i will stop now

all the whining about not having time, and blah, blah and three kids. why? because i got two things done last night!! thank you arlo for going to bed at 745, you blessed little creature. lets see, first i fixed up a pair of the dawgs jeans with some decorative and functional stitching. he was mighty pleased. and then, wonder of wonders, i finally finished the last bit of sewing on the car seat cover. so here is the saga. we dragged out the eliots baby seat from the basement right before miss arlo was born to find it covered in nasty mold.

um yeah. this picture looks like crap because i took with eliots $17 digital camera (the argus 1512 if youre in the market) because i was desperate. so we washed it of course, but the mold had done its damage and stained the cover. nice. as we were on the cusp of having a third child and all the financial burdens that carries with it, a replacement carseat wasnt really an option or worth it for that matter. being the crafty lady that i think i am, i set about to make a cute, girl cover for it. sorry collette, i know you spent a year in the manly black and yellow thing, hold it against me later. i lovingly traced a pattern out of brown paper grocery bags, found some coordinating materials in my stash, to save money of course, and got started with plenty of zeal. my plan was to make a cover that just fit over the top like a fitted bed sheet. my problem is that i forgot to take into account the 3D nature of the seat and that i had to have enough material for it to go down into the seat. nice. so i put the whole thing together, gathered edges and all, went to put it on and realized that it wouldnt fit. the flaps pulled it too tight, so arlo would end up resting on some sort of trampoline type surface. not safe im guessing. defeated, the project sat untouched for about five weeks. then i had a moment of epiphany in the middle of the night, drawstrings instead of elastic! that way i could loosen the slack, right? wrong, still too tight. it sat for another few weeks. then i was telling david the whole story (he was about as excited as a guy can get about sewing gone wrong) when the brilliant man said, why dont you take off the flaps and just make a strap? i think i literally slapped my forehead.

and that is what i did last night. these pictures really crack me up, they look like security camera captures. good old argus...

not only did i manage to finish the damn thing, i also managed to salvage the scraps from the jacked up flaps to make myself a nifty little work apron.

i actually made this the second time i picked up the cover to replace the elastic with drawstrings, while i had a real camera in the house. these are the two gathered flaps that were supposed to fit over the top and bottom, ungathered of course. i even used the twill tape for the drawstring attempt as ties for the apron. i have been wearing this thing around the house, those two big pockets are very handy. and i feel so great for getting the cover done, AND a little something for myself. so there, no more whining. promise. maybe...