First up is a dress I made for Ellie. She had a complete meltdown after I bought school supplies and uniforms for the big girls. I sent her to bed and after a couple of minutes, she started screaming. So, I asked Madeline what was wrong.
Madeline: "She thinks you don't love her because you didn't buy her anything."
Me: "ELLIE!!! Come here!!!"
Ellie: "Why don't you love me!?!?!?"
Me: "What? Well, you know, no one *ever* buys you anything, I *never* sew things for you, I *never* take you anywhere, and you are just *totally* neglected."
Ellie: "I knew it was true!!!" insert more screaming here...
She then ran upstairs, threw herself on her bed and sobbed. Ugh. Sarcasm is TOTALLY wasted on a 4 year old. So, Madeline goes to the rescue, and goes up after her to see how to fix this situation. A minute later, I get this.
Madeline "She says she wants some new clothes."
Me: "Ok, see if she is okay with me sewing her a new dress."
Madeline (after talking to Ellie): "A spinny one?"
Me: "Sure. A spinny one."
Madeline (after more conferring with Ellie): "She wants to pick the fabric."
Me: "Ok, whatever. That's fine."
Madeline trots back upstairs to report that I've agreed to Ellie's negotiations, and I hear Ellie say "Yea!" Then not another sound until the next morning.
So who actually won that one? Hmmmmmmmm..... I wound up making a dress from the 03/07 Ottobre, and I used a vintage duckie fabric I acquired some time back, and scraps of red gingham that was in my stash. I am really happy with how it turned out - I opted to add a placket instead of inserting a zipper, and love the results. If I make this dress again, I will do it a little differently, as the placket turned out very bulky.
Then there is Noah's gnomes outfit. I bought a couple yards of Heather Ross Gnomes on blue, then managed to find the coordinating stripe last year. I had kind of tentatively been planning to make it with these patterns from the 03/06 Ottobre. I opted to leave the flaps off the shirt pockets, omitted the tabs on the sleeves, and shortened the sleeves some (not enough, IMO). I figured that if I left off those things, I could dress it up a bit, as there was plenty of the gnomes left to make a jonjon. Haven't finished that yet, but I'm almost there. I'm really pleased with how the patterns fit, except for the one problem I always have with Ottobre. The pants are pretty short in the rise, and we are all long in the rise around here. No biggie - just adding an inch to the kids stuff works great. However, since I hadn't made pants for Noah before, I thought I would go with the pattern as it was written, and I could modify future projects. I'm totally thrilled with how this outfit turned out!!!
Oh my, he really wanted to sit down, but it had been raining! Ack! And we were on our way to church!
Pocket detail:
Pants back detail:
And I got a smile out of him!!!! That made my day!
And there you have it - my excitement for the day ;o) I'm off to sew some more!
4 comments:
The fabrics are awesome! Can you send me some gnome-fabric, please ;) I've even got the "big book of gnomes" - they are very much like the scandinavian sort of "santas", only we call them nisse or tomte (depending on language). Only five months to go until xmas! *yay*
Love the gnome pants! Those are absolutely adorable. Great work!
That dress is adorable! Definitely good for spinning. (Took me a couple of minutes to figure out what a "spinny" one was.) The combo of the duck fabric with its little bit of red and the red gingham is perfect. And I love handkerchief hems.
The gnomes are too cute!
I came back here to tell you that while I liked the idea of the pattern paper in your paper pack, I was not prepared for how good it would be when I saw the real thing. I love the little heart pocket, the scallops, the little puffy sleeve pattern that I've made so many of. It's almost a shame to cover the paper up with photos!
I think it is so cool that you sew for your kids. You just don't hear of that much these days. Unfortunately, I did not inherit the gift of learning how to sew, but my mom can sew beautifully, and some of my best childhood memories are of when my mom sewed me up something pretty to wear and I knew it was special because nobody else had one like it, and it was like wearing my mom's love, and felt like she was with me when I missed her at school when I was little. I love how you are giving that to your kids. :-)
~Angel
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