Make Laundry Don’t Do Laundry – the Lady Hazel Top

Note: George & Ginger kindly gave me this pattern for this blog tour, but they have no idea what I made or wrote. The faith they have in their pattern says everything – thank-you for your faith in me too!

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When I first started blogging I remember thinking “Definitely, I will never be up for doing a blog tour, it seems like SO much work. I don’t know how those women do it – I can’t even keep up with the laundry, never mind professional blogging!”

Well, I haven’t jumped into the world of professional blogging, BUT when I saw a call for this tour where women would rather make new laundry than wash the dirty clothes, I knew I had to jump on! Karly, Jeanine, and Cassandra put out the challenge to prove that sometimes, it’s actually faster to make new clothes than it is to run a load of laundry through the washer and dryer. Though I’m pretty sure in our house, it’s ALWAYS faster to make new clothes – even if it’s a project that I procrastinate forever and delay finishing!

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Exhibit A: the Lady Hazel by George & Ginger took me 3 days. THREE. DAYS. to complete. Is that actual sewing time? No, because if it were I would never try to sew again. But it IS how long it took from the time I started until the time that it was ready to wear in public. Because life: Baby Rydz demanding attention, poopy bedsheets, a monstrous spider invading my car, Bible study, hemming all 87 feet (!!!) of a prom dress, Baby Rydz puking on the sewing table (no, I don’t want to talk about it), and every other interruption you can imagine. You know, life things. But then that’s the point of this tour, right? When we’re made to choose between family time, sewing, and laundry, it’s family time & sewing that win. Unless there’s poopy AND pukey baby laundry. Sometimes, the laundry has to win.

But my reality is this: I am not one of those organized bloggy moms who gets a load of laundry washed, dried, folded, and put away every day in order to reduce the clutter/stress/chaos/wasted time/sanity/whatever else their Pinterest tag is peddling. I am that almost-losing-her-mind, way-out-of-her-league, totally-disorganized-FORGOT-TO-PACK-DIAPERS mom who just had a poopsplosion happen in the middle of playgroup.  Which means more often than not, it takes a good 10 days for laundry to get done around here. And no, I don’t mean all of the laundry gets binge-washed every 10 days (if it does, that’s probably because my husband has gone on a crusade, or I’ve had a REALLY good night’s sleep!).

It’s more like:
Day 1: Put laundry in washer.
Day 2: Don’t think about laundry.
Day 3: Remember laundry when we are across town & won’t be home for another 3 hours. Make mental note to switch load when we get home.
Day 4: Remember to switch load. But now it smells funky, so re-wash instead.
Day 5: Husband goes looking for soccer clothes, switches load to dryer but still doesn’t know where his favourite shorts are.
Day 6: Make mental note to wash load that has husband’s soccer clothes from last night before they get funky. Must also find other probably-funky load with lost soccer shorts.
Day 7: Husband takes load from dryer & puts in basket in middle of living room, as a passive-agressive attempt to get me to fold it. He puts baby load in because baby no longer has any clean towels for bath time. Or has made a mess of every crib sheet we own. Or both.
Day 8: Chase baby away from laundry basket 8 thousand times so he doesn’t drool on clean clothes, rather than take 10 minutes to fold it.
Day 9: Find wet swim clothes in swim bag that was used on Day 2, throw in washer & fold drool-encrusted load from living room basket so basket can be emptied/used. Empty said folded laundry to bench at the foot of the bed.
Day 10: Dress self, husband, and Baby Rydz using clean clothes on bench at foot of the bed. Realise we are all short on clean clothes, so print a PDF pattern to make. Put swim clothes in dryer, throw a new load in the washer, and re-start at day 1.
And now, an interlude of Baby Rydz, with a background of piled-up living room laundry, just to prove my point. Why is there ALWAYS laundry haunting the background of otherwise cute photos?! Oh right, it’s because I haven’t done it yet…
For anyone who neeeeeeeeeeds to know, this is how much time it actually took:
Day 1: Printing, taping, cutting pattern & cutting fabric – 1 hour, 30 minutes. But that’s not *really* accurate, since part of that was spent chasing Baby Rydz away from the pattern pieces, taking breaks to hold him, and trying to work one-handed. Not to mention snack & rehydration. It’s always important to rehydrate…
Day 2: All of the sewing except hand-stitching & hemming – and including seam-ripping one arm hole because I sewed it in backwards due to lack of caffeine – 45 minutes. Note to self: properly caffeinate before operating sewing machinery in order to avoid do-overs.
Day 3: Hand-stitch & hem. I didn’t time this part, but I was done by the time hubby was done cooking a 1/2 pack of bacon.
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So why did I take so long? First, it’s a new pattern. I’ve never made a G&G pattern before, so it’s getting to know the designer’s style and the pattern instructions. Second, it’s the hand-stitching. I HATE hand-stitching. Seriously, it took me 2 days to work up the courage to get to it. And in the end, it took less than 10 minutes. Was it worth it? To be honest, no. I’m not completely sold on the style, even though I was convinced that I would love this shirt. My husband says it looks weird, and wants to know why I call it “done” when there are no sleeves? Whatever. But my least favourite part? The fabric I picked needs to be ironed. Badly. From the pictures you can’t tell that I’ve ironed it repeatedly, but I have. In the end a drooly baby rolled all over it, and I decided to go with it because what’s an honest post about hating laundry if we don’t talk about avoiding the iron too?!
What I do like, is how airy/flowy it is – I’m sure this will be comfortable & light for summertime, even though there are 2 layers of fabric. I think I will give this pattern one more try, but now I’m on the hunt for juuuust the right fabric. And next time, I think I will cheat and alter the arm holes so that I won’t have to hand stitch at all. It won’t look as pretty, but since it’s just for me, I don’t mind. It’s not my absolute favourite top for this summer, but it’s a nice change from my usual “momiform” – which, if I’m being honest, will always be my absolute favourite.
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Thanks for following along on his leg of the Make Laundry, Don’t Do Laundry tour! Don’t forget to sign up for your chance to win some amazing prizes, AND get some amazing discounts from our sponsor designers, including George & Ginger, designer of this Lady Hazel!
My favourite part of a blog tour is discovering all of the new-to-me blogs. Be sure to check them out – some of my serious girl crushes are on this tour – it’s like I’m mingling with the celebrities! HAHA! So really, go look around!
6/6 Creative Counselor / Phat Quarters / Call Ajaire / Friends Stitched Together / The Wholesome Mama / Wild & Wanderful
6/7 Blaverry / The Inspired Wren / Sew Sophie Lynn / Sprouting Jube Jube / Coral & Co / Once Upon A Sewing Machine
6/8 Paisley Roots / Sew Happily Ever After / Randoms By Rydz / Elegantine / Rebel & Malice / Fabulous Home Sewn / Candice Ayala
6/9 Create 3.5 / Muse Of The Morning / Sew & Tell Project / Gracious Threads / Beatnik Kids / Everything Your Mama Made
6/10 Sweeter Than Cupcakes / Pear Berry Lane / All Things Katy! / Sew Starly / Handcrafted By RED / Adventures of Bubba & Bug / Sew & Tell Project

 

Thanks to all of our amazing sponsors for being a part of this tour.

A few of the designers are having sales for the duration of the tour, so here’s the codes!
George & Ginger use code MAKELAUNDRY25 for 25% off her patterns
Blaverry use code MAKELAUNDRY for 25% off her patterns
Stitch Art use code MAKELAUNDRY for 30% off patterns
Paisley Roots use code MAKELAUNDRY for 25% off patterns
These codes are good through June 12th!

Then Laela Jeyne’s Emily Womens T-shirt & the Deluxe Charlotte Kids Leggings are on sale through the 11th! No code needed!

I know everyone loves a good giveaway so here’s the prize packages:

Link-up Prize Package
Prize Package 1
Prize Package 2
Join the Rafflecopter fun here:
And don’t forget that there’s a prize pack for linking up your Laundry creation! Link Up at Pear Berry Lane, Paisley Roots, or The Crafting Fiend

8 thoughts on “Make Laundry Don’t Do Laundry – the Lady Hazel Top”

    • Mar Rydz says:
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      I have an old-school top-loader that fills all the way, so I soak them overnight. That seems to be the one load of laundry I DON’T forget about…maybe I’m too scared to?!

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