Once upon a time, there lived two sisters. They ate together, played together, did crafts together....almost everything they did was together. They were best friends.

I'm one of those girls. My name is Olivia, and my sister's name is Mariah. Everyone thinks we are twins because we look so much alike, but we are really 14 months apart in age. I'm 9 years old, and she is age 8. My mother homeschools us, and we are pretty happy about it because we have lots of free time to do things that we really want to do. Would you like to hear about the time that we made our own clothing designs?

One day my Mom asked us if we would like to watch a TV show about fashion design. Of course, we almost fell out of our chairs and said "Yes!" because we don't get to watch tv that often. It's called "Project Runway" and appears on BravoTV. My Mom watches it first while recording it so that she can fast forward through some of the rough spots like poor language. Mariah and I LOVE watching it because the people on the show design their own clothing, buy the materials to make their designs, sew the designs and then have models wear them down a walkway in front of judges. One person gets voted out and one is named a winner.

Our favorite show was the one where they had to sew "garden dresses." The fashion designers actually bought real leaves and flowers and sewed them into dresses. Can you imagine wearing a leaf and flower dress to a party? I don't think the dress could be worn again because everything would wilt! Our next favorite show was the Barbie contest. They had to create an outfit for Barbie, and the person who won had the opportunity to have his dress put on a real Barbie doll and sold in stores. We found out that this "Project Runway My Scene Barbie" sold out and is now selling on EBAY.com for over $60! (I don't think we'll get one anytime soon!)

Mariah and I started talking about how we would like to design dresses. One day my Dad threw away a pair of bluejeans. My sister and I collect everything because we're very crafty, so we asked him if we could have his bluejeans, and of course, he said "Of course you can." Our creative juices started flowing, and my Mom let us have a lot of free time in our school room that afternoon. She didn't even realize what we were doing until we called her into the room and said "Look, Mom! Do you like the new Barbie clothes we designed? We're pretending that we're fashion designers on Project Runway!" My Mom couldn't believe how good the clothes looked. Her mouth fell open, and she looked a little shocked.
She was really happy about, though, because she said we had "initiative." I think that means that we took it upon ourselves to make something without her telling us what to do. She said this was a good character quality to have.

Would you like to see pictures of what we created? We dress our Barbie dolls in these outfits and then put them on a walkway just like on Project Runway. We cheated a little and used glue, but my Mom promised that we're going to learn how to sew. Mariah told my Mom that she wants to design a dress, buy the fabric and sew it all by herself, but Mom says she has to start with the basics first. She is trying to decide if she is going to put us in sewing classes which will cost about $100 every month, or if she is going to learn how to sew with us. I really want her to teach us because she's a good teacher. We kinda like her, you know. : )

Back to our designs.... We used sequins, different types of yarn and lace. We even made purses! One day our next-door neighbor, Kaitlin, came over to see us. She couldn't believe that we made those Barbie dresses. It made us feel good when she complimented us and said that we were very creative.

We found a book at the public library called English Children's Costume since 1775. It has pictures of clothing and costumes for the last 200 years. We enjoyed tracing some of the designs and drawing them free-hand. This book gives us really good ideas about how to design more clothes. My Mom said that we're going to study the Greek culture soon, so perhaps we can sew a costume from that time period. One day my Mom bought long shiny pink curtains for my bedroom.  I told Mariah to go to the bathroom so I could change it into a dress by using safety pins to fit her. When my Mom saw what we had done, she gave us that same look again with her mouth hanging open. She said that she could not have done a better job and that it looked just like a toga which is a dress worn during Roman times. Our Granny can sew too and one time made us colonial dresses that we still wear when we play "dress up." She also helped us sew aprons. We actually got to use the sewing machine that day!

We can't wait until the next Project Runway begins. Until then, we'll keep designing clothing and thinking about more designs. One day we may aspire to be fashion designers and have our own business. My Mom told us that the sky is the limit.

Olivia

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