Dixie is feeling about like the kid

in this article.

However, I am loving the idea of all the days I will have this year with 1-2 kids gone for five hours. I am starting to get into the routine of chiro-school-gym-home-lunch-school-home-work-home-bed.

Today, Charlie and I went fabric shopping. He was too full of snot for me to drop in the gym childcare, so we went to Wal*Mart instead.

He had many opinions about the fabrics I was choosing, but he did not seem to understand the goals I had in mind, so we had to do a bit of negotiating. For instance, neither Melody's khaki school uniform skirt nor Christine's birthday gift required green and blue stripes. Or Belle fabric. When I chose the kitty fleece for a no-sew blanket, he hugged it mightily, said, "Cat!" and begin to pet the kitties.

While checking out the various browns they had, I threw a few bolts in the basket. One he angrily tossed to the floor. Another, he kissed. So if you're buying a bolt of fawn-colored poly/cotton at a Wal*Mart near me, I highly recommend pre-washing. (I did mention the snot, right? And of course it was on the end of the bolt, not the long sides, so I couldn't just buy the span that he'd boogered.)

I should back up.

The girls' school has chapel on Mondays and they are required to wear their navy school polo and khaki shorts, skirt or pants. Last year, a store near my mom's was having a great clearance sale, and I bought Dixie 2 pairs of shorts, one pair of pants and a skirt, and then a couple more items in larger sizes because everything was the magically affordable price of 49¢. I was planning ahead for when Melody would need uniform stuff and did not buy any items in miniature. One pair of shorts is a 4T, but everything else is in 5T and up.

So Monday, Melody spent the day hitching up the 4T shorts. When she came home, she reminded me that, "I do not like to wear shorts or pants. I am a girl, a princess girl, and I wear dresses and skirts as my favorites."

The skirt I'd bought was a 6. I could possibly take it up, but Dixie really likes it and I'm not going to take it from her to make Madame Fluff-N-Stuff happy. But then I discover that khaki for very small girls is just not in.

So I go shopping. I start out looking at plain khaki fabric, but know that I am in for it every Monday morning for the next 8.5 months if I make something that she does not love. And I have seen a w-i-d-e variety of articles for their uniforms--they are not picky. So I pick out fabric, an appliqué and some lace.

I get home, put snot-boy to nap, grab an existing skirt of Melody's and get to work, only to discover that I really don't have enough matching thread. I have two somewhat matching spools with very little left and no bobbin already made of either to help stretch out what I do have. I fill the bobbin with half of the first spool and get started. I get the sides made and the hem done when I discover that the hem is only 3/4 done because the end of my spool had come loose and knotted with the feeding end of the thread, so the thread broke. I re-thread, back up, and finish the hem. Almost. I am out of thread entirely with three inches to go. I still have a good bit left on the bobbin, so I load the other color and finish the hem. It is too different, so I go ahead and run around the whole thing, then slap the lace on top to cover the fact that I have more than one thread color going on. Then I'm putting the appliqué on when I run out of bobbin. I un-thread, fill my bobbin, then keep going.

My needle breaks.

I remove the needle, put in a new one, re-thread, and get the appliqué on. I start the waist, realize I only have enough elastic for the back, so I make do. I am inches from done when I run out of that thread, too. I see the end coming, and I am guiding with one hand while holding my thread tail with the other, desperately hoping that this will magically work out.

FAIL.

I grab a decently contrasting thread. Finish the top. Run a second line around the lace, about a 1/4 inch below the first one, hoping that it will keep it from rolling.

It is beautiful. It looks nothing like a school uniform skirt. But I know Melody will like it and her teacher will not say anything.

I start on the no-sew blanket for my friend. A different friend brings her vomitous child over to be guarded while she finishes a couple of meetings. Charlie awakens. I get girls.

Melody is DELIGHTED at the sight of her new skirt. Dixie has a fit. Duh. How did I think I could make one something and not the other? Promises are made.

Melody is slightly too large for her skirt.

I grab a scrap, hem it, run lace at the bottom, cut a line in the back, and add it as a panel. It looks great.

The skirt is slightly too large for Melody.

I take it back to the machine, run four small darts.

The Melody is again too large.

Seam remover. Two darts down.

The skirt is again slightly too large. But it can stay this way.

I am re-thinking that "I don't need a pattern" bit.





And, to top it off, I am late to work by ninety seconds. Normally, the kids are scraggling in, so I wouldn't be too far behind. Today, I get there and all three kids are at the table, ready to go, and my boss is at the table behind me to observe me teach.