Sylph-Indulgence

Stuff I've made re...well, okay, not recently, but since I last posted

bodacioussylph — Sun, 01 Jan 2017 00:35:04 GMT

Starting with Halloween 2015. Ivy is a Pokemon, a Skitty. Maggie is a character from Heroes of the Storm, Sergeant Hammer, who is a specificated StarCraft tank.

Outfits for the school Daughter Dance. The theme was Cowgirls. Ivy has a dress made of a cute rodeo print, while Maggie has a gingham skirt and kerchief. They both wanted vests too.

My brother-in-law got married in August. Ivy was the flower girl and Maggie was a Junior Bridesmaid. The theme was "western" and the colors were lavender and yellow, so I drafted an old-fashioned-ish pattern with a double-layered skirt.

And Halloween 2016. This time they both went for Pokemon characters: Maggie a henchman for Team Rocket (the antagonists), and Ivy an Eevee. I also made them Pokeball treat bags.

Weekly-ish craft post: Easter t-shirt

bodacioussylph — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 22:40:56 GMT

Continuing with the Easter stuff: rainfletcher got a t-shirt with a 3-D flower applique made from Maggie's trim fabric and leaves made from the green dot fabric.

Weekly-ish craft post: another Easter dress

bodacioussylph — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 15:23:42 GMT

So here are both girls in their Easter dresses. Both had the same style, but they each picked a different pink calico for the edge details. The pattern is from I am Cute Dresses, the "I am Sassy Sundress" design, scaled down to fit my little girls and modified to have an elastic waistband instead of a drawstring. You can also see Maggie's hair clip pretty clearly, though Ivy's headband is on the opposite side of her head and therefore not visible.

There should be more erasure covers

bodacioussylph — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 00:32:43 GMT

Love this!

Weekly (ish) craft post: Easter dress the first

bodacioussylph — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 20:59:51 GMT

I have been sewing! I'm terrible at the dress diary/process shot so here's the first actual finished dress:

I'm so pleased with the fabric selected this year! Cute and springy without being cutesy. :)

Maggie's version is partway finished and I still haven't completely settled on what I'm doing for myself. There's still plenty of time 'til Easter, right?

Weekly (ish) craft post: bias binding

bodacioussylph — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 01:06:47 GMT

Whoops. Missed a few weeks.

For a while there, it felt like every single sewing blogger was featuring outfits with cute custom bias binding. How jealous I was! And then I came across a couple of tutorials and decided to give it a try. A small investment in a bias tape maker and voila!

It's not flawless--I need to figure out how to manage the joins better because it tended to go wonky as I ironed over those sections--but I'm confident that a bit of practice will improve my results.

Weekly craft post: Daddy pants upcycled to kid jumper

bodacioussylph — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 23:56:41 GMT

rainfletcher offered me a pair of rather frayed pants and I finally got around to doing something with them. I cut off the legs, opened them flat, then seamed the edges together. Used the waistband for a halter strap and added some elastic to the top back edge to help shape it a bit (though I feel like maybe I need to add a couple of darts too--maybe later). It buttons with a dinosaur button for extra Maggie flair.

Weekly crafty post: Halloween costumes

bodacioussylph — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 23:17:55 GMT

I can't believe I forgot to post these back in November. I fail at life.

Uncle Mike gave each of the girls a play lightsaber so I suggested that they be Jedi for Halloween.

I made a a pretty ordinary Tattooine-type Jedi outfit for Ivy. Maggie, however, wanted something more like a Jedi Consular from the Old Republic video game, so I pored over screenshots and made something that looked similar to one of the armor sets from that.

Getting them to pose as if they were fighting was surprisingly difficult. :P

Weekly craft post: tie-dye

bodacioussylph — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 19:38:40 GMT

I made tie-dyed t-shirts with Maggie's Girl Scout troop. Here's mine (by the time it was my turn only purple dye was left!)

Weekly crafty post: work-in-progress hairbows

bodacioussylph — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 03:00:25 GMT

Ivy's Daisy troop is having a Valentine exchange at their meeting this week. I'm making each girl a Valentine with a hairbow and the words "You are BOW-tiful."

They're partially assembled at the moment; I need to put the rest together and do some tidying/arranging to make sure they all look nice, and add the clips onto the back.

Weekly craft post: monkey dress, before she outgrows it

bodacioussylph — Tue, 04 Feb 2014 02:55:49 GMT

Here's a cute dress I made that M is on the cusp of outgrowing...it's about time for Ivy to get some wear out of it! I slightly misjudged the dimensions for the handkerchief hem but I think that's a "I notice this but no one else does" issue.

If you're local and you would like Girl Scout cookies, you know who to ask. (Hint: IT'S ME.)

Weekly crafty post: not-poodle skirt

bodacioussylph — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 21:19:47 GMT

Every January there is a father-daughter dance at the girls' school. Two years ago the theme was black-and-white ball (I made a long white dress for Mags), last year it was the circus (I made a dress using a cute monkey print), and this year it was the fabulous 50s.

So of course I decided to make a poodle skirt. And then I thought, this is for MAGGIE. Maggie the dinosaur-loving girl. "Hey Mags!" said I. "What if I made a poodle skirt except instead of a poodle it had a triceratops?" She was enthused. Further discussion led to the suggestion of a dragon instead.

Here's how we styled it for the dance:

Close-up of the dragon applique:

It is a very very twirly skirt!

Weekly craft post: silly mini top hat

bodacioussylph — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 02:04:56 GMT

Here's a mini top hat I made for myself, modeled by the lovely Maggie.

I'm almost finished with an adorable skirt for Mags for the 50s dance at her school.

In other news, I have been wearing the wrong size bra MY ENTIRE BRA-WEARING LIFE.

2014 Weekly Craftiness: Flower hairclips

bodacioussylph — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 22:50:25 GMT

I made these clips for the girls. Ivy's favorite color is green, so she got a green one, and I made Maggie a slightly more realistic-looking red one.

2014 weekly craftiness: Pair of rag dolls edition

bodacioussylph — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 23:56:49 GMT

Gonna post something Made-by-Ra on a weekly basis in 2014. :)

I'm starting off with two dolls I sewed for my nieces for Christmas. According to my sister, they LOVE them! I wanted to make a few extra dresses for each, but ran out of time.

Kabang

bodacioussylph — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 18:40:36 GMT

So someone drove into someone else just outside my house about an hour ago. Sipping tea, reading historic costuming blogs, plotting out laundry and housecleaning, and suddenly a metallic BANG close by and then car-not-starting noises. I stuck my head out the door and saw a truck with its side stove in parked across the street and an SUV in the middle of the intersection. I walked over to make sure everyone was safe and then pointed out my house if they needed anything.

The SUV is now gone, and the truck has moved and is on our side of the street. The truck had a five gallon bucket of paint in the bed, and it has white paint splashed all over the back of the cab and dripping down onto a piece of board he put down so it doesn't get on the ground. Dee knocked on the door, VERY CONCERNED about that paint. "IT NEEDS TO BE CLEANED UP." Not sure why exactly, but I gave her a bucket of hot soapy water so she could.

Croquettes, and a video that made me happy

bodacioussylph — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 03:06:56 GMT

Made croquettes with Thanksgiving leftovers today. Ivy actually liked them, which is why I'm recording how I made them. :)

3/4 c-ish cooked turkey, finely chopped
1 egg
1/4 c flour
1 c-ish mashed potato
salt and pepper

Mix. Drop spoonfuls into shallow bowl of panko, form into patty shape, cover in panko. Put breaded patties on cookie sheet and refrigerate for 10 minutes. Heat oil at 1/4 inch depth in a frying pan over medium heat. Fry croquettes about 2 minutes per side and drain on paper towels.

*** *** ***

I know this song is the most earwormiest of earworms and a source of meme after meme. However! This version, which some troops serving in Afganistan made in response to a version the Miami Dolphin cheerleaders made, is a thing of true beauty. Here's the two videos side by side....

expletive deleted

bodacioussylph — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 17:06:06 GMT

Uncle Mike introduced Maggie to Minecraft. Thus far, we've persuaded her that we can't have it at our house, so it's a "go over and play on the weekend" activity. But our little planner discovered that youtube is full of videos explaining things you can build and demonstrating addons and so on, and so she started watching videos and making elaborate diagrams of the things she wanted to build. It's youtube, so the vids vary. Some include, ahem, questionable language. We told her that some of the words the players are using are inappropriate for a little girl to use, and that if she picked anything inappropriate up, she wouldn't be able to watch the videos anymore.

I'm sure everyone knows where this is going, right? Today M said, "fuck you, creeper" while watching a video.

"Maggie? Did you just say 'fuck you'?" She burst into tears and fled.

I've got her calmed down now, and a ban on youtube for the rest of the day. Hopefully that will be enough to get her to watch her mouth from here on out.

Quite the day so far

bodacioussylph — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 17:27:20 GMT

So the girls woke up before six. Suboptimal but not worth fussing over. Then Ivy gnawed at her toenail until she started bleeding (what the heck, Ives? biting fingernails is bad enough!). She let me clean the wound and put cream on but freaked out over how I bandaged it--ultimately it took three bandages to for her to be willing to leave it alone.

Despite the freakout, they were ready for school, so we left even though it was super early. They stomped in puddles and I was happy to let them dawdle. Ivy and I took Maggie to her line, and she was the first there. And then a boy from her class came up and put himself at the front of the line. She got weepy and distressed and "I wanted to be in the front," but she didn't actually stick up for herself and assert her place in line. So I took her by the elbow and told her she needs to ASK for what she wants, and steered her to the front of the line, telling the boy that she was there first. He didn't deny it and allowed her to stay at the front.

It breaks my heart sometimes. I see myself in her; I too was full of insecurities and lacked social grace as a child. I wish I could gift her some more confidence, help her know when and how to stick up for yourself and when to let things roll off your back.

You suck, October

bodacioussylph — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 22:46:44 GMT

Last month, Jeremy was diagnosed with GERD and PCKD. He was also transferred, against his preference, to a different worksite. Maggie broke her nose. Overall kind of a not-fun period.

Kindergarten, Day one

bodacioussylph — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 04:21:42 GMT

Ivy trooped off today in great excitement for her very first day of school! She cried a bit over her lack of hula-hoop ability, and for some reason she didn't touch her lunch. Other than that, fabulous day and she is SO ESSITED for her SECOND DAY OF SCHOOL AMORROW! She werned a moo song, "dere was a farmer had a dog an' Bingo was his name-o." Slight surprise when Daddy and I started to sing along. And "Good morning, good morning...I don' know da west."

Meanwhile J and I had the opportunity to meet one of our WoW friends who is in the area on vacation. Very nice chat and it's always fun to put a face to a voice.

42

bodacioussylph — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 13:47:21 GMT

On making Offspring Very Sad

bodacioussylph — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 00:08:16 GMT

Last year, every kid in Maggie's class was assigned a "hero." They each made a poster with information about the hero and had to give a short presentation about him or her. Some of the heroes were Paul Revere, Abe Lincoln, Rosa Parks, MLK Jr, Harriet Tubman, Helen Keller.

Maggie's was Sally Ride.

So now rainfletcher and I are pondering how much--if any--information to give our highly-sensitive little miss. I daresay she will get Very Sad if we share the news of Dr. Ride's death. Still, better that she get Very Sad at home with us than at school if it comes up there.

We were going to tell her yesterday, and then she got Very Sad because we wouldn't let her have iced tea at bedtime, and it just felt like a bad idea on the whole.

Bento!

bodacioussylph — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:44:39 GMT

Maggie is taking standardized tests for the first time today, so I decided to make her lunch extra-special. Here's Millie from Team Umizoomi in edible form!

Dear Ivy,

bodacioussylph — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:58:45 GMT

Stop putting things up your nose! If this is some creative experiment to find out what happens, I can tell you with confidence that the same thing will happen every time: you will feel a sensation of discomfort or pain; your mother will get stressed out but work hard to remain calm; and there will be lots of "BLOW! or we will have to go to the DOCTOR!"

I mean really! Who thinks "huh, a little piece of apple. I will stuff it into my nasal cavity." My daughter, that's who.