A Sockin' good time

Originally, I'd planned for my daughter to wear her "Rotten to the Core" Hoodie (remix version) to her Descendants-themed birthday party, but a few weeks out, my husband upstaged me with a much-desired Mal Tutu dress from Wal-mart (sigh...) I couldn't blame him, though - my daughter had been asking for months, so when he saw one in her size, he snapped it up.

Of course, that's what she wanted to wear to her birthday party instead. But, when the going gets tough the tough get creative; My daughter's birthday was at a bouncy house, where they allow you to bring your own socks. I had plenty of scraps left over from the Rotten to the Core Remake. So after some research, I tracked down the kid-sized Cozy Critter Socks by PeekaBoo Patterns.

I've had good luck with Peekaboo Patterns before, and the cozy critter socks did not disappoint. The pattern is straightforward and a 'troubleshooting' section made it easy to get the perfect fit at the cost of one trial sock. The trial sock's fit wasn't bad either - I made it a mate and put it in rotation anyway. One thing to be aware of, though, is that the sock sizes are determined by the length of the child's foot, and not their shoe size. I live with the children I am making socks for, so I just made a foot tracing and measured it, but it wasn't as simple as calling someone up and asking for their child's shoe size.

Discussions in the Peekaboo Pattern Fan group suggested that ankle high socks are best for bouncy houses, because no matter how perfect the fit, everything else likes to work its way down as the calves extend and compress with all the jumping. At first this bummed me out - I was using gorgeous fabric, and my first instinct had been to go knee-high. But my daughter, bless her soul, stumbled on the perfect solution for showing off her Descendants socks when not in the bouncy house -

A pair of Mary Janes! I fussycut everything, but it was just pure luck how well the pattern placement on the socks worked with the 'windows' provided by the Mary Janes. Our luck also held in that the socks stayed on through ~1.5 hours of bouncing - more than I can usually expect from storebought socks. Also the socks still looked good afterward.

Below is my daughter in her party outfit, showing off her best 'villian' face...

...with homemade villain socks that she's definitely going to wear again, from a pattern I'm definitely going to make again.

Crashin' the Party

With D3 on the horizon, I jumped at the chance to order some more of the "Rotten to the Core" fabric; my daughter *loved* the hoodie dress I made her last year with it, but she outgrew it earlier this year.

I missed my initial goal of a new Descendants outfit for the D3 premiere, but D3 juiced my daughter's enthusiasm for the franchise. So the next time my daughter got to pick her own fabric for a dress, she selected this Descendants-inspired print.

And I, having had a long time to think about what I wanted to make for it (and to pick the perfect purple to go with it, thank you PurpleSeamstress) had TONS of options at the ready; a layered off-the-shoulder look, a pretty peplum, and a hooded 'princess' dress with a high-low double skirt.... the possibilities were endless, and I was absolutely itching to try something new after my pre-Disney Hoodie Marathon in September.

So what did my beloved daughter pick? Well... another Haven's Hoodie, of course. Sigh. I'll admit, it dampened my enthusiasm for a bit, having already made one of these in this fabric with these features. Usually I have a drive to finish "So I can see what it looks like," but in this case, all I needed to do was look at old pictures to see how it would turn out.

Also, in my annoyance at having to make it again, I blew straight past my daughter's size-7 measurements and made her a size 8, only to find that it was *still* a little large on her, even though she'd outgrown her Size 6 Haven's Hoodie last year. Not that she minds! She and her Brother both picked fun mom-made customs for the day before Halloween, and had a blast wearing them.

At the end of the day I do have plenty of *other* fabric I can use to try out new patterns, fabric with prints she doesn't have a preconceived notion about. I can still enjoy experimenting with those.

And in the meantime, here's to a dress so loved it got requested twice! And here's to two years of "Rotten to the Core" creations.