confession sunday (on a saturday): a prayer

December 15, 2012December 16, 201234 Comments

i’m beyond devastated at the news out of newtown, CT. my heart hurts so badly i almost can’t stand it, and i’ve spent a good part of the last two days crying. i fell asleep snuggled close to Em last night, letting myself feel safe and calm in her bed. the Clackamas mall shooting hit very close to home, physically, and this now has hit very close to home for me emotionally. i can’t help but imagine Em there – my sweet little gal that loves school so much, and has such a pure heart. i can’t even comprehend the devastation of those families.

i also have a good amount of anger, both at the shooter(s) and at the fact that this keeps happening in America. i don’t like being so angry. i don’t think it’s helpful or productive, though i know it’s part of the grieving process. and in times of grief and crisis, i often turn to prayer. i don’t talk about my faith on my blog much – it’s a sewing blog, it exists to share the pretty and creative parts of my life. i don’t talk about my faith much in real life either, frankly. but today i wanted to share this prayer, which is a song i know from childhood. it’s based on the prayer of st. francis and it speaks to my heart. no matter your faith (or lack thereof), i hope you can interpret these words in a way that bring you peace and help you move forward as they’re currently helping me.

Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring your love.
Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord,
And where there’s doubt, true faith in you.

Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness only light,
And where there’s sadness ever joy.

Oh Master, grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console.
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my soul.

Make me a channel of your peace.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
In giving of ourselves that we receive,
And in dying that we’re born to eternal life.

i will resume regular blogging sometime this week as i feel up to it. we are postponing our film petit post by a few days, and it will be a fun one. happy, positive, lovely things are all around us, it’s the holiday season, and life goes on. but i couldn’t let this horrific event pass without you knowing it has hurt my heart so deeply and that what follows on this blog will be posted in an attempt to raise spirits, share joy, bring smiles, and give peace. as always.

take care.

confession sunday: the rejects

August 26, 2012August 27, 201252 Comments

most of the time, the things I make are liked and worn by Em. i try to make her clothes in colors/silhouettes that she’ll enjoy, and she generally does a great job of jumping and posing and doing her ballet moves for blog photos (mostly because she loves to jump and twirl). she acts like she genuinely likes her outfits during photoshoots, and i’m not faking that – she really does seem to love stuff on first wear!

however.

there are definitely garments she will NOT wear more than once or twice. i try so hard to encourage her to wear them, and it doesn’t happen. i mean, she does wear something that i’ve made nearly every day and she does genuinely love most of what i sew for her (which is awesome), but a lot of the time she picks the same favorite dresses over and over (current favorites are her Amélie dress, butterfly dress, apple dress, and wedding dress). i think a lot of 4 year olds are probably that way, right?

for confession sunday today, i thought i’d share a few things i’ve made that she will not wear right now. honestly it breaks my heart a little.

please note none of these are the pattern maker’s fault – it’s my aesthetic choices + her whims that have caused them to be rejected, not their designs!

1. Flapper Tapper Dress – made during Project Run & Play and probably the garment I’m most proud of designing, with a high-low circle skirt, pieced bodice, invisible zipper…and she won’t wear it. i don’t even think it’s been washed since the photoshoot. she and her brother do wear the headband for dress up, though.

2. Little Apples Hopscotch Skirt – i really loved this pattern and how the skirt turned out, but recently she decided she doesn’t like skirts (“dresses are more beautiful”) and this one hasn’t been worn for months. she did get quite a bit of use out of her doily skirt this summer, and this hopscotch skirt was worn a good amount last fall, but it’s now been in the drawer for almost a year. it’s probably too short, come to think of it. maybe i’ll try it again in pink or something – it was fun to sew.

3. Finch Top & Shorts – this one is quite upsetting to me; i love it so much. but she just won’t wear shorts (the only ones we can wrestle onto her are the knot shorts and that’s rare). even with pink piping in the pockets, she won’t do it. and since she won’t wear skirts either, there’s no reason for her to need a separate top. sigh. maybe I should add a color block panel at the bottom and make it a dress…it’s such a fun silhouette and i can’t let that washi go to waste!

i suppose the moral of the story is i should stop making her things in gray! that seems to be the common theme. she is very color driven – she doesn’t care too much whether her clothes are super comfortable, but if they aren’t the right color (or don’t have a “special feature” like ruffles or twirl to make up for that), they’re out.

oh and did i mention Em will be wearing a uniform to school? she can wear blue/green plaid jumpers and pleated skirts, but i’ve been fretting since her wardrobe is strictly limited to colorful twirly dresses at the moment. let’s just hope the “no skirts/no pants/no shorts” thing is just a phase, or i’ll be sewing jumper after jumper in a few weeks’ time! this blog might get very boring.

yikes.

what has your experience been in sewing for your kids? do they wear what you make? do you cater to their favorite things just to make sure your hard work isn’t wasted? and then do they pick outfits that make you cringe? a couple she likes have sewing mistakes that drive me nuts, or they’re way too small/worn out but she chooses them anyway (i’m looking at you, christmas dress and second birthday dress)!

alright guys, confession time!

confession sunday: i’ve been gone

July 1, 2012July 1, 201229 Comments

so the reason things have been pretty quiet on the blog is…we were on maui all week!

i didn’t mention it because i don’t like saying when i’ll be away from home…probably unnecessary paranoia but whatever.

leading up to the trip, i was sewing like crazy because there were a few projects i wanted to photograph there (brought four, photographed three). the kids passed illness back and forth up until a day before we left, i had a death in the family, and getting ready to be away from work was insane. the universe really made us earn this vacation!

since it was hawaii, it was awesome of course. portland has notoriously unreliable summer weather until late july, so just knowing it would be swimming weather every day was pretty much bliss.

anyway, i have FOUR guest posts/blog tours/pattern reviews/etc. coming up in the month of july, with the first up later this week. so if you’ve been missing new projects like I’ve missed posting them, they’re coming! i’d link to everything now but I’m blogging from my phone, so please stay tuned.

mahalo for reading! 🙂

confession sunday: curtains

June 17, 2012June 17, 201268 Comments

i’ve been thinking about doing a “confession sunday” series for a while now, where i talk about unfinished projects, random thoughts, projects that may have seemed loved but are now discarded, my messy sewing space, that kind of thing. the photos will be mostly unstyled, the posts will be short, and it’ll happen just every so often, but i think it’ll feel good to get things off my chest. sometimes blogland (my blog included) is maybe a little TOO “perfect,” and we all know reality is anything but.

in some instances, these confessions might even motivate me to clean/organize/do better!

(EDIT: people’s blogs are their own personal spaces, and if you care to only show pretty finished projects i’m TOTALLY cool with that – that’s how i am too, most of the time! i read blogs for inspiration, and i crop out messes like crazy. but lately i’ve felt like my blog was missing something, and that’s what this series is about. i hope you understand i’m not being judgy on either side of this issue… okay, carry on!)

***

today’s confession is a case of “the cobbler’s children have no shoes.” and see? you even get a grainy sunday morning photo! i’m trying to let go a little with these posts. hehe.

Em has simple ikea curtains in her room, because as much as i love the idea of beautiful handmade curtains, i hate sewing large things with long, straight hems even more. her ikea curtains were floor length, which didn’t work since her bedroom furniture has to overlap the windows a bit. it just annoyed me that they were all bunchy every time i tried to open them.

one day, on a whim, i just cut them with my sewing scissors to get them the right length. i cut them while they were hanging up. this was months ago, and i’ve never bothered to take them down and hem them. i’m sure it would take me less than a half hour to do it…but i don’t.

that’s my confession for today. jagged, unhemmed, cheap-o curtains in Em’s room. got anything to “confess” and care to join me? i’d love to hear it! feel free to comment or link up in the comments. it may be a little embarrassing, but it does feel good…and now i REALLY want to get those darn things hemmed.

have a happy father’s day!