The One With Stuff We've Been Doing

 We went to Turkey Run in September when everything was still green. I carried Eli up a couple ladders, around rocks, and through muddy terrain. We had lots of fun and the boys did great. If you want an extra good work-out then carry an extra 25 pounds on your back. You'll love the burn.

 The boys have been playing in the rain lately. And I have no rules against it, so off they went. (Disclaimer: I am not much for matchy-matchy clothes. But I liked these flame shirts so I got them each one with no intent of having them wear them at the same time. And they aren't exact--Eli's says "TURBO" but Zach's doesn't. But Zach likes to match Eli sometimes. So, whatever.)

 

 

My little niece turned 2. Since she is so adorable I had to share. She had an "Olivia the Pig" party. And yes, my sister made that outfit for her. My sister loves anything pigs; she raised (and then sold to slaughter) four pigs in high school. It makes me wonder if the piggy party was for Paige, or my sister.

We went to the Covered Bridge Festival last week. Well, not really the festival because Eli was sick on Saturday. We went after church on Sunday and the festival part was over. So we drove around and saw a few bridges and cool trees and other such cool stuff. We saw two Amish horse-and-buggies on the road. I'd like to go for a horse-and-buggy ride sometime. Seriously. I wish we had gotten pictures of them.

The West Union Bridge isn't open to cars anymore. It's over 300 feet long and kind of rickety. It looks like it's about to keel over. We got out and walked through it.

  The view from inside the bridge.

 

I love how old and grainy this picture looks.

 

The sun was shining through the trees and it was awesome. Well, not more awesome than mile after mile of dry, dusty, Nevada desert. It's awesome if you like that whole "driving on windy, back roads through tunnels of ancient trees, whose leaves are submitting to Autumn by changing from green to shades of golden yellow, orange, red, pink, and purple, and all is well in your world, if not for just a moment, as you feel all of God's glory right out in the open for everyone to see." Then I guess Indiana may be better than dry desert. If you like that sort of thing.

 

Because We All Need a Little Heat

How do you get an air-guitar-playing, Tae-Kwon-Do-fighting, multiple-guns-blasting, soldier-in-the-making, 6-year-old boy to wear a tie and like it?

Kick it up a notch, baby.

The One With Remakes Part 2: A New Skirt

I know you'll all been on the edge of your seats dying for part 2 of my remakes. This one took me forever to finish; I think I started in May. I'm sure I took out 100 seams I sewed to correct mistakes before getting something I was happy with.

So first of all, let me tell you what I started out with. I went to Goodwill, looking for something I could turn into a skirt. (Goodwill because if you're going to tear something apart, with the possibility of ruining it, paying only $4 is the way to go.) I found a fantastic pair of men's pants. Let me tell you--they were huge. Not just huge, but ginormous. The waste was a 44 and I'm kicking myself that I didn't take the inseam measurement. They were so long that I couldn't really get all of them in the picture. They were very close to the length of the door they were hanging on. When I held them up to my head, they were almost as tall as I am. I can only guess that these pants were made for a man whose waist was almost 5'7. Then how tall would that make this man? 7 feet? Yeah. I said they were ginormous.

This is what I could fit into the picture.

The other thing about these pants was they were linen. Navy with a white pin stripe. Now, I don't know about the kind of men you know, but I have yet to know any that wear linen pants. I think linen pants are reserved for pimpin' black men (and by pimpin' I mean down-like that, you got it goin' on kind) or white men who wear polyester shirts, white sports coats, Sperry Topsiders with no socks, and straw hats. I can only imagine that the man who wore these pants had to duck while walking through doorways and had to drive a Ford Expedition and still had to have the front seat custom made to sit a few feet back than normal because his legs wouldn't fit in any other car. If you see this man wondering the streets of Lafayette, please let me know. I'd love to meet him.

Ok, so back to my point. I decided these pants would be my new skirt. These were very high-end pants and the details were very impressive: the waist band, lining (yeah, they were lined even), and interior piping. I can only imaging the classy 'Massive and Huge' store ('Big and Tall' doesn't quite cut it for these pants) at which they were purchased. I really wanted to leave as much of the original details and integrity of the workmanship that went into these. This was easier said then done. I started by taking apart seams. I took the pant legs apart, began to take the waistband off, cut out the lining, and cut out the panels that had the front and back pockets. Since I had so much fabric to work with, I didn't need the pockets and didn't want them. I did keep the original zipper because of it's quality.


Taking pant part off the waistband.

Detail in the waistband.

Pants coming apart and lining removed.

I cut the bottom half of the pants off and sewed in more panels to create a full skirt. It was hard to figure out how wide to make the skirt so I had to try it on a lot, all pinned up, trying to get the size right. I also started to work on adding the pleats. Trying to make the pleats evenly spread was difficult as well. Once I got the pleats right I sewed it back into the waist band.

Pinning pleats together.

Pinning back to the waistband to work on the fit.

Finally, several months later, I ended up with this.

This is the inside view of the original waistband still intact. Well, half of it anyway.

So there you go. Now go ahead and get back on the edge of your seat as you wait for part 3. If there is a part 3, that is. So suspenseful, I know.

The One With My Summer Remakes Part 1: Denim

This summer I was really wanted something like this but didn't want to pay that price (or any price for that matter). So, I fished around my closet for something I could turn into that.

I had these capris that were a dark and heavy denim (and kind of hot for the summer). I didn't get a pre-picture. I had already done a layer of distressing to these.

I started off by sanding these over and over again. I used a small electric detail sander. It was taking too long to shed the dark color. So, I went to a heavier duty circular sander. A belt sander would have been great, but I didn't want to look for it. Like sanding wood, where you are taking off layers of wood, sanding denim took off layers of denim leaving it softer and lighter in color and weight.

Using a utility knife I started slicing small incisions into the jeans where I wanted the holes. The best way I found was to cut small horizontal holes, close together, one under the next. Then you can begin to pull out the blue fabric by hand, leaving the white behind. But do it carefully as you don't want to pull or break the white. Then wash. The result is a long, white, distressed hole.

After putting these on I figured out I needed to add a denim patch underneath so my unders wouldn't show through. It also helps the hole to not get bigger with wear.

The pocket hole is bigger than I wanted but I had a sharp knife and the fabric was really soft. These were my first try at "boyfriend jeans" so it was a little experimental. But now I know what to do and not to do the next time around. (The lighting in this picture is a little off. They aren't quite this light compared to the before shot.)

The One Where I Take Zach to School and He Stays There and I Go Home

That's what happened. The end.

I took these pictures in May after he turned 6. He's in first grade now.
I used picnik for the effects.

July 30, 2009
Zach is a red belt.

Because I Thought You Might Be Interested

I saw this tutorial and decided I had to make one for Zach and Eli. Zach was first. He picked out these fabrics. (From my stash of Amy Butler, so he didn't have a lot of choices.)

Zach was less than excited about it once it was done. He didn't like it. I made him wear it once but I thought it was too small for him anyway. So I gave it to Eli and Zach picked out new fabric. (Again from my stash of Amy Butler. I love her.)

It's too big for Eli but I love it. I'll make another for Zach. It's really easy, mostly done by hand. I didn't follow the directions completely; I added a complete lining instead of the interface and small corner linings. Does anyone want to join me to make one?

The One Where I'm Over It

Zach received his brown-decided belt. One year till black belt!


Zach's Self Portrait

So, I'm really totally over the whole blog thing. Really. I haven't decided if I'm going to just delete it or leave it for some unforeseen need. But really, if I just copy and paste the wanted posts to my journal, I won't miss this at all. I did give it a try. But I do have adorable kids.