Felicity's Colonial Dress (with bumroll!)

Several years ago, my cat Felicity sent a little American Girl doll  to Maggie and Lily because the doll shared her name.  (Fergus sent them his namesake Tank Engine too.)  The Felicity doll’s story is set in the American colonial period, so she seemed especially appropriate to send as a gift from Philadelphia where there is so much rich history of the American colonies and the Revolutionary War. 

Sadly, American Girl has retired Felicity. I decided that Lily and Maggie needed some Colonial dress-up clothes for their American Girl-sized dolls. (Or possibly their Raggedies) .   I love the process of making doll clothes.  I first learned to sew making outfits from commercial patterns for my Velvet and Mia dolls. 

I think you can really learn to appreciate history when you look at the clothing and learn about the lives of women and girls of the past.  When I was in grade school, I made Pilgrim and Native American clothes for Velvet and Mia for a school project. I don’t remember much else from 5^th grade, but I do remember researching and making those costumes.

Mop cap, bodice, skirt, bumroll, shawl, pantaloons and apron

I used McCall’s pattern3627  and dug into my stash to find a suitable tiny print for the skirt and bodice.  I think I bought this pink beribboned fabric in the 1980s when I was working at So-Fro.  I had some tiny lace in my collection and even found a pink one to use on the edge of the sleeve.

Historically accurate bumroll, apron & shawl. Not pantaloons. 

I love this pattern because it includes under- garments. When we were kids, it seemed like there was never enough underwear for all the dollies.  Not only did this have not-exactly-historically-accurate pantaloons, but the pattern included a bum roll which really gives the skirt an historic shape.  (The pantaloons would have been crotchless to be historically accurate.  I am not sure Lily and Maggie would be all that impressed by that kind of authenticity)

Detail of bumroll shaping

Princess-seamed bodice with pink lace and waist point.

Here is a close-up of the bodice which has princess seaming and comes to this tiny point at the waist. The skirt is actually attached to an under-bodice which, while not historically accurate, makes the outfit work better for the doll.  And let’s face it, there is not going to be a lot of historically accurate play here.  So that skirt can also be worn as a modern-day jumper if one were so inclined.

The outfit is topped off with an apron, shawl and mop cap.  I made the cap reversible from plain white with a pink bow to pink with a blue bow.  Apparently I am still channeling Sleeping Beauty.

The girls were delighted to have new outfits for their dolls.  You can really never have enough doll clothes.   I am so grateful to my sisters who had daughters I could sew doll clothes for.

Here is one of Lily’s dolls modeling the finished product along with the back view of the outfit (including the reverse of the mop cap.)   

It wasn't long before a Raggedy was wearing this outfit.

Day 43, 57 to go: Vegan Chili

Black and Navy beans with tomatoes, onions and spices.

I managed to put the dried beans and water into a crock pot last night so that this morning, the beans were tender and ready to become chili.  It will cook down a bit in the crock pot and then be ready for an assortment of culinary adventures.  I like it over rice with some shredded cheddar or jack sprinkled on.  I like it in a taco salad and I like it over tortilla chips with cheese and assorted nacho toppings. Usually I make a crock of the stuff and freeze portions in zip-locs so that I can just quickly nuke it when I don’t feel like cooking (or when I do feel like chili) Oh, and it can also go on a chili dog, can’t it? (Except that I rarely eat hot dogs—and then only the turkey or chicken kind)

It just happens to be vegan. I don’t eat cows & pigs.  Turkey chili just doesn’t make sense to me.  So my version is just beans, no meat, no animal products whatsoever. (Until I top it with cheese… ) The crock pot really helps it to cook for a long time. 

Fergus Cassidy, Supervisor

Today’s supervision was provided by Fergus.   Felicity is supervising the typing—apparently she wants me to go to sleep now since she has climbed atop my wrist and is holding me down.  I can take the hint, Fifi.  Just let me post this and I promise to turn off the computer and snuggle with you, sweetheart. 

Day 42, 58 to go: Lava Lamp Dish Cloth

Swarming catlings. No need to panic.

I spent the day swarmed by two catlings who were not about to let me out of their sight.  Felicity wouldn’t even let me out of her touch.  I guess they missed me when I was gone. I certainly missed them.  So I decided to indulge them and not do too much running around.  (Going down to get the mail caused a slight panic along with a stern lecture from Fergus.) 

When swarmed by catlings, knit a dish cloth.

I picked up my knitting needles and made this dish cloth.  My mother learned this pattern somewhere.  (Probably church.)  They are made from cotton yarn and I have come to prefer them to any other kind.  The nubby knit is great for scrubbing dishes or wiping countertops.  The yarn is fairly colorfast—it takes quite a few bleachings before it starts to fade, and still retains a good amount of color. She was knitting them for us, especially around Christmas time in red, white and green ombre yarns.   I love them so much,  I made her teach me how to make them.

This yarn colorway is called “Lava Lamp.” I think it is awfully subtle for its name.  I would go with “baby nursery.” I like to try new colorways of this yarn to see how they knit up.  Lava Lamp includes some of my favorite colors and I was dying to see how it came out.   There is another variation on these colors that is knitted together in a “twist.” The yarn is made of a strand of pink, a strand of lime and a strand of robin’s egg blue.  The twists make cute dish cloths.  (I also used a twist in the red striped hat I made for Zoe at Thanksgiving) 

A few years ago when I was unemployed, I knitted a zillion dish cloths for all of my sisters, friends and my mother.  I experimented with making them with several different colors of yarn.  I really liked the ones where I knitted a third of the way in one color, added a stripe of another and returned to the original for the last third.  The pattern is simple and only increases or decreases at the beginning of each row.  I have to pay attention to the first four stitches and then just knit the rest of the row kind of mindlessly.  That’s my kind of knitting.  It allows me the mindspace to either meditate or half-way watch tv.  After the travel and visiting of the last week, the respite of knitting a dish cloth was just what I needed.

I always think of these as dish cloths, but I also think they would make nice wash cloths.  The nubbiness would probably be just rough enough to exfoliate without rubbing skin raw.  I have thought about maybe packaging them with a bar of homemade soap for the Etsy shop.  Wouldn’t that be a nice gift? I guess I could make sets of these dish cloths to go with embroidered dish towels... Hmmmm....

Day 34, 66 to go: Polka dot and Blackhawk jammies

Fifi and I both object to combat jammies.

I tried to cut out these jammy bottoms, but Felicity weighed in with some serious objections to the design and did whatever she could to interfere with my cutting them out.  (She did not involve herself at all when I was cutting out the pink and green polka dot fabric)

Peacenik that I am, I really had to try not to look at this as I was stitching these together.  (They were a gift for someone I knew would love them the minute I saw this fabric.) 

Blackhawks and Camo. Blecch!

This was an important experiment for me.  Who knows what other fabrics I might have to work with despite my aesthetic and philosophical objections? 

So here are the finished ones.  (Closing my eyes so I don’t have to see—like the Burl Ives snowman in Rudolph when the Bumble comes along.) 

Girly peacenik non-combat jammies

And here are the pink and green polka dot jammies I knew I would not be able to resist rick-racking.  I have been wearing these for the last couple of days and I LOVE em.  Could they be any more opposite the ones above (that I still can't look at)? 

Or maybe it was just because they are so soft.

It took me several tries to get the shot of the rick-rack because Fergus apparently wanted to be in the picture too.

Day 33, 67 to go: Polka Dot jammies

You know what? It takes an awful lot of time to wrap parcels for the mail.  Maybe it would have gone faster if I had just plopped stuff in boxes, but I was trying to keep the weight down, so I wrapped things in kraft paper. That, and taking them to the post office used up the better part of the afternoon.  Felicity and Fergus had advised me that I had better not even think about returning home without food for them.  So I hiked down to Petco to get them their “age-defying” food.  

Polka dots begging for rick-rack

They were quite happy and expectant when I returned and are now back to defying their ages once again.  It makes me feel old having cats who are age-defying.  Fergus is not quite 11, but I am not feeding them 2 different formulas.  I figure it makes up for the extra time Felicity was on regular adult waiting for Fergus to be old enough for “active longevity” at 7 years.

I cut out a pair of pajamas for myself today.  This pink and green polka dot fabric has been calling out to me.  I didn’t finish them, but it won’t take long in the morning.  I will have to post a picture when I finish.  I think I hear rick-rack calling. 

As I went to write this post, I read that Christopher Hitchens died tonight.  It’s an odd coincidence because I had been on the phone with a friend for hours talking about god-knows-what.  The discussion ended on him because her father had survived the same cancer diagnosis.  Her dad is still alive and kicking 10+ years after his treatment.  She seemed to think Hitchens might have the same luck.   I had hoped he might because he has 3 kids who are pretty young.  I just hate it when parents die while their kids are still children.  We had that in my family and it really sucked. 

I am grateful I got to know Hitchens’ writing while he was alive.  He was brilliant, articulate and belligerent.  I relate. 

Day 27, 73 to go: Buttonholes and the other red nightgown

They're cuter in pairs.

I am such a big baby.  I had such a mental block about the buttonhole technique on this sewing machine.  I finished the second red nightgown.  There was nothing left to do but finally bite the bullet and figure out buttonholes.  There has always been some sort of attachment with every other machine I have made buttonholes on, so I was feeling like I was driving with no hands to do these. 

I sat down with the directions, practiced a few, made a good collection of mistakes (which is what practice is for) and eventually started to feel like I got the hang of it.  So here are the two nearly finished gowns (I just have to hand-sew the buttons on.)

And then back to the gnomes. 

Supervising avec middle name.

Today’s supervision (such as it was) was provided by Fergus Cassidy.  My friend Karen taught me long ago that all pets need middle names.  At the time, hers all shared the middle name “Marie,” regardless of gender or species.  (“Roger Marie, sit!”)  Felicity’s middle name is Jane.  If you haven’t already done so, I highly recommend giving your pets middle names too.  You’ll see.  They come in handy.

Day 23, 77 to go. Volleyball pajama fail.

All pjs made under strict supervision.

I am starting to see a light at the end of the pajama tunnel.  I have only 3 more pairs of pajama bottoms to make (hopefully all done tomorrow--as well as finishing the red nightgowns) and then I should be able to move on to some other things. 

Today’s sewing supervision was supplied by Fergus. 

White balls, not necessarily volley-able.

I bought fabric for these pajamas last year when I came across a listing on Joann.com for “volleyball” flannel.  My niece was a hotshot volleyball player at high school and I thought a pair of volleyball-loving pajamas would be awesome to be able to send.  So I ordered a few yards.

When this fabric arrived, it didn’t take me long to notice there was a problem.  Yes, the balls are white like volleyballs.  But I am pretty sure these are actually basketballs.  My youngest sisters (Borg#s 7 & 8) give me credit for being able to identify which balls go with which sport.  I hadn’t really thought about it, but they are right.  I would expect to be able to tell a hockey skate from a figure skating skate, but it’s kind of amazing that I know a volleyball from a basketball. I believe I can also identify balls for baseball and soccer.  (Footballs are easier)

Ball failure.

So, I am sorry, Kath, but your volleyball pajamas have pictures of basketballs on them.  I hope you don’t mind.  Maybe you can redraw them with a sharpie? I did write a review for the Joann site when I saw the problem.  I warned readers about the discrepancy. Hopefully I saved some other figure-skating fan from ordering fabric with the wrong balls. 

Ball identification ability. Does it belong on a resume? 

Day 18, 82 to go: Rocket pajamas

St Nicholas Day is coming up on December 6, so put your shoes out December 5 and maybe you will find treats in them the next morning.  This is one of the few overtly German customs we have left in our family.  German-Americans had to give up a lot of their traditions when they were perceived as the “enemy” in 2 world wars.  You could be turned in just for subscribing to a German-language newspaper. I have no family recipes for schnitzel or strudel, but I will put my shoes out.

For the rocket boys

I don’t want to bore you guys with nothing but pajamas, but I also want to send  jammies to my nieces and nephews in time for St Nicholas Day.   So, today I made rocket pajamas for the boys who recently got robot pjs. I love this fabric. It has a similar retro quality to the robots, but with such great vivid colors.  I hope they like em.

Not really helping.

Fergus was a lot of help. For some reason he thought the pattern would work better if he was underneath it.  

Hiding her eyes

Eventually he settled down for a nap as did Felicity—both snuggling under the table at chairs opposite each other.  I love when they roll themselves up into little napping balls of fur.

Fergus as a pretzel

Tomorrow I hope to raid Costco for baking supplies.  I want to make some spinsta springerle, gingerbread, chocolate chips and a few new things.  So I will be going out to get a lot of eggs, butter and cream.  Since I don’t have people at work to palm these things off on, I guess I will just have to mail them out to faithful blog readers.                    

Day 16, 84 to go: Starched bunnies and Medieval Tunic

Just a little starch

I pressed those dish towels I worked on during my travels on the turnpikes and think they just look so cute.   I am especially loving the pink one with the varied tones.  I have some green thread like it and may not be able to resist the urge to embroider more bunnies.

Gettin' all medieval on...

An old friend asked if I could whip up a medieval tunic with a cross on it that her kid needs for school.  I was happy to once I figured out the logistics to get it to her in Chicago in time.  This is made from some of that flannel I picked up over the weekend. I was really happy with the way it has a kind of sueded look to it.  Hopefully her kid will approve.  He says it has to make him look like a soldier.  That kid could use a lesson from the Master Thespian, Jon Lovitz—“Acting!” 

I am feeling so behind on my plans to make stuff.  Thank you all for your encouragement.  It really helps. It feels like Christmas is flying at me at top speed.  I keep thinking of all the things I want to get done before I head out to da burg again.  Tomorrow I hope to finish up a couple of half-made things to ship out and hopefully add a couple of gnomes to Zoe’s tree skirt. 

As long as Felicity and Fergus approve…

Day 6, 94 to go: Zoe’s Tree Skirt (Part 2)

It matches the thank-you card!

When I opened my email this morning, I discovered that one of my sisters actually reads this blog.  Who knew?  She wanted to make sure I knew what size to make those pjs for her boys—you know, the ones that I didn’t work on yesterday.  So I guess I am going to have to break down and assemble them.   I got a very sweet thank-you note from her sons in the snail mail today. (I had sent them some magic trick decks of cards)

Note to my sister: Hey Martha, this is the fabric I picked out for your kids’ pajamas.  Based on the image on the thank-you card, I am guessing you like it?

I worked on Zoe’s tree skirt again today. I stitched that ginormous rick-rack to it and discovered that I have really good spatial relations skills.  I had about 4 yards of it, which was not enough to put around the outside edge of the skirt as I had originally envisioned.   Yesterday I had pinned it in place to get an idea of how it might fit into the design I had in mind. 

Arbitrarily, I decided to sew it 4 ¾” from the edge.  Not 4 ½”, not 5”.  I have no logical reason that 4 ¾” struck me as right.  I basted the rick-rack in place and discovered I had found the circumference that was just right for the amount of rick-rack I had available.  There was about an inch left over at each end, which was perfect to tuck under to finish the edge.   I could have done math out the wazoo for hours to figure it out.  But it turns out, at least for today, all I needed was to follow my intuition. 

Any guesses?

I also worked on a series of pink sections that I had started making last night.  I stopped when I got tired of the intricate cutting, thinking I probably had another dozen or so to make.   Today I pinned them in place only to discover I had gotten tired of making them just as I'd made the last one I'd need!  I am feeling quite triumphant about my sense of space when it comes to sewing.  I don’t know how I did that, and am wondering if anyone would be impressed if I put that on my resume.  This is what the back looks like today.  You can see the straight line of the basting on the large rick-rack, the curvy stitching along the bottom edge of the rick-rack and then a line of stitching at odd angles above.  Can anyone guess what I am making?

I am in awe of my spatial relations skills today.

How about now from the front?  Any ideas? Please guess in the comments section below. If you guess right, I will whip up a pair of pajama bottoms for you.  I thought up a name for this design—as if it were an artwork on display in a gallery.  I will reveal it tomorrow, along with a sample of one of the pink sections finished.

So far, blogging daily has been really helpful to my getting-through-the-day process.  The discipline was tough to force myself into-both making something every day and then writing about it.  I don’t feel like I have gotten into my writing groove yet, but I do sense I am getting somewhere.   
If you want to read an incredibly entertaining blog, I highly recommend checking the link here to Sharon Wheatley’s blog, My Own Space.  She is married to a guy who went to school with my younger sisters.  She is a Broadway musical actress. He is a music theater professor and music director.  They live in NYC and have two daughters with the most lovely literary names, Charlotte and Beatrix. Sharon writes in the funniest voice and manages to make both the crises and the daily drone of life entertaining, exciting and full of cliffhangers. She is also the author of a book called Til the Fat Girl Sings. How can you not love a book with that title? (And it's really cheap on Amazon right now.)

I love Fleece.  And also shrubbery. Ni!

Apparently today was Felicity’s day to take the watch.  She perched herself in the middle of the table for a while on alert.  Then she crawled into the pile of fabric and took a nice long nap.  She is a big fan of fleece fabric.

As I was finishing up this entry, Fergus jumped up on the table to play with the mouse.  Not a toy mouse.  The computer mouse. I had no idea he understood IT.

Day 5, 95 to go. Tree Skirt (Part 1)

Pajamas didn’t happen today.  I looked at the cut-out pjs and just wasn’t in the mood to zip them together.  Instead, I decided to start on something that has been hanging over me for a couple of years.

When my first niece Katelyn was born, I started a tradition of giving a Christmas ornament to each of my nieces and nephews on Christmas Eve.   I try to find them ornaments that reflect their interests and obsessions.  By the time they graduate from high school, they should have a collection of ornaments that serve as a kind of timeline of the story of their lives. 

To complete their collections, I give them tree toppers in their senior year of high school.  For the following years, I give them other stuff that would complete a tree—lights, plain ball ornaments, a tree skirt...

So I started working on Zoe’s tree skirt today.  This is all I have done so far. This will take a while, but hopefully it will be just right for her when it’s done.  Then I have to do one for Kathryn who is a college freshman… I don’t have that one designed in my head yet.

I didn’t realize just how involved the catlings get in my creative process.  When I put the sewing machine away for the night, Fergus came over to see what I had accomplished so far. 

Thank goodness for his supervision. 

Day 2, 98 days to go: Polymer Clay Earrings

I thought it would be fun to make earrings with the Clover Market logo to wear when I volunteer at the booth.  

The brief shining moment.

For a brief shining moment, I did have this pair, but one broke.  I made another and then it broke. That tendril is tricky and delicate. But it was actually one of the clover leaves that cracked off first.  (Theoretically, repair is possible with Krazy Glue, but that was not my experience.) So I will make another one before the next market in April. 

 

Good thing I have plenty to make replacements with.

This was the first time I have experimented with polymer clay. These earrings took much longer to make than I had imagined.  Getting the feel for the material, as well as mixing the right shade of green took time, ingenuity and a surprising number of colors

 

Felicity monitors the situation and keeps warm.

Most importantly, I was reminded that cats are born hall monitors and heat seeking missiles.   Felicity felt it was her duty to monitor my activities, although I think this was just an excuse to get close to the warm toaster oven. 

Fergus took the next shift.