I used a favorite dress shirt as a guide when trimming the width and arm holes, repositioned the pocket, and added ruffles fashioned from the discarded sleeve material. Doug was quite excited about the repositioning of the pocket and thought it was worth pointing out.

Frankly, I hate this picture, but I’m quite excited with the new shirt. I’m looking forward to adding a long sleeve shirt and wearing it with cropped jeans and new boots in the winter.

Arugula Pesto
- 1 bulb of green garlic or 2 cloves mature garlic
- 1/2 cup walnuts
- all the arugula you have
- 1 cup parmesean
- 1/4 c toasted walnut oil or olive oil

I add these to the cuisinart one item at a time to get the garlic minced finely enough. No one but Doug likes raw chunks of garlic. Toss on your hot pasta and chill the salad until you are ready to eat.

And the last of my sewing this weekend. Mom, I hemmed it after I took the picture. I swear. I also took in the bust as even I was busting out.

Here’s the dress and Dorothy Sylvie dressed in ruby slippers on her way to the store to get ice.

And a Willism:
When asked if he likes sharks – “I like sharks with a roof on top and an aquarium underneath.”

While Sylvie was sleeping, I tried to make life even by whipping up a pair of brown velveteen pants for Will, but I misjudged his size and he now has a great pair of cowboy pants awaiting his 5th or 6th birthday. Bummer. Couldn’t even take a picture it was so sad.

For the more mature neighbors, I made candied citrus peel from our meyer lemons and a few navel oranges using Martha Stewart’s recipe. If you try this, I’d suggest making all meyer lemon. Even the lemon hater in the family loved the meyer lemon peel. The navel orange peel is also addictive, but just not quite as complex and also not quite what I was expecting.

To cap off the weekend, I whipped up two pair of slippers – a pair per boy – out of a sweater Doug accidentally felted and an old yoga mat. Talk about warm and cozy! I used Doug’s flip-flops and Will’s feet as my models. I hand-sewed the tops to the footbeds, then using a hot glue gun, I attached the soles. I didn’t have high expectations for this experiment, but the sweater was particularly thick – with the added spring of the yoga mat bottom, these have the pleasant rebound of a new pair of sneakers. Oh, and as long as your feet are firmly on the ground, you can’t see that they are bottomed in the astro-turf colored green yoga mat. Here are Will’s (sorry for the typical crummy picture… Santa, I want a photographer, please.):

Now the family wants me to sew flames on all their stuff. Need to teach these guys to work a needle!

Just as a sane person might stock the pantry with canned staples, I’d stocked my fabric stash with corduroys mid-summer – you never know if this is going to be the year it snows in July – so I had the perfect red corduroy. Before preschool, I drafted the pattern and cut the fabric. Over a conference call, I stitched it. I had to take a few shortcuts in order to get it ready in time. Don’t tell mom – I stitchwitched the cuffs after a failed attempt at sewing the inside seam. The two buttons are just for show – no time for button holes, and besides, buttons were clearly not invented by someone who has experience dressing a 2 year-old. Had this not been a rush job, I’d also have finished the inside a little better. All in all, I’m pleased with how it turned out.

The party dress, all partied out: (Note – Sylvie added the rice and cranberry juice stains, tutu was sewn this summer… happened to be the perfect underpinnings)

Now, just picture a blonde, plump two year-old with chocolate and cranberry juice smeared across her mouth, her hair held out of her eyes by a few grains of sticky rice and you’ll have the full effect.

Next up on the sewing machine will probably be a boa’d slip or skirt with boa’d under pinnings for my niece – inspired by the feather trimmed slip a 5 year old was wearing under her cotton sun dress at the bagel store. There is no reason a girl can’t be both wild and chaste. Besides, God would not have made boas if he didn’t intend for us to wear them. Perhaps some plain, warm wool ponchos out of recycled sweaters… And, although I appreciate they are about as done as swallows were months ago, I think Sylvie needs an owl appliqued on her yet to be sewn red corduroy winter dress. Thinking maybe the village frock pattern from Sugar City for the dress. What’s with all the winter sewing? The weather just turned. Our entire day was foggy and cold.

The girls definitely need interesting stockings.

I also figured out how to make Sylvie’s accidental felt sweater look more kid-like – plaid kissing ducks!

Will has three new pairs of the softest flannel pajama pants and one pair of silky soft green big guy cords.

When I showed him this morning, his eyes lit up, “These are pajama pants? But, they are so soft!” Clearly he has yet to learn that all the best things in life are inappropriate for polite society.

Below, wearing his unhemmed new cords.