Of Strollers and Rosettes: A Trip with the kids & Jenny's Ruffle Dress from a Refashioned T-Shirt

We went shopping. At first we went to the mall to get Josh work shoes, and found that it is very, very hard to wield 2 umbrella strollers and a baby with just 2 adults and no baby carrier.
The climax of the excursion was Isaiah getting to use the mall's restroom. Isaiah loves public restrooms. Josh does not. But such is fatherhood.

Many times, on our cross country car trip, Isaiah would announce the need, and we would pull into strange cities where our feet had never yet trod. Together they would go, father and son, Josh holding Isaiah's hand as he carried Isaiah's toilet seat bag, to face the great unknown of as yet unexplored potties.

Like this, except just with Isaiah.

They would always return victorious, Isaiah laughing and skipping along holding Josh's hand. Isaiah's face shining from the adventure. Josh's not so much.

Well, anyway, we were out at the mall, and Isaiah got to relive his Trip Adventures by going to the big new potty again.
Jenny was upset, that she didn't get to "go to potty!" too. I was heartless and denied her the joy of public restrooms. Unfortunately, her idea of "going potty" is charging bare bummed around the bathroom shrieking in laughter at mommy's attempts to catch her... So she remained in the stroller. And was indignant at the injustice in the universe.

But somehow, life went on. And it even included chocolate sandwich cookies.
We also found how to fit 3 kids into 2 little carts.

Jenny gives safety tips on how to wedge a car seat into a little craft cart.

There was a sweet old woman in the store. Her face lit up as she admired the kiddos. She told me she lives somewhere where there aren't kids, so its a treat for her to see them. Isaiah flirted with her, and waved goodbye when we left.

We were put on this earth to take care of each other. Too often we forget that, and live in our busy age-segregated lives.

The kids discovered Richard Scarry Videos. I love the books, the books are a must have for every parent, given the number of babysitting hours you get from a kid trying to find goldbug, not to mention the values and virtues in those books...

Jenny gets all emotional and cries in the part where Mr. Rabbit gets stuck in the wet hot sticky gooey asphalt. Not for any of the cute animals trying to get him out, not for Mr. Rabbit being stuck, but for a piece of road equipment. At the part where the tow truck breaks when trying to pull him out (it takes a power shovel), she laments "duh truck broke! due truck broke!" and cries for the truck.

The little one remains cute as ever. She is learning to tolerate the AZ heat, and will lie in a laundry basket staring thoughtfully up at the trees.

This is the closest you get to instant gratification in sewing. A ruffley comfortable little dress, as comfortable and as easy to wear/care for as a T shirt, because that's what its from.

Here was the previous version, a dress from a red shirt

The Pink One is pretty much the same thing, except from a single long sleeved women's medium shirt, its from a women's XL T-shirt. I had some green T-shirt fabric left over from a men's green T shirt I turned into a little T shirt for Isaiah.

  I just added a waistband, and a few simple rosettes (the internet abounds with tutorials on that) that I sewed together from the scraps and onto the waistband. I think it was a nice touch. I made the mistake of making the sleeve ruffles with even MORE fabric (just because I could) and I think they ruffle too much. I like the red sleeves better.

She says "Idaiah is a badguy. Jenny is a doodguy."

The pink one's skirt is fuller (XL width) than the red one's (M width), and I really like that. I like how it twirls when she moves around. She looked so cute going to church with "my hat!"

 

With Captain America. Who is of course, a goodguy.