Back to school outfit #1

Today was the first day of school for my two oldest children. Sigh. Summer is over. We went to the community pool 5 times, to the zoo 4 times, to the free morning movie 5 times, to grandma's a bunch, and to the emergency room only once {thank goodness!}. That doesn't sound like a lot now. It sure seems like we were busier than that... probably more things will come to me later.

This is a silly picture that they took as we were going into the zoo one morning. A girl with a big camera tried to make us all stand in front of a green screen but I smiled and stepped aside. As you can see we are all perfectly coordinated in a combination of stripes, florals, polka-dots, and one adorable humpty-dumpty print on Connor. That coordination makes it easier for me to pick my kids out in a crowd. Side note: this picture now stands in a cardboard frame (that it came in) on our piano. Cadie (the youngest) loves to take it down and tell the story of how she sneaked into the giraffe pen when I wasn't looking. Never mind that her siblings are all present or that there is a cheetah there too, the story is always about her sneaking into the giraffe pen and about how easy it is to get away from mom.



You are probably expecting something about sewing here so I will tell you that I stayed up late last night sewing this little number for Chloe's first day. It's a totally new free pattern that Anna Maria Horner designed for Janome and I love it. I started it because it looked really fast and easy, and then I was delighted to see that the pleating detail is more complicated than I first noticed. I absolutely adore the little part that sticks up below the bodice and I'm tempted to try another one and make it stick up a lot more, kind of like a paper-bag effect. Here's a link to the free tutorial.

Last night I took this awful phone pic of the dress on my kitchen floor so I could show off to my invisible fb friends.

Soon after that Chloe stumbled out of her room to get a drink of water (this was at about midnight - yes I am crazy like that) and she was allowed to oooh and aahh just a bit over her new dress before we sent her back to her bed. She feels very lucky that there were no openings for her at the school her brothers now go to. They have to wear uniforms.

Anyway, a few more pictures of our morning madness and then I'm off to try out my new rotary blade...

Happy Back-To-School everyone!