My cousin who is like my sister married a few years back or a decade ago which is starting to feel like the same thing. I mean, wasn’t 1996 a coupla years ago? What?! I’ve been out of high school for nearly 20 years? You don’t say.
Love, love, love.
Love, love, love.
Love, love, love.
Her wedding was small and sincere. We ended with her friend on the piano and sheets of lyrics passed around. We all embraced and sang like The Beatles.
There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done.
Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game.
It’s easy.
It was awesome, an army of off-key confidence sounding out.
Happy Valentine’s Day! I like this breezy, warm-hued holiday. Hearts, cookies, hugs. Why not.
Nothing you can make that can’t be made.
No one you can save that can’t be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time.
It’s easy.
I took down our pinecone burst and hung some love hearts on our holiday stick. Process: a selection of fabric scraps connected, wrong sides together, with fusible interfacing. Hearts cut and machine stitched together with gold (as per Margot’s insistence) thread.
I bought some soft flannel a few weeks back, planning to make the girls valentine nightgowns. Oh man they love nightgowns. Like always, my deadline snuck up on me and I wasn’t sure it would happen. Until! Until I was struck with that perfectly productive mood I simply could not ignore. And so, two nights ago I started in well after my family was asleep and sewed (with Alice by my side) until just a few hours before we awoke.
I ended up deciding to make gowns instead of nightgowns (the main difference is the leg room. I cut these pretty straight which would feel too tight sleeping). This pattern is such a snap and will definitely be making some shirts and sundresses for spring and summer.
Not going to lie, waking was painful and I so regretted my creative flurry. But then my kids discovered their frocks hanging in the bathroom and their squeals nearly instantly cured my craft hangover. I was fully cured after a soy latte in my kitchen with two giddy gowned daughters.
They love them and are wearing them again today.
All you need is love.
All you need is love.
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need.
I used this pattern with a few modifications:
* I didn’t use elastic for the neckline. I stitched three rows of shirring, using used elastic thread wound around my bobbin. I first learned about this super simple awesome MAGIC method in Weekend Sewing and have used it so many times since. A quick google search found a great tutorial (whew, I suck at tutorials).
* I also shirred the sleeves with two rows.
* I added a contrasting hem, attaching the strips after the sleeves were attached, before the dress sides were stitched.
* I added a waist with two rows of shirring.
I made these two dresses in about 3 1/2 hours and that includes seam-ripping off four upside down sleeves and associated swears.
Nothing you can know that isn’t known.
Nothing you can see that isn’t shown.
Nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be.
It’s easy.
All you need is love.
All you need is love.
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need.
Happy Day, beloveds.
28 Comments
I know we are swearing sewer sisters, I do. Cute, cute, cute, those girls are.
(Sidenote: when will I stay up late again? I still go to be at like 9:30 and Oscar is two and half. Yeesh.)
xo
Heather
I hear you. I either stay up until 2 or I go to bed at 8:30. I don’t know when it will change but I’ve heard my kids will start sleeping in precisely when they need to get up early for school.
Groan…
I literally just published my blog post and the title was…
All you need is Love…
And you know what? it is so true! Beautiful post and God those dresses are so beautiful xxxxx
Well, goodness! I love those nightgowns!! And I can totally see myself doing this exact thing! And feel that it is likely to happen seeing that I had planned to make my daughter a new nightgown for her birthday next week…since she loved the one i made her last year…and i’m feeling like i am just not going to get to it…and now…I feel i must! 😉 Ps…love those pinecones…and …we have similar hearts a flutter in our window, only ours are made of paper…have a great day! oh, one more thing…happy belated birthday! I wanted to wish you a happy birthday on Friday, but i didn’t get to it…I turned 35 on the 3rd…and since then have found out about many many fellow bloggers who are turning 35 this month…funny, i think….
,,,be mine. happy heart day!,,,
Puddle-reflection pics. Oh lawdy! Talk about LOVE. Happy day, mama. GET SOME!
Yep, the puddle pic is great.
Happy Heart Day.
Hope this and every single day is filled with ooey-gooey-sugary-grit-in-your-teeth-love.
-Angie
Oh, those puddle photos! Lovelovelove!
1) I love the creative impulses, and also know hangover regret.
2) Puddle photos are fantastic!
3) *Puddle* photos and bare arms? In mid-February??? Dang.
4) Love is all you need. YES.
Oh man, I need one of those gowns.
I think I have two of the most beautiful granddaughters in the entire universe.
Our school’s awesome music teacher planned an all-Beatles concert for Grandparents’ day this year, and my daughter and the rest of the 3rd graders sang All You Need is Love. All 3 of my kids will now randomly break into that song, and I never get tired of it! (Also I’m exhausted just looking at those lovely gowns.)
Oh wow what an amazing concert! I grew up listening to The Beatles and am finding new love for them now. Their lyrics are wonderful.
Super cute dresses, I both love and hate late night sewing binges- love the quiet and focus into the wee hours , loath the lack of sleep. Can’t help myself though – seem to be at my most creative at 10 pm – usually indulge myself when my husband is away and my sewing doesn’t keep him awake.
love love those girly gowns…hooray for coffee machines!!
Al x
My oldest fell asleep last night while coming down from a whole-body-i’m-in-a-rage tantrum. While the actual tantrum wasn’t fun, him falling asleep in the comfort of my arms was nice again.
Then he started to snore and we laughed.
Lovely dresses! Happy belated Valentine’s Day 🙂
Nicers!! Thanks for the special memory! Have not thought about that in a while. It is true, all you need is love! We are so fortunate to have so much L-o-v-e in our lives!
Love the dresses!
Char and Etty Lou are all about nightgowns too! Ahh, our girls!!!
love you
pcpeb
Sweet smiles and pretty dresses. Lucky girls, lucky mama 🙂
Hi Nici – You remind me of my fabulous mom – who made my sister and I all kinds of wonderful dresses and dolls. We are Indian so they are sparkly and decadent – Margo and her gold thread is a girl after my own heart. As luck would have it, I have two boys, who love sparkles but refuse to let me dress them up and my friends have sparkly dresses galore for their girls soooo if you want some fabulous Indian outfits or material – let me know how to get in touch as I would love to gift it to you’ll!
Hi Nici – My mom used to make my sister and I dresses all the time. Your pictures bring back lovely memories. As luck would have it, I have two boys who refuse to let me dress them up in the decadent, Indian dresses my mom made us, so they sit sadly in a closet. They are full of gold thread and glitzy colors and all the stuff I think Margo would adore. If you want them, drop me a line and I’ll post them to you’ll. Can’t think of a better way to share the love my mom put into those dresses for us! Happy V-Day!!
Funny I should come across this tonight…I’m abouts to (attempt to) crank out some crochet gifts for a baby shower that is happening tomorrow. I’ve had the patterns and yarn for a month. I’ve realized over the years that this just how I roll.
Those dresses are too much. And their reaction was, of course, priceless. I’ve had those “Oh why did I do that?!” “Oh, this is why…” moments as well. 😉
Nice work!
I’d wear that dress!!! Really, I would!
Oh, your girls…little darlings.
This is a perfect feel good post to end my evening reading.
Thank you 🙂
Ad now I’m singing….
The dresses came out wonderfully. And all of us who sew balance the need to harness the creativity and zen-like sense of “flow” versus the necessity to rip and curse your brains out. I will have to try the shirring method; I’ve never tried that technique. But oh how I do love to sew at 10pm into the wee hours of the morning.
It’s a wonderful time to sew! All dark outside, everyone snoring away. I love it. And, the shirring I am certain you’ll adore. It’s so easy it feels like cheating. And it’s forgiving! A dress for a three year old is a shirt for a seven year old.
oh my. what if all i say in my comment is LOVE?
i mean it for you, the pictures, the words, the line breaks, the girls, their frocks, the song.
LOVE.
all of it.
Absolutely adorable and soooooo worth the creativity hangover!! 🙂
~ Wendy
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