Tuesday Project Roundup: Smol Clothes

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Before I started making masks, I knocked out a couple baby gifts. I can’t imagine being pregnant at a time like this; making cute smol clothes during that first week of isolation was a real act of hope. If people are still optimistic enough to be having babies, it can’t be that bad, right? Right?

Anyway. The first gift is for a coworker and his wife who aren’t finding out the gender of their July baby. This sloth knit was actually leftover from a pair of unblogged underwear I made for Doc. (Don’t tell the coworker.) This is the Brindille & Twig Harem Romper again and it’s seriously such a great pattern–fast and adorable and easy.

The second baby gift is for my therapist, who’s going on maternity leave next week. The gift was originally just going to be the blanket in the background–the Purl Soho Super Easy Baby Blanket in cotton.

I’d been knitting the blanket during our sessions for a few months so she knew it was coming–but then I realized that this was my chance to sew a ridiculous baby girl outfit. (Everyone I know who’s had a baby has either not found out the gender in advance or had boys.) It was the first week of isolation to boot, so I found a pattern for a balloon romper and went digging through the good scraps to see what I had that would coordinate.

I came up with a big piece of Liberty print, which was perfect: It was leftover from a scarf I made my mom for her birthday 8 years ago. She also loved to sew baby gifts for people (usually quilts) and I know she would have loved this little romper.

Maskapalooza

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I’ve made 27 fabric masks for friends, family, and coworkers since last Tuesday. People saw the one I made for Doc and asked for their own; I had a bunch of elastic and fabric on hand and lots of time. It all worked out.

At first I was documenting the outside and inside of every mask but at this point I’m not even taking pictures of them at all. But for the future historians who’ll be searching for how citizens coped during the Great Pandemic of 2020, here’s a sampling:

I do really enjoy picking the fabric combos for each recipient. I’m even going so far as to make sure that masks for a family group or a couple complement each other, which is maybe a little excessive but makes me happy.

My friend gave me another stash of elastic, so I’m still making masks if you need one–I have another 8 requests I need to sew in the next couple of days and PLENTY of fabric. (No charge, because I wish I didn’t have to make these at all and I’m not gonna profit from a pandemic.)

Friday Links

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1. Another week! We did it! We are doing great. YOU are doing great. I think we all deserve a Churchill wartime quote:

“Now, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

2. This article from the Harvard Business Review is the most helpful thing I’ve read about emotions during a pandemic. I honestly wanted to pull-quote the whole thing: That Discomfort You’re Feeling Is Grief.

There is something powerful about naming this as grief. It helps us feel what’s inside of us. So many have told me in the past week, “I’m telling my coworkers I’m having a hard time,” or “I cried last night.” When you name it, you feel it and it moves through you. Emotions need motion.

3. When I said yesterday I was staying off Twitter, I made an exception for this collection of very round animals and I did not regret it.

Safety, But Make It FASHUN

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I’ve seen lots of conflicting info about making cloth masks for hospital use. I’m not making any for donation since it seems none of my local hospitals need or want a cloth mask at this time. But I read this article on Wired about “universal masking”–i.e., everyone wears a mask, any mask, outside the house, even when they’re healthy–and how it helps:

“…homemade masks made from tightly woven yet breathable fabric are the best option and certainly better than nothing. A piece of cloth will never be as good as a manufactured filter, but it can still smother the brunt of a cough or sneeze and impede other people’s respiratory droplets.

[…]As we move closer to a phase of the pandemic in which people are allowed to mingle again but there is still no vaccine—and therefore still a chance of new outbreaks—universal masking may become even more imperative.”

So I decided to make some masks for us.

Doc is the one who leaves the house for our grocery runs so he got to be the guinea pig:

Because he is the best sport, he let me make his first mask from scraps of his cat shirt–and then put on the cat shirt for the mask’s outing. The lining is scraps from another cat shirt:

I used a pattern from Craft Passion which comes in sizes from kid to adult man and makes for a very nice finish on the inside. There’s also an option to leave an opening to insert filter (I didn’t do that here, but you could). This sewed up in about 20 minutes and took a mere 12 inches of fabric–super fast and easy.

Cloth masks aren’t a substitute for social distancing or not going out in the first place, but when we have to leave the house, I feel a little better about it. Also, think of the possibilities for coordinating your mask with your outfit! We’ll always have FASHUN, even in a pandemic.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Getting Fancy

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Isolation, day 17: I put on a shirt with BUTTONS and wore SHOES and EARRINGS! I also moved the kitchen table and had Doc take pictures of my not-so-secret pajama pants while Toby helped:

These are another pair of Brassie Joggers in a knit from Nerida Hansen–the same place I got my Lisa Congdon fabric and clearly the source of the most amazing prints. This one is by artist Miranda Sofroniou. (I bought it last year, so it’s sold out, but there’s other prints by the artist in stock.)

At this point in my elastic-waist pants journey, I’ve figured out my preferred Brassie mods: I cut a separate pocket bag with trim (as shown in this tutorial) so I don’t have to use the sewing machine at all, just the serger. I’ve also been cutting the waistband as wide as the pants opening so the elastic will form some gathers, for more of a true jogger look/forgiving fit across the belly.

I finished these before the isolation days started but I’m glad I decided to only make stretchy pants for a while. Someday I will wear them out of the house and feel like I’m getting away with not wearing “real” pants.

Tour des Parcs

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We’ve been taking outings to local parks lately, which offer the excitement of LEAVING THE HOUSE but make spreading out a lot easier than on a hiking trail.

Fairmont Park

Sugarhouse Park

Murray Park

I’ve never really spent much time in parks–we don’t have kids or a dog to play in them, and I always (snobbishly) thought, “Parks aren’t really nature; just go on a hike instead.”

But you know what? City parks are kind of a miracle: There’s open space, there’s something for everyone (Fairmont Park has a skate park! Murray Park has an outdoor fitness circuit, complete with bros!), and they’re just…there…waiting to be enjoyed. For free!

Spending time in places that embody civilization has been really soothing, an antidote to fears of the end of it. Find some local parks and start your own tour this week.

Thursday Poem

By in poems

My friend shared this yesterday in our group chat; Neruda wrote it in the 1950s but it’s perfect for right now. That second-to-last stanza…

 

Keeping Quiet
Pablo Neruda

Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still
for once on the face of the earth,
let’s not speak in any language;
let’s stop for a second,
and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.

Fishermen in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would not look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.

If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with
death. Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.

Now I’ll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.

Twelve Years Of Toby

By in anniversaries, Toby

This week is also the anniversary of adopting Toby, prince among cats, who is living his absolute best life with everyone home right now. Every time I think about what this kitty has meant to me and helped me through, I can only think of my mom saying, “You and he are just really bonded.” Indeed.

(Photo by Doc, the only male Toby will permit to touch his head. What honor!)

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