Howdy Hoody Kitty!

Another jacket for Heather in two days! I finished it this afternoon (just had to attach the sleeves and sleeve bands). Now I have a very ecstatic Hannah "fannah". She's still wearing her new outfit!

Combining the best of both worlds, Hello Kitty and Simplicity's Hannah Montana hoody dress/jacket:




America's new teen sweetheart is making her big stitch in the fashion scene!


More superstar dance moves!







Pattern Description
Child's knit mini dress with hood, hoody jacket in two lengths, pants and skirt. I sewed the hoody dress (view a, which Simplicity calls a mini-dress.

Size
Girls' 3-8. I sewed a 8 instead of a "5" because I was using a non-knit.

Fabric Used
Hello Kitty flannel from Joann's.

Directions
* They were sufficient. The diagrams were helpful.

Likes
* Cute style
* Self-lined hood
* Comfortable
^ Easy to cut and sew

Dislikes
* The directions and illustrations for attaching sleeve bands were vague. Acccording to the directions, while the sleeve cap had its right side of the fabric showing, the edge of the folded sleeve is sewn to the bottom of the sleeve. Then "Press seam toward sleeve, pressing band out." The accompanying illustration showed the sleeve with the wrong side showing and the band folded inward and left unfinished?

Instead, I sewed the edge of an unfolded band to the edge of the sleeve right sides of the fabric together. Then I turned the free edge (closer to the sleeve cap) of the band to the inside so that the band's correct side of the fabric shows below the slightly gathered sleeve. From the inside of the sleeve, I tucked the band's raw edge in and hand-stitched the band to the sleeve, along their inside seam.


Modifications
* I cut the length of the dress to a size "5" and the rest of the dress, an "8"
* I cut a bias strip of the fabric (instead of purchased bias tape) to line the hood and neck seam on the inside of the dress/jacket.
* Used flannel cut on the bias insead of knit.
* I skipped topstitching the hood seam.

Conclusion
I like the versatility of this pattern! The hoody dress has the girly-ness to it and the other looks are super for active wear or everyday wear.

This dress/jacket is overall easy to sew and a super bonus for a Hannah Montana fan!

Divas!


Superstar Divas!

Where's Hannah?

The minute Heather saw this Hannah Montana outfit in macys.com, she wanted to buy it!


It seems as if the only time she will go shopping is when she wants something in particular. I suggested that we buy fabric and I make the Simplicity version, but she was very adamant (I need to be more assertive!)

We could not find the Hannah suit, but Heather found a hot fuschia High School Musical t-shirt/dress, a Bratz Rock Divas, and of course a Hannah Montana pack of underwear. After trying the shirts in the fitting room, she said, "Let's go home!" But I continuously reminded her that it was about time that Mommy buys things for herself, and not just for Heather (especially when I have the rewards coupon for a purchase totaling $60 or more.

Surprisingly Heather was more patient on the first level shopping floor than I thought she would have been. Although on occasion, she wanted to head towards the cashier to pay for her items. I managed to find and even try on (I wish I could get into the green and white dress ECI made out of bed-type fabric) an INC black halter with nice embroidery below the bust and a Nine West black drape top (with a white mock camisole underneath and found in the third dressing room we were in during our swift shopping experience). Heather, again, waited patiently while I was trying on the clothes.

From Nine West, its Jewel Box Space Dye Kimono Top for $79.00. This resembles the black drape top that I just purchased!


Then we found a very sweet sales associate, Kathy, who complimented Heather's Sponge Bob jumper/dress. Heather was very proud. Kathy thought my savvy little shopper was adorable and mentioned that her niece also likes Hannah Montana (both watched HM on tv together!!) and that HM was a good role model for little girls.

Kathy got so wrapped up with Heather's items that she nearly overlooked "Mommy's stuff"! Surprisingly my two tops were much cheaper than expected (missed markdowns). Instead of paying 24.50 for each, I paid about $14 for one and about $9 for the other top! From $79 to $59, pretty good deal!

The minute I mentioned about getting a pretzel, Heather immediately wanted make a dash for the pretzel (pencil?) place! The young man convinced me to buy the third, get the fourth free. $9.52 for four pretzels? You could buy two LC's pizza for $10!

The princess dozed off just before the we arrived home. Yes, she was still hungry. She really enjoyed eating the pretzel and dipping a piece at a time into the cheddar cheese (actually I was hungrier than she was!).

Later we went to Vons to buy milk, flour, Diet Coke, smoothies, water, and others not on the list or my mental list: Mini-Oreos, marshmallows, strawberry cake and cupcake baking cups. Heather was also elated that a man (Chris Daughtry look-alike)in the Von's check-out line complimented her on her Happy Penguin jacket, which seems to attract such positive attention!


"Boycott Desperate Housewives or all shows from the ABC network! The writers of Desperate Housewives (and ABC for allowing this) goofed with their silly and insensitive remark (spoken by Teri Hatcher) which could impact the perception of people who also have been contributing positively and significantly to the United States (i.e. education, science, medicine, law, business, entertainment, etc)!"

It's only tv, we could just ignore the words. But then the media is powerful in projecting such negative images of people, no matter how highly competent they are in noble professions.

BTW: To Teri Hatcher, Ms. Hatcher, you used to be one of my favorite actresses! Oops, your fan base is diminishing already. Now, after this, will you get more roles after a line that is seen as derogatory?