Clothes

The things we do to make our children happy. I, for instance, have been known to take on sewing projects that I know will make me completely miserable just so I can see this smile:

Pretty much since the Disney Frozen movie came out Anne has been telling me she wants to be Elsa for Halloween. We have seen a million costumes at the stores, but NO! She saw this pattern:

And immediately had it in her head that mommy would make her dress and she would be one of a kind.  Well she is definitely one of a kind and she definitely forced mommy to learn a whole bunch of new sewing skills.  Working with sheer fabrics, hand sewing an underlining into a garment and how to do a rolled hem, just to name a few new skills.

Do you like our Teal Pumpkin peeking out from behind Queen Elsa? She is here trick-or-treating at our house because she knows we are an allergy safe house. In fact, in addition to “safe for Anne” candy (she has a deadly allergy to peanuts and tree nuts) we are giving out Halloween pencils. She insisted on a pencil for posing for these pictures this morning. She drives a hard bargain, and then for my troubles…she froze me!

Happy Halloween from Queen Elsa (Anne) and me. We hope you have a fun and safe day!

This is me…stepping into the sewing confessional.  I have a secret to share.  In 2011 I made a Poodle Skirt for Anne’s Halloween costume.  It was WAY too big for her, so big that it kept falling off, though perhaps if I had FINISHED it I wouldn’t have had that problem.  It also didn’t help my cause any that my awesome mom bought the cutest tutu to go underneath it to act as a crinoline.  Anne fell in love with the tutu and decided that she would rather wear that than the unfinished skirt.  So I did what I thought any beginning clothes sewist would do, I just abandoned the project.  Here is Anne on Halloween just before she turned 2. Get ready for some serious cuteness.  (Oh! And there is one finished sewing project in these pics, her trick-or-treat bag was made by yours truly.)

Here she is with her daddy! So stinking cute if you ask me!

Anne and I, she just brings so much joy and sunlight into my heart!

Here she is trying her first sour candy from that night….

Of course we got a reaction face shot!

Now that you have gotten through all the cuteness that is my baby and family, you can now see a pic of the finally finished poodle skirt. Anne still fits in it (which tells you how over sized it was 3 YEARS ago!) but will only fit it for about 3 more seconds.

And lets face it…in the eyes of an almost 2 year old this skirt just could never compete against that lovely and fluffy tutu skirt. Doomed from the first sighting of tulle!

I leave you with my husband’s awesome pumpkin carving from 2011.

Do you have any sewing confessions that you would like to make?