I've Got The Sewing Bug!

My mother-in-law has the kind of house that children run away to, literally, local kids have told their parents that they were running away to her house. Why? Because there are tons of animals and things for kids of most ages to play with. Sadly the majority of these toys are not age appropriate or even safe for my little girl. Tired of always having to specially load the car for trips to her house, my husbands grandmothers house, or the sudden need for a trip to the emergency room I looked for something to make life easier. Enter, the portable play mat. It's both a play mat and a purse. Throw it over your shoulder throw some toys in and you're ready to go. At your destination? Set your bag on the floor and unfurl it - BAM! clean area for your little one to play.

The other day I made a test version of the idea/design and this is the result.

A playful, somewhat gender neutral pirate fabric that I thought her uncles may get a particular kick out of on the bottom/outside of the purse.

Inside is a fabric I found that I thought could give the impression of water.

The bag is lightly quilted so that there is a nice squishy place for my little ones adorable squishy booty to sit.

My little Lamb decided that she also really liked having it wrapped around her. I guess a cape is now on my list of thing to make in the near future. Now that I know the flaws in my design I plan to fix and refine it.

Etsy Trade Tuesday - Love For Earth

Living in Columbus has definitely been an experience. Columbus has a bohemian aspect similar to my native Fredericksburg, Virginia; but here I noticed that a lot of people do trades. I've known small local business owners to trade wares for services or goods from others. I've seen these trades fail but more often I see them become great successes for the involved parties. Having recently lost the Etsy shop I spent the last six years of my life working on, I now have stock that I don't have too much use for, in fact, it's taking up quite a bit of space. Another recent life change for my family and I has been our choice to increase our green actions. This has left me with a renewed love for green products, in this case re-usable sandwich/snack bags. I didn't have enough Tupperware containers to cover a weeks worth of packed lunches for my husband and found myself using DUN DUN DUUNNNNNNNN . . . ZIPLOCK BAGGIES! Enter, the reusable sandwich bag. Despite my general annoyance for how Etsy handled the harassment that lead to the close of my shop my love of handmade, particularly hand-made in the USA, has kept me continuously perusing Etsy. Yes, you can easily find an online tutorial to make your own sandwich bags and if you don't like the ones you find, I'm certain people out there have patterns you can pay for. Having a 16 month old doesn't leave me with a lot of time to sew (a problem only made worse by my Pintrest obsession that only adds to the list of things to knit or sew). My current living situation hasn't left me with enough space to set up my own sewing machine here at the house so I drive over to my husbands grandmother's house and use hers. Enter the wonderful Kara K. of Love for Earth on Etsy, added bonus - she lives in my home state!

Kara enjoys making unique, custom, eco-friendly bags and it really shows through in her work. We agreed upon a trade and when the two of us set to work fulfilling our ends of the bargain. Not only did I get an insulated snack/sandwich bag but she made me a custom bag as well! I told her my woes of forever having my hands full and my usual inability to juggle two giant Jersey Mikes subs. Jersey Mikes subs don't come with bags with handles. After discussing the length of a giant sub from Jersey Mikes (15") and determining what the width of two of them should be, she created a special, insulated,

Jersey Mikes sub carry bag

- WITH STRAP!

I luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurv it! The quality is out of this world! About a week later my other bag came (she too was excited about our arrangement and forgot to send the other bag) and it too was wonderful. It even came in recycled packaging!

Tell Kara your reusable bag woes and you'll be sure to walk away with a custom creation that you'll love.

Turtle Pants

One of my most recent knits for my little lamb. I changed Melanie Hoffman's, Turtle Butt pattern into longies that include the turtle part for the entire pant. These were longies I intended to put away for the future but they have apparently passed the test. Whenever my little girl likes something I'm making for her she either steals it while I try to finish it or insists on wearing it right away.

Let The Ravellenic Games Begin

As much as I like these unofficial posters for the 2012 Olympics in London, I'm still a bit miffed about Ravelry being forced to change the Ravelympics to the Ravellenic Games.

This is what my little girl looks like to me.

And this is what the good people of the internet or people on the other of a picture text message thinks she looks like.

That is all.

Dresser Drawer Organization For Children

I've been picked on occasionally for the way I have my kids clothes in her dresser. You wouldn't think that's the sort of thing that would become a subject of any interest but for those who have to deal with it - I guess it must be. So here's how I do it. This is the current top drawer of her dresser which contains sizes 9 months to 12 months. There are very very few 9 month things left because she is now 16 months but children's sizes seem to be a pot shot. Sometimes 6 months really means 6 months, other times, not so much.

On the right side are shirts and onesies; in the center are full outfits (like jumpsuit type things, pants, and skirts; and on the left are the jammies. The smallest of each type of clothing is always put towards the front of the stack so I can get the most wear out of each item before she outgrows it. (Once she outgrows an item I remove it from the drawer and put it away for the next child we hope to have.) On the left where the jammies are I put the most season appropriate jammies in front. Because it's summer, all winter jammies are now at the back of the drawer. Right now when my husband looks for clothes for her I tell him she can wear anything from the top two drawers. This is the second drawer, which is pretty much all size 18 months clothing. The same general rules apply here: shirts and onesies on the right; outfits and pants in the center; and jammies on the left.

In my third drawer which has a lot of 24 month and 2T's I have most of the warm, hand knitted clothing towards the front because quite a bit of this time my little one will be towards the end of winter.

That last picture is upside down - sorry about that. Once she has no need for a 12 month drawer I just shift everything up a drawer and begin filling the one below it with the next size she should wear.

Crafterbation

As if it weren't bad enough that I obsessively knit, my crafting has shifted into overdrive. Recently I fell in love with the concept of clothing that is both knitted and sewn. So I made a couple of dresses that can later be worn as shirt for my little lamb. This didn't sate my crafting appetite so I've set off to do more. Starting with altering a shirt I won a couple of years ago into something a bit more wearable.

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Snip.

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FRAK! I was now at the stopping point for the day. My sewing machines and serger aren't set up at the house and I kind of couldn't even if I wanted to so I had to wait until I could run over to my husbands grandmother's house so that I could make use of hers.

Actually she uses a Husqvarna Viking embroidery machine as her primary sewing machine. The previous night I was thinking about altering some jeans into bell bottoms, but the following morning when I went to try them on I found myself unable to fit the remainder of my pregnancy tummy into the jeans. I talked over my jean ideas with a fantastic crafty friend of mine and set to work ripping seams. However, I was on such a high from all this crafty goodness i accidentally ripped the inseam instead of the outerseam for the jeans I plan to alter. So yet again I have to wait until my next visit to grandmas to fix the mistake and them rip the correct seam. Stalled again. So I broke out a pile of old shirts and stared at them for a while to come up with something else I could do.

Eventually I settled on cutting up an American Apparel skirt that never fit me correctly and a shirt I wore a lot in high school but that I have no reason to believe will ever fit again.

You'll have to stay tuned to see what I have planned for everything and how it works out.