So yesterday I got to once again prove my wonderful mom-ship.  If you know me, you know that I hate sewing.  If you don’t know me, well, there isn’t much in this world I wouldn’t do if it got me out of sewing.  Hayley has a “Feast of the Gods” event at school tomorrow (nothing like waiting until the last minute), and she is supposed to be Gaea/Gaia, or Mother Earth.  We went to Google for costume inspiration.  Bad idea.  About 75% of the Gaea images are naked.  Not a great idea for a 5th grader.  Also, Gaea is apparently VERY well endowed, and sometimes has what resembles a pregnant belly made out of the earth.  Yay.  The few images we could find of Gaea in actual clothing all showed her in flowy blue and green toga-type gowns, with leaves and flowers.  Sure, I can make that!

We went to the fabric store and the dollar store, and spent $17 on fabric, ribbon, and flowers, because God forbid I send my child to school tied up in a sheet.  If I was smart, I might have considered purchasing a dress pattern, but no, the brain wasn’t working.  We sketched out an idea for a tank-style long flowy dress with a veil thingy on the back.  I then took her measurements (26,22,27 if you care!), and sketched it out on the fabric with the nifty chalk-thingy that came with my almost-never-used sewing kit.  Then, I cut.  As I did, the old “measure twice, cut once” mantra popped into my head, but I ignored it and pressed on.  I cut, I hemmed in all the raw edges with the (only used for attaching Girl Scout badges and when Grandma comes to visit) sewing machine, then sewed up the sides with wild abandon.  Somehow, probably because God looks after small children and idiots, it actually fit her.  Fairly well, if I do say so myself.  Since my only sewing prior to this was the pair of ill-fitting shorts made for 8th grade home ec, 2 pillows, and the afore-mentioned Girl Scout badges, I think I did pretty well.  We hemmed up the very raw edges of the veil fabric, attached with pins, and voila!  A dress.  Hayley then spent the afternoon gluing flowers to it.  Now we just have to get up way early in the morning and get her put together before school.  This, of course, should be a crime.  There is nothing more important than that last 5 minutes of sleep in the morning.

After finishing mounds of laundry last night, I finally got to felt my bag.  It is way beyond cute, though a little smaller than I had hoped.  The picture is of it blocking on the vinegar jug, as that was the only round thing I could find to fit.  It’s nearly dry now, and hopefully will be ready for (UGH) sewing tomorrow night.  At the last minute (and after running out of green) I decided it needed a marsupial-type cell phone pouch, as there is little worse or more dangerous than digging in the bottom of my purse for a ringing phone while barreling down the road.  I really didn’t want to configure the entrelac, as my brain was worn out from the dress episode, so I decided some nice stripes were in order.  Other than Hayley’s comment that it looks like something from Blue’s Clues, all else went well.  The handles are of course shorter than I wanted, since I used ALL available yarn.  Shea and I even put them between us, held on, and leaned back.  They will not stretch!

OK, this is getting long.  I’m going to go watch tv with my wonderful hubby, and work on his socks.  After knitting for a week and a half with super bulky yarn, on big needles, these socks feel like they’re taking forever!!!

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