Sunday night – Lia asked for Christmas onesies.
Monday noon: I walked 15 minutes to People’s Park Food Centre on my lunch break. After a quick look-around the various shops, I settled for a red Mickey Mouse cotton knit with green details from Malin Textile.
Monday afternoon: I bought the Beatbox Romper pattern by Ellie and Mac. It was on sale for only USD3.85!
Monday evening: I went to a Xorex Press printing shop at Ang Mo Kio Hub before going home to have the pattern printed on A0. After dinner at home, I cut the pattern and fabric while watching a movie with the kids.
Monday late night: Once the kids were asleep, I got up and sewed the romper till midnight.
Tuesday early morning: Lia woke up, squealed with delight at seeing the romper, put it on and went back to sleep. That made me really happy.
Tuesday evening: When I came home from work, Lia was still wearing the romper. “This is so comfy! I’m never gonna take this off!”
Tuesday late night: After putting the kids to sleep, I sewed the matching romper for Sam.
Wednesday morning: I excitedly showed him his matching romper. He looked at it and said, “I don’t want to wear it.” I try cajoling him into trying it on, but he’s not buying it.
Thursday noon: I bought additional fabric to make matching shorts for Sidney and me. Sam loves it when we all wear our matching cotton pajamas, so I thought it would help convince him to wear the romper if we all had a similar outfit.
Friday night: I finish sewing shorts for Sidney and me. We all put on our Christmas pajamas and tried to coax Sam to try his onesie. He still refused. In the end, he finally agreed so we were able to take this photo. He doesn’t look too happy and asked to take it off immediately after. “I don’t like onesies. I don’t like this,” he said, much to my chagrin.
I felt frustrated but knew what I had to do. I left the room and took a final photo of the romper.
I then took my rotary cutter and cut it in the middle.
I put a really wide waistband and elastics to the pajama, and added a green waistband to the hoodie. In hindsight, I could have put elastic on the waistband of the hoodie as it was a bit loose.
Tadaaaahhh! Instead of a onesie, I now have a long sleeved hoodie and pajama set. When I showed it to Sam, he excitedly put it on and said, “We’re all matching!”
We took some more photos and you can see how happy he is now.
The lesson for me was compromise. Lia was the one who wanted Sam to have a matching romper. Sam apparently HATES rompers. The great thing about sewing is that you can always make things work so that we are still matching – which is what Lia wanted – and yet Sam still gets to pick the style he’s comfortable with.
Here are some pictures this morning after Sam woke up. He was still chuffed about wearing his Christmas pajamas and even wanted to take selfies with me.
And for the final picture – Sam said, “Let’s take a picture with my foot!”
Sleepy Flamingo 