Can you believe that my beautiful granddaughter just turned two? I planned to write a post about her birthday party, and thought I would include photos of the decorations and snacks and treats, along with her birthday dress like last year. But it was a super busy day, and somehow I didn’t take many photos! So there aren’t any close-up photos of the cute star cookies (you can barely see them on the table behind her), the astronaut ice cream, or moon cheese, chosen for her space themed birthday party.
There wasn’t much doubt that Lila would choose space as a theme, since “moon” was one of her first words, shortly after “Mama” and “Daddy”. She likes to spot airplanes and helicopters, and “Look at stars!” and “See fireflies”. Her vocabulary is out of this world, if I am allowed to brag a bit, about all the phrases and sentences she says these days. She mimics and picks up new words and phrases daily. Possibly even ones she shouldn’t, such as “OK, girlfriend”, which she learned from yours truly! 🙂 It is sort of funny though, since she inserts it appropriately into conversation!
Her birthday dress was made using the free Sew A Little Seam Birthday Dress pattern. I muslined it using some chevron foil print purple knit I found on the clearance rack at JoAnn Fabrics a couple years ago. It looked cute and proportionate, although I couldn’t try it on her since she lives in another state.
Finding fabric that looked like galaxies was a little challenging, since I didn’t have time or the budget to order a custom fabric. But I found some hand-printed cotton at my local fabric store (that has a ton of quilting fabric, and very little knit, which seems common in Florida) that looked pretty and sort of galaxy like. The pattern tutorial calls for a zipper if the dress is made with woven fabric, although it’s only supposed be in the bodice. After installing the zipper in the completely lined and finished bodice, it made no sense to me to not have it extend into the skirt. Since there isn’t a back seam in the skirt (which would have been the easiest solution) I just snipped down the center back of the skirt about 3 inches, and folded the snipped edges under. Attaching the skirt was a bit challenging, since I needed the edges to line up perfectly in order to continue sewing on the zipper. It isn’t the prettiest zipper I’ve ever done, but it was installed and worked perfectly.
To up the “space” and sparkle factor, I added some metallic trimmed satin and chiffon ribbon to the bottom edge of the tulle underskirt. A simple zig zag stitch through the chiffon layer worked perfectly, and it took every single inch of the 3 yard spool of ribbon! I also made the hair bow, by following a tutorial on YouTube. Fortunately, the dress fit perfectly, and Lila wore it all day long from playing in the garden, to learning to ride her birthday scooter.
Last year, she just leaned forward in her high chair and nibbled her cupcake. This year, she decided it was too sticky to hold herself, and wanted Mama to hold it for her! Can you tell that she only gets sugary treats on rare occasions?
The birthday party flew by, with kids, neighbors, family, friends, noise, presents, and the general bedlam that one expects at a children’s birthday party. And it really only ended after it grew dark, and all of the neighbor children finished playing with bikes, scooters, balls, being pulled in wagons, and the adults gathered them inside for their dinners and evening baths.
On her actual birthday, we tagged along on a trip to a local farm. Lila got to see all the animals, go on a wagon ride, wander through a maze, and look at pumpkins, although she didn’t pick one out to take home.
And she got a shoulder ride from Grandpa, just like her Mama used to when she was little!
She also opened her present of Grandma made clothes. She wore her Petite Stitchery Sweetie Leggings (another free pattern) made from a floral double brushed polyester scrap and her Patterns for Pirates Tiny Tulip (also a free pattern), made from pieced together scraps of rayon spandex ribbing from Phee Fabrics the next day. The leggings are a looser fit like joggers, and the 24 months size fits well. The dropped shoulders of the Tiny Tulip make the size 2 a little bit big on her. I had to roll up the sleeves to keep them out of her way.
I made the skirt out of some star printed vintage cotton woven my Mom gave me when cleaning out her house. It’s just two pieces of fabric 12″ high by 22″ wide sewn together, and gathered with swim elastic. Swim elastic works best because it’s soft, and stretches enough to gather a wide opening small enough to fit on a simple rayon spandex waistband.
I hadn’t tried the free (with code in their Facebook group) Halla Leggings pattern before, but gave them a try because the rise is higher in the front than some of the other kids leggings patterns. Toddlers have round little bellies, and I dislike low rise leggings with a baby belly and diaper sticking out of the top! There was a big enough scrap of Polartech Powerstretch left in my stash to make the size 2/3 years. The Patterns for Pirates Buried Treasure Tunic in size 2 was the basis for the other two tops I made.
The sweater knit hacci was part of a panel and I didn’t have enough scraps to make long sleeves. So I cut them as long as I could, added seam allowances, and cut the rest of the sleeves, neckband, and gathered ruffle on the bottom out of Phee Fabrics rayon spandex. The floral print was a scrap of rayon spandex from JoAnn Fabrics. Since the fabric was quite thin, and didn’t have the greatest recovery, I decided to use some white rayon spandex from Phee as the neckband.
It makes for a cute outfit that is comfortable for her to run and play in. She also likes adding the 5 Out Of 4 Girls’ Eleanor Cardigan I made her last year when she is preparing to go play outside. If Phee Fabrics gets any more Polartech Powerwool in this winter, I will definitely have to make her another cardigan!
We had so much fun hanging out with the birthday girl! The 13-1/2 hour drive each way was brutal, but worth it to be able to visit our sweet, fun, loving, adorable, hilarious granddaughter. We can’t wait to visit again for Thanksgiving, but we’ve decided we’re going to fly next time!
This post may contain affiliate links. This means that at no extra cost to you, I may receive a small commission/credit if you purchase through my links. As always, I only give my honest opinion. After all, it is my blog, which represents me! 🙂 Thank you for reading and sharing my love of sewing, patterns, fabric, and pattern hacking. ❤
Sew Beach Life 