The baby knitting spree continues! (36 weeks along)

Well partial bedrest may not be conducive to totally decluttering the apartment or decorating the "nursery" (otherwise known as the cosleeper attached to my side of the bed, since baby will be rooming with us for at least a year), but it definitely helps with the knitting mojo.

Most evenings of late have been spent lying on my left side feeling super-uncomfortably pregnant, watching Marvel: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on Netflix with the husband and knitting some last-minute baby things.

After finishing the orange wool Beyond Puerperium cardigan sweater I blogged about recently, I decided to make a matching hat and booties with the leftover yarn.

The hat is the free Aviatrix pattern by Justine Turner — my version Raveled here with all construction details. It was super quick to knit, has a fun construction method, and should keep baby's ears nice and warm. Again, the yarn is soft, squishy washable merino wool — Malabrigo Rios in Glazed Carrot.

The booties are the free Gansey Booties pattern (my version Raveled here) and while they are cute and a quick knit, they inspired a lot of reknitting and swearing. The directions for the short-rows were not very clear, and I ended up knitting each bootie differently to compensate, so they don't really match. The instructions are to turn at the end of each short row--but not to wrap--and I wasn't sure if I was then supposed to start knitting again with the last stitch knitted, or with the one after the turn, or... am I just reading this wrong?

If I attempt them again, I'll also make the cuff a lot longer to give them a better chance of staying on.

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Finally, I am almost done knitting the Gift Wrap Baby Sweater by Carina Spencer (Raveled here), a kimono-type raglan sweater with a cool contrast border. I originally had a grand scheme to come up with some kind of TARDIS pattern to take advantage of my blue, black and light grey yarn, but got lazy and just decided to stripe the darn thing. Here it is from a week ago, but I've now finished the border and started the sleeves:

The yarn is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, a super-soft and washable merino/acrylic blend with a bit of cashmere thrown in for good measure (or good marketing, anyway).

And the panic (and excitement) is really setting in here. I feel really ready, but also not ready at all. And Baby Wood has now suddenly flipped from a nice head-down position to a terrible and uncomfortable sideways/transverse position and refuses to budge, despite all the crawling around on the rug and weird off-the-couch headstands I've been doing as per the Spinning Babies website for "optimal fetal positioning." There's still a few weeks for baby to turn back (and there's always external version) but it's freaking me out a little. Turn baby, turn!

The Story of Luna, the Black Mermaid Fairy Superhero Doll with Purple Dreadlocks! (Pt. 1)

Meet Luna, the Mermaid Fairy Superhero. Like any proper superhero, she has an origin story:

Once upon a time there was a four-year-old girl named Z who loved all things fantastical and science fictional: mermaids, fairies, superheroes, robots, witches, unicorns, vampires and rocketships. Z would sit for hours and draw pictures of everything from time machines and flying ponies to Harry Potter:

One fine summer day, Ms. Z and her mommy and daddy visited the Brooklyn Aquarium. Z was excited to see the many soft little snuggly mermaid cloth dolls for sale at the gift shop ... but sad that not ONE of them had brown skin or curly hair like her. She settled for a pale mermaid dolly with straight brown hair but asked her mommy -- where can I find one that looks more like me?

And so little Z and her mommy set out on a quest. They searched far and wide across the land and internet, but nothing was quite right. There was a brown-skinned mermaid Barbie, but she had straight hair and was made of plastic. There were soft snuggly brown-skinned cloth dolls, but they had no magic powers or mermaid tails. One day they journeyed to all four toy stores in their neighborhood: the first three had no black dolls at all; the fourth had beautiful handmade Waldorf cloth dolls with many skin colors and hair styles, but they were $100-$200 each and had no magical qualities.

By now little Z and her mommy were feeling quite cranky, but luckily they had a magic power of their own: sewing.

So they sketched their ideas:

Made a simple pattern...

Gathered up some fabric scraps and curly bouclé yarn, and got to work... Cutting:

Pinning...

Sewing, embroidering and stuffing...

At first the mommy sewed most of the doll by hand because her machine was in the shop, but then a friend lent her a vintage Featherweight and things sped up:

Finally, Luna was done!

She was just what the little girl wanted: a mermaid fairy superhero with brown skin, curly (purple) dreadlocked hair, sparkly fairy wings, plus a crown and magic wand.

And the little girl and her mommy were very, very happy. THE END.

... or is it?

P.S. I am going to also (if I can find time) do a little post this week with the (free) PDF for the pattern plus some basic construction details and a list of all the supplies required and doll-making resources, etc. Just in case you want one of your own...

Ghostbusters family Halloween costumes/cosplay—with all four Ghostbusters represented!

Oh goodness, it's been quiet over here. I'm 31 weeks pregnant now, and have been in bed for two weeks with a horrid painful sinus infection I can't take any serious medications for (I'm doing Tylenol, hot/cold compresses, saline nasal rinses and the like, but obviously steroids are not an option and I don't want to mess with antibiotics while pregnant either).

BUT I wanted to pop in to belatedly share the fun we had a few weeks ago in our Ghostbusters Halloween costumes:

I actually broke several sewing machine needles on these costumes, even though they aren't of course totally sewn from scratch. But I had to tighten up the size large flight suit for myself as I was swimming in it. I took the arms in by about two inches of width each, and the legs by about four inches each (they were HUGE)... and I accidentally sewed over a zipper in the process.

The elbow pads were also from scratch—a lot of Ghostbusters cosplayers buy volleyball or judo knee pads and spraypaint them gray, but I figured it'd be easier to just take some gray doubleknit I had lying around and make my own little pattern. A few more broken needles ensued:

But so worth it, right?

The containment unit she's holding is a vintage toy loaned from my cousin, by the way.

Anyway, these costumes were relatively simple and low on the actual sewing. We just bought:

• Used tan flightsuits from eBay for the adults—they were a bit worn and stained, but that adds versimilitude, I think (clearly those are ectoplasm stains, right?)
• New kid-size flightsuit from eBay for the kiddo.
• White canvas web belts with double grommet holes (we had to cut Z's down to kid size).
• Ghostbusters iron-on logo patches.
• Set of four embroidered iron-on name patches: hubby was Zeddemore (he even grew a mustache for the role), I was Spengler (glasses), kiddo was Stantz (she's very excitable and likes wearing goggles on her head), baby was Venkman (by default).
• Cheapo welding goggles.

We did MEAN to make some ghost traps (video tutorial here) and proton packs and PKE meters, but didn't manage to finish them in time... and apparently it didn't matter, as we got tons of compliments at Z's preschool Halloween party and while walking out and about in the neighborhood—a lot of people started signing the song when they saw us! (We didn't actually go up to any houses, since Z is so allergic to nuts, peanuts, eggs, dairy, and everything else found in most Halloween candy, but we had fun ogling all the cool displays.)

In case you're wondering how the heck my four-year-old daughter even decided she wanted to be a Ghostbuster for Halloween, it started when my husband when to a Ghostbusters 30th anniversary art exhibit at Gallery 1988 and came home with this Ghostbusters New York Service Map art print by Anthony Petrie:

She was really intrigued by it, so we let her watch a few episodes of The Real Ghostbusters on YouTube and she became a bit obsessed and decided to be a Ghostbuster for Halloween. (She also loved the movie, but don't think I will let her watch it again—it has some rather risqué scenes and a good bit of swearing).

My sewing machine is in the repair shop now, but when she comes back I have some doll sewing plans (Z wants a curly-haired brown-skinned mermaid fairy superhero doll for Christmas, and no such thing actually exists in any store), and I have an almost-complete baby sweater to show as well!

OK, back to bed for me!

**Disclosure: Actions you take from hyperlinks within this blog post may yield commissions for polkadotoverload.com (quite likely to be spent on yarn or fabric).

And the vintage pattern illustration giveaway winner(s) are...

If you're wondering why it's taken me so long to announce a winner for my "You on a Vintage Pattern Envelope" giveaway, well... that'll teach me to have a non-random giveaway! I got 17 fabulous, fun and well-thought-out entries, plus lots of sweet comments and birthday love, and I hated having to choose just one!

But as promised, I picked five names at random out of the 17 qualifying entries, tried to evaluate them based on fun/long-time readership/creativity/etc... and totally failed to make a clear decision. In the end I changed the rules and picked one random winner out of the five. The five finalists were:

#1: Alexa, with Simplicity 3868

Source: vintagepatterns.wikia.com via Mikhaela on Pinterest

Alexa said:

ohh what an awesome giveaway. I have been reading since you had your daughter, who is a little younger than my oldest. I found you through you sewing.patternreview.com after admiring your work.

I sew, but am not at vintage pattern making level yet. So this is just pretend for me. I think Simplicity 6838 is gorgeous. I like version 3 in a jewel tone like deep purple or dark turquoise.

I would print out your illustration, frame it and hang it in my studio (the part of my bedroom where my sewing stuff lives.)

Alexa is right--how awesome is view 3 with those awesome cutouts?

#2: Beata, with a cover from Australian Home Journal

Source: ebay.com.au via Beata on Pinterest

Beata wrote:

Hmmm, would you put me on an "Australian Home Journal" cover? Like this one.

It's not quite a pattern envelope, but pretty close! Otherwise I'll pick a pattern later :)

I'd like to be in the pink dress, but made up in a purple floral, maybe something like this.

I love the shoes she is wearing, but I'd leave off the other accessories...

As for hair, I want big, bouncy curls like the main picture here.

Thanks for the awesome giveaway!

Oh my goodness, I LOVE all three of those dresses... surplice necklines, gathers, scallops, pockets, peplums, directional stripes... all kinds of awesome, really.

#3: The ever-inspiring Laura Mae, with Advance 5470:

Source: lilacsandlace.blogspot.com via Mikhaela on Pinterest

Laura Mae said:

While I wish I looked like those beautiful vintage pattern envelopes, it just isn’t meant to be. I wonder what their stats are? I would imagine they are at least 6 feet tall with a 20” waist. So maybe that would look rather freakish in real life.

But what pattern to choose? I think I would choose my most recent creation, Advance 5470, which is special in so many ways. First off, the pattern came to me via Mr. Male Pattern Boldness, himself. It doesn’t get much more special than that! The black and white floral fabric is something that I have been saving for quite a while now, earmarked for a Vintage Vogue pattern that I just have not had the proper opportunity/event to cut into the fabric. The huge shawl collar, full skirt, and lantern sleeves may just be the most perfect pattern I have ever come across.

I did not have the perfect hat to top the outfit off when I wore the dress yesterday. In a perfect world, I would have whipped up something, but time ran out, as it often does . . . But with a drawing I can pretend that I finished that exquisite hat and my softly curled hair looked perfect and fabulous even though rain was threatening all day long and the wind was ridiculous! ...

Wishing you a Happy Belated Birthday! And thank you for the opportunity to win such an amazing prize!

Laura Mae is, of course, way too modest, because I do believe she DOES look like she stepped out of a vintage pattern envelope (or at least a vintage fashion magazine) most of the time with her amazing vintage-inspired creations.

#4: Lee, with Simplicity 1668:

Source: vintagepatterns.wikia.com via Mikhaela on Pinterest

Lee said:

Mikhaela, this is such a cool project and a generous offer. I've been following you since you commented on my blog earlier this year, though I only recently formally subscribed. I like reading because your sensibility and array of projects and thoughtful way of proceeding all appeal to me. You have smart commenters too.

I would love to see myself on a vintage pattern envelope, specifically Simplicity 1668, a 40s dress with scallop details, in bright blue and white polka dot fabric, red shoes, red lipstick, and hair kind of like my own but more 40s-styled, less frizzy and unkempt. I would use the image wherever I could! Definitely I would frame it and display it next to a photograph of my much missed grandmother in a similar dress.

Now that I know Lee in real life through the Brooklyn BurdaStyle Sewing Club (in fact, I saw her there last weekend!), I can easily picture her rocking the dress she describes. Polka dots + scallops... yummy.

And last but not least...

#5: Cosmo, with Simplicity 3471:

Source: vintagepatterns.wikia.com via Mikhaela on Pinterest

Cosmo wrote:

I love your blog mainly because you are a cool mom vintage sewing knitting graphic designer. You have a perspective similar to mine.

I am cutting it pretty close on this one because I forgot it was EST midnight not my midnight. I am still not entirely sure that this is the pattern I love the best but Simplicity 3471 is adorable and I would love to have it in a bright Pucci or Marimekko style print. I was also looking at some 70s maxi dresses, but I am really more of an early 60s kind of girl.

I am getting ready to start up a new sewing and fashion blog and would love to use artwork like this. Also I am getting ready to chop several inches off of my locs and would love to have them memorialized this way.

Oh and I would wear a bright pair of wedges and a chunky necklace and my locs in a braid out with one side pinned back with a giant ranunculus.

So yeah. Clearly impossible to make a choice here, so I grabbed the old digital hat and drew a number.

And the winner is...

Cosmo! Congratulations! I'll send you an email--since you already gave me most of the details, the main thing I need is you preferred reference photo of yourself. (Perhaps a bicycle should be involved?)

But you might have noticed I said WINNERS (plural). Did I mention that in my own totally arbitrary way I decided to award a special prize?

The arbitrary because-I-felt-like-it Doctor-Who-Obsessed TARDIS Prize goes to...

Source: shenanagin.deviantart.com via Mikhaela on Pinterest

Meg the Grand! Meg wrote:

I want this so very badly. So very very badly. I don't suppose you could draw me as a Tardis? An illustration of me as a Tardis would need me in blue, of course, with a light bulb as a little hat, and some rocking blue heels. This would go in the Tardis bedroom, next to my bed, so I could always giggle when I get up in the morning. It would also need to go on my blog somewhere so people know what they are getting into when they click on my page. I have a Doctor Who problem - I'm sure there is counseling for this somewhere.

In my next life, please let me come back as Alex Kingston's duplicate. With her wine colored Louboutin heels.

Seriously, though - this giveaway is truly special. I think any of us who read your blog regularly would be so honored to be drawn by you. I know I am getting misty at the sheer generosity of this!

If I had to pick a vintage pattern, I would pick the Mail Order 9388 that was my Sassy Secretary dress. I would love big hair (I long for big hair in my real life), cobalt blue dress, and then blue heels. I love that outfit. It makes me so happy to put it on, so to immortalize it as one of your drawings would be one of the best things in my life. This would have to go on my blog, and if I ever got around to business cards, it would be there too. It would also get printed and put above my sewing machine so I could always smile when I am seam ripping a zipper.

Now, there are of course several ways to go about this, the main two being either putting Meg in a TARDIS dress, like this awesome one by Tara Reich:

Source: tess-san.deviantart.com via Mikhaela on Pinterest

Or by drawing her as Idris (when the TARDIS was temporarily in a woman's body in a super-awesome episode called "The Doctor's Wife" penned by Neil Gaiman):

Source: blogtorwho.blogspot.com via Mikhaela on Pinterest

Congrats to both winners, and guys, I'm so sorry I couldn't draw every one of your awesome vintage envelope ideas!

Blog Awards: Like Zombie Bites, But Sweeter (Infographic)

A few weeks ago, I began to notice signs of an outbreak in the sewing blogosphere. One after another, my favorite blogs were being taken over by blog award memes of mysterious origin, and answering questions about their favorite colors, numbers--and even, oddly, days of the week.

And I noticed something even odder about the rules for these awards--which required they be passed on to not one, not two, but as many as 5, 7, or even 15 other bloggers.

Please indulge me in a little amateur epidemiology here, as I say: gals (and guys), that math just DOESN'T MAKE SENSE. So I pulled out my handy calculator (er, spreadsheet), confirmed my suspicions and put together a little infographic to illustrate it.

Diary of a Sewing Blog Outbreak

It reminded me of nothing so much as a zombie outbreak. Your average slow zombie can maybe infect five bloggers, but one of those fancy fast ones could probably take down at least 15, especially in the early stages of decomposition.

I'm fairly certain there aren't actually 38.4 billion sewing blogs out there, but we haven't been quite this overrun because many sewing bloggers (like me, er, sorry!) take a bit of time to acknowledge these awards, or don't pass them on. It's basically a digital chain letter.

Now before you accuse me of being a cranky killjoy (you might have a point, it's been a rough week!), I have actually really enjoyed reading everyone's awards posts, because they've led me to a lot of awesome new-to-me sewing blogs to add to my overloaded Google Reader. And silly as some of the questions and rules for these things are, they are a nice way of spreading the sewing blog love and learning random facts about my favorite bloggers beyond their taste in sewing patterns and fabric.

And I really did feel super-special and happy to recently receive a number of sweet awards from some of my favorite bloggers recently, so I WILL play along and answer some of the accompanying questions. Just for fun!

The Versatile Blogger Award:

Elizabeth (from E Made This), Laura Mae (from Lilacs & Lace) and Tina from Down the Retro Rabbit Holeeach sent me a Versatile Blogger Award.

First, big hugs to the awesome Elizabeth, whose been a (digital) friend of mine for two years, since we both were pregnant with our youngest (or in my case, only) little ones. This woman can sew beautifully fitted clothes like nobody's business--coats, pants, jeans, blouses, you name it, mostly while the little ones are napping. She's currently soliciting participants in a really cool sewalong called "The T-Shirt Project", making knit tops with awesome details (like PEPLUMS)--I am too limited in my sewing time to join but YOU all should!

And wow, if you have even the slightest interest in vintage sewing, I really hope you are reading Lilacs & Lace. Laura Mae is a fellow polka-dot and peplum devotee, and she makes the most amazing and inspiring beautifully fitted vintage-inspired garments, documented in lovely photoshoots. And she wears awesome shoes. Seriously, check out the back detail on this suit dress.

I didn't even know about Tina's blog before, but I'm so excited to become a regular reader and follow her fabulous vintage sewing adventures. I completely agree with her assessment that "if we knew each other in real life, we'd be friends. The sipping tea (or maybe martinis) whilst sewing kinda of friends." Tina reads a ridiculous amount of books, and maybe at an even slightly faster pace than me (I sure as heck didn't read the first three Game of Thrones books in two days, though it was close).

And as per the rules of this meme, here are seven non-sewing facts you probably don't know about me:

1. My first job in high school was working for minimum wage as an ice cream waitress. (Note: I am lactose intolerant, so this was torture.)
2. When I was 17, I tattooed myself with a (sewing) needle and ink. I had this really complex artistic concept in mind involving spirals and circles, but I got indecisive halfway through and stopped, so I have just have this weird squiggle thing on my ankle.
3. My first job out of college was designing financial information graphics for The Wall Street Journal.
4. My fondest childhood ambition was to be a science fiction writer.
5. My favorite music in high school was punk rock--and still is, because I can't be bothered to pay attention to new bands. The bands most often in rotation on my iTouch or Pandora are: Billy Bragg, the Buzzcocks, Le Tigre, Bikini Kill, The Dead Kennedys, Johnny Cash, Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith.
6. I am really passionate about LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) rights--especially transgender rights. For nine years I drew angry political cartoons for Bay Windows, Boston's LGBT newspaper (old cartooning blog here, old gallery here, even older gallery here).
7. I work in marketing for Doctors Without Borders/Médècins Sans Frontières USA. Every day I feel grateful for the amazing opportunity I have to raise money to help save the lives of people trapped in crises where few other organizations will go. Recently when I interviewed a midwife who had just come back from Chad, she told me some stories of women and babies she had cared for who would otherwise have died--for the lack of really basic medicines that cost like, 75 cents per new mother--and I cried. Trust me, you would have too. (By the way, my husband is riding for Doctors Without Borders in the 5 Boro Bike Tour, and even a small donation can make a huge impact).

I'm not going to bite 15 other bloggers though--it would just be too hard to choose my favorites like that. Instead I plan to more regularly feature my favorite blog crushes by category.

The Sunshine Award

The Sunshine Award gets the award for most inane questions. BUT it brings me lots of sunshine and happiness because it comes from the fabulous Liza Jane of liza jane sews, who should get the award for best awards acceptance post for her lovely photos of a day in her life as an elementary school art teacher.

My parents are both (retired) public school teachers, and I pretty much spent all the time I possibly could in art class, so to me Liza Jane is a rock star. Everything she sews is artistically-designed, bright, fun and inspiring like this dress influenced by her students' artwork. I also love her experiments in drafting and in sewing for kids.

Oh, and those inane questions. Rather than answer them myself, I'll tell you how my 21-month-old daughter would answer them:

• Favorite Colour: Green. In fact, EVERYTHING is green according to her.
• Favorite Animal: Cats. With sheep a close second. (The apple doesn't fall far, etc.)
• Favorite Number: 1 (or "uno!" as she prefers it).
• Favorite Non-Alcoholic Drink: Breastmilk.
• Facebook or Twitter: Google Plus. Seriously, she hijacked my mom's iPad and was posting all over the place before my mom realized.
• Her Passion: Music and dancing.
• Getting or Giving Presents: Getting.
• Favorite Pattern: The Ottobre Pupu Overalls I just made for her.
• Favorite Day of the Week: Saturday and Sunday, because Mommy's home all day.
• Favorite Flower: All flowers are equally exciting to her. "Flower!"
• Favorite celebrity role model: Elmo. Or possibly Béyonce. She loves them both.

The Liebster Blog Award

And finally, big thanks to the awesome Neeno from Sew Me Love for passing on the Liebster Love. This awesome seamstress is PROLIFIC and makes the most adorable dresses in eye-blinding vivid colors--my kind of girl! Again, I'm new to her blog but already obsessed.

Phew! I'm all awarded out. If anyone else has bitten me with given me an award I somehow missed, I apologize!

P.S. In case you were wondering my opinion on zombie-related media:

• Books: Love love love adoringly love Max Brooks' World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. Really enjoyed Colson Whitehead's Zone One. The Zombie Survival Guide is OK. I read all the Walking Dead comics and wish I hadn't, because they gave me nightmares, the outlook in them is too bleak, and I don't like the way most of the women characters are portrayed.
• Films and TV: Love Shaun of the Dead, Fido (really odd film set in a retro 50s-esque suburbia where zombies are ill-treated servants), both 28 XXX Later movies. Was able to watch most Romero movies once but couldn't do so again, and certainly can't watch their remakes again (too scary/upsetting). As for the Walking Dead: NO. I can NOT watch that terrifying thing.

P.P.S. Oh, and about that photo at the way tippy-top of this post--that's me and my friend Mary (the fastest woman in Brooklyn in the recent NYC Marathon, go Mary!) dressed as zombies for a Zombie Purim party some years back. You can't tell in the photo, but I'm wearing a gorgeous vintage black cutout velvet dress with a bow and a PEPLUM. More on that dress soon as I'm trying to add straps to it...