Kid's Clothes Sewing Week Wrap Up {Fall 2014}

                                                      

                                      

This last week was Kid's Clothes Sewing week again. I skipped the summer one because we were just too busy that week. This week, I had a bunch of sewing projects I needed to work on anyway, so I decided this would be great motivation to finish some of it. I did get in my hour a day of sewing each day (even the day Rod worked until midnight!). I didn't, however, get pictures of anything until today.
My first project was Morgan's witch skirt for her Halloween costume. I told the kids I wasn't doing much sewing for Halloween this year, so they cobbled together costumes from previous years and the dress up box. Morgan had seen a costume in a catalog she really liked though, so when I was in Joann's picking up a few other things, I couldn't resist this orange cobweb fabric.

The next two things I made were for Morgan also. It finally got cold here and I realized that most of Morgan's pants were way too short. I made her two pairs of Parsley Pants out of baby wale corduroy. I made a size 7 for her, but I added several inches of extra length including enough to make a small cuff that we can roll down as she grows. I'm hoping they'll last through the winter that way.

Then I started in on baby things. I don't need much for this baby, but a few long sleeved items were on my list. I didn't save much from Morgan and Brenna was born in May and didn't need many warm items. These little dresses are made from side snap t-shirts. I love side snap T's for little babies, but they are kind of boring so I dressed them up a little.

For this little dress I used one of my most often used patterns, the Miss Violet pattern by The Handmade Dress. I've never actually made this pattern according to the directions, not even once. I use it as a base pattern for all sorts of little smock type dresses. This time I used a soft cotton lawn. I extended the sleeves to be long, cut it down the front and added button plackets, and bound the neck edge instead of using elastic. I also pleated the front instead of gathering it.

The next little dress I made was from a  French pattern. I love Citronille patterns! If I had unlimited funds, I'd probably have all of them. I used the Rose pattern for this dress. I made a few changes here too. I extended the length to a dress instead of a tunic and I closed up the back instead of leaving it open.

I ended up with SEVEN finished projects! Which I think is pretty good seeing as most days I only got in the minimum hour of sewing time. Most of the projects were pretty simple, but I'm still giving myself a thumbs up. Now If I just do two more weeks of this, I should be mostly caught up with the amount of sewing I want to get done.





 

Baby Kimono

 I've still been working on baby things. This time it's a sewing project though. This little kimono is from a vintage pattern I found at Goodwill. I found this adorable Japanese double gauze fabric at one of my favorite fabric stores, Fabric Worm. They only had a half yard left, so I grabbed it for baby clothes. I got lazy and bought the bias tape instead of making my own. This fabric is so soft, I'd love to make all of baby's clothes out of it. The adorable little penguins were just too much to resist too. I started this project before we found out baby was most likely a girl. I think it's a perfect gender neutral pattern. My babies tend toward jaundice and extremely pale skin and don't look too great in the typical gender neutral yellow.

Penguin close up

Updates {Sept 1, 2014}

A little over a week ago, I finally decided to take anti-nausea medication for my morning(noon and night) sickness. A week later, my insurance company found a version of the medication that they felt they could pay for. So, Friday, I finally started taking it. I have to take 2 pills a day instead of one, since the insurance company felt that the one pill was newer and more expensive than they wanted to pay for, but it seems to be working! I'm now only nauseous and sensitive to smells, not so sick I can barely move. The drawback is that the medication makes me tired, really tired. I could up the dose and possibly not feel sick at all, but I might be too sleepy to function at that point, so I think I've hit an even medium right now. The good news is that just as I suspected, my blood pressure has been going down now that I'm able to eat and drink normally (or somewhat normally). Which is the reason I decided to try the medication after all. At the doctor's office I was in the hypertensive range. Since I started the medication, my blood pressure has been steadily dropping to point where I'm actually in normal range today.

So anyway, the blog posts should pick up a little now that I'm not feeling quite so sick. I've still been managing to get some projects done. I finished converting some jeans to maternity, I finished a hat for Baby Carlitos, and I've been busy gearing up for our new school year. Pictures will be coming soon. I originally planned to start school tomorrow, the day after Labor Day, but Owen has an appointment in Seattle on Wednesday, so I decided that doing one day of school and then taking a day off didn't make any sense. We'll start on Thursday instead. This week I have a movie and some fun projects planned, then we'll get into the real work next week.

Wednesday's appointment will be a big one for Owen. We have another EEG that should tell us if his recent medication change is working to control the ESES. We've made several diet changes so far that haven't changed it at all. I'm hoping the Onfi increase will have made a difference. If not he will be starting an intensive drug regimen that has the potential for a lot of pretty severe side effects. I'm holding off on planning Owen's Kindergarten routine until we get the results of the EEG and set up his next treatment plan since some of the things I had planned to do this year may not be possible for him if we do the new drug treatment. Anyway, we'll have more of an idea what's going on with that after Wednesday.

Photo Shoot!

Devon had a photo shoot with my three little ones today. Morgan wanted to wear her dress from Kristi and Simon's wedding two years ago. It still fits since I made it a size big and she only grows up. Owen barely fit into his pants, you can see how short they are. the shirt and vest weren't too bad though. The big surprise though was Brenna!

This is Brenna's dress from Kristi's wedding when Brenna was only a month old. I made the 0-3 month size which is supposed to fit 8-12 pounds. Obviously it's way too short now, but it still zips up!
This kids eats like an elephant and is still just tiny.

Brenna's pregnant belly pose.

Finished Projects! {For Me This Time}

I'm just out of the first trimester now and let's just say that some of my clothes are getting a bit tight. I went through all the boxes in the garage and couldn't find any maternity clothes. It seems that we were convinced enough that Brenna was going to be our last child that I gave all my maternity things away. So, I went through my fabric and pattern stash and headed to the fabric store for a few more things and started sewing. Today, I finally finished this maternity top and a skirt. I used Simplicity 1359A for the top. This is only a maternity top, not nursing too, but the pattern was on sale for $1.99 and the fabric was 50% off, so I didn't mind spending the money on it. It went together really easily and the finished result fits perfectly. I plan to make a couple more of these.

A few years ago, I bought a really great skirt from Old Navy. it wasn't a maternity skirt, but it had a fold down, yoga type waistband and worked great through maternity and postpartum. I decided I really needed another one or two of them ( I don't want to buy Summer maternity clothes to wear for only another month or so, but skirts are great year round). Old Navy doesn't seem to have them anymore although I found a similar skirt in maxi version at Target, so I copied it and made my own.

The skirt is actually black and not all spotted, but I didn't get pictures until after dark, so crappy lighting

I absolutely love this since I can wear it during all stages of pregnancy as well as postpartum. I think I want a couple more in different colors since all three I have right now are black. My original skirt was a lightweight knit jersey, but I made my copy out of a cotton lycra blend since it's a little more substantial and should stretch even more.
I'm still fighting the first maternity/nursing top I started. I think I'll have a wearable top in a another  day or two, but I'm still trying to figure out the best way to adjust it since I originally wanted to make a few more.
Next, I'm working on adapting some jeans since I hate paying $35 -50 for ugly, itchy maternity jeans.

Updates {8/6/14}

So, you might have noticed that the blog is a little quiet lately. That's because I have had extreme morning (noon and night) sickness with this pregnancy. It never seems to let up at all. I've even woken up sick in the middle of the night. I don't really like to be a complainer, so I've been not really saying anything at all. That, plus the fact that by the time I get uninterrupted computer time after the kids go to bed, I'm too wiped out to want to blog.

I managed to rally up some energy a couple of days ago and took the little kids to the splash park. Our unusual stretch of actual Summer weather is still holding strong and I decided that cooling off a bit would be good for all of us. I, being me, planned our trip for the coolest day in weeks so far, but it was still warmer than typical for around here. Brenna refused to go near the water and instead cuddled on our blanket with a towel.

She had plenty of fun on the regular playground equipment though. We've been busy around here implementing our new chore routine and doing some extra pre-school year cleaning and organizing. I've gotten our curriculum choices decided and have started making purchases. It's so much fun to see my kids all excited about new school materials! They've had to play with several of them already.

I've been working on sewing some maternity clothes since it seems I gave everything away after Brenna's birth. I bought a particular pattern for maternity/nursing tops that I had high hopes for. I hate putting a lot of time and money into maternity clothes that are only going to be worn for a few months. Nursing clothes get worn a lot longer so I don't mind putting more into them, but I'm having a horrible time fitting it. I've finally decided it's a pattern flaw and not my fault, now I'm just trying to see how to fix it. What it means though is that after a week of working on it, I still don't have a finished object to show. I started some baby knitting too, but then it got hot and I haven't felt like knitting. So, I have a finished sweater missing buttons and ONE matching bootie. Yep, only one. So, no pictures there either.

I've also been spending an inordinate amount of time on the phone with our new insurance company trying to get Owen's prescriptions approved. See, they have a system. If a drug isn't on their "magic" list, the doctor has to fill out a bunch of extra paperwork explaining why Owen needs it. In our case with one of the disputed drugs, he has to have the brand name instead of the generic because the generic has too many carbohydrates to be acceptable on the ketogenic diet and the other is too new to have a generic version. Once the insurance company gets the paperwork from the doctor, they have to review it to see if we really need it. This review process takes up to 14 business days. That's 14 business days that Owen can't start on the medication his doctor wants him to have. Then there's an extra blip. If the Owen is already on the medication and the doctor changes his dose, we still have to fill out all the approval paperwork and wait the 14 business days, but they also won't approve payment if they've already filled a prescription for that same drug that month until the normal renewal time without the doctor calling the insurance company (I can't call, only the doctor can) and getting an override. So, it goes like this. We refill Owen's Onfi prescription on the 12th. The doctor looks at his EEG results on the 22nd and decided that we need to increase his prescription. The insurance company won't give us the increase until the 10th of the following month if we get all the approval paperwork filled out and they decide that he really needs the medication that he's already been on for almost 2 years. If he needs the increase sooner than that the doctor has to waste time on the phone and try to get an override to start the increase right away, but that's still subject to the 14 day approval process.  Make sense yet? Not to me either. So, I've spent several hours on the phone threatening the insurance company with a child endangerment suit and asking them if they'd prefer to have him admitted on an inpatient basis to get his medication while they, not our doctor decide if he really needs it.
After several phone calls, we now have a new plan. When our doctor decides Owen needs a new drug or an increase to an existing drug, I call the insurance company and they approve it immediately. I think that will work out much better for us.

All Day!!!

It took me all day to replace the elastic/velcro strap on Owen's Tiny Superhero cape with a nice soft ribbon, so hopefully he'll wear it more ( he loves his cape, but complains about the velcro itching), and to make a set of wristbands for his upcoming Superhero Photo Shoot. Seriously, ALL DAY! Not because it was a difficult sewing project, it actually couldn't have been much simpler. It just took me that long because of all the interruptions. I think I need my big kids back! It's been just me and the 4 youngest all week. Luckily, Devon comes back tomorrow!! Not until late, but the little kids can't wait to see her again. Connor and Cameron won't be back until Saturday afternoon, then everyone will finally be home until Owen's next hospital visit the 22nd.

More Sewing!

In addition to using cloth diapers, we also use cloth wipes. When I was pregnant with Devon, I scored on a whole bunch of baby washcloths that were 75% off and then 50% off of the lowest marked price. Then I got a 10% employee friends and family discount. It made them about 10 cents apiece. By the time they'd been through the first three kids, they were pretty worn out. So, when Cameron potty trained, I threw them all out. We weren't planning on having anymore kids at that point.

When I was pregnant with Duncan, I took up diaper sewing. I really wanted some of the cute fitted and all in one diapers, but the price was more than I could deal with spending for something that was just going to get pooped on. Around this time diaper fabric became more readily available, so I started making my own. I had a lot of scraps, so I started using them to make wipes. I've added a few more here and there with each additional kid, but recently ours were getting pretty ratty looking again.

I finally got around to going through my flannel scraps and got some more made up this week. My favorite wipes are one layer of flannel and one layer of sherpa or cotton/hemp fleece (not polyester polar fleece, more like sweatshirt fabric). The flannel is all scraps from other sewing projects or occasionally a cute remnant I can't resist. Now I can throw out all the icky old ones!

Sunny Days!

Front view

We've had some sunny days lately and that means the kids need shorts! Thankfully Oliver + S released their free Sunny Days Shorts pattern just in time to save me from digging through my rather extensive pattern collection to find short patterns in 4 sizes.

Back view over a cloth diaper

The Sunny Days pattern covers all sizes from Brenna up through Duncan (actually Cameron could probably fit in the 12 since they're shorts) in two easy downloads. What I love about downloadable patterns is that I just print out a new pattern each time I need a different size. I don't have to buy a whole new pattern or trace off a pattern. I HATE tracing off patterns. What I don't like about downloadable patterns is taping all the numerous pieces together, but these are shorts, so there aren't very many pieces.

Brenna had lots of fun modeling for me!

Brenna's shorts were made according to the pattern except that I used up all my scraps of the zebra fabric by colorblocking them. I didn't have enough of any one print left, but I think they actually look cuter this way.

I added pockets and lots of top stitching to Owen's shorts. I also pieced the waistband because I didn't have enough fabric left to make it in one piece. I bought this fabric from an outlet so many years ago that I used it to make overalls for Connor back when he was barely walking. I've used it for a few projects since then and had this little square piece left. With some very careful cutting (not according to the pattern), I managed to get this pair of shorts with just enough left over to make pockets. I just winged the pockets. I guess they worked out since Owen is thrilled with them.

See! Pockets!! He told me he can put money in them now.

I still need to get some done for Morgan and Duncan. Then everyone could use a few more pairs, but we'll see on that one. One pair each to start with.

Front view (see Owen's "extra" belly button?)

Back view

@oliverands #SunnyDayShorts