Look! I Actually Finished a Project!

Today I had to stay home from church with the baby. We think it is best to keep the baby home as much as possible for the next month while he is recovering. I don't want to expose him to any more germs than are necessary, and I don't want to mess with carting the oxygen along if it can be avoided. I hate missing church though, so this is going to be a long month for me.

Anyway, in the time I had while the baby slept, I was reading blogs and found a great apron pattern. Next month's contest at our local quilt shop is to make an apron, and I had considered making a Wyoming themed brown and gold apron, but the truth is, I rarely wear aprons. So it seems a little silly to make myself another one - especially when the one I made last time (using the Emmaline pattern) won the contest at the quilt shop a couple years ago. I blogged about it here. Anyway, when I saw this one, I knew I wanted to make it for my seven year old. (Mine is very similar to hers, but I didn't add the side pieces because the jeans I used were wide enough for him as they were.) Here's what I did.

First, I cut off one leg of the pants - these were adult jeans, which is why they were large enough without adding side panels. Then I split the seam from the outside of the leg open.

I cut off the edges that had been in the seams, because they wanted to fold over, and they were a darker blue. I wanted a fringed edge, so the folding would have been a problem. Plus, this kept me from spending an hour picking threads.

I laid the pantleg flat on the table, (the bottom hem is at the far end from the camera) and split the inseam area open as far as necessary to get the pant leg to lay flat.

Then I simply allowed the fabric to flatten out, crossing over itself, and pinned it. This got sewn down when I sewed the pockets on.

For pockets, I found an old pair of carpenter pants with interesting long, narrow pockets - as well as the regular back pocket. I thought the more pockets the better for a seven year old boy, right?

I went back and forth on pocket placement, but finally decided to line them all up at waist level or a little lower. I positioned them where I wanted them, and pinned them down. I also cut a curved notch section out of each side of the top to make it fit a little nicer and look more like an apron.

I fringed all around the sides and bottom using scissors to make small cuts. This will look much better after it's gone through the washer and dryer a few times, but I was anxious to post this today since I actually started AND finished a sewing project in one day!

Then I sewed everything down - all the pockets and the split in the bottom. I don't know how I missed taking a picture of the straps, but they are just made from a folded over section of the leg of the carpenter pants, tacked down in a criss-cross pattern, so he doesn't have to mess with ties or buttons or anything. Completely boy-friendly.

So there it is. It's in the washer right now, so it can fringe better on the edges, but I think it came out really cute (in a boy sort of way, of course ;) He was a little worried that it looked like a skirt, because it's pretty long, and it does wrap around a bit. But I wanted it to fit him for a long time, so I even made the straps longer than necessary and tucked the extra into the seam so they can be let out later. Though, who am I kidding. This thing probably won't get altered to fit longer. It will probably be passed to the next brother. And the next. :) Maybe I should make another one ... or two.

Okay, so on to what else happened here today...

The seven year old leaves for science camp tomorrow, so today he took the time to try to identify as many of the bugs as possible. We already had several identified, and some we still have no clue on, so his paper has several places where it just says "moth" instead of naming the exact moth. I need to invest in better resources for insect identification. It's on my list.

The baby was in a great mood for most of the day, though he is sleeping a lot more than I expected. He also has times when he looks more sickly - pale and a little lethargic. He's coughing worse now, and it sounds like he is more congested, but I think that is probably a good thing. Maybe the antibiotics are kicking in and getting that congestion to move out of his lungs. He also doesn't seem to mind the oxygen canula anymore either.

Here's the clown for you. He was playing with a silly band (those stupid rubber bands that are in the shape of different things) and he ended up showing us what he thinks the baby looks like with his oxygen. I'd say this one is a little tight.

This is a cute thing the baby has started doing. Whenever he is laying down, he puts his right arm behind his neck and sucks his left fingers - usually the middle two, but sometimes others. In this picture he has the ring finger and pinkie.

While I hated missing church, it was nice to be home with him and give him that extra attention he needs right now. The two year old stayed with us too, so we had entertainment :)

Here's the entertainer himself. He was playing with his brother's king sized comforter on the corner of the futon, pulling it up all around himself and hiding in it. All my kids seem to enjoy snuggling into small crevices. But doesn't this look comfy?

Such a cute smile in this one! He played like this on the couch for at least half an hour.

Not sure how he started out or what he was doing with his brother's light table, but he nearly fell asleep with his head on it - and the light on. Maybe he's been spending too much time around the 20 year old and was trying to get a tan - ha. Anyway, he woke up when his sister took the picture. I have to say, though, I can relate. :) I've been that tired lately too. Good night!