How to sew when you are home with a sick toddler:

Advisory:  Graphic depiction of parenting.  Reader discretion is advised.  

Call daycare and confirm that you'll be keeping the toddler home today because she had fever less than 24 hours ago.  Get toddler settled on sofa with Toupie et Binoo, sippy cup of watered-down apple juice and an oatmeal cookie.

Pull out previously cut muslin for Pendrell blouse.  Start to read directions.

"I need a douxdoux (blanket)"

Go upstairs and get douxdoux.

"NOT THAT ONE DOUXDOUX!  GREEN ONE DOUX DOUX!"

Go back upstairs and get green douxdoux.  Start to read instructions again.  Realize how straightforward this blouse is and predict about 2 hours, start to finish.

"I needa go toilet."

Take toddler to toilet.  Read the scintillating Les petits cochons, vont-ils aux toilets? 2X.  Give up and put toddler back in diaper.  Replace on sofa.  Pin muslin pieces together; find matching thread from great estate sale score on the weekend; thread machine and bobbin; start first seam.  Smell something bad.

"Mama.  I went caca.  Too late."

Change toddler.  Remind her that she only gets chocolate chips if toilet trip is successful (yes, I've resorted to chocolate bribery.  For the love of monkeys, she's almost 2 1/2.  I'm sick of diapers.)  Replace on sofa.  Restart Toupie et Binoo.  Finish first seam.

"I help you.  I do this too."  

Make room for toddler next to sewing machine.  Quickly unplug serger as she steps on pedal.  Open button tin as a distraction maneuver.  Toddler finds all the ladybug buttons and spends 5 happy minutes "put them for dodo (sleep)".  Finish sewing fronts to back.  Plug in iron; prepare bias binding; start to pin.  

"Mama, I need snack."

Go to kitchen and find applesauce.  Figure that should be easy on the stomach and the sofa.  

Notice that it's too quiet in the sewing room / TV room / play room / disaster area.  Rush back in to find toddler with glass headed pin in mouth.

"Mama, I find lollypop!"

Install toddler on sofa with bib, dishtowel on lap, and Mighty Machines.  Finish sewing neck binding; decide to add sleeves; gather and set.

"Pickmeup!pickmeup!pickmeup!pickmeup!"

Pick up toddler.  Feel burning fever has returned.  Get kids' Advil.  Cuddle toddler on sofa through 30 minutes of Mighty Machines ("YELLOW ONE MIGHTY MACHINES!") before you can convince her to take medicine.  Start to fall asleep with toddler in arms.  Wake up when vomit starts.  Clean up toddler.  Clean up sofa.  Clean self.  

Repeat.  

(ps. I did manage to finish the Pendrell blouse after 8 hours.  All in all, not a bad time estimate.)

Instant dashiki

I tried to do the Sew Weekly Challenge of two weeks ago (American Apparel), and again last week (Album Cover Inspiration) but I didn't get around to it.  First there was kid fever and vomiting; then there was a multi-departmental grant to be submitted, which meant lots of overtime and lack of sleep; then there was me getting sick because of said vomit and sleep deprivation.  You know how it goes.  

I did start a self-drafted knit dress like the one Karen Lynn Gorney wore in SNF:

but something went wrong with the neckline.  It was too loose and droopy, even after unpicking and altering twice.  Unpicking serging is seriously no fun.  It's gone into the magic alteration pile, where it is sure to remain until the alteration elves get around to it.  

I have a few things cut out, but nothing I really felt like working on during a heat wave.  Then my little guy tried on his beloved dashiki and complained that it was getting too tight, and he really needs something loose and cool to wear while the temperature is above 35.  Ah ha!

Easy to whip up in an hour or so, including tracing the shape, cutting, sewing and seam finishing.  And he actually wants to wear it, as opposed to little miss picky, who still hasn't worn her pillowcase dress.  

I used the 70cm end-of-roll giraffe-y wax print that I picked up in Cape Town for about $2.  It was just enough for the shirt, the facings and there is a little scrap left over that I could just about squeeze two tiny pockets out of, if I were so inclined.  I added size vents and left the selvages as bottom hem, partly out of sheer laziness and partly because I liked the writing on it:

The bottom of the front slit doesn't lie quite as smoothly as I'd like because I was trying to copy the way it looked on the original, rather than sewing and slashing to a point.  Lesson learned.

So let's just say, for the sake of argument, that my inspiration was Miriam Makeba; then I can add the photos to the Sew Weekly archive and feel like I've completed a challenge for the first time in a few weeks ;)

   And then I have an excuse to watch a bunch of videos on Youtube until I can find the perfect one:

If you're not shakin' it by the end of Pata Pata, there's just something wrong with you.  

Seriously, you should have that checked out.  

Simplicity 2591 fail.

I was so excited to make this pattern.  I received it from the generous Angela of RiAnge Creations, after I put out a plea for the OOP Simplicity 2591.  I wanted to make a vaguely nautical version like Adey and Farah had, but now there's a whole lotta wrong going on with this dress.  I don't know squat about fitting, but even I can tell that there's something out of whack with this bodice:  it's so tight across the underbust that I can barely lift my arms and doing up the zipper involves some serious contortions, but there is a big poof of fabric above the bust.  It looks like my chest collapsed in upon itself.  (I cropped off my head in all the following photos because I'm having a lazy hair day.)

The tragic part is that I used up almost all of this length of shwe shwe from Cape Town, and now I don't have enough left to recut, so I'll have to manage some kind of alterations on this bodice as is.  I'm thinking that I should have cut a larger size in the front bodice and then done a SBA.  Sound reasonable?  For the more experienced sewers out there, what do you think would help at this point?

You can see in this photo that my upper arms are being strangled, but there's a good 6L of extra volume in that upper chest.  Argh. 

I am super happy with the zipper however.  I hand basted so that I could match the pattern, and I think it's pretty damn good, if I do say so myself.

Oh Simplicity 2591, you will be the death of me.  How's that for melodrama?

**Oh, BTW, two posts in one day is due to a combination of holiday (Yay Canada Day!), my man taking my son out for Canada Day Celebrations all afternoon and my feverish daughter napping for 3+ hours.  

What I would be working on if I weren't feverish. Again.

Caftan cover-up from by Adey's tutorial here.  

Swahili translation needed for this voile scrap I picked up at VV.  The only Swahili speaker I know is out in the field now, and the closest I can get from online translation is, "One who talks to himself can't be wrong", but who knows if that's even close?  It could say something I wouldn't be caught dead wearing, so I'd better verify before I leave the house in it!

Simplicity 2591 in blue + white shwe shwe.  It looks black and white in this close-up, but that's just a photographic artifact. 

I'm off to bed with a mug of Neocitran and Project Runway Australia season 2.  Hope your evening is going better!