Sweet Little Pumpkins

Hello dear friends, I hope you all basked in the glory of another fall weekend.  I know we sure did!  On Saturday I woke up with a headache but since I was watching the kids I eventually stopped noticing it.  A bonus of trying to keep up with your kids.  It was a rainy Saturday but that didn’t stop us.  We headed over to home depot to make a couple of float planes, read a few books at home and ate lunch that Will had prepared with Julius from one of Julius’ many cookbooks.  After lunch we headed over to the local paint your own pottery place to do some pottery painting.

For dinner I convinced the kids to go to IHOP.  Will was baffled by this decision on my part.  I love breakfast though, and once I told Julius what IHOP stood for, he was sold.  The kids soon decided IHOP was their new favorite restaurant.  Each kids menu had unique coloring and activities, like mad libs, which we had a great time with.  They had like 8 options for kids meals and they were very inexpensive and not just a platter of sugar.  I mean, Julius did get something called the cupcake pancake sampler, in which the dessert was the main course, but it also came with protein and we ordered a side of fruit so I call it a wash. Patricia got mac & cheese and applesauce (and fruit).  She ate pretty much the entire meal even after putting pepper in her applesauce.  Oh and the food came out insanely quickly given it’s a diner which is another win in the kid’s books.

After dinner we came home, finished up our float planes, and then flew them upstairs to the tub…. where they promptly sunk.  The kids were not upset.  We finished off the night by reading some Halloween books (my favorite).

The next day was absolutely beautiful fall weather.  We’ve been promising Julius that once he got his training wheels off and practiced for a while he could bike to the orchard with us.  He has been diligently practicing, so this weekend we took another fall bike ride to the local farm!  With the extra room in the wagon we went a teeeeeensy bit overboard with pumpkins.  We bought 7 pumpkins total and a half bushel of apples.  Patricia was a good sport making sure the pumpkins didn’t fall out of the trailer.

Julius biking!

Picking pumpkins in one of the patches.

That’s not even all the pumpkins.

This is all the pumpkins

Well, time to show you how I made Patricia’s overdress.  I am so happy with how the overdress came out that I’m thinking of making a new one for myself/re-doing my old one.  The overdress I made for maternity/nursing doesn’t fit quite so well anymore… (read: it looks like a sack).  The underdress still fits great though!  All the fabric I had in my stash… I’d bought this fabric from the thrift store a while back for a steal.

Toddler Overdress

Note: this was drafted to fit my daughter who is a 3T/4T but it fits my son who is a 5T and could probably fit loosely on someone smaller. 

What you’ll need:

• 2 yards of midweight cotton, linen or similar woven fabric
• Lightweight sew in interfacing
• 6 5/8″ grommets
• ribbon in coordinating color for lacing bodice.
• Pattern <Note – I will post this pattern before 10/9/23, if you need it sooner than that ping me and I’ll prioritize posting it>

1. Cut out pattern pieces as indicated.
2. Stitch lightweight interfacing to one set of bodice fronts and back.
3. Stitch bodice fronts and backs together at side seams and shoulder seams.
4. Repeat for bodice lining.
5. Place bodice outside and bodice lining right sides together and stitch all along the neck and front edges.
6. Turn right side out, press.
7. Stitch along the edges of neck and front, very close to the fold.  
8. Turn armscye seam allowance in, then pin and stitch.
9. Turn bottom of bodice seam allowance in then pin.
10. Stitch 4 panels of skirt together at side seams.  If desired, serge.
11. Form a rolled hem along the two sides of the skirt. Press and stitch.
12. Attach skirt to underside of bodice by un-pinning and re-pinning (pins from step 9) and pleating as you go.  My pleats were fairly large, about 1″ long.
13. Place grommets at indicated points on the pattern as per package instructions (usually involves a hammer)
    

    Grommet location drawn on dress

14. Hem the bottom skirt to desired length.  (I left my hem fairly wide in hopes I could let it down an inch if needed.
15. Lace bodice with ribbon as desired!
    

    Check out this cutie in costume!

    

    Close up of the bodice and my snuggle bug.