Lionden Landing

 Froggy finally finished the dress for her doll.  She even hemmed it.  This was much more ambitious a project than originally intended but it taught some truly valuable lessons.  Froggy followed through and was able to experience real pride in her accomplishment.  I did not require her to do the hem. She chose to because she wanted it to be "right" for her doll. 

Froggy is modeling her new Pesach dress.  I started it much later than usual and really debated not making it at all but I am really glad I did.  She is so happy with it and it suits her.  I have never made a jacket before and I am very very pleased with how it turned out. 

Froggy was so proud of herself yesterday! She finished the basic construction of her dress for Dolly.  She started it ages ago.  But the changes we made helped and she was able to follow through finally.  After I took this shot, she was dancing around singing "I love to sew!"  This sense of accomplishment and joy is why I enjoy handwork.  It is wonderful to see her having pride in her work.

I love to do handcrafts.  I always have.  When I was young I desperately wanted to learn to knit, crochet, cross-stitch, anything I could.  So why on earth can I not find anything that inspires Froggy?  All of my attempts to entice her into pursing some form of handwork have all met with eager beginnings and quick frustration and disgust. I finally decided to try again.  In an attempt to keep her motivated I did a couple of things.  First, we started a new project. It is still hand sewing just like the last time .  But this time it is going to be a matching dress to a new dress I am working on for her.  To make it even more fun for her it is part of a whole matching series.  I have a skirt in the same fabric.  The second thing I did was make the time while she is working on it special.  I am reading her Five Children and It while she sews.  I have a nice project bag for her with all her supplies and the book.  I am n...

Froggy in her new Rosh HaShana dress. Luckily it was almost finished before I was put on bedrest and I was able to do the finishing touches by hand.  

High on our success from last week, Froggy started her next handwork project.  This is a much larger project likely to take several weeks to complete.  She is making a dress for her doll.  All by herself. First we chose the fabric.  Froggy has been doing this with me for ages as I sew her clothes but it had a special feeling knowing it was her project.  She had so much fun rummaging through my stash and putting things together. Then we laid out the pattern.  I showed her how to pin the patter to the fabric and make it smooth.  Then she cut it out.  She had a really hard time cutting it at first. So I took over to see if perhaps her scissors were not up to the task.   But they worked fine.  So we tested and tested to find a way for her to do it.  And she did it   . She was so proud of herself when the piece was finally all cut out.   Next came actually sewing the pieces together.  I showed her how to pin the tw...

Froggy had a tremendous growth spurt recently.  Which means new clothes.  She decided she wanted to try skirts again finally .  We have not had much luck in the past with them staying on her middle. As I gathered some options for her to choose from she picked one that I had not planned to offer.  It was remnants from a previous project.  But she fell in love with it and Ima got creative. This is the result.  She wore it all day today and it stayed in place perfectly.  It has a drop waist and gathers with three buttons at the waist.  It is warmer than many other skirts and will perfect for this winter.  I see several more of these in her future. Here is a close up of the buttons.  

Froggy now has the first of her new summer dresses.  Every year I make her several of these.  The first one takes a bit of time as I create the new pattern to fit how she has grown but then the rest fly by.  These are her play dresses for the season, super light and comfortable.  Froggy would not cooperate as a model and ran from the camera so this was the best I could do. I also made her bike shorts to wear underneath using a great suggestion from Sugar Babies.  I used an old t-shirt that was not wearable as a shirt anymore.  Because I am making dresses rather than skirts I kept the shorts separate.  I also make them longer than the ones pictured.  I can get two pairs of shorts for Froggy out a single adult T-shirt so we will no longer be scrounging for bloomers.  She will have plenty of super comfy ones this year.

Prior to Baby O's arrival I managed to actually finish a few of projects.  This is her Pesach dress.  I needed her to try it on and she decided it was time for a modeling shoot.  Please ignore the rainbow on her forehead.  That would be the Daddy corrupting her.  He has an insane love for decorating foreheads. And this is her new shawl.  She picked the yarn.  The pattern is a super easy one given to me by a friend.  It is just two rectangles.  That is what I need in a knitting pattern. Now it is time to start making things for Baby O.  But wait there is now no time to make things :)

After a much too long hiatus I finally got back to sewing. I made a new dress for Froggy which I hope she will wear for Rosh Hashana. That was the intention when I started it but now that it is finished I am not sure it is appropriate. The dress turned out quite well in my opinion given all the on-the-fly modifications I had to make to the pattern. Does the neckline need something? I did my first ever zipper. Yay me.

I have been working on designing a dress for myself for a few days now so it should not have come as any surprise to me when Froggy asked if she could sew something too. I quick whipped her up a managable project. I had planned to cut it out for her so that she could focus on sewing and maybe get enough done to see progress before she got frustrated. She was heartbroken when I told her that so she cut it out too. She did an amazing job cutting it out and asked for help only once and only for a tiny section. I gave her a tapestry needle and two strands of embroidery floss. She sat in my lap and I held her hand and walked her through the first couple of stitches. After that she happily went to town sewing. She did not finish the project. There was no project I could make that would have been small enough to be expected to be done in one sitting and yet big enough for her hands to hold and manage comfortably. Finishing it was not the goal. The practice at fine motor skills and bein...

Over time I have gotten lots more adventurous in the kitchen. With Froggy going dairy-free I have been forced to not only try new recipes but experiment with new ideas and become willing to tweak recipes to meet our family's needs. So I have started to Wing It in the kitchen. We have lots of failures when I wing it but we have some great successes too. Here is one of the more recent. I added some pictures of it. And out of desperation again I am now winging it in the craft room too. After hunting for the perfect pattern too often I have given up and started creating my own. Froggy's latest dress (pictures to follow) is a combination of this tutorial, a pattern we had and a great deal of improvisation. I think it turned out beautiful but I am just a little biased. It could not be too bad since I had trouble getting her out of it. So winging it works for me. For other WFMW tips check out WEARETHATFAMILY

I love craigslist . When I need a specific something I look there. But Freecycle works for me for more everyday stuff. I get a great deal of my craft supplies there. Lots of the stuff I get off freecycle most people would consider junk. But I turn it into fun for the kidlets. Sometimes I get a real find though. This weekend, a wonderful lady gave us 3 boxes full of fabric. All different kids of fabrics. There were quilting squares already cut which Froggy abscombed with to become bricks in Beit Hamikdash. There are some wonderful corduroy and flannels that I look forward to working with in the fall. But what caught my eye right away were the classic style calicos. And there was jsut enough to make Froggy a cute summer dress. I used this pattern but made the bodice a different fabric from the rest. I had been planning to try the pattern forever and finally was inspired. The dress turned out great for a first attempt The lace down the middle got washed out by the flash. Some...

For almost two months now, Froggy has been asking for her Ariel dress. We got the fabric at the same time as the fabric for the last baby quilt. Well today thanks to the snow that canceled our regularly scheduled activities I was able to put the finishing touches on it. I am not thrilled with the pattern as a whole and will not use it again but the dress turned out funtional. I fussy cut the bodice so that Ariel was whole. And thanks to the new sewing machine and a manual, I was finally able to master button holes. All in all I am quite pleased and Froggy can't wait to wear it. See it has real functional button holes. An up close view of the front. You can see a glimpse of the bodice lining. It is a very full skirt.

Thank you to all those who offered suggestions for my dress problem . I found some great sale options on similar dresses from companies that I did not think of. I still have not been able to find a pattern for exactly the dress I wanted but I think that is ok. The search has led me to different patterns and that has been a new joy. It has also made me more willing to experiment with patterns. Today we went to play group and Froggy was wearing a jumper I made for her and she got lots of complements. It is a basic jumper with three buttons at the neck. It will be the first pattern I alter. I am going to try to add sleeves to it since finding a shirt to match for underneath is sometimes very challenging.