School

I have been so bad in posting! We had a wonderful, busy summer, and, as all good things do, it has come to an end. School started on Wednesday.

Caleb started high school. I can hardly believe he is a freshman!

Calvin is at the top of the totem pole this year, starting 5th grade. Middle school next year!

Connor is in 1st grade, and will be having his first experience going to school all day. He's loving it so far, telling me it's fun to eat lunch at school, and that he LOVES recess.

As for me, I am now home alone during the day for the first time in a long long time. I do go to the elementary school every day for noon hour recess supervision, but otherwise, I am on my own. I have grand plans for my time. Maybe I'll finally get those living and dining room curtains finished, the halls repainted, my sewing room cleaned, and some clothes made. :D

Ankle Surgery

Remember when Caleb broke his ankle? It healed well, but about 6-8 months ago, it started hurting again. He also twisted it pretty badly in a soccer game in May. We went to the doctor to have it looked at. The x-ray didn't show anything, so they sent us to get an MRI. After the MRI, we got referred to our doctor's partner, who specializes in ankles. On the MRI, the entire back of Caleb's ankle was swollen and inflammed. The culprit? A bone in the back that was pushing on either a tendon or a nerve, or both. The treatment? Surgery. So last week Friday, Caleb had a posterior talar exostectomy done on his right ankle. Basically they took some bone out.

It was bigger than we thought it would be. That's my pinky finger you see. No, they didn't let us keep the bone (we both asked).

Caleb woke up in time to catch the last minute or so of the Brasil/Portugal game. Portugal lost. :( (oops, I got confused. too much soccer lately. :) Brasil/Portugal had a draw, Portugal lost to Spain. When your opponent controls the ball 60% of the time, it doesn't matter how good your defense is, the odds are against you)

He had a boot on after surgery, and on Tuesday we went to the doctor to have the bandage removed. The steri strips fell off soon afterwards. Now he wears the boot only if he needs the extra support, and is to walk and flex his ankle as much as possible. He'll start PT at the end of next week.

In other news, I also turned 40 on Tuesday, and had a great evening out with my girlfriends.

Vogue 7488

Caleb's 8th grade promotion ceremony was last night, and here is his waistcoat. He picked Vogue 7488; I made a size M. I was to make a suit as well, but we decided it would be too hot to wear, plus probably wouldn't fit him come winter anyway. So, I'm going to take that wool and either make a suit for him for fall/winter, or I might find a topcoat pattern, as he wants a formal coat. (sometimes I think aliens have taken my real son)

Modifications I made were to cut the back out of the fashion fabric (the pattern calls for the back to be made from lining), I eliminated the back belt, and all four pockets are functional (top two are faux according to the pattern. I do my pockets like this). He was very pleased with how this turned out.

I don't really like finishing vests this way, preferring instead to stitch the shoulders and armholes completely by machine, turning through the lining side seam. However, there is no back collar on this (! I didn't like that part), so I had to do the armholes according to the directions, which meant hand stitching the back shoulder lining over the seam.

There is a nice split at the side seams.

The front inside has a hem facing. There is also a small pleat where the lining meets the facing -- it's not really needed, IMO. I'd eliminate that next time.

My boy is in high school now!

Full review for this pattern is here, at Pattern Review. I've entered it in the Sewing for Men contest.

The Joker

another picture heavy post. click on any photo to see its full size.

Caleb was The Joker for Halloween this year. He wanted to be him last year, but I wasn't able to get the costume made, plus we had to go out of town for a funeral. I made sure to get the costume done this year, and I barely did.

we had a long day of trick-or-treating and a party.

there, that's better! I used Burda 8186 for all 3 pieces, and decided this was also going to be a test run for the possibility of making him a suit for 8th grade promotion in June. I used a cheapish poly gab from Hancock Fabrics for the suit, and cotton twill for the vest.

I cut a size 36 for the jacket, and it is fully lined. There was to be an inside pocket, but I was on a really tight deadline, so I skipped it.

The double welt pockets have a flap. The pattern calls for the flap pieces to be self-lined. I used lining, because otherwise they would have been quite bulky. The breast pocket is functional as well.

I do like that Burda patterns give you separate patterns for the upper and under collars, but I thought this one was kinda weird for a suit jacket. There is a collar stand, and the under collar is not cut on the bias (the upper collar looks exactly the same, with the collar stand also). It still looks nice, however.

There's a vent in the back.

I didn't quite make my deadline, and used safety pins to hold up the sleeve hems. You can see I bagged the lining through the sleeve seam, and I'll finish up the hems (and add the shoulder pads I neglected) sometime this week.

I also cut a size 36 for the vest. The pattern calls for double welt pockets, but I made single welt pockets. I think they look nicer on a vest.

The vest is also fully lined. (btw -- my husband did the graphic art on the shirt caleb is wearing)

The pants were the first part of the costume I made, and I cut a 34. They fit, but seemed like just barely, which is why I cut the other pieces a size larger. The pants have a double welt pocket on the back, which I did (though it's sloppy).

The fly front is real, not mock. It was pretty easy, though next time I will use lining for parts of it, as it's a bit bulky.

Caleb really liked the costume, and I'm looking forward to making another suit for him come spring. This was the only costume I had to make this year, as Calvin re-used the jester costume, and I found a James costume at Target for Connor.

First Day of School

School started on Tuesday. I don't really look forward to new school years. I like my kids hanging around and having lazy mornings. :) But, start it did, and here are the requisite pictures:
Caleb is an eighth grader now, has decided to play football this year (along with soccer), is now much bigger than me, and still gets annoyed that I want to take his photo on the first day of school. I did say I would be happy to walk him to school too but he declined. :)

Calvin is now in fourth grade, and also is now getting tired of the traditional first day of school photo. This year our neighbor up the street is in his class, which is pretty nice.

Connor had his very first first day of school! He is now going to senior kindergarten, in the mornings. What the photo doesn't show is how excited he was to go, and he made a friend the very first day and had a playdate planned with said friend 2 days later! There are only 10 kids in his class, which I think is great.

Now I have the mornings to myself for the first time in a long time. It's kinda weird, but I'll surely find lots to keep me occupied, like the quilt that has to be done next weekend. It's been all cut out and ten of the sixteen rows are already together.

June Adventures

Oh my, June has zipped by and we're almost halfway through July! Time to catch-up:

Caleb built some alternative energy models for the Human Ecology Fair at school. This is a hydroelectric generator. When they ran water down the chute, it generated enough electricity to make a buzzer go off.

We spent Father's Day at the Boerner Botanical Gardens. David's dad and wife came to visit also.

I took five boys with me on our annual camping trip....

....where they got to make ice cream, along with spending a day playing on the beach, general hiking around, and all around fun.

Caleb left for a week to camp with his Boy Scout troop.

I turned 39, and to celebrate....

....we went to pick strawberries....

....and peas....

....and made a lot of jam.

Hats and Bones

I finshed a hat for Calvin yesterday at practice. This was such a fast hat to make! This was also my first experience with Malabrigo, and Yarndude? you were totally right, this stuff is great.
The pattern is Thorpe, a top-down hat with flaps. I made a medium, and it's a bit big. Rav project page is here. Look at the cute baby variation she has too! I'll be trying that one next, for a friend who had a little girl last Thursday. Calvin also wants me to put a pom pom on top. As I said, I finished this at practice last night, and one of the coaches saw it and practically begged me to make one for him. :) So, Calvin and I will go back to Loop and he'll pick out some yarn for Dave's hat.

Now, about those bones....
On Friday, Caleb slipped on the ice on his way to school. He hopped home (he had only made it to the next door neighbor), and said, "Mama? I fell down." I took one look at his now very swollen ankle and paged the doc. She said to take him to the ER or the clinic, so I took him over to the Urgent Care clinic. Two hours and four x-rays later, we were sent home with crutches and a boot, with instructions to call later on in the day for the final radiologist report. That came back as a possible distal fibula fracture (and it is) and instructions to see an orthopaedic doctor. We did so on Monday morning, and Caleb now has a cool black cast for the next six weeks. He also now is out for soccer, out for the snowboarding/ski club at school, and out for the next few scout campouts. :( The cast is a chick magnet, though. :)

Halloween

Here in Milwaukee, trick-or-treat is always held on the Sunday before Halloween, in the afternoon. It's always been that way (I don't know why); I never trick-or-treated in the dark on Halloween as a child. Anyway, here are the boys:
Caleb was a biker. He was going to be the Joker, but I didn't get a costume done in time, and it actually turned out for the best, as we had to quickly leave town a few days later for a family funeral (having green hair at the funeral probably wouldn't have been the best thing. ^_^)

Calvin was Zorro, Connor was a ghost. He was going to be a doctor again like last year, but at the absolute last minute he wanted to be a ghost. It's a good thing I keep a bolt of muslin on hand at all times.

As I mentioned above, we had to go to Iowa for a funeral. They do trick-or-treat there at night, usually on Halloween (it was on the 30th this year, and they call it Beggar's Night instead). My FIL dressed up as a clown, Caleb decided to go as a pirate this time, and Connor decided to skip the whole thing and stay home to play with trains. One of the traditions in Iowa is that you have to tell a joke to get your candy. Calvin told everyone that he doesn't do jokes, he does tricks. So he'd go into the person's yard and do a running roundoff into a backhandspring. In a cape. It looked pretty darn cool. People were pretty impressed, and would give him extra candy. He scored big on the candy in Iowa!

I used Butterick 5656 for Calvin's Zorro cape, adding 10" to the length, and using the collar piece from the tunic. To finish off the collar, I stitched it on as if I were making a dress shirt collar stand. It's sewn all around the neck and front edges, leaving the top open.

I then trimmed and clipped the collar. After pressing it, I turned under the open edge on the top.

To finish it off and close the opening, I edgestitched all around. A finished collar, with all edges enclosed!

First Day

Today was the first day of school! Needless to say I was a little distracted and spacey this morning, but I remembered at the last minute to get a picture of Caleb, and totally embarrass him (that's in the mama job description, right?):
"No! We'll do it when I get home. Aw, come on, in public even!"

We found out that Calvin is in the same class as 2 of his good friends, and his teacher has the most awesome hair (it's silver! gorgeous! great cut! yes, I am shallow!). I told her about Sonja, and she said she'd give Calvin a little extra TLC. I also, in my spacey-ness, forgot to pack his snack, and took forever to find the thermos for his lunch (he went with grilled red potatoes, a cut up pork chop, some BBQ sauce, grapes, and a drink).

My mom helped me get Sonja's body to the vet for cremation. Now Connor and I are home, it's a little too quiet, and I finally got a shower in. It'll be a long day for Calvin, as I won't see him until about 7:45, when he gets home from gymnastics practice (my mom is taking him today). Caleb has soccer practice, and the crazy Tuesdays/Thursdays begin....

Last Day Of School

YEAH! School is out for summer!

I've got a seventh grader now! Check out his first day as a sixth grader.

I also now have a third grader on my hands! Here's his first day as a second grader.

Complete!

Here are the jester costumes in all their glory. Turns out that Caleb's friend had 2 pairs of gold shoes, so they wore those, along with either green tights or green soccer socks. I'll try and get a picture of the two of them together this weekend. The feast was a lot of fun, with kings, queens, serfs, bishops, monks, wizards, jesters, cooks, archers, knights, and plague victims.




(the bells fell off. I'm sure the metal cut through the thread. any ideas on how to get them sewn on and stay on?)