KCW Day 4: New Outfit Giggles

Giggling so hard she can't stand still 

The child in my family who appreciates my creations- my efforts, the sentiment, and the garments themselves- is my oldest. She's a super tall, rail-thin, girly-girl who oozes pink sparkle from the olive skin she inherited from her daddy. She's so precious to me. A ray of sunshine always flitting about the house, and a people-pleaser to her core who senses when I'm having a bad day and does her very best(in her very 7-year-old way) to help me out. Today was one of those days. Last night was a late night, and despite an unprecedented 8 uninterrupted hours of sleep(EVERYONE was THAT tuckered-out once we got them into bed), I woke up with a bad sinus headache from these fall allergies, and feeling exhausted and foggy.
   I wasn't the only one out of sorts. It seemed everyone woke up in a funk, including the baby who started the morning off with a down-your-legs-and-across-the-floor-with-each-step diaper blow-out that required a bath just to clean it all off. We made it through breakfast, Hubby got out the door for work, and the big kids got started on their schoolwork, but I was stuck feeling lousy with a miserable toddler spider-monkey-child chasing me around. Suddenly it was 1pm and everyone was done with schoolwork, but I had not even thought about lunch. Yes, Papa John's? I'll take two spinach alfredo pizzas for delivery, please. The last straw was when I finally managed to get everyone busy eating pizza and instead of feeding myself got out my shipping supplies and items to be sent, and packed them all up, weighed them, and stacked them beside my laptop so I could print labels while I ate.... only to find my laptop and the printer were having a quarrel and labels weren't happening.... twenty minutes before the mail was due to arrive.

Goofy little creep, always trying to make everyone laugh.

Long story made short(yes, this is the short version) I went to the office desktop, muttering about the last thing I needed today was a drive to the post office and why can't anything work right, to see if the printer was broken or if it was just the laptop. My sweet girl followed me in and asked if I was okay. I told her I was, thanked her for her caring, I was just frustrated that I needed this done fast and things just weren't working fast. In a flash she was back in the office, arms loaded with six packages, set them down beside me, and came back with my scissors and packing tape she knows I use for package labels, all without being asked.  Brushing sentimental tears from my cheek. My sweet girl. She then stood by my side and ran each package to the mailbox as it was labeled, then picked up my paper scraps from cutting out each label and took them to the trash. That's when I decided that if I was able to get the baby down for his nap this afternoon and get my brains organized enough to focus on sewing, it'd be for her.

 Inspiration for today's KCW sewing? Aside from the bad-day-ramble above, last night when my big girl was getting ready for MPact Girls at church, we realized she has no brown leggings in her current size. Necessity! Therefore, my first project for today was a pair of classic shape, chocolate brown leggings. For fabric I used Sew Classic cotton interlock from JoAnns, and for pattern I used   Violette Fields' Lilly Belle Leggings, but modified it a great deal. I used the pattern's shape, but they're meant to be capri-length and ruffled. My girl wanted no ruffles, and for a full length inseam in size 8 the pattern has 16", but my girl has a 22" inseam.
   The second project was something special for my girl. She LOVES dresses, jumpers, flouncy skirts, and anything girly-girl. I dug through my 50-gallon Sterlite tote of fabric and was finding nothing but spring and summer appropriate woven prints, until I got to the very bottom. GOLD! I found a corduroy print I'd loved when I found it at JoAnn's five years ago, and I'd purchased 6 yards- two of which I still had on-hand. Something about using a special, hoarded fabric on a project. Maybe just for the maker, but hopefully the love is conveyed to the wearer, too. I lined the bodice with a classic 100% cotton woven in off-white. For pattern I used the Geranium dress- size 6 bodice for width, size 10 skirt for length- in the classic sleeve and neckline options. It'll be perfect for layering with tees under and cardigans over.
   My girl was SO excited when I showed her the finished garments. She immediately put them on and could not stop giggling and goofy dancing. Between the excitement and time of day, I was hard pressed to get ANY useable pictures of her in the low light of dusk. Yep, it was after sunset and almost dark in these pics. That's ALL editing to lighten things up. She loves it, though, and I love that she loves it. She's still wearing it, dancing around the house, playing pretend with her sister, and insisting that her name is now Fawn because of the deer on her dress, and that she has a secret power that allows her to talk to animals so obviously she must use her power to be a vet who helps the sick and injured ones. Oh, my sweet girl.