By Brienne

Mama Duds and... Did I tell you that I won?

I love tall boots. And tall boots need a short skirt. And a short, high waisted skirt needs a Nettie. 

The skirt was made using Anna Maria Horner's Flirting the Issue tutorial - it's free and it's fast. I made a couple of modifications out of neccessity. I cut just one piece for the skirt instead of two because that was all that I had and I was scared about it being too poofy. Also, I think that I ended up sheering almost six inches off of the length, which was sad because I could have made my daughter a skirt too if I had known that I didn't need even close to the amount that the pattern called for. I also added three lines of topstitching to the heavy bottom hem, hoping to get it to drape well. I have already actually worn this garment, which is a good sign! It's comfy and flattering. I'll be making more. The skirt fabric is Aves Chatter by Art Gallery Fabrics and I snatched it up at Treadle a couple of weeks ago. I think it's voile or a lawn, though I can't be sure but it's very lightweight and soft. And it's weird, I have seen this fabric a bunch online and didn't care for it at all. But the pattern is much more subdued in person and the colors more rich. 

Once the skirt was finished, I realized that I needed a fitted top to make it work. Naturally, I went for another Nettie. Side note, I asked for your vote a couple of months ago during the Nettie Sewalong Contest and I don't think that I ever told you, I won! So, that was way fun... and thanks for your help!

The fabric is a Riley Blake knit that I have made tons of things out of this summer.  I desperately wanted to put elbow patches on it but I resisted. It would've looked weird because of how fitted the top is. Also, I guess that I don't need elbow patches on EVERYTHING. But it feels like I do... I absolutely cannot get enough of that trend. 

That's it! Quick and easy. And now to cut out my Alder Dress...

Small Fry Skinnies with Ease

Am in a boy-pant quandry. I adore the Small Fry Skinny Jeans Pattern. His favorite pair of pants and the most worn handmade, ever, by a long-shot is a pair of Kudzu Cargos. Both of these pants patterns are skinnied - a cut that I am committed to. And my boy is even more committed to it. For me, it's about style. For him, it's about tucking into boots and running as fast as he can. He claims that anything with a wider leg will get caught and trip him or something. Makes sense.

The dilemma, is that both of these patterns require that I find a woven with stretch in it. I have decided that I need to be able to touch this type of fabric, since it varies greatly. And we live one million miles away from the fabric stores so 98 percent of my fabric shopping is done online. It makes it almost impossible to get my hands on a stretch twill or something like that. 

Plain old, bottom-weight wovens are what I have to use or just quilting cotton. So, I have a couple of ideas. The most exciting one is to leave the skinny jeans pattern as it is and to cut the pants out on the bias. The other, less daunting experiment was to add a wee bit of width to the existing pattern, which is what I did here. 

I added 3/4" to each vertical plane on the pants pattern plus I made the pockets 1/2" bigger all around. 

I think that the fit is good. And I'm excited to have the pattern with a little bit of ease in my arsenal in case I come accross a really good print in a woven that I want to use. I made a quick Bimaa too (which may go unworn since it has been made, apparently, for a "burgular" - a role that my son is not interested in playing). 

Home and Away

One of the great things about living in Northeastern Minnesota is having easy access to wild places. 

 We've had this vintage trailer for a couple of years but haven't yet had enough time or energy to get it rolling. Last week we brought it to a campground way up in the woods where the raspberries, bears, moose and eagles are plentiful.

It felt good to unplug. Mr. Moody commuted to work all week from our remote campsite while the kids and I luxuriated in half mile hikes that took two hours; browsing blueberry patches, squashing rosehips and trying in vain to catch crayfish. 

We watched two young eagles all week that had nested above a campsite nearby. We saw them eating. We heard them screeching. 

One morning, the kids and I watched a group of French-speaking young people solemnly wade, knee-deep, into the water to spread something that must have been a loved-one's ashes. 

We read stacks of books and wrote some of our own. 

She painted. 

I knitted.

We laughed.  

We made friends with our good neighbors, who serenaded us with their accordian in the afternoons. 

For awhile, I pretended that I would always have these long days with my littles. 

And the days were so good. 

Joining both the Frontier Dreams and Small Things readers today. 

 

Sew Interviewed

Hey, hi! I didn't plan for such an extended absence but we've been in the woods and off of the interwebs for awhile. Today I'm being interviewed by Annika of The Nah-Connection as part of her Sew Fantastic Series. Thanks for having me Annika! It was fun. And thank you for doing so much hard work to connect us with new readers. 

I'll be back here soon to share our Airstream Adventure...

Kitchen Sink First Aid Kit

Packing overwhelms me. Entirely. 

We are headed out car camping later this month. And I knew that I had to pull together some first aid supplies for the trip. I googled and googled "camp first aid kit," "ultimate camping first aid kit," "everything you need for safe camping..." and was totally overwhelmed by all of the options. We live two plus hours from the nearest big box store, where they sell small versions of every ointment and supply that you could dream of. Plus I have a closet full of never-been-used first aid supplies. I didn't really think it made sense to buy everything over again, just because it wasn't the right size or exactly what REI suggests that I bring. Naturally, I coped by hitting the craft supplies. 

I made a huge canvas pouch with boxed corners.  The finished size is 13" tall x 10" wide x 4" deep. I slapped a freezer paper red cross symbol on it and then ironed on a little quote that makes me laugh. Then I filled it with anything and everything that we had that seemed like it might be helpful - since we'll be car camping, there's no real need for a compact kit in this case. 

I have been told that I make an art out of fretting about things and packing a first aid kit is enough to send me right over the edge - enough to keep from ever heading out into the woods, actually. What if I don't pack the right thing???!!! This little quote on the back of the supply kit is a reminder to me, from me to get a grip:) 

Tell me, what supplies do you bring with for safe camping?

Mushroom Printing: A Love Story

So, you know that saying that, "behind every good man is a great woman..." blah, blah, blah? Well, I'd like to think that I am an adequate mate and a whole-hearted mom. But really, this guy. He's the real brains of this operation. It was he who gently urged me, one step at a time, back to school, he who lead the home and rural deliveries of our two children and he who bought me a sewing machine that was way out of our price range a couple of years ago to help me to do what I loved. It is he who now sits reading Teach Your Own while the littles squirm through their bedtime Sparkle Stories. And he who skates into the kitchen to give me a thumbs up, meaning: "let's do this homeschool thing!" while I lazily slurp a glass of wine and browse cookbooks. 

It is he who has been the brawn behind some of my favorite sewn items. And when I say he has been the "brawn," I mean he designed and printed things like this piliated woodpecker tee and tote and this Valentines Day tee. 

But, you know, the guy works more than full time designing and building stuff and so, I can't always lean on him. And I wanted to start printing on fabric myself!!! It is my secret dream to get to print on fabric for real, like in large scale someday. So, in June, when he was exhausted after a big bike race and my daughter brought in the sweetest little mushroom from outside, the learning could wait no  longer.   

Armed with the new experience of having made a stamp for the very first time in Maya Made's class at Squam, I set to work sketching the the mushroom and transferring it to the stamp surface. Once you have the drawing complete, you just flip it over onto the stamp surface and then rub the back of the drawing with a pencil to transfer it - it's super slick and easy! I had never before seen this pink eraser type stampy stuff but it is great because you can easily cut away the excess so that the print doesn't show the carving lines around the drawing. 

Naturally, I made a Flashback Tee with Geranium-style flutter sleeves first. 

It was a little too much flutter for me and the stamp washed away in the wash even after heat setting:( 

So, next, I worked at trying to use fabric paint to stamp with but with the delicate little gills - it just wasn't working. The grooves were getting clogged with paint. So, I went for a freezer paper stencil and I'm totally in love! Another School Bus Tee for my boy . 

Plus a high low swing tee for her using more of this dreamy fabric that I used to make his pocket tee. Okay, gratuitous photos of the mushroom print, since I guess that you can't really tell the difference between the brown tee above and the grey one below... 

Don't you think that Mr. Moody should get a mushroom tee of his own? I just purchased the yarn to make him this epic sweater (the guy in the yarn shop told me that he's never actually seen one finished) so, perhaps if I'm able to accomplish that I'll have evened our scores? 

Photo by Brooklyn Tweed. Source

 

 

We Won! Plus a Humble How-To: Embroidered Kitty Tee

I still have quite a bit to share from Kids Clothes Week. Getting pictures of everything has been a bit challenging, being that we were so desperately in need of new clothes that they were being worn hot off of the machine AND my trusty photo backdrop (which, incidentally is also our camper) was dropped off at the repair shop to get ready for our camping trip. It's been gone for more than a week and I still step outside with garments and camera in hand, ready to use it and realize that there is nowhere outdoors in our weedy, jungled yard to safely snap a photo these days:) 

Anyway! Last week, in addition to sewing for KCW, I snuck a couple of entries into Papercut Patterns' Anima Pants Competition.  I actually made myself two pairs and one pair for my girl. The pattern only comes in adult sizes but I really thought that the pattern would lend itself well to kids too. 

I really love converting an adult pattern to kid size, like when I made a tiny super tote for STYLO. I didn't know how it would work out with clothing, but I am stoked. To get the pants pattern in my daughter's size, I did some kind of fuzzy math. I wanted to get a percentage so that I could reduce the size of the printed pattern. So... I measured my daughter's height and waist and then divided those numbers by my height and waist measurements. According to these measurements, she's about 60 percent of my size. I printed the pattern off at 60 percent and then proceeded as normal. It worked! And even though we didn't win the grand prize (so many FABULOUS entries!!) I was surprised and thrilled to be included as a "highly commended" competitor. 

To go with the little girl Anima Pants, I made this Flashback Skinny Tee and embroidered a kitty face on it - heavily inspired by Made by Rae's DARLING kitty-faced-baby set from last spring.  

Now, I hesitate to ever call anything a "tutorial" because I am such a novice myself. Just the same, embroidery can be tricky and in case knowing how I did this inspires you to make something yourself, I'll share what I remember about doing it:) 

First, I cut out small shapes using knit stay tape and fused them to the front of the tee to use as a map for the embroidery. This step is fussy but the embroidery will look way better of the shapes are already outlined. If you were embroidering on a light-colored fabric, you could just draw the shapes using a dissapearing ink pen. 

 I used the satin stitch on the eyes and nose. And a split stitch for the whiskers. 

I didn't fuse anything to the inside of the tee to cover the knots but they are holding up well to washing and not feeling scratchy to her either. After the tee was embroidered, I assembled it as usual. Have you embroidered on knits before? Any tips?

Joining Frontier Dreams readers today.