So with parade season starting up and softball season right around the corner, I've sadly realized that pretty soon, I won't have much time to craft and sew. :( I will try my darndest since it's something I do thoroughly enjoy, but it won't be an every weekend adventure...probably until August or so when both seasons start dying down. ~sigh~
With all that said, I've decided to take on a rather crazy (for me anyways) project before I get too busy with life. I LOVE Pinterest! I get lots of ideas from that site. I also follow a ton of crafting and sewing blogs (thanks to Pinterest). And if I've ever talked with you about buying clothing for my kids, you know that with them being 9, 6 and 19 months (and my boy being in the middle), I have a hard time finding clothing that coordinate with each other when looking for "special occasion" outfits. I'm not into clothing being too matchy, but I'd like to coordinate them because even though I know my house is a circus, I'd like for people to think that we're well put-together; even if it's just for the holidays.
With Easter approaching in a few weeks, I was resigned to the fact that I would never get my children to remotely coordinate until the other day while cruising Pinterest and I saw this picture:
And when I clicked on the picture I realized it's from one of my favorite blogs; Make it & Love it! I got really excited that Ashley has 3 kids (like me) with her boy being in the middle (like me). They do look closer in age than my children, but this picture just showed me that I can have coordinating holiday outfits. And I got inspired!
Patrick would never agree to florals, so I scoured the internet looking for fabric that was "boy" enough for him, but that would still look cute as a dress and skirt. I ended up at Fabric.com because that site seems to be the easiest to navigate when it comes to finding fabrics and there's no guessing as to whether or not they have the fabric in stock, it's stated right under the picture of the fabric pattern just how many yards are available. So there's no disappointment after you fall in love with a certain fabric. I decided to go with Riley Blake's fabrics. A lot of the blogs I follow use her fabrics so I decided to give it a whirl. I decided on her Zoofari Organic line. I chose the stripe blue as the main fabric for the girls and the green dots as the accent. Then I will make Patrick a tie from the leftovers. Hopefully I will have enough to make him one of each fabric.
So this weekend I will be heading to Hobby Lobby to get the rest of my supplies (threads and elastics).
I just hope the fabric gets delivered to my house with enough time to sew these all up!
Upon seeing the tutu I made for Claire (which Claire immediately rejected), Julia asked that I make her one as well. In blue. A color I didn't even think about getting. ~sigh~ A quick look at the following weekend showed that I could take another trip to Hobby Lobby after Julia's riding lesson.
When Julia told me she wanted a blue tutu, I had envisioned all these different colored blues and was quite excited to get the supplies needed so I could get started. When we got to the store, something TOTALLY different happened. I like to give my kids a choice - especially if they're the ones that are going to wear whatever it is I'm making; and Julia LOVES color. The brighter, the better. So once she saw all the colors Hobby Lobby had to offer, my vision of a blue ombre tutu went right out the window! I had to limit her to 3 colors and reminded her that she originally wanted a blue tutu. I also had to give her a quick lesson in what colors matched what and what colors didn't. So she chose turquoise, yellow and black.
Then I had to move on to finding something for Patrick. Poor kid; because there is so much more to offer girls when it comes to crafting/sewing, he usually gets the short end of the stick. I did promise him that I would make an attempt at sewing him up a few pairs of shorts after making some shirts for Julia with some fabric she had picked out a while back (I will get to the story behind the fabric in a bit). So I let him roam the fabric section to see if anything piqued his interest while doing some looking myself. I showed him all these great plaids, stripes and ginghams but he turned each and every one down. I was about to lose hope on him choosing fabric (he's more picky than a girl sometimes!) when all of a sudden I hear "Mom! I like this one!!" and I turn around to see him carrying a bolt of this:
Trying to be a good mother and quickly reassess in my head what I'm going to make for him I tell him that Sponge Bob is a great choice and to put it in the shopping cart. I'm making my way to the cutting table when I hear "Mom! This one too!!" and I turn around to see him carrying this bolt towards the shopping cart:
Once again, I tell him he made some great choices and we make our way to the cutting table; where I get 2 yards of each fabric. And while we were getting our fabric cut, he then proceeded to point out every other fabric pattern he fancied as well. Most were fleeces and flannels so I told him that I would make him some pajama pants when I'm done making his shorts.
Anyways, on to the tutu!! So like I predicted, the knit elastic was SO much easier to work with - I didn't get the 1/2 inch like I mentioned in my last post, but the 1 inch was easy to work with too - it folded over very easily when I tightened the knot of the tulle. And sliding it to the side to make room for more tulle was a cinch as well! This time I also measured the waist and cut that exact length because of the stretch - and it worked out great because I know Julia won't put the tutu right at her natural waist anyways. For the tulle, I also measured to the knee, doubled that amount and added 2 inches to make up for the knot so the tutu falls closer to the knee for Julia than Claire's did for her.
Here is the "progress report" I sent to my friend Mandy (don't mind the mess in the background, that is from the day's worth of fun that I didn't get to clean up yet before turning in for the night - I was making this while watching Amish Mafia last night):
And here Julia is trying on her skirt. You really can't see the blue because she's wearing blue jeans, but she's super stoked that we're going to incorporate it into an Easter outfit:
And I even managed to get Claire to try hers on for 3 seconds while distracting her with the remote:
Patrick decided to get in on the action too:
