Fashion Plates

Colorforms.  Sweet Secrets.  Rose Petal.  The 80’s were full of great girl toys!  One of my favorites was “Fashion Plates.”  It was this great artsy coloring kit that let you combine thin plastic plates and then rub over them with a pencil to create different outfits.  I remember playing with it in the car on long rides and having a blast trying to come up with different fashion challenges: how many different ways could a person color the same outfit?  Could the same top look dressy or plain just by pairing it with different bottoms?  Was there anyway to make something that looked good even when colored “olive green.”  (For years I was passionately convinced that the mucky green-brown “olive green” was the single ugliest crayon in the whole Crayola family…)


Although sewing clothing for Robyn and Amber isn’t nearly as straightforward (or forgiving) as “Fashion Plates” was, it’s still a lot of fun.  I’ve wanted to try doing a little pattern making for a while and a couple yards of super (super) cheap red-tag clearance fabric was an inexpensive excuse to try a little experimenting this week.

I used some really simple long-sleeve knit shirts I had already picked up and put away for next year to build paper slopers for the girls and then decided to just play with some basic variations (mostly lots of slashing-and-spreading…)  Both tops are flared slightly at the bottom.  Amber’s has contrasting sleeves and neck binding and some shirring right around the collar.  Robyn’s has a contrasting yoke with gathers underneath and flared sleeves.

They didn’t turn out perfect, but the girls seem to like them and I had a lot of fun just playing around.  (Although not as much fun as playing with Rainbow Bright Shrinky Dinks… oh the 80’s!)