The Lady Beekeeper

Julius was baptized this weekend in his grandparents’ church in Nashville.  Of course, we hadn’t realized it was daylight savings time and his second nursing session of the day fell right in the middle of the service.  Oops.  (Not that his timing is 100% accurate anyway.)  Luckily he only cried for a short while during the time he was in the chapel…and once the pastor held him he was a little angel!

Slight non-sequitur, but last week I discovered that there is a renaissance festival in our hometown!  What!?  They just moved it from its previous home in Connecticut… to 5 minutes from our house.  Fortuitous?  We’ll see.  When I closed the doors of Whimsical Brims, I instructed Will to remind me how tiring it was if I ever said I wanted to do it again.  Well, last week I proposed that I sell the rest of my supply of hats at a short running festival, and then I brought up the Faire in Lancaster.  Will actually said it was a good idea!   So much for convincing me not to do it again!

Well I decided that I should at least attempt to satisfy my urge to make more hats in a benign way and with Julius’ Christening I had an excuse!  I had seen lots of adorable pictures of these baby boys in dapper little pant suits complete with tiny flat caps.  I’ve never made a flat cap before, but they didn’t look too difficult, and the miniscule amount of fabric required made any attempt basically free.  I made the hat entirely from material from my enormous scrap bin (including the interfacing).  You may recognize the blue seersucker material from my seersucker maternity shirt!  (What better fabric choice for a Nashville baptism?!)

The pattern below is for a 3-6 month old.  (Julius’ head is 16.5″, but there is elastic to accommodate a larger or smaller head.)

Baby Flat Cap

What You’ll Need

• lining material (~1/4 of a yard)
• outside material (~1/4 of a yard)
• peltex 70 interfacing (a few inches)
• 2.5 inches elastic
• Pattern here

1. Cut out all pattern pieces from lining and outside material. Make sure to leave 1/2″ seam allowance on all pieces.  Make sure to include darts, center and overhang markings.
   

   Cut out all pattern pieces. Be sure to transfer markings for brim location.

2. Cut out two brims from peltex.
3. Pin lining top of hat to lining front of hat along the curved portion of the hat front.  Stitch.
4. Pin and stitch dart in back of cap in the lining.
   

   Pin and stitch hat top to hat front.

5. Pin the lining brim overhang to the lining front of the hat, lining up centers and markings.
   

   Pin lining brim overhang to the hat front.

6. Repeat steps 2 through 5 for the outside material.
7. Stitch brim interfacing together.
   

   Stitch two piece of brim interfacing together

8. Stitch brim pieces (outside material) together along the convex curved portion of the hat.
   

   Pin brim covering together and stitch.

9. Clip curves, trim seams to 1/8″ and turn right side out.  Insert brim interfacing inside.
   

   Insert brim interfacing inside

10. Baste along the inner (concave) curve close to the interfacing.
    

    Baste brim close to interfacing

11. With hat inside out, place brim into hat, on to of overhang.  Line up edges of the brim with edges of the overhang.  Brim will curve slightly to fit.
    

    Pin brim to hat, right sides together.

12. Baste.
13. Right sides together pin lining to outside of hat. Stitch leaving the portion from side seam to side seam opened.
    

    Pin hat lining to outside of hat., right sides together. Brim should be sandwiched between the layers.

14. Stitch the end of a piece of elastic to the outer material on each side.
    

    Stitch ends of a piece of elastic inside hat.

15. Stitch back of hat close to the seam to close.
    

    Stitch back of hat close to the edge to close.

16. Hand stitch a couple of stitches on the top of the hat to the brim if desired.
    

    Finished cap.

    

    Tummy time champion of the world in his hat.

    

    Rockin’ the flat cap.

    

    Look at that happy gent!

    

    Side view of hat (while Julius eats the blanket)

The last couple months we’ve been going up to my parent’s condo at Sunday River.  It has been amazing because Will, my dad and I will ski while my mom watches the little guy.  It is technically our chance to dip our toes into the whole babysitting/childcare situation.  And I really mean dip our toes in since I’m honestly not sure our scenario really counts.  You see we’re a bit spoiled in that we get to leave Julius in the capable hands of Grandma who is also conveniently a licensed and practicing R.N. currently working in postnatal/postpartum.  While others lament that they worry about their baby’s well-being the whole time they’re out, I really only miss snuggling with him.

Due to all these baby qualifications, Julius must feel the need to pull out all the stops and go the extra mile to impress.  As an example let me tell you about Julius’ latest development.  Julius recently hung out with a 7 month old baby who was quite adept at getting around via army crawling on his stomach.  Until this point in time, Julius would tolerate tummy time for approximately 12 seconds before either proceeding to lie there like a slug or screaming.  (Unless of course he was asked to do it at the doctor’s office where he shows off gratuitously to the point where the doctor deems his tummy time efforts “wonderful” and she thinks I made the whole aforementioned slug/screaming scenario up for comedic affect.)  Either way, after seeing this 7 month old baby moving around like a champ, Julius’ life was changed!  For the next several days he put in heroic tummy time efforts of several minutes at a time and looked (as close as a 3 month old baby can look) like an olympic gymnast!  Several days later he hangs out with Grandma, puts in that extra mile, and boom he rolls over!  He hasn’t repeated it since but at least he put in the extra effort for Grandma’s birthday.

Well I couldn’t compete with that sort of present but I decided to make Mom/Grandma something anyway!  Since we’re always at the condo Will had the great idea to get her a framed map of the mountain.  I thought I’d add to that gift and make her some Sunday River map coasters from old trail maps!  Many of the “DIY coaster” posts you see on Pinterest involve using a ceramic tile as the base.  I started out by looking for ceramic tiles at every single hardware store in the area, and then online.  The smallest square tiles that these stores sell are 4.25″x4.25″, which make comically huge coasters.  After several stores, and several hours online I gave up on ceramic tiles and invented my own DIY coasters based on some wooden coasters I actually own.  This method is a bit more time consuming, but I think the coasters look quite professional and they are the proper size.  You could use this technique with any paper goods.

Trail Map Coasters

What You’ll Need:

• old trail maps
• hardboard (only about 1 sq ft)
• thin cork sheet (from the scrapbook section in your craft store)
• acrylic spray enamel
• wood glue
• mod podge
• foam brush
• x-acto knife
• waxed paper

1. Cut hardboard into 3.5×3.5” squares.  I made 6 coasters.  I did this using the combination of a circular saw and a hacksaw with fine tooth blade since those were the tools at my disposal.
   

   Cut squares from hardboard

2. Clamp all coasters together using a vice and sand all four sides using coarse and then fine sandpaper until they are smooth to the touch.
   

   Sand edges of coasters

3. Gently iron your map on a low setting under a piece of parchment paper to smooth out wrinkles.
   

   Iron wrinkles from map on low setting.

4. Place coasters on the map in locations you desire. Using an x-acto knife cut out pictures from the map using each coaster as a template (since they may each vary slightly).
   

   Cut out map using coaster as a template.

5. Using a foam brush, coat the face of each hardboard square with mod podge and place the corresponding map cutout on top, right side up. Center and press down firmly, smoothing out any air bubbles.  Repeat for other coasters.
   

   Apply mod podge to face of hardboard using a foam brush

6. Place a piece of waxed paper and a heavy book on top of the coasters. Let dry 30 – 45 minutes.
7. Coat the face of each coaster with a thin coat of mod podge.  Let dry 15-20 minutes and then apply a second coat.
   

   Apply mod podge over face of coaster

8. After the coaster is completely dry, flip over and lightly coat the bottom side with wood glue using a foam brush.
   

   Apply wood glue to bottom of coaster

9. Place the cork sheet on a sheet of waxed paper then press the wood glued side of the coaster on top.  Repeat for other coasters, then place a book on top.
   

   Firmly press coasters on top of cork

10. When cork adhesion is dry (approximately 30 minutes), trim the cork around the coaster using an X-acto knife like you did in step 4 for the map pictures.
    

    Trim cork

11. Apply spray enamel according to bottle instructions.
    

    Spray with acrylic enamel.

Julius is becoming much, much less of a squish and much, much more of a tiny person.  In fact, I’ve almost entirely stopped calling him “squish”.  Not only because he is less squishy but also because it seems he is now listening to me very attentively.  I don’t want him to grow up thinking his name is Squish – I think that’s a name I’d better erase from existence before he learns to talk.  Instead, I’ve been calling him mostly Juli-ouli-us.  In addition I’ve recently discovered that he likes his name.  Whenever I refer to him as Julius he puts on a huge smile, especially when it becomes the lyric in a song.

He has developed a lot more control over his hands and arms, and is now happily grabbings things and putting them in his mouth.  On top of that, he has been smiling and laughing!  I discovered a couple weeks ago that he is extremely ticklish.  He also ‘talks’ a lot more.  My favorite thing that he does lately is he babbles and coos quietly to me while looking at me in the eye.  I call it whispering sweet nothings.  It is completely adorable.

Frequently he’ll do a lot of these adorable things while he’s on the changing table.  He seems to almost always be in a good mood when we’re changing his diaper.  I guess it’s because (as we frequently tell him) nobody likes a wet bum.  The changing table itself was given to us by my co-worker since his grandson has outgrown it.  It has been great for us to store all our diapers, diaper covers, wipes, diaper pail liners, etc.  Plus is really saves our backs when we’re changing him all the time!  My only complaint with the table is that I’d like a space to store diaper rash cream or spray for our cloth wipes on the top of the table for easy access.

To solve this problem, I decided to make a little fabric box to add on the side of the changing table.  The velcro and ribbon additions are used specifically to mount the box onto a changing table, but these can easily be omitted to form a basic storage container.  It was so easy to make I will probably create more of these in different sizes for other forms of storage!  The canvas really works nicely to stiffen the sides so they stand up on their own without interfacing.

Changing Table Organizer

What You’ll Need:

• 1/2 yard of canvas
• 1 foot of 1.5″ velcro**
• Piece of heavy cardboard
• 4 feet Milliner’s wire
• 7 feet of ribbon**

1. Cut out fabric rectangles. 2 – 16″x11″, 2 – 6″x11″, 3 – 16″x6″.
   

   Cut out fabric rectangles.

2. Stitch each side of a wide 16″x11″ wide rectangle to one thin 6″x11″ wide rectangle.
   

   Pin 11″ end of narrow rectangles to either end of a wide rectangle.

3. Stitch the other wide 16″x11″ rectangle to the other side of the thin 6″ rectangles to form a box.
   

   Pin another wide rectangle to other end of narrow rectangles together to form a box.

4. Fold the box in half so it is half its height and the seams are on the inside. The fold will form the top of the box.
   

   Fold box in half so the seams are inside. Pin

5. Press.  (**This is where I added some embroidery, but it is not necessary at all!)
   

   Press along fold to form top of box.

6. Cut the strip of velcro into two 6″ pieces.  Pin the center of each Velcro piece on either edge of the longer panel, just below the fold.
   

   Stitch velcro just below the fold on either end of the long side.

7. Unfold the box and stitch the center of the Velcro to the panel. Re-fold, so the Velcro is on the outside of the box. This will be the back of the box. **
8. Take your wire and bend to form a 5″x15″ rectangle starting with the 5″ segment. Let the wire finish with a 5″ segment overlapping the first segment for strength then trim the wire.
   

   Fold milliner’s wire into a rectangle.

9. Place the wire rectangle inside the box, moving it all the way up to the fold.
10. Stitch a few stitches just below the wire in the center of every face of the box to tack the wire in place.  Be careful not to hit the wire when you sew.
11. Turn box inside out then pin a 16″x6″ rectangle to the bottom of the box, right sides together.
    

    Pin base rectangle to box.

12. Attach the rectangle by stitching the long sides first.  Stitch the short sides second.
    

    Stitch the two long sides first followed by the two short sides.

13. Turn the box right side out.
14. Pin the last two 16″x6″ rectangles together to form the box bottom.  Stitch three sides together, leaving one of the short sides opened.
    

    Pin two 16″x6″ rectangles together.

15. Clip the corners and turn right side out.
16. Cut a piece of cardboard 14.75″x4.75″.
    

    Cut rectangle from cardboard

17. Slip the piece of cardboard inside the box bottom.  It will fit snugly.
    

    Insert cardboard rectangle into box bottom.

18. Fold the seam allowance on the open side to the inside.
    

    Turn seam allowance inside.

19. Stitch close to the edge to seal the box bottom closed.
    

    Stitch close to edge to seal box bottom.

20. Place the bottom of the box into the box.
    

    Place box bottom into box.

21. Cut two pieces of ribbon 42″ wide. Pin the center of each ribbon to either end of the front panel on the inside, just below the top.  Stitch.**
    

    Attach ribbon to the inside front of the box, just below the wire.

    To mount the changing table organizer, place the Velcro around one of the beams of the changing table.  Tie the ribbon to the top most bar of the changing table, to keep the box level. Fill with rash cream, wipes, etc.**

** Skip this step for an ordinary box that you don’t intend to mount on a changing table.

Here’s what the box looks like without being mounted.  Julioulius wouldn’t fit so I had to use his real name.

Here’s the finished box organizing our most-reached-for changing table supplies!