Hunger Games

It's Hunger Games inspired this month over at Crafting Con! I admit, I watched the movie when it came out, but my daughter was still a baby and woke up several times while Patrick and I tried to watch it, so I ended up splitting it into two evenings. This left me without much of an impression of it, and honestly I didn't give it a whole lot of thought after that. This summer, after I finished the latest Outlander book, I bought The Hunger Games on my Nook while I was trying to find something else to read. Unfortunately I had a bit of a book hangover and just couldn't get into it. Fast forward to this month, I went to re-watch the movie for sewing inspiration only to find that now Catching Fire is on Netflix instead. Well, darn it, the story was fuzzy, so I decided to read the first book (after all, I already had it!) before I watched it. I ended up reading the whole series in less than 3 days. I have since recorded The Hunger Games on my DVR, and watched both that and Catching Fire. At least twice.

My inspiration to sew came from Catching Fire.

Cyrus reminds me a bit of Peeta, right down to his love of orange and bread. Maybe a bit less blonde. So for the sew along, I based this off of his outfit at the reaping. Jeans, tee, hoodie - his style in a nutshell. Since they share a favorite color, I made a Peek-a-boo Grand Slam from this amazingly soft orange bamboo knit. The slim fit option in this pattern is such an amazing fit on this kid. The hoodie is Shwin Designs Submarine Hoodie modified to use an old button up shirt and tee. Instead of using the placket pieces on the hoodie, I cut the front to use the existing button placket on the shirt. The hood I cut just slightly wider than the neck, and made a casing in the front for a drawstring. (Nope, not the "right" way, but I was improvising and didn't have eyelets on hand at the time.) I omitted the elastic at the bottom and sleeves, and just did a folded hem, and used the button tabs to keep the rolled sleeve look. The buttons are orange for an extra pop of that favorite color.

Initially for Ellie, I wanted to use Prim's outfit at the Hunger Games reaping for inspiration, but couldn't find skirt fabric I was happy with in time. Instead, I decided to go with a loosely Finnick Odair inspired look. The inspiration from his outfit came from the promo posters for Catching Fire, and also from the general idea of water and fishing from District 4. I made a white LouBee Bimaa Sweater with a shawl collar - my first Bimaa! I can now say I understand why everyone loves this pattern, and I'm really excited that the new sizes mean I can make one for Cyrus. For the skirt, I found this knit at JoAnn's - shades of blues, and the sparkles that look like sunlight on water. I made a simple yoga waisted circle skirt, since I really just wanted to show off this fabric. The waistband is the same white knit as her top, partly so it's easy to hide under a shirt, and mostly because I was afraid the sparkles on the blue would be uncomfortable against her skin. I also made a necklace inspired by Finnick's by braiding some cotton cord, but instead of a shell hers has a fluorite dolphin charm.

Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor.

Tiny Dancer

Ellie has started taking a ballet class, and she is crazy about it. This girl just loves to dance. Two classes in, and she finally has shoes and a leotard that fit. After insisting on short sleeves, the weather forecast for today was so cold, she needed long sleeves under her jacket. Unfortunately for me, she refuses to wear non dance wear to her class. Enter the Heidi & Finn Ballet Sweater! What a lifesaver. Long sleeves, won't interfere with the tutu, and it's even got ballet in the name. Jackpot.

I cut this out last night, and sewed it up this morning. It is super quick to make, and comes out so cute! I can tell I was hurrying, my top stitching is a bit wonky in places and I didn't have time for a good steam pressing, but she loves it. The buttons were her idea. That's another thing she loves, adding buttons to things. I left off the wrap around ties on this one, both for time and so that they wouldn't get in the way if she kept it on for class. (She didn't. She also barely posed for photos, she was in such a hurry to get to class!)

I made a 3T, and it came out a little big, but there was no size chart in the pattern and I was too busy freezing last night while tracing and cutting to think to go find it. But better too big than too small. Now she can hopefully get more than one dance season out of it!