The boys both got into Halloween this year. I found a cowboy vest in Leo's closet that my mom brought back from Mexico a few years ago and I found the perfect pants and hat (for a dollar each) at the thrift store. He was missing boots, but he didn't notice. Peter's kindergarten doesn't celebrate Halloween exactly, but they concluded a month-long unit on nursery rhymes with a dress-up-as-a-nursery-rhyme-character party on Friday, complete with Humpty Dumpty drop -- we got to protect an egg somehow then they graphed how many kids' eggs broke when pushed off a shelf. My Odyssey of the Mind days and 8th grade state Math Counts competition (where my team won nearly that exact challenge) came flooding back. We ended up tearing out sheets from a magazine, rolling them up, and curling them around the egg with masking tape. According to Peter, it survived the five foot fall, along with 14 of the other 16 eggs. Anywho, Peter decided to be Little Boy Blue, which would never have been guessed by any neighbors who saw him accompanied by a cowboy, but Peter didn't mind. They both finally mastered saying "Trick or Treat" and thank you and no one needed to be carried home. We went up and down our block, and to the house behind us and everybody was happy.
I started sewing for my niece last night -- here's what I've got so far:
This was from Made by Rae's Itty Bitty dress pattern. The bottom uses bias tape I found in the box of notions I got from my grandma (who use to sew 30 outfits a month for a church group and sewed all of my mom's clothes throughout her childhood. She's still alive at 93 now, but strokes and joint pain have ended her sewing days). I found a video on attaching the tape, which worked great. Unfortunately, I got a lot of extra practice when I realized that I put the tape of the top edge of the skirt. Then I figured that I could use more tape on the bottom of the bodice instead of piping, but didn't realize until I was done that the tape would be within the seam allowance. It's a very pretty inner seam now. The bodice is lined with yellow cotton.
Last Christmas, I made my BIL a pair of flannel pants. It's not girly, but I figure matching Daddy will be worth some blue. I realized I don't have a newborn pants pattern (how is that possible?) and I didn't even have any good ones around to reverse-engineer. The best I could find was a pair of Hanna Andersson size 60 loose pants. I traced those, figuring that by not adding a seam allowance, they'd be a bit smaller and hopefully fit my 7 1/2 lb niece. In hindsight, they are crazy-wide and I cut an inch off the side seam of the pattern for future use, but hopefully they'll fit well enough to make use of.
Anybody know any great dress patterns in 3 month size I could use to make a Christmas dress? The internet is failing me. I thought girls' clothes were the easy ones.
