chubby sewing

I don't suppose i've got any master seamstresses out there reading this huh? Grandmotherly ones who have no problem sharing all of their expertise and experience in the most patient manner? I will share with you my sewing dilema.

I think I mentioned how much I'm doing before SILs wedding. Making the slideshow, making the veil, losing 10 lbs and sewing the jr bridesmaid dress for my neice. Well things are falling in place for the slideshow, she finally told me the songs she wants. Finally got the fabric for the veil, and she's being very unfussy about that, saying I don't even have to finish the edges if it's too tough. she's hardly gonna wear it anyway I guess, letting me make it any length I want and any poofy-ness I want too. Bride's being a sweetheart.

But neice. Not that she's doing it on purpose. Sewing this dress for her is making me nervous. First of all, the pattern they gave me is a 2 layer dress, a liner and a dress sewn together, no big deal. But instead of the liner never being seen, they want the liner to be the dress, and an overlayer of a sheer fabric. Ok. looks good I bet, but this sheer stuff is going to be a bitch to sew! oh well, mom told me to put tissue paper with it and sew through the paper as well. try that out. I'll have to clean up my seams since it's see through but not terrible. But the pattern itself was found at MILs house. It says easy, it looks decent, fine. However after we bought all the fabric did we realize that the pattern had been cut to a size 8, niece is a size 12. Eek. So what I did, and I'm hoping it works, is just cut all the pieces about 2 inches outside of the pattern. I should be able to play with my seam allowance and make it work. I HOPE!

The other big problem is this size 12 thing. She's a size 12 in the chest and in the hips, her height is like a size 8 but I can hem it shorter. Her belly is off my chart. It's supposed to be like 22 or 24" or something, it's 29. She's gonna look like crap in this! (oh yeah, she's 8 years old, sorta sad). Anyway, the dress has an empire waist so I'm hoping it fits where I sew the top into the skirt, and then I'll just cut the skirt a lot fuller than the pattern calls for. Unless anybody out there had any better options for me? I cut my fabric (but remember I have huge seam allowances to play with) and was going to start sewing this week. I still have enough fabric that I could either recut all the top parts (sleeves, front side, back etc) OR the skirt, so hopefully at least one of these works. It won't totally be my fault if it looks like crap, because she's the freaking shape of a balloon, but I don't want to make it worse. (If I'm being a bit harsh, it's because she drove me absolutely bonkers this weekend, kid is sooo annoying!)

Her mom is the one doing LA weight loss and has lost 20 some lbs and only has 7 more to go to goal (her goal is 120, so yeah, she's 10 lbs lighter than me right now, and yeah, that stings a little, but she's only 5'0). We're currently about the same size since she's borrowing my dress and it fits.

Anyway, SIL is eating healthy-ish and doing all this weight loss. But not sharing any of the info or behaviours with her daughter. Almost doing the opposite. I'm sorry but if you're under 12 and overweight, it's not your fault, it's your parent's. SIL was eating some 100 calorie pack of pringles sticks (like I said, sorta healthy) and niece took some, SIL said "Cali, those are my special snacks because they're low fat. They're not for you." And while I definately understand that attitude (just try and eat my cherries!) it's not helping. Cali wants to lose weight, she said so when I measured her for the dress, saying by the wedding her belly would be smaller. But she has no idea what to do to make it so. She just doesn't stop eating at meals, her little brother is still in the age where you want him to eat some more of his plate before he can go play again, so she's sort of like "see, I ate all my food, I'm a good girl". But she doesn't understand that she should eat veggies and fruit, not more bread sticks and potatoes, fully loaded of course. She asks if she can have some cake and her mom says sure. I'm not saying deprive her, kids should eat cake. But she doesn't even know why she's fat, she just thinks that wanting it bad enough might make her skinnier. Frustrating. It's a hard line because you don't want to set her up for eating disorders either.

She had already eaten lunch before coming over to grandma's (where we were) and we were just eating (tomato soup and tuna melts, I had a plain tuna sandwich thank you very much, hold the cheese). So Cali had JUST finished eating, comes over sees us and asks for a bowl of soup, nobody says no. Then she loaded 3 handfuls of crackers into it and would have done more but grandma said something. I want to say something but it's not my place, plus it would embarrass her with everybody around.

SIL (not her mom) and I were talking about it on saturday and how her mom just doesn't share her info or even help. She bakes like crazy, she took half of my leftover chocolate zuccinni cake (she's allergic to chocolate so it's just for the kids) and lets the kids have chips every night and treats and fun times are food. but again, it's so easy to be a parent to other people's kids and see how they're screwing up. But of course, it's something I get to say "when I have kids, we're gonna do it right and there's no way that's happening" and blah blah blah. But seriously right? I think next time it's just Cali and I I will say something and help her out a bit. Like I don't even think she knows that chips and cake makes her fat!