A Baby Gift for a Laker Fan....

I'm a huge basketball fan.  I played basketball my whole life, played on my college team.  (Don't be impressed - we were horrible!)  I'm originally from Boston, home of the Boston Celtics basketball team.

Every morning, I get up wearing one of my many Celtics shirts...

I drink coffee from my Boston Celtics mug.  Then, I head off to work, where I work in the land of Laker fans - our arch-rivals.  See, I live in Southern California, where 75% of the basketball fans are Laker fans.

So, here's the reason for this dress...

A Laker dress, for one of my Laker-loving co-workers.  This is going to the my friend Guillermo's beautiful daughter Alyssa - the much awaited first grandchild on either side of the mom and dad's family.  I figured that I would wait before giving him a baby present, as they were inundated with shower gifts when the baby was born.

 It will be presented in this bag: 

A Laker color bag.

The dress is one of my go-to patterns the Ice Cream dress from Oliver + S.  The floral fabric is from Robert Kaufman, and the solid is Color Weave from P&B Textiles.  Totally not colors I would ordinarily use....

The bag is another go-to pattern - the drawstring bag from Little Things to Sew by Oliver + S. 

It actually pained me to sew this outfit in these colors, and it even pained me to insert a photo of Kobe Bryant into my blog!  But, I know my friend will absolutely love this dress for his much loved little girl...she is 8 months old now, and the dress is 12-18 month size, so I think it will be perfect sizing for the on-set of the NBA season - where, both of our teams are going to be horrible this year, so we will commiserate together!

Two Ice Creams

This weekend, we have a very special birthday to go to - my daughter's former babysitter's daughter's first birthday.  So, another opportunity to make a gift using an Oliver + S pattern.

I made her an Ice Cream dress, in size 12-18 months.  I've made 3 of the tops previously, and they go together so nicely, with all the seams either enclosed or finished. 

 

I used a really cute Robert Kaufman print from their Urban Circus line.  I really like it with the green - I used corduroy - and the gift recipient is a blond, blue eyed adorable baby, so I think these colors will look great.  This was the first time I made the dress, and I think I put together the hem facing upside down, and I didn't notice the instruction to understitch the facing.  

Next up was another one, this time for Julia.  I'm trying really hard to consider what she'll actually wear, as opposed to what I think I'd like her to wear.  At this point, she really doesn't want to wear pants.  Or even leggings.  Or t-shirts.  Only pretty dresses.  That's the bottom line.

I made this one out of an absolutely screaming print I've had in my stash forever.  It's from Alexander Henry, and I know I've had it for about 10 years.  I actually love the detail in the print, but even I have to admit it's pretty screaming.  I paired it with a red corduroy, but after I actually put it on my child, I realize that the red is too much of an orange red.  So, next time, I'll seek out a more blue toned red.  This is a 2T with 3T length.  No notches in the neck or pockets, cause, I'm lazy sometimes.

Still, when I finished it, she put it on with absolutely no fight, and cooperated with me taking photos.  Success!!

 I had a hard time with the levels in the photos because it was a pretty gray day, and the red and all the other colors were really bold.  Still, I like the way the photos came out - especially since the kid was cooperative.

We really don't get a lot of rain around here, so she got  a chance to do one of her favorite thing....jump in muddy puddles!  (We're big Peppa Pig fans around here...)

 

I love the lagoon across the street from us - we see the coolest birds!!