Dressapalooza - Dress 2 - Silk-O-Fun dress

Here is the second dress of the Dressapalooza series. 

I call it the Silk-O-Fun dress. 

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It is actually a variant of traditional Indian garb - "Pattu Pavada" which looks like this below. 

Source: indiamart.com

I was sure my daughter wouldn't be able to successfully pull off the traditional look because:

a) She is 3 years old and has a protruding tummy (so typical of very young girls) which causes either a slipping skirt  or a rolled up shirt with running around

b) Sewing a tailored top like the above means you wont be able to use it more than 6 months, especially with very young girl

c) Too lazy to do the top and skirt separately

So I came up with this idea of making a classic gathered dress variation of Indian Pattu Pavadi. 

But the coolest part is, I have never ever seen this variation, ever! So if you see one, please let me know. But I think I nailed it :-) Seems like I did something on this kind of silky fabric that nobody tried before. Man, I feel like I need to copyright this thing. Something like this? :-) 

Oh, well. Go ahead, make it. 

After all imitation is the biggest form of flattery. So if you make it, please ...please send a link so I can just, you know, look at your version and feel good. :-)

Anyhow BN rocked in it. Unfortunately I don't have a decent picture of her in it. 

Alrighty. Recently I have something in my mind, like quilts!!

AN's jokes

AN makes up jokes every so often. Really good jokes for an 8 year old. Yeah sure, he is no Jay Leno or Chris Rock. But he makes me laugh. Fair enough. 

I wanted to document his jokes. So here goes a couple. 

JOKE:1

Why was the Missile sad? 

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Because he was "fired"

JOKE:2

How come the library is probably the tallest building in the world?

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Because it has countless "STORIES".

Did that lighten you up? I'd come back whenever he has more and post them here. 

Have fun. 

Dressapalooza - Dress 1 - Polka dots in Sunshine

This is my Polka dots in Sunshine dress for BN. 

So after moving to India things got even more hectic. In the midst of all fiasco with settling in a new place, I took a drafting lesson :-) Of all the things I could do in India, this is what I picked. Man, I am so happy I did. Now everything is so clear to me and I am like DUH! Not that I think just a couple of lessons is enough to learn everything about sewing or you'd become an expert seamstress right after the lesson. But I am so confident that next time you trace around those patterns you are gonna know why the heck they have it the way they do.

A few weeks from the lessons and some trials, I jumped in and  drafted this dress for BN to wear at a wedding reception on Saturday. 

I love the back so much. I had this idea about pleats in the back and I didn't want to do anything over the top, so I added like 2 inverted pleats in the back in yellow. 

I love the way it turned out. It inspired me to make another one. That story, another day. 

Sneak peek

What could it be?

Fishie

Isn't he the cutest ever?

On our book shelf / console table

Cute, right? 

It's re-purposed from coconut shells. I couldn't believe it. It's so perfect. 

Simple Pleasures: Visit from the Tooth Fairy

Image source:   http://www.kiboomu.com/  Coloring page. 

AN is going to be 8 in January. Ever since his friend Caroline lost her first tooth at 6 years old, he's been so embarrassed about not having lost his tooth. Everybody in his 1st grade class in the US lost at least 1 tooth by 1st grade. So go figure. When he started going to 2nd grade here in India, things were not different. 

Soooo...He lost it. He lost his first tooth. And man! was he happy. He started jumping up and down saying, "I am a man...now!!!" So turns out his 2nd grade classroom has a little privilege system. You get to talk to girls only if you've lost at least 1 tooth. So kept on saying "I am in the men's club now!!". It was hilarious to see him with that gap in his face. I couldn't stop laughing. I should have probably taken a picture of him. But at the right moment the battery died. 

Then he moved on to wondering what the Tooth Fairy would bring. He started talking about all kinds of toys. But I intervened and told him Tooth Fairy did not have enough time to go pick up stuff because it was already late into the evening. (Actually it was true, "Tooth Fairy" was already tired and didn't want to stop by the toy store). So we wrapped his tooth in a home made tooth carrier (:-)) and tucked it under his pillow. In the morning, he was so happy to find out that Tooth Fairy left 20 US Dollars and took the tooth! He was  convinced (It's only natural, Tooth Fairy comes from the US and in the middle of the night how can she exchange for Indian Rupee?) and very happy!

I am so glad and extremely grateful to have helped AN through this gracefully. Not a drop of blood. Not a tear from his eyes. Just pure excitement and happiness.

Been sewing. But showcasing my work is what I lack time for now. 

Halloween, oh how we miss you!

AN & BN (and me too) are a little down today. It's Halloween and we are here reminiscing all the Halloween's we had celebrated so far and being here in India means, there is no Halloween. They should start as a matter of fact. Ah, well. Is it even normal for adults who spent their childhood without Halloween to miss Halloween? 

This is just random rambling.


But hey, I am working on a Beetroot costume for AN for the school science fair.

Does this make any sense?