A Needle Pulling Thread

There have been months and gnashing of teeth. It has been a hard thing, this break from blogging, but I have done it. I still have back-blogs half-finished, just waiting for me to remember what needs done to finish them. I will get back into the groove with time.

On the homefront, though, I can tell you that life has gone on. Though the upstairs nursery/spare room construction is still not totally constructed. It has studs and, trust me, that is a vast improvement to where it was a few weeks ago.

All the plans I had for maternity leave, those went out the window, along with a lot of other plans, including the timeline for second story construction. They were good plans, but it is important to know when to re-prioritize and the fact is: work and family come first. I did finish the husband's Dr. Who scarf in time for Halloween:

The girl was also decked out in her knitted finest and ready to exterminate:

And now, 9 months later, months since I have returned to work, she is decked out in her sewn finest because I, the-one-unable-to-sew-a-straight-line, I, dear readers, have learned to sew.

This just goes to show you that with initiative and the right book, anything is possible. Even if you have the hand-eye coordination of an intoxicated mole. My right book was Making Baby's Clothes by Rob Merrett. What set this book apart as perfect for this beginner was the step-by-step guides with each pattern. Each step has a handy illustration so a newb like me can see what the heck Merrett means when he says things like "pin the outer yoke to the front and back panels of the dress, matching up the outer edges of the armholes with the reference dots on the yoke."

I have no idea what that says but when I did what the illustration looked like, it all worked out fine. The pattern I used, by the way, is a plain version of Chiquita Charm with bias tape made from the dress material used for the sleeve holes and a second material used for the yoke and flounce. I also hemmed the flounce instead of finishing the edge with bias tape. I rather enjoy how it worked out, even if I had to rip out the yoke three times before I got it (mostly) right.

The patterns in Merrett's book are cute, varied, and tackle-able for a beginner. I did find the sizing to range a little large. The dress I made was sized for 9 months and my daughter is wearing 12 month stuff now and it's still a little big for her. Up-side: it should fit for a long time to come.

Maybe it will fit her when her nursery is finally finished...