My Latest: Sewing for Big Kids and a Battle Royale

a round-up of free sewing patterns and tutorials for big kids

a discussion of the Japanese dystopian novel, Battle Royale

and a write-up of the pajamas that I sewed for Will out of a vintage Dr. Seuss sheet

That genuine smile of Will's... you don't often see it in a posed photograph. I've got tons of candids of her, tons of photos of her intent on an activity, tons of her gamely posing with artwork or national monuments, etc., but if you ask her to smile for your photograph, she all of a sudden can't seem to figure out how her face works. Does one smile by stretching one's lips and raising one's shoulders? Baring one's teeth and widening one's eyes? Stiffening one's spine and gritting one's teeth? My strategy when I need *something* other than a blank stare is to chat with her while blasting the shutter a million times a minute, flipping through the images later in search of a usable, if not necessarily smiling, expression. Syd's strategy is a little more direct:

And that's actually how I got my shot!

 If only one could have all of one's photo shoots done while turning cartwheels:

That's a pretty workable shot, actually--not a lot of detail, but you can certainly see the garment as a whole!