I’m calling my version of this top the “hippy top.” Emma’s instructions have you sew a ribbon on top of the fabric at the bottom, where I decided to sew in that crocheted bit. And she has you make a fabric flower, which I have never liked and I thought might make the top hang funny if it were to weigh it down somehow.

Here’s my advice for this top:

1. Don’t make it in the smallest size — ages 2-3 — (that’s what I did and it just made things harder). Or, if you insist on making it in the smallest size, make the nightdress (page 84) first. The nightdress is the same pattern, but the body pieces are longer. Why follow this advice? If you make the smallest size, then the sleeves will be almost the same size and shape as the body pieces and you’ll spend some frustrating minutes trying to align all the pieces. Also, when you go to put in the elastic for the neck and the ends of the sleeves, it’s trickier with less fabric and thus less room for error.

2. Prepare yourself for very careful work on Step 4, when turning under the neck and sleeves to make room for the elastic. It’s frustrating to do on a curve, but at least it’s going to be all bunched up anyway, so there is room for error there.

3. If you make the smallest size, cut your elastic strips to 16″ and 9″. Emma tells you to make a 24″ strip for the neck and 2 10″  strips for the sleeves, and then to measure you kid to make sure. I followed her directions for the neck and found that it was waaay too long, so then I made the lengths for the sleeves only 8″ and that’s a bit tight. It might be that Sophia has funny proportions, but when I go to make the nightdress I’m going to make a 24″ one and 2 10″ ones. Or, maybe I’ll just make the net size up.

This top is for sale on etsy.

We recently decided to start potty-training our wonderful 21-month-old daughter, Sophia. I thought she was beyond ready for it. I was soooo wrong. So I’ve been 150% focused on that — and keeping a blog about it here:

http://amundgaards.com/parentsJuly2010.aspx

At this point I think we’ll take a 2-month break starting tomorrow. But maybe I’ll wake up tomorrow feeling stronger…? Anyway, I’ll be back soon with pics of the petal top. In the meantime, feel free to follow our poopy escapades.  :)

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.

When I started this blog, it was as part of a project to sew my way through Emma Hardy’s book of stuff to sew for children. At first, I thought the stuff I was making was so great that I should sell it all on http://www.etsy.com/shop/sophiasshop or give it to friends and family as gifts. But now that it’s been over a month since I’ve posted the three items that I have for sale there, and they’ve each been viewed more than 20 times with no sale, I’m beginning to regret this whole project.

Part of the problem is pricing. How should I be pricing my stuff? At first I thought that prices should be set by the market (I studied business in university). So I looked around on Etsy to see what other crafters were charging. I found some beautiful things selling for much cheaper than I wanted to sell my things. For example, if I spent a couple evening sewing a beautiful pair of booties, that would be about 6 hours of time, plus the cost of the materials. If I charged just $5/hour, then I’d want to charge at least $35 per pair. But I found prettier shoes for sale for $14! So I decided to charge $20 and hope that I’d learn to sew them faster.

Another problem with selling on Etsy is the cost of shipping. I live in Canada. If someone in the States orders my baby booties, their total price will be at least $26 — I see no way around that. There’s postage and a box and taxes… and some Etsy sellers (like my sister-in-law) gift-wrap every item you buy for free! How is that cost included?

Etsy is fabulous for marketing. I can’t believe that my three items have already been viewed by 20 different people! But I’m guessing that they might all be friends of my who me advertising them on facebook, so maybe I should stick to facebook and give up on Etsy? Or maybe… I need to go back to what I learned in the Business School at the University of Texas… competitive advantage. If someone else can make baby booties better and/or cheaper than I can, then I should let them do that, and specialize in what I can do better and/or cheaper. This kind of thinking, though, leads me down way too many painful paths: what can I do well? who I am? what was I made for? is it okay to be “just” a mom and play with Sophia all day? do I have to be productive in order to be satisfactory? why does it seem like I’m good enough at so many disparate things, but not really good at anything? As well as why are we so poor? why is the economy so crappy right now?

I think I need to just finish this “petal top” and move on the next pattern in Emma’s book. I need to finish this project and then move on and try to find my niche. Maybe it’s making elf socks (I made these up last night in a mad rush to get a costume together for Sophia to wear to a friend’s little girl’s third birthday party — we’re supposed to come dressed as fairies or elves).

I made these out a pair of my socks and then I put dots of puffy paint on the soles so that she can walk around on hard surfaces with some grip. I also made a fairy skirt and fairy wings, but I’m still trying to work out how to attach the wings to her back…

Maybe I should stick to being a mom. But somehow I need to start bringing home some cash… right?

So I’ve had this pair of (boot cut) jeans for almost 8 years now, but I’ve never really been happy with them because the inseam (I think that’s what it’s called?) curved around to the front of my left calf (ignore my “mom” body… I’m no model). And now that it’s summer and I need a pair of shorts (a longer, more modest pair), I decided to make a really girly pair, with ruffles and all…

I used seam binding/hem tape on the inside and outside, to finish it off smoothly…

Now I want to make a tank top to go with them, but that might be waaay too girly… we’ll see if I can find some way to make it a bit rough/unfinished, or something.

Anyway, this is what I’ve been up to, instead of making that petal top. Now my husband and I are going to try to make a room divider from old closet doors … and then I’ll get back to the petal top — really!

And then I removed the “hair” from the orange one.

But I will stop now — really. I’ve already cut out the pieces of the petal top… so I’m truly on to that one now…  :)

I think that Elmo makes a creepy toque-model, so next I tried “Packer Bear.”

Only slightly less creepy, so I decided to ask/bribe Sophia to take a break from her pasta feast and model the hat for me… earlier I’d made the mistake of telling her that it was a for a baby, so she was really not too keen to try it on…

Now on to making the “petal top” …

I made this hat (it’s really more of a toque, but Emma calls it a hat) in about 3 hours, while watching and playing with my 21-month-old daughter. I used an old T-shirt, like Emma suggested, and was even able to save time hemming by using the hem from the T-shirt. The only hard part is the top-stitching required for the inner-ears, but it’s so small, it goes by quickly.

I added the “hair” in — a little change to Emma’s pattern that I’m not sure I’ll make again… Same with the zig-zag stitch at the bottom — I was trying to play up the yellow and orange theme, but I think it’s a bit much. I was trying to make the toque more masculine, or at least have it work for both genders, but I think that with the ribbon around the ears, it has to be for a girl… and the pattern definitely requires those ribbons around the ears.

I wish I’d had a real infant here to model the hat for me, but I guess we’ll just have to settle for a T-shirt wadded up in it. It’s for sale on Etsy here.

I’m going to make another one now, just because it’s so easy.  :)

I wish the colors in the photo were more true, but this will do for now. I have to admit that I like it. And that the appliqué and the home-made bias tape really add a lot to it. I’m glad I stuck with it.

I thought I’d note that slip-stitching, once you get the hang of it, is not really so hard after all. But a few things could make it even easier, if you:

1. made your bias tape of a fabric that contrasts with your backing fabric, it would be very easy to tell when you’re pushing your needle through backing or bias
2. slip-stitched with a thread that was exactly the same color as the towelling on the front of the bib, then if you occasionally poked your needle all the way though, you wouldn’t have to completely re-do things
3. made sure that you had plenty of thread with which to tie a knot at the end of a piece of thread — before you put a new length on your needle

Remember how I didn’t have the proper fusible bonding web for my appliqué and was therefore worried about how well it would survive the wash? Well, I came up with a solution. Fray Check. I wanted to be so sure that it would survive, that I applied a very liberal amount to not only the edge, but the whole area between the edge and onto the stitching (it dries clear — the photo below is of when it was wet… the photos at the top of this post were taken after it dried).

That should do it! I can sell it on etsy with confidence now.

You know how I couldn’t figure out steps 6 and 7 on the bib pattern? Well, that’s because the watercolor drawings of steps 6 and 7 were switched — the drawing for 6 was with 7 and vice-versa. I know, I should have been able to figure that one out on my own… and Aimee just ignored the drawings when she showed me how to do it, but then I went back and tried my best to really follow the directions. And I just couldn’t. See below.

The directions for step 6 involve the front side of the bib, and directions for step 7 involve the back side (but the drawing with step 6 is of the back side, and so on). Anyway, once I figured that out, I ignored the rest of the directions for the pattern entirely. Here’s my version of what should follow step 5…

Step 6

If you have enough backing fabric left, make 2-inch-wide bias tape out of it (or find a preferably long scrap of coordinating fabric), according to either of these tutorials:  Erin’s video or my tutorial with photos.

Step 7

Now pin your bias tape to the front side of the bib (the towelling piece), right sides together. It will feel like there’s a lot of bulky fabric around the curves — especially the pieces that go around the baby’s neck — just use a lot of pins and be careful not to poke your fingers too much! I suggest making the ends overlap at a 45-degree angle, just to match any other seams in your binding tape.

Step 8

Sew the binding tape to the bib, as close to the edge as possible (this will make later steps easier).

Step 9

Trim the seam allowance so that it’s an even 1/4 of an inch all the way around the bib.

Step 10

Now, flip the bib over! From now on, we’re working on the back side of the bib. Pull the bias tape over the seam allowance — tightly! — and fold it basically in half so that the wrong side of the bias tape is inside the fold, and pin it to the back side of the bib, making sure to cover the seam that holds the towelling to the backing (I’m sure that you’d save yourself a headache if you’d iron the bias tape in half, but I hate ironing, so I don’t recommend it). This part is tricky — just persevere and be willing to re-do parts once you figure it out.

Step 11

After figuring how to do steps 6 and 7, this was the most frustrating part for me. Making the bias tape was no fun, either, but I hate sewing by hand. I really hate “slip-stitching”. I should probably have found a video tutorial instead of trusting Emma’s directions in the back of the book, but I thought it seemed easy enough… nope. Yuck. This is the last step — other than attaching the snap (Emma uses velcro, but Sophia would rip it off, so I only make bibs with ties or snaps). So put your sewing machine away and get out a sewing needle, and maybe pour yourself a glass of wine, too.

Here’s what NOT to do: figure out what slip-stitching is by trying various ways that seem easier than Emma’s directions.

Just give in and go with the impossibly difficult and frustrating slip-stitch.

I’ve started that and now will go continue that… I’ll post pics of the final product in my next entry! And maybe a link to a tutorial on how to slip-stitch without swearing, too.

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