7QT: Quickety-Quick, Lickety-Split.

--1--

Finished blouse!

My big ta-da!: The blouse is finished!  I can't say enough how pleased I am with how this blouse came out.  It looks exactly like what I had in my head.  I used Simplicity 1880 and modified the bodice to be a blouse (read: I lengthened all the pieces by 7").  I had intended to make it a long sleeve blouse, but didn't quite have enough fabric for it.  I could have done three quarter length sleeves, but they didn't really look right, so I went with plain old short sleeves, which actually gives me more options for the blouse anyway.  

This is one of those times when I can't recommend enough to do a muslin first.  I definitely learned a ton about the pattern by doing the muslin and saved myself from making a muck of the finished blouse as a result. Now that I've made it twice, I'm definitely making this one again!  It's not perfect, but I really like the fit.  I'm still too scared to do real button holes (it closes with snaps, which is actually super nursing friendly), but I'm not too concerned about that.  I'll get there eventually.

--2--

The matching swing skirt, however, not so much.  The fabric was some old polyester bottomweight from my grandma's stash, and it was a bear to work with.  It refused to press properly, and the hem was a beast to hand finish.  I got all the way to the end of the skirt, and went to repress the hem, and the fabric melted!  Right in the front, in an area the size of my palm.  I felt sick.  I tried cutting off the hem and rehemming a little shorter, but I'm basically unhappy with the whole thing now.  The old hem wasn't great, and the new hem is fairly terrible, and now it is shorter than I like.  The upside is that I've fixed the fit problems I was having with the pattern, so I feel confident to make it again with different fabric.  I also figured out how to put pockets int the side seams, so that is useful.  Live and learn, I guess.

--3--

Ponchik is still sick; she has had several fevers this week and every night is an endurance marathon of epic proportions for me.  She basically wants to nurse all night, and she is coughing, wheezy and miserable, so I don't have it in me to refuse her.  At least she is no worse.  And frankly, she is happier sick than some other of my children are when well!  

--4--

Yesterday was a toddler clothing bonanza around here!  Two friends dropped off girl clothes and some shoes for Birdie (and, eventually, Ponchik).  Birdie immediately seized a white crochet hat from the pile and has been wearing it non-stop since (I did say she couldn't wear it to bed).  I think it makes her look like a Q-tip.  A cute Q-tip, but a Q-tip nonetheless.

--5--

Birdie isn't really great about smiling for the camera (she tends to look more like she does in take #4), so I was pleased to get this shot one day this week:

--6--

And because I've been stuck at home for the last three weeks with sick children and have done precisely nothing except nurse sick kids, sew, do laundry, make food, read blogs, and watch Netflix when I collapse in a heap in the evenings, I've got nothing much else to add.

This photo captures so much of Ponchik's personality, I think:

Our copy of Bembleman's Bakery arrived this week and made me so happy.  We had it growing up, and it is just such a fun story.  

--7--

Oh wait, one more thing.  I found the series Coal House At War on YouTube this week and it is highly addictive and wonderful, especially if you love the 1940s.  It is the same concept behind Frontier house, 1900 House, and The 1940s House (all good!), but set in 1944 Wales.  The original Coal House series was on the same set but in 1927, and is equally riveting.  (Between Coal House, Coal House at War, and the Fireman Sam fest my boys had last week, the voice in my head currently has a Welsh accent).

 I've mentioned a time or two that I'm an historian, and what interests me most about the past is how people lived.  These sorts of series make life in the past accessible for the modern mind, and also point out to me ways that I could be simplifying things.  My favorite thing about Coal House at War was how the children played outside with each other, and how the community developed around the dooryard and the kitchens.  Yes, it was cramped, and difficult, and lacking in modern conveniences, but there was also something good about it all.  It reminded me very much of our experience at the monastery in California, which is off the grid in the Shasta mountains, or of my experience in Central Asia on the edge of Lake Issak-Kyl, a place that lacks indoor plumbing and modern kitchen convenience, and electricity is a bit dodgy at the best of times.  There was something so good and simple about that life.  I don't know how to bring it forward to this place and time, but I intend to keep thinking about it.

Okay, go see Jen for more Quick Takes!