A Purplicious Post

So, as I mentioned, I was in MS visiting my family over the holidays. I decided that I needed to make shirts for my nieces and nephews, so I'll be steadily doing that over the next several weeks. Of course I'll also be knitting and making stuff for my own brood of children, so there'll be a little of everything on here. First up is a shirt for my niece Sophia. She's just about the cutest thing ever. She's 3 (she'll be 4 in April) and she's VERY small. Let's put it this way. Dorian is not quite 2 and he's on the small side for his age. Sophia put on a pair of Dorian's pajama pants this past week and they totally fit!!! Lengthwise and everything! Haha, it was funny:D Here's a cute picture of Sophia and Sebastian at the drive in here in TN. This was when my sister and the kids and my mom came to visit this past summer.



Anyway, Sophia's favorite book is Purplicious. I've never read it because my only girl is 10 and it's way below her age range. Apparently it's about a girl whose favorite color is pink. The girl gets teased by all her classmates because they think pink is for babies and black is the new cool color. The little girl gets all sad and stuff and starts wearing blue all the time until she meets a new friend who's nice and who encourages her to mix pink with blue to make purple. Then the little girl is happy again, I guess. The moral to the story is that kids are sometimes assholes and you have to do what makes you happy and find friends who will support you in that rather than make you feel like crap. But kid books can't use words like asshole, so you get a book like Purplicious that deals with a real issue in a cute way that kids can understand. So, I decided to make Sophia a Purplicious shirt. I took a look at the cover:



Rather than creating something loosely based on the cover, I decided (like an idiot) to just copy the cover exactly. So I did. Here's the result:



This is mostly machine applique, with a few bits of hand-sewn applique. There are also some parts that I stenciled. The stenciled parts are: the big paintbrush, the palette, the little girl's facial details, the name of the book, and the line underneath that. The machine appliqued parts are: the big purple rectangle, the dress, the individual pockets, the little bow, individual sleeve cuffs, the collar, the face and neck, the arms, the hair, and the beret. If you're thinking that's a lot of pieces, you're freaking right. The hand-sewn appliqued parts are: the two very VERY small paintbrushes, the little wand, the thumb (on the palette), and the fingers (on the big paintbrush). All of the fabrics I used were scraps from old clothes belonging to me and the kids. The light pink portion of the dress is from an old shirt of mine, as is the fabric used for the arms, hands, face, and neck. The magenta portions of the dress, also used in the beret and the small paintbrushes, are from an old shirt of Bethany's. The purple is also from an old shirt of Bethany's. The brown used for the hair and the small paintbrushes came from an old shirt of Sebastian's, as did the yellow used in the star. I think it turned out pretty freaking good. And it was really hard. Luckily, Sophia tends to love everything I make for her. Plus she hardly grows at all, so she'll be able to wear it for a looooong time. Here are a few close ups (remember that you can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them).

The little girl's face and the lettering:



The big paintbrush that I stenciled on, plus her fingers that I hand-sewed (that piece was reallllly small):



The palette that was stenciled on and her hand-sewn thumb (even smaller than the fingers):



Her tiny paintbrushes and her little wand, all of which reside in her very small pockets:



Here's hoping that Sophia loves it!!!!