In this case "sucka" refers to "seersucker." Seersucker is a puckered, lightweight cotton fabric usually with thin stripes. Most commonly, blue and white stripes.
You see, seersucker is historically worn in the south where it's hot. There's even a seersucker day in Congress where the senators all wear it! My dress would be perfect for sweaty school days!
I bought that dress last year at Savers then spent all summer of 2017 trying to make it work. As you see in the picture, it's mostly just long. I thought it would be an easy fix. Nothing's ever easy for me!
Here's the first step! Little off the bottom, little off the sleeves... (Moody likes mid length dresses and short sleeves!) It was not a bad start...just a little loose fitting in some areas.
Here's my testing out some fabric pinching with some safety pins. I put a few gathers in the back. Gathers? Darts? Don't know the proper term for this. Starting to look better...but something was off.
Does that look cute to you?! Nope. It does not. It's that damn collar. Well, I know what I've got to do.
Seam ripped the collar and made a v neck. Hello, sexy new neckline!
NO. That is not a sexy neckline. It's not right at all.
Undeterred, I stood in front of the mirror with my pins, adding more "darts". Then I hacked more sleeve off. Here's what I got:
I love it. I wore it to school and received many compliments! Here's the big finish:
Sorry, I took a lot of pictures.
There's the little sash belt.
So school was a little different last year. I've spent the last 6 years in kindergarten and first grade. In September, 2017 they sent me upstairs. With the big kids. I spent my days shuffling between several fourth and fifth grade classes. I was reunited with my old friends! My first babies from kindergarten 2012-2013 "graduated" from fifth grade. I may have teared up a bit.
I mean "Goodbye Halloween." It's November, but I wasn't gonna finish a project early just so I can blog about it in a timely fashion.
In my youthful days of joy, I would spend weeks planning a costume. Something sexy and fun, but not totally cliche. Then, I would prepare Halloween themed desserts, sometimes even a cocktail and celebrate the shit out of that holiday at what was always the party of the year.
Now, my sad ass just dresses up for school. I knew what I wanted to wear, whether it was age appropriate or not...
Helloooooo
So, if you read my blog over the summer, you'd know that I like Hello Kitty now. (Waves fist) You better be ok with that! (Why I like Kitty.) It's "kawaii" which means "cute af" in Japanese from what I can gather. The whole Sanrio-Kitty world is just so cute and endearing. The simplicity is what makes her over the top cute.
Oh, and I do remember the news story that came out awhile back declaring Hello Kitty "not a cat" and I declare "bullshit." Paws, whiskers, little cat ears...yeah, that's a cat, you can't pull a fast one on me!
Anyway...my costume. I searched Pinterest and Google images for some inspiration.
I wanted a cross between that strapless dress and that cute baby. She looks so comfy.
Here are some other ideas that could possibly be work appropriate. If I wanted to be recognized I needed the cat ears and bow, which I bought. For the clothing part, Kitty's usual outfit seems to be a jumper; something with shoulder straps like overalls. Her colors seem to have two basic schemes: classic red/blue/yellow or girly red and pink.
I didn't want to go subtle, so I figured I would construct a dress with images of Kitty herself. Even though that's kinda like this:
Milhouse: Check it out Lisa! I’m Radioactive Man!
Lisa: I don’t think the real Radioactive Man wears a plastic smock with a picture of himself on it!
Milhouse: He would on Halloween!
I started with this stupid garment:
I did not waste time modeling a "before" shot because it's not funny looking, it's just one of those terrycloth beachwear things. Obviously not a jumper, but it worked for me. Then I hit up the little girls' department of Savers and found this:
I almost felt bad about destroying it just for the picture of Kitty with the 3D bow. But I cut her out right around the head. The stretchy bathing suit material was kinda worn and pill-y.
Then I went to Goodwill and found this one:
Oooh, sequined Hello Kitty face! Now, I want that one. Both dresses were $3 each, so...probably not money well spent for scraps.
The transplant took place and the sparkle head was added to the front of my red "jumper." Then, I looked at the other one and wanted that one too. I made a pocket with it!
I didn't get a real picture, I just zoomed in.
Who has a pair of white leggings? Couldn't find any, until I asked my mom the night before. She said "Yeah, I think I do. And I don't think I've ever worn them. Why do I have them?"
The finishing touch was a really fun Hello Kitty necklace for $1.99. Actually, I drew on some whiskers. That was the finishing touch.
Just a mirror selfie. My mirror just leans against the wall in my bedroom so I moved it into the kitchen for the white background. Here's one without the white:
The children loved it, and everyone was reminded of my darling little friend AB who attends a different school this year. (Scroll up and click the link in the second paragraph, that will tell you who AB is.) I definitely sent a pic to her Nana's phone so I could say Happy Halloween and remind her of how we all miss her.
Here I am, finally picking up where I left off in my last post. School themed post, just in time for the 4th of July. First; a project. T shirt surgery. I've got writing to do so I'm just gonna show you this top.
I've been going back and forth because I wasn't sure if it was appropriate to show a shirt bearing my school's name. There it is, do what you will with that information.
Now, back to my story. To recap; I was newly assigned to work with AB, a girl in kindergarten who had select mutism as well as some behavioral issues. My "mentor-ship" got off to a great start.
AB's home life was...not so great. When she was present at school, Mom dropped her off quite late. The lack of consistency made her anxious and unwilling to walk into her class. She would follow her sister and stand outside of her 2nd grade class.
Parents...this is important. Drop your kids off on time so that they can start the day and their morning routine with their classmates. Just saying, that helps them a lot.
Seeing as though my first goal was simply to get her and keep her in our classroom, I would accomplish this by any means necessary. I offered her all sorts of incentives. As a child with some sensory issues, she loved playing with sand, Play-Doh, and the bin of uncooked beans (yes, that's a thing). "Want some sand? Great, let's go back to our class and play with sand! "Want to do a puzzle? I found a great Hello Kitty puzzle and it's waiting for us in class!"
It's not as if she was being defiant. It was often as if she was scared and confused. Several times, I found myself sitting alongside the little girl in the hallway of the 2nd grade wing while she would literally fold herself in half. She would sit with her feet together and lean forward with her head down on her little sneakers. I few times I poked my head into a classroom and called to one of my friends who had been in kindergarten two years ago. "Hey, so and so! Could you let me borrow an iPad from the cart?"
That video was one of our favorites and I called it "the morning song." I would fire up this video on the screen of an iPad as I sat beside her on the floor. She couldn't resist that upbeat, happy tune and soon her head would come up so she could watch the video which had an immediate soothing effect. Crisis averted! Back to class.
Sometimes, I would go to the ladies' room and come out to find her waiting at the door. It was endearing to me, but made me feel like I had a huge responsibility. I picked up all sorts of Hello Kitty toys on my thrift trips. Just little things to use as an incentive for doing school work or for listening during lessons.
Her hair had become a tangled nest on top of her head and I wished to take her home and give her a nice shampoo.
A short time later, those knotted curls stopped being a problem. On a Sunday night, I found one of those bagged items at Savers: a Hello Kitty plush with glasses alongside a smaller Hello Kitty in a tutu. On Monday I put them in my drawer of supplies to keep for an emergency. I walked out into the hallway and awaited AB's arrival.
At first I didn't recognize her. I did a double take as I saw a little girl with a short blonde haircut--it was AB. Dressed in jeans and long sleeved shirt, she looked like a completely different girl. She had no backpack and no Kitty in her arms.
What we learned was that over the weekend, AB and her brother and sister were removed from her mom's care and handed over to her dad. (I'm guessing that he saw the immediate need for that haircut.) I guess it was a good thing I bought those stuffed cats for $3. Fearing a difficult morning, I presented the kitties in hopes of starting the day off with a smile. She had nothing but the clothes on her back and seeing Kitty must've have made her pretty happy. She held them closely in a tight hug.
A major upheaval in her home life could lead to some setbacks in her progress and behavioral changes. I braced myself for hard times...
But, they never came.
She just kept moving onward and upwards. If this were a movie, this would be the part with a montage featuring AB and I confidently strutting down the school hallway, set to a catchy, happy song. There would be shots of other staff smiling at her and complimenting her new look/good behavior/or whatever cat doll she was carrying. I soaked in the pride of being involved in such a successful turnaround.
In the winter, I had to leave town for my dad's surgery. I came back to more changes. Once again she had a new home. She was removed from dad's house and placed with relatives a few towns over. The nurse told me that while I was away, she had a few "accidents." Normally, I just knew the look that said she needed a bathroom break, so she didn't have to ask. I knew to suggest potty breaks in the morning and afternoon after recess. When I wasn't there, she just didn't know what to do.
I'm friendly with the school nurse and when we talked, she told me that I was the only consistent thing AB's had this year. She even said that I was sort of intuitive of her needs like a mom. Knowing how changing schools would probably be traumatic, our school social worker arranged for transportation to get her and her sister to and from. Another change.
Still, she grew stronger. I modified grade level assessments and found the bright mind hiding within. The kids in class had always wanted to play with her, and she was enjoying playing along. I noticed she seemed comfortable with a little girl I'll refer to as RW. RW is a wispy little sprite of a girl and is also a child with special needs. I used to work with her older brother. Like AB, she knew all 50 first grade sight words, much to the surprise of the classmates. AB's big sister, GB told me that she wanted to have a playdate with RW. The class teacher, Jan agreed that we should foster that relationship. Since AB was doing pretty well academically, Jan and I agreed we should keep a focus on socializing. RW needed help anyway, so soon I was including her with many of the things I did with AB.
AB liked Hello Kitty, RW liked Minnie Mouse. I would motivate them to work by searching for images on my phone of the two characters which had something to do with whatever we were learning.
During those difficult times, when I mourned my loss of my 17 year old cousin Jesse, being with these kids was very therapeutic. Jesse died on Tuesday and on Wednesday I gathered materials to make costumes. I returned to school on Thursday, prepared for the day's theme. It was spirit week and Thursday was twins day. I had previously asked AB if she wanted to dress as Kitty and Mimmy (do you know that Hello Kitty has a twin sister?). Overhearing my question, RW jumped in and said that she want to join. Triplets it is.
Pardon the awful picture, it turns out getting two little girls like these to pose for a selfie was not easy. I grabbed some cheap HK shirts and headbands, and using classroom materials, I attached construction paper cat ears and bows with scotch tape. You can barely see them! AB is on the left, holding a stuffed kitten on my shoulder and in a Hello Kitty disguise, RW stands to the right and is censored by Minnie.
They loved their cheap costumes. I just loved my girls.
To be continued one more time...
Want to see how I did that shirt?
I started with that standard t shirt that had a horrible fit. It wasn't a soft, stretchable one so my no-sew cutting and tying trick was a fail.
I had that shirt that I decided against using in a previous project. I don't need a Superman shirt.
I layered 'em up to decide how much of the blue shirt to cut. Then, I cut what I wanted and just sewed that part on the black shirt.
I really, really like my shirt. It's a little snug to be work appropriate but I don't care, because I love that stalking panther and the red stripes.
Brb on my long-ass story. Here's part 3!
Remember that old song? It was a one-hit-wonder from a short-lived early '90s show? Well it's seriously the perfect lame song title to use for this post.
Other (and probably better) song titles considered were: Prince's "The Most Beautiful Girl in theWorld" the feels-packed hit from the recently departed artist.
"I'll Stand by You" by the Pretenders. Might be a little dark?
"Slipping Through my Fingers" by freakin' awesome ABBA about a little girl growing up.
But, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Allow me to back the f up and eventually get to the reason for titling this post after a song performed by that guy who beat up Donna on 90210 and why I'm dressed as a super hero alongside Hello Kitty.
So, the school year is over. Each year, the last day of school brings a bittersweet adjustment period where I'm relieved for the break but missing the routine of the work and students that I love. My job, working with young emotionally troubled children can be rewarding on good days and tumultuous (at best) on the bad days. This year was very different.
I'm bringing it back in time again, but just to last September. You see, every school year is very different for me. With this job, life is like a box of special needs children; you never know what you're gonna get.
Woo hoo, I got a doozy.
Although she was cute as a button, "MB" was wild as a puppy who's been let loose in a school building.
I worked with the same first grade teacher I worked with last year, who happens to be my own first grade teacher when I was a kid. It was exhausting. Attempting to keep her safe and from damaging property proved to be impossible for the most part.
One day she ran off, with me trailing behind her demanding she return. She immediately encountered another like-minded hall runner, a kindergarten girl who was being followed by another adult. With some kind of mental pact, they started moving down the hall together where they met up with a boy named LP (whom I worked with last year) who was on the run with his teacher in pursuit. He changed directions and the two girls followed him as if he were the pied piper of misbehaving children. If you're keeping count, that's three children and three adults sprinting through the school as if reenacting the Benny Hill chase sequence:
Couldn't find original, here are some teenagers.
Luckily, MB was accepted into a special program at another school for emotionally troubled kids where she would hopefully get the help she needed. And lucky for me, I was immediately assigned to look after another equally difficult case.
Or was I?
The aforementioned kindergarten girl who followed MB in the hallway? Her name was AB (well sort of). She has what is known as select mutism and that was the only thing I knew about her at the time. Actually, I knew one more thing: she loved Hello Kitty.
AB had curly, dark blonde hair framing her little cherub face. Her beautiful blue eyes were never quite...focused which wasn't immediately noticeable, but it was clear she wasn't your standard issue kid. She was often dressed in ruffly little skirts and sparkly leggings. She was never seen without a plush Hello Kitty. She walked on her tiptoes. When not walking, her toes turned out a little, like the opposite of pigeon-toed. What I'm saying is; the kid was absolutely adorable af.
It seemed no one quite knew what to do with her. This was her first experience with school. She wouldn't stay in her class, often moving through the halls or going to stand outside her sister's classroom. At her worst, she would rock back and forth as if in complete distress. The school social worker and the assistant principal sometimes let her play in their offices as they weren't sure what else to do.
I will always remember that day when we became a team. I received my marching orders and walked confidently into her class. (Fake confidence, actually.) I spoke to her and gave her my friendliest smile. I picked up an iPad and AB actually sat with me at at table and watched as I used the Doodle Buddy app to draw a picture that looked like this:
Artist reenactment
She loved it. A child who doesn't talk with her voice needs you to listen to with your eyes. Seeing her smile was a very good sign.
After playing on the iPad for a little while we went to the computer lab with the class. Remember, this little girl was a flight risk and from what I was told didn't spend much time participating with the class. Therefore, my first goal was simply, "keep her in one room." In the lab, she did some of her work, but the setting can be extremely distracting. It's the library with laptops and four kindergarten classes crammed in. When AB looked like she was losing interest, I suggested we do something else. Not quite sure what I was going to do, I opened up YouTube and typed in "nursery rhymes" and brought up a cute-sy video of "The Three Little Kittens." Success! She was enjoying it!
Soon, other children were calling for help, asking for bathroom breaks, etc. When I got up to tend to another kid's issue, something unexpected happened. I turned around and saw this:
(kitten reenactment)
She followed me. Like a big cat tracking her prey, her eyes locked on me and her feet followed as I moved through the room. "I got her! She likes me!" I proudly congratulated myself.
I remembered the words of the social worker who earlier that morning told me, "the most important thing will be earning her trust." In only a couple of hours, it seemed I had accomplished what most of the other adults hadn't been able to. AB could not tell me with her words, but as a small cat rubs up against you when you walk into a room, she seemed to be telling me that she liked me!
I was overjoyed. I knew it wouldn't always be this easy, but it was an excellent start. If I was going to help this little stray kitten, I would have to meet her where she was; and that was without verbal communication. How will I know how to meet her needs? How will I know what she knows?
I would have to figure it out, because the caseworker and administration liked what they saw when I was with her. We were soon inseparable.
To be continued. But first, how about that cape?
So, our school does a lot of theme days and during the spring time we has "superhero day." Here's the thing...I'm not so much into the whole superhero/comic book character craze. So, I did my own thing. First I made a cape.
That's a twin sized sheet and a Hello Kitty shirt. I also needed a nice ribbon which I had on hand.
Look, I know I claim to be a DIY blog but there's no need to reinvent the wheel. There's a way to make a cape by folding the sheet over by an inch or two and sewing it across so that it looks like a curtain with a thing to put the rod through. Well just my luck, the $2.99 sheet I brought home already had a little fold over! All I had to do was cut some 1" slits in it.
See? Then I laced that ribbon through the holes. I had a cape...one that was twice my length. I had to cut a ton off the bottom to prevent my cape from dragging like a long bridal veil. So, I had some material to make this!
Cool mask, huh? I did not wear that mask. I have glasses and unless I wanted to be Daredevil (get it?) a mask would not work. Anyway, I do things at the last minute and I was running out of time to make this regular cape a Hello Kitty cape.
I considered just cutting the front half of the shirt off and sewing that on. I decided I should go big and not half ass it, so I went ahead and cut out the shapes to add the cape and laid them out. I then decided to skip the sewing and just safety pin them on, thus half assing it.
I had previously picked up a slightly snug blue shirt with silver belt that was completely inappropriate; unless it was superhero day. Oh, I also cut up a broken waist cincher belt from my wrestling days and made these:
See what I did? I folded those elastic pieces into wrist-thingies and secured them with safety pins. (Bless you, safety pins.) Then I used some black washi tape to hide the raw edges and pins. As for a mask? I picked up something from the party store for $1.99 and wore it like a headband.
By the end of the school day, this is how I looked. Instagram filtered. What I mean is, I was tired so I took this picture while resting on the couch. I then instagrammed it, pointing out my shifty eyes. I might actually be a villain. Here's one with me posing:
In case you didn't notice, I should acknowledge that I'm pretty much breaking my own arm by trying to pat myself on the back. First, I'm claiming that I worked some sort of miracle (nope, just had some good ideas) and second, I'm dressed like a freakin' caped crusading jerk. Just being self aware.
I hate that I always have to split these story posts up into parts, but...I don't want to keep writing for too long.
Then I guess I would have it saved in jars for times when I needed more of it? Which is all the time. I would surely use "extra" time for blogging.
Hey, I made a big step in a refashion. I connected two pieces of clothing.
One of them is that blue dress and the other is that striped shirt. They are one now. Anyway, I think one of the reasons I don't post as often as I'd like to is because I put it off, thinking I have to make a big production with it. I think I have to "write" all about each experience. I don't.
The dress almost looks like it fits in that picture. For some reason, this plain and boring thing was marked as part of the Halloween clothes at Goodwill last October. At then end of the season, I decided that $2 was a decent investment for this piece. Because:
-Material is a thick cotton for warmth.
-Color works for me.
-Would probably be easy, like this purple dress from last year.
Remember that one?
For the most part, those bullet points were true. So, without any extraneous photos or writing, here's what I did: Took it in from the sides, cut a few inches from the bottom then hemmed, made it a v neck, and made a sash from the extra fabric.
Then, I put it in the drawer and didn't wear it. Because:
-No sleeves; would have to wear a shirt under it or a sweater over it.
-Didn't want to do that because it was already kind unsexy/boring and layering it would not have helped.
-V neck looked stupid because it had a matching fabric "piping" that I didn't remove, just cut a little away to lower the neckline.
Because I apparently thought that for once I should finish something that clearly needed more work, out of the drawer it came! First, that neckline...
I used my seam ripper and detached the "casing." (Seriously, I'm not sure what it's called.) That extra fabric on the sleeve hole--that's what I took off the neck hole. Then I took it off the sleeve hole as well. Much better.
I normally like to keep my refashions as simple as possible. But...what if I tried adding sleeves? It actually shouldn't be hard. I wanted to make this task worth the while, so I thought it would be cool to add stripes instead of just plain black. When I didn't have any striped sleeves in my collection, I actually bought two new shirts. By "new" I mean two cheap thrifted shirts.
I went with the black and white as it matched the dress better. That Superman top actually looked pretty good on me, and no I didn't keep it to wear as is and I'll tell you why in an upcoming post. For now, the tale of the easy sleeve surgery.
I pinned "right" sides together and sewed the first sleeve with ease. Then I did the other sleeve and turned it right side out to see how that one looked. It looked like this:
(Sarcastic LOL) The sleeve is inside out but the dress is not. Yeah, somehow I managed to do that. Ugh...ok, I'll just take the messed up sleeve off and try again later when I have time. Wait, you'll love this part. I re-sewed the sleeve on and...
Jebus tap dancing Christ. Really?! I made a ridiculous mistake and then did it again? It's as if I'm some sort of monkey with a sewing machine but not nearly as intelligent.
Well, I sure as shit wasn't going to waste my time going for a three-peat. To hell with that visible seam that's only on one side, this dress is now asymmetrical. And I may as well go forward with that concept.
The original blue sash that I made from the hem was nice but not very long. A sash from the striped fabric would be cool, but I'd have to sew several strips together to get something long enough. Unless...
I cut some of the length from the bottom of the shirt and made a tiny sash that would never tie around an adult's waist. Unless...
Ha ha, they're not even the same width. I attached both sashes together. When tied around me, that meeting place seen in the picture is under the knot. Let's see this thing!
I assure you that I am pleased with the finished result! Before you say anything, I realize that I got dressed and then noticed that I forgot to iron the new seams. But what was I supposed to do, take the thing off and get out the ironing board? I didn't think so.
You can't tell from the pictures, but sadly the new neckline is now just a little bit low for work. Even so, I still planned to wear it last week for one of our school theme days. March is Dr Seuss month and Friday was "Red Fish, Blue Fish." I was going to show off my creation along with my red boots from my last post.
I really should be wearing said red boots in this picture.
So, a theme in this post is "not enough time." Also, remember when I said that this dress was a thick, cotton knit which would be nice and warm?
Well, whaddya know; early March in New England and already around 60 degrees. This dress would probably not be a good choice for work in an active kindergarten class. I guess it's springtime now.
Before I put this long-winded post to bed (and this is why blogging takes so long) I wanted to ramble about something.
I had to say goodbye to my little angel. He's the boy written about in My School Story and if you read it, you'll understand that "angel" is unlikely word choice. To sum up, I met him in September of 2012 when he was a five year old kindergartner that I was charged with helping as he had special needs. We formed a close bond and I cared about this child through the years. I was assigned to work with him during the '14-'15 school year which went ok. However, by May I was beginning to think that we, as a school were not going to be able to meet his needs. His violent outbursts were very concerning.
Finally, he was accepted into a program for children with emotional issues at one of the other city schools. This is what I knew he needed and he knew it too. By now my "baby," as I teasingly called had just turned nine years old. I wrote up a short letter, telling him how much he meant to me and put it in a folder of black construction paper on which I used a white crayon to draw a skull and crossbones and the words "I will miss you".
He gave me a big kid hug and he left school for the last time. This will be so much better for him. I sure am going to miss that "jerk." His word, not mine!
While looking for some important document or something that week, I came across this in a stack of papers.
The coloring isn't even finished! I remember that he had a jack o' lantern shirt and seemed to like the color orange. Therefore, I started calling him "pumpkin." When music class was done, the kids were told to put their papers in their cubbies. Not wanting to walk across the room, he passed it to me and smiled, "uh, I made this for you!"
Sure you did, B. If only you were still that five year old...Goodnight Sweet Prince! (LOL, that's a meme. And not one that applies at all in this situation. I just like saying it.)
I made a big production of this post. Let's wrap this up.
