I totally made this today (the garment, not the child; the latter I am only fortunate enough to have incubated and birthed):
Sewing this up was a wonderful, wonderful way to start my day: first, a quick morning trip (By myself! Listening to loud music! Grabbing a croissant and a [decaf] espresso!) for sewing supplies. I was forced into Walmart for the poison-green thread for my sewing machine and serger; there’s no other place within thirty or fifty miles to find it. Still, I got home right-quick and because the kids slept in (and when they got up, fed and dressed themselves) I was able to complete the garment.
It’s from a Japanese pattern book and originally had a button-placket in the front. But rather than sew nine tiny buttonholes (puke!) I elected to do a hand-pricked lapped side-zipper. Phoenix slides the tunic on and somehow that whole business reminded me of the early scene in The Virgin Spring, a linen lovely my daughter was so happy to wear.
Check out that tiny, TINY little yellow-green dot at the lower mid-right of the above photo. The prick-stitch is amazing because it is subtle and lovely but so very strong! Plus I get to say “prick”! A lot! I only wish it was called the cock-stitch.
You can view many details and construction notes at my Flickr tagset.
you said “prick” ha
Phoenix looks so womanly in these pictures! I think it’s the hair. And her ever-evolving woman-ness.
@Paige
You should have heard her talking about buying a bra the other day. She was very querulous about her chest. “Well I *know* it’s pretty flat, but I do have a couple bumps.”
What’s creepy is the “bras” for pre-teen girls are padded slightly to give a more pleasing “woman” shape I guess, but really? Gross.
Love the top. It’s KELLY green. Am I the only one who laughed my ass off at that?
Oh, Kelly. This is absolutely gorgeous! It *almost* inspires me to stop “planning” sewing projects and actually DO one.
Almost.
Very nice job.
@Heather
It’s very satisfying to be an experienced-enough seamstress – AND have a sewing room – that I can fairly quickly envision and craft something like this. It’s taken years to get there though!
And if I “plan” too much I can end up just talking myself out of the thing I’m currently working on, plus never getting to the “planned” item either! I have to be very careful with “planning”!
Thank you for the compliments ladies!