Two!

Baby girl was due in May, but she decided she wanted to be an April baby and came three weeks early.  As soon as she was born, she cried out to let the world know she was here, and then she started rooting around for food.  Two years later, she is proving to be just as feisty as ever.  She knows what she wants and has no problem letting us know, too.  She wants to do everything her brother does and loves to play with him in his room.  At one point, he drew a sign that said “no babies” to keep her out, but the next day he took it down, and she was back playing in his room.  I figure she must have charmed her way back in somehow.  And, oh, how she can charm you.  I mean, who could resist that face?

 
We didn’t have a party for her birthday, but since I made her a dress last year, I thought it’d be fun to make one for her second birthday.  She wore it for all of 30 minutes, but it was cute while she was wearing it.

 

More hopeful sewing..

We’ve had rain and stormy weather here lately, so I’m continuing my hopeful sewing series by sharing this little butterfly dress.  I made it a couple of weeks ago, so the baby girl could wear it to the butterfly exhibit.  (I actually got this butterfly fabric last year in hopes of making a dress for last year’s butterfly exhibit.  Hey, I’m only a year behind!)

Hopeful sewing...

As in hopeful that the weather will get warmer soon.  If you sew it, summer will come, right? 

We were recently teased with really warm weather, in the 80s, and when I pulled the kids’ summer hats out, I realized they’d gotten a tad too small.  So, I set out to remedy that.  I was determined to make the kids new summer hats.  Sure, I could have run out to Target and gotten them some hats for $10 each.  But it’s the principle.  I wanted to make them.

I wanted to try the bucket hat pattern from the Little Things to Sew book.  I had an idea in my mind of what fabrics I wanted to use, so we (my two little helpers and I) headed out to Joann Fabrics for a little fabric shopping.  I found two linen blend fabrics that fit the bill of what I wanted for one side of the hat.  Since the hat is supposed to be reversible, I browsed the store for something that I thought would work for the other side.  I normally spend a lot of time deciding on fabric.  Once I’ve picked something out, I start to second guess myself, so then I spend a lot of time in the fabric store, wandering the aisles and putting things side by side to see if they would work together.  But having my two little helpers helped to speed the process along, because they don’t always tolerate extensive browsing.  I did second guess the fabric choices, but by then, the fabric had already been cut and paid for and we were out of the store.  And because my two little helpers were so helpful and patient, they each got a $1 toy from the bins near the checkout line.  Of course, the $1 items were immediately wrecked and torn apart before we got home, but oh well.  That’s why they are only $1, I guess.

Even though the fabric purchase was slightly rushed, I really like the way the fabrics turned out on the hats.

This is the two sides of the boy hat.  I did a neutral linen-type fabric for one side, and for the other I tried to find something boyish but a little more interesting.  I wasn't sure how the stripes would sew up, but it turned out really nicely, I think.  I like the brown side a lot, and the little guy likes the blue side.

And the two sides of the girl hat.  I picked out the embroidered fabric totally on a whim, and I really like the way it looks as a hat.