Is it politically incorrect and offensive to Native Americans? Or do you simply accept it as reflecting the rather less enlightened attitudes of the time and place it was made? Is it harmless for today's children to watch, or do you think that, if they're too young to understand the context, it's unhelpful to expose them to such outdated and inaccurate stereotyping?
Well my two have watched Disney's Peter Pan. And it was not the pirates or the mermaids that grabbed their imaginations but the Red Indians. If they're not playing with the playmobil tepee, they're chanting this Dutch playground rhyme:
Alle indianen schieten met bananen
Pief poef paf en jij bent af!
Pief poef paf en jij bent af!
(All the Indians shoot with bananas
Bang bang bang you're dead!)
(A quick flag up here in case any Dutch or French-speaking parents are reading: this rhyme and plenty of others have been brilliantly turned into rock'n'roll for kids - and their adults - by Ik en den Theo. I cannot recommend their CD highly enough! And if you're in Brussels, watch out for them live, they're excellent.)
Anyway, given all this, it's hardly surprising that when L saw me browsing fabric for skater dresses, she insisted on getting this one:
And then when T saw it in person, he insisted on having a t-shirt made out if it too. Cue some ninja cutting skills (I had to squeeze both out of 1 metre), and... voilà!
The dress is size 5-6 for L, and the t-shirt is simply the skater dress bodice, lengthened, in size 3-4 for T.
Followed by some slightly awkward modelling:
T styles it with torn-to-shreds H&M jeans, and L sports on her right leg some nicely coordinating stitches from an incident with an escalator in Ikea.
Some larking about...
And then some cuddles. How angelic they look!
The key word there being look.
And that, very belatedly, wraps up my spring Kids' Clothes Week sewing!
These are really cute! I've just been looking at google images and flickr to see what people have made with Lillestoff fabrics, randomly clicking on things I liked and realised several tabs were all leading to your blog. You make lovely things :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a kind comment! Thank you so much for stopping by :-)
ReplyDeleteAnd you can probably guess that I thoroughly recommend Lillestoff fabrics, they're a bit pricey but beautiful to sew, and all these clothes have now been through the washing/drying cycle plenty and are holding up perfectly!