Amelia actually sat around and watched a lot of the sewing process but Paul quickly lost interest when he realized it was going to take more than 5 minutes for his turtle to appear.

After the first turtle was finished the kids took him outside to test him out in the grass while I sewed the second one. They approved of the turtle A very quick and easy project for a lazy afternoon… and pretty cute too!

I’m pretty sure the last big project that I sewed was the kids’ Halloween costumes (did I never blog those either? Oops! They were adorable, I should really post those.) Then my machines got set to the side for a while while I went on a crochet and knit spree for the holidays. After that I took a break from all crafting in general while I was horrifically ill (thanks a lot morning sickness) Now that I’m in the glorious second trimester and feeling great I’m back to crafting again and sewing has been my medium of choice.

I decided to make Paul and Amelia outfits for Easter this year, although I kind of waited to the last minute to put them together. I decided that since we were going to be moving soon (actually the move has now already happened, I’m that behind on blogging) that I didn’t want to buy any new fabric that would just end up as scraps in my stash needing to be moved. Instead I used some of the leftover fabric from Paul and Amelia’s birthday party in September – it was originally going to be a pair of overalls for each of them to go with the train theme (and it was also used to make their hats) but I never got around to it and I’ve had a few extra yards lying around for ages now.

For Amelia’s outfit I decided to make a snappy toddler dress from prudent baby. I loved how simple and yet adorable the dress is. I just used the striped fabric for the main body of the dress, a solid blue I also had in my stash as the collar and some scraps of yellow for the little chick applique. That was Amelia’s addition – I asked her which springtime animal she wanted on her dress and she picked a chick!

It was pretty straightforward with the only tricky spot being the attachment of the collar. It was sewed with right sides together and flipped to be pressed, but part of the collar that stays open (to insert the body of the dress) is curved and I found it a bit challenging to press it on a curve when there wasn’t anything holding it in that shape. In the end I think it turned out fine… as with most of my projects the imperfections were jumping out at me when I first sewed it but it is harder and harder to see them as time goes by.

Paul finally got that pair of engineer overalls that I had been hoping to make him. One of the reasons I never made them back in September was that I couldn’t find a good pattern. I scoured the internet as well as my local fabric shop (I was willing to pay for a pattern but never found one!) but couldn’t find a good pattern for simple toddler overalls. Lucky for me a pattern had been posted between September and the time that I set out to sew the Easter outfits. This shortall pattern from ikatbag was perfect – I just lengthened the legs to make it into pants and voila!

I have to say that of all the patterns I have tried from the internet this one is in the running for most thorough and clearly explained! It was so easy to follow each of her directions and all of the detailed info on finishing and pockets really made this a durable (and adorable!) project.

The kids LOVED their Easter outfits and I had fun taking a few photos of them in the yard both the day before Easter and the day of when they went on their egg hunts. Is there anything cuter than matching toddlers who are super excited?! I think not!

So there you have it – proof that I have indeed been sewing (and that I’m alive for that matter!)

Even more exciting I have another post coming in just a day or two… you’ll never believe it… Paul’s quilt is almost done!! Remember when I posted Amelia’s quilt (yes, that was almost an entire year ago!) and said Paul’s was coming soon? Well the finished top traveled with us to Boston last summer and almost came back in exactly the same state that it left in. I had a surge of inspiration (or maybe it was shame at letting a project go so long untouched?) right as we were moving out and got the whole thing basted and quilted and all of the binding attached by machine to the front of the quilt. The only part that isn’t yet completed is the hand tacking of binding onto the back. Hopefully that will be done in the next day or two. Stay tuned!

We started our day with some heart shaped pancakes topped with raspberry jam. YUM. I’m not organized enough to arrange babysitters ahead of time (or ever) so Ben and I had our official date a week early while my mom was in town to watch the kids (thanks mom!) We will be celebrating with some fancy takeout food this evening (French perhaps?) and snuggling on the couch. And in case you missed it… the peanuts made a valentine too

One gigantic pile of crochet cowls in various colors and yarns (one for each of my sisters, sisters in laws, and sisters of sisters in law who were in attendance at the festivities ) Not all of them are in this photo (obviously)

A menagerie of amigurumi animals. These are especially addictive because they are so cute and fairly quick to make. I have a whole list of others bookmarked that I want to try.

and of course one for new baby Frankie, this is one of my favorites

a winter hat (who can resist ears on a toddler hat?!) for Charlotte

a winter hat for Ben

and a few others… not technically gifts but new projects nonetheless. A hat for Paul (his P for Paul hat)

and one for Amelia (this one was going to be for me but ended up way too small. oops)

I’m also still finishing up a blanket I’m making for project linus and have a new hat (one that hopefully fits) in the works for myself as well. I think I’m going to give myself carpal tunnel syndrome If you’re interested in making any of these fine projects you should definitely check out ravelry. It’s totally free and amazingly awesome. And with the exception of the cowls (I made those ones up) I’m pretty sure each and every one of these patterns came from there.

Day 25 – when I asked Ben if the pictures looked ok he told me I looked cold. It’s ok, I *was* cold. It was freezing out. I think the high was 19 degrees. Fun times. I barely lasted long enough without a coat to take this photo before I ran back inside. I have never worn this sweater with a striped shirt before because I thought it would be too much. It turns out I like it much MORE with a striped shirt. Who would have guessed?

Day 26 – after being insanely cold it switched back to being downright balmy. I really have no idea what to expect these days. Ok, by balmy I mean it was somewhere in the 40s but compared to 19 it was quite an improvement. Still not warm enough to leave the house without a jacket but at least I didn’t require 4 layers to fend off frostbite. I was in a bit of a rut on this day. I was running low on laundry and ideas so this one is a bit of a repeat. But I tucked the dress up shorter to make it into a shirt (is that funny or inventive?) so that I could wear it again.

Day 27 – I was determined to wear this dress again in a different way so I put a shirt on under (kind of my go-to wear a short sleeved dress in cold weather trick) but I’m not sure it works. I feel like it looks a little funny. Ben thinks it was ok. I’m undecided.

Day 28 – it always seems to get warmer when it rains and yesterday was no exception. Rainy (so we couldn’t play outside) but a pleasantly warm 53 degrees even in the evening while I was driving home from my knitting group. I really can’t figure out this weather. When are we going to have some snow?! At least I got to wear my rain boots again

Day 29 – this is much more what I had in mind when I picked out this jacket. As opposed to the crazy art teacher look I was sporting last time I wore it. Phew. I feel like the jacket redeemed itself. And it’s actually still warm enough out today (in the low 50s) that I don’t even need a winter coat on over.

One more day to go…

day 24 – I don’t really know what to say for myself on this outfit. I look a little like your loopy high school art teacher whose style might be described as “fun” or “eclectic”… definitely a little … odd? I actually (in my defense) didn’t really wear this outfit today. I just wore the dress and the tights because I was mainly in the house all day. I just decided to throw the jacket on when we went out to take pictures because a) it was FREEZING OUT and b) I hadn’t taken any pictures using the jacket yet and I picked it for the challenge. I put on the yellow thing… well… I don’t quite know why. I think I look a bit of a mess but oh well, too late now I definitely will NOT be wearing this again anytime soon.

In any case I *did* get dressed both of the last two days, which was an improvement over day one of our experiment

Day 22 remix outfit – I put this on after having been indoors for 36 hours or more straight. I hadn’t checked the weather report and it turns out that it was around 30 degrees. Oops. My feet were freezing on the way to the drugstore but at least I was outdoors. And I also managed to sneak this yellow shirt into the mix again. I think it was feeling left out.

Day 23 remix outfit – remember how I said I wasn’t going to wear the jeggings again because I didn’t have anything long enough to go over them? I lied. I wore them today with a shirt and a long-ish sweater. There were three reasons that they made a reappearance.  #1 I felt bad using an item of my 30 only one time in the whole month #2 They are so comfy that they feel almost as relaxing as my pajamas and most importantly #3 I wore them today because I didn’t leave the house except to take this picture and so I didn’t have to worry about embarrassing myself by having my jeggings bum uncovered.

I can’t believe there’s only a little over a week left in my 30 days. When I started it seemed like such a long time but having one thing to remember to do every day has actually sort of made the time fly by. Either that or it’s the whole holiday madness/thanksgiving/visitors/traveling thing. In any case I’m going to be kind of sad when it’s over.

In any case, since Ben and I were in the house all day today and pretty much looking awesome in our PJs we decided that maybe after the kids went to bed we should do some grown up things – like shower. So we both got all fancied up, this is the dress and shoes I included in my 30 items in case we went on a date sometime during the month of the challenge, and got some yummy italian take out food. I baked some delicious ginger cookies and we watched Top Chef All Stars. That’s date night, house arrest style