Retraction

I slept on it and decided that my bias slip was showing.  I wrote:

5 years of daily practice, summer camps to train for math competition, really?

That's crazy talk from me.  When it came to violin, I (begrudgingly) practiced 2 hours per day and improved accordingly.  When it came to sports, I willingly practiced 2-5 hours a day.  I went to volleyball camp.   I went to orchestra camp.  Why did I diss Mathcounts camp?

Mea culpa and please call me when you hear crazy talk from me again.

Teal Set

This is the only time you will see these two together as she has declared that she wouldn't be caught dead wearing a match-poo set like this.

During an archeological dig under my bed, I found a bin of refashioning potential, including this yellow button-down shirt from my Boulder days.  I got it in one of those "fill a bag for $5" sales at a thrift shop.  It was way too small for me and I saved it, possibly for quilting.  (Remember those dark days when we couldn't find yellow fabric for quilting and we had to scrounge for yellow clothes to cut up?)

I twisted the shirt up into two counter-rotating swirls and dunked it in soda ash and sapphire blue fiber reactive dye solution.  Serendipitously, the resultant greenish blue is a perfect match for the teal leggings (Kwik Sew 3476) I made her earlier this week.

I purchased the small piece of teal ponte knit at SAS Fabrics, an odd jobber that sells manufacturers' leftovers by the pound.  This piece was just large enough to cut out the leggings with almost nothing leftover.

This last growth spurt in the middle of winter threw me for a loop.  We had to come up with a new wardrobe in weeks.  Fortunately, I found 4 blouses she liked at Goodwill, chanced upon a sale at Lands '  End, and was able to make a few quick pieces.  She's all set until the next growth spurt and her trip to our sister city in Mexico in April.

Her wardrobe is replenished.  The ski underwear is done.  Her costume for the school play is done.  The part of the sets that I am responsible for is done.

It's time for selfish sewing.  I'm joining Little Hunting Creek for three months of sewing.  In February, it's time to sew something from silk.  Would it be cheating if I sewed something with cotton but lined it in silk?

Mathcounts

Addendum:
I've changed my thinking about math training. See my retraction.

The Mathcounts season is over for Iris' school. Like last year, they placed highly, but not highly enough to advance to the state tournament. They were bested by a highly selective private school and a few teams from wealthy neighborhoods who took a much more serious attitude towards training (5 years of daily practice, summer camps to train for math competition, really?).  But, I am proud of how well our kids did in comparison to other teams that took a similar "Let's keep it fun and upbeat" attitude.

The kids received two T-shirts for participating and Iris and another teammate won gift cards for ice cream for placing in the top (whatever) percentile.  Afterwards, the entire team went out for ice cream to celebrate.

Shapeless event T-shirts tend to go unworn and unloved in Iris' closet.  I recut the Ts using Kwik Sew 3476, adding waist shaping, trimming the body (from tunic to long T) and sleeve (from full to 3/4) lengths.  I found some knits with metallic foil at SAS in colors that match.  Click the photos to see the fabrics in full metallic glory.

After the most recent growth spurt, this 12 year old is wearing a size 14 or Kwik Sew Children's XL.

I purchased Kwik Sew 3476 to make performance ski-underwear for our upcoming trip.  The polyester interlock pieces I found at SAS were perfect for the T-shirt.  But, they lacked the lycra 2-way stretch  required for the leggings.

I'm proud of the stripe-matching.  But the leggings are going off to Goodwill.  Perhaps a very skinny child will find them useful.

Don't worry, I made her 3 more pairs with lycra.  You'll see the picture of those shortly.