All in little girl apparel

polka dots for maya (part 1)

polka dots for maya (part 1)

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel

a few days ago i texted my sister and mom asking if they had any picture of maya in a few outfits so i could blog about them. it went something like this:

me: do you have any pictures of maya in that red polka dot dress?

me: what about that orange and purple [polka dot] long sleeved dress?

me: or that orange and white polka dot skirt?

me: also the green [polka dot] top with the purple accent and that purple and white [polka dot] top?

it was around this time i realized i should probably examine my relationship with polka dots.

fireworks playtime dress & lullaby layette top

fireworks playtime dress & lullaby layette top

Maggie Kempner
baby apparel, little girl apparel

about a year ago i was searching for the perfect wool for maya's paddington coat. a few options online caught my eye but having never bought wool before and seeing a wide range of prices (and presumably quality) it was apparent i would need to see it in person before making a decision.

after exhausting my east bay brick and motar options, stonemountain & daughter and a verb for keeping warm, i knew a trip to the city was necessary. armed with an iPhone full of taylor swift and iced coffee from the hip local shop (exposed brick, menu written on the chalkboard wall, and light fixtures made from old bicycle parts...am i painting a mental picture for you?) i set off one saturday for my quest.

paisley hide & seek dress and music box jumper

paisley hide & seek dress and music box jumper

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel

i have to admit, i wasn't in love with the hide & seek dress (available for older children here) when it first came out. (i'm willing to bet it had something to do with my deep rooted fear of making 'frumpy' dresses, caused by my sister referring to my first creations as the 'duggar dresses' and the relaxed fit of the dress.) 

but then it started showing up on the blogosphere. first i saw gail's version, then this one, then this one, and i knew i had to try it. 

 

chevron dresses

chevron dresses

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel

beginners luck. that's what i had the first time i made the roller skate dress by oliver + s.

i got this chevron print at the fabric depot in portland oregon when i took nora to pick out materials for thefairy sisters dresses. i had originally planned to just dresses for nora and etta, but realized pretty quickly i couldn't exclude maya. so i planned my cutting and was able to squeeze out an additional dress from my limited fabric.

let me tell you getting the chevrons to match up was not easy, but somehow (let's give credit to the watermelon beer i was drinking and my critical thinking skills, but mostly the beer) it all came together perfectly. 

maya's mountain dress

maya's mountain dress

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel

as previously mentioned maya and neela have beautiful complexions and can pull off very bright colors. where other kids would get washed out or overwhelmed by bright bold prints, these girls look amazing. which means aunt maggie has a lot of fun picking out fabric for them. 

when i came across this remnant of amy butler voile (spearmint buttercups from the soul blossoms | joy collection) at gather here i knew immediately it would be perfect for maya.

back to school 2015

back to school 2015

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel

while i ponder the all too quick passage of time we're gonna finish off back to school week by talking about the skirts i made nora and etta for the first day of school.

since this was etta's first year I let her call the shots. bucking tradition (she's a firecracker my bo betta) she requested a skirt as opposed to a dress. naturally i saw this as an opportunity to try a pattern i've had for a while, but haven't yet sewn: the hopscotch skirt by oliver + s. 

back to school 2014

back to school 2014

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel

let's continue back to school week with what nora and etta wore last year. 

the instant i saw the library dress pattern by oliver + s i knew nora and etta would love the faux wrap style. however the back presented a problem as nora and etta are past the age where dresses that button up the back are practical.

at that point i was pretty confident i could alter the pattern to close with a  zipper, but when i saw this tutorial post over on the oliver + s blog i had no excuse. after first making it one time as instructed for maya (will blog about that rendition next week), I tried my hand at a zippered version.

it turned out fantastic. (as have both subsequent versions, one of which was the show & tell dress in corduroy.)

happy second birthday maya!

happy second birthday maya!

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel

the tradition of making each girl a special dress or outfit for their birthday continued in 2014 (read aboutmaya's first birthday dress here and etta's third birthday dress here) and first up was maya's second birthday.

a few months earlier i had made a polka dot class picnic tunic by oliver + s that was incredibly popular with maya and her mom. so when it was decided that the party theme would be farm animals i decided to do a twist on that much loved style by adding a pig embellishment.

back to school 2013

back to school 2013

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel

let's kick off back to school week with a throwback post to the dress i made two years ago for nora's first day of kindergarten.

earlier that summer i was back in michigan visiting my family and took nora to the store to pick out fabric. we settled on this gradient sprinkle print in pink (for her) and blue (for etta) as well as some accent ribbons.

i came home to cambridge, poured myself a harpoon summer ale, and set to work on two roller skate dresses by oliver + s. since we couldn't find any accent fabric that went with the sprinkle print i made version a. lined in white cotton batiste they ended up being perfect for the first day. 

happy third birthday etta!

happy third birthday etta!

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel

the birthday dress tradition continued when etta turned three (read about maya's first birthday dress here). she asked for a fairy tale dress by oliver + s (okay she asked for a pretty dress and i decided that meant the fairy tale dress). 

however she did specifically request a pink fabric with blue flowers. so while visiting victor i made a trip tostonemountain & daughter in berkeley and picked up this adorable print. to this day it remains one of my favorite fabrics.

put a bird on it

put a bird on it

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel

maybe it's because I've spent a lot of time in pdx (and love it!) or maybe i'm just their target demographic but i love the show portlandia. i mean 'dream of the 90s', 'she's making jewelry now', and 'dream of the 1890s' really describe my life.

when i saw this bird print at stonemountain & daughter last spring i knew it would be perfect for maya the animal lover.

happy first birthday maya!

happy first birthday maya!

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel

the only drawback to having four awesome nieces (split into two sets of sisters) is that i am almost always sewing the same pattern multiple times in a row. i mean giving one girl a twirly polka dot dress and not having one for her sister? only a monster would do that. so pretty much the only time i make just one of something is for each girls birthday.

this began when maya turned one. my sister was having some working mom guilt at the time for feeling like she wasn't throwing her daughter a 'pinterest perfect' birthday party. 

being an amazingly thoughtful and awesome little sister i offered to make the birthday girl a special outfit for the day to go with the balloon theme of the party. (bubbles, balloons, and any other floating spherical objects were far and away maya's favorite things at the time.)

beach time

beach time

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel

last month my family rented a house on the oregon coast for a few days. we were across the street from the beach which was very conducive to photos on my then unshattered iphone. 

so here are some 'artistic-but-not-really-because-every-shot-looked-amazing-due-to-the-setting' photos.

library dresses for show & tell

library dresses for show & tell

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel

most of the time my sisters accept my creations with open arms and indulge me by sending frequent photos. on the rare occasion they make a request for something my nieces actually need i try to oblige. so when my sister abby mentioned over christmas that her girls needed more long sleeved winter dresses i knew that would be part of my january to-sew list. 

having a new years resolution to sew my stash, i was struggling to come up with something i could make with the fabrics i already had.  once i saw the beautiful holiday dress gail made her daughter out of corduroy i remembered the amethyst fine whale corduroy (now on sale) that had been sitting in my fabric basket for two years and decided to use it to make a library dress by oliver + s. 

baby pants

baby pants

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel, little boy apparel, baby apparel

remember that 'lil man flannel i made?  well these pants were intended to go with it. 

i had this corduroy in my stash from a jacket i made etta, I originally purchased it back in cambridge from gather here. i picked up the accent fabric at a store in scottsdale when we were at spring training. yep that's how vic and i roll: baseball games, fabric stores, and beer. #compromises

feeling confident in my corduroy abilities after my experience with farmers market jacket and winter dresses, i decided to try my hand at a new challenging pattern: art museum trousers by you guessed it, oliver + s.

beatles dresses

beatles dresses

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel

given that my parents were hippie baby boomers who joined a tofu co-op in the early 90's, it's not surprising that there weren't a ton of rules in the kempner house. (in hindsight the fact that we were all naturally good kids who liked school, had nice friends, and weren't too boy crazy was probably conducive to and thus afforded a laissez faire approach to parenting.)

power clashing

power clashing

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel

maya and neela's dad is indian. he's also a huge packers fan, which isn't relevant to this story but if there are facts about him going up on the internet he would want it included. also one time at banana republic someone mistook him for an employee because he is just that stylish. (did i miss anything om?)

anyways because their dad is indian and their mom is caucasian maya and neela have beautiful ethnically ambiguous complexions. this means two things: 1) they are likely to follow in their aunt's footsteps and be featured on promotional material for any institutes of higher education they attend and 2) they can pull off colors my sister and i would never even try, including mustard (or cheesehead as the case may be) yellow.

farmers market

farmers market

Maggie Kempner
little girl apparel

shut the front door our friends are procreating? 

to celebrate i made their baby girl an outfit. maybe it's the ann arbor in me but doesn't this outfit look like it should be worn to the farmers market? 

the sunday brunch coat was actually the second oliver + s pattern i ever made, way back when maya was a baby.

my craftsmanship was much improved (i.e. more hand sewing) this time around: better seam binding technique, under stitching, french seams, edge stitching, and a blind stitched hem.

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