I love to sew! Unfortunately with running my own business and chasing kids I don't find any time to sew really. When Trinity was a toddler I realized pretty quickly that she would be tall and skinny like me and her dad. When I was a kid I never had pants or dresses or skirts that fit because of my size. So as Trinity got leaner and leaner I decided to learn to sew so I could make things for my sweet daughter. Fast forward to today. Trinity is going to a camp that requires a one piece bathing suit. This is problematic as they just don't fit her. Tankinis still expose her tummy due to her height, so that wasn't an option. So I decided to alter a bikini and turn it into a swim dress! I had never done it before, or even sewn with bathing suit material...but I decided I was doing it anyways! We got the same bikini she already had because we already knew it fit her great. This is what we started with: Super cute right?? I began by having Trinity put the bathing suit on backwards and pinning the extra fabric onto the suit. I ended up having to do this twice because I didn't realize how stretchy that fabric really is. I only poked Trinity with a pin a few times. Once I got that that all pinned and Trinity was terrified with the amount of pins close to her, I added a bit of fabric to make the top less revealing: Trinity very gingerly wiggled out of it and I began to sew! I was having some major problems sewing at first. I had to go through 3 different kinds of thread before I found one that wouldn't drop stitches like crazy and do odd stuff. The color wasn't what I wanted for the thread, but at that point I was over it and just wanted this thing sewn up. Whew! So far I am very pleased. Yes, I have dropped, jagged stitches but it's still looking cool! No onto making more moving room on the skirt part. I cut the skirt to insert panels! The top of the panels got a bit wonkey, but I can fix that. Somehow the back panels look better. Caleb also decided to photobomb haha. Now I just have to shorten and hem! DONE!
It took about....2 hours from start to finish. Its not perfect but I am super proud of myself! Trinity loves it and wore it to a pool party already. It held up fine and worked great. I love trying new things!
0 Comments
Hello everyone and Happy New Year! I spent the last day of 2015 busting my butt in the kitchen doing another 20 dinner prep. If you didn't see my last one, check this out for reference http://www.sonottired.com/blog/how-to-prep-20-dinners-at-once. I was using a different meal plan this time although it is still from http://www.5dollardinner.com so prep was a little different. This is also a slow cooker plan because after running out of my previous stash of dinners, I'm tired of thinking about dinner. First you get an obligatory ingredients shot. I shopped the day before. I find shopping and prepping the same day to be too much for me... I've got tiny people! Thankfully DJ and Trinity are home so I have help this time. After gathering everything I label all the bags and set out my pans for the chopped veggies. I also use these pans when I put the bags together. The meal plan is awesome, it give you the shopping list, recipes and prep instructions. Its nearly impossible to mess up if you follow the directions. Also, I do not have a huge kitchen by any means. You can do this is any sized kitchen. Hint: before you begin, clean your kitchen, empty the dishwasher, have an empty garbage bag in the can and a recycling bag ready to go. Once you get going you don't want to have to deal with these things. I strap the tiniest helper onto my back and begin! First I wash and chop the veggies. This plan has less veggie chopping than my last one so I am hoping it will take less time overall. As I chop things I put them in pans and bowls. Freakiest looking mushroom. I realize that 1) I have to cook two sauces and 2) I need to peel 10 lbs of sweet potatoes. So I call for backup in the form of child labor. Trinity gets to work while I prepare the maple sauce and creamy mushroom sauce for two of the dinners. They have to be cooked and cooled before putting the bags together so I need to get them done first. Seriously you guys, this mushroom sauce was a homeade cream of mushroom soup for cooking so you don't need to use the canned stuff. I hate using the canned stuff. (By the way I just ate the ranch chicken tonight that used the soup and it was so good. Never using cans again) Trinity is still diligently peeling sweet potatoes while I brown and cool all the beef. Veggie prep done! Cans all opened and ready to go! At this point the baby is done. She's been chillen on my back this whole time and she needs a nap. So I take a break to nurse her and try to get her down. After an unsuccessful attempt at getting the baby down, I give her to DJ and try to finish. We have a New Year's Eve party to attend and time is running short! I go recipe by recipe and bag up each one. And done! I am wiped out! Look at all those dinners! You will notice that there are paper towels between each bag. You see last time a bunch of my bags stuck together. Imagine me trying to seperate giant bags of frozen stuff without ripping the bags or defrosting them. Really not fun. So the paper towels prevent that. Highly recommended. We have a "new to us" fridge in the utility room now. The fridge is DJs for his beer, the freezer is mine for my dinners. He really wanted me to show a pic of his kegs.. We currently have his Juice Box IPA on tap and a pear strawberry cider I made on tap. It pleases me. In total the prep took me approximately 4 hours. This was with Trinity helping with the peeling and chopping, but also included the baby break. I think those things balance each other out. I learned a few important things this time around. It's my third time doing this so I have figured out what works best for me. 1) I need to do this when everyone is home. It takes way less time when I have trinity to help and others to care for the baby. 2) Put paper towels between the bags in the freezer. Really happy about this one. It has made fishing the dinners out so much easier. We have eaten 3 of the dinners so far by the way and I think this is my favorite plan we have done. Delicious. 3) I need to wear good shoes. I don't usually wear shoes in the house but I am on my feet forever. That plus the baby on my back required some serious foot padding. 4) As I empty prep bowls and pans I put them immediately into the dishwasher (unless they are disposable, then just toss them) As you empty cans toss them in your recycling bag. By doing this it didn't look like my kitchen got destroyed by the time I was done. It just looked like I had cooked one dinner not twenty. When you are done with this you will be exhausted. No joke. But the benefits are so worth it. Come on! Try it! This was an accidental iPhone DITL. I was going to use my camera but when DJ brought it up to the bedroom before he left for work, it had no charge. Oops. Oh well.
Come see my day! It was very busy and we celebrated DJ's birthday! I took this picture yesterday evening because it was so cute that both of the little ones were passed out. Little did I know it would be a "calm before the storm" picture because a few hours later, a stomach bug hit Caleb. There was more puking than I care to discuss; let's just say it was a rough, rough night. After all, life isn't a destination, but a journey. I want to remember mine. When you get pregnant with your first baby you think you have an idea of how things are going to go. You think you know what kind of parent you will become. I had been a live-in nanny for babies when I was younger, so I mostly thought I knew what I would be like as a mom. Sometime after that, I decided I would just let Trinity wean when she was ready to. Breastfeeding was very primal to me, and I could not imagine a cavewoman marking off the days until her baby hit a year old on the wall of her cave and cutting him off from the boob when time was up. The thought actually cracked me up. When she hit 2 years old, I started the "don't offer, don't refuse" method. She could nurse whenever she asked, but I usually would not offer (unless she was completely freaked out or something like that). This was a very useful parenting tool to help us get through the toddler years, by the way. Two of the biggest lessons are: I don't know everything, and you never know what you will do in a situation till you get there. I do not judge how other people raise their kids and live their lives. I am not in their shoes and have no right to tell someone who makes different choices than me that they are doing it wrong. Feed and love your children. The details of that are up to you. Live and let live. Yesterday was awful. I wish I had articulate, flowery words to describe it, but there are none. |
AuthorI'm so tired. The children are so not tired. |