Crafty: Christmas Dress

I've got my sew on again, after months (years?) of laying dormant. I made Christmas dresses for Muffin and myself.

I had several parameters for these dresses. I wanted them to match, but not be exactly the same. I wanted to sew with fabrics I already had, so that limited my colors away from red and green. (Too literal for Christmas dresses, anyway.) My inspiration became "Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes," from The Sound of Music song, "My Favorite Things."

Muffin's is McCall's 6015. It's made from white and blue cotton shirtings and lined with the white cotton shirting. Mine is an older McCall's that I think is OOP now, 4581. It's white linen lined with white rayon.

How Do You Shop for Kids' Clothes?

Crafty Foreign Service has a post up with some ideas for saving money on kids' clothes. Be sure to check out the comments for more great ideas (some from me!). The stores are starting to bring out the spring styles, so now's the time to buy winter clothes on sale and save them for next year.

Baby Legwarmers? Yes.

When I first heard of legwarmers for babies I thought, "How ridiculous." But then I thought, "Hey, they're kinda cute. I'm a little too old for the youthful legwarmers trend, but my baby does get chilly and what's the point of having a little girl if I can't dress her in the fashions that would look silly on me?" When I discovered a 75% off sale at the BabyLegs website I decided that the price was right for trying out baby legwarmers.

I loved them as soon as they arrived. The colors are just as bright and perky as shown on the website. The newborn sizes are perfect arm warmers for my six-month-old. When we were preparing to move to a warm climate I bought tons of short-sleeved shirts but it has been chillier here than I expected, so the arm warmers are helping me get mileage out of those shirts before she outgrows them. The larger sized legwarmers are still a tad too big for her but I can see their potential to fit nicely once she grows into them. I'm so tired of stretching her pants up over her cloth diapers; legwarmers are a great alternative.

The winter clearance sale is still on at BabyLegs! Fill your shopping cart with $75 worth of merchandise from the clearance page and use the coupon code WINTER75 to get 75% off those items. You can also get discounts for subscribing to the newsletter. Coupons cannot be combined, however, so you'll have to be crafty with your ordering to get maximum savings.

*I am an Amazon affiliate. If you purchase from these links or from my store, I will receive a small kickback. I am not affiliated with BabyLegs and was not compensated by them in any way for this post. Goods were purchased by me for personal use.

Threadless Kids

Just because they're babies doesn't mean they can't be hip.

Since our baby is gender neutral right now, shopping for clothes has been a challenge. I hate how there's so much stuff that's specifically boy or specifically girl. There are so many nice colors that could be for either, but put a little ruffle on a t-shirt, and all of a sudden it has to be for a girl. But, a shirt with no ruffles seems so obviously "boy."

I found Threadless Kids through CafeMom. And I fell in love with many of their designs. Most of which can be worn by boys or girls. They are plain t-shirts with simple graphics. Yeah, some of the shirts cost a little more than I'd like to spend on clothes that may only be worn for a few weeks or even days, but I splurged on a couple anyway.

Threadless has rotating designs and rotating $9 deals on kids' clothes. I managed to snap up one of these pictured shirts for $9, which made paying full price for the other one less painful. And you can shop the grown-up store for equally hip t-shirts for yourself.

Threadless and Threadless Kids is a community-oriented store and they have open submissions for designs. Shoppers can vote on designs that they'd like to see on future shirts. They also post new designs every day.

*I was not compensated for this post. Items were purchased by me for personal use.

Nice Gams

I had a revelation this weekend. The exercise I need to do to keep my blood sugar levels under control is finally making me feel good instead of awful. And it's a totally physical, vain thing that clued me in to this. I realized my legs look good again. A few months of not running or hiking made all my muscle tone disappear but the walking up and down hills and stairs and the stepping with the Wii fit for the last few weeks is bringing it back. I like that and I want to keep it.

When deciding on what to wear on Saturday night for dinner at a friend's house, I chose the short shorts I would have chosen pre-pregnancy rather than the jeans that have been covering up my legs for weeks. I put on a pair of wedge sandals and my legs looked and felt great.

Now I'm excited and happy to be working out again. I'm still taking it slow and easy, because I can't go very far without feeling winded and the extra weight I'm carrying around is aggravating some old aches and pains from my heavy mileage days.

My main reason for exercising is the health of me and the baby, but I'm enjoying the extra push I'm getting from liking my body again. It's been feeling like someone else's body for a while.

I'm Not Glowing with Motherhood

I'm glowing thanks to my Laura Mercier SPF 20 Tinted Moisturizer and some cheap blush I bought the last time I was in a Target.

Pregnancy has not been kind to my skin. Just when I felt like I'd found the right combination of skin care products, blam-o, everything changed with hormones and stuff. My expensive special-occasion product has been called in for everyday use.

And here's why. My crying jags tend to be first thing in the morning. I've also been sleeping fitfully and look tired every morning. But I have to go to work and I don't want to do that with red, splotchy, tired-looking skin. I tried cheaper brands of foundations and tinted moisturizers but I kept coming back to Laura Mercier, which transforms me from tear-stained mess to natural (looking) glow in under five minutes. And that's why, for me, it's worth the price.

The SPF 20 is extra nice. When I moved to California at the age of 25, after growing up in New England, I started using daily moisturizers with at least SPF 15. The California sun was harsh to my skin. I can't believe that was nine years ago and I think it's due to my daily moisturizing and sun protection that people mistake me for being under 30. (Yes, I'm proud of that.)

As an added bonus a tube is only 1.5 ounces, so I can keep it in my carry-on bag for traveling, duck into the bathroom before the plane lands, and emerge from a red-eye flight looking as fresh as when I departed. So, double-score for me in two months when I take a 30-hour trip while 34 weeks pregnant.

*I was not compensated for this post, however if you click the Amazon button and ultimately decide to buy the product, a few cents will be thrown my way. I purchased this product for my own personal consumption.

Crafty: Simple Blouses

Several years ago I bought this pattern, Simplicity 3887, for easy, breezy lightweight shirts to bring to Africa with me. I made a muslin of that white shirt, the middle one on the left-hand side. I really liked it, but for some reason never got around to making wearable versions of it.

Fast forward to now, when I'm busting out of my largest shirts. I dug into my sewing stash, found the muslin, tried it on, moved the tie up so the shirt has an empire waist, and voila! -- the perfect shirt not only for my growing tummy but the tropical heat as well.

Because these shirts are not fitted and don't have careful tailoring, they are quick and easy to make. You just have to make sure it fits around the shoulders so that it doesn't slide off (if you have small shoulders like I do). The puffiness around the neckline and sleeves cover up a lot of mistakes!

I have lots of cottons and linens in my fabric stash and I even had some elastic for the sleeves so I didn't have to worry about shopping (and shipping). I cut out three shirts in different fabrics, so that it's not quite as obvious that they are exactly the same. But by using the same color thread for all three, I could sew them all up at the same time, speeding up the sewing time. I went from zero shirts to three in a few days. I want to make more, with some of the locally printed fabrics from here, as reminder of my Africa pregnancy. One of the most time-consuming parts of making the shirt for me is making the tie, because I hate turning such a narrow strip right-side-out. I've got some extra wide ribbon that I've been using, and you could use any ribbons, narrow scarves, or anything else appropriate that you've got laying around (saving time and using something you've already got).

And when I'm no longer pregnant and have back something resembling my original waist, I can move the tie back down to my middle, making this a cost-effective, versatile shirt.

The finished product (one of them, at least), covering up my 24 weeks' pregnant stomach:

Pattern envelope image from Simplicity.com.

Book Review: Didn't I Feed You Yesterday? by Laura Bennett

I was a big fan of Laura Bennett's on Project Runway. She was a finalist in the third season, and she was pregnant with her sixth child at the time of taping. Shortly after I found out I was pregnant, I rewatched my season three DVDs to see how this glamourous woman handled the pregnancy and the unusual pressure of reality television. I resolved myself to not necessarily wearing a cocktail dress every day, but to avoiding sweatpants (and other assorted lounging pants, unless I'm getting ready for bed) as much as possible.

After being such a fan of hers and admiring how strong a woman she is, I was a little disappointed in her new book, Didn't I Feed You Yesterday: A Mother's Guide to Sanity in Stilettos. It was an entertaining peek at her unusual life, but it was less a guide and more an inventory of all the messes her husband and five boys make. There was nothing sane about it; in fact she talks a lot about how boy stuff drives her crazy. I'm all for fun, laidback parenting, but her kids sort of come off as brats rather than free-spirited, creative children. I think she was trying to portray them as free-spirited though. It's hard to tell, as the writing was disjointed and didn't flow evenly from chapter to chapter.

I do like the attitude that women shouldn't give up their personal style and shouldn't give up taking care of themselves so they can take better care of their families. But that was pretty much summed up in one short chapter, toward the end of the book. Myself, I find it just as easy to pull on a skirt as it is sweatpants, and I love heels. I'm not giving them up until I'm so pregnant that I topple out of them. Of course, bare feet are more practical for just around the house. I save the heels for work and nights out.

But in the disjointed Laura way, she talks about what a mess her apartment is with spilled food and ankle-breaking toys strewn about, and that's okay because boys will be boys. But she never resolves how, if she's wearing her little black dress all the time, she's kept herself clean from the general mess of babies. What does Laura wear when she knows she's going to be spit-up on? When she's changing a diaper? That's what I want to know. It's possible that those things don't happen to her. She talks about having nannies and a housekeeper, but it's difficult to know exactly what they do. (If there's a housekeeper, why is the house always such a mess?)

If you're a Laura fan, if you like the reality, tell-all genre, or if you're a parenting-book junkie you'll probably enjoy this book. I get that the "guide" part may be intended to be tongue-in-cheek, but I guess I just didn't find it funny or clever enough to pull me in.

Image from goodreads.com. I was not compensated in any way for this post. Items were purchased by me for personal use.

Fave Fashion: Old Navy Foldover Jersey Skirt

This simple knit skirt has been my favorite thing to wear since I started gaining my pregnancy weight. At twenty-three weeks along, I’m still wearing the non-maternity version and I’m curious to see if I’ll be able to pull that off throughout the whole pregnancy. The waistband can be adjusted, folding it down when I want it under my stomach, and leaving it up when I want some tummy coverage.

It’s been a great transition piece for work and weekends. I don’t want to spend a lot of money on maternity clothes for work, especially since I was planning on leaving my job this year even before I found out I was pregnant. My office is somewhat casual; this skirt is appropriate when paired with my camisoles and cardigans (although I’m at the point where I can’t button the cardigans anymore with out them looking like the buttons are about to burst). On the weekends, the skirt and a t-shirt are a perfect casual look for running errands or meeting friends.

Did I mention how comfortable this skirt is? The knit fabric is lightweight and soft. I have this skirt in two different colors and I’m wearing them more often than my track pants, even when I’m sitting at home doing nothing. I’m trying to maintain some of my fashion-consciousness during pregnancy because some days it feels like the clothes I put on are the only thing I have control over. Pulling on a skirt takes the same amount of effort as pulling on sweatpants, so why not look cute?

The fabric content is rayon, polyester, and spandex. The skirt is available in a variety of colors from Old Navy.com. The regular skirt is $15.00 and the maternity version is $16.50.

Image from Old Navy.com. I was not compensated in any way for this post. Items were purchased by me for personal use.