Category: Family

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A Birthday Dress…Ice Cream Style!

Somebody turned 1! How in the world did time fly by sooo fast?

I of course had to make a birthday dress for Miss Faye. I bought fabric a few months ago that I just loved and knew I had to use (the one on the right is the main fabric, I also got the blue to go with it…the red was for a different project).

 I just never really found a pattern I liked. Then I got busy with life and almost decided to not make a dress at all. Well, I decided the day before her party that I was going to make a dress and that I would again make the Ice Cream dress from Oliver + S. I just made one a couple of weeks ago that turned out GREAT! There are a couple of different style options for this dress. I decided this time to go with the color blocking option. I added a top layer again (I really wanted to show off the fabric that I got a few months ago. I had the royal blue fabric that I had picked up at JoAnn’s, and I also had a beautiful light teal that I had picked up at Hobby Lobby. I still needed 1 more color to pull off the color blocking so I dragged all 3 kids to a local quilt shop after I picked the boys up from school. There, I picked up a great jewel tone royal purple by Michael Miller from the Krystal collection.

I got home and tossed my new fabric in the wash at around 4:30 pm. Then it was dinner and bed time for all the kids…by the time I sat down to start the dress it was 11:30 pm. The party was at 11:00 am the next day. I knew I was going to not be sleeping much if I wanted to pull this off.

I cut and pieced and sewed and altered the pattern to suit my vision…then I sewed some more. I had to go crash around 2 am. Faye woke up at 5:30 to nurse so I got back up after a much too short nap. I fed her and then went back to sewing. The house started waking up around 7:45 or so. I had to pause to wake up Mr. Cassie so he could take care of the kids…the dress was not done. I also called my mom to come over and help with the kids and party set up. I went back to sewing. Around 10:30 I stopped to go jump in the shower so I could sort of look presentable for the party. I got out of the shower, got dressed and then still had to finish the dress. I was sewing the button on as the first guest arrived. And what a lovely button it was!

I kept the little ‘V’ notch in the collar this time

 …and the color blocking with the overlay turned out adorable!

 The party was great…the weather was perfect, and Miss Faye looked awesome in her new Ice Cream Dress.

We of course took it off of her for cake…we don’t want to mess up such a cute dress!

All in all, it was worth it. I would stay up late again working my butt off for her. She is totally worth it. She fits into the madness that is our family sooo well!

Happy First Birthday Miss Faye.

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An Organized Workspace

I keep accumulating more things ribbons, fabrics, books, thread, yarn, etc… and I have such a small workspace/sewing area that it was beginning to be so cluttered. I would have to move a pile out of the way to cut out fabric. Then, I would move the pile out of the way to get to one sewing machine, then the other. And on and on and on. I was drowning in sewing supplies. Yet…. you can never have too many supplies. What I needed was to utilize the wall. Shelves would need to go up. I found some awesome floating shelves….crazy expensive is what they were. Part of the reason I have taken up sewing so much is to save money. So, I hit up our local hardware store and picked up some cheap particle board shelves with some brackets. I even splurged an extra $2 and got two brackets that would hold a dowel rod for my ribbons!

Here is my little corner of the basement/playroom. I still have boxes and bins full of fabric and old clothes to cut up for fabric under all the tables. I’m also thinking of getting one more shelf.

See my window….no I really don’t drink that much.

The other side of my little corner. More bins and boxes of fabric under my cutting table. The containers on the wooden desk are all different colored snaps. Another window full of wine bottles. I swear I don’t drink that much. I keep collecting them to paint though!

Here is my stash of yarn. I need to figure out a better way to keep it all up on the shelf. Maybe some wire bins turned on their sides? I will keep trolling pinterest for some ideas.

Here are my sewing books and the awesome hand spun wool I got from the farmer’s market.

 

Here are my useable fabrics and scraps and my thread. On the right I used a magazine holder to put my patterns….it is stuffed pretty full right now so I need to come up with a different solution for that.
 I also left space for another thread holder. I have the thread to fill it but need the money and the time for another trip to the store.

Here is my cutting table with my planning bulletin board over it…right now it is covered with patterns I need to put away. The table is just a standard 4 foot folding table that was raised up by using some PVC pipes (I forgot to take a picture of that but you can sort of see them in the top picture)

Here is my dowel rod ribbon holder. Only room for a little bit more ribbon so I will need to figure out more storage space for more ribbons soon. I will wait until that point comes to think about  it though. To the right of the shelf you can see my crazy huge roll of fleece. I also have miscellaneous supplies on this shelf; paper crafts, elastics, bias tape, lace, glues and interfacing.
 Now I have until Saturday to sew a birthday dress for Miss Faye! It is nice to have room for all the sewing!

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A Baby Shower Gift.

My nephew and his wife are expecting their first baby. I think babies are just awesome and should be celebrated. I saw this great basket over at Noodlehead some time back and I just knew I had to make it. So, when I found out someone in the family was having a baby I jumped on that pattern! 
Here is the completed basket full of baby goodies! It just about killed me to wait to find out the colors they were using for the nursery. I wanted to buy fabric and get started the day I found out! I did wait though. Everyone likes different colors and has different ‘styles’ and I wanted the gift to be something that they would enjoy and use.
   

Fabric

The expecting couple finally
 registered and they indicated that the nursery was going to be done in orange, green, and light beige. They had some small dark brown items on the registery so I used that info and hit the local fabric stores and quilting shops. It was like I hit a brick wall. Everything I could find in those colors was ugly, or floral (not great for a boy), or had other colors mixed in. I usually like to buy local if I can but I had to shop online for the fabric this time. Someone had recently given me the link to a great online fabric store and I hit the jackpot there!

Basket
I started the project with the actual basket. The Noodlehead pattern was super easy to follow and it turned out beautifully. I also bought a pattern for a bag from them that I can’t wait to make!

I picked the dark brown…called Rings in Brown by Dear Stella for the outside and a fun pop of orange…called Sweet Zig Zag in Orange by Lori Whitlock  for the inside. The trim is Rings in Cream by Mankower UK. After some digging I found out that the nursery was painted in the green, so I wanted this to compliment and not blend in. I also had in the back of my mind that it could be used out in the livingroom; possibly stuffed with some diapers, wipes, and extra burp cloths.

Swaddler
 Next up a made a fleece lined swaddler. Gail from over at Probably Actually has made a couple and they are just perfect! For the swaddler I went with Kulla in Orange by Lotta Jansdotter on the outside and some thin Malden Mills fleece (I bought this in bulk 6 years ago when I was on the cloth diaper making kick…I have something like 100 yards of it still) on the inside.
Crib Sheets
 I also made crib sheets in a nice soft flannel. The crib sheets in the store are all the same and all boring. I made these from an online tutorial I came across here. The fabric is Typewriter Text in Pistachio by Robert Kaufman

 Burp Cloths
For these, I just hit up my local cloth diaper store and bought the super absorbent Unbleached Indian Prefold diapers. I gave them a wash and dry to quilt them up a bit, then I added a simple binding on the ends. Super easy and cute! I have seen others that put the ‘fun’ fabric as a strip up the middle of the diaper but they are sooo good at absorbing and cleaning up spit up as is, I didn’t want to mess with a good thing. If they were telling the baby’s name I might have embroidered that down in the corner. For these I used the same brown rings fabric from in the basket, as well as the green flannel that was used in the sheets. I also used Squared Elements in Orange and Jungle Animals in Orange by Allison Cole.



Wash Cloths

For the wash cloths I used a microterry that I have had for some time (also from the cloth diaper making stint). For 3 of them I completely backed the wash cloth with some of the fabric. Then for the others I surged the edges of the microterry and then added a decorative strip…making sure to include all the fabrics from the project. I had to tie it all in some how!

Clothes
Finally, I appliqued some onsies with fun stuffs! I did a bow tie with the Squared Elements in Orange. Then I did a regular tie with a scrap from my huge pile of scraps. Then on the last onsie I did a cloud. The cloud was to match the pants I made. The pattern for the pants was a free one from Made-by-Rae. They were super easy to make and just completely adorable! The main fabric for the pants was Crosshatch Sketch in Caramel by Timeless Treasures.

Baby Shower Gift

Here is everything all ready to be stuffed in the basket. I also tossed in some baby body/hair wash, the best diaper cream that I have come across after 3 kids, and some bamboo nursing pads.
  

I had so much fun putting this together. It was a good 3 weeks of sewing every time I could stick the boys in front of their video games every moment the kids would let me sit down. Lots of sewing until late in the night after the kids were all in bed as well. Now I can’t wait for someone else to have a baby so I can put together another one!

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A Little Firecracker!

Now that the festivities from the 4th of July are over I have a few minutes to sit down, think, and get a post up! Miss Faye celebrated the 4th in style of course. I picked up this great red and white fabric back in May. I love it and I knew right away that I would use it for ‘something’ for the 4th of July. I also still have about a 1/4 yard left for the future! I do not know the specifics for it though. I picked it up from Jo Anne Fabrics.

Throw in some blue….just a tiny bit at the waist and a 2.5 inch hem with some white top stitching….

….and Miss Faye becomes my Little Firecracker!

Here is an action shot. We were waiting for it to get dark enough for fireworks.

 
All three kids!

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The Loss of Luke

Four years ago today our family had a huge loss. I am still at a point where it is easier to just copy and paste the story rather than delving back into it. So if the words are a bit raw still, it is because I typed out the story shortly after the loss and have not been able to read/edit since.

I have been having trouble with coming up with words to put down to
say what happened to us. I need to stop hesitating and just put my
thoughts into words to help myself heal.

On Wednesday,
May 25th, 2011, I woke up a bit early because I needed to head to a
prenatal appointment in the city. I had switched OB’s so I could attempt
a VBAC and University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) is the only hospital
that would allow me to attempt it after 2 c-sections. I had to drop
Hugh off at school early so that I would have time to drive in. As it
was it was raining buckets and I was afraid I would be late. We all know
traffic gets backed up when it rains.

Even with bad
traffic I walked into my appointment at exactly 9:30 am (that was my
appointment time). I had Owen with me and a bag full of toys and snacks
to keep him occupied. I had a standard appointment….pee in a cup, get
weighed, listen to the heartbeat, but she had some trouble finding the
heartbeat with the doppler. So, she sent me to the hospital for an ultra
sound to find it. I was a bit worried but I hoped that the baby was
just being shy and the ultrasound would find the heartbeat right away.
As it was I had had my gender ultrasound the previous Thursday and all
was well at that point.

It was a 10 minute drive to the
hospital and then I had to find parking and head in. My midwife told me
that they were expecting me. I assumed that meant I would be seen right
away for the u/s. I was wrong. I waited, with a hungry and grumpy 2
year old, for 1.5 hours. When I was called in they had cleared the
waiting room and it was their lunch time. I went to the back and had to
strap Owen into his stroller (this made him really mad) so I could have
the u/s. The machine was so old and crappy they could hardly even see
the baby let alone find a heart beat. So, they told me yet again to wait
so they could get approval to use a better machine. Another 20 minutes
have gone by. Owen is just crying at this point and I finally get in the
room. Owen would not be set down at all at this point so there I am
lying on the table with Owen sitting on my chest (they needed my tummy
free for the u/s). At this point they could see that there was no heart
beat but it looked like the baby was still moving. That was all Owen.
Another tech had to come in to hold Owen because he was sobbing so much
that it was shaking my entire body. Then they wanted the OB to come in
to confirm. Again we waited. I’m already crying at this point. I just
wanted to leave. I had Owen to deal with and I didn’t want to deal with
the reality of what was happening to me.

I went into
this overly optimistic. I mean it is almost pushed down a pregnant
woman’s throat that after the 12 week mark you are “safe” from losing
the baby. I was almost 18 weeks at this point, plus I had just seen the
baby less than a week ago and everything was fine. It really hit me when
I was getting ready to leave and the OB told me that it was my choice
to schedule a D&E or an induction. OMG…..not only did I lose
the baby but I was so far along that I would have to deliver the baby
too (a D&E is a horrific procedure and I would never in a
million years consider it…if you don’t know what it is you can look it
up but be forewarned that it is horrific).

I knew at
this point that I would go back to the OB that I had started the
pregnancy with. I have anxiety driving to and from the city as it is. I
am not comfortable at UIC and the only reason I was there was to attempt
the VBAC, which is not happening now.

I had called
Greg a few times during all my visits to keep him updated on the
situation (he could not come to be with me because of transportation
issues), so he knew what was going on. I still had to go pick Hugh up
from school…Greg had informed them that I would be late but not why. I
cried for most of the entire hour drive going to pick up Hugh. I should
have pulled over but I just wanted to be home at this point. Once I got
to get Hugh I ran in and started sobbing again. I had to tell them what
was going on and I got two of the best hugs ever from Hugh’s teacher
Ms. Crystal and Miss. Stacie.

I made it home without
getting into any accidents and I just sat there. I didn’t know what to
do or to think. I needed Greg. I needed him to hold me and be with me. I
tried to do a little research online but crying kept getting in the way
so I did nothing until Greg finally got home.

Friday,
May 27th came and we drove to the hospital. My mom had taken off work
to stay at our house with the boys. We arrived and they showed us to our
room in the labor and delivery area. We had to sit and wait a bit. The
OB (same one that delivered Owen) wanted to check my cervix before
anything. I was still closed.

I got an IV and blood
work (18 vials, they were testing me for EVERYTHING) and the first
round of cytotek at about 8:30 am. Bed rest for the first 2 hours with
cramping starting at just about 3 hours. At 1:45 pm I got my second
dose. 2 more hours of bed rest. The cramping became more regular. By
5:00 they were coming every 2-4 minutes. I got the last dose at 6:00 pm
with 2 more hours of bed rest. Cramping/contractions were coming about
every 2 minutes right away. At 7:00 pm my water broke and the intensity
level of the contractions went through the roof. By 8:00 pm the
contractions were coming on top of each other with no break. I started
throwing up at about 8:15 pm with quite a lot of pressure. Right around
8:40 pm the pain increased and I delivered the baby.

I
never had to be hooked to a monitor except for blood pressure and that
was only while I was on my 2 hours of bed rest after the med dosing.
They allowed me to deliver in any position I wanted so I ended up
delivering on my side (it was the best position to get me through those
non-stop contractions).

The baby was a boy….we
named him Luke Gregory. He weighed 6.88 ounces and was 7.5 inches
long….he was not large enough to qualify for stillbirth status in the
state of Illinois but he was classified that way through the doctor’s
office. Luke was perfect, with 10 fingers and 10 toes. It appears that
he died right after my gender u/s the week before. I have since
received chromosome and pathology results and he was a perfect in every
way boy. They could detect nothing wrong and have no reason for his
death.

The placenta never delivered on it’s own so I
had to go in for a D&C. They put me under completely saying
that I had emotionally gone through enough at that point. The hospital
staff was wonderful, they contacted the funeral home for us to arrange
for Luke to be picked up so we could cremate him. They also took
pictures and have put together a memory box for us with foot prints

and a bunch of other stuff. The funeral home waived all charges except for the $50 county paperwork fee.

Greg
and I got to hold Luke for as long as we wanted, his eyes were both
open and he had a perfect nose and 10 fingers and toes. We took more
pictures and said our goodbyes. Now that Luke is gone I need to deal
with this loss. I didn’t just lose a baby, I lost all my hopes and
dreams for another person that will never be.

We had Luke cremated and have since received his ashes from the funeral home.There was not much.

I
am having them made into a pendant to put on a necklace so I can have
him close to my heart forever. I also had his foot prints and name
tattooed onto my inner wrist. Anytime I think about him I can look down
and remember how little and at the same time how much he touched in this
world.

Last year on Luke’s Birthday I bought a white balloon for each boy to release. After their birthday party they each released one balloon for Luke. I did the same this year. It is such a small thing but the boys talk about it all the time.