Jochella
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Originally I planned to post about Jodi the same way that I posted about Janai, but 1 - my intent with this blog is not to make tremendously long posts and 2 - their stories are almost exactly the same. The only difference is that it’s 15 years later, Jodi was born weighing 14.9 oz, and (against my strongest prayers) she’s a Leo. The fact that I’m a bit older and less naive didn’t make our NICU experience easier. In fact, because I was so much wiser, it made it harder. The more you know, right? All things considered, though, Jodi is doing very well since coming home. She seems to be thriving and enjoying being showered with hugs and kisses. Due to COVID, only me and dad got to spend time with her in the hospital. After 118 days in the NICU, Janai and Jodi got to meet each other for the first time.
For Jodi’s transition to home, I planned to do a Beyonce’ themed Coachella Homecoming outfit. I went to an HBCU so homecoming is a BIG THING. Let me also state that I went to NC A&T and we have the Greatest Homecoming On Earth! Ok, back to the outfit. The first thing that popped in my head was the yellow Balmain hoodie that Beyonce’ wore. When Jodi came home, she was too small for the yellow hoodie that I bought from Amazon. Plus, it had pockets in the front, so it would’ve made it harder to add the Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV). The day that I finally was about to make it, I realized that I could just sew one myself from some yellow fabric that I had in my stash.
After sewing it all together, I was now ready to add the vinyl. I used the Cricut Maker and Siser HTV in black, white, gold glitter, and pink glitter. I got the stencils from Tabitha Sewer and this blog post. She is amazing! I’ve been following her for a while and didn’t even know that she recreated this. I was so happy to use something from her blog!
Let me just say that I strongly dislike layering vinyl. It just never seems to fit perfectly for me. If ya’ll have any tips, comment under one of my posts on IG and help me out! After adding all four layers, I was finally done! We had a mini photo shoot in my sewing room. Janai helped me out, but Jodi wasn’t having it!
The fist gave me life!
Since we missed the opportunity to do this as soon as she came home, I just decided to make “Thank You” cards out of the picture. I just printed them off on glossy paper that I got from Amazon and made them look like the Coachella 2018 passes. We call it Jochella!
