a view to joining the Build a Robot Exhibition being organised by lilla a.
(Of course I have to blog about it with links so that I can find the details when I remember with a jolt and panic that I've missed a deadline...)

KCWC October 2011

A little while back I was blog cruising and happened to notice that Elsie Marley's Kids Clothing Week Challenge was happening again (Fall for Northern Hemispherians, but Spring for me) and I immediately signed up knowing that both kids would be needing new things for the coming warm weather. Then I promptly forgot all about it, and remembered with a start last week. Phew, I didn't miss it. So I'm jumping on board and use the extra encouragement of a myriad of people around the globe to spur me on to some kids clothes making.
Today I started by writing down a rough list of things that will be needed, and followed it up with a rummage in through my Japanese pattern books, pattern folders, and fabric stash, trying to ask C which he liked and which he didn't (have my doubts about whether any of his responses were actual representations of real opinions on his part), and to measure him up. There are many possibilities, and we'll see what I actually manage to achieve...

On our table

First up welcome and thanks for dropping in if you're visiting from Whip up. If you're not, head on over there to see the patchwork placemats that I wrote about for a guest post there. It's a real honour to be part of the current series of guest posts that Kathreen has gathered together- there are some wonderfully inspiring posts from some bloggers I already follow, and some that I'm adding to my Google Reader list.

After finishing the placemats, I had a small pile of spotty fabric strips left over, which I wanted to incorporate into some patchwork napkins. Something to add to our dinner rituals, and so that I'm not pulling out paper serviettes when we have visitors. Something similarly cohesive but not matchy-matchy, using up the placemat scraps and remaining spotty fabrics in my stash.

I checked out a few of the napkins over at Purl Bee (Molly clearly has a larger linen cupboard than I do) and liked the idea of double sided napkins, thereby avoiding tedious hemming and enabling patchwork to be incorporated. I pieced the napkins with one wide single piece of spotted fabric, a narrow pieced strip (5cm wide) and a wider pieced strip (12cm wide) to create a 42cm square, which I backed with a nice quality polycotton salvaged from some old sheets.

The pieced strips were created a bit less randomly than for the napkins. I used only the lighter toned spotty fabrics, and roughly assembled the strips as I cut pieces, so that I wasn't cutting more than necessary (again) and to make the most of what remained of some of my favourite prints. After sewing all the strips, I laid them all out, swapping pieces until I was satisfied that they all worked in a randomly balanced way (if there is such a thing).

I made a set of 8, as with the placemats. So far they're working well- the first meal C knew to place it on his lap, just like Grannie does at her house, and now he can wipe his face himself after the meal. Now I just need to make sure I'm doing the same. And figure out where to store them between meals.

growing season

I have to say I think our garden is doing remarkably well given it has had over a year of complete and utter neglect. Sure, the lawn got mowed once or twice, and there was a bit of pruning here and there, but really we've done nothing to it.

But spring has hit, inspiration (and rain this week) abounds (including this great post recently at Whip Up, and beautiful heirloom tomato portraits at Daybook) Seeds and live plants have arrived, toilet roll pots have been sown (Tigerella Tomatoes), weeds are being dealt with and mulch & manure are gradually being dug in. We want to get our veggie patch back up and running, and increase the productivity of our front garden too.
 
Starting with what's here already, the strawberries have been replanted and I'm making the most of the self sown seedlings that are emerging in the patch. They're being transplanted as we progressively dig in manure, interspersed with new seeds.
Our blueberry twigs are now in the ground, along with a bag of chook manure, and sprouting their first leaves (I'm planning to knock of the flowers this year & next year to let them get established before we harvest fruit. ...Hope we can follow through on this plan).

I'm planning to get an Aztec combo of corn, pumpkins and beans (Lazy Housewife, because it sounds like it fits my gardening approach perfectly) started this week. Probably should have started the corn last month but better late than never.
We need to get our bird proof (hopefully possum, rat and cat proof) netting sorted quickly, and get more things into the ground, but it feels like we're getting off to a good start this growing season.