KCW Days 1-4: Adelaide's Wild and Free Geranium Dress

The first thing that came to mind for me when I learned that this week's theme is "Kid Art" was letting Adelaide loose with some fabric paint. She gets some art project fun, I get some adorable hand-painted fabric, and we get to collaborate on making something in the sewing room. Win, win, win.

She did an awesome job with her fabric painting (no bias here, nope, not at all). There was no end project in mind when I doled out the materials. I picked this mystery fabric out of the remnant bin at JoAnn Fabrics ages ago. It's got a linen-ish thing going on, but I don't know what it actually is. Looking at my stash, this is what seemed best suited for a three-year-old's experimental fabric painting. I really let Adelaide do her own thing with the fabric paint, though I tried to keep about three colors in her tray at a time to avoid having everything turn to brown from overenthusiastic color mixing. 

Her finished piece definitely had a border-print vibe, and my mind went straight to the Geranium Dress pattern. I asked her what she wanted to make with the fabric, and she didn't know, so I made the suggestion and she agreed. 

The bodice is some chambray from another project. It happened to match some of the paint perfectly.

Adelaide even picked the buttons herself.

As I've mentioned here before, Adelaide isn't one for fussy clothes. I have to make a real effort to not treat something like this too preciously or she will NEVER wear it. I have to check myself: what is the point of a kid having clothes if I'm going to get bent out of shape when they get grass stains or ice cream on them? I'd a million times rather her wear something lovely and stain it (or rip it) than never wear it. She's my rough-and-tumble, garden-loving girl, so if she can't wear something for all that entails, it's not worth making. 

So here she is, watering the garden in her brand new dress. Perfectly Adelaide.

Pajamarama

I like sewing pajamas for the kids. There are just so many upsides:

1. Instant gratification: Most pajamas are a pretty quick sew. They're not complicated. They don't involve a lot of extra fuss. Some rather basic knit or woven fabric, a bit of elastic, and half an hour...ta-da!

2. Low-pressure sewing situation: They're pajamas, so they don't have to be perfect. As long as they're comfortable and don't fall apart, it's a win. Cute is a nice bonus, but if it doesn't work out, I'll live.

3. Frugality: The pajamas in the post were really inexpensive to make. Like free (well, unless you factor in my time, but even that wasn't a lot). Pajama sewing is perfect for recycling old grown-up clothes. It's not always (or even that often) that sewing is really "cheaper" than buying (not that it should be or needs to be!), and it's a nice bonus when I can make a summer pajama wardrobe for nothing rather than shelling out $ at Old Navy or Target or some other god forsaken hell hole.

4. Guaranteed wear time: Sewing for the kids is a risk. I've made some cute things that live exclusively in the closet. BUT! Take the number of pajama items in Adelaide's drawer, factor in the tossing turning toddler sweat and the spilled breakfast items, and multiply by the (ir)regularity of my laundry routine. All the jammies get worn at some point. ALL OF THEM.

Okay, on to the show-and-tell.

Adelaide already had the polka dot pajama shirt, but the matching pants are getting too small now. Luckily, I had leftover fabric...just enough for some shorts. These are the Sleeping Johns from Growing Up Sew Liberated, just shorter. I made them in a 4T so my little 3-year-old would have some room to grow.

The green and pink shorts were made from some of my old (huge and falling apart at the waistband) pajama pants. I used the free Oliver + S Sunny Day Shorts pattern in a 4T. (Adelaide measured between the 2T and 3T, but for pajamas I wanted to err on the side of baggy. I think it was definitely the right choice here.) It was a super easy and quick pattern, and they look really comfortable. Oh, and let's talk useful stuff for a sec: flat felled seams. Not that difficult on something like this and makes the shorts so much more sturdy. It's a little extra step I'm glad I took.

The pink shirt was just one of my old ill-fitting tops. I think I got it in high school and stopped wearing it about shortly post-college, but I held onto it hoping to re-purpose it one day. Only a decade and several moves later, that day has finally come. TOTALLY WORTH IT.

I took the seam ripper to the sides and some of the ribbing, then I redrafted the armholes and took the sides in (not quite enough, though). And then I reattached the ribbing I had undone and crossed the straps at the back. It was still too baggy, so I pinched a little pleat into the back. I didn't want to re-hem it, so it ended up really long. More of a nightgown. But that's cool, because why not?

Pajama sewing for the win.

KCW Project 2: Space Ranger Bimaa Hoodie

Hey! I'm finally wrapping up my Kids Clothes Week posts! Go me!

There's something I neglected to mention about Adelaide in my last post: Toy Story 2.

She is freaking gonzo for that movie. As in, she is constantly pretending to be Woody or Buzz or Jessie (but usually Buzz these days) and assigning everyone else around her roles as well. (Poor Quinn is often relegated to the role of Mister Potato Head, but such is the plight of a little brother, I suppose.)

So I had the idea to make her a space ranger hoodie, and I immediately knew that I wanted to go with the Bimaa pattern by Lou Bee Clothing. I found some awesome quick-dry jersey at JoAnn Fabrics for the blue, green, and purple. The white is just the stretchiest white jersey the store had, but it's not as great as the quick-dry stuff.

The shirt sewed up pretty quickly, and I'm very happy with it, though the 3T fits a little long on my smallish almost-three-year-old. I didn't do the suggested edge stitching around the face opening, but I think I might go back and do it, because it's looking pretty floppy. On the other hand, Adelaide doesn't mind it, so maybe I won't bother.

I drew and cut a freezer paper stencil for the control panel on the front. Rather than paint all the buttons on, I decided to sew on a few real buttons, which I think worked out well. Plus it's an extra selling point for Miss Picky. A hood, buttons, AND a space ranger theme is pretty much hitting up her whole want list. All that's missing is a set of pockets and a matching shirt for her brother -- then this would be the holy grail.

I'm happy to report that Adelaide loves it! It's probably my biggest sewing win for her so far. She's wearing it right now, even. Hooray!

Yet, despite the fact that she loves wearing it, the photo shoot was nutso. She was happy enough to stand in front of the camera in exchange for some fudge, but not without some pretty intense hamming. I took about 100 photos, and the ones above are pretty much the only ones in which she played it straight. Mostly, it was like the photos below: crazy cakes. But, I must admit, they're pretty awesome. Maybe she knew exactly what she was doing.

KCW Project 1: There's Always Room For Ice Cream Tunic

Kids Clothes Week is, of course, over by now. But it takes me awhile to get a post up these days, so here you go.

First, let me just tell you a little bit about Adelaide. She is almost three. She loves digging. She loves dancing all crazy to Michael Jackson tunes. She loves wearing jeans because that's what cowboys wear. She has very strong opinions. And she never wants to wear anything fussy, meaning she's kind of a T-shirt girl (chalk it up as a "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" thing).

Yeah, that's a wrinkly sheet taped up as a backdrop. Winning.

Before I knew her so well, way back when she was either in utero or a teeny tiny baby (I can't remember for sure), I saw this super cute Lisette ice cream/popsicle fabric at JoAnn's. I snapped it up with plans for making an adorable little dress at some point. Well, once that kid got on the move and vocal about her likes and dislikes, I decided not to waste the time or fabric on something she probably wouldn't enjoy wearing.

These days, particularly during Quinn's naptimes, Adelaide likes to hang out in my sewing room with me, playing with fabric scraps and wooden spools while I work. It is fantastic, seriously, one of my dreams come true. Sure, I end up getting less done than I would all by myself, but the other day she asked if she could sew something on my machine and my heart melted into a gloriously mushy puddle.

Pockets are serious business.

One day, she spotted the ice cream fabric. And it was love. Cue weeks of asking if I'd made her an "ice cream shirt" yet, even with some very polite "please" action thrown in for good measure. That kind of request just cannot be ignored. So, despite my reservations, I decided to place Adelaide's Ice Cream Tunic at the top of this season's KCW list.

Not sure what she's doing to Big Bird here, but it seems menacing.

I went with the Made By Rae Geranium pattern, making it with the cap sleeves, tunic length, side seam pockets, and plain neckline. It sewed up really nicely. The pattern was great, very clear. And the size 3 is a great fit for my smallish nearly-3-year-old.

It's pretty stinking cute too, though I may be biased.

Will she wear it? Time will tell.

KCW Days 6, 7, and beyond: Cozy Flannel Robe

I started this robe during Kids Clothes Week, but after the week ended, robe unfinished, I kind of lost some momentum. Finally, it's done and I love it! I want one for me!

I really wanted to make Adelaide a fully lined flannel robe. Guess how easy it is to find a pattern for that, especially in her teeny size 2? Yeah, not easy. Burda 2662 was all I found, and as small as it goes is size 3. I went with it, and it's kind of huge on the kid, but I think it's big and cozy in a good way. Plus, now it'll last a couple of years.

Fabric was another challenge. This robe calls for nearly 3 yards of each fabric. So, looking at all the nice flannels that kept catching my eye, we were talking somewhere upward of $50 in fabric for a two-year-old's bathrobe. But then I stumbled upon a sale bin of precut flannel at JoAnn's, $5 for each three-yard bundle, making the total a beyond reasonable $10 of fabric. And I am really happy with this flannel so far. It feels substantial and is incredibly soft. I wanted to cozy up with it while I was working with it.

This was my first time sewing from a Burda pattern. It was a very simple, basic pattern, but I was a bit thrown by the pattern markings since they aren't quite the same as what I'm used to. I only sort of followed the instructions but, with something this basic, that worked out fine. Honestly, the worst part of this project was tracing the pattern pieces. It seemed like it took forever and, because the markings weren't my usual, I was always wondering if I'd traced all the correct markings for the size. But the sewing itself was easy as pie.

As you may or may not know, depending on your personal life experiences, trying to get photos of kids at all in handmade stuff can be a challenge. On the one hand, I want some documentation before my work is all wrinkly (because I don't iron unless I'm sewing) and stained (because children). On the other hand, I don't want sobbing children who grow up to tell their therapists all about how my sewing and blogging ruined their childhoods. (I kid. Sort of.) So it's always a compromise. What I get: her standing somewhat still while wearing whatever it is that I made. What she gets: everything else. And Adelaide had some strong opinions about this one. She felt strongly about the wearing of bunny ears. She also insisted that she hold her brother's Raggedy Andy. Furthermore, no photos would be taken without "a treat" immediately following the shoot. Well played, Adelaide, well played. After about 100 photos, she was willing to try a few sans ears so that the hood could be pulled up, and when she put the doll down to mess with the hood, she forgot about it. And I got a few photos styled a bit less awesomely more simply. Mama patience for the win.

KCW Day 2: Reversible Hooded Cape

Merry Christmas, Adelaide. I finally finished your cape. Mother of the freakin' year right here, folks.

This is the Red Riding Hood from Oliver + S: Little Things to Sew. It's a size medium, which is supposed to fit up to age 4. It was bound to be a bit big on my on-the-small-side 2.5-year-old, but that's the smallest size for the pattern, so I went for it anyway. She wanted a hood, and this way it ought to be wearable for quite a while.

I used a couple of quilting cottons I picked up from JoAnn Fabrics. The red is just a normal solid, though it is somehow also the most fuzz-attracting fabric in the world. I must have lint-rolled the thing five times, and there's still stray thread and cat hair clinging to it. The starry lining isn't my usual cup of tea, but I really like it. In fact, I like it so much that I decided to make the cape reversible just so the lining can be the star(s)--see what I did there? yeah, sorry--sometimes. Making it reversible was super easy: just put a button on each side. Bam! Reversified!

Other changes I made: I moved the little arm holes up about an inch, which helps the fit if your kid is smaller than the pattern's intended wearer. I also top-stitched all around the cape at the end. The prime reason for the top-stitching was sparkly silver thread. I bought it because it was shiny and wanted to use it. It's pretty subtle on the cape, though, not as glitzy as it was in my head. But, as Adelaide exclaimed, "now it's fancy!"

As for the pattern: I would totally recommend it. If you actually focus and work on it, this project is pretty quick and easy. Everything came together really well, and both Adelaide and I are happy with the results.

Happy Halloween

Well, that was fun! Adelaide really got it this year. She picked her own costume, a zombie, based on her love of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video. She even helped me paint the blood on her clothes. (According to her, the blood is because "this zombie fell down a lot." Love that kid!) Quinn wore Adelaide's old Brutus the Buckeye costume. She wore it at nearly six months, but it fit the little big guy pretty well here at two months.

Black beans

Believe it or not, picking and shelling the beans was her idea of a good time. Mine too.

 

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