Robot Dance Party

The best part of Zadie's 2nd Birthday Party Robot Extravaganza was the Robot Dance Party. I grabbed a couple of boxes from work and covered them with wrapping paper from Christmas. As you can see, I cut out holes for his arms, taped on some pipe cleaners, and went to town with the hot glue.

All those stickers on the front were placed by me and Zadie. We spent almost an hour in front of the box. She would put a sticker on the right side and I'd do the exact same thing on the left. It gave us something to do, it was fun, and she really felt like she made the robot.

Add one hilarious teenage nephew and you're good to go.

The hardest part was choosing the songs. I spent a couple of hours searching but came up with a good 20 minutes. Here's the best of the playlist:

Everybody Dance Now (I had heard this story on NPR by this guy who said all children went nuts when they heard this song. I thought I'd do the same experiment. Different results and not very roboty but oh well).

Most of the Yo Gabba Gabba CD.

Axel F.

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto by Styxx

The only bad thing was that the power went out at exactly the same time the party was to start! Luckily it came back on just as we finished the cake.

Project: Robot Party

A full week of non-stop Robot Party action.

Day 1: Robot Dance Party. A little info on how to make the costume and a great robot dance mix.

Day 2: Robot Pinata. Tutorial and beating.

Day 3: Robot bib . applique and tutorial.

Day 4: Robot dress . applique (and free pattern)

Day 5: Robot goodness . like cake and popcorn and party favors:

Popcorn making robot

Vegan robot cake with special powers

The army of robot gift bags

Project: kids clothes week day 5

I finished up my little cross-stitch gator today. I messed it up in a few places. What was I thinking trying to do teeny tiny sewing while Zadie was hosting a tea party? I pulled out a few rows of stitches and made do with the rest. It looks like a gator and she loves it so that's all that counts in my book (apologies to the designer). I'm going to run the same purple piping around the edges of the pocket but I think I'll have to line it first. You can see gators through the holes in the fabric. I had never stitched on that kind of cloth before but I really liked it.

Zadie and I also spent some time this morning picking out fabric for another pair of pants. I love this stuff. It is Riley Blake.

In other news, Project: Project is going to be the favorite blog all week over at We All Sew! It's a huge honor to me. Just check out the great company I'm in.

So that's it for kids clothes week. I had high hopes but I did finish one heck of a cute dress, one pair of amazing pants, and am loaded with inspiration from checking out the flickr pool.

Project: Yellow Elephant Pants (kids clothes week day 4)

This morning I had the finished elephant pants out on the chair for Zadie to wear. As soon as she saw them she started demanding, "I want my effin pants! I want my effin pants!" It was pretty hilarious (to me). I used the Sailor Pants pattern from Dans La Lune on Etsy. I didn't have any problems printing out the pattern or putting it together. It was very straightforward. In fact, all of the directions were easy to understand and follow. The pictures showed what they needed to show. Well done.

It took me forever to get started on them because I was overwhelmed by all the buttonholes. But after having learned how to make them on my machine I'm all about them now. It's really not that bad. The only thing that I had problems with is the opening at the back for the buttonhole elastic. There was a marking on the pattern so I used that (it is probably a grain line). I didn't look at the photograph. So it's in the wrong place and there is a weird gap and I'm really not sure how I'm going to fix it. I could cut another hole or move the buttons.

Either way, the pants are adorable and a great fit. I didn't have enough fabric to make them as long as the pattern but they are perfect. When she gets taller, they'll be even cuter as capris. Lovely.

Today I spent my hour doing cross stitch. In my inspiration hunting late last night, I found some cute pocket ideas in Bend the Rules Sewing for aprons. I got started on the crocodile and will make a pocket out of that. It was nice to just do something mindless for a while.

Project: kids clothes week day 3

Today I was actually able to finish the pants. They are super cute on and a great fit but I think they will work better with a disposable diaper. The hem was a breeze.

I played around with my alligator cross-stitch and still am not sure what to do with it. I will put it away for a few days and go back to it fresh.

I had also wanted to start a little peasant blouse but I couldn't figure out how to make the pattern so I spent some time looking through some other sewing books for inspiration and suddenly it was 9:30.

Such is my life. I think I spend more time thinking about what the heck to do than actually doing it. And I don't want to even think about how much time I spend ripping out mistakes and fixing the stuff I screw up.

Project: kids clothes week day 2

I did more than an hour of sewing today because it was Election Day and I didn't have to work. We had a little family outing of going to the tasty bread store, the library, the quilt shop for buttons (just me), and the polling place. I made a reasonably informed vote and feel good about my decisions.

Last night I finished up the bias trim around the gator dress but did not think of a solution for that seam at the neck. Any ideas? I have a crocodile cross-stitch pattern that I was going to add to a pocket. Maybe I can work it in up there? I don't know.

Today I started on the yellow elephant pants. They are almost done. I have to sew the buttons on and hem them up. I made a weird mistake as you can see in the picture. I put the buttonholes too far over so the little flap that I was supposed to sew the buttons to would not have been big enough. I had to add 3/4" to the width of the flap pattern so I went with a different fabric and I like it much better with the buttons I chose. The pants seemed to fit well even over the chunky cloth diaper so I think they'll be great for now and later when we are diaper free. I was too lazy to fold over the edge of my elastic and stitch it up so I just used nail polish to seal the ends. Wow. Who does that? Now it's drying so they'll be ready to go tomorrow when I get home from work.

But I totally felt like a rock star blasting out my buttonholes like I had been doing them my whole life.

Project: Applique Tutorial

Check out my guest post over at Come and See the Seitz today. I give away all of my applique secrets one by one.