Long Live Having Fun

My daughter went through a Disney's Descendants' phase last fall, asking to be Mal for Halloween and wanting a Descendants themed birthday party. Good Descendants knits are, as it turns out, REALLY hard to find; I searched fruitlessly through most of October. But in a stroke of what can only be considered AMAZING luck, I scored the second-to-last yard of this beauty on a site I had *just* joined earlier that day (and for other reasons) In November. Serendipity, I'm sure.

When it came, I had to hide it from my daughter so I could finish my Christmas(ish) projects. I'd initially thought that this dress would be another Isla like the Science Dress, and I sketched out some of the options to see if I could give my daughter some input into the design process. On a lark, I also sketched out some dresses that incorporated design elements from two OTHER patterns I'd recently downloaded but never tried as well.

My daughter skipped over all the Isla options, and instantly decided she wanted "the dress with the hood." She pointed me to the straighter silhouette, so CKC's Haven Hoodie it was.

I agonized muchly over which green to choose for the inside of the dress' hood. My daughter initially said pink, but we talked her into green once we pointed out none of the Villain Kids wear pink regularly. Purple Seamstress Gave me two options:  Should I go with the Kelly Green like Mal's outfit? Or the lime green like the logo (and Mal's magic)?

I stared at my color card for hours, ordered both, and *still* couldn't decide. Fortunately, once it occurred to me to ask my daughter, she settled it authoritatively in favor of lime green .

Seeing the green up against the flames of Mal's magic, I do have to admit she was right.

This was my first Create Kids' Couture (CKC) pattern, and I am definitely hooked on the ease of printing and thoroughness of directions. That said, I did make some significant modifications to the pattern to achieve this look: I removed the cuffs at the wrists and added length to the sleeves to compensate, and I removed the cuff at the bottom, opting instead for a contrast band that continued the line of the skirt. I feel this generated a similar look, but with a slightly more fashion-forward (and year-round!) silhouette. Which is great, because my daughter approves!

This dress is called upon at least once a week, sometimes more if we do a load of mid-week purple laundry. Little A is thrilled that she can put both her hands into one big pocket, and she's already said she wants her next dress to have a hood too. This dress isn't quite as *fast* as the Isla or the TDD Peasant, but I somehow suspect I will make it many times over just the same.

Scientific Seamstressing

A friend of ours, who has a daughter A's age, has had a really rough year. The company she loved working for went under, and she had an application to PA school rejected not because she wasn't qualified, but for administrative reasons that can't be fixed until next year. Ugh.

I can't fix what truly ails her: a "gap year" for a person whose type A personality abhors uncertainty and loose ends. But I *can* send her a vote of confidence for her (eventual) chosen new profession. Last year her daughter *lived* in a science-themed dress from Princess Awesome, and it doesn't take a rocket-scientist seamstress to reverse-engineer *that* sewing pattern. Especially not if that seamstress has already made two OTHER Islas from Simple Life Pattern Co.

I'd looked for a nice, science-y print for a while last year, scouring all the custom knit sites. But when I went to the Quilter's Festival in Houston with my Mom (you can see her recap of our trip here), this print called "Geek Chik" by Studio E caught my eye. I wasn't *Opposed* to wovens (they're what Princess Awesome uses after all), I think it just hadn't been on my radar at all. So, I picked it up.  

I paired it with a nice, solid royal blue from Sweet N Charmed, and I was just going to leave the front plain until I saw the corresponding panel. I couldn't resist! It is woven, so I'm hoping it won't limit the stretch of the garment as it goes over the head *too* much, but I love the way it looks. Apparently the molecule on the front is Caffeine - not a substance that I think mixes with 5-year-olds overly well - but hey, the organic structure and the magnifying glass are still cool.

Also, there was one other detail I couldn't resist. The Isla has directions for a heart cutout on back, and a files section with pattern pieces for other cutouts. None of those cutouts was a scientific tool, but it did give me the idea. So, bonus beaker on back!

I think my friend is waiting until it warms up a little bit before she lets her daughter wear it, thanks to the cutout on the back (in January! Oops...) but I know she was happy to receive it!

Rampaging Raglans!

Normally, Sewing projects take me a while. A couple minutes of cutting out here, a few quick seams there... I'm a working mom with two small kiddos, so I take what I can get. But in early December, I really lucked out; My husband (who often has to work weekends in the fall) had off, we didn't have anything major planned, and the kids were in a surprisingly independent mood.

So, I busted out the sewing machine, and made not one, not two, but THREE Raglans for my kids. Be still my heart!

First up was a Ninjago Raglan for my son, who loves that show with a passion. He has waited with WAY more patience than my daughter has between garments (probably because he is littler and less opinionated), but when I showed him his choice of three fabrics, this is the one he was quick to pick.

I got it from a Destash group and so I don't know who ran it, but I am also in quite a bit of love with it, because of the slightly-watercolor feel and vibrant colors. Initially I auditioned a LOT of different colored solids with the print, but ultimately my husband talked me into using black, and I'm glad he did. It makes the characters stand out, rather than the sleeves.

My son actually loves the shirt, but every time I put it on him, he revolts at the idea of taking pictures. I made this in a size 4 but shortened it by 1.5" since last time the size 3 I made was ridiculously long. There's extra length in the hems should I elect to use it: we'll see if my son's love for the shirt eclipses my hatred of ripping out knit stitches.

Next up was my daughter, who developed a sudden obsession with the Nightmare Before Christmas. The weekend I did this, it had been all she could talk about for a month. Even my 2-year old son can now say "Jack Skellington" - although at Custom Destash Prices (and on the heels of his new Ninjago wear), he did NOT get his own version of the shirt. But I DID get to satisfy my urge for color sleeves!

The print is a parody called "Merry Nightmare," by Mk*Designs and my husband gamely kept our daughter out of the kitchen the entire time I was cutting it, and through about 80% of the sewing process;  she caught on eventually, though, and escaped him just as I was hemming the sleeves. Secrecy is not big at our house. Ironically, I her shirt was ALSO a 4T (in width anyway; in height I went with 5T and didn't need to), because she is taller but not that much bigger around, apparently. She loves the shirt and was more than happy to model it. I've also caught her climbing up her closet shelves so she can reach it. It's one of the first things to disappear from her closet after laundry day.

And finally, in what can only be described as a state of disbelief akin to winning the lottery, I realized that I had finished this shirt on a Sunday afternoon with no plans for the evening (other than cleaning, but Mr. RLQ indulged me), so I started in on a THIRD raglan.

This one uses a print called Color Wars, which seemed custom made for my son who immediately yells "Saber! Light Saber! Light Saber!" whenever he sees an image of the iconic Jedi weapon, He's also a huge fan of light saber battles at home, and can name at least half of the characters represented on the fabric (for which his father, also a star wars nut gets credit). The 4T Ninjago shirt for my son turned out a LITTLE big, so I went back to 3T on this one, figuring it was more 'of the moment" and did not need to last so long.

It's definitely not a favorite the way the Ninjago shirt is, but you can't win everything all the time. And really, the idea of finishing 3 projects in, well, basically a weekend (technically Monday to Monday, but the bulk of the work was done over the weekend)? HUGE win. I am assisted by the fact that raglans are basically composed of straight line seams + some hemming and a neckband, but hey: a finish is a finish. Here are my little achievements side by side,

And here they are on their respective owners:

So glad they are loved!

Bears that Care for an Expecting Mom

Late last year we received some exciting news from my brother; he and his wife were expecting their third child, and our first nephew on that side of the family! C has already been pregnant twice (with my nieces V and L), and was a consummate trooper with her last pregnancy. So, since by pregnancy #3 it's easy to start thinking of pregnancies as "routine" and "the status quo," I wanted to do something special to commemorate the event. 

Like a handmade maternity top. 

My own experience is that Maternity wear is perfectly calibrated to last *exactly* 1.5 pregnancies. So C, who is usually pragmatic about not spending too much on limited-use things like maternity clothing, could probably use an infusion of nice, new maternity stuff by pregnancy #3. Also, I thought it might be fun to make something in an undeniably boy-ish color since previous maternity wear has, for the most part been used to gestate girls. Enter the perfect fabric.

C is an 80s child like me, and her nickname growing up was "Care Bear." So when I saw this "Bears that Care" print I thought of her, although it wasn't until my brother called that I had an actual justification to BUY some of it. I picked it up from Firefliez Fabrics in Cotton Lycra.

For the pattern I used the Layer Me Up Shirt and the Layer Me Up Maternity Add-on from Patterns 4 Pirates. This was my first P4P project, and I was pretty pleased with the instructions and how simple they were, although putting together the cutting guide/pattern itself was kind of nervewracking. The Layer Me Up Top uses one pattern piece for the torso front and torso back, and then a couple of interchengeable pattern pieces for the armscyes up top, and the Maternity option uses the same back but a different front (obviously), so it was a lot of different pieces to keep track of. It's the same basic concept as a flipbook:

But if you get the pages wrong, you ruin the fabric. Given that my fabric was practically irreplaceable, I spent a fair amount of time asking "do have the correct combo, right?" at every step. That said, the top went together *reasonably* quickly, and I loved the final result.

I paired the main bear print with a delightful yellow solid from Purple Seamstress, which I think gave it just the right amount of POP. From the back it looks like a normal shirt, but in the front there is plenty of room for a baby bump. 

And, speaking of baby bump... here's C with hers! This photo was taken at 22 weeks, just after my creation arrived. C looks amazing, and I'm really flattered that she was excited enough to try it on first thing. 

Looks like in P4P patterns, "tunic length" gets dangerously close to looking like a dress (at least on C, who is 5'3"), but even if this particular tunic/dress combo just gets worn around the house, I'm still glad to see my SIL (and my Nephew!) sporting a little Auntie RLQ love.