Sunday, March 9, 2008

Crafty

* I made K a dress out of two t-shirts last night, which was just about the simplest thing ever. I took a cute t-shirt on clearance from Target and cut it off so it stopped at her waist. Then I took an adult t-shirt and cut off the bottom 12 inches, gathered it, and sewed it to the toddler shirt. And voici! A cute dress. I would share a picture, but K insisted on wearing it to bed over her pyjamas.

The problem with this method, of course, it that it leaves you with half an adult t-shirt. But then it occurred to me that it's just about the perfect amount of fabric for a pair of matching shorts, so she can go have fun on the playground without flashing everyone.

I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with this. As I mentioned before, I'm planning on putting K in dresses this spring and summer to try and get serious about potty training. But the problem with dresses is that they're so... girly. You can find cute shirts for girls that aren't quite so aggressively in lock-step with fashion gender norms, but once you choose a gender specific item like a dress, you've committed yourself to a sickeningly array of pink flowers, with a chaser of pastel butterflies. Which I don't necessarily mind, but not for her entire wardrobe. My daughter loves dinosaurs, fish and dogs, and I'd like to give her some of that. And the joy of t-shirts is the wonderful blank palette of expression for the creative. So dinosaur dress, here we come.

* I finished my last knitting project last night, so now I'm working on a Hemlock Ring blanket. My last several projects have been for K, and while I do adore how quickly toddler clothes knit up, I'm itching for something complicated and lacy that makes your eyes cross. I found a lovely yarn with a subtle stripe to it, which should look great going around the circle.

* Next up, I'm hoping for good weather this week so I can tackle painting K's Ikea table and chairs. If we had been intelligent and prepared, we would have finished them right away, but as we're clearly stupid and improvident, she's been liberally decorating the wood with crayon and markers, until the only solution is to just cover it all up with a thick coat of paint. In general, I applaud self-expression, but not on the furniture.

1 comment:

  1. That's a great idea! I love pink and flowers, and so does Elizabeth--but she also loves dinosaurs, and it seems like there should be SOME dinosaur stuff available. I want BOTH flower AND dinosaur choices. Or dinosaurs eating flowers, perhaps.

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