Happy Halloween

Parties were attended, a pumpkin was carved, seed were roasted and eaten, costumes were assembled and trick or treating was had. It was a very Happy Halloween.

We had a bunny rabbit. The pants you already saw and if you have been reading this blog for awhile you will recognize the paws and hat which I made last year for fun.

We had a skeleton. When you see that a clothing store has skeleton pajamas and your boy wants to be a skeleton you get them and go.. Oh, that was easy and now an extra pair of pajamas.

Mick and I dressed up as The Owl and The Pussycat from the poem by Edward Lear.

The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
"O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are, you are, you are,
What a beautiful Pussy you are."
Pussy said to the Owl "You elegant fowl,
How charmingly sweet you sing.
O let us be married, too long we have tarried;
But what shall we do for a ring?"
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows,
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose, his nose, his nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.
"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling your ring?"
Said the Piggy, "I will"
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon.
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand.
They danced by the light of the moon, the moon, the moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

The masks with painted and crepe paper was cut and glued following the directions from Martha Stewart October 2009 magazine. I didn't have the right pinking shears and those feathers on the owl were difficult to get just right but, it worked out just fine.

pants with leg warmers

The pants with leg warmers from Carefree Clothes for Girls came together this week. Actually, the knitting of the leg warmers started yesterday afternoon and I managed to get both pairs done and sewn onto the pants. The pants were started several days ago.

I decided last night that these would be part of Ms. S's halloween costume and her first party was at school this morning which was very cute and followed by coffee at one of the Mom's houses.

For the pants I used beautiful cream knit fabric and for the leg warmers I used a tweed wool.

I have been wanting to make clothes from Carefree Clothes For Girls since I got it. I have done three or four of the accessories so far however, the clothing patterns all start at size 4. We are not there yet so, they would need to be resized for my little lady.
Here's what I did with the pants:

-skipped adding the seam allowance when cutting out
-sewed a narrow seam about 1/4"

(she is a size 2 in pants)
It all worked out perfectly. The seams were then serged.

These pants are very comfortable and soft and she took to them right away though we decided this morning to wear knee socks underneath because the wool was a bit itchy. I moved the back patch to the side and sewed a little white pom pom that I made to the back for a tail.

I will show you the kids in their costumes soon. They have two events tomorrow and then the real deal on Sunday.

the dark woods sweater

I couldn't wait until his birthday to give it to him. I finished it last night and I had to try it on today. In three weeks my little boy will be five years old. Five feels big.

I used this pattern before for him and now that he has grown out of it a new one to take it's place.

He got to go outside in his socks and sit in the leaves. Fun.

small sewing projects

A few needle books. One for my darning needles, another a housewife based on Melissa's design. A few zip pouches in linen gingham: mustard and blue with handmade felt balls for pulls. Other little things being worked on currently.. all hand sewing. Some patterns being traced and waiting to be cut and sewn.
Mostly though I am curling up and resting or knitting when I get the chance and watching the boy ride his scooter from the stoop. I've got a cold and I've been trying to beat this one for a week. Oh, and, the littlest one has an ear infection.

This weekend I am:
celebrating Mick's (my husband) birthday
visiting the Paterson Falls
eating out a few meals - japanese and middle eastern
hoping to visit the pumpkin patch for some photos and get to carving
knitting

Hope you're weekend is shaping up nicely.

Sadie

Sadie is done.

This cardigan is knit in pieces and it was the first time I made one like this. There is a back, two fronts and two sleeves. The latter were set-in sleeves and were pretty different to ones I am accustomed to. Lastly, a band to pick up and knit and then piece it all together. Of course, let us not forget all those ends to sew in.

The sweater came out as I imagined and I only made a few simple changes: shortened both the length and sleeves (bracelet length) and knit the bow band a bit differently. It is a loose fit sweater with pretty eyelet rows and a bow to bring it together. I like the texture the eyelets create and the drape. The yarn is a wool/cotton blend and both the wool and pattern is by Rowan (Issue No. 40). The color is called Inky.

black velvet baby doll dress

This dress is Built by Wendy 3835 and I will start off by saying that it's not 100% perfect. I had some issues sewing this. One involved drinking a glass of wine at a birthday party (rarely drink anymore) before sewing up the zipper which by the way is fine really though it was supposed to be slightly lapped. At the time I didn't see the need to read directions. Ha. Also, the material wasn't that easy to work with and is not on the suggested list of fabrics to use. It's a velvet blend and the collar was where I ran into some issues because the fabric was a bit too thick. Oh, and the hem too.

That said it is fine and I'm not going to re-do it because I'm afraid of tearing the fabric. It reminds me a lot of being 5 and 20 at the same time.

Anyway, even with the aforementioned issues I pretty much love this dress which is a lot to say considering I can sometimes be a bit of a perfectionist and like I said it's not. That line through the top- a fabric flaw or from folding but steaming is working wonders and hopefully it will all repair. I think one more steam should do it.

Here is another version of the same dress that I made last year. And, yes I left off the ties again. The collar looks so much nicer on that one.

That little bow in my hair? I was inspired by a photo of Clever Nettle so I knit one up. A simple i-cord made in some pretty red yarn.

And, getting these photos taken... Well sometimes that's the most impressive part of the whole thing. Especially since I am entertaining a 2 year old who didn't take a nap at the same time as I'm shooting these while a certain four year old is present as well. It's pretty obvious I don't take photos of myself very often seeing that these poses make me look as if I'm about to plie or curtsey.

Happy weekend to you.

ghosts

A gathering of ghosts were made yesterday. I'm planning to hang these in the hall and going up the staircase a little closer to Halloween.

The children love ghosts and we often tell made up ghost stories while lying in bed under the covers. This project came from the pages of the October issue of Country Living Magazine.

The materials for the projects are: tissue wedding bells, black construction paper, glue dots and cheesecloth.

BOO!

Music Box Jumper

My Mom has asked on more then one occasion in her own special way over the past month or so for me to make a corduroy jumper for Scarlet. I have made her a few over the years.

When I saw this pattern I knew, as I do with many Oliver + S patterns, that it was something I wanted to make. Then when the Purl Bee made it up in this gorgeous Liberty corduroy that was all I needed to be convinced.

My Mom will be here on Wednesday and I know she will be very pleased because not only is it a corduroy jumper but, also in her favorite colors. Scarlet declared it beautiful so now three generations are happy. I'd say that is quite a success.

All the clothes I've been making lately for S have been a size 3. She is still a 2 sometimes wearing a 3 and what I've realized is there is hardly any difference so all these clothes are good to go for at least a year or more.

french press

Most afternoons around 1:30 or so I sit down to a cup of coffee that I brew in my french press. It's usually a mildly relaxing time of the day with one child while the other has settled into her nap (at least for now). At some point last Fall, I made this cozy for my press which is not only pretty but, also very handy in keeping it warm as sometimes I get a bit distracted by my own doing or by the children and it keeps it nice and warm until I get that little moment to sit down. It's most often one of my favorite times of the day.

It looks like we are in for beautiful Autumn weather here in the Northeast this weekend. Hope you have a nice one too.

sashiko pillows part 2

Here are the other two sashiko pieces that I made into pillows. The green one is the same design as the blue one.
I creatively used the rest of the fabric from my homemade seam binding to create the floral backing for one and blue cotton/linen blend leftover from the Ice Cream Dress I made S earlier this year.

I really enjoy doing sashiko and would love to work on some dark fabric with white thread sometime. It's nice to have these as finished pieces finally.

I almost completed a new dress for myself last night but, then realized I didn't have the right zipper. Out of all the zippers I've inherited I rarely ever have the right one.

vintage finds from the weekend

Navy double breasted dress
Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti
-This looks really good on and I should be modeling it for you because I can't get a decent shot of it. I need somewhere to wear it soon. Back to school night? Ha Ha. Sorry this is my silly sense of humor about my lack of going out.



Brown dress
Handmade, cotton, square neckline
This one I will shorten quite a bit.



a beaded coin purse




Plaid Wool Child's Coat with navy velvet collar and buttons.
Tailored by Rothschild of Philadelphia

I went to a fun vintage liquidation sale on Saturday morning thanks to hearing about it from a friend on Twitter. The woman was clearing out her online shop in her driveway and everything was $10 and under. I didn't go crazy but I did find some really nice things. I could have bought more but, you know I had to keep within a budget.

There was of course a line but, thankfully only 15-20 people waiting and some really went at it but, I sort of went through it calmly looking at most racks 3 or 4 times in case shoppers put things back or I missed something.

Of course since I didn't try things on two items are in the sewing pile to be altered or turned into something else entirely. I got 2 lovely dresses, a brown leather purse, a beaded coin purse, a wool plaid shirt for the Mr. which he already wore so that's a success, a winter coat for Scarlet that will fit a few years down the road and a white with red polka dots scarf.
A few of the purchases shown above.

Other highlights of the weekend: a bang trim, sunshine after too many rainy days, a trip to the farmer's market, a stop at one of my favorite bakeries, pumpkin picking, pony rides for Little M and Ms. S, watching the kids go through the hay maze and climb the hay mountain, chasing after my daughter who led me to playground to ride the swings followed by picking daisies. And, I finally finished knitting one sleeve of my sweater. Have I mentioned my dislike of knitting sleeves?

What did you do this weekend?