If you’re interested in hearing about knitting, skip to the end and I’ll tell you about the really cool dress I’m making for Kayla. But if you’re here for Carol, I’ve got a pictorial review of her recent appearance as a Princess on Parade.
Our neighborhood community center sponsors an annual children’s parade, led by the Boy Scouts and the University of Washington Alumni Band. These kinds of activities make me wish I’d kept up with my instrument, though I don’t really know why. I love the clarinet, but it’s kind of dorky compared to the brass instruments that make all the noise in the marching band.
OK, I know that the entire band is dorky, but I loved it. So there.
I didn’t know that I could have created a float for this parade. Man, that would have been so fun as we have lots of options. First, there’s the John Deere Tractor, which Carol is probably going to have outgrown by next year. This would have been the perfect opportunity to fix it up and show it off. Can’t you just see Princess Aurora riding on the tractor and waving to her fans?
Another option would have been the Radio Flyer Red Wagon Lenora gave to us several years ago when she sold her house. I saw someone else who had made a wagon into a race car and I know Tommy and Carol would have loved to have done something similar. Maybe next year.
This time, Carol dressed up and walked. She had an hour from the time our neighbor told us about the parade until we had to leave and I think she changed her mind eight times during that hour.
Since she already had on her Cinderella dress from two Halloween’s ago, she immediately decided to wear that. However, she quickly moved on to Minnie Mouse and even put on the dress and hat before changing her mind again. She muddled through a few choices and never really seemed happy… until I mentioned the Sleeping Beauty dress hanging in the closet.
This is the true princess dress that Cousin Elizabeth gave Carol for Christmas two years ago. She got one for both Carol and Courtney and they wore them in Disney World when we met several princesses for breakfast. The poor thing had gotten pretty dirty when I discovered the best way to wash it was to just throw it into the bath with Carol. She had fun stomping around on it and I held it under the shower for the rinse. I believe the 300 pounds of taffeta and lace took eight days to dry.
The dress has been hanging up in my closet since she wore it to the ballet in late February. I had a grand plan of having her photo taken for her fifth birthday in it, but we didn’t quite make it to Bagwell Studio at the right time this year. Well, JA took pictures of her at Christmas and that’s pretty close to her fifth birthday, so we’ll count that for this year.
At least the dress was clean for the parade. Or, I should say before the parade, because soon after, enjoyment of the festival led to the obvious thing that happens when you try to eat a blue raspberry snow cone in 200 yards of princess ball gown.
Well, she looked quite nice anyway.
Here’s Carol at the start of the parade, waving to her many fans.
Looking over at Daddy.
Dancing to the Alumni Band.
Twirling that skirt.
For the festival, a fire truck arrived so Carol went exploring. The firefighters told her she was the first princess to ride in the truck.
One last shot of the princess, out of her Sleeping Beauty attire. Maybe this is more like a Cinderella picture as she’s down in the basement slaving away at her sewing machine.
Right before her birthday, Carol told us she wanted a sewing machine. Since we had already completed our shopping, we didn’t cover off on that item. She certainly let us know that she noticed the lapse. In fact, for days after her birthday, if anyone asked how it went, she was always sure to state the fact that “I wanted a sewing machine, but no one got me one.”
Fortunately, Ronnie and Glenda had heard the desire for a sewing machine and fulfilled it. Unfortunately, since Carol told them to keep her birthday present until our visit to Texas, she continued to voice that desire until June. Finally, she got her heart’s desire!
When I went downstairs to sew last weekend, Carol immediately clamored for the unpacking of her own machine. While others (whose names I will protect by not even mentioning them) could not get this machine to work, I was able to follow the instructions and get it going.
Carol made the skirt she is wearing out of two bandanas and a ribbon threaded through a drawstring hem. In the photo, she’s sewing another pair of bandanas to make a matching shirt.
FYI, this was not good enough for her.
Once completed, she lobbied for a skirt and top that are all one piece, “like a dress that Mommy makes.” I don’t think she’s quite ready for a pattern, so I cut some squares out of leftover fabric and rigged up a tunic pattern that should satisfy her for awhile. Certainly it is taking more than one sewing session to complete, which satisfies Carol’s need for complication.
Speaking of complication, take a look at the dress I’m making for Kayla.
This is Opal from Louisa Harding’s Bijoux pattern book, and I’m using Tahki Cotton Classic. I had another pattern in mind that Kayla had already approved, but when I showed her this one, we went in this direction.
I spoke to Kayla on the phone one night at my knitting class to determine color. She told me coral and my eye was immediately drawn to this, which is called Light Watermelon. I took just one skein with me to Texas and Kayla said yes. Unfortunately, due to some complications with my travel schedule at work, it would be over two weeks before I made it back to knitting class.
I emailed So Much Yarn that I would need ten more skeins plus the pattern book and they kindly put everything aside for me until I returned. What a wonderful store!
And usually, I would say how wonderful Lauren is, but before I could get started on this dress, she made me do a gauge swatch, which took me most of the class. OK, I was talking a lot, too, but still…
Happily, my gauge seemed right on, so I did get to start with the picot cast-on that night and finished it up during lunch the next day at work. I haven’t gotten to work on this a ton, but last night I finished the back and started the cast-on for the front. Finished that on the way to and from church today. Yay! Now I’m moving on through the front, which I hope will go much faster as I’ll have more time to devote to it over the next couple of weeks.
I’d really love to get this to Kayla by end of July, but who knows how that will go. I know that in Texas she can actually wear a dress like this all the way through October (probably even Christmas!) but it is a summer color and fabric and it’d be nice to get some use out of it this year.
Now, it’s time to go find my princess, fresh from the bath, and get some reading done. Currently, we’re making our way through “Farmer Boy” and “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” and have just finished “Alice in Wonderland.” Luckily, “Through the Looking Glass” is in the same book so we’ll get to find out if it really was all just a dream!