Enjoying The Baby

  As you may have guessed, I haven't been doing much creating since Beckers arrived. I've been far too busy cuddling little limbs and kissing tiny, soft cheeks.

  And of course when I do sit down to sew I only have a few minutes before somebody needs my attention. =)

  I wanted to pop in though, and show you the lovely gifts my friend Karen sent our way. For Beckers, she created this lovely smocked bonnet:

 Isn't it beautiful? And it's just darling on Beckers:

  See the tiny, hand-embroidered roses? They are so perfectly sewn.

  I love it! =) And Karen didn't forget about the older sisters either... she sent two darling books for them, and some lovely scented soap for me.

  I forgot to take a photo, but it was all beautifully packaged and just perfect. =) And to top it all off, Karen sent a separate box of fabric for when I have time to sew again. =)

  And now I must go cuddle my children.

  Especially this one, who is growing far too quickly for my tastes:

  Oh, and I love having them in coordinating clothes. Booper is wearing her scalloped skirt, Gaiw is wearing her simple contrast band skirt, and Beckers is wearing her Little Geranium, which fits better than I'd dared to hope. =)

Thanks for stopping by!

Morning Glory Tinny Flip

Perhaps you've heard of the Flip This Pattern series over at Frances Suzanne. It's a fun, year-long series with guest bloggers who take a specified pattern (this month it's the Tinny pattern) and make it their own. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was working on a pattern flip... I'm joining the sew-along, and I'm barely squeaking in!

 

  

  Obviously, the arrival of a newborn slowed things down dramatically in the sewing department, but I also got confused and thought the link-up ended next week. And of course there were multitudes of sewing mishaps and failures, not the least of which was a serger that I had to re-thread thrice to get rid of tension problems.

  Anyway! Here's what I changed: I divided the skirt into 8 sections and added a pink triangular insert between each section, along with some yellow piping. I made a mistake here and had to go back and add 8 white panels down the center of each section to make the skirt large enough, but it still has the look that I wanted. The pink panels each have boning in the hem, which didn't curve them out as much as I had hoped, but do help stiffen the hem and add to the 'flower' look.

  I added a handkerchief-style overlay to the skirt, two fluttery green layers bound with a darker green bias, which is top-stitched with pretty pink wavy stitching. I made some of the green bias tape into piping add added that in the petal cuffs-turned-leaves, which are tacked to the sleeves with tiny little pink flowers. The bodice is all of green, like a stem, but the thing that took me the most time on this dress was the collar:

  I embroidered a butterfly on the butterfly-style collar, and learned 12 new stitches in the process... it was a lot of fun, and I really love how the lower half of the butterfly turned out. I learned all of the new stitches from this incredibly helpful and convenient stitch and picture dictionary. I was originally planning to add piping in the collar too, but decided against it at the last minute. I was hoping to add a butterfly on the other side of the collar as well, but I found out that the link-up ended a week earlier than I'd thought right as I finished the first side, and didn't have nearly enough time for all that embroidery.

  So there you have it, my morning-glory inspired Tinny flip. It was awaited with anticipation and delightedly put on the moment it was finished by this one:

 

 

  What do you think? Do you this is a successful pattern flip?

Thanks for stopping by!

Beckers Has Arrived!

  This little one:

  Was born yesterday! She arrived on her due date, early in the morning. I went into labor around 2:30 in the morning, and only 2 hours later she was born, in the car on the way to the hospital.

    She doesn't do things conventionally.  =) But here she is, tiny and adorable! She is beautifully healthy, and sure of what she wants.

 
  Labor started in hard, no gentle contractions leading up to it, but I waited until just past 3 am, shifting positions to see if the contractions would slow down or soften, before waking my husband.

  Once I was sure they weren't stopping, we called my mother-in-love so she could come watch Booper and Gaiw. Then began an incredibly long hour while she made the long drive from her home to ours. While we waited, Joshua fueled up our car and put our bags in it, and I tried to relax.

  By the time my mother-in-love arrived, the contractions were a bare 2 minutes apart, and very intense, so we left immediately for the hospital... a 50-minute drive from our house. Not 20 minutes into the drive, the contractions started coming right on top of each other, the second beginning before the first ebbed. "My water just broke," I said, before two more contractions piled in. I think I moaned, and Joshua asked if I was okay. "She's coming really fast!" was all I could manage, trying to fight the urge to push, so he asked if he needed to pull over. I squeezed out a 'yes' and by the time he pulled off the road, all of 20 seconds, Beckers' head was halfway out. He called his mother, then an ambulance, and caught Beckers with one hand while directing the ambulance to our location. All of the pain disappeared, and there she was, in my arms, all messy and tiny and perfect.

  It only took 10 minutes for the ambulance to arrive, but it seemed like forever. I wrapped Beckers in the skirt I was wearing to keep her warm, and fed her. The paramedics were impressed by how calm we were. They cut the cord and brought us to the hospital, where everything was checked and was perfectly normal and healthy. We stayed in hospital overnight for monitoring purposes, and were released today... a huge blessing, since I am not fond of being in the hospital.

  Welcome to the world, tiny beautiful Beckers. We love you. =)

PS: Beckers is wearing her Itty Bitty Baby dress. It's a perfect fit. =)

 

In Progress...

   I haven't sewn much this week, due to an unfortunate encounter with a virus, but I thought you might like a peek at what I'm working on:

 
  This is a fun pattern flip that I'm working on. It will include embroidery on the collar, piping on the collar, cuffs, and skirt panels, binding on the skirt overlays, boning in parts of the hem, 33 pieces of fabric, and 8 pieces of interfacing. I'm hoping it turns out at least somewhat like the mental image I have.... There's a lot more green than I initially thought there would be, and a lot less white. I want to have it finished by the end of August, but we'll see what happens! =)

Thanks for stopping by!