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Now where's the baby?
Oh, there she is! We're so excited to meet her...
Thanks to Aunt Hannah for the fun Kenyan fabric! And to Samara for the photography work. And to ilo for excellent help modeling the dress.
Samara's dress was a pattern from this book and the baby swaddler was a pattern from this book and the hair deal was pulled together with the scraps from the floor after those two projects...I loved working with this large medallion motif!
I've made a few of these dolls over the past month or so--they're such an easy and satisfying project! We've given most of them away to friends, so now we can share here!
I started with a pair of dolls for Samara and her cousin Adelaide--I bought two pillowcases at a flea market and made two dresses, a bag for my sister Bethany and two matching dolls. Now that was a well-spent $1!
We sent Adelaide's to her for her birthday, after we took these pictures...
And the rest have been given away to friends we love, just because we love them! And probably because I won't be whipping out tons of handmade gifts this Christmas...I figured I might as well go ahead while I have the time and energy and inspiration. And boy, do we have some inspiring and sweet little friends around here!
And now they've got a pack of dolls to play with.
Free afternoons don't come around these days too often. The school week is full of so many fun things, and then so are the weekends...
I've been sad to lose unstructured time with the boys, so I had such fun last weekend when we were all home with nothing to do, and they started in on a project. I so love to encourage people to be creative--and no one more than my boys!
Phin wanted to knit a hat for the baby. So, despite all my reservations (left-handed knitting, anyone?!), I set him up. And he's rolling along! He seems to get it, and has made quite a bit of progress. He's knitting a rectangle, which I am somehow planning on turning into a hat/bonnet when he's finished.
Asa's Classic Readers Book Club at school needed a project for the first meeting and so I ordered some chalkboard fabric (which I've been considering for ages) and sewed little pieces onto a tote bag for each kid, like this:
The chalkboard fabric hadn't been in the house for more than 24 hours before Asa started in on it--I wanted to, too---can you imagine all the fun projects you could do? There are all kinds of ideas all over the blogosphere, but Asa didn't need any outside inspiration...
I love that he had to use the seam ripper. Felt like he's one of my own--I do this all the time. :)
I asked him what he wanted me to write on his shirt and that's what he said...
Complete with a pocket for chalk...
and a pocket for a little rag, attached with a ribbon.
His first project was actually this one:
Complete with a chalkboard-fabric-covered notebook in a pocket, the rag, the pocket along the bottom for chalk, and the side pocket for a chalkboard marker. What was amazing about these projects was that he sewed them entirely by himself. Which means that I let him use my sewing machine without me even being in the room. Yikes! We went over the safety rules and then I don't remember what I was doing, but I wasn't there while this was being made.
I can't even imagine what I'd have done with chalkboard fabric as a kid. Makes me want to say something about how "they didn't have stuff like that when I was a kid..."
Samara and I decided to paint our toenails, but the boys just didn't want to spend nap time in their rooms...so we invited them to join us. It worked out very well for both of us--Asa painted Samara's toes in her rainbow of colors, and Phin John painted mine a lovely shade of blue.
Nothing like the last two weeks of pregnancy, eh? I was so grateful that I didn't have to bend over that I don't even mind the fact that both my feet got painted, too...w
What lovely boys we've got around here!
...for the new little one that will be coming so soon.
We've turned the playroom into a diaphanous baby room full of white and light--and all the bird items we could collect around the house...
...and a little pair of winter "boots" for her to wear.
Boot pattern from here.
How many is too many pictures of Samara?
You're about to find out!
I made this outfit for her the other day, and had such fun doing it. I woke up with this idea in my head a couple Sundays ago--I was totally inspired-- and I managed to make the whole thing that day...which required letting the kids build the biggest fort you've ever seen in the living room. But, oh! what fun it is to have such a little "doll" to dress up, and to have the scraps lying around to make this kind of thing in the spur of the moment.
It all started with the headband, which was inspired by the last one, using an old pillowcase I'd saved with butterflies on it. I totally love this--I've actually worn it myself a couple times since I made it.
The outfit that followed was from the book Carefree Clothes for Girls. It is completely inspiring--everything in it is dreamy and romantic and neutral. I'm always making Samara colorful clothes, but this is by far my favorite. I wish I could remember that kids look great in neutrals! Their details (i.e. tongues sticking out) totally "pop" when you're not distracted by florals, eh?!
The skirt is scrap muslin, the top is scrap linen, and the collar is a doily I repurposed. Can you believe I had one in my stash that had butterflies on it? Amazing. (Thanks, Beth!)
As you could tell, the modeling wasn't going very well until Phin started telling jokes...
and then Samara really got into it...
...and I just couldn't stop taking pictures. They're so charming to me, these two. They're great friends and they just get so interesting in front of the camera. And I'm so in love with them both that I couldn't pick just one picture. What's amazing is that this isn't even half the pictures I took...:) You'll have to forgive me.
(An attempt to show the hook and eye closures and tie of the skirt--my favorite part.)
Do you guys know anyone who wants to hire me to create whatever I'm inspired to make when I get up in the morning? Because that sounds like the perfect job for me. :)
Gloria Bishop, who spent hours braiding my hair in the most elaborate braids ever created. I loved them! And maybe someday I'll have a child with half the patience I had as a child just so I could get those braids with the ribbons woven in...until then, this will have to do!
P.S. I don't actually like the hairclip, but I had 5 minutes before we had to get in the car to make something to cover the bobby pins...she picked the fabric...I'm hoping the fraying fairy will visit and make it all cool...and yes, I missed a curl on the side and didn't catch that until I looked at these pictures...
We've been having so much fun with all the beginning of school activities! The boys are loving soccer and piano and somehow the schedule is working out to be pretty healthy for the rest of us. That said, though, we've been too busy to do much besides eat and sleep and read around here...
Nonetheless, I did find these photos from last weekend--our sweet little friend Annie had her second cochlear implant surgery and Phin wanted to make her something special. He started off wanting to make her another blanket (to match the one he made her for her first surgery) but I convinced him she might like something different. This is what we came up with, and it was surprisingly fun!
Doesn't it look like fun?! He worked so hard to make these--he drew letters on the fabric and I helped him cut them out. Then we sewed (together) them almost entirely closed with the exception of a couple inches on one side. He stuffed them up very nicely and we stitched them to close them up. I say them because he decided to make one for everyone in the family, once he got started:
We heard the spiderman "B" was a big hit!
I think they'll fray and be a nice little toy. Of course I started imagining how fun it would be to have an alphabet's worth....now that would be a great baby present!
Asa worked on making a game at the same time--he's such a game lover and so of course that's where his creative energies are going these days.
I really liked this one--it has lots of different parts and rules that were a little tough to pin down, but in general, I had fun playing it with him.
I especially love the presentation/container--could he be a graphic designer in the making?! and I also especially love the little game pieces. They're tiny vials (that I bought in the dollhouse section and just put away for something...he found them...) filled with beads, which turn out to be one of the commodities you can trade. No, this is not a game for babies! He spent forever trying to fill each little vial with beads. Such concentration!
And while they were making their projects (and consulting with me), I finished up a little project that I cut out at least a year ago. In my efforts to organize and clean up around here, I went through my project pile (which is, understandably, astounding) and culled it down to a few things I figured I could finish up pretty quickly and that still seemed worth it. This was one I just couldn't give up. The idea came from a Japanese craft book whose title I can no longer remember...sorry!
It's a teapot cosy. Just in case you were still wondering. Everyone who saw it laughed out loud--I guess it's a little bit of a silly squirrel, or maybe it was the thought of trying to keep anything hot in August in Oklahoma...
There is definitely no tea in that mug. :)