Sew Paradise

Jalie 3132, a photo by annsiegle on Flickr.

Spartan Nursing Hoodie! This was the most fun of the three I’ve made so far. I cut up a 20+ year old MSU tee shirt, and creatively used a green/white matchup harlequin look for the hood. It’s tunic length and perfect with leggings.

Jalie 3132 short sleeve, a photo by annsiegle on Flickr.

Another one of those wonderful nursing Hoodies! This time with cap sleeves, shirt length. This fabric was the wrong choice for the tee though – a very shimmery, gorgeous modal/lycra that is super thin jersey. Drove me nuts to sew but I think it came out well anyway. It shows all my bumps, however, so I’ll have to be just more dilligent in the triathlon training.

Wrap baby carrier, a photo by annsiegle on Flickr.

All snuggled up! Some baby is gonna love this!

Specifically ring slings and wrap carriers. But I like to make them for (mostly) babies I don’t know. Babies who will get these in charity fundraising baskets. Babies who are not yet born, who don’t yet know that they’ll be snuggled up tight next to their mother’s heartbeat, feeling the familiar sway of her walk, the scent of her that is so perfect. Babies who will nuzzle, nurse and drift off to sleep. This time I used one of my own – a stretchy wrap carrier that a friend gave to me as a “fauxby” – slicing the fabric down the middle of five yards of stretchy cream ribbed cotton. I never finished the edges or made a pocket for it, until now. Today I sewed a brown print pocket and brown and cream serged hems on it, made a matching drawstring bag, and it’ll go off to some other mama, who will cuddle an as-yet-to-be-born newborn sometime soon. All prettied up, this wrap lovingly carried my son his first summer (and fall, and winter) on Earth.

Oh the thought just makes me want to have another! I know, I know. I’m too old, I have two beautiful kids, and I’m just now able to sew in the evenings, with enough energy to have parts of my day to call my own. So I sew these carriers, because I love to think of the snuggly little babies in them.

I’ve decided the place I live in is eco chic. I’m crunchy in that I cloth diaper, I own a myriad of baby sling carriers (two in silk duppioni), I have large urban raised bed gardens in my yard, I use cloth napkins, buy secondhand for my children and myself, sew whenever possible, upcycle as much as I can, clean with Shaklee cleaners (eco friendly) and buy organic whenever possible. I used reusable grocery bags long before they were fashionable, and I dry clothes on a line in my yard in the nice weather where possible.

But I still love great shoes, a great bag (might have sewn it myself!) and jewelry. I think being crunchy means I care about the world, and I think, too, if I look nice, that tells the world that I care about myself and about being pleasing for others to look at. Just my way of spreading the chic love.

Oh I’m not super trendy, more of a modern classics kind of gal, but that fits well with being eco-chic, you can buy secondhand if you’re classic in style.

This summer my eco chic is going to be making my yard, deck and home a beautiful place to be – cleaning, organizing, staining our deck again (water based deck stain), making covers and/or pillows for our curbide-shopped plastic chairs, and setting out a couple of hurricane candles for evenings outside. I’m using a very old card table for a dining table (it folds up, we set it against the house in a dry spot), and I put tablecloths on it, it’s very bring the indoors out style, and it’s also very thrifty. Our table broke a few years ago after 15 years of service; we have never replaced it. We bought hanging baskets from a local roadside farm, and hung them by our deck benches, so there’s color there now. It’s all about not acquiring more, using what we have and upcycling.

I’m looking to inspiration in BurdaStyle’s home sections from the last few years – there a number of summer issues that feature cushions, pillows, glass candle jars (upcycled from Bonne Maman jelly jars that we use a lot of). I’m inspired by beach cottages. Any good patterns I should take inspiration from?

Trudy from HotPatterns produced this great YouTube tutorial on how to lengthen a t-shirt pattern to a dress. But it’s not as simple as just extending the side seam down, as you’ll see in the video. If you want to go sleeveless, check out her tip for the underarm seam to be sure your bra is covered!

And, best yet, you can take my Nursing Tee Shirt tutorial and do this alteration for either a sleeveless nursing maxi dress or a nursing t-shirt short sleeved maxi dress! Hot Patterns Cabana Tee or Plain and Simple Tee gives these tee dresses an awesome wide scoop neck and relaxed vibe. I would consider this project an easy beginning clothing project. Easy to fit, easy to sew, and a good first knitwear project.

Not a summer BurdaStyle issue goes by without a caftan. I got back stacks of old issues (I can’t get rid of them, I just can’t – all those great patterns! Possibilities!) from sewing friends, and lo, another two more years of caftans! They’re always shown over bikinis – with a slightly higher waisted one, I’m fine, but the days of the string side-tie bikini for me, well, they are both asleep upstairs, having stretched out my belly to the max.

So, maybe the caftan is the Euro answer for the maxi dress? No, they have several years of those, too, but the caftan, it always is there, in some gauzy chiffon print. Anyway, I probably would really like the caftan – it’s like a maxi dress only a bit more coverage (albeit sheer). They even show kid caftans!

Just an observation. Another one: I love these patterns. Love BurdaStyle. So many years of great style – for me, for the kids, for the home. I know it’s been hard lately with all the business travel hubby is doing (I am surrounded by a mountain of laundry – and there is more washing and drying and on the floor!) to keep up with home, work, kids and squeeze in time for sewing, too. But I’ll get to it next Tuesday Sewing Night.

Of course I say this every summer – but I will spruce up my porch and patio with DIY stuff – chair cushions or covers, lanterns, big floor cushions, something. I’m just never sure of our deck space, something is off about it, it’s too tall or something. I need to bring the ‘ceiling’ down somehow on it. So, if I do that, then there’s a place to wear that caftan, over my bikini, watching the kiddos in the kiddie pool and sprinkler A thoroughly modern urban mom.

Update: I posted all about how I wouldn’t wear a low cut bikini any more and today someone posted a pic of Julia Roberts on a mom-site facebook post, looking mAHvelous in a bikini with yeah, that stretched out mama twin skin tummy thing from her twin pregnancy (!) and I thought, hurrah! she looked happy and fabulous. And there’s a woman with a camera trained on her all the time. No one will ever care about me or my belly, no one will take a photo of it and post some snarky comment about it. And if they did, I’d just say that I earned my two miracle babies, blood, sweat, tears and forty four grand to get them both. That I loved each of their pregnancies, feeling their little bodies growing and stretching inside of me, and that they were among the most joyful times of my life. Hell, yes. If Julia can do it, so can I. Thanks, Julia, for just being yourself.

One of my favorite fabric stores is closing. Fabric Gallery in a small town east of here (Williamston, MI) is closing as the owner is retiring. She always has some great stuff, and today’s grand closing sale was no exception. I am so glad I skipped yesterday’s opening day – I’m told it was a crush of people, and today felt incredibly busy!

I picked up two pieces of polartec – one has a really nice gray/taupe pattern on one windproof/water resistant side, with microfleece on the other. The other is stretch powertech with smooth knit face and fleece inside, for leggings. I’ll finally make that uuber chic running/bicycling/cross country skiing jacket I’ve been threatening for at least a decade. I’ve never seen anything like this fabric before either – it looks so chic but is a tech fabric.

I also picked up a piece of pink silk charmeuse – going to make a pillowcase dress for Eyrin, and a pillowcase top for myself (I don’t know what else you call these, they’re A-line tops/dresses with drawstring necklines and wide silk ties threaded through them. I also got a really interesting heavy silk in a black and magenta giant chevron pattern. Maybe a cool jacket. And the piece de resistance, leopard print oilcloth – to make my peanut a really cool rain coat for next fall! She picked it out herself! (nice taste!)

We started the day with a run (mama) with kids on bikes/in jogger, and capped the fabric store shopping with a 13 mile bike ride, and ended the day on the porch, cuddling.

I’ve been trying to figure out what to wear to a summer wedding up north in Michigan, at a yacht club. My youngest brother’s wedding, no less, so I can’t be a slouch and grab whatever nice dress might be hanging in the closet. Have to think about this.  I have a vintage layered chiffon strapless maxi dress with a high-low hem (slightly raised in front hem).

But I also have a piece of gorgeous turquoise printed silk charmeuse that is begging to be a strapless maxi dress, too. Either one would work. I have seen a sewing pattern of a handbag I’d like to buy – and a handbag in a boutique I’d like to buy (both clutches) so we’ll see where we end up with the bag. But either way, this maxi dress begs to be sewn up in the gorgeous silk. The only hard thing will be NOT wearing it til the wedding! (probably not possible or practical anyway).

I pinned this tute on Pinterest about a month ago -  DIY maxi dress tute. though I’d make the alteration to add a curved top edge in front and a dipped back edge in back – the dress will fit and look better (in the model photo on the blog you’ll see how the fabric looks bunchy in back and the waistline pulls up in front, this is why). It’s a simple alteration with a french curve and it can be done once – with a single piece of fabric and the top front and top back curves the same exact line (instead of cutting the top straight across, you cut the curve and one becomes front, the other, back.)

This is definitely on my must-sew-for-summer list. Shopping the stash too, love. There are others, too. Jalie’s 3612 (or is it 3216) the nursing hoodie, definitely on the list. Wide leg linen pants (I swear THIS summer I will make those!) a couple of pairs of summer dressy pants for work, at least one jacket and as many of my nursing tops and dresses as I can sew.

This is probably the second to last summer (hubby thinks last, but I disagree) that I’ll nurse my son, and he’s my last baby. So I really want to sew for this. In the end, I’ll sell all my lovely nursing clothes to some mother from La Leche League. Pregnancy was such a short time, and I never sewed as much as I wanted, but heck, you nurse for years. And you know how I am about functional clothing!

Nursing in a strapless dress requires a bit of coverup, so I went looking for some summer-weight and summer-width scarves. Love the colors (and the price!) of these cotton striped scarves from Scarves.net. I think the orange-yellow one would contrast nicely with the turquoise silk dress. And at 11″ wide it’s still big enough to drape across clevage when the dress is pulled down to nurse. And heck, at that price, I might order several colors.