First, let me just say how happy and proud I am that you came to me to learn about coolness. Clearly, this means that you are, unlike my daughter, convinced that I am a really cool person. I keep telling her that my lack of coolness is the new cool. Well, not everybody seems to agree on that. So I was a bit stressed out, when I made clothes for my nephew and nieces, as some of them are… lets just say…. in a critical age.

Well, I guess, my oldest nephew is actually rather easy to handle. He is fine with stripes and only stripes. Stars? No thank you? Maybe some abstract pattern? No. So, stripes then. Yehes. So since years he gets a stripy hoody but I went out of the pattern comfort zone and went for a sweat Toni by schnittreif rather than the usual jersey Leo by pattydoo.

pattern: Toni by Schnittreif, fabric: Lillestoff

The 6-year-old nephew who is usually only into really manly stuff, like pirates, vikings,… anything armed really, happened to visit when I was about to make something for him. I naively showed him the few fabrics that I considered to be cool. He dismissed them all and chose two fabrics out of my stash and that’s what I made out of them:

pattern: Leo by pattydoo, fabric: bought for myself, years ago

pattern: Leo by Pattydoo, fabric: Lillestoff (Glueckspaket)

I guess it was a bit silly to make the short-sleeved shirt with hood and the long version without but I had already cut out the hood when I started to look for a suitable fabric for the sleeves and I simply hadn’t had enough of the black and white for long sleeves.

The hardest coolness problem to solve was certainly my 10-year-old niece. That one really made me nervous.

pattern: Pia by Pattydoo, fabric: “Mannequin” by Lillestoff, design Susalabim

This top needed to be made out of two parts as when I had ordered this fabric, the pattern repeat had been cut wrongly with the girls on top and lots of grey at the bottom. So by making a yoke out of the fabric bottom piece, I have been able to move the girls at the bottom of the shirt.

I have also made a Pia for my daughter, out of the left over of a correctly cut repeat, so no need for a yoke:

but for a different back fabric (it looks like this post actually qualifies for Scrap Sunday, doesn’t it)

Once finished with those two cool T-shirts, I started doubting again. Will a 10-year old find this cool? Especially if actually an 8-year old finds it cool? (Yes, my daughter did find it cool)

Nevertheless, I made another one. Mainly because I had already cut out the main pieces. And because I so wanted to try out a thing that seems to be called “destroyed negativ applikation”. In German though. It is cool to use English terms, you know.

pattern: Pia by Pattydoo, fabric: Lillestoff (Glueckspaket)

How cooooool is that?!

My daughter found it silly. I took it as a good sign.

So, when my nice came to visit, I was really nervous. Because up until now she thought I was some kind of super hero thanks to my sewing skills. And I didn’t want to lose this position.

And before the suspense is killing you, I can reveal that she found it coooool!!!!!!