whole lotta love

I took out my sewing machine from the depths of a storage trunk a few weeks ago to hem a pair of pants and it's been on the dining table ever since. Once I actually use the energy to retrieve it - I have a hard time packing it back up and storing it away again. So I was super happy that domesticali started a flickr group to share photos of items made from fellow Brooklynite Lotta Jansdotter's book simple sewing. I do have to admit that I am terrible at following/understanding directions - whether it's for sewing, crocheting, computer manuals or toy instructions...so this was inspired by the pictures in the book. I also visited Purl in Soho and picked out the adorable tree & squirrel fabric. Thank god that I am not a quilter or I would have dropped some mad cash in that store. Since I started making fun felt decorated shirts for Parker & his friends, I've wanted to make something for myself so I was finally able to add a little felt applique that actually looks age appropriate :)

a kite flys in brooklyn

and the little man controls the string....

rocket ship to the moon

We had a great 3 day weekend thanks to the celebration of Presidents Day. Parker loves the weekends when he can hang out with his Dad and an extra Monday off was a great treat for them...and me too. I got a little time to myself and looked at my Wee Wonderfuls space man pattern book. I've had it for a few weeks but haven't taken on the project yet - most likely because the sewing machine hasn't seen much but inside the dark corner of our storage trunk in the last few years. I couldn't dive in but just looking at it inspired Parker's new Rocket Ship to the Moon shirt.

I also made a funky felt butterfly for Parker's friend Chloe - who will be turning 2 this week. I just found out that she is having a Cars themed birthday party - had I known she was such a fan, I would have whipped up a pink "McQueen" shirt for her to wear.
Speaking of Cars, Parker was sporting his new "Mater" & "Lightening McQueen" socks last week and was slipping, sliding & falling all over the place. (by the way his pre-school teacher suggested the clumsiness was do to way too much Valentine's day sugar - and then she proceeded to feed his huge cookies covered with duncan hines jarred icing and sprinkled with full size hershey's kisses and about 20 million candy hearts - oh well) I did think that maybe his new socks were just too slick, so I used the trick I did on his socks when he was learning how to walk... Using puffy fabric paint - add dots or designs to

the bottom of the socks and it works like a charm.
Parker loves it when his Dad draws with him so I talked Eric into making a freezer paper stencil shirt for him. I can't unveil it yet, as he is putting the finishing touches on the 18 wheeler. He has a lot of time this week because Parker and I are visiting Grammy in Pittsburgh. Stay tuned...