Sewing

This is my sewing machine. I've spent a lot of time here lately. Saturday, for instance, I sewed 9 dresses to be costumes for M's dance concert next Saturday. They are made of silk - beautiful fabric with a great drape - but slippery at you know what. So slippery that my machine was having trouble sewing with it - the feed dogs couldn't keep a grip on the fabric, so my seams were a bit puckered.
(For those who don't sew and have absolutely no idea what I just said - a sewing machine's feed dogs are the parts that lift up from under the needle to grab the fabric and move it through the machine at the proper pace. If the fabric doesn't go at the right pace for the stitch and speed you are using, your stitches will be uneven and the tension of the top and bottom threads won't be right and so the finished seam won't lay flat.)


This is what a pile of silk scraps leftover from cutting out 9 dresses looks like. Actually, this is what it looks like after your 4 and 1/2 year old daughter takes your fabric shears and cuts them up into smaller pieces, but you get the idea.


This yellow fabric is actually cut into squares now - it will be 10 skirts.


These are the rainbow fairy scarves - we dyed them yesterday. They are silk also - I think they turned out really pretty. Each one is a different pattern of colors....


This is all the rest of the silk we dyed yesterday - blue scarves for the dancers who will be toys, rainbow fairy pants, and autumn fairy dresses (those are the ones I made). I'm really happy with how bright and bold the colors came out. (They are all bunched up in the sink here because I had to rinse the dye out this morning - which I did in the shower with a detachable nozzle head - and they are now waiting to be washed. Of course, I forgot to bring home the special soap I need to use, so they will have to be washed after I run out this afternoon.)


My hands hurt. But it is very rewarding to take a pile of fabrics and turn them into something beautiful. I can't wait to see the dancers in them! And I will try to take pictures of the finished products....

A big step

Well, life is still busy. I often think "I could blog about that" but blogging involves turning on the laptop and sitting down to type without C. coming over and pushing the power button (one of her latest tricks) so I don't actually do it much. However, I had to post tonight - C. used the potty for the first time before bed tonight!
I am so amazed - this was truly all her idea. She was in the bathroom - I was trying to get M. ready for bed as well. I had just changed C's diaper and she started tugging at it and then pointing at the toilet and trying to lift up the lid. (Which we keep closed unless in use to prevent "accidental drownings" of important objects. We haven't lost anything we wanted down a toilet yet and I'd like to keep it that way...) She is still not very verbal - but I looked at her and said "do you need to go potty?" And she nodded her head yes. I told her to wait a minute, went into her room and pulled M's old potty chair out of the closet, took it into the bathroom and helped C. take off the still-dry diaper and sit down. She sat there for a minute and then pointed to the roll of toilet paper. I asked if she was all done, she nodded yes, so I gave her some paper - and when she stood up to wipe, she had actually gone in the potty!
I have to say that I was thinking she was almost ready last week, because she knows when she needs to go, will ask for a clean diaper, and has learned from watching me and her big sister the basics of what needs to happen - but I had decided to wait to actually introduce the potty until after our June trip - I guess I have been overruled. We will have to see how interested she is tomorrow - M. started potty training at about this age and in a similar fashion and was completely out of diapers during the day by the time she was 2 years one month old - and while I will not push C. (pushing a kid to train when he/she isn't ready and interested is the number one way to cause major, major problems) I must say that I would be so happy to be done changing diapers during the day 9 months from now!

On a totally, totally separate topic - I think I am going to apply for the Stated Clerk's position for my presbytery. It is part-time, averaging 10 hours a week, and for a 10 month term right now because the presbytery is in the middle of a redesign process and is reevaluating how we do staffing. I started filling out a PIF today - I haven't made a final decision to turn it in, but I am leaning towards it. There is lots more backstory about this - but it will have to wait for later, as I am tired and going to bed.

Right after I post a picture - I know that's the most exciting part of this blog, anyway....eating vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce for bedtime snack. This is an important life skill to learn, right?
I did M.'s hair in french braids for the first time this day - they were falling out pretty badly by bedtime, but it was cute I thought - C's hair isn't long enough for much yet....soon, though.