First of all, I just have to say that I am soooo thrilled with the response I’ve gotten about the upcoming Japanese Sewing Book Series! I was a little nervous making the announcement – this being my first series and all – I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it and planning and I just wasn’t sure if people would be into it at all. But it seems like I am not the only one drawn to, but intimidated by, Japanese patterns and sewing books! So I’m excited to learn more and conquer our fear of Japanese sewing books together with the help of our 5 talented guest instructors (see the line up here). The fun starts next week with a great giveaway and a little pre-party to get ourselves ready and then the actual series will run from March 25-29. I seriously CANNOT wait!
For today, I’m over at Alida Makes with a guest post for her Calling All Kids series. Calling All Kids is about pushing against gender stereotypes in clothing and finding ways to make awesome and stylish clothes for kids that don’t necessarily conform to those stereotypes. Who says girls have to wear pink? Or that boys can’t? Why can’t boys’ clothing have flowers, or girls’ clothing have superheroes?
Trying to break stereotypes is just part of who I am and so I thought this series was a pretty awesome idea. If you know Yuki, you know that she wears boyish/unisex clothes all the time. It’s a reflection of my partner’s style and my own, but it’s also a conscious decision we make because of how we want to raise her. It’s a topic that I feel pretty strongly about, so if you’re interested, you can read more about it in my guest post on Alida Makes.
You can also check out more silly pictures of this kid wearing a new button up shirt for the spring and summer and a pair of pants I made from an old thrift store find.
SOOOOO . . . .
What are you looking at!? Head over THERE and check it out!
you and mie 
Oh my goodness, that last photo is cracking me up!!
Agreed!
Haha, it had me cracking up too!
What a cutie!
I just read this post and took some pictures of my lil one and thought I would write a quick note about it too. I love flowers on boys and I usually make things bright and happy for both of my kids and almost never make pink for my daughter, I think she looks great in reds, blues, greens, orange…and it is nice to see them in different shades of colour. Here’s the link for my recent post. http://orejak.wordpress.com/2013/03/14/flowers-are-for-boys-too/ I made a matching top for my daughter with the same fabric, not on the post but will take pics of it too. They are going to look amazing in the tropics!!!
I just left a comment on your blog, but that shirt is amazing! Love that fabric. Thanks so much for sharing it with me and have a wonderful trip!
Oh Cherie! your last photo is hilarious, lol…
I wonder what you said to Yuki to give you this pose 🙂
when I was growing up, I often preferred a more androgynous look, or at least didn’t care if I was wearing “boy” clothes because they suited my activities better than girlier things. When I was in middle school, I remember having a really hard time because everyone found out that my mom had left our family for a woman, and between that and the way I dressed, I was immediately targeted for torment. It made me really confused over whether what they were saying was right, and that I was destined to become gay like my mom, and what my clothes and sports preferences meant. It wasn’t THAT long ago that I was in school, but I think people would have been a lot more accepting and unimpressed about the revelation of a gay parent now. Lol. Thankfully, time and maturity took over and now I don’t care what people think if I like to wear short hair etc. At some point in my teens I enjoyed walking about town in a fedora and boy’s Dickie pants with my boyfriend (it turns out that I definitely like boys a LOT). haha. But then there was the part of my wardrobe I loved that came from the Gap and had teenage girl written all over it. Had I been born in the 20’s I would have had SO much fun horrifying my elders by becoming a flapper. Not sure how I got off on this tangent…..
But now that I’m a mom of two girls, I’ll pretty much make them something if I think it’s cute, regardless of which gender it was intended for. (My first sewing patterns came from Sewing For Boys…lol!). We’ll see how that works out if we have a boy though. No dresses for my sons, but some florals and pink are fair game!
I was the same, in terms of my style in middle and high school, though I can’t remember ever feeling like my sexuality was questioned because of the way I dressed – it just wasn’t something we talked about back then. I’m so sorry to hear about your mom leaving your family and the torment you experienced. You definitely seem to be very comfortable with yourself and your style now, so I’m glad for that 🙂 I definitely noticed that you and your kids do not necessarily shy away from boyish or gender neutral clothes – I’ve always appreciated that about your style. But I DO agree, it’s so much harder for us to do the same with boys. I will put Yuki in the boyish of all boy clothes, but I wouldn’t dress my hypothetical son in the girliest of girl clothes unless he wanted to wear it (then it’d be fair game, I suppose). And yes, these days and in some areas gay parents are definitely a non-issue – and thankfully for my family, I live in these times and in one of those areas. Being a gay parent, I appreciate that no one bats an eye at either the school Yuki goes to, or the school that I work at. Unfortunately, I’m sure the same cannot be said everywhere else. In time though 🙂
you’re awesome. 🙂
I’m envious! My daughter is so girly and VERY opinionated about what she will and won’t wear. She loves skirts (which she calls tutus, regardless of what they are made from) and has only worn pants maybe 3 times since Christmas. She is also addicted to pink and flat out refuses to wear anything that isn’t primarily pink, unless it looks like a rainbow, but that’s the only exception. I get tired of searching for pink fabric especially because I’m not girly at all! I love to sew for my daughter but I’m so ready to work on something other then pink dresses and skirts. Luckily for her she has me wrapped around her sweet little finger so I’ll keep buying any and all pink fabrics I can find and trying new dress and skirt patterns to keep her smiling…..but I’m still envious of all the beautiful clothing you get to make for your daughter!
You know – I may find myself in that very same situation and I’m not sure what I’d do either! But I guess we can just hope that it’s just a phase – I know my nieces were obsessed with pink and Disney princesses at one point, but now the 10 year old is totally sporty, does not like pink and won’t wear dresses. Kids! That’s what they are supposed to do, I guess! I don’t know how insistent your daughter is on wearing pink, or if it’s even worth trying – but Kristin over at skirtastop.com does a really good job of keeping her pink loving, girly girl happy but also tries to stretch her wardrobe and stay true to her own creative style. So she’ll make something super twirly, in a color other than pink. Or since her girl is obsessed with elephants, she’ll make a dress covered in elephants, but in a color other than pink. Or put pink fabric in the pockets or line the dress with pink fabric, but make the outside something else. I dunno – just some ideas that I’ll probably try if my daughter ever ends up obsessed with the color. Good luck and just know that it’s probably a phase 🙂