It's SEW easy ... Ha!

After a whole month...yes, a whole month...I am finally finished sewing Iris' bedroom curtains!  You didn't know I was even sewing any for her room, did you?  I painted her room last summer to transition the room from being the baby nursery to the little sister room and the color combination changed from bold green walls with white stripes and orange polka dots to a light turquoise with lavender stripes and various coordinating accents.  Well, let me tell you, the painting was the easiest because the coordinating accents have proven to be incredibly difficult!  One awesome thing we did was convert a dresser to a bookshelf for her and we painted it the same lavender that's on the walls so that really helps the turquoise pop and balances the blue of the room with the lavender stripes.  I found the idea on Pinterest (surprise, right) and Book did all the hard work to convert it.  It definitely was not as easy a project as a lot of pinners make it look.  Dang, I just looked for pics and can't find any.  I know Book has a bunch so I'll write another post about that project later. 

Anyhoo, back to the curtains.  I was searching, searching, searching for the "perfect" fabric for her and just kept finding the wrong things.  I was really frustrated because finding B3's curtain fabric was so easy!  It took me a long time to finally admit that I was quite possibly searching for a "perfect" that did not really exist for 2 reasons: 1) it had to have a lavender background and lavender is not a "hot" color right now and 2) Iris is very back & forth & up & down & all around regarding things she likes at any given time.  Oy.  Once I accepted I was not going to find "perfect" fabric, my search was made easier and I pretty quickly decided on one of my "fall-back" fabrics that I had identified as a potential winner over the summer.  Here it is:

Now, I just have to tell you that I've sewed several sets of curtains at this point.  I've sewn the dining room valances and I also B3s curtains for his room.  Curtains are easy.  Just a series of straight lines and ironing and such.  Easy.  Unless you mess up like I did.  I was incredibly frustrated with myself for making this project difficult.  First, I measured incorrectly.  Yes, you read that right.  I broke the cardinal rule of cutting - I only measured once!  Luckily, my mistake wasn't so terrible that it couldn't be accommodated with some design changes because I cut the panels only slightly too short (and not as wide as I initially intended but they still turned out all right). Second, I was working only during Iris' naps and a bit here and there after dinner and the little snatches of time versus just spending 1 or 2 blocks of time on the project caused me to make mistakes due to rushing or being tired or whatever the case was.  I ripped out a lot of stitches which I'm embarrassed to admit.  The design initially had me making 4 simple rectangular panels but since I cut the length too short, I ended up adding a 3 inch ruffle to the bottoms.  This mistake turned out to be a blessing in disguise because the ruffle actually makes the curtains super cute and definitely feminine.  Although, since I'm confessing here, I hate sewing ruffles!  They're easy in theory but take a lot of time and patience to execute and my machine hates them!  I'm serious.  My sewing machine does not like any bulky fabric bits!  Grrr. 

A few things to note: the stripes don't have anything in them yet because I have not yet decided what to put in them - thinking about bunnies and butterflies but not totally committed yet, you can see a corner of the dresser Book turned into a bookshelf, the coat rack in the corner is currently Iris' closet because we have some funky closets in this house (1940!) that we are still puzzling over how to reconfigure to accommodate the kids.  In short, the room is taking shape but very slowly.

Ok, so the big reveal!

BEFORE (with funky lighting, hmm)

AFTER

AFTER (other window in room - no before pic)

Sewing - Pajama Pants

I recently sewed 2 pair of pajama pants for Little Man.  I used fabric I had just lying around the house and both pairs are perfectly gender neutral so Urban Cowbaby can wear them too.  1 pair came out a bit wonky because, despite the fact I ripped out the elastic twice, the elastic seemed to be measured incorrectly both times.  The result is they are a bit big around the waist and we have to pull them up a lot.  But they're pajama pants so he only has them on for a bit before he goes to bed and they don't seem to bother him when he's sleeping. 

Also, very high on my list of sewing to-dos is to make Little Man 2 pajama shirts using old t-shirts.  I'm going to ask Little Man's Opa if he has any t-shirts he's willing to donate to the cause.  All of Urban Cowboy's shirts are too small as you need an XL size shirt.  I'm also going to solicit donations of old ribbed tanks from a few friends - I just recently cleaned out my collection or I would use one of mine.

Anyway, remember when I made the sweater pillow?  Well, I was left with the sleeves of the sweater and I still haven't thrown them out or repurposed them.  Currently, I'm torn between two options: 1) make them into another pair of pajama pants for Little Man.  I found a few tutorials that make it seem simple/easy but I'm a bit lost on one crucial step so hesitating or 2) make them into 2 rice heat bags with lavendar scent.  The lavendar is from my garden that I brought in and dryed.  So, I guess I'll keep you updated.

Maybe someday I'll even post a pic of Little Man modeling the pj pants.  Hahaha

Fun with Fabric!

A picture of Bohdan's curtain fabric for his big boy room...

1/2 the lining fabric is cut already, plan to cut out the remaining lining fabric panels tonight or tomorrow.  My goal, overall, is to try and have the curtains completed by next weekend ... we'll see - it's a lofty goal.

Shalalala - Live for Today

WHAT ARE YOU LOVING TODAY?
Today I love:
- my hair!  During pregnancy my hair actually looks good more than it looks bad which is a total switch from when I'm not pregnant.  I'll be a tiny bit sad when it starts going back to its normal non-pregnant state.
- Sirius radio!  Totally transforms my driving experience!  It's part educational RE: who sang what & when and it's part thrilling to be able to choose the genre I want to listen to in that moment.  Rarely in the old car did I crank it up - but in this car I crank it up all the time!  I'll be sad if/when we don't have Sirius anymore.
- my new piece of furniture!  I wish I had a pic to show you ... the link's been deactivated already ... I did modify it a bit though, to make it more open and it needed a really thorough bath and I need to buy new door hardware for it.  Overall, I think it's going to work for us and I'm super-pleased!
- my husband!  I've been slightly hormonal (read: psychotic) lately and he appears to still love me even after I've had a temper-tantrum over a random thing ... except, Urban Cowboy, if you're reading this, yesterday's tantrum wasn't hormones and it wasn't random, either!  LOL
- blooming daffodils & hyacinths!  Now, if only it could get warm enough for the other flowers to start their thing!
- texting!  I didn't know what I was missing before!
- my garage sale pile!  It's getting bigger and bigger and hopefully I won't have to bring any of it home with me.  I need less stuff to manage, keep organized, or store.
- my sewing machine!  Last weekend I sewed a new bathroom curtain while Urban Cowbay napped his afternoon nap.  Soon, his big boy bedroom curtain fabric will be here and I'll be able to get started on that project.
- my awesome family and friends!  'nuf said and that love is all the time, you know.
WHAT ARE YOU LOVING TODAY?

Sew Much To Do

Yesterday evening I spent 1.25 hours repurposing an old sweater into a pillow.  That's right, people, I spent valuable time making a sweater into a pillow for no real reason - ok, that's not true, I made it for several reasons: 1) I'm continuing to do little sewing projects to get myself uber-comfortable with my new sewing machine to build my confidence so I can move onto bigger, more important projects and 2) it was a sweater I am slightly sentimentally attached to and just couldn't pass it on and 3) it was a sweater from the early-90's and, therefore, did not really need to be recirculated into the general population considering how out of fashion it was.  Think Dr. Huxtable meets Iraq War patriotism!  LOL  (see the picture?  well, my sweater was very similar to the blanket shown)  My goal is to do something worthwhile and productive every day until UCB2 is born.  We kick-started it this weekend with making a TON of progress on transforming the guest room into Urban Cowbaby's Big Boy Room.  Tonight?  Maybe I'll begin on the dining room valance project that's been taunting me for months ...