kimberly April 5th, 2010

After my last rather heavy post, it’s time to lighten things up a bit, with some food and craftiness.

Warmer weather signals the beginning of barbecue season (my dad would argue that as long as you’re bundled up, you can grill year-round but we’re not that crazy dedicated), and we opened the season with kebabs and garlic bread, accompanied by rice. Yum. The leftover marinade from the veggies was brushed on slices of ciabatta bread and then everything was grilled to perfection. I also poured the remaining marinade over the rice, but I can appreciate that may be garlic overload for some.

And spring also calls for another dress for Leah!

This dress was made using the Peasant Tops and Dresses pattern from Whimsy Couture. This time I used the 12-month size, which fits Leah much better.

Initially I was going to make the dress with loose 3/4 sleeves, but once I had the dress together, it was apparent the sleeves were going to be in the way once it was time to eat. So I folded up a fairly wide hem on each of the sleeves and turned them into ruffled puffed sleeves.

As soon as the last threads were snipped, Leah grabbed the dress and wanted to wear it immediately. Once she was dressed, she handed me the camera and struck a few poses. I happily obliged!

Next up: pajama pants for Adam, who helped pick out fabric for them on the weekend.

Tags: dress, kebabs, sewing, vegan cooking

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kimberly March 22nd, 2010

After taking a long break from sewing (struggling to finish Adam’s quilt plus a dozen beanbags in the week before Christmas just about killed me), I finally dusted off my sewing machine and serger on the weekend.

Having been sorely underwhelmed by the selection of girls’ clothes in my usual haunts for children’s wear, I am determined to make much of Leah’s spring/summer wardrobe myself. Thankfully, Leah seems to greatly prefer dresses, which are fairly simple to make.

Using the Easy Peasant Dress pattern from Whimsy Couture, I was able to put this dress together in an afternoon.

I made the 18-month sized dress, which ended up being way too big around the torso, so I added a casing on the inside and threaded elastic through it to improve the fit. Looking at the dress now, I should have raised the casing about 2 cm, but aside from that, it’s pretty good. Alternatively, making the 12-month size would have solved the fit issues.

Even with the elasticized band, the dress provides plenty of room for movement.

Leah adores the dress and was pretty excited to twirl around in it and run from one end of the house to the other, pausing on the stairs only briefly to blow me a kiss.

Next up: a three-quarter sleeve version!

Tags: dress, leah, sewing

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kimberly January 8th, 2010

As you can see, Leah and her doll are very much alike.

At least during those rare times that Leah deigns to take a nap.

Tags: doll, leah

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kimberly November 12th, 2009

‘Tis the season…

In my spare moments between cuddling up with under-the-weather children (Adam is sick again — I am this close to homeschooling him if only to not have to deal with the never-ending merry-go-round of coughs, colds and other assorted viral goodies that seem to be making the rounds) and straining my eyes in front of the computer matching fonts and finding the “right” shade of taupe that is neither too beige nor too cream, without being “too taupe”, I’ve been working on Christmas presents.

Many are in various stages of completion, from still thinking about the perfect materials to just need to weave in the ends. This one, however, is done:

This is a Baby Bundles doll, made using a kit from Dancing Rain Dolls, and will be one of Leah’s Christmas gifts. Having never before ventured into the world of doll-making, I was a little nervous, but the directions were clear and the doll came together reasonably easily.

Adam loves that the doll looks like Leah, particularly that the doll has the right skin colour. In fact, he loves it so much that he has asked for his own Korean doll for Christmas. When I reminded him that adding something to your wish list does not automatically result in receiving said item, he countered with “Well then, Mummy, how about you just make it for me now and give it to me?” Huh. Unbeknown to Adam, I actually am working on a doll for him as well, specifically the My Baby Doll, also from Dancing Rain Dolls. However, it’s still at the “stuffing” stage, where it looks rather alien-like and not very cute. I hope to make some progress on Saturday, when Adam is at Korean school and away from my sewing area.

And, of course, there are countless other sewing and knitting projects to be completed, hopefully with photos to come over the next several weeks.

Tags: adam, christmas, doll, leah, sewing

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kimberly April 23rd, 2009

Following through on my plans for sewing this past weekend, I did manage to sew up a pair of pyjama pants for Adam. Don’t mind the wrinkles.

I used the Little Sleep Well pattern (Favorite Things) in size 4, which fit him perfectly once they were hemmed. Since every pair of pyjama pants I’ve ever made has gone together more or less the same way, I ignored the instructions once I’d verified the seam allowance and did my own thing, using flat felled seams on the inner legs (just like a pair of jeans) and serging the raw edges on the outer legs after I’d sewn the seam.

Adam is thrilled with them (because according to him, things I make are better than things you buy in the store) and wants more. I can definitely accomodate that.

After all, who can resist this face?

And, it looks like the pyjamas possess magical sleeping powers, as this is how Adam fell asleep the other night:

Tags: adam, pyjamas, sewing

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