Family Friday Night – chatting, reading, working out and sewing

The Art of Conversation

It is so fun and cool to see one’s child grow and change over the years. My daughter is nine (ten late this year), and I feel like one of her biggest burgeoning signs of maturity is that she has started to really enjoy talking. I don’t just mean talking to make noise, which she certainly enjoys (she gets that from me), but talking as in conversation.

More often now, she will ask me or my girlfriend about ourselves, seeming to especially like hearing what it was like for us when we were younger, what we were like when we were younger. She likes to hear “stories” about our childhood and teenage years. A month or two ago, my girlfriend’s mom was visiting, and we all sat around talking, my little girl delightedly listening to my girlfriend and her mom tell stories about Texas and Minnesota and what life was like there when they were younger. It was pretty fascinating to see her so entertained by that. Full disclosure: she had been banned from TV, tablet, and toys as part of a consequence for a behavior issue at school, so it might have been at least part desperation. :]

Anyway, she really does seem to show more and more interest in “the art of conversation,” and will even comment on how nice it is to have those evenings–like last night–where we are all in the living room, doing our own things, but chatting, together. I was working out for a while, my daughter was playing on her tablet, my girlfriend was reading, and we all just chatted about this and that (thus my GF did not really get much reading done for a while).

Finding Some Sewing Time

Once I had finished my workout, both the GF and the daughter had settled into reading, and I decided to finally put together the mini-prototype of my new shirt design.

Looking at the way it goes together now, it seems so simple. Funny how hard it can be for me to conceive of these things “virtually” before getting the reality of it straight in my head. So, here’s what I threw together last night:

 

 

 

 

 

The proportions were very poorly scaled down, so ignore that part, including the wide collar that is more blouse than Spidey tunic. But the basic seam layout is there.

My daughter hoped my mini-version might be Barbie compatible, but it is actually a bit oversized for that. (She decided we should just make our own Barbie out of wood, with joints and all. I pointed out we don’t have a wood shop to speak of, and she is planning to do something with cardboard instead. I respect that she does not accept reality when it does not suit her.)

Anyway, I feel pretty good about drafting the full size pattern, with the right measurements, to see how that looks, and that should get me a bit closer to making the actual updated shirt. My spandex supply did arrive, so hopefully I will be digging into that soon.

I want to also do a mini-prototype for the new pants pattern, make sure that’ll work the way I expect.

And today is my daughter’s dance competition, plus whatever other weekend fun we can get into. Should be a full Saturday!

Up Next: Prototyping Pants and Patterning Shirts and Such