It never fails. I get super-focused for a deadline, meet the deadline and feel really, really good about it. And then I crash. Does this happen to anyone else? After the Holiday Open House last week, which I will blog about as soon as I get back on my feet, I just hit The Wall. Motivation escapes me and snack foods call my name during times that used to be used to create. It doesn’t help that I’m still feeling the effects of severe sleep deprivation, both from meeting the deadline and caring for my diabetic daughter in the middle of the night (blood sugar checks, hypoglycemia treatment…oh what fun!). It’s not that I don’t WANT to create. It’s that I feel drained and unable to focus. I want to think that’s normal. That taking a break from the creativity-productivity treadmill is appropriate, normal and even helpful after a very productive period. And, if I look at history: college exams, deadlines for other jobs, and the infancy period in motherhood, I see that this is normal. But it still doesn’t keep me from feeling at loose ends and a teeny bit unhappy.

Although I could barely see straight the two weeks before the Open House, I really enjoyed being that focused and getting so much done. And, not only was it good for business/creative productivity, it leaked over into domestic productivity as well. Nobody went without clean underwear, the “floor food” under Petunia’s booster seat was cleared on a regular basis and the house was generally in a good state. Is it that I feel a kind of masochistic joy in pushing myself that hard? Or my flaming perfectionism manifesting itself? Not sure. But what I do know is that I can’t keep it up for long so, for now, I’ll be enjoying some snack foods and contemplating my next move.

I am apparently not a very good blogger. Not only do I not blog often enough, but I also forget to take pictures of the things I KNOW that I’m going to blog about. Case in point: I knew I wanted to blog about the crafty night I was going to do with the Mommies from our Mommy groups. Forgot the camera. Forgot to ask the hostess if she would take pictures with her camera. Huh. Well, I guess you’ll have to rely on my beautiful descriptive writing. *sarcasm*

One day, while sitting around watching our kids play at a play date, another Mommy and I came up with the idea of a Crafty Mommy’s Night In where we would make something for our kiddos.  My mind immediately jumped to tutus because I have a little ballerina girl. Tied tutus are super-easy and I thought “Great!”.   My plan was to teach some Mommies how to make tutus for their little Princesses so we had sign ups and limited it to 8 Mommies. It filled up quick and the waiting list grew and grew and grew in case someone backed out. Nobody backed out. We offered two different color choices and several Mommies wanted to make more than one tutu. Fantastic so far!

As I started to calculate exactly how many yards of fabric I would need, I started to panic a little. Twelve tutus times 4 yards per tutu equals 48 yards of tulle. Wow. Forty eight yards of tulle. It really sunk in when I asked for 26 yards of pink tulle at the fabric store. I have never bought 26 yards of anything in my life. Except maybe carpet, I guess. But still. Then there was the cutting into one yard sections so as to make it easier to handle, rolling it and cutting it into 3 inch sections, cutting those sections in half, and packaging 4 yards per bag in the appropriate colors. That was the hard part.

Once everyone arrived, chatted, and gave me their money (48 yards of tulle, People…I’m nice but not made of money), the fun began! I showed them examples, showed them the entire cutting process so they could do it at home, and started measuring, cutting, and sewing their elastic waistbands. I asked everyone to measure the waist of the Princess and bring that number but we were able to guesstimate for those who didn’t. Everyone got the tying process in no time flat and the tutus started to take shape. There were several Mommies who proclaimed that they were useless at crafty stuff yet they made a beautiful tutu by the end of the night.

If you are planning your own MNI Tutu-making, I would recommend having the participants buy their own tulle and then having them do the whole process themselves after demonstrating. MUCH easier for the hostess (that would be you!). And that way they can leave with the confidence that they can do it themselves at home later.

This is the tutu-making process that I used:

You will need 4 yards of tulle. Whatever colors you would like. Mix and match or all the same, it’s up to you!

Cut your tulle into one yard sections.

Take the first yard and roll it up in to one long roll.

Snip off the ends that are uneven.

Cut it into 3 inch sections.

Unroll each 3 inch section and cut it in half.

Repeat for all yards of tulle.

Measure child’s waist and cut elastic to that measurement.

Sew ends of elastic together.

Stretch elastic over back of child’s chair, your knees, whatever gives it a little stretch but not too much.

Tie strips of tulle onto elastic. Do not make knots very tight at first…you will stretch out the elastic and have a very large-waisted tutu in proportion to your small-waisted Princess. Once you remove the elastic from the chair and it is not stretched out any more, you can tighten the knots more. One of the best parts is that you can use whatever colors you’d like! Brown and turquoise, hot pink and black, orange and black for Halloween…you’re only limited by whatever colors of tulle your local fabric shop has!

That’s it. Not hard. Go. Go Tutu! Have fun!

Okay, I know that I have not been sewing, blogging, tweeting, or facebooking lately. I love summer but, Good Lord the days are long with The Daddy commuting to his summer job a county away and being gone 13 hours a day.  The Tot and I are constant companions, and I DO mean constant. She does not stay with anyone but me.  I know that there are many, many women who have much less alone time than I by virtue of having more children and husbands whose regular schedules are like my husband’s summer schedule all the time. That being said, let me now say that I feel very fortunate that in 12 days my world will return to normal when The Daddy goes back to his teaching job and gets home at 4:30 every day.  It will be good to not be so utterly exhausted at the end of the day.

Add to the above that in 13 days my baby will start preschool and I have hope that I might feel human again soon! Last year’s summer schedule was much the same as this one with The Daddy gone just as much but somehow this year it is much harder. Maybe it’s that she’s 3 now and has behaviors that are more challenging. Maybe it’s that diabetes is now a constant part of our lives, messing with any plans that we might make and adding work to things that could be so fun. Maybe it’s the 3 year itch that I always seem to get at any phase of my life. I suspect that it’s a little bit of all of these. But in just a short two weeks, I will have more time to sort it all out because The Daddy who is a wonderful Daddy who loves to spend time with his daughter and give his wife a break after work will be returning to his regularly scheduled programming.  And my sweet baby will become a preschooler.

Can I get a “Hallelujah”?

This is what my 3 1/2 year old daughter said to me a while ago. I have no appropriate pattern for said “dress down to the toes”. If I did, it would probably have long sleeves. It is the dead of summer and hotter than all get-out. So, I set about finding something I could finagle into a dress down to the toes and ended up with a wonderful toddler-sized maxi-dress. I was so happy with it that I made two!

I took a basic, empire waisted and spaghetti-strap-style toddler top pattern, lengthened and narrowed the bottom, and added a large ruffle at the bottom. Voila! Dress to the toes.

And the blue version:

She wants to wear them all of the time and says “Mommy, I really like the dresses you made for me.” You can’t get any better than that!

A while back at our Mommy and Me class, two of the Mommies with 2-3 year olds had second babies. I decided that it would be fun to give them each a blanket set of the appropriate gender from my inventory so I wrapped them up and brought them to class the next week. When I gave the gifts, one of the other Moms at the class said “Oh, I love homemade gifts!” Huh. I guess I never thought of them as “homemade”, although I suppose they are.

I know that she didn’t mean “homemade” in the way of preschool macaroni jewelry and art projects that your kids bring home but it just kinda hit me that way. And, apparently it stuck with me that way, too because it’s been a couple of months and I’m writing a blog post about it. She is a lovely woman that rarely, if ever, has a bad thing to say about anyone so I know that she was not disparaging my work. And I really like this woman. She is a good mother and a good person. But, the truth is, I wouldn’t have chosen the word “homemade”. Maybe she just had a moment like I know I do (too often) where your brain just doesn’t “grab” the word that you meant or wanted to use. Or maybe I’ve spent too much time in/on/around sites for people who hand make things for sale. I’m not bitter or anything, it just got me to thinking about the difference between homemade and handmade or whether there is a difference between them. What do you think? In your mind, is there a difference? Please comment and let me know!

I sew when I’m stressed out. Or when I’m happy. Or when the sun shines. And on any day ending in “y”, mostly. I’ve been doing a lot of sewing for the shop and realized that I’ve been telling The Tot that I’ll make her all kinds of things and then promptly forgetting to do so amidst the baby flannel and interesting cotton prints calling to me to make baby stuff. When I realized that, I walked into my stash (half of it resides in my walk-in closet…don’t have a lot of clothes but I have a lot of fabric!) and picked out some fabric right away. She had been carrying around this enormous (for her) tote bag of mine that almost dragged on the ground and calling it her purse. What self-respecting Crafty Mommy lets her Little Princess get away with not having a few dozen cute little purses? So I went to work on this tote bag/halter dress outfit and here’s how it turned out: (Please excuse the hideous pictures…need to work on my photography and The Tot is a forever-moving target…)

The last pic is of the tie on the halter dress. I used a contrasting hot pink fabric for the lining of the dress, (which also ends up being the back side of the ties) instead of the same fabric as the body of the dress as was called for in the pattern. Matches the hot pink ruffle I added to the bottom of the dress that did not exist in the pattern. Some days you’ve just gotta ruffle, I find…

There are plans in the works for another set like this that will have cost me, all told $4 because I bought the fabric on deep discount. Cute summer outfit for $4? Priceless!

I had too much fun sewing this latest blanket set! I LOVE how this one came together! I started by saying to myself, “Self: you need another girl blanket set for your Etsy shop .” I set about looking through my stash, figuring out what material I had for backing, what cottons I had for borders and what other coordinating soft flannels I had. All along I wondered, “How in the heck am I going to schedule a trip to the fabric store if I need more material?” and hoped that I could find what I needed in the stash. I tried a few things together and really didn’t like how they were looking until I found the pink and green striped flannel and threw it up against the brown and pink polka dots. Yes! That was it! I also came across a piece of “soft and comfy” fabric that I have had for a while and just have not had the right project for. Well, as it turns out, this was it! It went perfectly with the materials that I picked. I love the way it’s light enough to provide great movement and suppleness to the blanket but heavy enough to also provide warmth for the little ones! I cut and sewed the top, assembled the blanket and sewed the seams, top-stitched it and, voila! It was done.

But it lacked something. I knew that I had a TON of pink terry cloth scraps laying around and thought about what shapes I could embellish this blanket with. Flowers immediately came to mind since it is such a girly blanket but I also liked the idea of hearts. Although I am a very symmetrical person, I fought the urge to put an applique on each corner, thinking that would be too much. So I opted for kitty-cornered appliques in terry and “soft and comfy” fabric so that the babies would have some great textures to explore during Tummy Time!

I got to work immediately on a coordinating bib and diaper/wipe pouch, embellishing the wipe pouch with a heart and the bib with a flower. Interestingly enough, I ran short on the brown polka dot material and ended up piecing the bib and the wipe pouch together with coordinating fabric. Many times that’s how it works over here: working with what I have. I LOVE how they turned out and they would not be as interesting if I had enough of the “right” material!

This right here is my happy place: the organic coming-together of a design with existing materials that turn out a one-of-a-kind product.

Here at Casa de Tot, we are big on tutus. Angelina Ballerina is a favorite and ballet dancing is a daily activity. Which makes potty training interesting since there have to be leotards involved. But that’s another story for another day (and maybe another blog). I posted pictures in an earlier post of some tutus that I made for The Tot but then I decided that they needed a little something more. That something more turned out to be sweet little ribbon roses and here is what they turned out like (and, yes, I know I need to work on my photography skills!):

We have taken to calling them “pouf-tus” because they get wonderfully big and puffy. The Tot loves to whirl and twirl in these and they are so much fun!

So, as I was updating my status on Facebook the other day, the idea occurred to me to set up a fan page for my Etsy shop, Snugglebug Designs . Once I figured out where to go, the rest was pretty darned easy. It’s great because I get to let everyone know what’s going on in The Sewing Room, send out updates about what we’re up to, and interact with fans!

So, if you have a Facebook account, head on over and check it out . Then you’ll know what really goes on behind the scenes over here!

Okay, so The Tot didn’t actually say it that way. She is a sweet girl who will go there if need be but this time she used her nice voice and said “Is Mommy making the red tutu for you?” (She still calls herself “you” instead of “me”). This, mind you, is after she also claimed the purple tutu that I posted pics of the other day. “Uh, well…” I say, trying to find some way to tell her she has enough tutus. Seriously, Mommy? Enough tutus? Is that even possible? Then my mind goes to “No, honey. This one is for a poor little girl who doesn’t have any tutus. Maybe her Mommy or Daddy will want to get this one for her.” Poor little girl without any tutus? Really? Okay, I admit, sometimes my Mommy-Thinking-On-The-Fly doesn’t go so well. I’m sure that many, many little girls grow up just fine without any tutus and just don’t feel they missed a thing. Let’s just say my little girl will not be one of them…