Tell me, does this happen to some of you too? You are sewing or making something for one sibling and the other is sitting next to you or nearby...watching you closely, asking you questions about what you are doing, and then finally, either at that moment, or later when they see the finished product, they say "Can you make that for me too?"
Alright, so, I guess Henry isn't quite there yet, usually he compliments me on whatever I am making regardless of who it is for (and perhaps, regardless of what it looks like too!). But, Violet does this to me every time I am making Henry a pair of pants! As I was cutting out orange corduroy for Henry's Buddy pants the other weekend she told me that she "wanted a pair of pants like those". So, I told her that I would make her a pair (Basic Pocket Pants from "Growing Up Sew Liberated") using leftover turquoise corduroy from her Shiny Hat.
No problem, especially because we are constantly on the lookout for comfy, not too tight, pants for her.
One, problem...she is getting to be so TALL! After snipping into my one yard of fabric for her hat and making a couple of mistakes cutting out the bill, etc...I didn't have quite enough fabric to make her pants!
Hmmm, what to do? And then I remembered a beautiful corduroy skirt that was made during KCWC. The pattern is the swingset skirt from Oliver + S. I hesitated at first, thinking, maybe I'll just go with the old standby lazy days skirt, but then I really loved the way the swingset skirt draped, so I "bit the bullet" and bought the pattern.
Of course, I decided to cut out the pattern pieces while also being distracted by both kids and husband...result...I messed up, several times! Oops!
First, I had no idea what I was going to line the skirt with! Finally, although somewhat unconventional, I decided to line it with leftover Madrona Road from my Washi tunic. It was basically the only fabric I had enough of that went with the corduroy. So, my first mistake was, when cutting my corduroy, I didn't line up my fabric correctly and didn't notice that the corner of one of my pieces was missing, oops! Second mistake, I cut the corduroy the wrong size, the lining size, which also turns out to be the 4T size. But, in the end, I fixed both of those things...
I made a flower burst applique to cover the missing corner. And, to make up for the missing length, and to accentuate the fact that my lining had a pattern, I sewed the lining fabric face out (instead of facing inward) and made the lining a bit longer so it peaks out the bottom.
I would consider both mistakes "happy accidents" because I love the way the skirt turned out! So much so, that I want one of my own! It's hard to see in the pictures, but this corduroy is so beautiful, it almost seems like velveteen!
I'd say that Violet loves it too!
It does have a beautiful drape.
And twirl.
It's classic. (Uh, silly girl!)
It's girly.
But, it's still comfortable enough to be a tomboy too!
I'm sure she still wants a pair of pants like Henry's, but for now, this'll do...
