Thank you so much everyone for all of your kind words on my last post. I have found that rest is helping so, so much, and I am doing my very best to not overbook myself going forward. It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed by the number of creative things available for doing – but I am learning that it is ok not to be “doing” all of the time. Also, I was relieve to find that the number of people visiting this blog did not go down while I was away – good news for sure!

I’ve pulled an oldie-but-goodie project today (read: made last year and sat in the mending pile until last month!). This also happens to be Thread Riding Hood’s 499th post  – wow! I think I will do a little pdf pattern giveaway next week for the 500th. Crazy that I’ve written that much!  I am so grateful for each and every one of you for coming back post after post.

Last year around this time, my youngest had an end-of-the-year school presentation for her junior-kindergarten class. Her teacher had chosen to act out Eric Carle’s book The Very Hungry Caterpillar – and worked for months on the project I’m sure. It was so cute! Little 4 and 5 year old’s each being one of the foods in the story, while a “caterpillar” ate them up. My daughter was chosen to be a narrator (ie. “read” some of the book) and she was SO proud! How could I not sew something for her to wear? Of course this happened the night before the presentation, as usual!

I’ve always loved No Big Dill’s Once Upon a Thread series, so making clothing based on a book seemed natural. Eric Carle’s design style is amazing. I love the illustrations in his books. He paints onto paper and then cuts it out to create each shape. I figured I could sew up another Potato Chip Skirt and do something with random fabric piecing. Turns out it works great!

I left all of the edges raw to make my life easier – but since they are fused to the skirt they haven’t frayed too much so far. The button caterpillar was based on this idea for a onesie that I found. Instead of embroidering the antennae I used a paint pen for them.

I tried to photographed the skirt while my daughter was on her way out the door to school. (Explaining the different photos in this post.) Here begins the adventure that has lasted a year. Sending a 4 year old to kindergarten in a white skirt required a trip through the wash. In the wash one of the sun’s rays fell off. The skirt then landed in the middle of a giant mending pile.

I finally found my embroidery floss a month or so ago and stitched each fabric piece onto the skirt. Now she can wear it whenever she wants – thank goodness. Turns out she’s talking about bugs right now in school – it’s perfect, like I might have planned it even. (Our little secret, right?!)

I am still so happy with the results – despite being terrified to let her wear a white skirt. Really, if I could I would love to frame it – but she wants to wear it, so that will have to wait. Kinda makes me want to sew up a giant one as a baby quilt though…. The only thing I was a bit sad about was not piecing in the smiling sun face – but that would have been a bit over the top for a “the night before” project!

 What crazy last-minute (or not!) projects have you made lately?