if only what to sew next was my most pressing problem

Genevieve playing with bias tape in one of the three reversible apron dresses I've made.  © 2012 Amber Schley Iragui

More changes. The nanny has been fired a second time, and my heart is sad. Because I liked her, and Ike will certainly miss her, and she was getting quite good at making blueberry madeleines. But I couldn't rely on her. Our dear old A is going to take up some of her hours for a few months until we decide what to do. It is for the best; really, I don't need so many scrumptious madeleines sitting around the house.

Genevieve needs surgery, after all. And it seems that not only will she need tubes in her ears, but a full adenoidectomy. Her hearing test on Holy Tuesday had just as poor results as the one she took last month. At this point she's had at least six months of hearing loss due to fluid in her ears, perhaps more. The adenoidectomy more than doubles the time under general anesthesia and requires an overnight stay in the hospital. The recovery time is about a week, while if we only had tubes she should recover in a day. I am still debating, as we could just get the tubes. The tubes will drain her ears and help with her hearing and speech—the reason for the surgery in the first place. However, the doctor believes that her adenoids are so enlarged that she is unable to breathe much through her nose. Removing them would make her less susceptible to colds, would cut down on her constantly-runny nose, and help her sleep better. Whatever we decide, the date for the surgery is set for about a month from now.

For one day last week I was convinced we had bedbugs again. Our now-fired nanny said she'd moved out of her apartment because it was infested. I responded as calmly as I could, and when she was gone began manically washing everything. I took whole boxes of hats, gloves, coats and stuffed animals and dumped them in the drier. I pulled the beds apart (all mattresses covered with anti-bedbug encasements) but found no trace of the bugs. And none of us had any bites. No matter, I was suddenly itchy all over. The next day she told me she'd been wrong, her apartment was not infested. Just one apartment in her building had them. Whew.

And then I got a jury summons and an annoying letter from the IRS about a problem with my social security number. 

But the weather is delightfully warm now, and we spent yesterday afternoon in and around Central Park's Conservatory Gardens. We used to go there often when we lived in South Harlem, and I forgot how much I miss that big old park. We packed a Pascal lunch of chocolate, ham, Pont l'Evêque, Italian truffle cheese, pâté, Belgian framboise, and strawberries. Our friends brought French chocolates, brie, pantonne, sliced cucumbers, and homemade pastries. Genevieve helped herself to a good portion of the pâté. It was as much a Paschal feast as one could imagine.

I am posting some photos here of clothes I've made for Genevieve. If only what to sew next was my most pressing problem.

The back of the apron dress. I used a Liberty lawn for this one.  © 2012 Amber Schley Iragui

A 1960s pattern I bought on Etsy, in an Amy Butler voile. Still a little big on her.  © 2012 Amber Schley Iragui

                                                          It buttons up the back, and looks cute with her lemon yellow crocs.  © 2012 Amber Schley Iragui 

And finally, photos I've already posted on Facebook, of the blouse I made her. I think I like it best of all.  © 2012 Amber Schley Iragui

photo friday: shadow diptychs

All the photos in these diptychs were taken with my iphone while walking in my neighborhood this week. The scenes look more wintry than is fair--it's been a very lovely Spring and flowers are blooming everywhere.

In other humdrum news, I finally finished one of the more complicated dresses I've been sewing for Genevieve. It's very green. Photos of the dress, and other clothes I've made, will hopefully be up soon--with or without children in them.

We've also been informed that due to a high demand for kindergarten spaces, the preK program is being cut next year at the school across the street. So there goes my having to worry about whether to send Ike there. My neighbor has been hosting a small Waldorf co-op preschool in her apartment once a week, where Ike and four other 3-year-olds sing songs, make bread or soup, followed by an hour or more of outdoor play. The moms have been talking about renting a classroom at the Catholic high school (also across the street but in a Northern direction) for next year. Perhaps now we have more reason to make it work.

See, this is all very humdrum. I could write some of my more lengthy reflections on introversion, but really, I don't want to. I just want to get back to my sewing.

And I'm looking forward to Julia's diptychs, and any other shadow photos or diptychs posted. Next week I want to try: shooting up, that is, pointing the camera in an upwards direction (as opposed to other sorts of shooting up). This will not be an easy assignment for me, as I don't really like looking up to take photos.

sewing, a wee obsessively

 

I've been sewing a lot. Maybe a wee bit obsessively. I made two dresses for Genevieve over the last few weeks. But both are too big for her to wear now, and as we are leaving for Hawaii in a few days, I've now made a third. This last dress fits her perfectly, so she'll have one to wear on vacation. I made it out of one of Charles' torn work shirts using the tutorial here, but using a different pattern so it fits an infant. The sides of the placket on Charles' shirt were a little frayed in one spot, so I added some white pom-pom edging along both sides of the placket. But the dress still lacked something. The placket on Charles' shirt was very stiff, with some sort of reinforcement bonded to the fabric, and it made the dress seem starched.  I had a long remnant of dotted Swiss batiste l that gave me an idea. In my late-night etsy surfing I  had come across shirt dress with a petticoat underneath and I wanted to see if I could add it to the bottom. After some trial and error I figured out how to add it to the hem and then create another hem that folded over to make it look like the ruffle was poking out. I am so pleased with the dress--Charles said I've been walking around the house "fondling" it.

Because I've been sewing so much for Genevieve, Ike has gotten a little jealous. So I decided to make capes for him and Lola to wear when they play dress up. I had some green and gold fabric with little vines that I bought last year in the garment-district. I wanted to use it with dark green velvet. I found another post on Made that I used to make a pattern, but nothing prepared me for how difficult it is to sew slippery material to velvet. I ended up basting the whole thing together before I used the sewing machine. But it came out well, it was my first time using a flowery top stitch option on my sewing machine. Now I have to make one for Lola, in pink and red. But that will have to wait until after Hawaii.