My Oliver +s Sewing Addiction

You know, Oliver +s patterns are like chips.  You can't make just one.  And I am obsessive, so instead of the handfull others would swipe from the bag, I take the entire bag and down it.  Or, in this case, I take all the patterns I can get, load up on them, stock up on fabric, and go into insane sewing mode.

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Bless the hubs and his sighing over the thread & fabric scrap covered floor.  Bless him.

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It's not like I keep this to my nook (that magical place all my fiber working is *supposed* happen in).  Oh no.  I take over the dining room table for pattern tracing, pinning, and fabric cutting.  I take over the butcher block kitchen island for the ironing.  And, because I am completely insane, I run multiple sewing machines at the same time.  You know, one for seams and the other for top-stitching in red.  Of course, the 2nd sewing machine is in the livingroom at the opposite corner of the first floor from my nook.  Toss in one dog and one 2 year old, and let's just say, it gets messy.

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But it's all totally worth it.  I promise.

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Because my kids' faces when they see the finished product are priceless.

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Sailboat pants for Maria, using a vintage hankie that belonged to her great-grandmother

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Size 8 Sketchbook shirt for the Brain.  Made with cotton twill

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Size 5 Music Class skirt & blouse for the Blonde.  Skirt is black wool suiting, the blouse was made with vintage feedsack that belonged to my late grandmother

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Size 5 School Photo dress for the Blonde.  Quilting cotton lined inside and out

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Size 4 Puppet Show dress for the Blonde.  Reproduction feedsack with daisy buttons

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Sailboat pants for the Brawn, made during the sewalong I hosted last month.  Wide grey cordaroy

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LOVE this pattern line.  LOVE.  It's so nice to have clothes for my kids that don't resemble street walker wear or be covered in skulls or flames.  You know, classic, conservative, timeless, sweet, child-like clothing?  This is it.  Right here.  You NEED the Oliver +s patterns.  NEED.  Even you don't think you sew that well or have never used a pattern, Oliver +s is the place to start.

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Do it.  You won't regret it.

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If You Wish on a Fish...

The Hubs and I went south over the weekend to escape the cold and attend a Model Railroad Show in Baltimore.  We took the Brawn, because he's too cute to leave behind.  On Friday we went to the National Aquarium on the Inner Harbor of Chesapeake Bay in downtown Baltimore, found parking in Little Italy at the Dodge Garage (say that 3 times fast!), loaded up Brawn & the diaper bag in the stroller, paid for our tickets, went inside, and discovered that we had to check our stroller like a coat.

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If you've ever met the Brawn, you know how fast and silent he is.  I was pretty nervous, considering that the Dad injured his shoulder and probably wouldn't be able to carry Brawn thru the entire museum.  I didn't want to carry captain wiggles, either.  We decided to hold our noses and jump in feet first.

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You know something?  He did GREAT!  There were a few times he wanted to look longer at a tank than we did, and other times he wanted to go and we weren't ready, but all in all, he was a champion museum attendant.  Of course, after more than 4 hours of walking and looking, he crashed and burned as soon as we started the truck.  Perfection.

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The jellyfish were amazing.  So graceful

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The mushroom shaped ones seemed like bumper cars, bumping and turning with ease

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Others tend to float and billow

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Some reminded me of deflated baloons, drifting in the wind

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They tangle and untangle themselves from each other at random

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But my very favorite jellyfish were the Upside Down Jellies.  They reminded me of flowers, and while you can't tell from the photo, they are full of sheer colors

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The Hubs wasn't so impressed with the jellyfish.  He refered to them as "creepy" and "wierd".  His faves were the Amazon rain forest frogs, but I couldn't get any good pictures of those.

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Finishing Up!

Tuesday, February 1-  Button holes!  Sewing on buttons, too and finishing

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Actually, it's Wednesday.  And I am over this massive snow-ice-rain-winter storm.  Over it.  I woke up to chunks of ice beating my house, my salted sidewalk iced over, thunder, lightening, and thinking we were the only school district in this part of the state not with a 2 hour delay or closed.  Sent my kids to school with the Dad and 10 minutes later he brought them back. "No school" he says.

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WHAT?!

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We didn't get the notification phonecall.  It wasn't on the radio.  The janitor told them.

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Glad to see my tax dollars working like they should.

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*Grumps*

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I'm hoping I can finish this before the power starts doing that flashy-blinky thing like it did yesterday.  Bear with me.

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On the up side, Phil didn't see his shadow this morning!  WOOT!

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Before you sew the button holes, you need to transfer the markings for the button hole placement from your pattern.  OR, you can decide where you want the button holes to be and just draw them on (especially helpful if you're using bigger buttons).

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There are several ways to make button holes.  Many modern machines have the buttonhole stitch built right in.  I sew on vintage machines, and therefor, use the vintage button hole attatchments designed for them.

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Once the button holes are sewn, you need to cut them open.  Be careful not to cut thru the buttonhole threads!  A friend of mine places a straight pin at each end of her button holes, so that her seam ripper or scissors doesn't cut too far (the pin stops them blade).  I cut, using sharp pointed darning scissors, from the outside towads the middle of the button hole.  It's just a matter of preference.

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I loike to try my buttons to see if they fit before cut more than one hole open.

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I use a fabric marker with disappearing ink to mark t.he center of the button holes for button placement.  Make sure you line your side panels and front panel up to your satisfaction before marking.  Then, just make a dot in the center of each button hole, onto the side panels.

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Sew your buttons on!  SewMamaSew has an excellent tutorial for sewing on buttons by hand, if you need some help.

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The directions go on to say that you should stitch a few inches of the front facing & the side panels together to prevent gapping.  I have no gaps, so I'm skipping this step.  It's up to you  :)
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All done!

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*Notes: the Brawn is in cloth diapers, so I made the size 4 pattern with the correct pattern length (since these are supposed to be cropped), and they fit over one of his fluffiest diapers with ease and fit like a full length pair of pants.  If you cloth diaper, I suggest definately going off the measurements of the hips at the widest point for choosing your pattern size.  The Brawn usually wears a size 2t pants at the moment.*
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Hopefully, the Brawn will cooperate and allow me to get some photographs of him in his new pants today, so I can show them off!

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Also, if you haven't already, enter the giveaway, I'm extending it thru midnight PST tonight, because of the winter storm.

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Be sure to e-mail me a finished picture of your pants to thejenni dot girl at gmail dot com, so that I can show everyone's pants off when I get back from Baltimore on February 7th!

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