Modern Handmade Child Feature

One of my onesies was featured in the Spring 2010 issue of the EtsyKids online magazine, modern handmade child. See pages 10 - 11, "Turquoise: the Color of 2010."

It is, by far, one of the worst photos I have ever taken of something I've made.

Team Lemon heads to Pittsburgh once again

Please come buy up Lemon Cadet gear Sunday from 12 - 4 at the Pittsburgh Children's Museum. It will be our only show in Pittsburgh this holiday season and the last show in Pittsburgh for a really long time (maybe never ever again).

Handmade Mart

We headed out to Silver Spring, MD (next to DC) for the first ever Handmade Mart. It was one of the best craft shows I've ever been to. When we got there volunteers helped us unload the van and some other people helped us set up the tent. There were bagels and some fruit for us too.

All of the tents were set up along one side of the street down at our end. I was surprised at the amount of traffic. It was really crowded! But because the street was so wide, it didn't seem bad --everyone had room to walk and for most of the day, we were in the shade. We were across from a noodle shop so lunch was amazing. Perfect weather, great music, frozen icy stuff, yay!

The rompers I made in May were a big hit at the Squidfire's show so I added some new designs and people again really seemed to like them. I have two of the designs photographed so I'll add them to the shop this week.


As you can see, they are really comfortable for both romping when you're supposed to be sleeping, and for a short snooze:


We decided to only bring one table to make room for the pack n play.

I put the beans in front of the table in one of our laundry baskets and that worked well. We used both clothing racks so there was plenty of room for all the goods too.

The yetis hung from the back wall of the tent and they were almost all gone by the end of the day. My friend is printing up some more of these and I'll have them soon.

Squidfire's May show (yes, May)

Better late than never, huh?

There have been some major computer issues here in Lemonland. Finally, the new computer is loaded with programs and files and several hundred pictures that have been molding in folders and on the camera.

The Squidfire's show was amazing. As usual, Baltimorians are super nice and very friendly. We had a great spot with a nice patch of grass behind the tent so we could chill with the little one in the shade.

We shared a spot with Kim of Shortees/Smartee Pants. We had so much fun. It was really nice to hang out with a fellow crafter and mom all day. Her son is just two months older than Baby Lemon so I got the scoop on what's coming next (one nap, beastly teeth, walking...). Kim makes amazing clothes from recycled t-shirts.

The best part of the day was a visit from one of our biggest fans:
She is the daughter of Sweet Pepita, a really amazing crafter.

Thanks to everyone who came to the show! The new rompers were a big hit so I made more for the Handmade Mart. Now that we're technologically stable again, I'll get some photos of the new stuff and add it to the Etsy shop.

Squidfire's Spring Art Mart

Find us on the park side of the street!

Team Lemon will be sharing our tent with Shortees who makes some pretty awesome stuff out of recycled t-shirts. See the previous post for a preview of the newest Lemon Cadet loot.

More info on the Squidfire's site.

Zadie's nursery on the Ikea Hacker blog

I submitted our changing table hack to the Ikea Hacker blog months and months ago. Since I never saw it posted, I just figured it was a bad idea or something.

Today, it magically appeared.

We are still loving this. It works great, we love all the storage in the bins, and when Little Beastie is out of diapers, we'll be able to take this apart and make further use of it.

If it's not on your Google Reader already, you should make a point to add this cool blog. It's crazy what people can do with the stuff in that AS IS room (our first stop on any Ikea trip).

Amy Butler's Patchwork Crib / Playtime Quilt

I bought Little Stitches for Little Ones from Barnes and Noble a few weeks ago using a hoarded birthday gift card (my birthday is in October). It's an absolutely gorgeous book with amazing photos and lots of images of Amy Butler's fabric. The format of the book is nice because it has a sturdy hardcover with a spiral binding to lay flat. All the patterns are in a cute little pocket. Overall it's great for inspiration because it's just so beautiful. Because of that, I bought a previous book of hers called In Stitches.

I decided to start with the quilt project because we really needed something for Zadie to play on in our living room. This is a perfect size. I nabbed this photo during naptime.

The book is really lacking in diagrams (and often photos of the completed pieces -- if you're a visual person and not good at following written directions then this probably isn't the book for you).

So, as you can see, I made my own quilt map using photocopies of the 4 diagrams that were in the book. I then color-coded the blocks so I would have a better visual. I also made a little key of the fabrics so that I wouldn't make any mistakes when cutting or piecing.

The fabric is the Funky Monkey line by Erin Michaels for Moda. I bought it a couple of years ago. The pattern calls for 4 fabrics but since I had so many I decided to add two more. I wanted to use the green number print and the crowd print to add some more color. If I hadn't, this would have been too baby-ish with all the pink and aqua. The green gives it a nice punch. Since the pattern of the blocks repeats, it was easy to make the switch.

The back of the quilt is the fabric that has the monkeys in a crowd. Half is cream and half is red. I put all of the cream pieces facing up and all the red pieces facing down so there wouldn't be an orientation to the quilt. I also used regular quilt binding that you can buy from the store. I just didn't have time to do any more ironing and cutting.

I absolutely love this. It turned out really well and I'm sure we'll have it forever. The hardest part was the cutting and a technique for quilting called stitch-in-the-ditch. I hadn't done that before and found it kinda challenging. But now that the quilt is finished, you can't tell how bad of a job I did. I also used really thin quilt batting. It's good for a play quilt but for my next quilt (see this post), I'm going to get something thicker.

BOGO sale continues

Due to some success, I have decided to continue the BOGO sale in my Etsy shop until Feb. 14.

Here's the deal:

Buy any one item at regular cost and get ANY item of equal or lesser cost for FREE! Please shop as you normally would adding both items to your cart, but do NOT pay, wait for an updated invoice reflecting your sale prices. ALL items qualify for the sale, even bean dolls and yetis, panties and rompers.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Small gift

I'm an avid reader of Small magazine and have been since issue #1 was all over the blogosphere some time ago. If you remember, Lemon Cadet had some pieces featured in a spread in a later issue.

I offered one of my rompers for those who participated in their giveaway, Small Gift. Check it out.

Handmade Arcade this weekend!!!

We are in a frenzy getting our stuff together for Handmade Arcade in Pittsburgh. It's only just over an hour away from us so it's the closest good show we do and we are determined to make the most of it.

Last year was awesome even though we were freezing (no heat) and dirty (in a warehouse). This year is already promising to be so much better as the location has been moved to the fabulous and historic Hunt Armory in Shadyside.

It's on 324 Emerson Street so plug it into your GPS and be there. Find us Saturday from 11 - 7 and Sunday from 11 - 5. There are also some Early Birdie Shopping passes available for Saturday morning so you can get there first and get dibs on the good stuff. I'm right in the middle in the aisle closest to ZipCar in booth 49.

Best of all, I have been working away on some really gorgeous long-sleeved onesies and toddler tees with beans in some cool new suits -- some even out of this crazy expensive Japanese fabric I bought in SoHo (had to have some retail therapy to make up for the loss at Vida's Market). It's fantastic.

Here's a little bit more info from their press release:

Handmade Arcade is the perfect opportunity to jump start your holiday shopping, decorate your home, or dress your fine self while supporting independent businesses and creative ingenuity.

Check out the more than 90 vendors that will be appearing at HA this year on our website vendor page: here. We’re also going to have yummy food vendors like Franktuary, Coca, My Goodies Bakery, and Dozen.

A.I.R. will be back for their second HA appearance with screenprinting demonstrations and “make-and-takes”. The Society for Contemporary Craft will present metal working demonstrations throughout both days of HA.

Handmade Arcade 2008 is Saturday, November 8 (11am-7pm) AND Sunday, November 9 (11am-5pm) at the Hunt Armory, 324 Emerson Street, in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood. The location is just a short walk from a number of bus lines, including the 71C, 71D, and 500, so save some gas money and take the bus! There will also be several bike racks on site donated by BikePGH so we’re peddle friendly too!

Trofast as changing table

When I was buying the furniture for Zadie's nursery, I couldn't let myself buy a regular changing table. It was hard to find anything attractive for less than $100. A lot of the brands weren't even made of real wood. Also, once your kid is potty trained, you have this odd piece of "wood" with no other use.

So when I saw the Trofast system at Ikea, I did some measuring and came up with this idea. We bought the stair-step piece and the single unit. Mr. Lemon cut a piece of plywood 1" larger than the changing table pad. I had some teal fleece in a bin so I cut it to size, wrapped it around the plywood and stapled it to the plywood like I was stretching a canvas. So the staples wouldn't scratch the Trofast pieces, I used double-sided tape to put a layer of felt on top of the staples. Mr. Lemon was concerned about safety so he somehow attached the two Trofast pieces together (leaving enough distance between them so that the plywood would fit nicely).

This has been working great for us. The Trofast system is the same size as a standard changing table and doesn't kill Mr. Lemon's back like the pack n play does. The best part about this is that when the baby's no longer in diapers, we'll have a great storage system for all her stuff. If we're lucky, she won't crack her head too many times while she's climbing all over it.

I have more pictures of this system and the nursery over on my flickr.

Storque feature

I was recently featured in Etsy's Storque. It's like an online newsletter/blog where they highlight issues in the world of craft.

My work was discussed as part of the Handmade Kids series they are doing right now. I'm also going to enter the Handmade Kids contest. I'm thinking one of the new rompers...

The Cloth Diaper Report . part one (newborn)

sleepy baby lemon in a diaper i made

I spent weeks researching cloth diapers before Baby Lemon arrived and despite all the work, I still ended up making some mistakes. So I decided to write up a post for all the people who are research obsessed like me. You can take my advice and buy what I think worked best.

Since I sew, I came to the decision to use fitted diapers with covers for the tiny baby stage. I love to sew but I don't like too much of a challenge so I didn't want to deal with the PUL (that's the waterproof stuff they make covers and wetbags out of). I can sew a fitted diaper for about 2$ (maybe less, I didn't really do the math). You can buy fitted diapers from $16 - $24. Time is money but since I'm on maternity leave, I got plenty of it.

But who wants to sew diapers when you have a wailing infant? (So more on fitteds with part three.)

We started with a set of unbleached newborn size prefold diapers and 9 covers. People will tell you that you need 4 - 6 covers but I think more is better. Your baby will be able to wear the covers for long after they're out of the newborn size prefolds so they have a lot of staying power (and so does the smell of hot pee so you really want to wash these every other diaper cycle). We use the bikini twist and it has kept in most poonamis.

You'll need about 4 Snappis as well. They are these little plastic thingys that are pretty cheap and much easier than pins. If your newborn is sedate, go for pins if you dare. My baby is Ms. Squirmalin so we "stick" with what's fastest. We keep a couple of the Snappis by the changing table and a couple with the pack n play.

I got several covers from a friend of mine but they're really inexpensive. I paid just over $1 each for the prefolds and washed them 6 times (hot/hot in the wash with a hot temp in the dryer -- that's called "prepping"). The covers I pre-washed just once because I always wash everything that goes on the baby's soft sensitive skin.

I alternated a pinch of Dawn dishwashing liquid with some eco-friendly Planet detergent we were able to find here at our Kroger. Now we just use the Planet for every wash. If your diapers start to become less absorbent, it's time to use the Dawn for a cycle or two to strip the dipes of any residue that's caused the situation.

I also bought 24 unbleached infant size prefolds. (I actually bought a mix of Indian and Chinese prefolds to see what was best and I can't even tell them apart now. They are equal). We used the newborn size during the day and the infant size at night. The infant size is a lot bigger and more absorbent. At 9 weeks, she has long outgrown the newborn dipes but still fits into the infant sizes. Our baby usually cries within seconds of wetting her diaper so we change often.

This situation lasted great for a few weeks. Then she started wanting to sleep longer at night but was waking up because she could feel the wetness -- not because she was hungry. We changed our plan of attack. In my pregnant crazy state I bought a wide variety of diapers and this is when they came in handy. We have two scenarios that work for us: 1. a Happy Heinys pocket diaper (size S) stuffed with one soaker insert and one folded up prefold and 2. a Thirsties "fab" fitted with a prefold folded up behind it (not inside it) and all wrapped up in a cover. These worked well because the layers touching the baby are synthetic fabrics so they wicked away the wetness from the baby and she felt dry. We are still using this method and the baby is now sleeping almost 8 hours a night before she wakes up. It's heaven.

Best of all: the diaper in the picture! It's the one that I made. It has a cotton velour inner layer that touches the baby so she doesn't feel dry (it's 80% cotton). The outside is two layers of flannel (an ugly one that no one sees and the cute outer print). It has a pocket for the soaker inserts. I'm making those too (they're cut but not stitched yet). I have no plans to sell these in the shop. I used a free pattern I got online and it fits perfectly and will fit for some time. It does require a cover. It's actually quite wet in this picture (on a very sleepy baby just waking up!).

I'll write up another post in a couple of weeks once we get into a new routine. We're still sticking mainly with the prefolds and covers at 9 weeks.

We have enough diapers now that we only do laundry every other day. Our washing machine has a water level setting so we only use what we need and we hang everything out on the line to dry. When it's raining, we use a drying rack in the basement.

Why I love my husband...

We are getting life insurance (if that's not a bridge to adulthood, I don't know what is). So this home health nurse came to the house today to give Aaron a barrage of tests. I was getting ready to take a shower so she didn't know I was home. The baby was on the table in the bouncer as usual. She asks, "So, you're babysitting, huh?" He replies, "Oh, no. This is mine."

cat and baby

art 365 day 154 - cat and baby
Originally uploaded by mabith

One of my Etsy peeps mabith did this amazing drawing from one of my photos posted on flickr.

She's doing an art 365 thing just like I'm doing a 365 baby thing.

This is day 154.

I love it.

More on 365 baby in a couple of days.

Coming Soon...

I bought these fabrics when I was in New York City for the Bust Craftacular. I was anticipating my Spring line. My Spring line has become my Summer collection. So anyway...

As soon as I get finished with this big freelance job I do twice a year, the sewing will commence. These seersucker fabrics are from a really cool shop I found in the garment district. They are super high quality men's suit fabrics and I have been loving having them in my life. I'm keeping my blank onesies a secret until they're finished. I'm super excited about them.

This weekend I plan to go through all my stock and clean up the Etsy shop. I'll add back in some of my custom hand-stitched pieces and that pile of yeti shirts I've been going on and on about. I have a few long-sleeved onesies that are ready to go and some bean dolls as well.

I expect to make some bean dolls to match the new fabrics so that when The Lemons go to shows this Summer and Fall, we'll be able to offer discounts when someone buys a set.

The best part of all of this is that Baby Lemon will be modeling the new designs (as soon as she fattens up enough to fit into them).

Coming Home

So we will be bringing our baby home sometime in the next two weeks. That seems pretty crazy to me. I got into a sewing frenzy this weekend spurred on by my whiny post about everyone else's productivity and the fact that I wasn't about to let my kid wear someone else's work home from the hospital.


So I took this cute little striped romper that I bought at Old Navy during their big January sale and put this really big bun bun on it. This fabric is from a fat quarter that I bought at a quilt shop in Carrboro, NC almost 10 years ago. I really like mixing patterns but don't do it much with the Lemon Cadet stuff because people seem to like to play it safe -- especially when they're buying gifts.

I'm sure this outfit will be too big but I love it anyway.

Less than 6 weeks

I feel like when this kid comes out she's going to be like Patty Hearst. You know that scene in the movie where they take her blindfold off and she knows who everyone is by the sound of their voices? When baby gets here she'll go, "And that's Sasha, she purrs the most. And that's Groucho, why does he wheeze like that? And that's Daddy, so handsome. And that's Mommy; she's the one who's making everyone wash their hands when they come in the house. Oh, and that must be NPR! And over there, that's The Weather Channel."

These are the sounds of our house.

My last post was two months ago. I've been in this crazed mode of getting the house ready and working and on and on. I still have so much to do but I'm feeling better about it all. I miss my little blog.

Oh, I got that picture up there from here.

Lemon Cadet Sighting...

Check out the Trendy Tots blog. They featured Dolores, one of my very favorite designs as part of their Fresh Finds. I don't have many hot pink onesies left and I haven't been able to find anymore wholesale so she may be discontinued soon. Such sadness.

Trendy Tots is a really amazing blog. They highlight all kinds of cute, indie products. What an honor!

News from the homefront: Mr. Lemon has been hard at work fulfilling my insane nesting desires. He replaced the kitchen countertops with the coolest laminate (if that's what it's even called...). Today he finished fixing all the cracks in my new studio (his old office) and we might even see some paint on the walls by the weekend. When that's all finished, the nursery challenge will begin.

I have pictures of the kitchen to share and a special vegan cheese ball recipe. I expect to have some time next week!

Yay! Front page Etsy . . .

Sometime in the middle of the night, this treasury list that I didn't even know I was in, got picked for the front page. It's really beautiful with two of my favorite colors. It's so nice when you get a little surprise like that.