Hey look! I made my children adorable matching 4th of July outfits!!
. . . I only finished them 3 weeks late.
No problem, right? The kids can wear them to church one Sunday looking all matching and adorable!
Only on the Sunday where I got everyone dressed up in these cute new outfits, and we were actually going to be on time for once, and I actually got the girls' hair brushed and braided, our only vehicle large enough to transport the whole family decided to break down. So we didn't even make it out the driveway, let alone all the way to church. Maybe next weekend??
Turns out life, especially life with kids, rarely goes as expected. (For us even acquiring kids didn't go as expected). I've spent years of my life at this point dreaming of having kids and making them special matching outfits for alllllllll the holidays. I figured after years of nannying and fitting in sewing while watching other people's kids I'd have no problem still managing to sew once I became a mom. LOL.
Turns out, as I'm sure anyone can tell you, having children 8-10 hours a day is VERY different from being responsible for multiple little humans 24/7. Also, going from 0 to 4 children over a 9 month period is a HUGE adjustment. Add to that all the foster care stuff that goes with this particular brand of parenting - meetings, trainings, paperwork, and more appointments than I ever could have imagined. (Only 2 this week? Woah, that's nice!) Yeah, making those adorable matching outfits in time for the specific holidays? That's a goal. Maybe one day I'll reach it.
In the meanwhile, here's what went into those 3 week late adorable matching 4th of July outfits.
I decided it would be easiest to use the same pattern for everyone so I could sew the boys' shirts and the girls' dresses assembly line style. The lucky pattern was McCall's 6548. Since Joann's and their $1.99 pattern sales are no longer a thing, I traced off the different sizes I needed. For the girls' dresses I just cut the shirt body pieces off at the waistline mark and added a gathered skirt. The one change I made to the pattern for all 4 garments was to make a back neckline facing rather than finishing the back neckline by sandwiching it in between the collar layers and hand sewing. The facing just hurried up the sewing a little bit.
The red, white, and blue cotton plaid came from the city sewing room last winter. I *think* I had about 5 yards of it, and that was just enough for all 4 garments! As you can see, I didn't stress about pattern matching. . . I made a loose attempt, but it turns out I didn't have the fabric folded just right. (I know, I know, you're supposed to cut plaid as a single layer to get everything lined up perfectly, but I don't have the time and patience for that.)
In an effort to be able to tell all the very close in size garments apart without too much trouble, I used big buttons sewn on with blue thread on my big girl's dress and big boy's shirt,
And smaller buttons sewn on with red thread on my little girl's dress and little boy's shirt. (I betcha my husband will still dress the wrong boy in the wrong shirt though, lol.)
All those buttons got sewn on as I waited in waiting rooms at appointments, sat in front of the computer for a Zoom training, and sat on the bank of the creek, watching the children playing in the water.
That last location is definitely my favorite of all the options. I need more time at the creek and less time in waiting rooms!
And with that, those outfits were done! 3 weeks late, but better late than never, right???
Even without the outfits, we had a very good Independence Day. I managed to make my traditional American Flag fruit pizza (Though it took me almost all day, rather than just an hour or two in the morning like it has in years past.) and we all had a very nice time at the family gathering that evening.
The kids enjoyed the fireworks, only requiring a few reassuring hugs when things got loud.
Maybe next year their plaid outfits will still fit, or maybe by then I will have figured out time management a bit better and I'll actually get new outfits made for the,
One can dream, right?
Meanwhile, I still need to finish the boys' Easter outfits. Once again, better late than never, right????