Pascha Finest

As Orthodox Christians of the Greek variety, my family goes to church a lot during Lent and Holy Week. By a lot, I mean two or three times a day during Holy Week. We feel blessed to be able to celebrate the Resurrection at the very first moment of Easter--midnight. And while we look forward all year to belting out "Christos Anesti" at 1 or 2 or 3 in the morning, the lighting isn't conducive for beautiful photographs of our Pascha finest. This morning, Thomas Sunday, the kids dressed again in their Easter clothes and we took pictures right before Liturgy.

I hope that T doesn't feel too bad about not having a hand-made Pascha suit when he gets older. His wonderful Nona (that's Greek for Godmother) supplied him with adorable Pascha clothes that just happened to fit the orange theme this year.

It all started with this tutorial and the pants M is wearing. Actually, the ones he is wearing in the picture below are the third attempt at drafting a pattern and sewing pants. But the idea of sewing pants for my boys was the inspiration for the hand-made Easter clothes all around.

For Z, I was inspired by a post on Crafterhours. Until I got sewing. For now I will be sewing dresses for Z using actual patterns and actual directions. I rummaged through my sewing bin and found New Look 6309, a pattern that I purchased five years ago for 99 cents. With Flossie Bobbsey in mind, I hemmed the dress a little shorter than the pattern indicated. Now all Z needs are a few petticoats to make it poufy. Anyone know where I can find a pattern?

Rather than make a big bow for Z's hair (sooooo 2007), I covered a headband with the same grosgrain that I used to trim the front of her dress.

For M's tie, some orange cotton and the Purl Bee pattern. I would highly recommend this pattern to any novice seamstress.* It's free, there's a lot of hand sewing, and the finished tie looks fantastic!
The knitter in me loves to see the wrong side of garments. I firmly believe that the wrong side of my creations should be as neat as the right side.

*Women who sew are seamstresses, men who sew are tailors. They are actual words in the dictionary, as opposed to the word "sewist." I'll be honest, I first wanted to refer to myself using the word "sew" and attaching "-er" to the end, much like knitters and quilters do. I wrote out the word I had been pronouncing in my mind and saw that it spelled something entirely different. Then I remembered the word seamstress and read this article. No sewist for me either, thank you.