Sunday June 6th at The Road Less Traveled store in Santa Ana. Patchwork will always have a special crafty place in my heart because every show I've ever done has been a blast. I'm looking forward to showing all the new stuff I've been making and getting some nice one-of-a-California-kinds to take with me to Seattle.
It's always nice to have a good soft sturdy pair of pajamas. Coming soon! Kokoleo pajamas.
Despite my issues with Disney princesses (over-commercialization, myth-marketing, beauty standard-warping) and my issues with the company (damn outsourcers), I found a few nice bedsheets (Jasmine, Ariel, Cinderella) that were begging to become sundresses. When I found this Pocahontas pillowcase I immediately thought of this native American print fabric I have in the same color scheme.
McKenna hasn't even seen the movie Pocahontas, she just liked this dress because it reminded her of the doll she got on our vacation to Death Valley last month.
I love listening to her play with her dolls. She does all the voices and acts out all sorts of scenarios. It's the cutest thing in the world when she says, "Hey Daddy! Wanna play dolls wif me?"
... and he does.
I streamlined the multi-step process that goes into making a tiered skirt and made a few more last month (coming soon). Having a well-behaved serger that does what it's supposed to do helps. Still, they take about as long to make as a sundress does since there's so much fabric involved. Lots of fabric makes for good spinability.
This wasn't mine though. I found a full sheet set in mint condition at an estate sale and got it because it reminded me of mine. This must have been the bedsheet to have in 1970-something because I know a lot of people who had them. I made another pillowcase dress and I'm currently working on sundresses from the sheets. I also have a sheet in the brown color scheme, and plan to do a fall/winter collection. I'm all about nostalgia.
I don't think I'm a very good photographer. I look at other blogs and my photographer friends' albums and see vivid colors and good angles and lighting. I tend to photograph directly into the light. That, or out of it, which makes for weird shadows. Oh well, you can't really postpone things for perfect lighting when your kid is willing and happy to let you photograph them.
There's only one dress like this one though, and it's McKenna's because that's all the cupcake fabric I had. The embroidered cupcake on the top is from a Sublime Stitching pattern I stitched when I took an embroidery workshop taught by Jenny Hart at Reform School. I blogged about it here last summer.
She found these underneath the Japanese plum tree in our yard. She said, "Look! These look like these!" They really do.
She loves this swing. But she hates going slow. She wants to go "Fast!" and "High!" and "Higher!" and "Way up into the sky!" It gets tiring pushing her sometimes. The next 3 pictures are for the grandparents who live on the other side of the country.
If you scroll up and down over and over, it's kind of like you're in our yard pushing her.
Yeah, I said it, church. After 15 years away from it, I finally found one I like - St. Mike's Episcopal in Studio City. We've been going there for over a year now and the kids actually look forward to it every week. It helps that there's a group of fun boys Sage's age and a few girls McKenna's age and an awesome playground and good food at coffee hour. Beyond that, it's nice to be a part of a community that does good things for the community. I'm so happy I found it. It renewed my faith (literally) in organized religion.
My mom made that quilt.
It's hard to see in those pictures, but I embroidered a heart in the middle hexagon. It's open at the bottom though, so it's also an M, for McKenna.
These shots are from our photo shoot afternoon last week. It's been worn and washed twice since Easter.
I strive to make my sundresses sturdy.
The elastic straps are from another estate sale a few years ago. I remember standing in this (dead) lady's closet full of 1970s and 80s casual wear and finding a box of multicolored elastic belts that shared an interchangeable buckle. As a belt, it was dorky, I would never wear it. I almost set it down but then I thought, how often do I see brightly colored decorative elastic? They're perfect for sundress straps.
I don't remember where I got the striped fabric I used for the pockets, but I've used it for lots of letters in my banners and pillows.
On second thought, I think I got it at JoAnn Fabrics. No wonder I don't remember it. I prefer shopping in people's houses over that place.
Luckily, McKenna likes these photo shoots. I just follow her around and let her do her thing. Sage always hated modeling my kokoleo clothes. He did recently ask for a new pair of pajama pants though, because he's almost grown out of the ones I made him years ago.
I made this slightly smaller one, but I gave it to our plumber.
For his daughter, I mean. My friend Kathy had been over and seen the dress in my studio and wanted to buy it. I asked if her husband, a plumber, would accept it, along with a t-shirt for her boys, in exchange for extracting an entire sippy cup from our garbage disposal. He was able to do in a matter of minutes what we had been sweating over for two days. Yay! Long live the barter system.
We had another photo shoot the next day where she modeled the rest of them. I'm going to try to show you a new one every day. Maybe I'll even make one more to make it an even 7.
