Despite my Auntie Linda's patience and impressive teaching abilities, I cannot read a pattern to save my life. If she could be here to hold my hand the entire time I sew, I'm sure I could use patterns and understand them even. Seeing as how she lives 400 miles away, I had to come up with a different plan.
What I found is that I can follow instructions (even though I typically will not read them for appliances until I've royally messed up the whole setup first), and that a "pattern" makes sense to me if it is presented as a set of instructions.
So, here it is. My first matching-girl project. They are square-shaped circle skirts (think square-shaped poodle skirt pattern) made from knit fabric (teehee...I didn't even finish the bottom edges; they're just raw, though at some point I may try my hand at finishing them off with a fancy little scalloped edge - for now I'm sitting on my laurels a bit before jumping into deeper water).
The girls were ecstatic to see them on the table when they came out for breakfast on Wednesday. So fun! The met with approval from both girls, which was exciting. What you can't see in the picture is the super-soft, 1.5 inch bright pink elastic waistbands. I ordered them online, and they are so fun and cute! Over the summer the girls will be able to wear their shirts out or tucked in and look equally adorable either way.
See how well they twirl? Yep, I did that on purpose, too. Apparently there is this great secret to making the fabric waist a bit bigger than the elastic and then pulling the elastic as you sew and, hence, creating sort of little "puckers" (Linda and Kathy would have better words for that) that create "spinn-a-bility". And I did it? Shocking, I tell you! Shocking!
Seriously, the girls have seen my 8th grade home ec projects.....I don't think they really expected these skirts to turn out.
It's a bit windy in these pictures, so you can't really see how the uneven hem of the skirt hangs. We had just returned from a field trip to a local stringed instrument store. Miss Mouse has now added the cello to her long list of instruments she wants to play. I would love that. She tried a 1/2 size out at the store, and it sounded nothing like a beginner on the violin (teehee!). She also tried out a violin/fiddle, and Sunny plucked a bass. It would be impossible for me to pick our favorite field trip because they've all been awesome, and this one definitely continued that trend. They even got to listen to a luthier (sp?) explain how he repairs violins and other strings. I don't know how much they picked up on that, but they stood there and paid attention. So I know they gained something from even that more detailed presentation.
And Mighty Mouse?
Well, he did his pre-field-trip event of having a blown-out diaper (he does this before each and every field trip we go on - this time I at least was able to get his diaper changed before we left - the previous times he's been on the floor of the minivan - these times are, interestingly, mainly the only times he has blow-outs....), and then he hung out contentedly in his front pack until just before the presentation was over when he got a little too tired to hear much more about the sound pins in violins. He's such a sweet little trooper.
I look like Mommy's family.
I look like Daddy's family.
I look like myself mostly, though!
Anyway, I already have more fabric and thread ready to go for more instruction-based sewing projects, and I can't wait! Thank goodness for all those hours I spent at Linda's and 4-H learning - who knew it was all in preparation for being able to follow tutorials from other people's blogs?!
*The tutorial I followed can be found at www.makeit-loveit.com
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