And we do get this question A LOT when she is patching. The patch looks like a bandaid and if we’re out, people will stare or ask if she had surgery or if she was hurt. I always explain, oh no, she’s just patching.

A few weeks ago, the library sent me an email about some books of interest. One of them, the Pirate of Kindergarten, was about a little girl, named Ginny, who was different. She didn’t see the same as everyone else.

The subject intrigued me so I went out and immediately borrowed it from the library. Me and Isabelle read it together right away in the car. We didn’t even wait to get home. The artwork is lovely.

And though Isabelle doesn’t see double the way Ginny does, I thought it was nice being able to read her a story about another little girl who sees differently.

I especially love these pages with the phoropter and eye chart, items Isabelle is used to seeing at the doctor’s.

This part, where Ginny starts to cry when she realizes she is different, just about made me cry.

After reading the Pirate of Kindergarten, I thought I would make Isabelle her own little pirate patch. Something that looked less like a bandaid so, hopefully, she will get less questions and rude stares.

Here’s my own little pirate of kindergarten.

Thank you George Ella Lyon for writing this for all of us who see the world different.

And maybe one of those side car thingies will work. I can just tuck the baby in there so we have more room. Or we’ll get Isabelle a proper bed and put it in our bedroom and see how she likes it. Who knows, she might surprise us and want to sleep in her own little bed.

Now a different question, is it totally silly that I want to make a mobile for the crib knowing that the baby is NEVER ever going to sleep in it?

This is Japanese craft book ISBN-10 4262152707 or ISBN-13 9784262152707. I got it when I found out I was pregnant.

I really like this one:

And this one:

Well actually I quite like all of them. Well, who says I need to hang it just above the crib, right? I can hang it any old place that makes me happy.

And onto real delusional stuff. I keep thinking about doing a daily comic again.

I was going to draw Isabelle hanging off my arm but…well she distracted me. So yep. Totally delusional to do a daily comic again. Well a girl can dream.

Me and Isabelle made a softie. TOGETHER!! How awesome is that?

She was flipping through a book and saw a drawing of a shark. She said, “mama! Shark!” then “make me a whale.” So I showed her this whale:

And she said, “yay!” Which was perfect because I’ve always wanted to make this whale.

It’s from this Japanese craft book that I got over two years ago, isbn-10: 452904114x (isbn-13: 978-4529041140).

Guess what she wants to make next? This:

She said, “I want make cowboy!!” Ah….she keeps me on my toes.

And HERE are the rest of the projects from the book. There are 59 projects. Scanning them all in was torture. We don’t have a dedicated desk for our scanner and printer. They’re on a shelf. The scanner is at knee level and I have to prop my computer up high and then go down low to scan stuff. Yikes, I think it was easier making the whale.

Pictures of the whale to come another day because hello did you just read what I wrote?? I scanned in freaking how many pages of that book!! I’m pooped.

I’ve never heard of it before. It was just luck that there was that one copy in the store and that I pulled it off the shelf. I opened the book and fell in love with this reverse appliqué swing skirt.

I sat there flipping through the pages of beautiful pictures. Stopping occasionally to read about beading, stenciling, deconstructing a t-shirt, and at the unexpected like a biscuits recipe and “loving” your thread. And right then and there I knew I had to have the book. I ordered the book and since it’s arrived I’ve been carrying it from room to room reading it.

There’s a paragraph in the first chapter where she writes about how in the mid-1990s a lot of garment factories closed with businesses moving overseas. It makes me sad.

Ok and here is where I go off on a completely different subject.

I read that chapter and in the back of my mind I think about a link my sister sent me, The Story of Stuff and how whenever I go to Target there is just stuff everywhere. Racks and racks of clothes made by cheap labor in other countries. Clothes we don’t need. Clothes that are inexpensive to buy. I think about how much time and effort it takes for me to make something and it makes me mad.

Do we care less about things when we don’t have to pay a lot for them? When they are easy to replace with more cheap stuff that we don’t need?

It makes me think of the documentary my friend, Veronica, recommended, The Corporation, and how big uncaring companies are everywhere. Companies that do not care about the world we live in or the people who live in it. And then I get mad that I shop at Target. That big stores have things cheaper. That food sprayed with pesticides is cheaper than organic. That I don’t even know where to find a mom and pop store for the necessities.

It makes me sad to think our country is a consumer country. We don’t make things anymore. We buy things. Our economy is based on how much we buy. The government is giving us a tax rebate hoping we’ll buy more stuff to stimulate the economy.

I don’t know where I’m going with this. It all just makes me sad, this fast paced life we live in where everything is easily had and easily thrown away.

And even though I think all this I can’t stop myself from wanting a play kitchen. Even after or especially after I quickly made a sucky drawn one for Isabelle.

She sits down and we pretend to have tea on it. So she thinks it’s a little table, not a stove.

I just don’t want to think about any of that anymore. It’s all depressing. I guess I’ll just sit down and sew all the sad thoughts away. Yeah. That’s it. Sewing. Hand made. With love. By me.

Here’s the picture from the book of the tank top I showed yesterday. I’ve altered it since then and…it’s so depressing, I’ll write about it tomorrow.

No. Actually, I’ll write about it now. The test tank top in muslin (thank goodness I made a muslin) as I mentioned before was pushing down on my boobs.

The empire style (is that what it’s called) part of it was sitting in the wrong area. It’s supposed to sit right under my boob but my damn boobs are so big I had to mush them in and it wasn’t fitting. The bottom half puffed out unattractively making me look pregnant. I didn’t take pictures of a side view because, oh my gawd, the horror! The picture, from yesterday, didn’t look that bad but in person, YIKES! So I altered it.

I thought I would add three more inches to the top half so there would be more room for the girls. Well it doesn’t smoosh my boobs down anymore. And it doesn’t make me look 8 months pregnant. But it’s still a little tight, just a tad. Then it dawned on me, to measure my chest. That’s when I realized, I’ve gained weight since I first purchased the book. Or to be more accurate, I’ve gotten bigger.

That’s why it’s so depressing. That’s why it doesn’t fit! I made the largest size, 13, and it still doesn’t fit!! Aaaarrrgggh!!!

So now I don’t know what to do. I don’t know if I should alter it more to actually give me more inches around or just give up and try a different pattern.

But what’s the point? Maybe all the patterns from this book won’t fit since the largest size is 13. I really wanted to make pattern #13, the one above on the left, but it doesn’t look like there’s a lot of room in the chest area.

Maybe pattern #10, the one above on the right, has more room? I don’t know. Maybe I should measure the patterns.

Man, I’m bummed. I look at pictures of myself and am sometimes surprised that I look bigger than I imagined. Is that a weird thing to say? Well turns out I am bigger.

So yeah…don’t know what to do now. Oh I almost forgot the whole reason for my post. I got distracted by lamenting about my weight. Here’s what I meant to link to, the rest of the pictures from the book.

Oh I hate being pathetic. I had to give myself a laugh. I looked up “I’m too sexy” on youtube and sang “I’m too big for my shirt, too big for my shirt…” with a little head shake and everything. Yes I’m a goober, a big fat goober.

So you may or may not have noticed that I haven’t been sewing much. Actually, not at all since before Christmas. I’ve been in a sewing slump. I’m hoping this will get my sewing juices flowing. This is the book I bought the other day, the one I was so impatient for, ISBN 4391624206.

I’m thinking about starting with an alligator:

Or maybe a little sheep:

That is when I finally finish the never ending list of other projects I have lined up. Oh and because I don’t have enough to do (wink, wink) here are pictures of the rest of the projects from the book. It is so nice to see what else is in a book before you buy it, don’t you think?

So I ended up altering the pattern just a little. I didn’t shorten it but I took in the sides a teensy bit around the waist so it wouldn’t be so sack like. I don’t know how this is usually done. I just winged it. I’m sure there is a better way of doing this because the way I did it makes the fabric pull a little strangely where I altered it. But I’m quite happy with it. That’s why I made it again. That’s right. Another incarnation of this pattern, shortened and the waist unaltered. But I don’t have a good picture yet. I’ll get around to it eventually…maybe next month. In fact I still have a few projects that need pictures taken. Yipes how did it all get away from me?

So, what to sew next? I’m thinking about one of these next three projects. They’re all from ISBN 4579111494 as well.

I’m really leaning towards this one, project 26.

Ahhh so much sewing, so little time.

And also, YAY, I got three new Japanese craft books. THREE. As if I needed more. Alan actually asked me why I don’t take Japanese classes since I have so many books. Yeah why don’t I?

So where is the picture of the new books? Here. One picture for you. Of one book, ISBN 4579111494.

Am I being mean and teasing you? No. So why only one book? I had this brilliant idea of taking pictures of each project to share with everyone. That way you’ll know if you like it before you buy it. But damn that took a long time. There are 28 projects in this one. TWENTY EIGHT!

The light was bad and Isabelle was all underfoot. As a result the pictures just turned out a mess. But I had decided it was a brilliant idea so refused to give up. I then tried taking the pictures with a tripod. Still didn’t work. I would not quit. I ended up scanning them all in, all 28 projects. Then I laid them all out six to a page because I didn’t want to upload 28 pictures. (I believe I have my account set up so you can click through to the larger size.) Updated * I deleted the 6 projects to a page. I readded them as 2 projects to a page. Yes it means more pages to click through but they’re larger pictures this way. * And when I was done, I WAS DONE. Too tired to scan the other books. Too tired to finish this post properly. Another day. sleep. now.

I didn’t notice when I was ordering but the skirt book wasn’t in stock for 4-6 weeks. And when I got the email saying when it was going to arrive I didn’t want to cancel it because I was saving money. So every time I thought about the books I’d kick myself thinking about how I could drive 10 minutes away to buy them. Now so much time has gone by that I have other projects that need fixing first before I start something new.


Not as if I could get much sewing done anyways. Drawing, yes. On the computer, yes. Reading, yes. But sewing. No. Too much concentration required. I don’t want to stop every few minutes. And why would I be stopping so frequently? Why Isabelle of course. She is being a regular little monkey. She’s getting into everything. She figured out how to get into the playpen by herself. One day she was playing near it and I had my back turned. When I turned back around she was inside. I was so surprised. But I figured she was nice and safe once inside so no worries. I turned away and next thing you know she got out by herself!

Ok she’s not a magic flying baby. It was by the couch and she was lowering herself in and pulling herself out by grabbing onto the arm of the couch. She’s gotten quite adept at using things to help her get up higher. I think the scariest was when she climbed on top of the ottoman that was sitting on top of her toybox. I worry she might fall on her head. And of course I can’t be sewing if I need to make sure she doesn’t break her little head open.