The eve of Christmas Eve

We spent the morning before Christmas Eve at the beach, enjoying the nice weather, and showing Mimi and Pop more of Xiamen. Growing up in New Hampshire, all my Christmases were surely white. I can't say I miss all that cold weather and snow (which we had in Indiana too). Although a white Christmas would be nice, cozied up next to a fire with hot chocolate. Provided, of course, that the driveway doesn't have to be shoveled and we don't need to get in the car to go anywhere and the snow disappears the next day. Until we're stateside again, I'll enjoy this different kind of holiday weather.

We spent the afternoon baking cookies for Santa Claus. Dag is under the impression that on Christmas, Santa will come over and we'll all eat cookies and drink milk together. Then we'll open our presents together too. I suppose that seems more reasonable than Santa sneaking into our house in the middle of the night.

We'll spend Christmas Eve preparing for Christmas dinner -- we've got some food shopping to do and some rolls to make. And of course, there are cookies to be set out and milk to be poured for a certain Santa Claus. Who will, unfortunately, not be able to sit down with us and enjoy his snack.

Tonight, before bed, Dagim saw these photographs on my computer and said "I remember that day." Um, yeah. That was today.

I hope your own holiday preparations are coming along smoothly. There is lots of excitement in our house. Most of it from a little boy who "can't wait! can't wait! can't wait!" for Christmas.

Crepe Sew-Along #2

Progress on my Crepe dress is happening slowly. Very slowly. At this rate, I'm hoping to finish it in time to bring on our trip to Bangkok (we leave at the end of January). We've been busy with Christmas preparations and my in-laws are visiting. It's so nice to have family here for the holidays. I think we'd be a bit blue if we were alone in China. There are a surprising amount of Christmas trees at the shops and restaurants in our neighborhood. And Christmas music is playing nearly everywhere. I don't miss the commercial aspect of the holiday at all.

I finished my muslin for the top part of the dress about a week ago. To be honest, I feel kind of funny posting photos of myself -- most of the clothes I make are for Dagim and he's generally an agreeable model.  Most of the sew-along peeps (including me) are having issues with the bust darts. So while I feel weird posting pictures and talking about bust darts, seeing and reading about other people's experiences has really helped me.

I wish I had used a different fabric for the muslin. This is the orange-y fabric I originally purchased for the ties on the dress. It's very stiff and I think the soft linen of the actual dress will drape much differently. But anyway, here's the front:

I lowered and shortened the darts on my right side. The left side darts are from the original pattern markings. I think I could stand to lower the bust dart another inch or so but I don't really feel like fiddling with this anymore (can you say lazy?).

Here's the back:

Please ignore the garbage bag in the corner!

I'm happy with the way it fits in the back. I wonder how close-fitting the top should be? The shoulders seem a little big to me but again, I don't feel like messing around too much with alterations at this point. This is my first time altering something to fit (other than adding some length in pants patterns for Dag). Right now, my plan is to just sew it with the repositioned darts.  Hopefully I'll get a little sewing time in before the new year!

from Santa's Workshop

When I asked Dag what he wanted for Christmas this year he said, "A doll.  A boy doll."  Fortunately, he didn't shame me by saying "One with two eyes."  Alas, Poppy still has one eye and no mouth.

I was so happy to hear this request. I ordered Wee Wonderfuls this fall because I knew, as soon as I saw the cover, that I had to make Eddie, the boy doll:

Inside the book, Eddie is a bit naughty, drawing on the wall:

Dag loves this picture and he likes to point out that the doll has done something he's not allowed to do.

I used a cotton knit interlock ordered from A Child's Dream Come True.  The hair is some kind of faux-fur fabric bought locally at the market (the shop owner wouldn't sell me a small square so I have a half-meter of this crazy fur fabric).  The shirt is made from a shirt purchased in a clearance bin (the B was on the sleeve) and the pants are made from leftover fabric after I hemmed a pair of my pants. As you can see, little B has, like his friend Eddie, been a bit naughty. (Actually it was Dagim -- see in the bottom corner where it says "Goodah"?  He thinks he wrote "Dagim's world." How was I supposed to be mad about that?).

He was so much fun to make -- especially on the sly!  Little B's head looks a bit alien-shaped compared to Eddie, but I hope Dag doesn't mind.  This pattern calls for embroidering the face before you stuff the doll. I found this to be a lot easier than the Poppy doll pattern. But Little B is smaller than Poppy and because he needs to stay sort of flat, he didn't take as much stuffing as Poppy. As a consequence, he feels a bit less substantial. But I think he's cute and I hope he's much loved by his new owner.

And now, for my favorite project of all time (seriously)...  The other weekend I decided, on the spur of the moment, that I wanted to whip up the child's apron in Sew Liberated. This project has been on my to-do list since the book came out. And, I decided to finally cut into my beautiful stack of Far Far Away II fabric by Heather Ross.

I have such a hard time cutting into the "good stuff" but I'm so so glad that I did.  I wish I could leave this apron hanging in my workspace until Christmas but since it's a surprise, it was promptly wrapped up and placed under the tree.

We've been doing a lot of baking together -- trying our hand at bread in particular. Today he requested that we make scones. "And cookies!'" he added. I wish he could wear the apron today -- it's so hard to save it for Christmas. Perhaps the best thing about this apron pattern is that children can take it off themselves -- it closes in the front with velcro. That's the one complaint I have about normal aprons. He gets frustrated when he can't take it off by himself. Well, come Christmas, he can do just that!

Crepe Sew-Along Post #1

I'm joining in Gertie's Crepe Sew-Along.  I ordered the Crepe wrap dress pattern from Colette Patterns when it was first released -- as soon as I saw it, I said: I need to make that.  I had planned to get busy with it straight away but one project or another seemed to get in the way.  So Gertie's sew-along couldn't come at a better time, as my holiday sewing is winding down and I'm ready to tackle a big project.

I went to the local fabric market for my fabric.  We went at dusk.  It turns out shopping at the market after dark is not a good idea.  I wanted something that felt very fall-ish so I came home with brown linen for the dress and an orange-y color for the sash:

Only, when I got home, the orange material felt and looked completely different than in the shop.  It was suddenly a bright orange color, almost like a pumpkin.  In fact, the combination of brown and orange screamed pumpkin.  And the fabric was thicker, more like a canvas than the brown lightweight linen, which has a lovely hand.  Now obviously the fabric didn't change.  I saw the man tear it from the bolt.  I just wasn't looking closely enough. But surely I felt the fabric, right?  The problem is that  I get overwhelmed there.  Shop after shop of fabric and more fabric.  Nobody speaks English. Sometimes the shop keepers are busy preparing their lunch or dinner. I love going there but get nervous before each visit.

I was planning to head back to the market when I found something just perfect in my own stash: Shabby Chic blue linen that I ordered last December.  I wish you could touch this linen.  It's like butter.  For real.  When I paired it up with the brown linen, I knew it was meant to be (brown and blue were our wedding colors so obviously I love this combination):

Step #1 in Gertie's sew-along was to cut the bodice out in a muslin and thread-trace the seamlines (which is something I've never done before).  She's going to guide us through the process of fitting the muslin.  I'm really excited to learn some new techniques and make this dress.  I completed step #1 today and I'm ready to move forward!  As you can see, I'm using the discarded orange (only now it looks pink to me) fabric for my muslin.