One of the first and most ubiquitous custom knit shops I got into was Knitorious - years ago I bought some Floral Wars on a May the 4th sale, and it sat unused on my shelf, just too pretty (and expensive!) to cut into.
Fast Forward to this summer, when pandemic-related stress (and amazing price reductions on custom clothing) turned me (temporarily?) from fabric-shopper to finished-object shopper. One of my favorite places to window-shop is Custom Collective on Facebook. Their designs are stunning, and for a few months when everyone was home and saving up, the price points were just too good to resist. While I was trawling and admiring one day, my daughter looked over my shoulder and saw this dress:
It was love at first sight for her. The Inky Bluebird is an amazing designer: I bought a hoodie for my son from her on Club Pixieville, and the craftsmanship and cuteness factor are both top notch. Unfortunately this particular piece sold at auction for a price point WAY higher than I was willing/able to pay. But with my daughter's excitement, I knew I had to do *something* with the fabric I had.
Already being in possession of the yardage, I needed only to find a way to procure the matching panel. As I have said before I *usually* try to avoid the fabric Buy/Sell/Trades, but again I made an exception for this one. A kind soul took pity on my (well, maybe not THAT much pity on me - I'm sure she made out handsomely in the transaction) and I scored not only a matching BB8 panel for my daughter, but also a matching R2D2 panel for my son. Did I mention I love sibling sets? Because I really do love them.
Anyway, these panels made their way to me right before school started for the year, and so my daughter enthusiastically picked this fabric for a back to school outfit for herself. And, she definitely wanted it just like the Inky Bluebird dress: except she's more of a shirt-and-jeans person, so she wanted a peplum rather than a dress. And she's not really into spaghetti straps, so could it have puffed sleeves instead? And of course, mom's fabric was black and not purple, but other than that...
Thank goodness for the Sew By Pattern Pieces Girls' fun tee - this patter came to the rescue for what feels like the 100th time. I'm about to the point where I can do this pattern in my sleep (the gathers do still take a while though!), and this time I did skip the cute Delaney back for efficiency & better coverage against a cool fall breeze. I pulled this together at the very last minute, but in a late-night photo session she was all smiles after receiving it.
She wore my creation proudly to the first day of school, and came home with a "my first day" booklet where she'd carefully hand drawn her "BB8" shirt over & over again...
...definitely a parenting win for me!
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