The Lady Beekeeper

I’m so sad vacation is over.  It’s back to the grind tomorrow and I am dreading it!  It feels like so long since I’ve taken a real vacation.  Now that the kids are fully vaccinated (finally!) we were less cautious with masks which made things seem a bit more normal too.  The kids were very good kiddos on vacation (as usual).  We had fun kayaking, clamming, “marsh mucking” and lounging at the beach. Overall it was very relaxing!

We biked everywhere a ton (with both kids in the updated carrier).  With 2 kids in the carrier we don’t have room for all the accessories we need.  So instead of saddling Will with a backpack, I made some quick saddle bags the night before our trip.  I think they worked pretty great! Before I show you how I made those though, I promised you my favorite recent Patricia story.

Patricia has started saying “yeah!” to everything.  With the emphasis on the “eah”.  It’s funny I think Julius went through the opposite – he said yes to everything first and then when he got older everything was no.  The other day Julius and Patricia were playing in the deck box we have on the screened porch to hold our patio furniture cushions.  The box is currently empty so they like to hide in it and jump out.  (Honestly, I’m happy when they play in the giant box because if they’re in a box they can’t be getting into too much trouble.) On this particular occasion Julius opened the box cover and stood up so we can see him and complained “Patricia is hitting and kicking me”.  We couldn’t see Patricia so I asked, “Patricia is this true?”  Up Patricia pops from the box with a huge grin on her face and shouts “YEAH!”  Will and I could not help but crack up even when we were reprimanding her.

So on to these saddlebags.  These were pretty simple to make.  Mine are waterproof because I used some material I saved from an old pop up tent that got destroyed.  They have the advantage of being carried over your shoulder using the center strap that holds them to the rack.  And I left a 2″ gap where they attach, so you can mount a cooler (or something else) on top of the bike rack.  (The Yeti hopper flip 12 fits pretty perfectly.)  The one thing I would change if I were to make another set is I would make the seam on the side a zipper.  This would make it easier to get things deep inside the bag out.  I actually planned to do this, but was working on these bags so late at night that I forgot to add the zipper until I was past the point of no return.  Oh well. Without further ado…

Roll Top Bike Saddlebags

What you’ll need:

• 1.5 yards of heavy duty canvas fabric (I reused mine from the tent)
• 1 yard of 1/2″ bias tape (I reused mine from the tent)
• 1.5 yards of 1″ ribbon or webbing (mine was reused)
• 4 1″ D-rings (mine were reused from the tent)
• 60″ long 1″ strap with buckle (I bought these new because I couldn’t find the ones I had cut off something else)

1. Cut two 32″x25″ pieces of fabric for the bags.  Cut two 11×4.5″ wide pieces for the bag bottoms.  Cut 2 10.5″x5 5/8″ pieces for central placket.
2. Form a rolled seam on one 32″ side of bag fabric.
3. Fold fabric for bag in half (right sides together) to form a 16″x25″ rectangle.  Pin and then sew down the 25″ open end.
   

   Fabric folded in half, with seam on top.

4. Fold the unfinished edge of the seam you just sewed under and stitch again to reinforce the seam.
   

   Folding under the seam you just stitched to reinforce it.

5. Pin the bottom of the bag to the top of the bag you just created (right sides together), making sure to put one of the corners on the seam you just created.
6. Stitch bottom of bag, roll seams as in step 4 and stitch to reinforce.  Turn bag right side out.
7. Take 2 D-rings and thread a 3″ piece of ribbon or webbing through them.  Place both ends of the ribbon/webbing together, then tuck under the unfinished seams.   Lie bag flat and pin the ribbon holding the d-rings to the front of the bag, 11″ from the bottom, centered.  Stitch.
8. Repeat steps 2-7 for second bag.
9. Stitch two pieces of placket together along edges.
10. Attach bias tape around the edges of the placket.
11. Pin placket to back side of one of the bags, 11″ from the bottom, by sandwiching the placket between a fold in the side of the bag.
    

    Placket sandwiched between folds of one of the bags.

12. Mark a 2″ gap in the center of where the placket is pinned to the bag.
13. Stitch between all layers of fabric (bag, placket, bag) 1/2″ from the edge of the placket.  Make sure to leave a 2″ gap in your stitching where you sewed.  Stitch a second time, 1/4″ from the edge of the placket.
14. Feed ribbon through the 2″ gap in stitching, and sew to the bag.
15. Repeat step 11-14 with second bag on other side of the placket.
16. Cut 4″ of strap from the  female buckle end of the buckle strap.  Melt the unfinished ends of the strap to prevent them from unraveling.  Stitch the unfinished end of the female bucket end of the strap to the underside of the placket on one of the shorter ends of the placket.
17. Stitch the portion of the strap holding the male end of the buckle to the opposite end of the placket, on the underside of the placket.  Make sure that if you were to strap the buckles under the placket that the extra strap to be pulled is free. (So you can easily tighten the strap when on the bike.)
18. To use, place the placket on top of your bike rack, clip the straps under the bike rack and tighten to secure.  Tie the excess straps out of the way of the bike wheels. Fill bags with whatever you desire, then roll the top of the bags, insert ribbon through both d-rings, then push the ribbon up through the top d-ring again to secure. (I like to make this a loop so it is easy to open them again later – see my picture below.)
    

    Bags strapped to bike, and second strap fed through the gap left between the bags to hold a cooler (or something else) on top.

Here’s an example of how I push the ribbon back up through the first loop, but I don’t pull it all the way through. To open the bag, simply pull the bottom tail of ribbon.

Bags at full capacity.

Bags full to the brim and cooler on top.

Here I have the central strap pulled out long to wear as a shoulder bag. This came in handy several times during our trip.

Bags at half capacity.

Peyto Lake

Well I completely forgot to update the blog this past week.  You see, we were on VACATION!  We went with Will’s family to Banff in Canada and had a week of beautiful views, fun hiking trails and great company.  I can confirm that it is just as magnificent and beautiful as all the pictures.  My favorite view was an overlook above Moraine Lake, which was a magnificent deep turquoise color.  They say the lake changes colors in different seasons and time of day, but when we saw it the color was a fabulous pure turquoise.

Moraine Lake

Patricia and Julius were good nuggets for the trip, as expected.  Julius earned a junior ranger necklace for completing a bunch of fun activities.  Patricia got to hang out in the hiking backpack for several nice hikes.  We even saw a black bear enjoying some berries on the way up to Moraine Lake which the kids (and I) found very exciting.

You know what else is exciting?  This little pod holder!  I saw a similar one online and had to try my hand at making one.  I think I have to make a few more because I’ve found several uses for it.  Originally I had it hanging next to my sewing desk to catch lose threads and fabric scraps.  Then I moved it to the closet to hold sunglasses, and now I’ve completely usurped it’s usage for holding sun tan lotion!  I need to make a couple more to fulfill the other purposes! The other cool thing?  It’s made of recycled jeans and this awesome batik I found (I love batiks!)

Hanging Pod Holder

What you’ll need:

• 1/2 yard of inner lining fabric
• a leg of a pair of jeans
• 1/2 yard of batting
• 1 yard of bias tape (I made my own from the tie dye fabric)
• snaps
• pattern here

1. Cut out fabric pieces as indicated in pattern.
2. Layer jeans, on top of batting, on top of lining fabric for body pieces and pin together.
3. Using a walking foot (or not) stitch down the fabric in wavy lines.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for the base.
5. In the body piece, fold darts so the darts are not visible on the jean side.  Stitch darts.
6. Pin and stitch body piece together along straight edges, with the unfinished seam showing on the inside lining fabric side.
7. Use the bias tape to finish the unfinished seam.
8. Pin and stitch circular base to body pieces, jeans sides together.
9. Use the bias tape to finish the unfinished seam where the circular base attaches to body
10. Use the bias tape to finish the unfinished seam along the top of the hanging pod.
11. Take an extra piece of bias tape and, fully folded, stitch along open side.
12. Stitch one end to outside of tall back of pod for hanging.
13. Add snaps on either end of the hanger.

Hi Friends!  I’m behind on work and DanyCon prep so this is going to be a short one!  (And if it wasn’t a short one it would be WAY too long given the current events going on in the place I’m ashamed to call my country!)  First off, before you do anything else, hop on over to enter June’s contest, you still have a few days.

Patricia and Julius both start waterplay at daycare soon!  Julius needs to bring his water clothes home daily to have them washed, so I asked my local buy nothing group if anyone had any swim shirts they were getting rid of!  My friend and another woman gave me several so I’m all set for when I inevitably forget to do laundry for a couple days.  The one downside is a couple of the swim shirts didn’t have tags for me to write Julius’ name on, and the material was too dark for a sharpie, so I whipped up some labels.  This took me all of about 20 minutes, and I have stitched the labels onto both Patricia’s and Julius’s water clothes.   You could do the same with a fabric marker if you don’t have a sublimation machine.  I might eventually make myself my own personalized “made by Lexi” labels.  Those would have been great for my hatmaking days! 

Clothing Labels

• Sublimation machine & all the fixins’ (or just fabric markers)
• 5/8″ 100% polyester ribbon

1. Using your tool of choice, create your labels, make sure they are only about 1/2″ tall.  Print them onto sublimation paper using sublimation ink in your sublimation printer.  Make sure you print designs reversed. 
2. Take your polyester ribbon and cut it into strips.  Cut your labels into strips and place on top of the ribbon, leaving about an inch between each. 
3. Using a heat press or iron, press the labels at 400 F for 45 seconds. 
4. Remove paper and cut into individual labels. 
5. To stitch onto clothing, be sure to use the proper needle for the job!  For instance, bathing suits and stretch fabrics require a ballpoint needle or a jersey needle.  

Happy (observed) Juneteenth everyone.  I cannot even imagine what it would feel like to be told as an enslaved person that I am now free.  Elation? Or perhaps suspicion and tempered optimism?

I need to add some more optimism to my daily regiment.  Lately my glass has been overwhelmingly half empty.  Or even three quarters empty.  It’s pretty clear I need to start getting back into my mindfulness practice!  Today I lugged stones around for 2 hours and that felt pretty close to yoga… okay I’m kidding.  But I did feel accomplished despite the fact that I have to move another 110 stones at least…who thought it was a good idea to redo my garden wall?!

I’m going through old posts I haven’t put up yet and I just realized that I never posted how to make the mermaid tail that I made for Patricia’s birthday!  It still gets some use every now and again when they see it in the closet.  Looking back at these pictures though she is so BIG compared to when she first wore the tail!  Actually we’ve been working on potty training and now Patricia says “big girl” when she goes in the potty.  She really is such a big girl – she is talking in some sentences now and we’ve ditched diapers (for better or worse).  I feel like it is going by too fast, especially since we don’t plan to have any more.  At the beginning of the pandemic I felt like things slowed down a bit.  I told Will the other day that it seems weird, but I look back at that time fondly.  Now that we’ve all gotten used to working from home, it seems that things have accelerated again, and for me it’s at an even worse pace.  I’m back to the race-around routine of packing lunches, getting kids fed, dressed and out the door, then work for way too many hours, maybe have dinner with the kids (usually not) and then perhaps if I don’t have a meeting, read a book or two before bed.  Wow!  When I lay it all out like that I think it’s clear something needs to change!

Mermaid Tail

• 2 yards mesh sequin material*
• 2 yards fleece*
• 1 yard shiny stretch material to match sequin material
• batting
• Pel-tex ultra firm stabilizer

*2 yards should cover the large majority of children

1. Measure your child from waist to floor, call this measurement x.
2. Measure your child around the waist, call this measurement y.
3. Draft a pattern, by dividing the waist measurement in half (y/2) and using that as your waist measurement.  Draw a half hourglass-like shape the flares outwards at x/3, and then back down gradually to the y/2 width at the bottom of the tail.  Leave the remainder x/3 of the tail y/2 wide.  Length should be x.
4. Cut out two pieces of fleece, and two pieces of sequin mesh material an inch larger than the pattern you drew.
5. Draw a mermaid fin shape to use as a pattern, fin should flare out and be 6-12 inches wider than the y/2 measurement. Cut interfacing and batting to match this shape.  Cut 2 pieces of shiny material 1/2″ wider than the pattern.
6. Cut another piece of shiny stretch material y long x 7″ wide.
7. Cut sequins away from the sides of the tail pieces, an inch away from each edge.
8. Place two sequin pieces of material together, sequins in, and sandwich these with two pieces of fleece.  Sew down the two sides of the tail.  (I then serged this.)
9. Sew the shiny stretch piece of material in half, right side together so the two 7″ sides match.  Stitch the two 7″ sides together.
   

   (Sorry the color is yellow, this is from my son’s tail)

10. Turn right side out then fold in half lengthwise to form a double layer ring.   Place this ring inside the inside out tail along the waist line, and line up the two unfinished edges. Stitch.  (I also serged this).
11. Turn the tail right side out.
12. Serge around the bottom edge of the tail.
13. Pin the two pieces of shiny fin material together, then stitch 1/2″ from edges, leaving the top portion opened.  Turn right side out and stuff with batting and interfacing.
14. Place fin on top of the tail, pointing the tail part towards the top of the tail.  Stitch the serged front edge of tail to the unfinished edge of the fin.  (I also serged this).
    

    Here you can see the tail end is serged, then the fin is attached.

15. Voila!  You have a tail for your little one (or not so little one) to wear!