Made a little dress for my four-year-old from this sweet Alexander Henry print. I made the bodice too small, so I covered my measuring blunder by adding the patchwork stripes to the back to avoid remaking the bodice. I think it ended up making the dress look much more interesting. Just goes to show that some mistakes are serendipitous.
Here’s a repeat from last year, but I thought these might be nice to make for school. Click here to read the tutorial.
My four-year-old “designed” this outfit, telling me what she wanted and choosing the fabrics. I drew it out for her and she made changes. I tried to talk her into making the pants from a different fabric, but she wanted flowers. I am kind of afraid of matching things, likely due to my fashion blunders in high school. Anyway, this outfit made me think that I could make an entire summer wardrobe from one vintage sheet. Depression-era sewing. I winged it on the top, but used the pattern pieces from Burda 9843 (view D) for the pants.
This week we read Hansel and Gretel as re-told by Cynthia Rylant and beautifully illustrated by Jen Corace. The Grimm Brothers told some creepy stories, didn’t they? They were the fear-mongers of the 19th century; now we just have cable news.
This faithful re-telling of the story starts off:
It has been said that guardian spirits watch over and protect small children, and that may be so. But there are also stories of children who find the courage to protect themselves. Such is the story of Hansel and Gretel.
I really don’t recommend this tale for the littlest of children, but my four-year-old and six-year-old were able to handle it now that they have some semblance of rational thinking — enough to realize that there are no children-eating witches (but they are not ready to read The Road yet). The illustrations have a handmade aesthetic with Hansel and Gretel sleeping under a very nice quilt and romping through the woods in cool indie clothes. Ooh, and I love the witch’s wallpaper. That witch has great taste.
Anyway, we decided to make a cake house for the story project. Originally I wanted to make a printable paper house that the kids could color, but my kids wouldn’t stand for it. “It says that the house is made of cake and sugar!” Okay, fine. So we got a boxed cake mix and some hippie-style organic candy, and there you go. Cake house. Apparently our house has a pet elephant too. I’m sure you can make something much more elaborate, maybe even with a house-shaped pan. Give it a try.
I made this little skirt for my six-year-old. She’s the picky one, but she actually likes it. I cut the pieces in straight lines so then I used double fold bias tape to make the waistband easier. Love ready-made bias tape. The pattern was sort of an accident as I cut 6 pieces and realized that wouldn’t be big enough, so I made one larger piece for the front (above) with the smaller pieces in the back (below). The striped fabric is from Lizzy House’s Red Letter Day collection and the vintage-inspired floral is Alexander Henry’s My Secret Garden. I might try this skirt design again for my little one.
