I never ever ever seem to time Kids Clothes Week with my schedule right!  This time since the theme is TOYS I told myself that no matter how much I had on my plate, I needed to commit to being a part of it!  ON TIME!

Well, I am sorta on the questionably fashionably late side of things ;-) I know I know, you guessed from the title that I didn't sew them this week.  I did sew them in a week but just not this week.  I was waiting for my moment to post.

I had attempted to take pictures on the actual day, after the sun went down, in my sewing room.

They just didn't come out how I wanted.  And Akira wanted nothing to do with the whole thing- she just wanted to run. 

Still, I got a few of my very favorite pictures of the other two that night (right before our seven fish dinner tradition), despite the focus being wonky for my taste.

The one time I managed to get them all together for a pic, this happened:

So I decided I'd wait till the weather permitted it (and I was really pushing it) and do a makeover photoshoot at sunset.

Ikea is my default, nearby photoshoot spot when I want a contrast spot.  There are tons of kickass walls all over the place closer into the city but we were racing the sun so we had to compromise.

 Let's talk about the outfits shall we!

Here's the short version:

• top fabric: custom by me from Spoonflower

• collars & skirts: Kona Cottons by Robert Kaufman

• skirt pattern: self drafted

• dress tank top: modified from PDF Madelyn by Violet Fields Threads

 And here's the story:

I go all out for Xmas Eve.  I know it's hypocritical because we're atheists but we just love tradition and celebrating holidays and I end up making fancy dresses like these or these for our special dinner.  On Christmas itself, I make all the girls, myself and Jon pajamas that we wear all day long as we open gifts, eat the all the snacks and watch the Shining (the adults anyways!).  Yeah I know that last one is a weird tradition but we started it four years ago and I justify it as a Christmas movie because it has snow. What? That totally counts!

I knew I wanted to design my own fabric because I knew finding what I wanted was going to have to be exactly how I envisioned it in my mind.  I made a tangram template in PSE and then started adding layers and colors and textures (and a little fox!) all night long till it was perfect.  I sent the design off to Spoonflower and got it printed on their performance knit which has a little bit of sheen and a great stretch recovery. 

I used the Madelyn pattern which I made changes to include an actual button placket (rather than loops) and my own collar variation.

The collars (self drafted) were a collection of blocks (pattern here) that I then sewed together then cut out.  

Since I wanted quality cotton with a huge variety of colors for the skirts, I went to fabric depot and headed straight for my favorite: Kona Cottons.  They have almost all of them.  

d r o o l

Drafting the skirts was tricky: those hem maths were a bitch!  But they turned out sooooo well.  I wanted them to mimic the polka dot layer on the top fabric and so I quilted and painted and pieced it all together!  Oh, and there's inseam pockets for the older girls.

The crowns I printed from here, changing the colors to match the colors from the dress tops.  I printed them out and transferred them to heavily interfaced white canvas.

Akira wanted nothing to do with hers.  Boooooo.

They of course love them and they enjoyed playing with some tangrams that I printed out for them to play with too!  

They are a pretty darn cute trio, if I do say so myself!

I have a couple more things I'm going to post tomorrow that I actually did make this week, but for now I bid you adieu!  

hugs + stitches + many many smooches,

kat

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