(like the rod stewart song)
i'm an elder millennial living in the bay area who loves dark beer, the environment, and sewing for the tiny humans in my life.
All in little girl apparel
also know as polka dots for maya part 3
i picked up the playdate pattern from oliver + s on sale at stonemountain & daughter while visiting victor a while back. then it just sat in my stash for months. i have no idea why, but for some reason i just wasn't drawn to the picture on the front.
however as soon as i saw gail's version i suddenly had to make it. so one friday night with a nitro milk stout and some polka dot fabric i picked up from gather here that was in my stash i set to work.
also known as polka dots for maya part 2
as previously mentioned, when i first saw the library dress from oliver + s i was smitten. i mean a wrap dress fit for a little girl?! how could you not love that?
the only issue was the back. it was all buttons and i knew nora and etta would not be down for a dress that required assistance. so with plans to eventually make an zippered version in the back of my head (see those versions here and here) i decided to get the hang of the pattern by making a standard rendition for maya.
i found this purple and yellow polka dot print and coordinating solid at stonemountain & daughter. it was a bit higher quality (and thus a bit more expensive) than the standard quilting cottons but i had just nailed a job interview so i treated myself.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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.
sometimes it's fun to ask the girls what they want in a dress and make it. other times i ignore what they are saying and make what i want.
this is an example of the latter.
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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.
