William's First Day of School, and some sewing.

Yesterday was William's first day of pre-school. I couldn't really get a good pic because there was a terrible storm all the night before and most of the day. It was so bad that our electricity went out (with a boom! at 2:30am!) and stayed off for 17 hours. William's first day of school was a bit less than awesome for me.

Homemade polo and shorts, rain boots.

Showing off his backpack...more of that later.

 Aldous wanted his picture taken, too.

Doug got up early and took my jeep out of the garage to save me having to wrestle it open and close, and left me an umbrella. To get to the car we had to walk through our complex to the street. That was ok, I suppose, except our umbrella was wider than the sidewalk and kept bumping trees and shrubs, and then it wouldn't fit through the gate.. Then...how to get into the car with a walking toddler and another on your back while holding an umbrella without getting wet? The answer? you can't. It cannot be done. We were all soaked, although I guess the umbrella helped some.

William's day was fine, he seemed secure with the drop off, and went happily into his room. I went home (getting even more wet in the process, of course). I hung around the dining room mostly since that has the skylight, and listened to NPR streaming from my phone. I tethered my phone to my netbook to amuse myself, but didn't watch movies or anything because I didn't want to drain my battery. Aldous played close-by until about 11 when he went upstairs for a nap, I suspect from boredom. I cut out a bunch of underpants for William and newborn gowns for a friend.

Notice my battery-operated camping fan. It wasn't unbearably hot, but all the rain made it so humid inside.

At 1, I got a call from William's teacher telling me that he had had two accidents and was now out of clothes! Yay! So, we went to get him and then we went to McDonald's to eat and hang out with the free wi-fi for a while (faster than 3G). We went home after that, and hung around, until I finally had begged Doug to come home early. He got home right when the electric trucks were out back, so he wrangled the kids while I took a cold shower, and then went out to get us a pizza (from Grimaldi's, it's the best EVER!!)
By the time we started eating, tornado sirens were going off everywhere, and the update said we should prepare for a tornado at 6:25 (well, for Highland Park). We watched the radar though and we could see the storm was a few miles above us, so we just ate our dinner and hoped the electricians outside weren't breaking for the tornado!! (that sounds horrible). anyway, soon it was back on and the air conditioning began to relieve us from some of the humidity.

Whew, what a sucky day! After the boys had their showers, we cuddled under some blankets and watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Aldous didn't make it half way through, and William fell asleep with a only a few minutes left in the movie. So, off to bed for them, and I read until I fell asleep.

About the  backpacks!! I made these using the Made by Rae pattern. I enlarged the pattern for William's school backpack. It's made out of cotton quilting fabric I bought last year from JoAnn (to make a backpack...I'm a bit slow). The orange is a lightweight canvas that I had used for William's ring sling when he was a baby. The green zipper is a vintage one from my stash, my friend gave me the red webbing, and the d-rings I bought from Fabric.com for next-to-nothing (6 in a package). I used fleece scraps for the padding on the straps and bottom, and super-heavy-duty stabilizer to interface the front, back, and bottom panels. WHEW!!

Aldous wanted to model this, although it's not his. 

The quilted bottom: heavy-duty stabilizer and fleece scraps used here.

 back straps padded with fleece scraps, webbing for the bottom of the straps, and the loop.

the lining. I sewed it in to the back of the zipper, then top stitched the outside. Not bad for my first try, although I have seen another way to try "next time".

William actually needed two backpacks; one for school, and another smaller bag for his dance stuff. This one is his dance bag. It's the original size, and unlined. The fabric for this was heavier, and I did use the same stabilizer for it. Same fleece scrap padding on the straps and bottom, same webbing, same green zipper (I had three of these) altho I didn't put a loop on this tiny bag. This robot twill/canvas is from JoAnn, and I bought it, also, last year. Hmmm,

the quilted bottom. kinda blurry.

The inside. I finished the raw edges with binding.

So, those are the backpacks!! Tuesday night I sewed up William's uniform shorts. I had procrastinated making them because I'm waiting for my coverstitch machine to come. It hasn't (damn you, Ken's!!!) so I sewed them up quickly the night before school started. They're an Ottobre pattern (the Aqua shorts) I've used a billion times before in a cotton/poly twill I picked up at Fabric.com for $2(less) /yard when it was the Deal of the Day. I also got a bit of the black.. It's SO nice!! It's very soft but doesn't wrinkle! These pics are straight out of the dryer!

Here's a shot of the back pockets. You can see the yoke, the top-stitching, and my "fancy" elastic waist. I sewed in a "label" and size tag, too.

Front top-stitching. This is WITHOUT a coverstitch machine, mind you. That's practically by hand! (ok, no it's not, but STILL!!)

Here are the shorts with a couple of polos I made, but didn't share, for the complete ensemble. These are my modified vintage Kwik Sew's Sewing for Toddler rugby shirt. I made the placket MUCH shorter than the one I first tried and shared here. This is actually more representative of the color of the shorts, too.

I think that just about wraps up our back to school adventures!