Sew Ready to Play Hi Ho Cherry-O with the Shaffer Sisters!

Hi Ho Cherry-O! I had totally forgotten about this game! It’s a good one, though. I’m going ot have to add to my kiddo’s Christmas list!

The last week of Sew Ready to Play is being kicked off by the lovely Al of the Shaffer Sisters! I was introduced to the sisters blog earlier this year when I almost participated in their series Make for Mom, but ended up not being able to participate in that round! But when I started checking the blog out I knew I had seen these ladies around the blogging world! Their pieces are fantastic! You’ve got to check out this adorable little suit!  Totally inspiring for me to make more clothes for my kiddo!

Welcome Al!

Hello Sew Ready to Play readers. I hope that today we might be able to inspire you as so many of the other participants have. My name is Al and I am the youngest member of the Shaffer Sisters. We are budget oriented and between the three of us we have 9 kids. We try to sew pieces in their wardrobes that we wouldn’t be able to afford otherwise and love to make delicious food.

I came here today to share something with you that was inspired with my three year old daughter in mind. Ty is outgoing, fun, and the ray of sunshine in my life. She loves games, but her favorite is Hi Ho Cherry-O because it is hands on and requires counting. The purpose of the game is to get all your cherries picked from the tree and into the bucket. As you’re filling the bucket a bird or dog may take your cherries or the bucket may get knocked over.

When Louise invited us to participate, I was so excited because I knew I had to run with a Hi Ho Cherry-O theme. I decided to use red, yellow, and blue for my base colors because they showed up throughout the game and brought back flashbacks to childhood and primary colors. It took days before I came up with the design of Hi Lo Cherry-O, but even still it was modified all the way up to the very end. Like my sister Jo says, “Never, never, never quit until it’s a masterpiece.”

My second to last design for this involved stamping and dying, but didn’t bring the bold on a budget look I love. What was supposed to be dyed a bright royal blue ended a light periwinkle. The cherry stamped fabric ended up looking more like a summer camp project than a clean, beautiful textile. In a state of emergency I sent a text to my sister, Scary, in the middle of the night and the next morning drove to her home to get moral support and a fresh twist on my design.

I had already designed and tested my pattern pieces for this dress when I made the Starburst dress, but I don’t really like to make the same thing more than once. So here I am with a modified pattern of the high-low dress. I turned the sleeves into side yokes and used a button enclosure in the front instead of a zipper in the back.  I color blocked the bodice of the dress in the shape of a bird’s head.

After the previous fabric fiasco I went through our fabric stash and selected a white-on-white polka dot fabric and picked up a royal blue cotton from JoAnn’s. Once the front of the dress was together, I took advantage of Scary’s background in embroidery and her willing and helping hands. After I sketched out the desired image on the fabric, Scary got to work placing a bird’s beak with two cherries hanging out of its mouth. She used a satin stitch which goes fairly quickly and can leave a big impact.

Running away from the photo-shoot to the nearest tree.

Apparently High Low Dresses are great for climbing trees too.

After I had the image on, I was only a few steps from completion and success. What do you think? If you’ve ever played the game Hi Ho Cherry-O it’s not hard to see the connection of the game to this Hi Lo Cherry-O Dress. Once she outgrows it I will pull this dress aside and put it in the pile of figurative jewels to someday fill her hope chest.

With Love,

Al