Liam has become a finicky eater. These past few days we’ve been eating lots of turkey, stuffing, and cornbread leftovers. The first thing Liam grabs off his plate is his cornbread which, if we don’t cut it into small peices, he shoves it all into his mouth at one time. Then once he finally is able to swallow it he will grab my plate to pull it close enough to steal my cornbread. Once all the cornbread is gone he may eat some stuffing but no turkey.

Last night was our first night since Thanksgiving we didn’t have turkey, stuffing or cornbread. Liam was very unhappy and refused to eat. Finally I gave him crackers and he ate them all!

He really likes his starches!

I finally finished the pants! It took me a while to remove the bad stitches but when I was done it was easy to complete the pants. I had Liam try them on and the waist band is too big! I will have to try and fix it or tie the sash over it.

I also finished the sash and bandanna. The bandanna was a pain to do. I made it from satin which keeps fraying so I had to hem it twice which was very time consuming.

I had Liam try it on and it was so cute! Want to see pictures? Well you will have to wait until Halloween.

Last night I started the sewing part of the costume making procedure. I started with the shirt.

Stitch front to back at shoulder seams. Stitch front to back at side seams.

No Problem

With RIGHT sides together, stitch facing to collar in a 3/8″ seam, leaving notched edges open. Trim seam; clip curves.

Facing? I call my mom and find out facing means putting right sides together. Okay. Now where do I sew? I have to look at the picture in the directions to know what they mean. Okay, done.

Turn collar; press. Machine baste raw edges together. On OUTSIDE, pin collar (facing side) to neck edges, matching centers back, large dots and placing small dots at shoulder seam…

I got lost with the rest of the directions but I had messed up anyway with the color so I couldn’t continue anyways. My collar is lopsided. Now I will have to cut out a new one.

Lets move onto the sash.

Fold sash in half, lengthwise, with RIGHT sides together. Stitch in a 3/8″ seam, leaving an opening to turn. Trim seam and corners.

That was easy enough. The next step required me to press and stitch opening close. I will do that later. I don’t feel like doing those.

Now on to the bandanna. Oops no red thread. Okay on to the pants.

Stitch center front and center back seams. To reinforce seam, stitch again over first stitching. Clip curves.

Very easy.

Press 1″ on upper edge to INSIDE, forming casing. Press under 1/4″ on raw edge. Stitch close to lower edge of casing, leaving an opening on inner edge to insert elastic.

I didn’t do any pressing but I didn’t have any problems.

Cut piece of 1/2″ wide elastic to fit waist, plus 1″. Insert elastic together securely. Stitch opening closed.

The hardest part of this is measuring Liam’s waist! He just won’t stay still. I hope the measurement is correct.

Make leg casing as View A, B, see step 22.

What? With the help of my husband we figured out that they want me to use the directions from the other costumes at step 22, which is the exact same directions as the waist but for ankles. Why couldn’t they just say that. Any way I do this, sort of. My machine decides to be a pain. Needless to say I need a seam ripper and I can’t find it. My husband uses it all the time and this time he forgot to put it back. Neither of us know where it is. So I have to buy a new one but the stores are closed. I will buy it tomorrow. On to the vest…

With RIGHT sides together, stitch front and back at shoulder seams.

Very simple.

Stitch shoulder seams of lining.
With RIGHT sides together, pin lining to vest, matching centers and shoulder seams, having raw edges even.
Stitch lining to vest, leaving side seams open for turning. Trim seams and corners; clip curves.

A little more complex but not very hard.

Turn vest RIGHT side out by pulling each front through shoulder and out one of the back side openings, as shown; press.

Not fun to do but not hard. Why do I have to keep pressing? I didn’t know an iron was part of sewing!

With RIGHT sides together and raw edges even, pin vest and lining at sides, matching armhole seams and lower seams.
To stitch, begin on lining 1″ above armhole seam; stitch vest seam and end on lining 1″ below seam edge. Press seam open. Turn seam allowance of remaining lining edges and slip stitch together.

I’m not sure what they wanted me to do but I do it the way I think it should be done and includes no slip stitching which is good because I don’t know how to do that.

The only thing left is putting on the buttons and Velcro. They have some very complex directions on how to do this. I do it my way instead. The vest looks great.

Well that’s all I can do until I go shopping or redo the collar (which is not what I want to do) but I did complete the vest!

I decided that I would make my son’s costume for Halloween. The last piece of clothing I had made was over 10 years ago. Since then I have sewed pouches and pillow cases oh and scrapbook pages.

So I went to Wal-mart (there are no other places in town that sells fabric!) and picked out a pattern. The pattern I chose is a pirate costume. I then picked out fabric. I had to call my husband to measure my son (forgot to do that) so I would know what size he wore and how much fabric I would need. Then when I had to buy single-fold bias tape I had to call my mom to ask what it was used for. The bias tape comes in a multitude of colors and I didn’t know what color I would need. She told me it would be used in the casing for the elastic band in the shirt. So I needed white bias tape. Well that was the only color they were out of. So I bought a light beige (bamboo). I also picked out buttons. Then I went to the costume department to look for Pirate add ons like a hat, sword and eye patch. Nothing. So I went to target. Nothing. I went to the BX. Nothing. Kmart. I got a pirate sword for $2.99. I went to the mall hoping for a costume shop. Nope.

I came home and decided to cut out the pieces for the pattern. First I had to unfold 3 sheets of extremely thin paper and cut around the pieces I needed. I cut out all the pieces (roughly around just to seperate them). I then pinned them to the fabric and cut them out. It was only after I cut them out I remembered I was suppose to cut notches out so that I could line things up more easily.

That was all I could take today so I will do more later.

Time goes by so fast. Like for example my last entry was almost a year ago. It’s not almost October and we are living State side. We bought our own house. Liam is a toddler now. I still remember the day he was born like it was yesterday. I sometimes feel the same fears I did when I was handling a newborn. Am I a good parent? What if I don’t know what to do? What do I do?

Sometimes it seems easier, sometimes harder. It really new challenges replacing the old ones. It defiantly keeps me on my toes. It also keeps my weight down. I now weigh 120lbs. Before Liam was born (before I was pregnant) I weighed 150lbs and I had for as long as I remembered weighing myself. I don’t even try to lose weight and now I’m 120lbs and all my favorite clothes are too big.

I’m kinda rambling but then I am on some heavy pain killers. I had my wisdom teeth removed last week. There is still some pain, especially at night. Also the stitches are very irratating. Maybe I should just go to bed.