“At least you have your Health”

“At least you have your Health”

This phrase “At least you have your Health” is another statement I heard often growing up. I usually heard this statement when listening to adults talk about all the bad things going on in their life.  I used to wonder why a person being healthy was so important that it made whatever was going wrong not as bad if they were healthy.  From my perspective as a child that seemed like something that was always there; like the sun coming up every morning, the moon coming up at night and the crickets chirping loudly when I was trying to fall asleep at night.  Now that I am older I can see what all those adults I was listening to meant when they said “at least you have your health”.

My oldest daughter recently got a cold, or what I thought was a cold, she ran a fever, coughed and was really tired. I thought oh it’s just a bug from school, so we will push fluids and rest and she will be better in a few days.  My mental attitude was that it was no big deal and at first I was right.  She was sick, she pushed fluids and rested and her fever broke so I thought she was better. 

A couple of days later she was acting sick again and this time her breathing was really labored.  So I gave her a rescue in hailer treatment and kept an eye on her.  We went to the park after that and she climbed on a bridge of the playground equipment and she just laid down. Now I was starting to get really concerned.  When we got home she was still having trouble breathing except now her whole chest, stomach and shoulders were moving as she was breathing.   Big warning bells starting going off in my head and I hurriedly finished dinner and got my other children off to bed.  I took her in to the hospital and shortly after we arrived her ability to breathe on her own at acceptable levels stopped.  The  nurses put her on oxygen, gave her steroids to open up her lungs and lots of breathing treatments and she was still having a hard time maintaining an acceptable breathing level.  At one point she was at running between 87-88 on 3 liters of oxygen and they were giving her breathing treatments as often as the medicine would allow.

At the time I stuffed down my own emotions about her having such a hard time breathing.  My daughter was already scared and me processing my own fear would not have help, my emotions read across my face like text printed on a page.  It is now about a week and a half later and I can take the time to process my feelings.  They are not complicated, fear and sadness. Our oldest is like the sun for our family, she always finds a way to cheer up her siblings if they are sad.  Making others happy is what makes her happy.  She is just one of those people.  Our family wouldn't be whole without her with us.  I do know that she would still be part of our family if she had passed away but it still would have hurt like crazy.   Who knows maybe my imagination is overactive but to me it’s not complicated, if you stop breathing you die.

Fortunately that did not happen.  On the floor in the hospital she was staying on, all the kids were sick with the same virus and on isolation.  I would see other parents when she was better walking with their kids and the portable oxygen tanks like us and the nurses told us that our kid was doing the best on the floor which made me wonder just how bad the others kids were.  It felt like the nurses were in her room literally every thirty minutes adjusting her oxygen or doing something to help her. I really have no complaints, the nurses and doctors took great care of her and she is home now.  She still gets tired and takes naps which she didn’t do before but she is home with us and going back to school which makes her happy.

In hind sight I have been really ungrateful for the good health that I have enjoyed my entire life.  I know that my good health is a blessing from God that not everyone enjoys.  Not even in my own family and I can now see why that is such a great gift and blessing to have your health.  I am still tired at the end of the day but I really have no room to complain.  I have the things I really need.

  

Sketching in the Hospital together(Princess necessities provided by family:))

Then she fell asleep.

Blue Shoes

Blue Shoes

During the course of one summer as a child I got stung no less than seven times on my feet by bees (which I am allergic to) because I hated wearing shoes so much.  Chuckle, my poor mother tried so hard to get me to wear shoes and I just wouldn’t and when she could get me to wear shoes regularly I would wear through them like they were made of tissue paper.  I am sure a large part of my mother’s hair went grey that summer.

Now it’s my mother’s turn to laugh at me.  I not only have a child that doesn’t like to wear shoes, I have four that don’t like shoes and one that is as hard on shoes as I was as a child.  So when we arrived at church again and half of my kids had their shoes off again after a seven minute drive all I could do is sigh.  What could I say, I get it. Most shoes are uncomfortable, especially if they are cute shoes.  Your feet get sweaty, the heel rubs blisters into your foot, your feet swell or if they are strappy shoes that breathe then you have to buckle then down really tight so they don’t slip around and at the end of the day you have marks in your feet where the straps were and your arches ache. 

Now I do ask my kids to wear shoes but I don’t blow up at them for it because I remember the headaches I gave my mom.  So I was thinking about the reasons why my youngest daughter might not like to wear shoes.  Then my thoughts moved to the shoes I made for my oldest son. The shoes he now likes to wear around the house because they are comfortable.

So I thought “I could make a pair of cloth shoes for her. What have I got to lose?”

I started keeping my eyes open for some cute fabric scraps that screamed “I would make cute shoes!” as I was working on other projects.  Then I came across some fabric when I was looking for something else. It was left over from when I had hemmed a pair of pants for my mom.  My mom had left the scraps with me because she knew I would find a use for them.    I thought there was plenty of fabric for what I needed.  I already knew that there were videos out there on how to make cute girl shoes.  When I went back to watch these videos I realized that none of them showed how to make your own pattern or measure the foot, all of them used a store bought pattern.  I did have to figure out how to measure it myself.  However, I did find an instructional video that was done so well that I could follow the sewing steps easily.   I don’t even know what language she was speaking in the video but the lady showed what she was doing so well that I still understood what she was trying to communicate. The video is called Zapatos de tela para bebé by LovelyandCreatiful.  I did change one part she did on the sewing; I hide all my seams so my daughter’s feet would not be annoyed by a seam rubbing her toes.

Here is how I approached making her shoes including how I measured her feet, made the pattern and sewed it together.

Step#1

I traced her feet on a piece of paper.

Step#2

I cut out the traced feet with scissors.

Step#3

I took the traced paper feet and traced them on another piece of paper.

Step#4

  

I took a ruler and marked ¼ inch out from the edge of her foot for a seam allowance.  Like creating a set of dots all the way around the foot.   Then I connected the dots.

Step#5

 

 I then cut out the two new pattern pieces for soles of her shoes.

Step#6

 

I measured from the tip of her longest toe to the middle of her heal. Then I drew that distance on a piece of paper.

Step#7

I measured from the tip of her longest toe to where the tallest part of her arch on her foot is.

Step#8

I then measure on the first line I had drawn 2 inches down for the distance of her toe to the arch.

Step#9

I measured from the where the bottom of her foot would touch the floor and across the tallest part of her foot and down the other side to the bottom where her foot touches the floor again.

Step#10

With a ruler I drew the distance that her arch was on the piece of paper making sure that the new line I was drawing was split evenly in the middle to make a t section.

Step#11

I measured from where the arch on the top of her foot is down to where the arch on the under part of her foot is located.

Step #12

On the piece of paper I measure that same distance and made a little mark.

Step #13

I then measured the distance of her actual arch from the under part of her foot up and over the arch and over to the other side where this arch ends.

Step#14

I then marked the distance  of the under arch across the sheet of paper where I had put the little mark showing the distance form the previous arch to the next arch.

Step#15

 

I then took the paper sole pattern I had created and made sure that I lined the paper foot up so that the line I had made to show the length of her foot would be down the middle of the paper sole.

Step#16

I then measured form the last arch I had measured and drawn to the middle of the back of the heel of the foot.

Step#17

I took the ruler and drew distance I had measured on the piece of paper I am creating a paper pattern on for both sides of the feet.

Step#18

I measured the distance from the bottom of her heel to where I wanted the shoe to hit on the back of her foot.  High enough to stay on her foot and low enough to not rub the back of her heel.

Step#19

 

I drew the distance on the paper pattern I was making that I had just measured to go around the foot.

Step#20

I then went back to the line I had drawn for the arch on the underside of the foot and divided the distance of the arch by three.

Step#22

I marked the arch into thirds and put the opening of the shoe in the middle third of the arch.

Step#23

 

I then drew a sloping hill like line from the shoe opening to where the heel of the shoe would be.

Step#24

I then traced the paper pattern I had made in dark blue marker to make it easier to trace.

Step#25

I then cut out this paper pattern with scissors.

Step#26

Then I traced this new paper pattern onto a new sheet of paper.

Step#27

I then traced the pattern with blue marker to make it easier to see.

Step#28

I took a ruler and marked out ¼ from the edge of the pattern I had made to create a seam allowance.

Step#29

 

I then took a pencil and connected the dots.

Step#30

I then cut out my finished shoe pattern.

Step#31

I took the pant cuffs and seam ripped out the seams.

Step#32

I pulled out the stray threads and ironed the fabric.

Step#33

I laid the shoe pattern on the fabric.

Step#34

I pinned the pattern to the fabric

Step#35

I cut out the fabric.

Step#36

I cut out the fabric I had picked for the liner and sole of the shoes.

Step#37

I laid the right sides of the outside fabric and the liner together.

Step #38

 

I laid some ribbon in between he layers to tie the shoe with when she wears it.

Step#39

I pinned the three parts together.

Step#40

 

I surged the edges together.

Step#41

I surged the edges of the rest of the fabric.

Step#42

I cut the corner of where the shoe opening is going to be.

Step#43

 

I flipped the fabric right sides out.

Step #44

I ironed the seams to help them lay flat.

Step#45

I pinned the two pieces of the heel together.

Step#46

I sewed the heel closed. I used a ¼ seam allowance.

Step#47

I ironed the heel seam to help with fabric control.

Step#48

I then had her slip the shoe on and it fit so tight I was afraid she would never get it off once it was on. So I seam ripped the heel back open and cut a little more fabric out in the direction of the toe.

Step#49

I then stitched the heel closed again and had her try it on again and it was just right.

Step#50

 

I then pinned the sole lining of the shoe to the lining of the shoe.

Step#51

 

I stitched the two pieces of the lining together and had her try it on again.  It still fit great.

Step#52

I then cut circle for a decorative fabric flower.

Step#53

 

I surged the edges of the flower.

Step#54

I sewed with a hand needle a loose gathered stitch around the edges of the circle to gather the fabric.

Step#55

I sewed the fabric flower to the outside of the shoe with a button.

Step#56

I then took the outside sole of the shoe and pinned the right side of the outside of the shoe together. I left an opening at the front of the foot so I could flip it right side out again.

Step#57

 

I then sewed as much of the outsides of the shoe together as I could.

Step#58

 

I flipped the shoe right sides out.

Step#59

I then folded the edges of the fabric down and pinned them together in preparation for a hidden seam.

Step #60

I then took a hand needle and stitch closed the opening at the front of the toe.

Step #61-?

I repeated the process for the other shoe.

Step#???

I had her try them on and said “they are comfortable and they are cute!”

I sat back and sighed in relief.  Then I had to take them back to till her birthday which she didn’t like which was also a good sign.  The final thing that let me know she really likes them is when she wears them to church she actually keeps them on (so far)J

Materials

Blue plaid fabric- left over from hemming a pair of pants                    0.00

Blue ribbon- left over from another project                                     0.00

2 white buttons- left over from another person’s project                                  0.00

White liner fabric- left over from another project                           0.00

Jean fabric- from a pair of cut off jean shorts that had worn out in some spots 0.00

Total Cost

                                                                                             0.00