summer kcw 2014: rainbow pocket tank and linen pants
July 23rd, 2014
This outfit is inspired by this season theme KID ART, but only a little. The tank I made last summer, well made most of. I never bound the armhole (armcyes? both words are ridiculous) or put on a pocket. I wanted to do something theme related with the pocket, but I don’t have a lot of kid art-like fabrics in my stash. When I found this old rainbow shirt from the 70s I immediately thought of my daughter’s rainbow obsession. She drew them on everything, everywhere! We had a rather epic rainbow birthday party, complete with a rainbow dress and cake and playdough and a pinata!
She’ll be 9 in the fall and her crazy love of rainbows is fading. Parenting as your kids gets older gets much harder. People tell you this when you have little kids, but how can you believe them? They are talking to you wearing a very nice outfit that does not have someone else’s boogers or breakfast or god-knows-what-else on it. Their child speaks in complete sentences and sleeps all night–sleeps in even!
But it’s true. It does. Murkier waters lie ahead. Morality, temperance, how not to be an asshole, these are all things that have to be addressed in real ways. It’s not all rainbows and sparkles. Though part of her is still rainbows and I need to remember that when she has worn me down to a nub arguing for something or railing against the world for being 100% against her.
So that’s what this t-shirt is all about I guess: trying to figuring out how to parent a girl who is still little but growing up quickly. That and it’s just a cute tank top.
The pattern is from this book called Easy Kids Clothes (or maybe something else completely I don’t know Japanese) by the same author who wrote Happy Homemade vol.2, Ruriko Yamada. The tank is gathered a bit in the front and has a yoke in the back (and it is gathered under the yoke a little too). It’s breezy and cool and perfect for summer.
The pants are perfectly summery too. The fabric is a linen blend–the same as our beach towel actually! Ha! When your mother is a sewist your outfits often match the decor.
I put a little heart tag to spruce them up, but other than that they are basic wide leg pants. That’s it for day three of KCW!
i read posts about your daughter and get the feeling it’s exactly what my daughter will be like in a few years. at 6 she is waaaaaaaaaaay into rainbows (draws them on everything, i joke with her teachers about it), but has that inner sassy side (and odd existential crisis – she’s currently sort of obsessed with cemeteries) that make me think she might be a bit of a handful as she learns more about the world. oy. she just feels things very deeply, you know??
anyway. i love this rainbow pocket tank very much! the yoke/gather detail is awesome. and she looks great in her stripey pants too.
yes the intensity of emotions (she feels so many feels) is a lot to handle. You kind of feel everything your kid feels too, so it is extra exhausting. I can feel myself aging..and we’re not even to double digits yet.
Oh….first…that tank is so great! I love the pocket…and those pants are fantastic….like…you should make yourself a pair…or just me! ;) Second…ahhhh…we are getting to the more difficult attitude stage even at six…I think some of it has to do with growing up…but also, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the tude started at the same time as our first year in public school…sooooo just remember you are doing a great job…I think it’s just nice to hear that even when it’s not all rainbows and sparkles ;)
yes, school does increase the sass. I remember it starting about 6 too. And thinking, wait! what?!!
Those pants look really nice. I have a 9.5yo. She’ll be a fifth grader this fall. My younger daughter will be a first grader. It’s getting soooo emotionally difficult for me (and my 9yo)
oh, meg! i hear you loud and clear. j and k are now 12 and 14 and the only thing i am allowed to sew them is pj’s. i kid you not! that said, with all the independence and growing up, i get the best glimpses of who these girls are going to be as adults and my mind is blown in a good way.
love the tank you made your daughter. it is so so sweet!
first of all, this outfit is great! love the tank and i think i want those pants for myself… secondly, i’m right there with you, wondering how to navigate the waters as my oldest daughter just turned 10. so hard, but also rewarding in those fleeting moments when they really make you proud!
I love that outfit. The tank is perfect with that little rainbow pocket. Also I always feel I should use armscye (sp?) but have no idea what it really means so I’m afraid to actually end up looking dumb and pretentious- therefore armholes it is. lol. And yeah, being in the throes of the littles right now, I can’t believe I’ll ever be going thru that. Some days I long for them to grow up (sleep in anyone?) and other days I want to keep them little babies as long as possible. Life is funny like that.
Wow!! I am in love with those pants!! I have all boys here so a gathered tank and rainbows are lost lol but I’m going to have to give the pants a go. They look so comfortable. Thanks!!
Hearing that parenting gets harder is just terrifying as a mom of a 3.5, 2, and soon to be born baby! But I think about it as an issue of things being really physically tiring now because they’re so dependent, and maybe more emotionally draining in the future.
[…] and white linen I had used for mine in my stash. Then during KCW I absent-mindedly cut into to make pants for my daughter (“Where did this great fabric come from?!” […]
A perfect summer outfit. What an astute post. It’s not the school that increases the sass, but the influence of their peers. Thank you for making me laugh out loud.