When grandchildren are babies, or at least fairly young, we can make pretty things that please us and, hopefully, their mothers. Then, after some time, our target audience becomes opinionated little ones. That’s what happened with this special request from 3 yo Vivian Rose.
“Please make me a kitty cat dress, Nana,” she implored on her last visit. Having put The Incident behind us, making her a new dress seemed just the right gesture for assurance of forgiveness.
This child is fixated on cats. Their family pet is a 17 year old feline who went to college with Vivi’s father and has been with him ever since. So Vivi has daily interaction with a cat, elderly though she is.
When I spotted this fabric at my favorite fabric haunt, The Sewing Studio in Maitland, FL, I knew Vivian would love it.  Not only that, the black background would make her mother happy, who declares this active child’s clothes have a chance of surviving the school year if they are black denim.
Even so, the fabric seemed a little too feline for my taste, but I wasn’t buying for me. Don’t get me wrong–I love cats, but mostly in smaller numbers.
Challenges arose as soon as I began to cut it out. Those rows of cats are not printed precisely on grain. I dealt with a similar problem many years ago, but wisdom learned then was forgotten in my haste to make this for my precious little cat girl. So a choice had to be made between going with the weave of the fabric or with the print. I went with the print. Continue reading
I always favor projects with Madeira applique’ and to my eye the best feature is the bodice back. But I doubt I could convince 3 yo granddaughter Vivian Rose to walk backwards to show it to best advantage. Then again, she is usually on the run, so I guess the front and back have equal opportunity to be viewed. 