Boring to make, but actually kind of exciting to have finished, because they have made a huge difference! Our house was built in 1919 and still has a lot of original windows, some of which are soooooo drafty. Every year I'd say "I ought to figure out to make some draft stoppers for those" but then I never got around to doing it. Finally, after a week of high winds coming up from the water, I did it.

I didn't bother to even look for any directions online, I'm sure there are plenty. But I just forged ahead and did what I thought would work -- and it did! I measured the windows and then cut rectangles that were the width of each window plus 1-1/2" long; and 7-1/2" wide. I used french seams for extra strength, and seamed the rectangles along the long edge and one short edge. Emily and I then filled them with play sand using a kitchen funnel (that was fun, if a little messy!), and then I rolled the open ends over, pinned them and then very carefully brought them back upstairs and sewed them closed. We put them in the windows and seriously, the temperature in the house climbed within just 2 or 3 hours.

Sewing hasn't been all boring though, Emily has her own machine now and has started making things! But more on that later. Ha ha, and I totally forgot, I made a new flannel robe from a vintage pattern for Evan...where is my brain? More on that later, too!

Seriously, I have never tried a biscuit recipe that grew so tall in the oven! Try these for yourself! Recipe here.

So far, 2010 itself has been pretty alright. Here's hoping it keeps on going that way.

We're off to pick up a Christmas cake just like Booska did. Have a great weekend!

Then, during Snowpocalypse 2009, a NYC Sanitation truck hit the utility pole across from our house (at 2 am), tearing the power lines off our house and into the street. Yay FDNY who showed up quickly. And the Con Ed guy who stayed in his truck in the freezing cold until he got the lines back up and power on in our house (sometime after 6am, which was when we finally got to sleep). Boo to the surprise expense of having the power line put back up permanently. (I've already started the process of filing a claim against the city, but I hear it's hard to get your money back no matter how totally at fault they are.)

And a few other glitches, like unpacking and testing the tree lights on the 18th only to discover they didn't work; or looking for the snow shovel and realizing -- we don't have one! How did that happen? We have no idea.

But it hasn't all been bad. I won a giveaway on the really awesome craft/storytelling blog Creative Breathing and got this amazing elf girl peg doll and felt tree ornament:

They will be part of our Xmas decor forever! As will this guy:

Yup, a Yeti ornament! I got it from the Cryptozoology Museum as a surprise for yeti fan Evan. So cute.

Hopefully the next few days will keep on being more good than bad. And then...2009 will get out of here!

And we did find replacement lights at the last minute, not easy when you have a white tree! It ended up being for the best, because we all love the multi-colored light strand we had to get!

Well guess what..I decided to go full speed ahead and just do it -- and it's finished!!

The process was some learning curve, I tell you. The amount of redrafting I had to do in order to make it fit her was insane. But, as you can see, it ended up working out! The one big drawback is that because it's fitted closely at the waist there's no way it will fit her next year (I'm just hoping it lasts out the winter!). So I'll be making a new coat next year. I got a really nice wool melton for the body, lined it with a silk twill (in orange, Emily's pick!) and Emily picked out some vintage-y black buttons (she really wanted a vintage set I have but there weren't enough of them).

But what really makes this coat a success is that she loves it. She was asking to wear it the day it was done, and when she's worn it out she's kept it on every second.

This from the girl who last year would drop her coat magically right from her shoulders and take off in short sleeves because she "hates jackets" so much! And while it was a lot of work, I really enjoyed making it (and finishing it!). I even want to make a coat for myself now.

Lots more photos are on flickr if you want to see, and for more detailed sewing info you can check out the write up on Pattern Review.

Seriously, how cute is that dress? And I didn't realize it until after I'd bought it but so, totally, grown-up Pippi. I will definitely be needing some stripey tights for that one. I found it at a site I'd never heard of until last week, Tulle -- of all the Black Friday weekend sales I saw promoted they were the only place that looked interesting, and I just remembered to go check them out. And found that dress and had to have it. (Also got some leggings, and a little knit skirt for $4!) Lots of cute stuff, actually -- if the quality is decent, I'll shop there again. They have a men's side too, but the sizing info is useless, and I mean useless. Otherwise I'd have picked up some sweaters for Evan.

I just hope they haven't sold out of everything I ordered already. And now to go looking for some pippi-riffic tights and big shoes!

*oh dear, my search for tights just led me to the most extensive socks/tights site I've ever seen. Send a search party if I don't come back soon!

First you need your dress pattern. Any simple, a-line dress with a one-piece front will work. I used this cute dress pattern, Butterick 3772. Here's another Butterick dress/top pattern, that wraps and ties instead of fastening at the shoulder. The Farbenmix Anna dress would also be perfect, although a little harder to find. And here's a simple McCall's dress with no fasteners at all!

Now for your YGG design -- there are lots of goodies you can work with in Nick jr's YGG papercraft section. They have a full set of iron-ons you can just print out onto transfer paper if you don't feel up to applique -- just pick one, print it and transfer it to your dress front!

If you do want to do an applique, or something else crafty, there are plenty of templates on those printable pages. For full-body images, look for the coloring pages, and for large heads, go for the masks. I used the Muno mask for my applique!

I printed it out at the size I wanted it to be on the dress -- you should be able to print the page larger or smaller when you print it. I actually "printed" the mask as a pdfs using Cute PDF Writer and saved it so I could print it as much as I wanted without going back to the Nick site. I added some more Muno at the bottom and then redrew the mouth, fixing it where it was crooked and adding in the teeth (and yes, his teeth aren't pointy -- anymore. This is how they looked in the pilot, which Emily was used to at the time. Now she thinks it's freaky.)

I cut the pieces out of cotton knit (old t-shirts, actually) -- since knits don't unravel, you don't have to finish the edges of the applique. I assembled the whole thing first using some fusible interfacing (you could also use something like Steam-A-Seam , which I've used on other appliques). If you look close you can see that I overlapped everything -- for example, the teeth are under the upper part of the mouth, and over the bottom part. This made it a lot easier, since I wasn't matching edges up.

Finally, I placed the finished Muno on the dress where I wanted him, and stitched all around. (I assembled the dress most of the way, but did the lining and hem after adding the applique. If I was going to use an iron-on or maybe use fabric paint, I would probably have completely finished the dress first.)

There's only one bad thing about this Muno dress....it's too small! But I think a Foofa dress may be in the offing (and I don't mean her costume). We'll see. Who will be on your Yo Gabba Gabba dress?