Christmas 2010

Christmas Eve.























Christmas morning.

Sleepers that accomodates special needs

Our son has special needs.. One of them is Autism.

We used to have a real struggle keeping his pj's on him at night; he would strip down to nothing and get so cold. Because he is also incontinent, his bed would get wet, icky and cold. Off the shelves sleepers were obviously not a solution because he could just unzip them. Additionally, we needed extra modifications because he also has a feeding tube and cyphosys and we needed easy access so we could change him at night.

I decided to design my own. I made a pattern for a regular body type and then altered the back to allow extra room for the cyphosys, put a long, flexible, nylon zipper in the back and added a small (!!!) and heavily reinforced opening in the front for the feeding tube. That worked!

As the weather got colder, we would first dress him in thermal underwear and then the sleeper over it. However, we live in South Dakota (don't let the "South" part fool you) and in the winter our little house gets much too cold for even this solution so I made some of heavy sweatshirt material. Let's hope that will keep him warm.

Here is how:

I cut the 2 front pieces, the 2 back pieces and 2 sleeves. This picture shows the front, back and the sleeve that has already been stitched together.

Kid's clothing has to always be comfortable, but kids with Autism are a little more sensitive so comfort is key, aesthetics will have to give.



Because the fabric is so thick, I decided to make lapped seams with raw edges. I first serged all the edges, then overlayed the fabric pieces, face to back, and then stitched them down with two rows of narrow zig zag stitches.

This picture shows you the seam on the right and on the wrong side. They are identical.

Make a reinforced opening on the right front panel. The easiest method by far is to create a large button hole. Start with marking a 2 inch opening on the right side of the right front planel about a large handwith from the stoma.








Interface the button hole area on the back side of the front panel and the face side of an additional small piece of fabric.








This is the back side with an additional piece of fabric for reinforcement.











Make a 2" button hole, zig zag 1/4 inch around it and zig zag down the edges. It will look like this. The opening needs to be as unintrusive as possible. Apart from the need to be comfortable, this will prevent them from focusing on it and eventually ripping it. Remember, kids with Autism can get fixated on something and they have nothing else to do all night.....they don't sleep anyway!

This picture shows the backside with the piece of fabric stitched down around the edges.

Stitch the two front panels together.

Now add the zipper. Measure and mark where the zipper will be.












Stitch the back panels together from crotch to mark. You cannot use a lapped seam here.







Fold the fabric back and place the zipper far away enough so the slide cannot catch the fabric. Stitch the zipper. There is no need for a zig zag stitch here because the zipper is not stretchable anyway.

Now your front and back pieces are ready to be assembled and remember to use flat seams.

Close the sleeves and place them in the arm opening. It can be a little challenging to create a lapped seam on the sleeve, so I stitched as far as I could from the arm opening and then the rest starting from the hand opening. Set the sleeve into the arm opening and finish off as flat and comfortable as possible.

Attach a separate piece of fabric on the neckline, fold it around the zipper edge and then fold it double inward, attaching it to the inside.








Finish the sleeve opening and pant leg opening by serging the edge and folding it over. I stitched down the pantleg. Remember, simplicity and comfort is what matters, not aesthetics.

There, the sleeper is done and should only take a day to make. During the winter, I still plan on using the thermal underwear under it but hopefully our little guy will now stay warm.

There is enough room for his cyphosis and not too close to his neck.












The seams are on purpose not lined up to avoid bulk. The neckline is far away enough to give him comfort.








Hi loves his new sleepers and they are keeping him warm. Finally!

In the meanwhile I have to go work on some other projects to get my aesthetic fix: two evening gowns!

Candied cranberries

I love cranberries! And as it turns out, they are really healthy for you too.

Unfortunately, fresh cranberries are only available here for a few months. Last year, I must have panicked as the season came to an end because I bought....well, let's just say a lot of them in the hope to somehow preserve that little bundle of delight. When my husband gave me the "look", the one that required some kind of intelligent answer about what I was planning on doing with all these cranberries, I had to get creative and learned how to preserve them as candied cranberries. I also froze a bunch but learned that for long term freezing they need a little more preparation (like putting them in a freezer container) than just sticking them in the freezer. They lost much of their flavor and got mushy.

The candied cranberries were such a hit that I this year purposely bought some just for that purpose. They taste great in salads and baked items.

I have read so, so, so many ways how different people candy cranberries and I am sure they are all great, but here is how I have had really good luck in keeping a hint of the unique tartness and preserving much of their shape.

Rinse 2 cups of cranberries while you make a simple syrup of 1.5 cups of sugar and 1.5 cup of water. Add the cranberries and turn the heat down until it barely simmers. You want to cook the cranberries but not turn them into a mushy relish. I let them simmer for 40 minutes and then let them cool in the syrup.

The next day, drain the cranberries from the syrup and boil the syrup down to nearly half the amount. Place the cranberries on a pan (I lined the pan with tin foil for easy clean up) and pour the condensed syrup over the cranberries. Place them then in an oven at 300F for 30-40 minutes.

Take them out but leave them in the pan and sit overnight on the counter. Next morning, you can take them out of the syrup and let them dry on a cookie sheet for the day.

If you want to store them, place them in a container and store them in the fridge for up to a month. Might be able to keep longer, but I am not sure and it would never make it than long in my house anyway.

As I said, you can add them as is to your meals or...make your favorite cookies!!