I had today off work and set out with a grand plan to get a bunch of stuff done. I haven't done any vacuuming yet but I have a nice pile of new and renewed clothing for us to wear: two pairs of pants for Rob, one freshly hemmed, the other now sporting a replacement button; two pairs of pants for me, one was super easy, I tried them on and discovered they pretty much fit, the other was taken in just a bit in the back waist; a new pair of green fleecy pants for Maisie; a nighty of mine that no longer has any burst seams; a new tunic or dress for Maisie depending on how long it turns out to be and whether or not she wants to wear pants or tights with it; and a freshly darned pair of socks for me. I decided to get kind of fun with the socks and darned them in contrasting colours. I also did a couple of rounds on a square for my barn raising quilt but didn't think of adding that to my stack. I was really only knitting because Fred had fallen asleep on my lap while I was darning and I didn't want to wake him up.

Sometime in December Maisie stopped wearing footie pajamas. It took me a rather long time to catch on but she just didn't sleep as well in the sleepers as she did in a t-shirt and pajama pants. Her sleepers were super cute and she looked so snuggly in them but it was clear she had outgrown them. I made her a couple of pairs of pajama leggings (from the Sleeping Johns pattern in Growing-Up Sew Liberated) and everything was fine for a while. Then she stopped wanting to wear pants. Bedtime is not somewhere I want to create battles so she ended up sleeping in just a t-shirt a lot. This is fine while she's sleeping but when she gets up in the morning she always looks so cold and still wont put on any pants. We decided it was time for a nighty.

I made this one from the envelope tee pattern in Growing-Up Sew Liberated by adding some flare and length to the pattern. I'd love to say how much length I added but she loves this garment so much she wore it to day-care this morning so I can't measure it. I cut it longer in the back just for cuteness. I was going to put a butterfly on the front to brighten it up but Rob suggested she might like Saturn better. We've been watching Star Trek: The Next Generation lately and Maisie loves to see the ringed planet in the opening credits. Right before she goes to bed every night she plays a game called "Moon Saturn" with Rob that involves lining up a set of balls as the planets. I'm told that the red ball is Saturn and the blue one is Earth. I think the yellow one is Mercury. Having Saturn on her nighty made perfect sense.
Rob and Maisie picked out the fabrics. I put some fusible web on the back, cut out the shapes and fitted them together. They are fused onto the front of the nighty and then topstitched. I thought I would need a stabilizer on the back but it seems to be okay without it.

Maisie helped me out with some of the sewing by sitting on my lap and being in charge of the pins. She was so excited when it was finished that she had to put it on right away and was more than happy to let me take some pictures. She wanted some standing still, and some spinning 'round, and some with the blue bird (her nightlight), and some with her slippers. Maisie likes to put on my shoes and try to walk around the house so a little while ago I made her some simple slippers that she could slide on the same way. They've been very popular and keep her toes warm when she's also refusing to wear socks.

Oh, and I was told to take a picture of Ollie too.

I did some sewing this week. With Maisie's help of course. She likes to sit on my lap at the sewing table and help me remove pins. I showed her how to use the remote for the camera and she snapped these pictures of the two of us. They're much better than the ones I got. The sewing was a project bag for some of my knitting. Ollie loves to eat both yarn and knitwear so I can't just plop something in a basket to put it away and I wanted something prettier than my usual ziplock bag. I followed this tutorial for how to do the zipper and I really like the way it looks. So polished. Unfortunately, while I was using the zipper foot for my machine Maisie dropped the regular foot on the floor and we're not sure where it's gone. I finished sewing my bag (and the matching notions pouch) with a satin-stitch foot.

My bag is really just a simple pouch with boxed corners to help it stand up on its own. The fabric was a Christmas present from Rob that I've been saving for something fun. In the middle of winter these bright juicy colours are just what I need. The bottom of the bag is 5" wide and 10" long. Carefully measuring of my yarn stash determined that these dimensions would comfortably hold most skeins or balls without resulting in an enormous bag. I stuck a couple of my labels on the bags just for fun. I hardly ever remember to use them.

As soon as I was finished my bag I popped my Apricot sweater project into it (a major improvement on the disintegrating paper bag it had being living in before) and plunked myself down on the couch to do some knitting and drink some tea. Shortly after that I realized I had no idea where my printout of the pattern had gone. I still had a copy on my computer so I was able to look up the numbers I need right now. Hopefully there were no really important notes written on the printout. The sun came into the living room for a few minutes while I was sitting there. It's back for a little longer every day now and I can already feel that little jolt of springtime excitement. Only two more months of cold weather to go!