Out of my closet and into theirs

All the stillbirth Gowns and blankets have been turned it. She (the bereavement nurse) was delighted by what I gave her. From the sounds of it, they will take a long lengthy time to get used up. which is good, cause I honestly hope they never have to be used.

On top of the ones i got pictures of, I did make two more in the medium size that in a white tone on tone fabric. Those ended up looking slightly more boyish. I'm going to look into getting a Big 3 pattern on sale and see if I can scale down one of the boyish baptismal outfits down to size.

I also gave her the heirloom sacque I made since I really have no other use for it.

We have great plans on what we'd like the bereavement support to look like. Our goal is to make sure everyone has all the attention they want so we might "offend" some who wish we would bother them as much. But at least we catch all the people who want the attention.

A few more Gowns

I finished sewing the gowns that I cut out yesterday. Making a total of five gowns. Not really in love with the pattern, but the choices are few and far between. Here's what they look like none the less:

I can't see any differences in the three sizes except for the fact the length varies. The slight increase in the yoke is so minimal I'm weary that they will fit the spectrum of sizes they are suppose to. Also not very boyish.

I picked up some white fabric today, I'll try to fiddle with another pattern, hopefully those will look more boyish to me.

Where have I been?

Not being crafty that's for sure. I have made a few more mock ups of training pants but don't like what the results turn out to be. I am doing some light smocking this evening but having a hard time staying focused.

I need inspiration, but I don't need another project to add to the stash. Sigh.

Personal Sewing Time

SqueekMoo had a late nap. I should I known better than to let him catch a nap so late in the day, but he was so tired and i really wasn't in the mood to deal with a grumpy cranky little one. I think I have a mild cold.

Knowing he had a late nap, I didn't rush to put him to bed. We took out sweet time. He eat the left overs of his dinner when he ought to have already gone to sleep. I laid down with him for a while, but eventually he got tired of laying and played in his room.


I wanted to play with my sewing machine, and so I decided that if he was going to stay up he was going to have to amuse himself without me. Which is able to thankfully.

So I finished up the last of the little quilts I had pinned and ready:

I had a size extra tiny gown that had already been prepped, pleated, sewn and had the first row of smocking in. I was able to finish all the smocking on it tonight.

Catching up!

Wow so much has happened since I last posted. Or perhaps it just feels that way.

I did finish the stillborn gown before going on holiday. It looks wonderful. I can't wait to get a few more done and donate them. The camera is charging when its down I'll post a picture.

I'm going to start making some training pants for SqueekMoo. So I've done some cloth diapering shopping. I was able to get a set of snap pliers off eBay for $19 with shipping. It probably would have been cheaper to do a bundle deal of snaps and pliers, but I haven't picked out fabric yet so I didn't want to limit my fabric with snap color choice issues.

I'm going to be rearranging the crafting area soon, so there may be a lag in craftiness. I want to have a more efficient work area.

The to do list for the week is said rearranging, but I'm hoping to work on some charity quilting and smocking.

Late night chilling

There were many things last year I wrote off as being pregnant. Nope it's simply a matter of me. I think my body perfers that I sleep from 3 am to 10 am. Alas the world prefers you not to. With a toddler who needs to get out and about thing, starting the day at 10 isn't good. However as of late I've been making it work.

This said SqueekMoo goes to bed around 8 to 9 pm. It can take as little as five minuets to an hour and half for him to fall asleep. I sit in his bed till he falls asleep, bad habit to teach him, but it works. MacMac goes to bed around the same time, espect on the weekends when he sometimes stays up with me. Alas not tonight.

I got in another round of Wii Fit. I hope I can turn that into a good habit. I'm shooting for twenty minuets of exercise, which requires about thirty minuets of using the Wii Fit. I hope over time i go thirty minuets.

After that I got in another row of smocking. It was a start at the center row to make sure the design ended up center. The first pass went quickly, but the second pass is working from the center leftwards. I've been doing these type of passes with my left hand, and as a righty its has been really slow goings. Half way through this tedious round, I thought of something brilliant. I turned the gown upside down and worked it with my right hand. Tension might be a tad off but I was no longer slowed down by using my non-dominate hand. 

I decided to catch up on the blogs I follow. Alas most haven't had any updates, or the few that have been the posts weren't thrilling. However my favorite blog has been acting weird, and so tonights read was WONDERFUL. For some reason i hadn't been able to read any of the updates since March, but today it updated itself and I had pages full of wonderful entries to read. To be honest I actually haven't read the entire blog yet. I really want to.

The site I'm talking about is: http://sew.ciety.net/ it documents the costuming education of a young lady in Britain. She entries are very in depth with a wealth of information.

I think I'll read another page of entries and smock another row before heading to bed.

Tangled threads

Got a fair amount of smocking prep work done last night. I serged and pleated two newborn, one preemie, and one extra tiny stillborn gown. 

Well didn't quite get the second newborn sized gown pleated. SqueekMoo woke up a second time. The first time he cried and iw as able to walk in and put him back to bed with no troubles. The second time he waltzed right into our room without a word dragging his pillows behind him and was so sweet I just had to stop what I was working on and go to bed with him. It was also four in the morning.

Haven't had a chance to go finishing pleating that one gown though. DH decided to let SqueekMoo play with my pleater. He was kind enough to take out the needles, but let SqueekMoo terrorize the thread. sigh.

I was going to hold off smocking the gown for my trip, but I couldn't resist. i'd be so much more productive if I kept a steady stream of preped gowns on hand. But I don't so I don't finishing nearly as many as i could. Bad me.

But I did get three row of smocking on a newborn sized gowns. the rows are much much more longer than the tiny extra smalls that i had worked on last.

I did goof when i was pleating the ones I did last night. I cut the pleater thread way too short. It doable but not the best method. I'll have to remember next time not the short change the threads.

Talking about smocking. I picked up a book from the library recently. The book itself wasn't too terribly interesting, however there was a picture of a dress done up with a hint of smocking that I really liked. I showed it to MacMac and he said it was a very me sort of thing. So I looked into it and found there is a pattern for it! It's called Mother and Daughter jumper by Contessa.

While SqueekMoo naps

SqueekMoo isn't sure if he still wants his afternoon nap. From a crafting point of view is very unpredictable. But today he decided to take one. I probably should wake him so he'll go to sleep early tonight, but honestly i don't care. As long as I get some crafting time in the afternoon or evening I have no worries. It's when he decides to not nap and stays up late that I'm sad.

Today I work on stillborn gown prep work. Basically I spend my time cutting and pinning. Next time I work I'll work on sewing, ironing, and serging. That then leaves me with a bundle of gowns all ready to be smocked at my leisure. Granted I did this a couple of weeks ago and managed to misplace some of my preped gowns.

Today I cut and pinned two newborn gowns. Its the size that the hospital is currently running low on... okay low as of a month ago. I know my two gowns really wont do much to build up a supply but that's two more babies who have something instead of nothing.

When I get around to actually smocking these two, I'm thinking about using this or this. Perhaps one of each, who knows.

What's on the Project table this week

I'm in the middle of so many projects! Thankfully all of them are destine to be complete... I hope.

Doll for SqueekMoo. I started version one back in December. I made the doll and stuffed it, however the attempt to give her wig hair failed. So she was put on hold for some time. Recently Squeekmoo showed some interest in yarn hair as a substitute for mommy hair, so I quickly gave the version on yarn hair. Well MacMac has called it Cher one to many times and so I'm working on version two. Version on was a well endowed historical-ish cloth doll to dress up in historical garb. Version two is actually meant for to be a child's play thing. At this time I'm currently in the middle of stuffing her. After that its sew her head on, give her hair, and give her clothes and hopefully SqueekMoo will dote on her hair instead of mine at bed time.

Play Date Bag. Have to cut out lining and sew it all together. I have decided a little velco will be in order. I'm continplating velco and a zipper for the next version but we shall see.

Stillborn gown. I guess I get in the mood to make these during certain holidays. In these case Father's Day just went by and we reflected on Matthew in our personal ways. Anyways it got me in the mood to work on them. Reminded me I need to do more prep work so that when the mood strikes I don't have to waste time getting to the good part. I had to undo all the stitches of the last one I made, but I only have row to stitch of the current one. I hope to get a couple done this month.

I'm also going to start a photo word book for SqueekMoo. Basically get some pictures of some words he knows, and words we hope he'll learn. Write the words in nice capital letters and stick the pictures in a photo album. If these works I'll probably make him a Photo Alphabet book as well. Key thing I'm hoping out of the first photo book is we are going to visit form relatives and I think it would be wonderful if SqueekMoo could already identify them.

And that's what's on the project table...

Knowing when to move on

I had been very diligent in making the heirloom sacques, however I basically hit a wall. An inspiration wall that is. When I become uninspired in something I drag my feet and nothing gets done. What's worse is when I ignore that fact that I'm uninspired and become unproductive for some time.

That's what been going on that past two weeks is fighting "being good" with "uninspired." Had I given up on being good about staying focus on one task I would have at least accomplished something. The new rule is I can only work on works in progress projects, which in this case was perfectly fine. I wanted to work on one of my side projects.

Tonight I gave into the whim. I cut out the fabric for five stillborn gowns. I think I'm awake enough to iron what I cut. If I'm lucky I'll probably even mark the armholes. Tomorrow if all goes well I hope to serge, sew, and pleat.

Saturday my in-laws are coming. We tend to do a great deal of driving when we are around them, so I want to have some small hand projects to stay busy and productive on the drives. Smocking is the perfect distraction.