Pink Fairy Princesses: An unproductive soapbox rant that I needed to get off my chest.

This week I had the rare opportunity to look for a present for little girls. I am the mother of two boys. But I am the product of a female dominated home- my poor dad was outnumbered by women, me my mum and my sister. And girly girl I was. Dolls, Barbie, and My Little Pony. This summed up my childhood. When I was pregnant with my oldest, I remember thinking "What the heck will I do if it is a boy?". Most definitely the thought was well out of my range of experience. What's more I convinced myself I was having a girl. When he was born by emergency C Section, I remember lying on the table and asking Ethan "What is it?". He said "It's a boy!". To which I said, ready for it?... "Are you sure?". To which Ethan responded "Um, Em.... yeah. Pretty sure." Followed by words which are not for mixed company which rather bluntly stated supporting evidence of his diagnosis. In those early days I held the new little mouse and thought "What am I going to do with you?".

My eyes were opened to the joys of tractors, and farm animals, and trains, and cowboys. By the time the second boy came around, I was pretty confident in my ability to figure out what appeals to small boys. But I have to say, there is still something that I love about shopping for little girls. It is fun. And still appeals to the little girl in me. And it is so easy, if you are buying clothes. There are a myriad of adorable choices available.

When my boys were invited to a birthday party for two of their little friends (Matteo is friends with the older sister, Elio with the younger), I got excited about present buying. But kid parties are not really conducive to buying clothes. They are more conducive to toys or books or activities. So off I went to the toy store, and quickly realized I had no idea what little girls like. How weird? Things change quickly. I went to the Barbie aisle, thinking, right, a classic. But I have to say Barbie has "matured" in her old age. Um... should I buy the fashion doll that looks like a transvestite? Or should I go for the one that looks like a Dominatrix? Are the girls going to be acting out scenes from Connie and Carla or 50 Shades of Grey? Moving on. Next section: princesses and fairies. Right. Well yes. If you are beautiful and skinny maybe you too can marry a handsome prince with a full head of lustrous blond hair and wear fabulous dresses and do nothing but sing while bluebirds hang out your laundry. Hope you like pink. Right. Next section: baby dolls. Yes. A classic. But want one that does not require double A batteries or excrete mock body fluids? Hard to find.

I have to say though, sadly the options aren't much better for boys either. Once a boy hits a certain age, there isn't much to pick from unless you like Lego or Hot Wheels. I find myself trying to gently guide my boys away from super hero figures that have crazy nuts abs and very large weapons as they obliterate the enemy into world peace (???). Yuck. My kids like Batman, and I'm ok with them watching the old episodes of the Adam West series. Lots of campy superhero action without the gratuitous violence that seems to dominate the action figure aisle.

And all I can think is that we are losing our creativity. The toys seem so specific and explicit, or overly sexual or violent. They seem built to act our very specific scenes and do not leave much room for open ended play. Can't we just pretend that baby has a wet diaper? Is it really necessary that I feel actual water puddle on my feet to do so?

I have to say I gave up. I decided that kids learn and play best by doing something. With Christmas coming, what could be more fun than baking? Kids like to accomplish something, just like we do. So decided that matching aprons and their very own baking utensils, as well as a great first cook book with excellent photos was in order. Feeling rather proud of my idea, and re-energized for shopping I skipped off to the book store to find the perfect book. And there I was faced with a shelf full of cookbooks: the Princess cookbook, the fairy cookbook, the pink cookbook, the little girl's cookbook, the party girl's cookbook, the hungry girl's cookbook. By this point in time I felt like yelling at the shelf. WHAT THE HECK ARE WE DOING TO OUR KIDS???? What is the point of all this forced gender stereotyping? Does nobody else watch the food network? Does nobody else realize how hot and masculine Rocco Dispirito is? Or Jamie Oliver? Or how the cake boss is neither a pink princess or a little fairy? Do they not know that one of the things I most love about my husband is his willingness to don an apron and cook for our family (and not simply BBQ). What if I were buying this for my sons? Maybe they'd like to cook too! Don't get me wrong, I realize the gift was indeed for two wee girls, but I just couldn't bring myself to force pink princess fairies down their throats. I scoured the shelf for something else, and sure enough, next to the floor, sandwiched between "Pink Princess Cookbook" (seriously, I'm not making this up) and "Princess Party Cookbook", I found a lovely relatively gender neutral cookbook that has gorgeous pictures, clear directions and a bazillion fun baking recipes. Phoof! The poor unsuspecting woman working the children's section narrowly avoided an earful from me.

But really, girls will always pretend they are princesses. They will always love fairy wings. Boys will always love cars. They will always love superhero capes. And there is nothing wrong with that. Having watched two kids grow from birth you do realize how innate those interests are.  But I really think there is something wrong with not offering them a variety of things to aspire to. Not everything needs gender specificity.


Alright. Sorry you guys. I'll climb off my soapbox long enough to show you how this gift turned out. I'm pretty happy with the result. I used the same method as I did for Elio's Bob the Builder construction aprons. Indeed this is a gender neutral pattern, which can be made from fabric that you think would suit the wearer best. I did these fully reversible (pockets on both sides), and with an elasticized neck strap. That way it fits over the head but then doesn't hang too low to function well as an apron (in our house aprons get worn when one thinks a bib is in order but your too old child would be mortified at the thought). These are a 2 hour project- short and sweet. Hopefully they like them- Elio gave them his seal of approval ("Which one is mine?"... we still have some work to do. Apparently he thinks he gets presents on everyone's birthday).  In the photo I have one lying on its "front" and the other lying on its "back". They are identical aside from size.

Are you in the birthday party phase? Do your kids have better social lives than you do by a long shot? What are you giving as presents?


Happy weekend people- hope it is a good one!


Happy trails!

Stitch n' Bitch...

In university I spent absolutely countless hours hanging out with my girlfriends. When I moved here to work after graduation, that came to a screeching stop. Funny how life gets in the way of friendships... you know, marriage, work, kids. There hardly seems a lot of time for socializing for the sake of itself. So now, that my kids are getting older, and that we've been living here longer, it is nice to finally begin to reclaim a part of that former existence and begin to just socialize with people again.

My friend Lisa and I have recently begun doing the occasional, and unashamedly luxurious, girls night out. Our families (kids and husbands included) often get together for brunch or dinner or the like, but lately, once in a blue moon Lisa and I will enlist the husbands to stay with the kids, and sneak out the door when no one is looking for a meal together, which, by the virtue of not requiring us to cut one another's meat or tell anyone to sit still, is both relaxing and fun.

So imagine my complete delight when Lisa decided to buy a sewing machine!!! This opened up a new and wonderful girl-only opportunity.... stitch n' bitch. Yes, we could take over my basement, set up our respective work stations, and sew until the wee hours whilst bitching about the woes of potty training, or early mornings, or the terrible selection at Fabricland, or the price of rice in China, or whatever really. She's had her machine for two weeks, and the first meeting of the official Stitch n' Bitch society was called to order last night. I know what you are thinking, can you really call it a society if it only includes two people. We thought of that. We enlisted my sister Renata to join us. Three people makes a quorum right?


Each of us had our own projects. Lisa was working on making a hooded towel dress for her adorable daughters, Renata (who is a Girl Guide leader) was working on a big camp poncho for herself on which she can sew on the copious amounts of crests she has, and me, I was sewing a couple mail organizers for my kitchen in an attempt to hide all the ugly mail (bills, cheques, coupons) that currently clutter my kitchen. Here's what it looked like. Please don't judge my housekeeping based on these photos.


Last night's big discovery was that not only is S&B fun, it is also useful. When you are stumped as to exactly what shape the hood of your project should be as there is insufficient instructions on that pinterest tutorial, there are two other brains to help out. When you are too lazy to measure for the correct placement of the pocket on your divider, you can whine until your sister offers to do it for you, there is someone to lend a hand. Plus it was fun. Very fun. We've decided that the next S&B night needs snacks and possibly margaritas.  Although, not sure how straight my seams will be with one or two of those under my belt.

Here are the final products:

These are my mail organizers. They work nicely in my kitchen and were really easy. I really wished I had my mum's fancy schmancy embroidery machine to make labels for it.  Check out the pattern here:

Mail Organizer by Ashley Johnston

Here is Renata modelling her campfire poncho. It's cute. She's cute. Look at that hat... get her smoking at least 2 packs a day and soon she will be just like Effie Jones (only my mum will get that reference but suffice it to say that Effie was a guide leader we both had at camp who was the camp cook- a tough old bird who looked like a dried apple, was rough around the edges, but had a huge heart.). Well, ok, it might be a while before you get there Ren. You've got some time.

Next up is Lisa's little hooded towel dress beach cover up. We were concerned about the head hole being too tiny, so we called in the the adult with the smallest melon in the world, Ethan. He's a good sport. What can I say. Didn't fit him. The instructions were think on this one, and I'm so impressed by the fact Lisa was able to do it from what she had. PS: Terry towel is messy. Haha! Really messy.

And we called it quits at midnight. Successful? I think so!

Happy trails- hope you are enjoying some sunshine!

Penguins!!!!

Lately we've been obsessed with penguins around here. See, the Vancouver Aquarium just got South African penguins. Matteo heard the ads on the radio for the new exhibit and decided death by pestering was his best plan of attack... on a loop every twenty minutes for about a week I heard "Mum... did you know they have penguins at the aquarium now? I love penguins. I love the aquarium. We should go.... maybe tomorrow?". You have to admire his persistence. He did not give up. It wasn't really a hard sells though, we had been wanting to go to the aquarium for a while, and did decide a pre-summer day trip was in order. What fun it was!

When Elio was born my mum bought him the cutest hooded towel. Adorable little thing with a penguin hood. He looked like the pope in it. We began calling him the Penguin Pontiff. The thing I loved most about this towel was that it was not one of those cheesy cheap baby towels that absorb nothing and are so thin they are see-through. Somehow, and you know how it goes, this towel got shoved to the back of the cupboard and forgotten about. While cleaning the bathroom the other day and rearranging cupboard contents Penguini the Towel re-emerged. And you know what- it was still a lot of fun! Elio LOVES the thing and Matteo almost bubbles over with jealousy for want of the thing.

In true typical fashion, I looked at the thing and thought, I've got to be able to make that. Enter Pinterest. Do you all know Pinterest? The online clipboard and content sharing website. I wore down and joined, and I love it!! So many ideas and bits of inspiration in any category. It's great that I have a new obsession, because I was most certainly deficient in ways to waste my time (note the sarcasm... it's bad when your kids start to pretend they are you... what are you doing Elio "checking my Facebook". Maybe I should give it up for Lent next year). Anyways, through Pinterest I found a tutorial on how to make hooded towels for big kids. It is an excellent tutorial and it is SO EASY. You must check it out as this would make an awesome gift for any kid.
http://www.lubirdbaby.com/2011/08/hooded-towel-tutorial.html

Her directions were super clear and it didn't take much to add the few details to turn this already cute towel into a penguin.






 First, Elio loves being able to put his hands into the corner pockets of the towel so it is like he's wearing wings. This was easily achieved by cutting a face cloth in half diagonally. I finished the raw edge with bias tape, and sewed the already-finished edges into the corners of the wrong side of the bath towel. This made nice deep pockets, perfect for little hands.







Next I needed a face. I cut the face shape out of a white face cloth. I was able to get two faces out of one face cloth. I tried my best to make use of the finished edges. I left the professional finished edges as the bottom of the face, then used white bias tape to finish the curve. Why, when you are appliqueing the face on anyway, would you bother to finish the raw edges? Well, simply put, terry cloth is super duper messy, and it frays a lot. I was not convinced that simply appliqueing around the edge would be enough to prevent fraying and mess in the laundry.

Next I cut out a beak and feet from orange face cloths. I cut two of each shape, sewed them together, then turned them right side out. I attempted when possible to leave the professionally finished edge at the opening, and zigzagged to close them. (By the way, as I don't have a serger (Santa baby, just slip a serger under the tree... for me... been an awful good girl... Santa baby), I used zigzag on my seam allowances for any raw edges. Mostly inside the hood). I sewed the beak onto the face, and the feet onto the right side of the towel. I used a total of 3 orange face cloths for the beaks and feet for two penguin towels.

Next step was to use Wonder Under (how much do I love that stuff?!) fusible webbing to fuse the face to the hood with my iron. I then appliqued around it to ensure it was securely attached all the way around. I suppose you could use any cotton fabric for the bird bits, but I like the lush look of the whole thing being terry towel, plus, when you are smart in cutting, you can take advantage of finished edges, cutting down on the work. I am, if nothing else, completely lazy when it comes right down to it.



Once all of these add-ons were completed, I followed the tutorial directions for attaching the hood and was pretty much finished. One note about that, Matteo is very tall for his 5 years (anyone who knows me will be mystified by that no doubt. I lied on my driver's license. It says 5'1. I'm really 5 ft and one very important half inch.), and I found that the hood was still quite long at 12 inches long... you might want to adjust the length to make sure that the bath towel still hits at shoulder level.

All that was left were eyes. I used fabric paint to paint on the eyes, and that works fine. Embroidered eyes would look far better, but like I said before, as a dog's hind end.... I'm lazy.


This was a very gratifying sewing project. Literally all you have to be able to do is sew a straight line. I knocked two of these off in a matter of two and a half hours. It is a relatively cheap project. I got my towels at Ikea, but you could use any towels very successfully. And there are great deals to be had. In total I bought: 2 bath towels, 1 hand towel (this made 2 hoods), 1 white face cloth, 3 orange face cloths and 2 blue face cloths. I think if I were to do it again, I would choose a bath towel with fewer colours, as in true lazy fashion, I dislike having to change thread and bobbin a million times. You could make any animal really, bears would be really cute, or lady bugs, sharks, dinosaurs etc. Sky's the limit. And what a great gift- nice to give something that can be used from baby well into childhood as the towel is nice and big. These would be fun for bath time or the beach. And kids love them- Elio loves to play Pingou at bath time... you know the little clay penguin show on Knowledge Network? ("Mish mish...").

That's all folks. Try this one out- it is super fun. Happy Trails!

Alter-Egos... what we wish we were

I'm back. Where have I been? Well, New Orleans for one. !!!! Best trip ever- hands down. What an incredible place! That was a couple of weeks ago. Since then, I've been LAZY. With a capital everything. Maybe it is the rain (hello? Um... Mother Nature? I don't mean to be critical, but the saying is "April showers bring May FLOWERS," not "April Showers bring even more rain in May." Sigh. I suppose that's what you get for living in a rainforest climate. Whatever the reason, I've been finding motivation and time hard to come by.

But really, what is more motivating for someone who is "thrifty" (like my euphemism for cheap?) than a school supply list? See, Matteo is beginning kindergarten. I'm not sure when or how that happened, but it did. So we begin getting ready for school.

(Insert old lady voice here) Back in the day when I was in elementary school, you were sent a list of every item you needed for the year, from kleenex to pencil crayons. Now however, at least at Matteo's school, you get a list of cheques you need to write. One of these is for the bulk of his school supplies. They order them and deal with them right at school now. I have to say, that seems to take some of the fun out of it... what was more exciting in late August than laying out all your new gear for school and labelling it all? However, I have stupidly ventured into Staples in August, and have seen what that is like, so probably from a mother's perspective this is a much more appealing method of purchasing supplies. The school did, however send a list of additional items that each child needs that can either be purchased from them, or brought on one's own. On that list was a gym bag. $15 for a gym bag?? Or was it $10? I can't remember now, but I thought it was outrageous. My husband clearly must be rubbing off on me. He goes down in infamy in our house for having, when our toilet was causing us issues, responded to my suggestion that we should call a plumber with "What? Pay a plumber $75 an hour to scratch his keister?... I'm not paying someone to scratch their keister, I can scratch my own keister for free!!". He was 27 at the time. It was a shocking glimpse into our senior years for me. And he didn't really say keister. He said something else which only made him sound more curmudgeonly.

Anyways, I decided that I could make a gym bag for less, and it would be cooler than the standard issue. When I was a kid my mum made me a gym bag too. It had an appliqued running shoe on it with laces that actually tied. The only thing I liked about gym was that bag. Off Matteo and I went to the fabric store to pick something out. He immediately chose hideous Toy Story fabric which was so bright an obnoxious it could induce a seizure. I immediately used my power of veto. It was $16.98 a metre. Defeats the purpose. But I did have to come up with a suitable, even more fun, alternative. Matteo thinks he's Batman. For a while there, when I asked him what he want to be when he grew up, he responded with "Batman". So another thought occurred to me. We settled instead for some PLAIN and cheap broadcloth, and a promise we could make this a cool Batman bag if I made him a Bat patch for it.

Here's how it went:

 First I found a colouring page (online of course) with the Batman emblem on it. I cut that out of yellow and black broadcloth and fused it together using paper-backed fusible webbing. Matteo was impressed and sold as soon as he saw this- forget the rest of the bag. I managed to convince him that his favourite colour (brown) was a really yucky choice for bag colour, so he humoured me and chose green (Kermit green to be exact), his second favourite colour.

I used a newspaper page as my size template and cut out 4 pieces for the bag (two for the outside, two for the lining). I fused the emblem onto one of those pieces (the front of the outside).

 Next I appliqued around it. It looks ok and is necessary to prevent it peeling off or fraying. I really wish satin stitch didn't ripple, because I know I'd be happier with the look of that, but it does ripple, so this blanket-like applique stitch is the better choice.

 I cut two tabs of gros-grain ribbon about 2 inches long. Each was folded in half and sewn (zigzag for strength) on the open edge. I place these about an inch or so up from the bottom of the bag on either side.

 I sewed the bag up on the sides and bottom, reversing several times over where I was sewing the tabs in the seams. The tabs will take some strain as this is where the straps of the bag will be attached, and I really didn't want them to pull out or fray.

 Here is the outside of the bag sewn up. Next job was to sew the lining in the same way I did for the outside, but this time, leaving a 2 inch opening on the bottom edge (you will pull the back right side out through this hole). I turned the outside of the bag right side out (as in the picture), and I left the lining inside out. I inserted the outside bag, inside the lining matching the raw top edge. Make sure the right sides are facing or you will have a date with your stitch ripper (ask me how I know that... go on, ask me...). Sew through both the lining and the outside bag on the top edge.

 Pull the whole thing through the opening you left. Then hand sew the opening closed. Now, push the lining into place so you've got a lined bag. Next I ironed the thing. On each side of the bag, about half an inch from the top, I made a button hole. This will be where the strings come out. I did this rather than leaving slits in the bag top, it seemed simpler to me.

 Next I made a casing on top side (front and back) on the inside by sewing on wide gros-grain ribbon along both the top and bottom edges.

 Finally, I cut two lengths of cording about 58 inches long each. I fed one through both casings from the right side, with loose ends coming out the right side buttonhole, and one from the left side, with its loose ends coming out the left buttonhole. Each side's loose ends were tide to the corresponding tab, creating a little drawstring back pack. The cording unfortunately frays like crazy, and isn't meltable, so I had to use clear nail polish to sort of seal the raw edge.

All that you do is pull each sides cords and it gathers shut. It is now waiting for some smelly little gym clothes to carry.











Voila! A bag fit for Batman (and his strange little sidekick Dish Towel Boy).

We are one step closer to being Kindergarten ready. I suppose the next step will be buying his uniform in June. As much as I hate that time flies so darned fast, it is pretty exciting all the same.

Happy Trails!

Woah baby!

I love making things for babies. Lucky for me, three of my friends have buns in the oven- that satisfies my uncontrollable need to craft for a while.

First up is my good friend Lisa. Lisa is having a little girl. I should say, another little girl. Yep, Lisa, come the end of March will be the proud mum of 3 little girls (all under 3). I know right?.... all under 3!!!! She's a saint. And a diaper changing machine. Not to mention, a wonderful, fun and patient mum. I have so much admiration for her work ethic and skills, it's remarkable really. She's so patient. I really admire that, because, patience is something in diametrical opposition to my personality.

Now as you can well imagine, Lisa has very little need for your typical baby gifts. I have two boys, 2 and a half years apart, and I'm drowning in mountains of out-grown clothes. I can only presume that as a mum of girls, Lisa also has tons. So I wasn't too keen to do what I usually do when friends are having girls- live vicariously through them by buying and knitting sweet little things that as a mother of boys I cannot indulge in myself.  I controlled that urge when thinking of what to do for Lisa.

See, when I was pregnant with Matteo I was sure I was having a girl. Positive. You have to understand, I'm a very girlie girl. I am not interested in sports, I played Barbies, had lots of dolls, loved to craft, sing etc. When we were in the delivery room, and Matteo made his grand entrance, the doctor told Ethan to tell me what it was "It's a boy!". My response: "Are you sure??". Ethan: "Uh- yeah. Quite sure- that is most definitely a boy". There is more to this conversation that is too crass for mixed company, but suffice it to say, as much as I did, and do, love my son, I was bummed about the shopping end of things. I made sure during my second pregnancy to find out the baby's gender, so as to avoid that same awkward conversation again. And also, I have to admit, we've come a long way from boys clothes of the 1980's that I remember so well: sweat pants, and jammers with hideous cartoon characters all over them. Those still exist for sure, but luckily there are some pretty styling options for boys too now. What was I writing about? Right. Sewing.

Around Matteo's birthday, Lisa had commented on a "Happy Birthday" pennant banner that my mum had made for my kids.

I had first seen these on Etsy, and quickly decided that I could do it myself. Then, I quickly decided that my mum had more time and patience than I do, not to mention skill. I admit it, I pawned the project off on her. And she came through in spades! She showed up to Elio's 1st birthday pattern with the exact banner I had in my head. I love it so much.  Being the sewing rockstar that she is, she even made separate name pennants that we just pin on for the appropriate celebration.


I thought about it and decided that although, kind of a weird gift, this could be a fun thing to receive. At the very least, it wouldn't be anything that she'd get two of. So I went fabric shopping. The banner was actually super easy, completed during the course of two naps and one evening. (Just like I now tell time in Sesame Streets and Batmans, longer durations of work are calculated by naps now.) Here's how this went:

I cut out 26 triangles.

I sewed said triangles together, then turned them right side out and ironed them.

Using double fold bias tape, I sewed the babies together. I left a little space between where the Y of "happy" will go and the B of "birthday". My mum didn't use bias tape. She was making the banner out of a sheet, so she had a nice long stretch of fabric and used that. I didn't want to have to buy yards of fabric for the sake of a long skinny ribbon, in all honesty, I'm far too lazy to piece shorter lengths together for the same result. Bias tape worked nicely, but you are limited in colour choices.

Here's what the thing looked like. If I was smart, I would have sewed the letters on before sewing this sucker together. But sometimes, I'm a couple sandwiches short of the proverbial picnic. It wasn't a big deal, but it was a bit awkward to manoeuvre the whole thing through my machine given its length.








Next, I cut the letters out of felt. The sky is the limit on this. Pick your favourite font. I ended up using 325 pt. font.

Voila.

A close up.

I had lots of fabric left, and since I was making this as a gift, I thought I'd make a little draw string bag for the banner. This way it would store neatly without coming unfolded. I cut 4 rectangles out of the fabric

Next I sewed them up (two together) on three sides. On one of the sewed up pairs I left a three inch opening- I'm pointing to it. I don't have a serger. I would LOVE a serger. But until then, I have to be creative as to how not to have ugly raw edges showing. So I lined this bag (that's why I used 4 rectangles not 2). Are you grasping the extent of my type A personality? I know. It is a bag for a happy birthday banner. No one will see the inside, and it will surface about 5 time a year. The stupidity of this attention to detail is not lost on me. But I can't help myself.

I then turned the bag without the 3 inch opening right side out, and stuffed it inside the bag with the opening, right sides together.

Next I sewed up the top edge (the edge of the bag opening.

I pulled the whole thing right side out through the three inch opening. I hand sewed the opening, and pushed that bag through the bag that didn't have an opening. Wow... could that be any wordier?

Next, using single fold bias tape, I made a casing on the inside of the bag. I braided some cord and threaded it through.

The finished product

I hope that Lisa and her girls enjoy this. It was a fun one to make. I really like this project as there are so many possibilities. How about a name banner to tie on the outside of a crib? I'm thinking of making a banner for the mantel at Christmas time. My mum had a great idea when we chatted on the phone this morning- why not make it double sided- one side with girly fabric, and one side with fabric for a boy- she's very clever. 

Happy trails!