October - The Start of Sewing Season

The air is growing crisp at night. Jack Frost has visited our house for the past three nights. The beautiful, mild, early autumn afternoons find my windows open and my children playing in the sand box. I, however, am tucked away in the basement sewing.

My sewing room used to be located in a cheerful,sunny bedroom located in the north west corner of the second floor. I had a closet and dresser in which to store my stash and loads of natural light from two almost complete walls of windows. When our second son came along in 2007, it soon became clear to me that sharing a room with his big brother was not going to work out. The baby was such a light sleeper that every sniffle and rustle that came from his older sibling left him awake and angry. Since was I was nursing him, I was the one who got up with the baby. The decision to shift my older son to his own room was born of sleep deprivation. It was the right choice for that moment. Unfortunately, it meant that my sewing and knitting would have to find another home. I carved a out a corner of the 'family room' in our mostly unfinished basement. My stash is stowed away in plastic bins which are shoe-horned under my hubby's camo/winter gear, just behind the love seat, and next to my sewing table. There isn't much in the way of natural light, but Hubby loves well-light spaces and installed additional overhead lighting in the basement when we first moved in. It's working out.

Every since we had our first child, October has been a sewing month for me. If nothing else I am making Halloween costumes. In 2005, it was an infant-sized panda costume. In 2007, it was a Green Giant costume (for Hubby) and a Sprout costume (for my son). In 2009, it was Hubby and son Tiger costumes. In 2006 and 2008, my oldest chose store bought costumes, so I had a reprieve from fur and felt and worked on curtains instead. Our Halloween costumes are part of year round dress-up play so we get our money's worth, regardless. In 2009, I followed up the costumes with a new pair of flannel PJ's for my oldest. So October has become a traditionally busy sewing month and the start of a busy sewing season which doesn't taper off until after Christmas.

Now it's October again. My oldest boy is going with a store bought costume this year but my youngest wants to be Buddy the T-Rex from Dinosaur Train, which no one sells so far as I know. Good thing PBS has a free pattern out there. I printed off the 51 pages of pattern last Sunday so I can start putting this thing together. Add to that the Thomas flannel that my little guy latched onto at Hobby Lobby the other day as he begged for new PJ's. He did need new PJ's and the flannel was on sale. So the PJ's are just about finished, the Buddy costume pattern pieces are being assembled, and I am thinking about an adult panda costume this year to use up the black and white faux fur in my stash. Yep, its October. Good thing too. I needed a bit of a break from my knitting needles.