Updates on Grandad, the Grand-Girls, and Etsy

It's Sunday afternoon. Grandad is playing "Words With Friends" on his new HTC Evo Shift phone while relaxing in his recliner. We both made the switch to smart phones this summer and we're both addicted to "Words With Friends." If you play, hit me up for a game. My name is "v2valenta."  I've just finished watching The American President on television. It's one of my all-time favorite movies. I've seen it many times and I still love it.

Grandad is finishing up his last week of wearing a 30-day heart monitor to verify that he is no longer going into atrial fibrillation. He is still experiencing symptoms several times a week which include tightness in his chest, shortness of breath, profuse sweating, and extreme fatigue. However, several months ago when he last wore a monitor, he did not go into a-fib a single time during that 30 day period, in spite of experiencing those same symptoms. The electrophysiologist believes that these symptoms may be caused by another problem that has not yet been detected. So, on September 13, Grandad will have a nuclear stress test to see if they can find anything else.

The granddaughters are growing like crazy. Her Highness is big enough for her baby doorway jumper and she loves it. She started day care this week for the first time when her dad went back to teaching high school English after a summer of taking care of the girls. She did not seem to take right to day care and had a rough few days. You may remember that I told you she wants to be held all the time. This is still the case, and the day care ladies said she cried a large part of the day. But by the end of the week she was doing better and seemed to be adjusting.

Our Little Princess is also getting big really fast. She's big enough now to enjoy arts and crafts. She loves going to day care and spending time with all the other kids. She made the necklace that she's wearing here.

I've been busy sewing. I have an entry in the WholePort Creativity Expo. Voting is a two-step process. First you have to "like" WholePort on Facebook. Then you have to look at the entries and vote for mine by clicking "like" on the picture. Here's what my entry looks like. I would really appreciate your vote. The ten winners will each get a $50 certificate for craft supplies from WholePort. Voting is open through the end of the month.

I also made this kimono-style dress for Our Little Princess. I'm very proud of it. I think it's one of the best I've done so far.

 

I took two outfits for each of the girls when I visited them a couple of weeks ago. But, since I didn't take photos of the other two, I'll have to show them to you another day. I've asked Katy to send me photos of both of them.

And I have some fairly big news to share with you. For several years now, friends and family have been encouraging me to sell my homemade items. So I've been thinking about it for a while now and I've decided to take the plunge. I'm going to open an Etsy shop. I'm working on getting some stock made and I'm hoping to open it around Labor Day. I wasn't really planning to announce it yet, but Katy told all our Facebook friends yesterday, so I thought I would let my readers know today. I'll be starting out with dresses and clothing for little girls and the summer-weight cotton baby blankets that I've been making for years. I'm hoping to eventually add some items for little boys. You are also likely to see a variety of other crafty items like wreaths and such from time to time. Basically, whatever I feel like making. 

School starts tomorrow, so I'll be back to my substitute teaching gig, probably by the end of the week. The best part of substitute teaching is that I'll have lots of down time. I will be the first to admit that it's been a long summer with no income from me. It's still a few years until I'll be old enough to start drawing on my retirement. If I can get a little income from sewing and crafting, which I love to do, maybe next summer will go a little easier. 

Watch this space for an official announcement about the opening of my Etsy shop. It won't be more than a couple of weeks.

It's still unbearably hot and dry here in South Texas. We don't really expect a change in the weather until around the first of October. We've got a very busy autumn coming up with family reunions on both sides of the family, the family golf tournament and our annual Valenta wive's day out. I'll keep you informed. I hope you've had a great summer and that your fall is cool and colorful.

Matching Outfits for The Grands

There's not much to write about. I've been enjoying the first few weeks of summer and not doing very much. I've got my house clean and started a few reorganization projects around the house, but nothing too challenging. Although my chandelier is now sparkling clean.

We've started converting a cabinet in the laundry room into a storage center for all my small appliances. However, most of the stuff in the cabinet belongs to Grandad so I'm going to have to wait for him to tell me where it goes. I'll snap some photos when it's done. I have found some things in that cabinet that I haven't seen in many years. Like this piece of home decor from my "country decor" days. Thank God those days are over.

Grandad spent the last few days working in Houston. He came home last night. That means that I've been home alone since Sunday. I took advantage of the time to do a little sewing for the Grands.

On the left is a tunic for Our Little Princess. On the right is a swing dress for Baby Sister. It's made by my favorite pattern for baby girls. My mother-in-law made dresses like this for Katy when she was born. Somehow I managed to hold on to the pattern for 30 years.

For some reason, Blogger is rotating this photo and I am unable to turn it.

I had one yard of each piece of fabric. The tunic required 1 1/4 yards so I had to cut both pieces. When I finished cutting it out, I was pleased to discover that I had enough left to make the swing dress for Her Highness. The swing dress is fully reversible. The tunic is trimmed with cotton lace in a natural color. The swing dress is trimmed with aqua rick-rack which is set on the edge so it shows from both sides. All the materials were already in my sewing box so the cost of both of these dresses was zero!

So the girls have their first matching outfits. I hope their mom doesn't think the matching is too cheesy.

A note to all of you who commented about Her Highness having very long legs. Grandad is 6'5" tall. Her Mom and Dad are both in the neighborhood of 6'. Our Little Princess has long legs too. Grams is 5'1". Those long legs are genetic ... but they didn't come from me.

Grams Made A Pillowcase Dress

Grams has made a couple of these dresses for Our Little Princess. They are super simple and very lightweight and cool.

The white dress, pictured at right, is the first one I made. I used one of my mother's old pillowcases that has a white-on-white embroidery detail. I used a blue striped grosgrain ribbon for the ties. I was really pleased with how this dress came out. This pillowcase is old and soft. It made the dress look vintage and delicate. It was perfect for a romp in the Texas Hill Country bluebonnets last spring.

The blue-print dress is made from a border-print fabric, not from a pillowcase. The "flower" that is pinned to the shoulder of this dress is a barrette that I bought at a local craft store. I'm planning to make some of these and I'll share the directions as soon as I figure them out.

Today, I'm sharing the instructions for the pillowcase dress just in case you have a little princess of your own. You can actually buy a pattern for a pillowcase dress, but it's so easy you really don't need to spend that money.

You'll need a pillowcase*, scissors, thread, and one yard of ribbon cut into two equal pieces.

The first step is to measure your child from the shoulder to where you want the hem to reach and add one inch. 

Second, using the measurement you took, measure up from the hemmed edge of the pillowcase and cut straight across removing the closed edge of the pillowcase. This will be the top of your dress.

Now fold the pillowcase in half vertically so that the sides of the dress are touching. Make armholes by cutting a "J" shape on the top of the pillowcase. Cut through both sides at the same time so the armholes will be identical. For a small child, make the cuts 1 1/2 inches wide and 3 inches deep. For a larger child, make the cuts 2 inches wide and 4 inches deep. (This step really worried Grams when I made my first dress, but rest assured, it's not an exact science and the size of the cut doesn't make too much difference.)

Unfold and sew a rolled edge for each armhole creating a finished edge around the armhole.

Make a double fold in the top straight-edge of the dress, iron it in place, and sew to create a casing for the ribbon. Thread one piece of ribbon through each casing. Shirr fabric to create gathers and tie the ends of the ribbon together in a bow on each shoulder.

Put the dress on your own little princess and snap a picture. I promise they'll look cute and comfy and you'll feel a real sense of accomplishment at making such a beautiful dress.

*If you don't have a pillowcase, use a piece of fabric approximately the same size as a pillowcase.  Seam up one edge to form a tube. Then hem one end, leaving the other end open.

Headed for the Hill Country (Edited)

Weekend plans call for a trip to San Antonio and New Braunfels. Grams is very excited about the opportunity to spend some time with my brother and sister-in-law for the first time since last November. Also included in the plans is a trip to Old Gruene Market Days which features hand-crafted items and artisanal foods. It should be a great day in the outdoors with fall-ish weather predicted for the Texas Hill Country.

Of course, the highlight of the weekend plans for Grams is an opportunity to spend time with our little princess and her mom and dad. And no visit from Grams would be complete without a nifty gifty for said princess. In anticipation of the trip, Grams stitched up a little something. Here's a sneak peak at today's creation. Grams made it today!

This post has been edited to include a photo of our little princess, Ezra, modeling Grams' latest creation.