here is the tutorial finally, which I realized I'd already written ages ago, but only hadn't added the pictures... silly me.
So, I finally caved and made some headbands for my bald baby girl Lucy. I do normally get rather bored with her being mistaken for a boy, despite the bracelet she usually wears and/or pink clothing or dresses she may or not be wearing, but I am rather used to it. I had lots of practice getting used to it with my first bald baby girl Sohvi, who stayed that way until age two, at which point she started to BARELY have enough to tell it was curly.So Lucy especially needed something feminine for our HUGE family pictures (all of my parents progeny) for which she was to be dressed all in black. So, I messed around and came up with a darling headband. My sister really liked them, so I offered to make one for my cutie niece and since I was on a roll I made a bunch more for Lucy. I love them, and am amazed and delighted that she usually leaves them alone. They are incredibly easy to make even for someone who has almost no sewing skills and most others could probably copy them easily WITHOUT the instructions.. well, here they are anyway. I still prefer to follow someone else's directions anyway (and most especially their measurements).Supplies:old tee-shirts -or- cute stretchy knit fabricfake flowersbeads, or like adornments for the middle of the flowerTools:cutting mat and rotary cutter -or- scissors and measuring tape hot glue gun
sewing machine
-Plug in the glue gun, so it will be ready to use later-Cut open one of the side seams of the tee-shirt so it can lay flat.
-Cut off the bottom hem of the shirt.
-Measure and cut the fabric 3" wide for a narrow headband (smaller flower) 3 1/2" for meduim, and 4" for large. I used about 16" long for one of Lucy's, she was 14 months old then, and they still fit at 22 months (she has a big head too)... it also depends on how stretchy your shirt is. Fortunately being stretchy makes being exact not matter so much. Measure your child's head and if you're using normal tee-shirt fabric add an inch. If it has lycra or spandex in it, don't add anything.
-fold lengthwise with the right sides together
- stitch with a zigzag seam with a 1/4" seam allowance. (or serge it, if you are lucky enough to have one)
-turn right side out. You can press it if you are the kind of person who uses an iron while you sew, but its knit so you don't need to.
-fold in half
-sew the ends together with a straight stitch and a 1/2" seam allowance.
- open up the seam in the middle.
-over stitch the ends of the seam so they lay flat.-trim off excess material.
Head band is done if you don't want to embellish it with a flower (like if you had cute material to start with)
Adding decorations: (you can also add a loop around the band and add flowers to clips and have the decoration be interchangeable, but for kids the more parts there are that come off, usually do)
-take apart your fake flowers (pull apart all the plastic stuff) so you only have the fabric 'petal' part. I usually use more than one set of petals even if they weren't meant to be that way, it gives the flowers more depth and they look fuller and therefore nicer.
-glue each set of 'petals' separately to the middle of the headband. (that way you can wear it on either side of baby's face)
-glue on the middle embellishment, bead, crystal, middle of the fake flower (cut off whatever you need to, to make it glue on flat) whatever.
-put it on your darling bald little baby girl and hope she leaves it on.
You're done... see, its really easy! And pretty dang cheap!
Sohvi and Max really wanted to cut out heart decorations for Valentine's Day, and finding myself with no good reason not to, I agreed to attempt it. So, I taught Sohvi how to cut out symetrical hearts by folding the paper down the middle, and Max mostly watched and requested asymmetrical hearts, shredded other paper and helped hang them up on the window. While I withstood the temptation to offer placement advice to my kids, and/or hang them all myself instead. That is how much I love my kids, I can stand back and let them make an unbalanced, lopsided, yet lovely splay on my windows all by themselves. I however busied myself making valentine heart snowflakes out of colored paper and abstract valentine art, so I could contribute something.
That was really fun. So it was a good mix of eclectic kid hearts as well as my crazy overboard detailed snowflakes. (which is why I don't usually do decorations.. I spend too much time on them, only to throw them away later, because they've been destroyed, and/or I don't want the bother of saving them and pulling them out for every separate occasion). The heart snowflakes do have really good potential for kid combined with adult projects.
They do the art (theoretically, because by the time I thought of it, Sohvi didn't want to do abstract, and Max's attention span had expired on the whole project). So you (being the adult) cut out the snowflake from the dried art (or your kids if they are old enough to cut their own snowflakes). Sohvi probably could, but was content with cutting plain hearts. So I had to provide the abstract art AND the cutting.
You can do any kind of medium, but white crayon makes for cool wax resist effects if you watercolor on top of it. (which I didn't do, I did red, which I obviously like the effect of as well)
Watercolor is funner for me with abstract, so I did a combination of crayon and watercolor in valentine colors. I also messed around with a tiny hole punch in the snowflakes. It was totally fun, and I made myself stop at four, so I didn't overpower (supposedly) my kids hearts. I like the compliment of both of them together on the window. Try it out!
yeah, I know I've been rotten at blogging lately. Really rotten. I did explicitly state it would be sporadic, so no apologies for you, too bad. Oh, well. I do think about and even take pictures for it, but to no avail. And then the longer I wait, the more daunting catching up on all the pictures and topics I've thought of the more heinous of a task it is. Its a vicious circle. So, I'll attempt now to break the cycle of blog neglect and perhaps a call to blog welfare services will not be warranted.
What I HAVE been up to:1- Realized I was quite deficient in the earring department, so I went on an earring kick, and made a bunch of really cute earrings (and NO, I don't want to and shouldn't make more and sell them in my etsy shop, which is currently very much on the hate spectrum of our love/hate relationship, and even if it weren't, earrings are so not my focus). But it was fun, and much needed.
2- Went on a sewing kick, and made a crapload of baby diaper holders, baby headbands (and even documented both projects to possibly make into a tutorial, if you are interested, and ask me very sweetly I may even get around to posting it/them here someday) as well as diaper bags, and very recently Halloween costumes (despite my resolve not to go crazy this year). ...and I'll post costume pictures later.
3- I've been trying to be a grown up about keeping my house consistently cleaner, instead of just giving up on it in between cleanings. I've also started making my kids to chores now (I'm a mean, mean mommy!) so they are partly responsible and when its messy 30 seconds after vacuuming, its THEIR job to clean it up. As well as cleaning, I'm trying to be more organized too. In that vein I re-arranged my living room to accommodate part of my studio up stairs where I can work much, much easier (and not bogart the kitchen table). Which leads me to my last point...
4- I've been trying to really focus on illustrating my book. And realizing it is a massively overwhelming and daunting task. I still want to do it, but it scares the snot out of me and frequently makes me feel completely inadequate to the task. (then I wonder why didn't I go for my BFA and specialize in illustration, instead of just a general BA in visual art? oh, wait, a year or more of classes, plus another application to get into that program, a BFA show AND I couldn't decide at the time to focus on illustration or drawing/painting... right, NOW I remember. I wanted to GRADUATE) However I still can't decide between using ink and watercolor, or switching to prismacolored pencils. Both have plenty of advantages, and disadvantages. But I've resolved not to do another finished spread until I decide once and for all what medium I'll use. When I've done more little practice pictures in both, I'll do another blog entry, because I desperately need feedback. I wonder constantly if I'm totally crazy for trying to do this.
...but I've still been busy trying to grow stuff. My problem is I planted all the flowers first, and ran out of steam before I got to the garden. I'm not that great at planting flowers even... I only have about a 50% or probably less success rate. In previous years I've planted one rose bush that took,
but of the 17 or so lily bulbs only one has ever had a single blossom 
(which lasted a day, and then was destroyed by massive hail stones) and hasn't lived to bloom since. Which saddens me considerably!! I love lilies! My daisies are finally going strong,
but it took them a while to get that way, and my black eyed susans and my poppies haven't even bothered to sprout. (I could list a bunch more that have failed to even show themselves above ground, but I won't) I have a couple of remaining sunflowers that have managed to cling to life through the snail wars, but I don't know how much longer they will last. I have managed to NOT kill off a few things, like my lillac bushes, 
and the pre-existing roses. But I can't really take much credit for those, they're pretty tough plants, which were well established BEFORE I took over. 
Well at least I have lots of fruit trees, if I didn't get around to veggies. Austin convinced me pruning was a good idea and lo and behold we have apples for the first time in any quantity at all!
I guess pruning IS a really good idea. We've always gotten a disproportionately large amount of pears for the size of the tree. This year its even smaller than last year, thanks to the breakage of a rather major branch from all the weight of the pears last year. I think we'll still make out rather well with pears despite the loss. Dried pears are awesome!
However my pride and joy is my beloved peach tree! 
I planted it myself, and it has bore fruit every year (including the first, which it isn't supposed to) granted it was only four peaches but... still. This year I have even thinned out the fruit, which is incredibly painful for me to do, because it means one less peach I get to eat.
But it will hopefully spare the weak little branches of my young tree, and make the remaining peaches that much bigger and juicier!! There is not one single more delectable food on the planet for me than a fresh from the tree, warm, dripping, juicy, fresh peach. So, perhaps next year I'll actually get the vegetable seeds in the ground, and if by some miracle they manage to not only sprout but to actually produce food, maybe then I can eat nice crunchy fresh veggies too. Good thing I like fruit better anyway.
Here is yet another fabulous trade I did at the bazaar. I LOVE my new diaper bag. I've been waiting to blog about this until there were more bags like this in her shop, and here they are! It is SO roomy and has so many great pockets without the massive duffel bag-ish wide style like so many other diaper bags. Its utilitarian without screaming " I AM A MOM WITH A MASSIVELY HUGE UGLY BAG THAT NOT ONLY HAS DIAPERS BUT AN ENTIRE ARMAGEDDON SURVIVAL KIT". Its actually cute, without being grossly cutesy and baby-ish. I am not a big fan of most diaper bags. I have tried various things besides an actual diaper bag to haul all the crud around that I never thought was necessary before I was a mom. But nothing I tried (backpacks, messenger bags, tote bags) were really accessible while I was still wearing it, I always had to take it off to get stuff out. Which sort of defeats the point when you're dealing with kids and have limited arms, attention and time. This has the awesome front pocket you can fish around in without taking it off, with its additional pockets inside it. I am a sucker for pockets. And then it has even more pockets in the main compartment too. I can't believe this was made by hand. I am not lightly impressed, I have sewn since I was a little kid, and have been even employed to sew a couple of times, but I really don't have the time or patience to do that much detail work.
Speaking of detail work.. I was delighted to find out during the trade, that she also has the shop vanilla pie that I got Lucy's awesome leopard print boot/booties at last winters Bazaar. 
Again, I was very impressed by the attention to detail and just how functional and well made they were. I would get comments on them constantly when she'd wear them. AND not only did they stay on (which is more than can be said of any other shoe or sock you put on a little baby) but usually even stayed UP. ..and I've already said what a weakness I have for chubby baby leg attire. Anyway, a plethora of adorable and well made stuff. Definitely worth checking out.
