A [is for] Apple Pie

Illustration For...
Kate Greenaway
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This was such a cute free book, I hope my readers will enjoy it! A Apple Pie by Kate Greenaway on Project Gutenburg

Quick Sew Busy Baby Bitty Blanket Tutorial

Here is a fun sewing project to make for older babies that can hold something on their own, and it uses up those little leftover bits of trim in your sewing stash! This little blanket would make a nice baby gift, or a quick project for mother's moment off to do something creative and make something for her own baby. It is so easy, I do not think it will end up in the unfinished project pile!


The Busy Baby Bitty Blanket (or should it be the bitty baby busy blanket? Or the bitty busy baby blanket?) has a lot of texture for baby to grab and nibble on. It is small enough so that the baby can carry it on his own.

I for one dislike throwing away that last 6-8 inches of trim from a project. It usually ends up in a box for doll clothing that never gets made. I used some of these leftover trims, but for color coordination's sake I did dig into some newer trim:)

I was careful to choose only trims that would not harm baby, nothing with ravel-y edges or bits that could have threads pulled out, small pieces or plastic-y stuff. I decided against using elastic-- that extra 6"  of waistband elastic will have to go into another project someday.

Each trim was cut to about 4-6" long.
The fabric is two 10" squares of soft flannel. I rounded the corners a bit on each one.

Taking the trims, loop each one and put the raw edges on the raw edge of one of the flannel squares. The flannel square should be right-side-up. I basted the trims about an inch or more apart from each other. If you want to go over each trim again with a zig-zag, or back-stitch for extra security, go ahead-- the blanket will be stitched 2 more times so I didn't worry too much about it.

Here is what it looks like basted.

Trim up the edges, and put the other square down over it all, right sides together, making sure the trims are safely inside!

Stitch around, leaving an opening for turning. Turn, press, and stitch the opening closed.

Top-stitch around the edges to keep them flat and secure. You do not have to quilt it, but I had a little bit of contrasting color thread left on a spool, so I did a few rows of quilting on the inside of the blanket to use it up. 

One of the "trims" was home-made using a scrap of the flannel, by folding it and top-stitching with a decorative stitch. I thought maybe it would be textured and "tasty."

Fingerloop braiding made an appearance next to the ric-rac. 

Besides ribbons, bias tape, twill tape, seam tape, and even piping were utilized!

Since I did not pre-wash the trims, I washed the blanket in warm water. Caution: do not absent-mindedly throw in anything with Velcro when you wash this. Trims to not like Velcro. Ribbon especially gets into fights with velcro.

I am happy to report that this blanket has now been baby-tested and approved. Maybe it should be called the Bitty Busy Baby Bitey Blanket. Or the Busy Baby Bitty Bitey Bloggy Blanket!
(actually I'm not sure what they are called...)

Easy Baby Clothing Extender (or One Way To Recycle Baby Clothes) Tutorial

Here is a quick way to make your own clothing extender for baby clothes. This is a little item that lets you get more wear out of the onsies that baby has outgrown in length. Besides that, I'm sure most mothers have noticed the discrepancy in baby clothes sizes -- sometimes an 18 month size onsie in one brand is a good 4 inches shorter than a 12 month in other brands! This "rescues" those kinds of clothes so you can use them after all. Baby clothes extenders can be purchased ready made, but they are sometimes expensive, and this is really a quick and easy method to make them!

Editor's Note: there are two methods shown. One uses another of the same type of garment (a onsie) and the other uses other kinds of baby clothing. 

Method One: Using an extra out-grown onsie.

For an easy clothing extender, find another item of old baby clothing that you can sacrifice that has the same size snaps as the one you want to extend. Another onsie is ideal. If you are thinking ahead or making something for a mother-to-be, try finding stained baby clothing in a garage sale or thrift shop. Mothers of many can go through the old baby clothes stash. It doesn't matter so much what the rest of the garment looks like, you just want the part with the snaps to be in good shape and several inches around it to be stain-free.

With this onside, I will use the top part as a shirt, and turn the bottom snaps into a clothes extender (recycling 2 items out of one!).

Cut the onsie a little above the leg-holes, maybe an inch to and inch-and-a-half. You want to leave enough room to hem the shirt and have it be a decent length, but enough material in the snap part. I used a ruler to make sure I cut straight. Before you do this, snap the bottom of the onsie together.

Hem up the bottom of your new shirt!

With the bottom part, cut a line down as shown, to the leg hole binding, but not through it. Cut away excess fabric, leaving the binding in-tact. You want some of it still connected to the bottom snap-part of the fabric. 

Cut through the side-seams of the binding. 

It should look like a very strange sea-creature when you are done with it. The binding will make it really easy to make a sturdy, nice looking edge. 

Take the binding and scoot/twist/sort of fold it up to the side of the extender. Overlap/Lay it over the side about 1/4 inch.

Stitch the binding on to the sides of the extender, using a straight stitch or zig-zag. Trim it up. The knit should not ravel, and so stitching on top of the binding through to the material should be sufficient.

Now fold the extender in half, right sides together. Stitch together at the top. You can decide how long you need this extender-- usually 3-5 inches would be long enough. After you stitch the top, open it up and see how long it is. You can stitch it again to make it shorter, and then trim and zig-zag the edge to neatly finish.

Here is what it should look like when you are done! One set of snaps should be up, and the other set down. 

Here is it on another onsie. I have noticed that different brands and sizes of baby clothes have different size snaps, so one extender may not work for everything in the baby's wardrobe. Tucked into baby's little pants, no one will see the extender, and you got to use that cute little outfit a while longer! 

Method 2: When you can't find another onsie or need different size snaps and don't want to go searching for another onsie:

Here we have a sacrificial baby gown, and a onsie. Another onsie would have been better, but this was the best I could find for a quick demonstration. (I know, I know, the baby gown looks perfectly fine--it was stained, and at the time I didn't know how to get old spit up stains out. Don't worry-- I'll use the rest of the gown for a doll dress or something! This is recycling!) 

This is the part we want-- it's close to the neck ribbing so we'll get as close as we can. You want to keep this all snapped up while you cut it out.

Cut out around the the snaps in a rectangular shape, leaving about 3-4 inches on two sides (the left and right above), and ideally an inch next to the snaps. It makes it easier to trim down and hem properly if you have more room next to the snaps than I did! If you can cut it out neater than this on first try, congratulations. Others will have to try and trim up the edges to be smooth. Now lay the piece out just as you see above, don't move it, keep it snapped up. 

Now fold it in half, right sides together. You will be sewing together the raw edges (shown on the right). 

Sew or serge those raw edges together. If you are sewing instead of serging, go over them again with a zig-zag. 

Now unsnap it and open it up-- this is what it looks like. 

For the rest of the raw edges on the sides of the snaps, if you have enough material on those sides to hem them, do that; but if not you can zig-zag them like I had to. (If this is a gift, do try to get a big enough piece to hem, or serge it-- it looks nicer in presentation!)

Now to use it! Simply snap it to the onsie and you have a lot more use out of the garment! A set of these in graduated lengths and various snap sizes will be very handy-- busy mothers can make them in minutes, and they make a very thoughtful and useful gift for a mother-to-be! 

Don't Wake the Baby

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Don't Wake the Baby

Baby sleeps, so we must tread

Softly round her little bed, 

And be careful that our toys

Do not fall and make a noise. 

We must not talk, but whisper low, 

Mother wants to work, we know, 

That, when father comes to tea, 

All may neat and cheerful be.

-McGuffey's Second Eclectic Reader

Doing Good

(Excerpt from How to be happy By Lydia Howard Sigourney)

Try to do good to All with whom you associate.

Have you older brothers and sisters, who are anxious for your welfare? Do every thing in your power to repay their tenderness. Have you younger ones? Take pains to help them to be good. Explain their little books to them. Teach them simple pieces of poetry. If they are out of humor try to sooth them. Learn them to be careful of their toys, and to put every thing in its place when they have done with it,—and to return whatever they have borrowed to its owner. Show them by your own conduct, how to be good-tempered and happy. 

If they are mere babes you can do something towards this. It will be an assistance to your parents, to help in the great work of making their children good. You will also grow better and happier yourselves. Whatever your parents are employed about, be ready to assist them, if they will permit it. If your mother is weary with household cares, or the charge of little children, come cheerfully to her aid. You can never know how much you are indebted to her, until the burdens of life are upon you, and you watch at the cradle of your own babe, as she has watched over you. But though you cannot understand, or fully repay the debt,—you may do much to cheer her by your helping hand, and affectionate deportment. 

Make it a rule to try to do some good to all in whose company you are. Do not always talk about trifles with your companions. It is not improper to love play,—but it would be wrong to wish to spend all your time, and thoughts about it. If you have read an improving book, tell your little friends what you can remember of it. Ask them to do the same. Speak of the lessons that you have learned together. In this way you will share your stock of knowledge, and be quickened to gain more. You will convey good thoughts to the mind of others. To love useful knowledge is one way of being happy. To divide it among your friends is one way of doing good. So that doing good, and being happy, seem to be the same thing.— 

There was once a boy, who adopted it as a rule, never to go any where, or converse with any person, without trying to do them some good. It was a noble rule. He began with the domestics of the family, and with his young associates. The habit of doing good grew up with him,—and was strengthened from above. He was distinguished by his conversations, his writings, and his sermons,—and the blessing of the poor, and the sick, and the sorrowful, were his reward. He became the celebrated Dr. Cotton Mather, of Boston,—author of "Essays to do Good,"—the "Magnalia,"—and other books of piety.

The Nursery Corner

The Rose Arbor Art Print
Polen, Eleanor
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All the names I know from nurse:
Gardener's garters, Shepherd's purse,
Bachelor's buttons, Lady's smock,
And the Lady Hollyhock.





The Young Gardener
Art Print
Hayllar, James
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My Kingdom
by Robert Louis Stevenson

Down by a shining water well
I found a very little dell,
No higher than my head.
The heather and the gorse about
In summer bloom were coming out,
Some yellow and some red.

I called the little pool a sea;
The little hills were big to me;
For I am very small.
I made a boat, I made a town,
I searched the caverns up and down,
And named them one and all.

And all about was mine, I said,
The little sparrows overhead,
The little minnows too.
This was the world and I was king;
For me the bees came by to sing,
For me the swallows flew.

I played there were no deeper seas,
Nor any wider plains than these,
Nor other kings than me.
At last I heard my mother call
Out from the house at evenfall,
To call me home to tea.

And I must rise and leave my dell,
And leave my dimpled water well,
And leave my heather blooms.
Alas! and as my home I neared,
How very big my nurse appeared.
How great and cool the rooms!

Three Kittens Watching Goldfish
Giclee Print
Couldery, Horatio...
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"Suppose"

by Phoebe Carey

Suppose, my little lady,
Your doll should break her head,
Could you make it whole by crying
Till your eyes and nose are red?
And wouldn’t it be pleasanter
To treat it as a joke;
And say you’re glad “’Twas Dolly’s
And not your head that broke?”

Suppose you’re dressed for walking,
And the rain comes pouring down,
Will it clear off any sooner
Because you scold and frown?
And wouldn’t it be nicer
For you to smile than pout,
And so make sunshine in the house
When there is none without?

Suppose your task, my little man,
Is very hard to get,
Will it make it any easier
For you to sit and fret?
And wouldn’t it be wiser
Than waiting like a dunce,
To go to work in earnest
And learn the thing at once?

Suppose that some boys have a horse,
And some a coach and pair,
Will it tire you less while walking
To say, “It isn’t fair?”
And wouldn’t it be nobler
To keep your temper sweet,
And in your heart be thankful
You can walk upon your feet?

And suppose the world don’t please you,
Nor the way some people do,
Do you think the whole creation
Will be altered just for you?
And isn’t it, my boy or girl,
The wisest, bravest plan,
Whatever comes, or doesn’t come,
To do the best you can?

Starting School

(Above: learning how to give a doll tea party in Starting School.)

The following is a description of Starting School, which my little one attends. Instead of my toddler getting into everything while I am teaching the older children, she cheerfully goes with her grandmother to Starting School.

"You have heard of "finishing school" no doubt. Well, this is similar, only it is the start. I had a use-what-you-have curriculum.

We began with the primer of McGuffey's first reader and read about doing what was right in the sight of God, and that God made the wind and the trees, etc. I took her outside to feel the wind.

The lithograph etching on the story was similar to some of our French toile prints that we have collected--just little squares of them with scenes. One had a boy and girl fishing in a pond, in a red color, so I got that out and showed it to her and showed how similar it was to the etching.

Then we opened up a poetry book I had called "Friendship and Roses" which I bought in the 80's. It had a painting of a girl carrying a bouquet of flowers and a letter.

I asked her to point to the flowers. I asked her to point to the letter. Afterwards she was so fascinated with the shoes. I guess the shoes have a strong light on them, that a child would be drawn to them. She really talked about the shoes. I asked her if she would like to do what the little girl in the picture is doing. She said yes. We went outside and picked something that resembled flowers, and we came in and tied them in a ribbon. Then we got a card and rubber stamped it with a kitten, tied it in ribbon, and presented it to mother.

Love Letters Art Print
Garland, Charles...
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We also had a newsletter written for the family, and so I read one part to her and looked at the painting in it of a girl in a swing by Frederick Morgan(1856-1927)

After School Giclee Print
Morgan, Frederick
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I have the first Victoria magazine ever printed, and it featured children at the beach, so we had a wonderful time looking at the pictures and talking about the beach.

I showed her how to make tea cups from egg cartons and chenille wire, and we had a tea party for dolls and bears.

I got idea for a reflective kind of teaching, from the old Art-Literature readers that I had when my children were little. In the back of them, it suggested you illustrate the lessons by imitating them. You could pose your children for photographs or paintings, just like the masterpieces in the book. You could create a bowl of fruit to match a painting of still life fruit, etc."

Lots of beautiful Toile fabrics can be found here:

http://www.denverfabrics.com/pages/static/decorator/toile-fabric.htm

My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson Giclee Print
Wilcox-Smith,...
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Other days brought such activities as learning about shadows, and going out on the lawn to see their shadows. Pictures of Lilacs in a Victoria magazine prompted a field trip to the lilac trees, to gather the blossoms, and learn how to put them stem-side-down into a vase of water. Paper crafts, cooking, and learning to tidy the house up are some of the other things to be learned in Starting School.

Lilac Mist I

Art Print

Chuikov, Valeri


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