Made for older girl

I really want to make more clothes for my eleven year old, A because she loves me sewing her stuff and B because she actually will wear them, ( how long will that last I wonder)

 The type of clothing I have made for her include 

• I have made her 2 tops from this pattern, Burda easy 9573, she loves them  I am going to attempt to simply lengthen it a little to make a mini dress for her.

• I have also been stretching myself a little making my own pattern, following instructions of course. I made her a chemise top from Carefree clothes for girls, I love this book. Except the sizes range from  4 to 7 but if I can make my petite 11 year old clothes from here anyone can.

I added a cute button covered in the same fabric, because it's always hard to tell the back from the front.

• I have found that the older children get the more difficult it becomes to sew them simple clothes. I found these knot shorts over on this brilliant site MADE, these were fun, I used a pants pattern I already had and just shortened them, I then followed the easy instructions and made the pattern. I would suggest that if you are going to make these, only leave about 7 or 8 cm from the crotch, they look better being quite short, as skimpy as that seems kids have short legs ( well mine do)  I made them a little longer but wish i hadn't.This pattern has a contrasting facing piece which is a little big if you ask me, next time I am going to alter this, next time. However as is works just fine. The knot is dead cute and for this age group I think they're quite funky. I just finished making these in time, she left for Tasmania that afternoon and wore them on her first solo plane trip to meet her best friend, that made me feel really good.
• I also found this pattern just last night in the wee hours.

 What have you made for your older girl or boy, I'd love to know, if you can link a pattern or site for me, I will check them out.

milking apron

cliché, by various brennemans.

With this ye olde talk going on in my house (and in the last post!) I just had to get out my sewing machine.

I'd gotten enough inspiration to take my "Carefree Clothes for Girls" book down and try my hand at some of the gorgeous patterns in it. It is classically styled clothing: dresses, aprons and all manner of beautiful french provincial looking things. I think that this book is a must-have if your house has girls from three to seven.

In my case I have three girls, but one is ten so I needed to up-size the pattern. Oh, and adapt it to look 1850's-like, for the school's 125th anniversary

I don't really know how to do this. Lucky I waited until the night before the morning of the event to get started.

But when I see the frayed edges and unsewn hems in this book I kinda think, hey you can bend the rules here and all will be fine. It looks good in the book, it will be fine. Right?

Looking at the pictures, and before I opened the pattern envelope, I thought I would take the an apron and a dress and mish-mashed the two. They were all printed on the same page anyway, it turned out, the various pattern pieces parts, in different colours and overlapping. I stood and looked at this for a long time. Aaron was no help. I can never tell if that means he can't figure it out or just doesn't want to.

End the end I just threw my hands up and tried for "pretty close." I used the apron design, adding the sleeves and a thrift-shop doilie from the dress pattern, as well as adding a tie up for the back. I used linen which I think gives this apron/top a french feel. Milk and smelly cheese, green grass.

I'd shown Beatrix the apron before I started mish-mashing, and the next morning when she saw the finished product she said just the right things. "I love the sleeves, mum. Nice touch." Better than fine, you betcha.

She now plans to wear this "anytime." I am so glad. I also made a babushka scarf just to tie in the whole 1880's thing. My son's outfit was mostly thrifted, I love his cap he so looked the part.

When we go to the school (on time!) it was amazing to see. Almost two hundred children dressed in 1880's attire, the teachers as well. After the (pleasantly short) speeches, there were activities: ink writing with quills, paper doll making, hopscotch, and the lunches were all wrapped in paper, or cloth, glass for other stuff, it was great.

There were also displays from the school's whole history, too. Some were really interesting, like the really old letter asking for the hole in the girl's fence to be fixed along with the bill for fixing it, four pounds eighty. Also some more modern stuff, including some readers I think I remember having!

It's been nice, all this thinking about the past. Those 1850's people, they were living in exciting times, and while it sounds a bit strange to say it, to them it was "now." We're part of someone's past right now. Right?