Monday, August 26, 2013

Words of Advice from Justine of Sew Country Chick

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Today we have our first guest blogger, Justine, with us to kick off this new blogging adventure. Justine is one of those sewing bloggers who has a ton of experience to back up her words of advice. Plus she also makes and creates amazing things for her daughters. Go check out her blog for some great tutorials that would work for your tween.  The Sailor Skirt, pictured below is on my list.~~Sally
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Hi, I'm Justine from the Sew Country Chick blog ! I'm excited to be included as guest writer for the first week's kickoff of Sew Cool For The Tween Scene. This blog is a great idea for motivating us to make fashion for our older girls. Why should only the little ones get all the handmade love?

 I sew for my three daughters ages 4, 10 and 18, on a regular basis. I also have a 19 year old son and a 26 year old stepdaughter, but I didn't sew much for them besides Halloween costumes when they were younger. I became more serious about sewing and designing for my kids the past four years, I'd say.

My middle daughter is now 10 and at the age where she is developing her own sense of style. When she was younger I used to love making her dresses from 1940's and 50's patterns.
But she 's not really liking them so much anymore. At her age, 10, most girls don't want to stand out too much. They want to fit in with the crowd. As an experienced mother of four girls, I can tell you that this is a phase and it does pass.

Before you know it they will be wanting to wear all sorts of crazy things. You will have to choose your battles!

Below are a few outfits I've collaborated on with my  pre-teen  and sewed for her that she loves and wears often...

Now here are a few outfits I've made for her without consulting her for her opinion. I just felt like making them and assumed she would like them too, like she always did when she was younger. And as cute as I think these outfits are, they just collect dust in her closet. So sad......


You might be like me and actually like the reject outfits more than the embraced ones! But guess what? That doesn't matter! What matters is that you don't waste your time sewing what you think would look good on your girls but will never get worn.

I can't stress enough how important it is to remember that once your daughter gets to about the age of 9, sewing for her will have to become a collaboration. Unless you want the garment to sit in her closet collecting dust, she needs to feel that the garment was mostly her idea, and you have to take a back seat as designer when it comes to fabric choices, etc.

So welcome to Sewing For The Tween Scene.
Stop by Sew Country Chick and say hi!



3 comments:

  1. Thank you both for having me over.Good luck!

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    1. Thank you Justine! I have the same problem in that my favorite outfits for my girl are rarely the ones she loves to wear. But, I have learned to ask her opinion early on in the process to eliminate too many of dicarded outfits. And that is so sad about the silk dress because that is one of my favorites that you have posted in the last year. But I have made my daughter that same pattern, and she never wears it.

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  2. It is a pity that the knit dress and silk dress are collecting dust in the closet, but in your case maybe your youngest daughter will wear them in several years, otherwise you could always donate them to charity...
    Don't ever think that your time is wasted, everything you create is an expression of your creativity and you probably learn something new with each new item...

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