Dandy Jane banded cuff shorts

Christine from Dandy Jane contacted me (right before we moved) to be a pattern tester for her. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance. My first time ever testing a pattern, too. I was so excited!

I had made her square neck dress pattern (which I highly recommend, btw) and loved it, so I knew that whatever she had come up with would be adorable.

The pattern was for some banded cuff shorts with gathered pockets on the side. They were incredibly easy to sew up, once I finally busted out my machine and dug through all the boxes to find my supplies. It took a couple of hours in the afternoon.

I made the size 6 for Phoebe, knowing that they may be a little baggy since she’s between a 5 and a 6 in RTW. They’re bloomer-y and I think they’d look great under a tunic top.

Phoebe loved them, and pulls them out of her drawer every day to wear them, so of course Charlie now insists she needs a matching pair. These kids, I tell you.

The pattern is very clear with excellent illustrations and the steps are easy to follow — there’s also a great section on seam finishing, and a guide for assembling the pattern pieces.

If I haven’t mentioned it before, I can’t get enough of the instant gratification of having a PDF pattern, but sometimes it’s a little confusing to arrange the pieces, and it’s nice to have a layout guide.

The pattern is available for sale in her shop here, and I definitely suggest you snatch it up. Really very easy to sew and super cute.

Greetings from Jersey

Oh, apartment living.  I hate it.  It’s the pits.  The area we’ve moved to is really nice though, so I’m thankful for that.  Also, the apartment manager has been really responsive and patient, which helps because there’ve been a lot of little issues with the place so far.

The Good:
1. Starbucks (duh)
2. Target, Trader Joe’s, Ikea (you know, all the stores that I haven’t had access to in the last 5 years)
3. The ice cream truck has SOFT SERVE and SPRINKLES and WAFFLE CONES instead of pre-packaged ice cream bars
4. NYC is a hop, skip, and a jump away
5. The girls have played outside every single day, and made loads of new friends
6. Lots and lots of trees

The Bad:
1. The apartment has electrical issues
2. The kitchen has a *total* of two drawers. ARGH.
3. The bathroom has one outlet, and no cupboards
4. My commute in to work is uglier than I thought (and the asshole lady at the MTA put me on the wrong train home my first day)
5. The apartment has no blinds. Yeah.
6. NJ drivers are mostly (but not all!) asshats. Way worse than SoCal.

Bryan really really loves it here, though.  Like, a lot.  He’s hinted that we should buy a house in this area.  I’m still ambivalent, and getting adjusted.  I don’t do well with big changes like this, and I’m still getting used to leaving my family and going into the office to work.  It’s been really stressful and strangely emotional for me.  I find myself crying sometimes for no reason (I think just pent-up anxiety).  It really caught me off guard.

Pictures to come soon — I’m mostly excited that we were able to find some pretty nice furniture for dirt cheap at Ikea, and that we’re getting our space set up and organized.  The sewing room/office is a little cramped, so I haven’t been able to set up my machines yet, but I hope to get that done this week.  Yay!

Phoebe is SEVEN

Today Phoebe turned 7 years old. I kind of can't believe it, in that OMG-I'm-getting-so-old-it-seems-like-she-was-just-born-yesterday kind of way.

I wanted to do a slideshow for Phoebe like I did for Charlie and Belle, but truthfully I just ran out of time. Poor Phoebe has had to put with up boxes and tape and a yardsale and getting rid of massive amounts of toys and junk in lieu of a birthday party. And I'm sort of unsympathetic, so be sure to shed a tear or two for this underprivileged child, wouldja?

Actually, she was pretty great, and took it all in stride. She got her precious damn rollerskates that she's been asking for (since January, for realsies) so she was completely satisfied. Also, the annual Woodchopper's festival was this weekend, and I sort of had her convinced when we took her to the fair that Bryan and I orchestrated the entire setup for her. I know, I'm a dirty, dirty liar.

The cool thing was that there were fireworks this evening to end the festival, so although she didn't get a party, she did end her evening with a bang. Get it?

Bryan and I explained to her that next year will be different. We won't be in the middle of a move, and we'll be in a much bigger city with many more things to do for her birthday. She immediately decided she wanted a gymnastics party. Depending on how I feel, I might prefer to move again instead.

So, this concludes the ridiculous birthday and holiday bonanza that is the month of May in our household. Instead of taking a nice long nap, we have to get ready for the movers. They'll be here in 10 days. *gulp*

Losing my mind

There are piles of crap around my house everywhere. EV. ERY. WHERE.  I’ve been washing old clothes, sheets, stuffed animals, toys, shoes, you name it, trying to get everything nice and presentable for the yard sale.  This stuff isn’t junk, and I don’t want people looking at it like junk.  It’s good stuff, some of it with tags still on it (!!) but we have to get rid of it.  So, making it look as nice as possible is important.  Everything’s being sorted and cleaned up, and since there’s a mountain of stuff it’s taking, you know, A LONG TIME.

And then there’s pricing.  It’s a yardsale, so everything is cheap.  But how cheap is too cheap?  Are we selling ourselves short?  Should it be $1, or $2?  Great debates have been going on in every room of the house.  Bryan’s first question is, “But how much did we pay for it when we bought it?”  My reply: It doesn’t matter.  It’s a yard sale, and everything must go.  I don’t care if I bought it for $100, I want to get rid of it, and someone will pay $2 for it.  Am I right?

And don’t even get me started on the girls looking at the box FULL of stuffed animals, crying because they can only choose 5 to take with them when we move.  Are you kidding me, little children?  You didn’t even know those things existed before I pulled them out and washed them.  You cannot have an emotional connection over something you just discovered 3 minutes ago.  Stop with the crying.  Seriously.  Because an argument can be made that keeping 5 stuffed animals each is overkill, and I will quickly change my mind.

In other news, we recently found out that the moving company will be coming in to box everything up and load it themselves.  Say what now?  Evidently, if they come to the house and there’s stuff in boxes that *they* didn’t pack, then it won’t be insured.  Anything in boxes that’s broken or damaged will be our problem.  Anything that we’re concerned about getting broken has to be left out so they can pack it when they get here.

Okay, now that’s just crazy, and you have no idea how much stress this is causing me.  I have to just leave stuff out. I can’t pack dishes or pictures or electronics or anything that’s fragile.  I can only pack clothes, books, craft supplies, and bedding.  I’m not sure if I can handle that.  I mean, I’m sort of panicking right now.  It goes against every fiber of my being to leave this stuff in the cupboards and hanging on the walls until they pack it up.  You would think I’d be happy about it, but no.  It feels like a lazy thing to do, and my ass is moving in high-gear, so leaving stuff out is making me want to kick someone.

This is all bringing back terrible memories from the last time we moved.  I hate moving, you guys.  I hate it so, so much.  And knowing that we’re going to an apartment is just killing me: because it’s an apartment.  Hello.  We sure won’t be staying there forever, so at some point we’ll have to move again.  ARGH.  

I'm a maniac with all the sewing.

Really, though, I just don’t want to sort through shit and pack up our stuff.  I’m procrastinating.  When it’s the 11th hour and I’m lying prostrate on the floor bawling my eyes out from stress, don’t remind me that I did this to myself.  Kthx.

So, I was corralling up some of the girls stuff to get ready to yardsale, and I came across their toy strollers.  The cheap polyester seats were coming apart, and so I decided it was the PERFECT TIME to make them new covers.  Since, of course, we’re getting rid of them.  Whatever. 

There are 8 majillion tutorials on how to do this all over the place, if you’re interested.  I traced out a paper pattern (why? I have no clue. I’m ridiculous.) that I may make up as a download sometime in the  future.  Or maybe after we move.

They took about 30 minutes each to sew up, and I reused the old straps and hardware.  Super easy.  I’m a little sad we’ll be selling them, but the girls never really play with them anymore.

Also, I made the middles each a new summer outfit, peasant tops and more puppet show shorts (from Oliver + S).  The shorts are a very lightweight denim (5.8 oz) I got from JoAnn fabrics.  It was a total dream to sew.  I also found some denim thread in my stash that matched perfectly.  That almost never happens for me.  The stitches almost disappeared into the fabric, it was that matchy.

The shirts are Simplicity It’s So Easy 3743.  I did a search on the Simplicity site and couldn’t find the pattern, maybe it’s out of print?  Anyway, I made them the size 3 (they’re a 5/6 in RTW) and lengthened the pattern by about 5 inches.  I KNOW.  It was just too short and boxy, but I could tell that before I even traced it out.

So happy that I found this pattern in my stash without having to buy something new.  I’ll be making lots and lots more, since they’re so quick, go great with shorts and skirts, and will be perfect for summer.