Like Mother, Like Daughter:

Fashion Designer

 I decided a week or so ago that I need to create a series title that can be reoccurring and be about Princess and I. We are both a lot alike and she amazes me so much. She is as smart as a whip and very creative. I would love to take all the credit and say that I have spent countless hours teaching her all sorts of skills, but that just isn’t true.

Her dad often calls her, “Little Thaleia”. Which drives us both a little crazy, but it is so true! I came up with Like Mother, Like Daughter because it will leave plenty of options to talk about the things we both do and enjoy. So on to our first installment of Like Mother, Like Daughter: Fashion Designer!

The title does not do what happened justice! Princess has lots of clothes for her 18″ dolls store-bought and lots homemade, but she has a doll that didn’t have many clothes. She was determined to make clothes for this doll. Now mind you I told her I would help her but not this week because of blog work and finals for college coming up. So what does a determined, creative girl do? CREATE HER OWN PATTERN!

Yes, you read that right! My 8 yr. old daughter took her doll (one of the super baby twins from Dora) that she calls Amelia and laid it on a piece of paper. She roughly traced around it and THEN she got out a tape measure and took the doll’s measurements. She marked those down on the piece of paper. She showed me what she did and I knew she was determined to create a pattern for this doll TONIGHT!

I asked if she had a dress that fit the doll. She said yes, the plain dress that the Springfield Dolls come in. So I suggest to her to lay that dress on a piece of  paper and trace around it for a pattern. She did this very quickly, but didn’t want to make a nightgown for her doll. She wanted to make a one-piece pajama outfit that had legs!

Oh, boy she was driving me crazy and WAS NOT going to give up on this. So I helped add the seam allowance to the pattern pieces and showed her how to created a pattern that would be placed on the fold. I had to drop everything that I was doing to wade through Eldest room to dig out the fabric box so Princess could pick out her fabric. I chose a few pieces that would be easy to sew. She picked the pink flannel that we had JUST ENOUGH OF!

I told her we would have to put it away for a few days until I got more schoolwork completed. She was sad but knew I had to get my assignments done. Well, a few days later she asked about sewing the outfit. I had brought out the sewing machine to make a quick keychain and so off we were to sew!

She insisted that she help as much as possible, but only enough to not mess it up! We fitted the outfit on Amelia a few times and realized we did not have enough fabric in the legs! So I told her not a problem and pieced a strip in the crotch so it would work out!

I must tell you I’m going to have to watch out for this girl. 80% of the pattern she created herself! Do you know that while we were creating this project (an outfit for a doll) and she found out I own a sewing machine built into a table that she requested it to be brought to our house instead of grandpa’s garage! Looks like we have a lot more cleaning and organizing than I thought we would be doing over college break!