A Little Wonky

A couple weeks ago we went berry picking!  It was SO much fun. 

My wonderful sister went with us. Love her! I’m so glad my kids have such and awesome auntie. (Insert hearts here!)

I can’t believe how many strawberries we gathered. And we ate ALL of them. No jam, no pies… We are just big fruit eaters (especially G, he could eat fruit all day). It took us like 2 and 1/2 days to eat over 7 pounds of strawberries. Yeah!

It fits!  And doesn’t look half bad.

But in all honesty, this girl would look beautiful in anything.

Hey!  It is my first tutorial!  And I am proud to say that it is plenty wonky. If nothing else, this should entertain you with my poor computer drawing skills.

 Anyway, perhaps you have some crib sheets lying around that want a new life.  If your kids are like my kids, then those crib sheets were never really used in the first place.  (My babies were all about the cosleeping).  Plus repurposing is awesome for both your wallet and your planet. I was going to cut the elastic off of my son’s old sheet when I thought maybe I could use it.  The way the fabric billowed a bit from the elastic reminded me of puffy peasant shirts.  So I set out to make a shirt out of a crib sheet with no pattern and not much of a plan.

 First I cut the sheet to maximize the amount of fabric still attached to the elastic part.  I used the middle rectangle on a different project.

 I used a 2T long sleeved Tshirt to approximate the length and width of the sleeve.  (Note: I recommend using a different kind of shirt or allowing a lot more extra, since my body turned out a bit narrow in the end).  I folded the piece of sheet over and cut once (so there is one piece for each sleeve).  The elastic side was at the cuff of the shirt.  The fold edge was along the top and the cut edge along the bottom.  Be careful not to cut the shirt!  If you are less lazy than me, you can use the shirt to make a pattern and then use the pattern to cut the new sleeves.  I used the first sleeve as a pattern to cut the second sleeve.  Remember to cut approximately 1/2 inch extra for the seam allowance.

Next I put a piece of the crib fabric under the shirt with the elastic along the neckline.  I moved the Tshirt sleeve out of the way to cut the body piece.  I used that body piece as a pattern to cut the other body piece.  Again, remember to add extra for the seam allowance.  Oops, that rectangle under the shirt should be blue.  Please use your imagination.

And here is where I thought of taking pictures.  Ha ha.  Note:  You may be less lazy than me and actually iron things before you craft with them.  Here are my pieces:

Next, I folded the sleeves right-sides-together and sewed up the sides. Try not to break your sewing machine when sewing over the elastic part. I now know how to take that front plate off and untangle the thread underneath. I also cleaned out all my sewing machine’s dust bunnies, so I guess it was worth it. Anyway…

Then, turn the sleeves right side out. Somehow I forgot to do this and ended up sewing the sleeves in inside-out. Twice. (!)

Next, sew the sides of the body pieces (right-side together) from the bottom to the armpit area.

Then you are going to put the sleeve inside the body pieces and sew the shoulder around in a circle. (From armpit to top of shoulder and back down to armpit). I pinned it so that the top overlapped like the top of a onesie. You might have a better idea for finishing the collar, but this worked for me.

After you do both arms, turn it right side out. You are almost done!

You just need a hem and then hang it up and admire your handywork.

You can decorate it with a little fabric flower or something else cute. I tried it on my little gal and it fit quite well. It was a bit narrow in the body (as mentioned before), so I made those little upside-down V things on the sides like a lot of tunics have. My shirt was a little too puffy on the top, so I cut it a bit down the middle, hemmed and added snaps.

A piece of scrap was the perfect size to make a quick doll skirt. This was SUPER DUPER easy - just sew up the back and hem. You could make kid-sized skirts the same way. Easy peasy!

If any of my 3 readers are not liberal, please move on. 

Today I shared some anti-racism and anti-homophobicism (is that a word?) with the kiddos.  We were playing with these little wooden peg dolls that I made them for Christmas.  (Note:  There are WAY cuter ones on etsy.  I will have to study them more to perfect my skills). 

Anyway, G was looking at them and said “this one goes with that one” while matching up two dark skinned peg dolls both wearing green.  I asked, “Why does this one go with that one?” and he said, “they look alike.”  Then I said, “Well, they could go together.  But usually people are together because they love each other, not because they look alike.  You can look different and still be in a family.  People come in all colors of skin and clothes and still love each other.”  And he said, “Like M has dark skin and I have light skin and we are a family!”   (Yeah.  Wow.)  And I said, “That is right!  We are a family and we love each other.” 

Then I happily continued, “Some families have two daddies like this (showing two daddy peg dolls) and some have two mommies.”  And G said, “Yeah!”  We spent a few minutes making different kinds of families.  It was way awesome.

 I love how G is totally cool when I say some families have two mommies or two daddies.  I’ve mentioned it to him before and it does not faze him in the least.  I hope our children’s generation is this way from the beginning!

 G later made a seesaw out of blocks for the people to ride on.  He watched Bill Nye the Science Guy’s DVD about “Simple Machines” which gave him the idea.  (He also has been going on and on the last couple days about Momentum - also thanks to Bill Nye).  Hubby thinks we need to save up for Caltech now.  But I’m really rooting for Berkeley.

M made two peg dolls kiss.  I could die of cuteness.  She is amazing at acting things out with them and using her imagination.

Lest you think we are all peaceful over here, G later picked two peg dolls to “fight” and proceded to bang them into each other over and over again.  We can’t be on a higher level all the time, people.

Guess what we finally got… 

A playset!  Somebody is excited. 

Both kids love it.  I love it too. 

I had to make curtains for the upper part so that our neighbors wouldn’t complain about the kids spying on them.  (I don’t think the telescope helped).   *Note:  Don’t ask me what that giant blue tarp over a giant tent is doing in our neighbor’s backyard. It has been there a loooong time.*

Wanna swing?!

Hooray!  This year we have a real garden.  Last year we just had tomatoes.  This year we have awesome raised beds (hubby made!) with corn, tomatoes, marigolds, pumpkins, beans, potato, eggplant, sunflowers, and strawberries.  The strawberries are not making it, sadly.  The kids were really into it for the first couple days and hopefully their interest will renew when the veggies are ready to eat.

I made a little bridge for the bean vines to crawl up and over.  It is also a nice tunnel for the kids to walk through.

Look what is opening up!

And one waiting to blossom:

Speaking of superbabies, I got these swimsuits for the shop and couldn’t wait to get them on the kids!  G is big into superheros right now and M is big into anything G does.  Hee hee.

 Super G has already saved the world from our lawn sprinker.  My hero!

Today we celebrated family day!  One year ago today we adopted our little M.  The year has flown by, yet I can barely remember our life before she entered it.  We had a big celebration with cake AND cupcakes (as requested by the kids).  They both got scooters, books and G a telescope, M a sit n spin.  G called it our family’s birthday.  :)  We had a wonderful time!

{P.S. No cupcakes were thrown on the roof this time!}