The sun’s coming out!

Maybe my last post came across a bit too strong. I forget how difficult it is to communicate emotions and intent in an electronic format. The night I wrote that post my husband suggested that I consider going on antidepressants! Okay, okay, I’m not that upset. Just disappointed.

But not to worry. My husband finally agreed to a sleep schedule that now affords me/us 8 hours of sleep 5 nights a week, so I should have more energy soon. And I was told that I should be receiving an offer letter in two weeks for an online ESL teaching job that I’d do in the evenings, while Sophia sleeps. So, two major stressors, sleep-deprivation and finances, are being addressed! And… the sun is coming out. REALLY! Which means that I can take Sophia to the park and leave the house more often. I am a child born of the summer. And I need to be outside. And I need sunshine. And I need to let my little girl run round in more than 300 square feet all day long.

But I also need creative outlets and challenges… which brings me back to this petal top, and sewing in general. I snuck (apparently not a real word) in that “sewing in general” part because part of my excuse for my lack of progress on this petal top is that I’ve had other sewing deadlines: my daughter and I were invited to a fairy-themed costume birthday party and I had to make something for her to wear! I didn’t have the cash to go out and buy fabric for it, so I used some fabric that was in my mom’s garage for years and then served as a canopy over our bed for a year or so, but spent the last year or so wadded up in my sewing stuff.

I did a lot of research on methods for securing the wings to Sophia’s back. I finally concluded that it would be easiest to use some wire ribbon. I put it through the center of the fabric bunch that is the middle of the wings so that I had more than a foot hanging out on each side. Then I had Sophia stand while I put the wings where I wanted them on her back and I pulled each ribbon end over her shoulders and then back under her arm pits and tied them in a bow on her back, just below the center of her wings. I hope that made sense. It worked really well — she couldn’t take it off and it didn’t seem to rub or hurt her anywhere, either.

I also made presents for star of the party, who turned three. She likes dressing her dollies, but I didn’t know which dollies or what size to make the clothes, so I made an apron. She likes pink, but I don’t have much pink, so I used the only pink I had. I didn’t like the apron, so I made two bibs. Elmo was a great model. One thing I’d change, though, is that I wouldn’t make the bibs tie closed. I’d use snaps or velcro so that little fingers wouldn’t have to learn to tie a box in order to play dress-up, or tea, or whatever.

I have started sewing the petal top… more about that in my next post.

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