In my quest to come up with a long sleeved dress for Gloria for the chilly weather, I came across a tutorial for a short sleeved peasant shirt. I made a short sleeved one, then a long sleeved one, then another long sleeved one that was a bit too narrow, so I turned it into a dress for Little Miss Kinley Jo, the daughter of one of Michael’s co-workers, who is about 18 months younger than Gloria. This is how it turned out.
The fabric is “patchwork” so, no, I didn’t sew a bazillion squares together to make this. It was in the remnants bin at Wal-mart and looked fallish.
After that, I took 2 yards of fabric that was originally intended to be part of my quilt that Mom made us. It just didn’t quite fit in right with the other fabrics I had selected so we left it out. I basically did the same thing with this one I did with Kinley’s. I just did the sleeves a little differently and added about 5.75 yards of eyelet lace to the bottom tier and sleeves. Gloria sees it and asks to put it on so she can “dance her dress.” She has learned to twirl in it!
And to get a better idea of just how much fabric is around the bottom:
It hasn’t been washed yet. It probably won’t ever stand up like this again!
Then this little girl from church showed up in a short sleeved peasant dress much like this next one. I picked out some fabric that looked fallish and did long sleeves and this is what turned out.
It looks much cuter on the toddler than in the picture. She’ll be wearing it tomorrow for Thanksgiving and I will try to get a good action shot of her filling it up.
And lastly, I fell in love with this Christmas fabric. By the time I had decided exactly which fabric to pair it up with, it was time to feed the toddlers and get them in bed for a nap, so I did a really quick guestimation of how much of each fabric I wanted. With the odd amounts I had cut, the dress practically made itself. It’s hard to tell from the picture, but the fabric with red on green had a bit of metallic gold thread in the design that gives it a bit of sparkle. I haven’t tried it on her with the red ribbon around the waist yet. It may be too thin, but I sure like the way it looks on the hanger.
I have one last style kicking around in my head that I would like to sew up this season in a fabric I saw while picking out the Christmas fabric. Then, I promise, I’ll be done with dresses. Until summer.
I am feeling a bit guilty that I am just getting around to posting about my darling little niece’s arrival, but I’d rather spend time visiting her than blogging about it. 
Helaina Nicole Martin arrived on Thursday, November 12, at 10:16 am weighing in at 8 pounds 13 ounces and 21.5 inches long. I am so stinking proud of Valerie. Her water broke around midnight, so she and Kane headed to the hospital since they were scheduled for an induction that morning anyway and there was some question about how clear the amniotic fluid was. They got Valerie started on the pitocin drip. It is my understanding she was at 4 cm and a couple hours later, asked for an epi, got it, got checked again and she was at 10cm already and ready to push. She got a little rest while the medical teams for the actual delivery got in gear then pushed for about an hour before Helaina was born. Whoohoo!
We went to go visit her the Saturday after she was born and then again the next weekend. She nurses like a champ and is growing like a weed. They were monitoring her bilirubin there for a bit, but as soon as Val’s milk came in, that all fixed itself. She has this lovely pointy chin just like her mother and her coloring reminds me of her father. She makes those sweet little newborn noises and when she cries I have to resist the urge to go love on her and nurse her. I think she may have been put down once or twice in her life so far because everybody loves holding her.
She already has definite moods and lets us all know when she is unhappy. She likes to be snuggled up tight and squeezed when she’s held. Diaper changes are pretty noisy since she protests having herself embarrassed and put into such an unladylike position. She reminds me of an accordion when she cries as she vocalizes on both the exhale and the inhale. It’s very easy to tell when she’s eating as well, since she makes sweet little vocalizations with every gulp and breath. Valerie says she sounds like a chicken.
Thomas got a big kick out of holding Helaina in his lap. I’m not sure why, but he has the tendency to put her butt higher than her head. He’s very gentle with her and enjoys loving on her. And then he’s off to play with his siblings or uncle who can run around and wrestle with him.
Daniel has come up several times while I am holding Helaina and pronounced her a baby. He hangs around looking at her without touching as though he wants to interact with her but isn’t quite sure how. When invited to hug her he gets all tickled looking, grin, leans in with a big “oo-wee,” and walks off looking quite pleased with himself.
Gloria merely informs us of when Helaina is crying and tells us to fix it. She doesn’t seem to have much interest in getting too involved with her at this age. I have a feeling that once Helaina starts smiling and laughing that Gloria will spend a great deal of time figuring out how to entertain her and keep those smiles and laughs coming.
Michael has gotten to hold her several times during our visits. He enjoys being able to hand her off when she has a dirty diaper or needs to eat and gets to enjoy the sweet, snuggly, sleepy Helaina.
I have had the pleasure of burping, rocking, snuggling, and even “slinging” little Helaina during lunch. For those of you not familiar with the term, “slinging” simply refers to carrying the baby in a sling type baby carrier. Slings are lovely, simple contraptions that snuggle baby up close to Mommy. There are numerous positions that you can use from the cradle position where they feel all swaddled up to sitting up to riding on the hip. I found it extremely comforting for my little ones when they were newborns. They felt secure and swaddled, and the motion of me walking around doing daily chores helped to rock them to sleep and keep them content. There was much less fussing when they were in the sling.
Back to Helaina! I will have to take pictures this Thanksgiving while I am here. I am terrible about forgetting to grab my camera. I prefer to enjoy the moment I am in rather than spend them all behind a camera and miss out!
I am aware that it has come and gone. Nevertheless, the cuteness must be shared. (Thomas was at his father’s this year, so we don’t have pictures of that.)
As many of you probably know, Gloria is in LUV with Tinkerbelle, so it was only logical for her to dress up as this fairy. At first, Daniel was to be a lost boy, but I got over the size differences and just had him be Peter Pan.
Peter Pan:
I found a peasant top tutorial online and modified it by replacing the elastic around the neck with a drawstring and cutting a short slit down the center front to make it look more “pannish” and less girlie. His pants were fleece pants from a pattern I use regularly for both kiddos. I guessed at the measurements for the hat, made out of the same fleece as the pants, and came up with something fairly presentable. I got lazy with the belt and just cut a length of brown fleece and tied it. I am truly proud of his little elf shoes. Again, I modified a pattern I found online to make some cute, pointy, soft soled elf shoes that fit Daniel for about a week before he outgrew them. (Good thing I made them close to Halloween!)
Tinkerbelle:
This turned out practically elegant. They had this lovely shade of green satiny fabric on sale at Hancock’s the day I went looking. I took the standard jumper I use for many of Gloria’s dresses and just cut the bottom jagged and lined the entire thing because the idea of hemming the bottom just boggled my mind. Daddy insisted on bloomers, so those were added from the same fabric. There was just enough after that to make her some sweet little slippers (same pattern minus pointy toes). The wings were in a bag of dress up clothes a friend handed down to Gloria. Whew! No stressing over bent hangers.
The day before Halloween we took a little trip to see Daddy at work all dressed up. There is a neat area with some ferns under the trees that just seemed perfect for little fairies and elves.
Exploring the Ferns
More Tink
Tink in the Ferns (I absolutely adore this one!)
Peter Pan with no hat
Lookin for his shadow? (maybe his hat!)
Ta Da
Ta Da Again (And the only decent shot of Tink’s wings)
Tink spent a good while having to sit still while her mother configured her hair into the traditional Tink pouf-bun the best she could with that baby fine hair.
Peter Pan was ready to go! He even wore his hat-for a few minutes.
This picture is fuzzy, but Daniel is smiling, you can see Gloria’s do, and the neat pumpkins Michael carved are visible.
This next one just cracks me up. The look on Daniel’s face, the position of the kids’ pumpkins, the pose just all look so funny to me.
Halloween evening was a little bit chilly, so we added a white turtleneck and fleece pants. And no, no socks. Those little slippers are lined with more white fleece.
Another view of that topknot.
Evil Tinkerbelle, shooting me with her magic stick.
Enjoying his candy
Finally smiling for the camera on purpose!
November 25, 2009 9:53 pm | 
