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Here is a beautiful skirt we made based on the under skirt from the Insa pattern from ‘Sewing Clothes Kids Love’. This is the third time I have sort of used this pattern. (Here is the second.) I don’t think it really counts this time, because I changed the curves, and I realized at the end that it was basically a circle skirt (but sewn out of four wedges), with a straight waist. Not very fancy fundamentally, although there was lots of subtle pink ribbon trim following the book’s philosophy that more trim is better trim. 🙂 The fabric is really the lovely part though, it is a cotton faux linen, covered with floral embroidery and sequins that I got half off with a coupon from Jo-Ann’s. (Really it seems that their entire business model revolves around getting people back in their stores to use coupons, and if you pay full price for anything it is ridiculous… Not my favorite game.)
Hey, I never posted the first one either, this one was for a friend’s daughter, I probably wouldn’t have picked these fabrics out for a skirt, but I really liked it when it was done. You can’t really tell from the photo, the red fabric is a fine corduroy, actually the same that I made my own red skirt from. It made a nice skirt the first and second times, corduroy has a nice weight.
Did I make either of these recently? No. My life for the past two or more weeks has been devoted to reading the good, the bad and the crazy about Waldorf schools (no black crayons? Anthroposophism? There seem to be some pretty bitter ex-waldorf parents, but everyone I’ve met involved with Waldorf has been really really nice) and trying to decide if we want to go through the admissions process. Most of it seem very cool, and a lot of it aligns with our personal values, we actually have no TV, (we do watch movies on laptops sometimes), but it is so expensive here. Maybe we could get financial aid, but I’ve always *hated* bargaining. Also our lease came up, so we had to re-evaluate the whole rent/buy thing. Where we live the rent/buy ratio still makes it much cheaper to rent an equivalent house than buy (using the simple numbers OR factoring in all those headachy numbers like maintenance and property tax exemptions.) Major life decisions and uncertainty. I’ve been getting pretty depressed with all the uncertainty. The other kindergarden we’d like, Stevenson PACT, is a lottery, and we won’t know whether we got in/where we are on the wait list until the end of March. Bleh. Maybe I should make some more twirly skirts for morale? I have been making fermented pickles like crazy, using a new-to-me no-mold-skimming fermentation lock process. (I know, mold on your pickle brine is fine! No. I do not feed my family things with mold on them, or near them, or whatever. I can’t get over it. Yuck.) Two thumbs up for no mold and yummy pickles. Something to be positive about anyway.
4 Comments
Add Yours →Waldorf schools are good, but as with any philosophy on childcare there are highs and lows for the parents and children involved. Have you heard of/looked into if there are any Regio Emilia based child care programs in your area? They follow the philosphy of play based learning in a way no other program comes close to. The power of leaning is in the hands of the children (where it should be ). There values ARE different from Waldorf in where they support the use of synthetic materials in there creation on discovery and use printed resource materials just as story books as opposed to using oral story telling.
Follow your gut and your heart and I’m sure you’ll find the perfect childcare for you needs!
Thanks Bekah, I’m not sure the perfect child care exists! At least not within 20 minutes of my house, and that’s pushing it, not spending scads of time in the car every day is part of my definition of the perfect school. I haven’t found any Regio Emilia schools around here. There are a couple Montessori schools, some poor, some seem alright.
I think I read you have a CS background? I find it fascinating that you’re seriously considering a Waldorf school. I have a CS background too, and I definitely like some aspects of Waldorf, but I find it too… anti-science maybe? Does that make sense? I don’t know how to describe it exactly (and I’m sure that will offend someone…) Anyway, good luck with your search and I’d love to hear how it works out.
I get it. As a scientist why would I think of sending my kids to a school based on the clairvoyant ramblings of Rudolf Steiner? Yah. We feel very bi-polar about it. I really love the integration of the arts into the curriculum, although I’m concerned that the art you produce might be highly proscribed. I’ve certainly heard that everyone’s picture/crossstitch/whatever must be exactly the same. I don’t know if that is only in ‘bad’ Waldorf schools or all of them. I like the long study periods (weeks) of single subjects in the morning lesson before moving on. I think in a lot of ways modern school is like TV, new subject every 30 seconds. I like the observational approach to science, ‘mental math’ study, and that they all learn circus arts – tight rope, unicycle and juggling. I feel like after graduating from 8th grade in a Waldorf school you would be in a good position to homestead in the middle of the forest, should you be abandoned there. That you have achieved a high degree of competence in real life skills. I like that the school is calm. All of the Waldorf teachers I have ever met, just in day-to-day previously, have all been really really nice people. Then on the other side, there is the cult of Rudolf Steiner, otherwise known as Anthroposophy, with all of its oddities, will drawing with black damage your child’s soul? And Are Europeans really descended from Lemurians? The heart is not a pump? Why don’t we ever learn from books? Hopefully I won’t offend anyone. Will the admissions director read my blog? Who knows. I would like to think that there are reasonable Waldorf schools, like mainstream Christian churches, and there are crazy dogmatic Waldorf schools that take everything too far, like some fringe religious groups. (Watch as I offend the Anthroposophists *and* the Christians?)