KCW - Day 1 - Mod Toddler Dress

So, the goal for this KCW is to not spend a dime on new materials. The reasons for this are twofold. First, I have enough fabric to last through a lifetime of sewing and Second, we're pinching pennies around here. I know that I've got enough fabric and materials to make the girls an entire wardrobe of cute summer clothes.

This dress came out pretty much exactly how I imagined it. I wanted to make a super simple mod toddler dress with some really big, bright graphics. None of my fabrics fit the bill so I made some! I hand painted the design on a silkscreen to create the stencil and then screen printed the design onto some plain cotton that I had. I had the perfect pink binding for the armholes on hand as well. The pattern is a slightly modified version of the Simple Dress from Simple Sewing for Babies by Lotta Jansdotter. Modified because part of my pattern was missing (eek). I muddled through it though and I love how it turned out. The neckline and hem are a little too puckery for my liking but it's not horrible. And considering I haven't sewn anything in EONS I'm alright with it. I think I need to adjust the tension on my machine a bit though...

Now, I just need to decide what's up next for Day 2. The big girl has requested some shorts so maybe these? They're pretty stinkin' cute. Are you sewing for KCW? How's it going so far!?

Kid's Clothes Week!

The Spring Kid's Clothes Week Challenge is here again! I can't believe it's been a year since the last one. I've gotten dreadfully little sewing done for the kiddos since then so I'm very excited to participate this year! Check out the Elsie Marley blog for some beautifully inspiring posts. This week she's been interviewing independent clothing designers and I'm blown away by the creativity!

My sewing week will start on Sunday and I'll try to post every day to give updates. I don't really have any set goals but have a few patterns picked out that I'd like to try. We'll just see what happens!

In Progress...

A few "in progress" projects. It's nice to have a few long term project to jump back and forth between. These are the projects I keep close by my TV chair. I can snuggle in and really relax. This is the first time in WEEKS the sun has been out long enough to take pictures. I went a little crazy before my batteries died but I still didn't get pictures of any of the Easter bunny projects. So hopefully we'll have sun again tomorrow and recharged batteries. Hope you all had a great week and happy Friday!!

Posters

Here's a couple of posters that I designed for the Rollergirls. I'm pleased as punch with them. I'd really love to do more work like this. Another goal for this year is to finally get a portfolio website up. I'm not actively looking for a full time job, the one I have passes just fine. :) BUT, I would like to get my presence out there and maybe pick up a freelance job or two for fun! I've been meaning to do this for a few years but like so many things it just gets pushed aside. Here's to making it a priority this year!

Pictures of Sisters

I've decided that this year I need to make it a priority to get all of my photos organized. I'm probably the worst mother alive when it comes to my kid's pictures. I have zero photo albums and only a couple actual printed pictures of them in the house. Know what's even worse? I don't even have prints of our wedding pictures yet and we were married almost a decade ago. Seriously, I'm hanging my head in shame. And it's not that I don't love family photos in the house, it's just that for some reason this has taken a back seat for far, far too long. Occasionally I scroll through the pics on the computer and wonder why the heck I don't have these wonderful memories scattered around my house to enjoy every day.

First things first, I've got to get the kids pictures under control. My iphoto library is a disaster and I've got discs and discs of backups from old computers. Rather than taking the time to organize pictures when I upload them they go straight into iPhoto without any labels whatsover, I mean, who has time for that!? Geesh. But all kidding aside... why the heck didn't I just organize as I went!? Ok, that was the old me. The new me is turning a corner and trying to be more mature and more organized. So, first step is to consolidate all the discs and digital libraries into one. I think I want to then break up the photos by year / age. But let me ask... How do you organize photos? Is is by age or by event? I don't even know if I know how to utilize iPhoto properly!

Step two will be to pick favorites to frame for the house. We have a fabulously large blank wall that will be home to our family photos and I already have a bunch of frames. Step three will be to put them into albums. Now here is where I keep waffling... I'd love to take the time to design digital scrapbooks with journaling and pretty frames and lovely scrapbooky things. BUT I know that's probably overly ambitious and I'll never make it through them all. I don't know if I should have them printed digitally or buy traditional books to just place the printed pics in. Again I'll ask for suggestions... what do you guys do with your family pictures? I want something that the girls can look through (they LOVE going through mine and my husband's old photo books), so something sturdy that will last and can be passed down. Do you have any suggestions for great albums or is digital printing the way to go? This is going to be a HUGE project but I think if I take it in chunks I'll be more successful. I'll definitely share progress!

Sweetness

I hope everyone had a lovely and relaxing Easter weekend! I know I was definitely not ready for ours to be over. I did lots of puttering and lots of cooking (see super yummy sugar cookies above) and lots of crafting. It was pretty perfect. I'm still coming down from the sugar high.

I wanted to thank everyone for their responses to the last post, it was funny and really heartening to read that everyone has the feeling of being overwhelmed sometimes and struggles with time management. I personally have a problem with saying no to people who ask for favors, or help and I always to to do too much. So lately, I've been trying to say no more (it's amazing but people actually understand and don't hate you!), I'm also trying to do less. Doing less I've been able to do more. It's crazy but true. I've also been trying to budget my time. Rather than just saying "I don't have time for that". I make time for it. Even if it's 5 minutes, it's incredible what you can do with 5 minutes. I've been working on house projects, knitting, sewing and even reading again. I've been trying to spend more time just being with my kids. All in all it's really, really improved my mood and all the stress and agitation of the last 8 or so months as kind of melted away. I think I'm finally back to "me", back to the things that are most important to me. That's a great feeling. Even so, there's still a little something missing. It's been wonderful taking a break from JuneCraft but I miss it. I've needed to take extended breaks from it before and each time I come back rejuvinated and better than ever. I think this time will be no exception. Except that this time I don't have a plan. I'm still in the dreaming, scheming stage of my Etsy return. I've got definite direction yet and that feels a little strange.

There's so much I want to do, I'm just not sure which path to take! I've got some great ideas for knitted baby and kid items but I don't know if there's a market. I also might like to try a screen printed tshirt line but is that market already saturated? Am I thinking the wrong way? Am I focusing too much on the business aspect and less on what's really important? So much thinking to do but it feels good to be able to do that thinking now. Thanks for listening to me ramble. Any advice, stories, etc that you want to share please, please feel free! I love our conversations!

Drive-Thru

Lately I find myself spending lots of time thinking about yarn. I've been knitting for about 6 years and I go through phases where I knit nonstop and then other times when I don't pick up the needles for months. Usually the winter is knitting season and the summer is for sewing. This spring though, the knitting bug seems to have no interest in departing. That's ok by me. I could spend hours clicking through Ravelry, flipping through books, dreaming and planning.The problem is, I just don't have time right now to get much done. I content myself with a few rows before bedtime or while I'm cooking meals but would really like to have uninterrupted hours in my favorite chair with my feet up and a project in my lap. A girl can dream can't she? All that said, I don't have anything new finished but I thought I'd share another project I finished over the winter. I knit this sweater in just a week in January. Granted, I was recovering from a minor surgery at the time and was able to just lay in bed and knit.

The pattern is one of my favorites and one I'll use over and over. It's the Drive -Thru sweater by Wendy Bernard. It's knit with Cascasde 220 so it's fast and the resulting fabric is soft and durable. There are truly endless ways you could customize this pattern and that's one of the reasons I love it! I'd knit it once before in the wide faux-isle stripes but this time wanted to challenge myself. I've kept this sweater in my favorites for years, wanting to make something similar. I adapted some of her beautiful charts from here wanting to incorporate more purple. I still find colorwork a challenge but I felt like I made definite improvements working on this. Even though the kiddo picked out the colors and declared it "awesome!" I don't think she's worn it once. Ah well, I made a larger size so it'll fit her next year hopefully too. Sometimes the best part of knitting is the journey and not the end result.

I've really reached a point in my life where I'm craving simplicity and quiet. Our days are so incredibly hectic, I'm constantly frazzled and stressed trying to fit everything in. I guess I'm afraid of life passing me by, so I want to do as much as I can, to fill each day to the brim. But am I enjoying it? Not so much. I feel that a lot of things are being left out, like reading with my kids, playing games, cooking healthy wholesome meals, knitting, sewing, reading my own books, all things that are so incredibly important to me. There's just no time these days. I know that everyone struggles with these things, how do you all juggle it?