Three

Occasionally I get a strong urge to sew some clothes. I don’t always run out and get fabric but right now I do feel the need for another dress and a tunic. I went to Quilting Loft on a little Ballard shopping spree this week and found two great fabrics. I’ll start with a Freespirit Westminster fabric pattern called “treetop fancy“. It’s adorable and I think I can probably get away with it, like a decent tent, for three seasons.  I bought enough to make one of two shirts, I decided to go with the Amy Butler Anna Tunic. On the cover this doesn’t look like such a great pattern, or at least my personal taste, but I saw this Purl Soho blog post and it won me over. I have made the mini dress and I like it well enough to do it again, this time in a shorter length. The top is lined using really professional techniques which make it challenging, but worth the effort in the end. I don’t have any muslin in my fabric bin so I’m cutting up a ripped Calvin Klein bed sheet-super soft-I’m glad to have a good use for part of it.

My clothes iron is probably hot by now, hopefully I’ll have time to lay out the pattern pieces before a meeting tonight. I’ll put pasta water on the stove as I pass through the kitchen.

Snowden is really into glue right now. If there is not glue involved, it’s not a valid art project. It all started at Grandma’s house when she got to glue styrofoam shapes onto a purple construction paper elephant cut out. She glued with such passion and concentration that night I wondered if we would ever get her home. At Target this week we bought Snowden her own bottle of Elmer’s and she has been busy glueing something to paper every day. I realized it is time we can get a bit more involved with crafts around here. At the library I picked up this great book, Usborne Complete Book of Art Ideas. There is a lot of ideas way too advanced for the patience of a two year old but a lot of inspiration regardless. It reminds me of two things: the papercraft book my Grandma gave (or loaned?) me when I was younger–I want to find i–and this Usborne book from 1987. I loved this book, I seem to recall that I had several dresses strikingly similar to the Skater Tank Dress back then too.

It really is this bright, the American Apparel Skater Tanks Dress. This past week the three of us went shopping on University Ave and each came away with some new clothing item(s). Sean got an organic cotton pocket tee from American Apparel, his favorite. To distract Snowden from climbing the stairs yet one more time I mentioned that we could look at the kids section. She saw this day glow pink dress and pulled it off the rack immediately. She says “mama, this is my size, it looks pretty fine.” She tried it on right over her t-shirt and asked Sean if he would buy it for her. He bought it. She wore it out of the store and we washed it each  night for two more days so she could wear it again and again. It’s really practical and very comfy looking. I am going to copy the shape and make her more. Not because she needs more, it’s just a classic example of “it would be so easy to make that!” For decorative inspiration for these future dresses I think I’ll look back to Urban Outfitters where I purchased two graphic tees. There are some great ideas here for pattern and color on knitwear. And I might revisit this book for printing techniques: Lotta Prints. I haven’t tried any computer printing onto fabric yet. Don’t know if I want to go there, seems like something I won’t like, process wise.