KCW Day 5: Farbenmix Henrika & Jalie 2796 Shorts

Days three and four got away from me, but yesterday I went to work and busted out a dress and shorts for E.  Tee-shirt dresses are my favorite. (Okay, I say a lot of things are my faves, but they're so quick and cute and comfy!)

The dress is a modified Farbenmix Henrika.  I made her one in size 98/104 for the Spring 2012 (!) KCW, and it's really just fitting her nicely now, so I used the same size.  For this one, I raised the back neckline and scooped the front more.

Back neckline

I'd added an inch of length to the bottom last time around.  I added another two inches to the middle (where I figured a lengthen/shorten line would have been) for a total of 3".  The original skirt has four panels, but I didn't want the extra seams this time, so I doubled the pieces to make just a front and back.  It's nearly a circle skirt, so when it was time to hem, I first serged the bottom with the differential feed set to 2.0.  This gathered it a bit and made it really easy to work the ease in.  I will definitely do that with similar knit skirts from now on!  Added the neck and sleeve bands and it was done.

While she will mostly wear this with some pink and white striped capri leggings that she already has, I also wanted some brown undershorts for when it's too warm for capris.  I traced Jalie 2796 for that purpose last year and never got around to making any, so I was all set to make a quick pair.  She has a super tiny waist and butt, so they are a size F for the width (and length, not sure what past Sarah was thinking on that -- they're quite short!) and size I for the rise. When I finished, they looked impossibly small, but they're actually a perfect fit, other than the leg length.  They do cover her diaper, though, which was my main goal.  I'll lengthen the legs quite a bit for more modesty in the future, though.

The main fabric is pretty thin rib knit, which is one of those stash fabrics from before I knew what I was looking for in a knit.  I'm not crazy about it, and it was a pain to hem, but for something that's going to be covered most of the time, it's fine.  I used ribbing for the waist, since I didn't think the other stuff had enough recovery to hold up.

Not my best work, but it got the job done.

KCW Days 1&2: Upcycled Pillowcase Dress and Charlie Tee

Hi!  It's been a while, huh?  I have a bunch of things on my to-blog list, but I've been lazy about it this summer.  Kid's Clothes Week is always good incentive to blog, though, so I'm planning to get back to a little more regular posting again.

Monday was mostly prep, along with pretty much the easiest dress ever for E.  I was inspired by the Tiered Pillowcase-style Dress, but made it from a linen skirt I'd thrifted for myself a couple of years ago and never wore.  Pastel pink is just not a color I wear.  BUT it made for a super cute dress for the girl. 

Since it was already tiered, pretty much all I had to do was cut the arm holes and create the casing for the drawstring.  I even used the original drawstring from the skirt.  Felt a little like cheating!  I hemmed the armholes instead of using bias tape like the original tutorial.  I also kept it the existing width, which is larger than the pattern called for.  It's pretty roomy on Miss Skinny Minnie, but it also comes to mid-calf on her, so she'll be able to wear it for years.

Closer to the actual color

I thought I was done that night, but when I woke up yesterday, I decided I'd like it better with a centered bow.  It looked kind of sad and droopy with that narrow of a drawstring.  I ripped out the front casing, found a scrap of interfacing, and added two buttonholes.  Much better! 

It was crazy hot yesterday, so this was a perfect breezy little dress for E to wear.

Yesterday's make was O's billionth Charlie Tee (okay, really the fifth one, I think).  He found this Adult XL Stonehenge tee when we were at the Goodwill Outlet a couple of weeks ago and asked me to make it into one in his size. 

Speaking of, is there a Goodwill Outlet near you? There's one by my aunt's house, so we go pretty often.  Textiles for $1.79/pound?  Sign me up!  I have a ridiculous pile of things to upcycle, but at least this shirt is one thing done.

Lightened a little, but still looks mostly like a black blob.  Ha.

Not a whole lot to say about something you've made so many times.  I made my usual change of narrowing the neckband to 2".  I also zigzagged the hem this time, since he's been popping the hems I've finished with a twin needle.

Now I should get to work on today's project!

A Trio of Lady Skaters

I might have a bit of a Kitschy Coo Lady Skater addiction.  I made my first one back in March out of a jersey sheet, thinking it would just be a muslin, but it turned out so cute that I ended up finishing it up. The fabric's a bit thin, but it'll be great for around the house in the summer and is wearable in public with a slip.  O took a quick phone pic for me when I made it. 

The size 3 fit almost perfectly right off the bat; I just decided to add 1/2" to the shoulders for future makes.  RTW shirts hardly ever have shoulders wide enough for me, so this whole sewing for myself thing has some exciting benefits.  :)  The waist on RTW dresses is nearly always about an inch too high, too, but this one is spot on.

I used some charcoal stretch french terry that's been in my stash for a shamefully long time for a long sleeved version.

Accessorizing with my boot toppers!

The widened shoulders fit perfectly now, but I should have (and since have) added another inch to the sleeve length.  I measured the pattern pieces, but forgot to think about them riding up when bend my elbow.  Obviously still new to this whole fitting thing.  Ha.  This knit is also firmer than the sheet I used for the muslin, so it's a little snugger than I wanted through the torso.  Ray said it was fine, but he has never, ever thought anything was too tight or too short, so he's not overly reliable.  A friend who I trust to be brutally honest said it's fine, so I'm hoping she's right.  

See?  Kinda tight.  I think some of the problem is that I feel completely awkward and am therefore standing funny.

Snugness aside, I really like this one.  I said on Instagram that I was planning on wearing it every day and just changing tights and accessories.  I was only sort of kidding.

Photo by O.  He was directing me and was pretty funny about it.

My third and favorite I just made today for Selfish Sewing Week.  I'm totally in love with it, so there are lots of pictures.  I used a leopard print knit from fabric.com that was listed as primarily cotton, but it felt off and then melted when I used a hot iron, so I think it's mostly poly.   I'm more of a natural fibers girl, so I was kind of bummed, but it doesn't really wrinkle, so that's a bonus.

This time I went with 3/4 length sleeves (with the additional inch added, and I'm so glad I did that) and a keyhole cut out in back using this tutorial.  I felt like Goldilocks applying the binding because it took me three tries. The first time was too loose, the second was two tight, but the third was just right!

I ran into some bulk issues where the seam allowances from the keyhole binding meet the neckline binding.  It doesn't look too bad from the right side, but the inside is ugly.  Good thing no one inspects my clothing.

 

This fabric was a little firmer than the muslin too, so I sewed the side seams at 1/4" instead of 3/8" and it's about perfect. 

 

So yeah, kind of obsessed with this pattern. I want to make another short sleeved one in nicer fabric, and then a sleeveless one, and maybe one with a gathered skirt...

 

It's Sew Dolly Clackett!

As soon as I read about Sew Dolly Clackett, I knew I wanted in.  I've been reading Roisin's blog for quite a while and envying her dresses.  I even pinned a few as inspiration.  Since one of my goals for this year is to sew more for myself, this challenge presented the perfect opportunity to actually do that.

When I think about Roisin's style, I first think of fit and flare dresses in polka dots or novelty prints, all things I love -- but generally using wovens.  I haven't sewn clothing for myself out of a woven since the wrap skirt I made in sewing class my senior year of high school to wear to Homecoming.  Back then I'd never heard of a muslin or pattern adjustments and generally just picked a size and winged it.  That skirt ended up fitting pretty decently, but only after I managed to serge a hole through the front piece the day before the dance and had to talk my physics teacher into letting me leave class to go to the home ec. room to finish it up.  Somehow that worked.

That was a really long time ago, though, so it was time to tackle the wovens once again.  I actually bought fabric for three dresses, but not surprisingly only just finished the first one this afternoon.  Expect to see some more Dolly Clackett inspired dresses coming soon!  For this first one, I went with a fun polka dot bird print and the By Hand London Anna bodice (I picked up the pattern at Grey's Fabrics when I was in Boston) with the New Look 6824 skirt, a combo I blatantly copied from Roisin.  I'm calling it the Polka Dot Peeps dress.

Please ignore the state of my knees.  I tripped on a run a while ago, skinning one and bruising them both.  Classy.

I sewed up a muslin of the bodice and decided to lengthen it 1.25" and do a 1/2" swayback adjustment.  There was some diagonal wrinkling in the back that I thought meant it was too snug, so I also decided to use a 1/2" seam allowance just for the side seams for a bit more ease.  It's pretty much impossible to see your back, and the wrinkling there was my biggest concern, so I kept making Ray take pictures of it as I was tweaking things.  Heh.

Overall, I'm quite happy with the fit, although I think sticking to the 5/8" seam allowance throughout would have been better.  It's a smidge looser than I'd like.  Next time I will probably sew the bodice and skirt pieces together at the waist before sewing up the sides, so it will be easier to alter.

Another thing I would do differently is to stay-stitch the neckline.  I stretched it some when I was sewing the facing on and had to steam the crap out of it to get it more or less back to how it was supposed to be.  I had a minor panic attack about that one.  I believe I yelled, "THIS is why I stick to KNITS!"  Then I got over myself.

I wanted the skirt pleats to line up with the pleats on the front bodice, which took some putzing.  If anyone else should happen to want to do the same thing with US 6 Anna bodice (or really, for myself when I inevitably lose my notes), I cut a size 8 skirt, did the center pleat as marked, then for the next one folded the size 16 line to the 14 dashed line, and the third was the size 12 line to the 10 dashed line.  To make the back fit, I again did the center pleat as marked, but for the other two, I used the 8-10 line folded to the 16-18 dashed line. I didn't attempt to line these up with the back darts.

All lined up on the first try!

I had originally topstitched the neckline, but then couldn't envision how I could neatly insert the zipper, so I ripped it out.  It definitely would not have worked with the method I used, which was very similar to the Ottobre method I'd used on E's Rosy Posy dress.  Another note to myself for next time: hold off on the facing until zipper installation time.

I also forgot to iron the invisible zipper flat, so it's not quite as invisible as I'd have liked.  It's not terrible, though, and the wrinkles that were in my muslin don't seem to be a problem, so I'm psyched about that.  I do have a tiny bit of gaping of the back neckline and the shoulder seams sit a little further back than they should, so I will have to do a bit more adjusting for further Annas.

And since Roisin's known for her front door shots and her shoes, I'm ending with the obligatory pics of those!

It was way too sunny in the front yard, so this was a quick snap by the 8-year-old.

A Christmas Kyoko

I have a to-do list about a mile long, so now's the perfect time to ignore it and blog, right?  Just a quick post about E's Christmas dress, which she wore yesterday when Santa came to her class Christmas party.  It's the Modkid Kyoko in a 3 for width and 5 for height, which worked out perfectly, just like it did for last year's Sydney that she still wears.

I made my own bias tape again, because I'm a sucker for a perfect match, even though I find it annoying to make.  For a solid top, you could probably just get away with turning the hem under and topstitching it, but I wanted that little bit of extra detail.

I mostly followed the directions as written, other than taking the easy way out by applying the bias tape to the neckline and hem just by topstitching instead of doing it the "right" way.  I did do the sleeve binding as instructed and it was pretty slick.

 I made a self-fabric bow for the obi instead of using ribbon.

This is probably the most accurate color-wise.  It's a bit of a darker red.

I also thought it called for some fancy-schmancy hair clip of some kind, so I made a fabric flower like this with a fabric-covered button for the middle.

She wore the pantalets from her Raggedy Ann costume underneath for some added warmth.  The top comes down pretty low on her, so she wore a long-sleeved tee also.

Time to get cracking on my list!

A Sweetheart Dress for a Birthday Girl

Just when I was starting to think I'd never decide what kind of outfit to make E for her birthday, I found out I won luvinthemommyhood's Sweetheart Dress pattern from a giveaway on 2 Little Hooligans.  Decision made -- it was the perfect choice for my littlest Valentine.

I didn't want an overly Valentine-ish fabric, and I had a cardigan in mind for her to wear with it, so this purple fabric with metallic silver dots was an easy choice.  Since E's chest measurement is between a 3 and a 4, but she's closer to a 5 for length, I cut a 4 for the bodice and added 1/4" to the bottom, and used the size 5 skirt dimensions.

The bodice construction was new to me.  It's fully lined and all done by machine.  Since I hate hand-sewing, I was all for that, but there were definitely some fiddly bits.  I especially had problems getting the 1/2" seam allowance of the upper armhole turned in nicely, since it's along a curve.  After fighting with the front bodice, I decided to do the back bodice differently and basted that part, clipped and ironed the seam allowances, and then took out the basting stitches.  That went much better.  Next time I'd also try opening out the seam allowances when sewing the shoulders together, pressing the shoulder seam open, re-pressing the seam allowances in, and then continuing as instructed. It seems like it would be a cleaner finish, unless I'm missing something that would prevent that from working.  Those minor points aside, I love the tidy lining.

I also used my new favorite method for gathering the skirt.  I wish I had thought of it myself!  It makes for such even gathers.  I still need to pick out the bottom line of basting, though.  I ran out of time last night, but I don't think anyone noticed at school today!

The thread button loop was new to me also.  I'm not sure I'd do it that way again -- at least when I'm sewing under the wire, which is pretty much always -- but once I got the hang of it, I liked it.  It's a nice detail.

E usually doesn't show much interest in her clothes.  She doesn't talk, so she's not as opinionated about her sartorial choices as some other five-year-olds I know.  When I showed her this dress, though, her face absolutely lit up.

A sleeveless dress with a back cut-out isn't exactly seasonally appropriate, so she's layering with this adorable little sweater she got for Christmas. She's also wearing her pantalets underneath, since she loves to show off her flexibility by pulling her feel over her head! 

Halloween 2012: The Scientist and Raggedy Ann

I was hoping to come up with another family theme for Halloween this year, but we couldn't agree on anything. It's probably for the best, since I just finished E's wig yesterday!  I don't know how I would have managed another two costumes also.

O prefers non-costumey costumes these days, so he decided a few weeks ago that he would like to be a "genius inventor" or a scientist with a lab coat and tie.  I used the pajama top from Butterick 5586 and extended the length by about 9", added two more patch pockets, lowered the top button and spread out the other two a bit more.  There was an insane amount of sleeve cap ease -- so much that I initially wondered if I'd accidentally cut the puffed sleeve from the nightgown -- which I took out by eyeballing.  There was a lot of reminding myself that it was just a costume! Other than that, it went together easily and fits well.

He also asked for another faux tie, which he chose to be from a skeleton print.

He's wearing my shoes, which are about three sizes too big.  Sometimes it's better not to ask.

We decided on Raggedy Ann for E, and just realized tonight that this is the first Halloween she hasn't been an animal!  She was a ladybug, a monkey, a bee, and then an owl.  There were a several pieces to Raggedy Ann, but most of them were quick to sew up.

I started with the Miss Madeline peasant dress with long sleeves with shirring at the wrists, no elastic at the waist, and an added neck ruffle like in this tutorial.

Her apron is a larger version of the one in this tutorial.  I used the same dimensions for the arm straps and waist ties, but made the waist band 3x21" and the body of the apron 17" x 43" (the width of the fabric).  The only other modification I made was to attach the straps behind the apron, rather than sandwiching them between the waist band and the main fabric. I also added some jumbo rickrack when I realized that my original overly ambitious plan to embroider "Raggedy Ann" onto it was soooo not going to happen.

For our first Halloween event last week, she wore the pantalets from this summer, but they didn't really show below the dress, so I made another full-length pair.  (I'm planning on having her wear them  for Christmas also, or I wouldn't have bothered -- I don't think... I do get kind of obsessive about costumes.  Ha.)  I was out of elastic thread, so made a casing on the inside with single-fold bias tape and ran elastic through it.  Finished with a rolled hem for the sake of speed, but then the thread kept breaking, making me wish I'd just done a quick regular hem!

The last piece, the yarn wig, took by far the longest, but was so worth the extra time.  It cracks me up every time I look at it.  She seemed to enjoy wearing it too.  I'm quite sure she knows when she's being funny.

I used the Scarecrow Wig pattern, but my first attempt at the hat turned out too big.  Casting on 78 stitches for the second try worked out much better. 

Happy Halloween!