Sewing for 2 kids every year: a love story

With my “Berkeley nieces” Maddy and Brooke who are wearing the skirts I made them for Christmas 2021. Maddy is in Blue Bouquet Textile and Brooke is in Peony 2 Giant Flower Textile.

I lived in Berkeley, California for 7 years as a young adult, and for that full duration I was the downstairs tenant of my landlord Lillian Kang (she is an amazing food stylist!) who quickly became my dear friend. While I lived there, Lillian got married and had 2 kids, and I became a nanny and aunty in addition to working as a freelance artist. Around the time Lillian’s first daughter Maddy was born, I found a broken sewing machine on the street. I set about making many clothes for her Maddy using scraps of fabric or in some cases, altering my own clothes into baby clothes.

I also sewed Halloween costumes for Maddy’s first four years, and for her little sister Brooke when she was born. (Brooke was the bull to Maddy’s matador in the 3rd picture!)

Lillian saw my passion and incredibly signed me up for a sewing class at Berkeley’s fabric mecca, Stone Mountain and Daughter Fabrics. It was there under the tutelage of the patient and generous Mary Patrone (@littlequilter), that I finally leveled up from the improvisational sewing I had been doing my whole life to more polished sewing. And then amazingly, Lillian and her husband David gave me a new sewing machine for Christmas. I finally let go of my broken machine from the street that was permanently stuck on a tension that created about a gazillion microscopic stitches per inch. This new machine was the tool that set me on the path to making beautiful garments, which eventually led me to find my path in textile design. I cannot thank my Berkeley family enough for spotting my passion and nurturing it with education and tools.

When I moved back to Maui in 2017, Maddy was 4 and Brooke was 2. Leaving my Berkeley family was the hardest part. I have tried to stay as present as I can in their lives from afar in the intervening years. Sewing is the best way I know to show love and so I have sewn them special things every year.

2018: Potato printed dresses

Dresses are made with the Wiksten Baby Child Smock Top/ Dress pattern and curtain fabric from IKEA that I potato printed with their favorite colors.

2019: Quilts with my Little Bear fabric

Quilts are made with fabric I designed from my colored pencil illustrations for Edible East Bay Holiday Feast Magazine 2017.

2020: Sweatshirts with my Blush Watercolor Textile.

Sweatshirts are made with Blush Watercolor Textile knit and the Thread Faction Slouch on the Couch Sweatshirt pattern.

2021: Half Circle Skirts

In 2021, I had officially launched my fabric business and I invited the girls to select fabrics for half circle skirts from my collection.

Facetime meeting to pick fabrics for their skirts.

Maddy selected Blue Bouquet Textile and Brooke selected the Peony 2 giant flower textile. Blue and pink are still their favorite colors!

Lillian gave me their waist and waist to hem measurements. I divided their waist measurements by 3.14 to get the distance from the corner of the folded fabric to the waist (the small curving cut line on the upper left of each skirt pictured below). I cut the hem by measuring the desired length from waist to hem plus a seam allowance. Then I sewed up the back seam, hemmed it, cut a waist band, attached it, and threaded in elastic. I ended up adding a placket with a bow and hook and eye to make it easier to get on and off, plus this will give them more ease as they grow.

I used the Marcy Harriell Half Circle Skirt Tutorial to draft the skirts to their sizes.

Blue Bouquet Textile and Peony 2 Giant Flower Textile as skirts!

2022: Visit to Maui!

After 2.5 years of pandemic separation, in April 2022: they came to Maui to visit me. It was the most amazing reunion, and it became a whole fashion camp!

Maddy and Brooke were very keen on playing dress up in my sample garments. Here is Maddy in my Cherry Blossom Giant Flower Textile mu’umu’u made with a hacked version of the Peppermint Paddington Top. (I lengthened it to a dress, added a ruffle, and added drawstring neck.)

Here is Brooke runway walking my Ranunculus Bouquet Textile coat made with the Yuki Waffle Patterns Yuzu Coat Pattern.

The kids were excited to be my assistants and helped me fulfill fabric orders. I sent them on “treasure hunts” to find the fabric and substrate listed on the invoices so they learned how to identify fabrics by feel. They learned about measuring yards and took multiple of trips to the shipper with me (who now adores them too).

Maddy and Brooke helping fulfill an order of Rows of Flowers Textile bamboo lycra.

They loved dancing around the yard in their skirts.

Sewing lessons!

It has been my dream to give Lillian and her kids the sewing skills they gave to me. So on this trip, I taught Maddy and Lillian* to make their own skirts. First they learned to make their own paper patterns based on their measurements. We used the Sarah Kirsten Morning Glory Top. The only edit we made was shortening the neck radius for Maddy’s top by 1 inch because the pattern is meant for adults!

*Brooke wasn’t interested in sewing a shirt yet but maybe next time! She loved playing dress up and making clothes for clothespin dolls!

Lillian used plain muslin for her first foray into sewing and wants to block print it! (She also left with some of my Dancing Lady Orchid Textile to make into a half circle skirt!)

Maddy chose my Blue Bouquet Textile to make a top to match the skirt I made her.

Maddy learning to cut out a pattern.

It was such a full circle moment to teach Maddy how to sew on the machine her parents gave me years ago as a thank you for helping take care of her!

Maddy rocking her first ever self-made garment: the Sarah Kirsten Morning Glory Top with the skirt I made her, both made with Blue Bouquet cotton poplin.

Maddy rocking her first ever self-made garment: the Sarah Kirsten Morning Glory Top with the skirt I made her, both made with Blue Bouquet cotton poplin.

I cannot believe Maddy and I can be twins… and that she made her very own top!

My turtle neck is made with the Little Lizard King Benicia cowl neck pattern and Blue Bouquet bamboo lycra. Both our skirts were made with help with this half circle skirt tutorial by Marcy Harriell.

Before they headed home, I also wanted to teach them the traditional Hawaiian art of making lei po’o (head lei). We gathered greenery and flowers around the yard and sat on a blanket while making them. Maddy even made 2 kupe’e (lei for the wrist and ankle).

Very hard goodbyes. Until next time, I hope our handmade projects can help keep our love tangible across the ocean!

xoxo

Aunty Jugee (That’s what they call me)