Meias Marias » Home Page
    • Facebook
    • Etsy
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Email
    • YouTube
    • Ravelry

Children Backpack Pattern #3

By | | ,
Leave a comment

Made to fit her taste, with colors, fabrics and applications chosen by her. It isn’t a school backpack because she is already too big for that. It is a jealousy backpack because I made two for Teresa (here) and she wanted one for herself. She is a girl who loves bags, little bags, big bags and all sorts of bags and she spends hours shoving everything in her bags and so I decided to make her will.

It took a long time to get ready, so long that I lost count of time and somewhere along the way I also lost enthusiasm I needed for ending it. Nothing that has not been resolved and that so here it is the backpack!

Wanna make one yourself? Try my pattern!

[cryout-button-color url=”http://shop.meiasmarias.com/produto/back-to-school-backpack-pattern-english-instructions-pdf” color=”#4C0B5F”]”Back to School” Backpack Pattern[/cryout-button-color]

20 weeks

By | |
Leave a comment

20 weeks passed, 20 weeks left to go. So far so good and since I enter the second trimester I even forget I’m pregnant. If it wasn’t for my belly that occasionally colides with things and my little bean moving inside I swear I wouldn’t even remember I’m pregnant.

I’m calmer than the previous times though, stupid as it sounds, the idea of childbirth this time scare me more than the others, but I also know that is a typical concern of the second trimester and as soon as the time approaches, my concerns will disappear to make way for a happy anxiety.

I’m trying to take the most of this phase. I’m lucky to be able to live it for the third time, and although it is my desire to have more children, I do not know if life will allow, so I’m enjoying this pregnancy as if it was the last and taking full advantage of it.

And more than being curious to know the gender of the baby, I’m frankly desirous of knowing this little miracle to have it in my arms, to look in it’s eyes and smell it’s unique odor.

Crochet skirt

By | | ,
Leave a comment

In Greek mythology, Penelope was the wife of Ulysses who went to the Trojan War and was absent for 20 years. As the absence of Ulysses was growing, Penelope’s father thought that his was dead and wanted his daughter to marry again, but Penelope believed that Ulysses was still alive and wanted to wait for his return,so she found a way to simultaneously satisfy her interests and her fathers. Penelope said to her father that she would marry again when finished weaving a shroud to offer to Ulysses father, and so she bagan weaving during day time for all to see, and at night, when she was alone she unweaved most of the woek she had made during the day, so that the shroud would never be done!

Sometimes I have projects that remind me of Penelope and her shroud! They just seems never to be right nor well made and so I’m always stichings or crocheting and them I just have to undo most os the work to try to make it right! And this projects just seem to take all the eternity to get done!

As this skirt that I fell in love as soon as I saw it in an Italian magazine that cost me a fortune! Although woolsare not the same the needle size is the same, which should make it somehow similar. Well, that didn’t happen!

I followed the instructions until I get enough of undoing my work and then decided to do it by eye, just my way of doing it!

Há aqueles projetos que dão gozo acabar e depois há aqueles projetos que quando estão acabados nos fazem sentir mais leves e levemente aliviadas.

Sobre esta saia já aqui tinha escrito. Foi desde o inicio um desafio e só a certeza de que ia valer a pena ver o resultado final me fez continuar. Desmachei e recomecei tantas vezes que lhe perdi a conta e várias vezes foi dada como pronta, mas depois houve sempre qualquer coisa que me fez voltar atrás e refazer. Acabou por não correr muito mal, afinal de contas foi feita em pouco mais de 6 meses!

Para agora ainda está um bocadinho grande mas é uma saia de verão e até lá estou mais do que certa que a Mafalda cresce o suficiente para a saia lhe servir na perfeição.

Não me sobrou vontade de fazer outra para a Teresa até porque adaptar novamente as medidas para uma saia mais pequena ia ser outro desafio, e de qualquer forma será inevitável que a Teresa quando chegar à idade da Mafalda acabe por a vestir também! Em vez disso resolvi aproveitar o algodão que sobrou para outro projeto de verão que tenho a certeza que vai fazer as delicias das pequenotas da familia. Mas isso é para outro dia!

Some projects makes us happy when they finally get done, and then there are projects that bring a huge relieve when they are finally done!

This project was a challenge from 1st stitch and only the certainty that it would be worth seeing the result made ​​me continue. I restarted it so many times that I lost count and several times it was pronouncedready, but then there was always something that made me go back and redo.

For now it’s still a little big for Mafalda to wear but it is a summer skirt and until then I am more than certain that she will grow enough to fit the skirt perfectly.

I do not feel like doing another one for Teresa. I would have to adapt the measures again for a shorter skirt and that would be another challenge, and anyway is inevitable that Teresa will weare this skirt when she reach the age ofMafalda! Instead I decided to use the cotton leftovers for another summer project that I’m sure will make the delightsof the little girls of my family. But that’s for another day!

Rapunzel or Little red Riding Hood

By | |
Leave a comment

This year I promised myself that Carnival would have less stress. Of course for that to happen I have to realize a few months in advance what costumes will the girls want to wear. And of course, do not go on adventures to make an equal costume for me.

This year I managed Mafalda ti pick her cosyume in early January, after the holidays were over. Of course she was still on the wave of Rapunzel and this was her choice. For Teresa I had not thought of doing anything, because I still have a clown suit I made for Mafalda when she was the same age, but being a true democrat Mafalda thought that if I was going to make her a new costume I had to make a new one for her sister. Sweet fraternal solidarity.

The choice of Little Red Riding Hood was mine though Teresa liked the idea. Actually I didn’t want to make another princess costume and I realizes that I had never done any character from a children’s folktale.

Materials gathered the rest was more or less improvised. Funny that things keep get easier each time we are making them. This time I found myself changing the Rapunzel’s dress pattern with ease and without hesitation, and more, I found myself thinking that the instructions lead to an absurd waste of time and unnecessarily complicated sewing!

This Rapunzel costume is more like a princess version rather than inspired on the Tangled (movie) made by Disney. I’ve tryed to find purple fabrics rather than this lilac, I didn’t found any compatible materials so I had to go with lilac as it is. The original pattern has an organza overskirt that I’ve decided to keep, because I thought Mafalda would really like it, although I used a carnival tulle with golden touches. The bodice of the dress was made of crystal velvet to be warmer and the sleeves were made of satin for the same reason. I used eyeletson on the bodice of the dress and it was a pleasant surprise because for the first time I managed to make it perfect, but for some reason less clear, this was also the first time I remembered to use a hammer to help in the process!

Mafalda was very proud of the braid and I think it would be enough for her to wear the big yellow braid and the flowers. The pity is that she and her little school friends manage to almost drestroy it. It looked like my hair when I wake up!

Teresa costume was made more by intuition. For the skirt I used the simplest circular skirt overlapped with the elastic, no extra seams, though to use less fabric I had cut two pieces of fabric instead of one. I made a red tulle skirt but I hadn’t enough tulle to lift the skirt as I wanted, but still helped compose the set.

The hood was done very intuitively and used a crystal velvet to do so. Has linen and It closes with a lace in the front. The apron was a treat! For the upper side I did not do anything, I dressed Teresa with her clothes just to make sure she kept warmer because Carnival here is in the Winter and we were on the day before playing in the snow! Teresa is always very supportive when it comes to taking pictures and never says no, never runs away stays in the positions I ask her to stay, but almost never I get her to smile when she knows I’m taking pictures. So this should be the Little Red Riding Hood when comes home to her mother after being eaten by the wolf!

Absense

By | |
Leave a comment

There’s a noticeable absence felt in this blog. You who came here every day have not found anything that you have not already seen, which is quite boring. I know.

It’s not that I’ve been taking a break, it’s not that I’ve lost the desire to share, I havent’t changed my goal or my purpuse. Nothing like that.

For everything here remains the same, with only a small change that is growing our way, a little big change that is my little big excuse for all this blog absence.

Now we just have to wait to see if this year color will remain pink or if we will finally change our color to blue!

Tooth Fairy #1

By | | ,
Leave a comment

After her 5th birthday her first tooth began to wag. Two months later the tooth has finnaly fallen, for her great joy, and now she proudly boasts an empty space where once had a small tooth. More proudly yet because the new tooth has started to rise, it was behind the old one and not underneath as expected. So tonight she left the tooth under her pillow and when she woke up this morning she found a bag full of coins!

During these two months I has time to prepared the ideal place to keep her teeth and create a memory that later she can give value.

The first thing I did was a fairy doll and her cloths in the colors Mafalda choosed, and more than out of my imagination, this litle fairy was totally born out of my hands, has I made it without plan or pattern. I then made a record card to record the day each tooth falls in the same way I’ve recorded the days on which each tooth was born.

And it seemed to me that the set was not complete and so I made a kind of sleeping bag for the little fairy to rest while she waits patiently for the other teeth to fall.

Mafalda still only saw the fairy and took a lot of exercise to keep her away from the doll has she insists on taking the doll to bed with her. Today she will have a big surprise when she finally sees the final result!

School Project

By | | ,
Leave a comment

This was the first year that I had to do a craft projec for Teresa take to school.

It was asked for parents to make a Xmas decoration with a kid sock and with a Christmas message.

Sounds simple doesn’t it? The truth is that it took me days to decide what to do and then even more days to make it, and today finally Teresa took proudly, her socks to school.

I guess my big problem was coming across a good half dozen of already ready socks in the next day, they arrested my inspiration in the symbols of Christmas. I thought of angels, trees, stars, Santa…

And then I decided to keep it simple and make not one but two socks as a symbol of sharing, unite them with a ribbon as a symbol of the family, and sprinkle them with small sequins like if the socks were a Christmas tree. The pompoms aside always make me remember the wool socks and therefore were required element.

Who knew that a project so simple could be so complicated! But I was happy with the result, and so did she.

Costume Maker

By | |
Leave a comment

Being a mother is beeing a lot of things, and in my case beeing a Costume maker is one of the facets of motherhood.

Mafalda will play the role of a rich woman in a small theater play and her teacher asked me to make a dress of rich awoman, but not too lush.

With these guidelines went to a local fabric store looking for cheap fabrics I could use to make the dress. I didn´t used any pattern. I simply use my imagination to envision the dress, make the most out of the resources I had had and improvise the pattern on her body.

For the body of the dress I used a sweater 2 sizes below her size, I took it from the pile of clothes that no longer fits her. The idea was to get a sweater with a 2/4 of sleeve and it not too long so I could sew the skirt on it. I made a simple skirt with an overlay, which I sewed to the sweater. And added a ribbon I bought for 1 €. The sleeves of the sweater were also embelished with the ribbon but I cut the threads because it looked too heavy on her. The jacket was onother finding on my fabric store, I bought about 1m of fabric per € 2.95 and is a beautiful knit fabric with a golden thread. I cut the coat pattern directly on her body, cut the fabric and sewed. Also applied the ribbon on the back of the coat to absorb the sweater down and keep the aspect of bolero at the breast.

The result satisfied me and her even more. The teacher loved it. My little star will shine in her performance, and at the end of the day all that matters is to see her grow so happily.

Rapunzel Tower birthday cake

By | |
Leave a comment

For the big birthday party was held the big cake. The rapunzel tower birthday cake was Mafada’s request, and she was so happy that paid every hour of work. Teresa also liked. For now it is easy, it will be difficult when each want something different 🙂 From 4 to 8 birthday cakes!

I have to thank to my aunt and my father who helped me making this cake real.

    • Facebook
    • Etsy
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Email
    • YouTube
    • Ravelry