Sewing Muse

A baby bloomer and onsie set for my soon-to-arrive niece! The bloomer pattern is from Heather Baily's Weekend Sewing book. I love making these bloomers!

I've gotten a bit of quality sewing time in this last week, and it was just so nice. I wish I could sew more, or I could sew faster, or my kids would sleep longer...or maybe I just need to enjoy the crafty moments I get here and there.

I don't have pictures yet, but I made JMarie's Easter dress this last week. I used a Tonya Whelan rose print that I'd gotten from Marie Madeline, and it is just so beautiful...a sleeveless dress in a lovely soft floral print, little pintucks across the bodice, a very full, puffy skirt with a sewn-in petticoat ruffle on the lining and a sash that ties in the back. I can now understand why Mom always loved sewing us girls beautiful fancy Easter dresses, every single year. And they always coordinated. It was a labor of love and pride in her workmanship, and now I understand. And I am going to make Marie beautiful Easter dresses too, every single year.

I always put a piece of twill tape or ribbon in the back of baby bloomers as a tag... on this one I wrote "baby" with a sharp-tip permanent marker.

One thing I realized this week as I enjoyed sewing Marie's dress is that sewing is one area that I can still be a perfectionist in, and in that perfectionism I can relax because it is just so satisfying to work with my hands and creativity and have something come out nicely. I feel like since I've had kids, my life has just gone a bit crazy and there are so many things I can not control. I'm a perfectionist so this is really hard. I simply can't do it all...I can't keep a clean house with 2 toddlers running around, I can't always be on top of cooking, bathrooms, laundry, reading, fun activities for the kids, etc...all the things that I want to do well. Sewing is something I can still be in control of, and it is just so nice. It's my thing in the midst of a crazy life full of things I can't control, and I need it.

Saying all that, what is kind of funny, is that I also realized this week that I sew best in a messy sewing room. A very messy sewing room. I can't seem to stay on top of that mess, and I'm realizing that I'm ok with it. So I just push away the piles and focus on what is at hand. I can somehow zone out all the threads and piles and just enjoy that happy space where I can work at the very end of my ironing board and the tiny bit of cleared off table around my machine.

Unfortunately I don't always live in that happy zone when I sew. I worked all afternoon on this little top for my soon to be 1-year old niece's birthday gift...and it totally flopped. The sizing is way off...it's really short and way too wide, even for Marie and the birthday girl is smaller then Marie. The whole project put me in a horrible mood and I was grumpy. Mostly because I used nice, designer fabric for something that nobody will be able to wear, and because now I have to make something else, or buy something.

On a happier note, I have another craft fair coming up in Norman in 2 weeks. I'm excited...I have a lot of product left from the two I did before Christmas, so I'm not going to be doing a whole lot more sewing for it, but I am going to be adding some nursing covers to my line of baby products. We'll see how they sell...hopefully well!!

The nursing cover I made and used with Marie. Very handy!

Hopefully soon I can address some sewing questions readers have e-mailed. I feel so horrible every time one of you takes the time to e-mail us and we don't get back to you right away. Please accept my apologies and know that it is not that I want to be rude or that we don't appreciate our readers, but I am a real person, with a real life filled with two very busy toddlers, and a very full inbox. Most of the time I can not get everything necessary done, much less the fun stuff, but I feel awful when I let reader e-mails build up.

I love e-mails though, so don't stop! Just know that I appreciate your understanding when I don't reply right away.

Hugs!
Jessica