When we were young - Week 12: skirt as top

August 28, 2013

This week for When we were young, I am very happy to have Kristin from skirt as top guest posting here at sewpony. Kristin has a lovely blog and I have been a big fan since discovering skirt as top earlier this year. Kristin is a busy working Mum of two gorgeous kids and she finds time to sew gorgeous clothes for both of them. Her photos are always lovely too! Kristin co-hosts two great series. Vintage May is a vintage (who would have guessed??) inspired sewing series held in May. She co-hosts this with Jess from Craftiness is not Optional. Kristin also co-hosts the ongoing series, Film Petit, along with Jessica from A little gray. Film Petit is a unique series that involves sewing up childrens' clothing inspired from iconic films. It's super fun and you can read more about it on Kristin's blog.

Here is a taste of Kristin's lovely sewing...

And here is a little interview with Kristin about when she was young...

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Where were you born/where did you spend your childhood?

I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon (well, the general vicinity anyway). Until I was 10, we lived on an acre of land outside of Portland and actually had a couple of sheep, who make an appearance in my post today!

Who did you grow up with?

My mom, dad, and three younger sisters.

Did you have a childhood ambition?

I wanted to be a doctor. I'm still fascinated by medicine and actually took Human Anatomy & Physiology (a pre-med class) for FUN in college, even though I was a business major! It was interesting, but the hardest C+ I ever earned! Haha.

What did you like doing when you were little?

I loved reading, playing outside, climbing trees, riding bikes, and exploring.

Do you see any similarities between yourself and your child/children?

My daughter Em loves to "read" and has an active imagination, and she loves to climb our lilac bush at home - it's the closest thing we have to a climbing tree. She loves to take care of people when they're sick or hurt. I think she's probably quite a bit like me in personality, except she's much girlier than I was!

Do you live far from where you grew up?

No, not far - my family is all in town and so is my husband's! It's nice.

Where do you live now and who with?

Still in Portland but in the city now, with my husband, 5 year old daughter (Em), and 2.5 year old son (O).

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Hi, I'm Kristin from skirt as top and I'm happy to be here at the tail end of When We Were Young! Such a fun series, I've really gotten a kick out of everyone's posts! I actually sewed my outfit months ago, I was so excited for this. Didn't get photos until recently though, and my daughter had a growth spurt in those couple months, but ah well. I knew exactly which outfit I wanted to recreate and couldn't wait to sew it.

This is me in 1986.

As you can see by my mom's note at the bottom, I was 4 and a half. My daughter is 5 now, so we were pretty darn close in age! We lived on an acre of land out in the semi-country with a couple lambs that helped "mow our lawn," as my parents put it. I loved basically going outside in the summer mornings and not coming in except to eat.

Here I am in my little romper and saltwater sandals, living summertime outdoors. My mom said my romper was a hand me down (I was the oldest so it was likely from a relative). You can see my early love of climbing too!

With a series of photos like that, of course I had to make a romper for my little gal. I knew the print would be almost impossible to find, so I took some creative liberty both with that and with the design (wanted to make it a bit more modern). Here's what I came up with...

The fabric is a thrifted bed sheet, with store bought bias tape for the bindings.

Her salt waters are a different color too, but it all goes together and better reflects my daughter's girlier personality (I was more of a tomboy when I was little).

The pattern is the Retro Romper by Blank Slate Patterns, and it was such a joy to sew! I love the instructions for attaching the bodice to the shorts and simultaneously creating a casing for the elastic, and it came together super quickly. I made some fit changes to take it even MORE retro; the bodice is a 4T but the shorts are a 2T (with 4T width). Aside from the shortened rise, I also shortened the shorts to the 18m skort cutting line, re-rounding the edges to keep the sweet running short look. Short shorts are so quintessentially '80s, amirite?

I think I should've lengthened the bodice a bit to compensate for my short shortening and give her a bit more growing room, but how was I to know she was going to grow an inch and a half in, like, 2 months??

She likes it and my husband has said it's one of his favorite things I've made for her, probably because she gets all silly when she wears it - something about a romper makes her all acrobatic, much more so than with a dress. She hadn't worn a romper since she was a tiny baby, so it was fun to make one she could wear as a big five year old. Rompers are fun!

Feel free to come visit me at skirt as top anytime!

Thanks so much for having me here, Suz!

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I absolutely love your romper Kristin!! I have been thinking about making one for a while, so will have to give one or two (or perhaps three - one for each girl!!) a go this summer! Thanks so much for sharing your gorgeous outfit (by the way, I love Em's sandals... I have the same pair!!)