In Which TLo Wears Some Weird Shoes

Thanks for all the well-wishes. I am feeling much better today. Today I am blithely coasting along life's happy little highway, swerving carefree around the oil slicks of boredom and ignoring the orange traffic cones of irritation and annoyance. La la lala! See? That's me chirping away with the happy little birds like Snow White.

No, I am not tripping on acid.

So on Sunday I decided that TLo really really really needed something to wear with the Christmas leggings that my mother insisted on buying her. She had absolutely nothing in her wardrobe to go with these leggings but despite my telling her, my mother insisted on getting them. And then proceeded to quiz me every day about why wasn't she wearing them there are only twentyfour twenty fifteen days until Christmas and then what will she do with them?

Maybe TLo gets her irritating personality from my mother after all.

So, Christmas top to go with Christmas leggings. Aha! I decided to make it easy on myself.

1) I had pattern Ottobre 3-2008 #12 already cut and fitted.
2) I had two yards of black poly knit panne velvet from when the girls were still taking ballet and gymnastics and then decided to switch exclusively to soccer about two weeks after I bought six yards of panne velvet for dance-and-gymnastic uniforms.
3) I had some totally awesome fold-over elastic binding that I got in Portland on my totally awesome Palmer/Pletsch vacation two years ago and I hadn't ever (to my knowledge) used it.

Ta da! This actually came out really well, I only had to rip out one thing and for once I actually selected the correct stitch to do something new THE FIRST TIME I TRIED IT. Unheard of.

So chirp away little Disney birds. I'll just chirp along with you. I will not be daunted by the fact that TLo refused to wear her very cute black MaryJanes and instead insisted on wearing her saddle shoes. It’s still a happy chirpy outfit. So there.

Well, at least she's happy with it...

Today we're continuing on with the Great Uniform Interregnum (because I've been crazy busy this week and trying to get The Little One clothed decently ala The Hannah Andersson SWAP. Also, I'm still sick of uniforms.) This weekend I completed a dress, two pairs of leggings and two skirts, plus cut out five more pairs of leggings that just need to be put together.

Oh how I do love leggings! They're cute! They have one pattern piece! They take twenty minutes to sew together! Will the wonders never stop?? They also have the added advantage of being the perfect bottom-wear for the Little One, who could give JLo a run for her money in the derierre department. I finally get why JLo wears so much lycra. (There's still no excuse for sparkly gold spandex pants- under any circumstance- but I do have great sympathy for the fitting issues involved with the Big Booty and now understand how the magic of lycra can absolve a multitude of fitting sins.)

My plan is to give TLo (Ha! I just realized that works!) a completely, or almost completely, mix-and-match wardrobe. In reality it probably will turn out to be a little more mix than match because, well, frankly, I'm just not that organized. But this summer I let TLo pick out her own fabric (yes. be afraid.) and it is basically coordinated. Mostly by dint of it all being pink.

Really pink.

Very very pink.

And flowery. Really very flowery.

The dress I chose for the SWAP was this Ottobre pattern:

Ottobre 3-2008 pattern #12 (Strawberry Tunic)

I was hoping to knock-off this dress:

Hannah Andersson Tunic Dress

This is what I ended up with:

Well hey. It's actually lavender, not pink. It is flowery, though.

It's very large on TLo. But I'm tired of making clothes for her that she can't wear three weeks later, so everything's just going to have to be a little large for a while. I'm going to make at least two more (maybe a teensy tiny little bit smaller).

In our next edition: the cutest ruffle skirts. Ever!