Happy Friday! I tell you, these days I can’t tell what’s up and what’s down with all that’s going on. There are daily events at K’s school, work deadlines are looming and it’s dawning on me that my dream of sewing up a whole new wardrobe for my Japan trip is of the pipe variety. We leave next week and the total number of things I’ve sewn for the upcoming Asian adventure: nada.

Luckily, I started early on K’s graduation dress and after many, many iterations it’s done a week ahead of schedule!

One word: silk. Yes, my friends, this little number is made out of floaty, slippery, hair-pullingly challenging silk. My mom gave me this fabric years ago, and I had visions of sewing up a summer tunic for myself at some point, but when I asked K to choose material for her graduation dress, she beelined for this one.

I can’t even begin to tell you how relieved I am that she loves it. She found every muslin I attempted somehow lacking (I don’t blame her — I was trying to hack this pattern and this pattern together and it took me a few tries. You can see the progression on instagram here and here). In the end I drafted the entire dress pattern from scratch, which was a major learning curve for me given the asymmetry of the design.

The dress is fully lined with some rayon lining fabric, and I made my first ever thread belt loops using this video tutorial. It’s basically crocheting thread, and I had fun.

I thought I had all the kinks worked out and sewed up the bodice with the lining, only to find out that the sleeve was digging into her arm pit. It was a hairy moment since I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to enlarge the armhole without messing the whole thing up, but whew, it all worked out. The dress fits her perfectly and she’s happy as a clam.

The design was based off of this sketch that K so helpfully provided:

What do you think? The end result is pretty close to her sketch, right?

I was so immersed in the making of the dress that it didn’t fully hit me that I was, in fact, making a graduation dress. What a milestone! No more elementary school! Ack!! I’m not sure if I’m prepared to be the mom of a middle schooler…I am having HUMONGO feelings.

Back to preparing,
watch my baby grow,
begin packing for Japan

P.S. Happy Father’s Day to all you Dads out there!!

Happy Friday, my friends!

A little while ago, it occurred to me that K has officially outgrown the largest size (130cm) for most of the Japanese sewing books that I own. This was a momentous and startling occurrence. I’ve been sewing from these books for five years, which means I haven’t bought her (or me!) any clothes for 60 months. Wait, that’s not true. I did buy the first day of school outfit here.

Okay, K has received an embarrassment of riches in terms of hand-me-downs from neighbors and she’s worn the ready-to-wear outfits exclusively and exuberantly for the last couple of years. Mildly discouraged but also relieved that it gave me more time to work on books, I had stopped sewing for her.

But joy! K has a sudden renewed interest in handmade clothes and has been squeezing herself into the garb I stitched up years and years ago. It was time to get the sewing machine cranked up again.

So we hightailed it to the nearest JoAnn’s and found a bevy of tween patterns. I already had a few tween patterns on hand, but we were looking specifically for cardigan patterns. She has big, big love for cardis. And shrugs. And boleros. I’ll do another post on the New Look patterns that was part of the same haul, but these were the two Simplicity ones she liked: 1025 and 1510 — see what I mean about the cardis and boleros?

The funny thing about this view C of Simplicity 1025 is that it’s actually a faux cardi. The shirt portion is cleverly stitched as part of the cardigan. I didn’t realize this until I started sewing and was perplexed by the instructions and stared at them for a while. Once I figured it out, it was easy to assemble. K loves it. Size 8 seems to be spot on for my petite, almost 11-year-old in all the Big 4 patterns.

She also begged for the knit skirt, and chose all the fabrics from my stash. That’s my ironclad new rule: no new fabrics. Both were quick to sew, and though my stitches got a little weird around the neckline of the faux cardigan, I’m pretty sure that no one would actually notice.

It looks sort of business-casual to me, but hey, she adores the outfit. That darn skirt hem keeps flipping up…

By now, I’ve quietly surrendered all creative decisions to my budding fashionista, and her next request was for a “musical” outfit. For those of you that may not know, K is a musician. She plays the piano, guitar and cello and she also takes voice lessons. All by her own request. As a totally non-musical person who is tone-deaf myself, what she can do with all her instruments is miraculous to me.

I actually made three boleros total from Simplicity 1510 (the other two disappeared in her laundry basket and I haven’t been able to get photos). The pattern is meant for wovens, but I used a sweater knit, and as per her instructions, I ironed on a big ole gold treble clef. It’s become a fave.

The dress is made out of quilting cotton and isn’t the best in terms of drape. The pleats don’t really show up much with dancing musical notes everywhere, but it’s a nice detail.

Speaking of dancing, apparently this is the new “it” dance move called The Dab:

The Dab from behind:

It’s all the rage at K’s school. My invisible zipper insertion technique needs some work, and I couldn’t get the waist seams to line up but again, chance of anyone noticing are slim.

I’ve noticed that the dress isn’t getting much wear compared to the boleros, but maybe it’s because she had wanted the maxi version and I just didn’t have enough fabric. She’s talking to M here and making him pinky promise something, but I can’t remember what it was about.

Alright, I feel like I’ve assailed you with enough photos for now. As you can see, I’ve been sewing fairly frequently. And I am LOVING it.

I’m not ready to figure out what to do with all the Japanese sewing books, but I will get around to it when the time is right. Baby girls seem to be popping up around me a lot lately, and I do get an outsized amount of pleasure from sewing itty-bitty clothes…

I’m off to sew some more! Have a delightful weekend everyone!

Tween sewing is good
Though our tastes aren’t quite the same
We connect through it

 

Had it been entirely up to me, this Tip Top dress would have been sewn in a sophisticated indigo linen with perhaps some Sashiko stitching along the sleeve edges. Or, I might have just simply copied Celina’s version and made it out of buffalo checks. Those days when K was a pliable, acquiescing dress-up doll? GONE.

There are two things that ensure K will wear something I make:

1. It’s made out of stretchy fabric
2. It’s tight (sigh, this does not bode well for upcoming teenage years)

I figured one out of two would work, and I pulled out some knit fabric options that I hoped would light her up and she pointed to this black performance knit from here in a non-committal way. I chortled with satisfaction when “piping!” popped into my mind, thinking it would add a sportiness that would be in line with the intended use of the substrate.

Oh my friends, she completely rejected it.

I think it’s such a cool and versatile dress, but she didn’t agree. “Only little girls wear that style, Mama,” she informed me.

So what’s a Mama to do?

Make another one in a lacy stretch knit, of course. I figured that if a similar top from Target can capture her heart, surely a garment that her own flesh and blood has stitched into its likeness would be acceptable?

I’m pleased to report that she wholly approves of this version. I shortened it, for starters, and also slimmed down the silhouette. As always, I did it all by feel and estimation, so I’m not exactly sure how much I modified the pattern. Because the lace knit was quite sheer, I lined it with an off-white stretch fabric for the bodice part only, leaving the sleeves to flutter in semi-transparency.

The fact that she loves the lace version leads me to believe that it’s actually piping that turns her off because she despised this top that I made a few years ago too. Hmmm, I just noticed that there’s a piece of black thread on her tunic top. Oh well.

The lace knit was from my stash as well, and I realized that it might be a good idea to use fabric from the sponsors. Imagine Gnats and Raspberry Creek Fabrics are the lovely sponsors for this epic block party going on in celebration of Petit a Petit patterns, and I am not one to pass up discounted fabric. K selected this fabric from Imagine Gnats (we seem to have snapped up all of it), and I was about to start on yet another Tip Top version, but then I heard a voice intoning, it would look so awesome as a tight dress with a turtle neck. The voice sounded exactly like my 10-year-old and was, in fact, her.

So I obliged (though I didn’t make it too tight).

I chopped the bodice pattern pieces even more, and eyeballing the Linden sweatshirt sleeve pattern — incidentally, I’ve been a Linden making machine and will share them soon — I drafted my own raglan sleeve. Not too bad, if I do say so myself.

“Love” is not a sufficient word to describe how K feels about this tunic/dress. She’s worn it multiple times already, which is the ultimate sign of approval. As you can see, the Tip Top pattern can be a great base for modification, and I had a lot of fun playing around with it.

But really, the sewing project that steals the show is that pillow, don’t you think? K made it for me on a whim in between Tip Tops, and this was truly an undertaking filled with blood, sweat and tears. She wanted to do it solo, without any help from me. Yet, on several occasions I heard her defeatedly padding down the stairs and she whispered to me, “I think I might have to give up.” It was enough to melt the most hardened of souls, and I’m already a pushover sap.

Ultimately, I helped her finish up the heart applique and close up the pillow. She eagerly stuffed the heart section with polyfill and after the pillow was complete, we stared at it together in silence. “Does it…” she tentatively ventured, “…look like a boopie?” Indeed, the heart swelled in a distinctly bosomy curvature. We burst out laughing, and I hugged it. I love how hard she worked on it, I love how much thought she put into it, I love my boopie pillow.

 

And yes, I love the Tip Top pattern too! And guess what? Celina is doing a pattern giveaway (ALL of them!!) and here’s the Rafflecoptor to enter:

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

That’s it for my contribution to the block party — check out all the wonderful participants!

 

Nov. 1st – Sweetkm | Nov. 2nd – The Sara Project | Nov. 3rd – La Folie | Nov. 4th – Hello Holli | Nov. 5th – Chalk and Notch | Nov. 6th – Sewing Like Mad | Nov. 7th – Beatnik Kids | Nov. 8th – Stitched Together | Nov. 9th – Coffee and Thread | Nov. 10th – Made by Toya | Nov. 11th – Stahlarbeit | Nov. 12th – Lily en Woody | Nov. 13th – My Petite Sophie | Nov. 14th – Handmade Frenzy | Nov. 15th – Paisley Roots | Nov. 16th – While she was sleeping | Nov. 17th – My Cozy co | Nov. 18th – A Jennuine Life | Nov. 19th – Knee Socks and Goldilocks | Nov. 20th – Sanae Ishida | Nov. 21st – Little Cumquat | Nov. 22nd – Gaafmachine | Nov. 23rd – Craftstorming | Nov. 24th – Made by Sara | Nov. 25th – Buzzmills | Nov. 26th – Bartacks and Singletrack | Nov. 27th – Moineau & Petit Pois | Nov. 28th – Naii | Nov. 29th – Just Add Fabric | Nov. 30th – Mie Made Memories | Enjoyful Makes | Dec. 1st – Petit a Petit and Family

 

Happy Friday and today is the day to honor our veterans! What a week, right? I don’t talk politics in general and don’t plan on starting now, but I do want to acknowledge how heartened I was by the groundswell of positive solidarity that came out of the election results. I voted, of course, and I am a concerned citizen. Yet, at the end of the day, I feel very strongly that what we do as individuals on a daily basis matters far more than who we end up appointing as heads of states. We all have so much tremendous power within us to do good, I believe, and I’ll leave it at that. Besides, I know you’re just dying to find out about this New Look 6297 dress I made for K.

It’s a dress that I wouldn’t have thought to sew, but it was the one K wanted pronto (remember the tween patterns I got from JoAnn’s a while back?). View C sports cut-out sleeves, an asymmetrical hem, and a gathered waist. Those cut-out sleeves were constructed by overlapping two pieces, and was much easier than I expected. I cut out a size 10 and the fit is pretty much perfect. The waist could have been lowered a teensy bit, but it doesn’t seem to bother her much.

The fabric is a slinky, icy blue stretch fabric of unidentifiable origin from my stash. It has a slight sheen to it and is super thin — not what I’d call easy to work with — but I can’t even begin to describe how much K loves this dress.

She decided to wrap the waist tie around her left leg for the Greek Goddess effect and had loads of fun glamming it up with a feather in her hair and turquoise jewelry. Digging through my scarf collection, she found one that made her sway and swirl to imaginary music:

With a more cooperative fabric, this would have been an effortless dress to make. Though I wish my seams hadn’t gotten so puckered, the obvious joy she’s deriving from the dress allows me to shrug my shoulders and laugh at my need for better results.

She was so eager to wear the dress, she wouldn’t even let me finish the hem so it’s just raw. Already, she’s worn it twice, and it’s only been four days since I made it.

Steadily but surely, I am relinquishing my tendency to sew only what I find aesthetically pleasing for her. We have vastly differing tastes, and that’s OK. I love that she’s her own person with her own opinions and I don’t want to ever discourage her from expressing herself. It’s very much the same process I underwent when K started assembling her own outfits. My way is not the only way.

I thought it was hilarious that she insisted on wearing the dress even though she had gym that day. So she wore exercise-appropriate shorts and a tee that totally showed through the dress and popped on a pair of sneakers to school. I wish I’d gotten a photo, it was awesome. Ah well, at least I have about a million of these ethereal shots of her dancing about. It was a good sewing week.

Alright my friends, it’s time to call it quits for now. I hope you have a spectacular weekend, and I leave you with this poem that K wrote for me. She’s currently composing a song to go with the words. I’m one lucky mama.