"Achievement!"

So, I've had this really cute DIY ladybird owl costume by Seablanket bookmarked since it was posted last year, thinking, "That's so cute -- I bet it would look even cuter on a Blythe." The colors chosen by Chelsea are probably what drew me to it the most. They're really pretty! I've been wanting to do some kind of approximation of this for months! I've had tiny snaps hanging around for a year and a half.

However, I really can't sew; it doesn't come naturally to me. Partially I believe it's because I have dyscalculia, aka math dyslexia. That isn't just about numbers -- although I do have a hard time with basic, single-digit adding and subtracting (ain't no shame in using your fingers to count) and I don't even want to talk about the number of math classes I failed from the seventh grade up -- it's about spatial awareness and conceptualizing and keeping tasks in order. It's the reason I have no sense of direction, find it extremely difficult to play games that require strategy or score-keeping, have trouble gauging distances and measurements. There's something that doesn't quite connect about the way my brain perceives (or not) the construction of things. It makes it really hard for me to follow patterns for sewing, embroidering, knitting, crocheting... even, or perhaps especially, cooking. Those little questions on math tests that have an unfolded three-dimensional shape and ask, "What shape is this?" I'm like, "I DON'T KNOW, IT COULD BE A SQUARE, OR IT COULD BE AN ELEPHANT, OR THE WHITE HOUSE." I can't fold it up in my brain to see what it is. Know what I mean?

So following sewing patterns... which are often written for people who already have basic sewing skills (which I do not)... oh my gosh. Disastuh, as Beyonce would say to Lady Gaga.

I've tried several times before to make the easiest-seeming A-line dress and never done anything half-successful. I just don't have enough sewing knowledge. I don't have a sewing machine, either, and so anything I'm attempting to sew by hand promises to be time-consuming and stress headache-inducing. But I finally decided to look at some of the A-line dresses in my girls' wardrobe and essentially construct the dress just by looking at how others have done it. I also decided to make it out of felt, so as not to bother with lining and finishing off hems and sleeves; I remember back when I very first had Aury there was a felt A-line dress activity that everyone was doing, and it seemed easier, and I am much more comfortable with felt because I use it all the time for applique. And hey, it worked!

Silly, but for me, a huge triumph. Like, I don't even have the confidence that having put together a felt dress once, I could do it again. What if it was an accident??

Anyway, I immediately got started cutting "feathers" loosely following the tutorial on Seablanket. I had so much fun choosing the colors! I chose a cranberry red, a mustard yellow, baby pink, sky blue, chocolate brown, and beige.

I glued them down with craft glue like roofing tiles and reinforced most of the ones on the edge with stitches here and there, like where Aury's arms would surely press against them a lot. Tacky glue is awesome and I use it on the ears of every deer hat I make, but actually sewing stuff down is a lot better, I know.

Still, in the end, even though it's kind of ramshackle, I'm kind of proud of myself for making something that Aury is actually wearing right now! With lovely striped socks from the wonderful Freya and the blue Mary Janes from the Takara Shoe Cruise Day set, she looks like such a character!