Friday, March 30, 2012

Make it. Made it.

First off a couple of Chloeisms.

Chloe-"What does difficult mean?"
Mommy-"Do you know what hard means?"
Chloe-"Yes, hard means not squishy at all."

While out shopping...
Lady customer- "Aren't you the cutest thing?"
Chloe-(Running by, over her shoulder.) "Yes, I am!"

Note to self: Teach Chloe about vanity.

So, I've been off work for a few weeks recovering from gall bladder/hernia surgery. Can't really deep clean the house or garden or do anything that requires heavy lifting or much bending so I've been sewing. A lot.

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Pre-surgery I finished the "Supposed to be her Christmas dress but I messed up the shirring so I lost steam and didn't finish it until early March so now it's her Birthday dress." dress.





Then I made her a separates outfit for her to wear to her birthday party. It was inspired by Michael Costello's outfit for the Broadway Challenge on Project Runway All Stars.



The first thing I made after surgery was my own design. This too was inspired by Michael Costello's Broadway Challenge for Project Runway. Mine of course is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay simpler. I just wanted to capture that fun silhouette. I made her the exact same style dress except white on top, yellow in the middle and green on the bottom and the second version has pockets. For some reason I haven't taken a photo of it even though she's already worn it at least twice.
















Then I made her Simplicity 2006 from some lovely and expensive Robert Kaufman Celebrate Seuss Fabric. It felt like it was going to be a bit of train wreck/clown costume but trust Wub to be cute enough to pull it off. I put this on her and she immediately started jumping around because it's, you know...a jumpsuit,













She's outgrown her Threadless "Playin' in the Sprinkler" Tee. I cut it into a tank trimmed it with purple bias tape and added an uber cute seersucker and tulle skirt. It works perfectly with the grey and purple tights Daddy brought home from England. We even found purple shoes that someone had handed down to us!










Next was a foray into the world of nightclothes. Simplicity E1835, some beautiful fabric bought on clearance at the Walmart, lovely butterfly embroidered edging and (not shown) butterfly buttons make this the fussiest thing I've ever made. Love it and her in it.












 Probably not last, but definitely the latest another foray into nightwear. I bought the above pink fabric and decided it needed to be a nightie. So I searched the web for inspiration and found these Gingercake's Pillowcase Nightgown Tutorial  and this Summer Sewing Pillowcase Nightgown on Sew, Mama Sew. (Which is the pattern I decided to go with because I really like bias tape.) Here's the weird part. I was nosing around on Gingercake's blog and found a previous post on Thrifting Treasures. The fourth picture was my Grandma's sheets! Nostalgia! Imagine my surprise when the next day we took a trip to Goodwill and found the exact same sheet and pillowcase!
Exactly the SAME!!!

Friday, March 02, 2012

You say it's your birthday...

She's asleep right now.


All sprawled out, hair a crazy halo about her head, one hand tucked up beside her face. She looks like such a big kid but she's my baby and she always will be.

Not that I'm complaining because damn, she is a pretty amazing kid. She says and does things that make me look at the world in a whole new way. She makes me laugh and cry and makes me want to be a better person. She also made me pretty okay with the way I am now. All in all a pretty amazing product packed into a liitle package.

The other night we were watching A Concert at the White House and though she wasn't fully appreciative of the Blues she did ask many questions about what they were and why they were called the blues. We tried our best to explain the concept of singing about the hard times to remind ourselves of the better times. We even tried to a little bit explain the idea of catharsis. Did she get it? I wasn't sure until Gary Clark Jr. came and rocked the place "Mommy this isn't the blues, this is the happies because it makes you happy!" (She rocks)

So today is her birthday, she's asleep now but soon she'll pop open her eyes and look out on the world in her amazing way. We'll give her gifts and try to make her feel special because she is.

Yes, it's her birthday but four years ago she gave us both the best gift and she keeps on giving.

Happy Birthday Chloe. We love you!

Later on that very same night....