A super party...with Printables!

This weekend was my great nephew Jude's 5th birthday party.

And because 5 is kind of a big deal, His grandma and mom wanted to make it super for him. As in Super Hero and also as in super over the top.

Everyone dressed up as their favorite super hero and played tie up the villains (parents)

 Enjoyed a spectacular cake courtesy of Piece of Cake and his Aunt Amanda.

 

 And had a general blast eating "hero" sandwiches, Thor's hammers and super cookies.

We put a lot of work and thought into making this a truly super party.

My part was designing the invitations, printables and cutouts for the party.

I designed all the Pows, the banners and labels for sandwiches sand silverware. In the spirit of giving I'd like to share those printables with you. Free.

 All of the files can be found here:

 Super Hero Printables.

Because I believe that when you give, you should give with both hands, you are free to use these files in any manner you see fit. Share them, change them as you see fit. Whatever you like these are for you.

Also Scarlet Witch Costume!

 

Eight is great...

 Today is the Wub's 8th birthday. Every year I look back wistfully at how much our sweet pie baby has grown. Each birthday takes her farther from that sweet tiny baby that she was and turns her toward the amazing kid that she's turning out to be.

At one you were fun, smiling and clapping, learning to walk and cheese for the camera.
Two was not terrible, but merry and sweet with shiny red shoes on your cute little feet.
Three was beast because you were our beauty and you know there's no such thing as a Gruffalo
At four you keen to sing us Jolene and explain that you were not a "minja"
Then five came along for our fierce "masketeer" and a sweet pixie haircut that showed off your ears.
Six and in school brought you glasses to see and a party so fancy with cookies and tea
Seven danced in and twirled us about with tutus and tap shoes dancing recitals
Eight is upon us, what will it bring? No matter the journey, the places you go, I'm glad that we get to enjoy the show.

The Other Birthday Dress...

Yes, I made two. But Modern Jersey was on sale at Spoonflower and I'd been painting these pictures and I already had the fabric mostly designed and let's face it, who doesn't love a raglan dress?

I drafted the dress myself using one of her school uniform for size/shape and modifying it for the raglan sleeve. I used this tutorial to get the sleeve right.
The fabric was designed specifically for this type of dress and sized specifically for one yard of  Modern Jersey from Spoonflower.com.
 The dress is switchable from front to back because Wub liked panels. Maybe the alligator a little more. The bottom hem is a lettuce edge in rainbow thread.

See ya' later, alligator!

The Birthday Dress

I used The Norah Dress and Tunic Pattern by Mouse House Creations with a few modifications (Primarily because I had printed the pattern piece and not the instructions and then could not figure out which computer I had stored the original file.)

The bodice is unlined and I did a bias bound neckline instead.
I added an exposed zipper at the back instead of the button and loop closure.
I left the hem straight to show off the border print fabric which gave the dress a handkerchief style hem.
I embroidered the collar, hem and sleeves. The collar also has celebrate embroidered on it.

It was a fairly easy sew (even without instructions) and I want to make her a few more as I love this silhouette on her.

And now we are seven...Wait....What?

I kinda hate birthdays. I kinda love birthdays. On one hand I love all the planning, cake making, present buyingness of it. I also very much enjoy watching my sweet girl grow and learn and become the amazing person she is becoming. On the other hand MY BABY!!! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

This year we took her to her "castle" for birthday pictures. The Old Courthouse is stunningly beautiful and they were kind enough to let us slink about and snap a ton of photos.

 And because we are really hobbits (albeit GIANT hobbits) She had two (yes, two) birthday cakes.

Cake for Party

 Cake for Actual Birthday

Happy Birthday my sweet Wubby.

The Beautiful Birthday Girl

I have to say these are probably the best birthday pictures I've ever taken. Probably because both of us were relaxed and happy.

 

She was just singing and smiling.

 Here she is reading Horton Hatches the Egg to Horton The Elephant.

 Appropriate for a girl born on Dr. Seuss' birthday

Every year we buy her a new charm for her bracelet. She gets to open it on her birthday morning.

This year it was a teapot. Next week she'll be having  a friends/girls tea party at the bakery

There's always one photo that she looks mildly demented. This year it's this one.

Her cake was pretty awesome and ridiculously delicious. Sextuple chocolate cake (she is six) with home made chocolate pudding filling, whipped cream icing and chocolate ganache. Plus a gravity defying bottle of chocolate sauce. Mmmmmmmmmmmm!

Happy Birthday Little Miss Six.

Happy 6th Birthday

When I was One,
I had just begun.
When I was Two,
I was nearly new.
When I was Three
I was hardly me.
When I was Four,
I was not much more.
When I was Five, I was just alive.
But now I am Six, I'm as clever as clever,
So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.
   A. A. Milne



Oh, sweet child you are six today. You asked me if I was sad that you would no longer be five. Of course I will miss the little girl who went to school for the first time, learned to tie her own shoes, lost her first tooth and grew in so many wonderful ways.  But I'm looking forward to Little Miss Six.

What will you learn and do this year? Will we take the stabilisers off your bike? Will you write the great american novel? Paint a masterpiece? Invent an invention? What new and amazing things will you do this year? 

And you do amaze me every single day. So goodbye my sweet little five year old and happy birthday my Little Miss Six. I can't wait for the adventures you will take me on. 


  

The P Word

Mommy: "What kind of dress do you want for your birthday?"
Wub: "I want the top to come to right here. (Makes a motion high across her chest.) With no sleeves and no collar and a great big, really, really fluffy skirt! And pink."

So basically she wanted the dress she wore two years ago for Easter.

I love this dress. We bought it at Target and paid full price for it. Which for me is saying a lot about the depth of my love for it. 

Did I want to make the exact same dress? Eh...not so much. So I was perusing Ebay for some lace to make it just a bit different when I came across this beauty.

 I asked Wub how she felt about a pink and black dress and was granted permission to make it in those colors. 

I used Violette Field Threads Chloe Dress pattern. I've had my eye on this one for a couple of years and I finally felt my skill set had grown enough to tackle it without tears.* I used the size 7 and it was a spot on perfect fit. 

I modified the pattern by shortening the bodice by 3.5 inches, leaving off the sash and adding tulle ties to the side instead. Autie and Jen from ICandy Handmade have a fantastic tutorial on adding tulle ombre to a bodice. I've wanted to try it ever since I first saw it. I wasn't 100% convinced the black satin wouldn't overpower the pink tulle. I was very happy that it worked exactly the way I saw it in my head.

 The instructions for sewing were pretty sparse and I definitely felt there were some places that essential information was missing. There are no instructions for grading seams before turning the bodice. A novice sewist would probably have some issues getting things to turn out as nice as s/he might like. 

Other bits of the pattern were brilliant including the instructions for sewing the side seams of the bodice. This is the first time I haven't struggled with that part. The advice on using upholstery thread and a heavy duty needle to sew the layers of tulle, net and chiffon was definitely needed. 

For the tulle overskirt I cut the tulle about 7 inches shorter than the net an the chiffon (For Wub's dress the skirt is about 26 inches long so I cut the tulle at 19 inches) and serged the lace along one edge. I then used a double needle and sewed a satin ribbon over the serge line to hide the ugly.

 I also used about a a yard and a half less in length than the pattern called for. The pattern called for 2.75 yards cut in half lengthwise making each layer 5.5 yards each. I ordered the lace before I bought the pattern and only ordered four yards of lace. To be honest I'm not sure I could have got  three layers of 5.5 yards of fluffy, slippery fabric to gather around the waist. I felt like I had the fabric gathered as tight as it would go and there were still places that I had to pinch and pin to make it fit around. 

I also serged all the layers of tulle, net and chiffon together before attempting to gather them. It was a gut instinct and I was definitely glad I did. 

I used Nancy Zieman's method of gathering. The technique starts at 17:56 on the video. If you hate to gather this may change your mind. Or at least make it less stressful. I used upholstery weight thread and didn't have the slightest fear the threads would break. 

I attached the top layers using upholstery weight thread, a heavy duty topstitching needle and a fairly long stitch length. Worked a treat.

I wasn't sure whether the dress would need a lining so I tried it on Wub once the overskirt was sewn. Too sheer so I made a pale pink underskirt from some of the lining fabric I bought for a dollar a yard. I cut the underskirt 30 inches by 3 yards. I seamed it into a tube the folded up 1 inch and ironed it. I folded up a further 4 inches to form a deep hem and the used a black scallop stitch in two wide rows to hem it. 

 I know it won't really show, But I know it's there and that's enough for me. I sewed this onto the bodice facing which left a ring of ugly edge sandwiched between the skirts.

 I first attempted to serge these layers together but the serger said "No, thank you." and spit a needle at me. I ended up using upholstery thready and a wide zigzag stitch to tame this.

Then I sewed on seven, perfectly pink, perfectly sparkly buttons that I bought from the dollar bins at JoAnn's. 

*This is where the tears come in. I am recovering from yet another bout with bronchitis. I just finished up a round of antibiotics and steroids. The combination of illness, steroid crabbiness and extremely fussy sewing has not been so much fun. If  I hadn't been so happy with the end result of each step I might have just given up and bought her a dress. Fortunately I have been ecstatic with the results so all the trouble has been worth it.

  I woke up this morning achey, coughing and with a vaguely sore throat.  I powered through it, got all the machine sewing finished and sat down to hand sew the buttons. I do not enjoy hand sewing and I always save the buttons for last. Halfway through the buttons Wub came up to show me the painting she had just finished.

Wub: "Mommy look at my painting!"

Mommy: "Wub, be careful with the paint please."

Wub: "Do you like it?"

Then very wide eyes.

Mommy: "Did you just get paint on your dress?"

Bright yellow paint all over the front hem. Tears, frustration and me going to take a nap. 

Fortunately the paint came out. Later Wub and I had a talk about being cautious and why mommy was so upset in the first place. 

The dress is amazing. I don't usually use the P word in conjunction with Wub. There are so many better things to be than a Princess. An artist, a super hero, a doctor, a scholar for me these are better aspirations. I have to admit though, Wub is going to look like a princess in the dress. 

A punk rock princess.