Words of Advice from Michelle of Falafel and the Bee

Today we have some words of advice from Michelle, of Falafel and the Bee, who has weathered the storm and is now into the teen years.  Go check out her blog to see the beautiful things she makes for her beautiful daughters. She is great about incorporating their personality into the things she makes for them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My tween just graduated into "teen" last year, and let me tell you, that sewing for her has gotten a little easier. The Tween years were downright difficult. Not only to sew for her, but to even find anything in the stores.

What saw us through was finding a garment (usually from trying on every size between child size 16, Junior sizes and adult xs/s) regardless of the size, and using that to make a pattern off of. Go with what fits, not the size.

She varied so much (I called her my mutating daughter- *ahem* not to her face), I never could just buy something for her (and honestly, I love to sew for my family and wasn't ready to give that up). Not quite a child anymore, but she didn't have the bust to fill out an adult garment. She absolutely had to be present to try it on.

Luckily, she has classic taste that can be done without too much fuss, or even a pattern.

Blogged about here.

This one: here.

The wonderful thing about sewing, is that you can customize garments for your picky fickle particular tween.

Knits are fabulously forgiving. If you are looking to start to sew for your ever changing tween/teen, I highly recommend using knits! Very fashionable and they stretch while she grows.

Now she actually fits into adult XS patterns which makes life a little easier.

I hope this helps everyone to keep on sewing for their young ladies, no matter how challenging it becomes. It can be done!

Thanks for having me here today!