Sunday, April 1, 2012

Handmade Easter Dresses

Taking my friend Sarah's advice, this week I tried to release the idea that sewing would be given my full attention and was my special alone time. Why should it be? If I am to get anything done--cooking, laundry, washing dishes, reading a book, praying, gardening--I end up having to involve my children to keep track of them and teach them simultaneously. So, what is different about sewing?


Therefore, I was able to sew an Easter dress for Mary! This was essentially free because the pattern was one I got from a woman cleaning out her stash and the fabric was a gift from my aunt. (No photos yet of Margaret's matching dress in progress.)



How did I manage it? At times Margaret was on my back, other times she was napping in bed, and sometimes she was crawling around amidst many chokable objects, requiring me to use the eyes in the back of my head. Meanwhile, John and Mary cut up yarn and decorating ribbon into a zillion pieces, played with my rounded-headed pins, dumped many of my books off the shelf and played a sort of boxing game with them, played in the closets while pretending they were riding in a bus and a truck respectively . . .


. . . and built various log cabins.

Speaking of sewing, I was very excited to be introduced to Modest Handmaidens this week. There you can find many vintage and modern modest sewing patterns. I already have a wish list!



And this little gem is photographic evidence of what happens when a certain independent three-year-old girl tries to make her own chocolate milk with a nearly full half gallon of milk. I was nursing the baby in the adjoining den and I could hear some bustling about, but I tried to wish away that trouble might be brewing because I didn't want to interrupt the baby yet again. As it was, I heard a thud and that characteristic "glug glug" sound, so I came rushing in to find Mary so stunned at the magnitude of it all--nearly the entire half gallon pooled on the floor--that she was paralyzed. And I for one took to heart not to cry over spilled milk (being grateful for God's blessings that this is not our milk budget for the week) and found myself laughing in stitches.

6 comments:

  1. Oh my! We've had similar incidents. It's amazing how even a small amount of liquid spreads, isn't it? I agree-- laughing works! Often I can see the child is even more in shock or upset than I am over these mishaps. Child-size pitchers have become my best friend! The full gallon is just so hard to maneuver!

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  2. Spills almost always do make me want to cry, because they are so SENSELESS!!
    The dress is so pretty and I can't wait to see Margaret's!

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  3. Sarah Faith: My reaction was not at all so cheerful and humorous when today I discovered that Mary had poured out her cup of milk into the leftover Spanish rice she'd requested for breakfast, thereby ruining both foods. My reaction was even more unhappy when later today I watched Mary with my own two eyes calmly pour out a cup of milk on to her dress to see what would happen. Nor was my reaction at all positive when later in the same day (as in, TODAY), I watched Mary pour out the milk in her snack cereal and "paint" it all over the table.

    Yeah, she's on full restriction from milk now.

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  4. OH MAN. A similar thing happened with the tea my kids destroyed the other day. I didn't lose it and scream at them so that meant open season. They went on to destroy/ take apart/ pour into small cups/ mix with cold water all the rest of the tea in my cabinet as well. Sigh. This is what we get for our patience. Is it really worth it? ;)

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  5. Eek, I guess the spilt milk left an impression on her! Sorry for all those messes! But hurray for your sewing, you are brave to bear the mess, but the dress is adorable!

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  6. I know, seriously! I guess I should not have had loving patience with her real accident because then she thought it was open season on pouring away milk all over the place. Harumph! (Sorry about the continued tea saga, Sarah!)

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