Stuck here on our boat during Tropical Storm Andrea.

I guess Mother Nature has a calender and discovered that Hurricane Season is officially here.  No Sooner had June 1st rolled around than she started churning up trouble in the Gulf and we're now getting hammered with wind, rain, and high tides. Just like last year during 'Debby', Andrea forgot to turn off the faucet and our marina has overflowed. 

Normally the water is about 3 feet below our docks. I took this picture before the dock ended up covered in about 6 inches of water. Not as bad as I thought it would be.

Another version of the dress I blogged about in my previous post. This one is LOUD and I love it.

The back with ties.

The back of the panties and I just now realized I should have added a bow!!

And what I really love; matching dog collars (and of course a head band).

 I've been busy making and selling dog collars and baby items.  These are things that are manageable to work with while living on our boat and besides that I really enjoy sewing them.

Hurricane Season???? NOOOOOOOOOOO!

Wilbur is doing well but he does not like having rain and wind whistle up his butt when he's supposed to be going potty so he tends to hold it until he's ready to explode. Luckily the rain stopped for a while and the tide dropped enough for me to get him off the boat for a quick break. We both hope this isn't the beginning of an extra stormy summer.

Still living and sewing on our boat

I can't believe how quickly time passes by.

As I previously posted, we spent Thanksgiving at anchor and I don't think any other holiday will ever measure up to how much I enjoyed that one.

Christmas rolled around and we flew north for a few days in order to visit family and friends.  We ended up renting a Mustang Convertible because that's all that was available and Hans refused to drive with the top down just because the temps were in the low 30's along with freezing rain. 

Back in Florida, we spent New Year's Eve at anchor (with no snow or winter coats necessary) while rafted up with another couple from our marina. And since I got Hans a keyboard for Christmas we ended up having a jam session in our cockpit the next day.  In addition to the keyboard, our friends brought guitars and a drum machine.  Then their friends came by with another guitar and tons of food. I don't know what we sounded like but we had a great time. 

Back to reality.  Hans flew to Boston on business and my hopes of having a week long sewing marathon (without having to put everything away every day) went out the window when I experienced my first cold in over a year and a half.  Living here in constant fresh air had me spoiled but that cold knocked me on my ass. One day I was actually in my pajamas by 4 PM. 

Then, a couple of weeks ago, a good friend of mine became a grandmother when her son and his wife had a baby girl.  

And, oh my!  Who doesn't love sewing for baby girls?

My version of Baby Girl Mary Janes.

A view of the front.

The back with a view of the very ruffled panties.

Are these cute or what??

The inside of these are fully lined.

All that's left to make is a bonnet.  But tomorrow I have to drive Hans to work, get groceries, blah blah blah... and we hope to anchor out for the weekend so I won't get to the bonnet until next week.  That's okay though since I'm pretty sure this won't fit the little lady until well into this summer.

It took a whole stinking summer to get this done

Once upon a time I lived in a house.

In the northeastern part of the United States.

If I wanted to sew all I had to do was walk into my temperature controlled spare bedroom.

I had fans in the summer, heat in the winter, and a sewing machine (complete with a thousand notions) that didn't have to be put away (as if in shame) every stinking time I used it.

I now live on a boat in Florida.

If I want to sew I have to dig through our guest berth (the garage) for any and all sewing notions including my sewing machine. This requires several trips, and no, we do not have air conditioning on that side of the boat and by the time everything has been hauled up to the salon/sewing area I'm saturated in sweat. And then there's the ton of fun I have trying to find a flat space bigger than 2 feet by 3 feet to cut out something bigger than a handkerchief.

Yes, we have an air conditioner hanging in our salon hatch but I may as well hire someone to breathe across a pile of ice on me for all the good it does. 

As for firing up an iron? Well, if you like lounging about in a sauna, come visit me.

I will never, ever get used to living in Florida (and I have no intention of doing so!).

Anyway, enough of my whining.

Awhile back (like at the beginning of the year) a young cruising couple had a baby girl and I really wanted to make something for them.  However, life and then weather got in my way and I only recently finished my project. I actually had a lot of other things I intended to make but she could very well be ready to enter college by the time I finish everything so I'm stopping now.

Excuse the order of my pictures but I have no patience with Blogger these days and I don't feel like spending umpteen hours trying to rearrange my photos.

This is a close up of a covered button that adorns the front of the little pinafore I made.
Butterick 5625

And here is the pinafore complete with hat and panties.

A view of the pinafore's inside contrast fabric.

Panties

Hat (I lined it)

Outside of the hat with a covered button on top.

These are fingertip towels I made into easy, slip on bibs.

Bibs

This sleeve saver bib pattern is F854 from Sew Baby.  
The only thing I don't care for is that it requires bias tape which I hate!
I made my own bias tape but I'm not sure how many of these I may make it the future.Perhaps if I have grandchildren?

Sleeve Saver Bib

I butchered a pattern for boys in order to make these nautical booty sandals for a girl.

Booties

Since this baby will eventually become a toddler while living on a boat I made her a place mat sized chalk board (from chalkboard fabric which luckily a local fabric store carries).

And just try to find chalk these days. Not even ToysRUs carries it!!! I found mine at WalMart.

Tic Tac Toe anyone??

By the way, the beautiful fabric I used for the pinafore set came from Cyndi of Cut-Up and Sew.  She gave me a stack of fabric when we hooked up over Memorial Day Weekend and it's all to die for!! I would have loved to make a purse or tote bag from it but all of a sudden I realized it would make such a  cute baby outfit.

And it did.

I'm very much ready for the heat to break which should hopefully be soon. I have a couple of projects in mind that I'd like to get done before we either head back out to sea or summer sets in again.

Some stinking cute baby sewing.

I mentioned in a previous post that Hans' cousin is going to have a baby this January, and let's face it, now that I live in Florida, I'm having a very difficult time wrapping my brain around the fact that it's already December. I truly need to get my head on straight and finish up this baby project and get some Christmas shopping done.



So check out this adorable onesie I made out of one of Hans' old dress shirts by using this tutorial.

I also made my own bias tape.

And you wouldn't believe how much bias tape you can get out of a very small amount of fabric by using this method.

Since the future daddy designs ships, I purchased some sail boat fabric for the collar, cuffs, and bias tape, which was a perfect match, and I also thought it was just too cute.

And those are adorable matching shoes on the right. They were too easy to make and don't be surprised if I find a way to enlarge the pattern and make a pair for myself!








A view of the back.

Look at that little pleat!

And again, the shoes!

















I rinsed it out and hung it out to dry on my red neck clothes line (which is really Wilbur's retractable leash).













Here's a close up of the cuff I added that wasn't on the tutorial, but you can see the sleeve placket that was kept from the original shirt.













I added an extra button hole and button at the bottom of the shirt front. I then made a tab with a button hole and stitched it to the back of the onesie. This tab then attaches to that button and secures the onesie to the baby.











And once again the little shoes. This was the first pair of these I've ever made and I'm pretty sure I cut the elastic just a bit too small on the right one which is making it pucker. The next pair will surely be better.










Waste not want not.

Very coincidentally I happened to see a Sewing with Nancy episode on the very day I was making this outfit. And on that particular show they were re-purposing a man's shirt into various useful items.

The very last thing they did was to cut off the collar and make it into an adorable dog collar.

Believe me when I say I wasted no time at all hacking off the collar of Hans' shirt, and no dog could possibly look as cute in a dress shirt collar than our Wilburbutt!





I only hope Hans doesn't ask me next week why he doesn't seem to have any more good dress shirts!

Shhhhhhhh!