We had the much anticipated rainbow party this weekend and with barely any melt downs from the birthday girl, so I say it was a success! These cupcakes aren’t from the party, but don’t worry there will be much party posting this week. I made them on her actual birthday and I was pretty excited that they worked out. I made plain old chocolate cupcakes and some cream cheese frosting. Then I painted the inside of a pastry bag with stripes of food coloring going up the bag from the tip and carefully spooned the frosting into the bag. When I piped the frosting on, voila! rainbows! Just like a unicorn pooping, or do they barf rainbows? Whatever they do, one came and did it all over my house.  And I’ll show you tomorrow.

Please excuse the crappy photos. It seems it is difficult for me to focus before I’ve had coffee–the camera and otherwise. But hey, a rainbow dress! Finished and on time!

My little girl is five today. It seems a long time ago that we took a tiny little baby home to our Chicago apartment. She’s grown into a very organized kindergartener, prolific artist, helpful big sister and a beautiful little girl. Her favorite colors are pink and rainbow, so of course I had to make a rainbow dress. I had a bunch of ideas about how to make the rainbow all cool and modern, but in the end I just went for straight forward and simple. And she loved it.

The pattern for this dress came from this japanese book (sorry I have no idea what the title is). It’s a clever design: the top has buttons sewn around the hem and the skirt has buttonholes all along the waistband. And now that I’m thinking about it, this would be a great way to repurpose a button up shirt. I might buy a long sleeve shirt and sew buttons on the bottom to turn it into a winter dress, but it will be a while before I have the urge to sew 18 buttons on anything.

How does one accessorize a rainbow dress, you ask? With rainbow tights of course (and red high tops).

A certain little girl and I are both very excited about making things for the upcoming rainbow birthday party!

I know birthday crowns are not a new and exciting thing, but I never made one before so it was new and exciting to me. I think this might be my new birthday gift for kids. It’s quick, it’s customizable, it’s cheap and it’s actually fun to make. As an added bonus, this crown was made completely from my stash. Of course it ended up to big, but cut me some slack it was my first try.

For some reason I used to think sewing with felt was cheating, which is totally ridiculous and I’m done being snootie about felt. Lately, I’ve been trying to convince my daughter that just because something is difficult doesn’t mean it isn’t fun, but I think I need to learn that just because something is easy doesn’t mean it’s necessarily crappy. I tend to think the more difficult the thing is to make, the better it is.  But that is just silly.

The birthday party turned out to be pretty fantastic. The birthday girl is related to Smarty Pants–a balloon art genius of sorts–and everyone went home with one of his awesome creations. Well, the kids did at least. I was a little bummed I didn’t get one. He really was amazing and it looks like he can make pretty much anything from balloons: oscar the grouch, a dragon, abe lincoln, cruella da ville. Makes my little felt crown look pretty wimpy.

1. capelet . left, 2. bus dress – finally finished, 3. Fall jumper for Clementine, 4. Fall, 5. Lion Hanging, 6. kcwc day 5 – alligator hoodie one, 7. Quilted Vest, Part 2, 8. jacket progress, after day 1, 9. pant cuffs

Wow. I mean really: wow! You guys blow me away with the beautiful clothes you can make in a week. I mean really: a week! Some of you made a whole wardrobe and others worked a little each day on one piece and got it totally done by the end of the week. Even if you slacked off by midweek, I don’t want to think you failed (not to sound too pollyanna). All this challenge is meant to do is put you in front of your sewing machine and get you to sew a little, then maybe a little more. This momentum feeds your creativity: the more you make, the more ideas you have, the more you want to make.

1. Orange Jacket, 2. close up of fleece sweater, 3. windy!, 4. Baby Animal Hats 03, 5. STRETCH TERRY TUNIQUE I, 6. insulated kids’ vest, 7. IMG_5871, 8. IMG_1265, 9. Bragitas I

There were a few comments that summed up the week nicely (and I hope the readers don’t mind if I quote them here):

i did it. i totally participated in every hour (and then some of the challenge. and it’s been a blast! not only did it get me back on my sewing horse, it reminded me how much i love to sew – and sew with others! i also learned that at least one hour a night to do something that i love fuels my soul and makes me a better person. and mama. and partner.

-nina

and

Pfew, what a fun & whirlwind week of sewing this has been!
I was able to sew for at least one hour for 5 days out of 7 …which is more than I have done before!

The most important thing that this week taught me was that yes, I *can* muster the energy to sew for 1 to 2 hours after the kids are in bed, and finally see all those plans in my head come to life under my sewing machine needle. A wonderful feeling of accomplishment! ;-)

–sabine

So thank you to all the mothers and grandmothers and aunts and talented sewers who sat down in front of their machines and made beautiful clothes for some fantastic kids.  And thank you to the kids who patiently (and sometimes not so patiently) stood and sat and stopped leaning and turned around while we took pictures of them. And thank you candy for helping.