So a couple weeks ago the Project Run & Play challenge of the week was to use a chevron pattern somehow in your design.  I got my pictures all ready and went to write my post and…my blog was down.  Boo!  Christian did get it up running later that night, but the opportunity to write had passed.  And now I finally have a minute to post what should have been posted a couple weeks ago…

I had a plan to make cute outfits for the girls to wear for Easter egg hunting, but my original plan was to do something really simple.  Like purchased tshirt and simple elastic waist skirt simple.  But when I saw the list of challenges for this PR&P season I thought egg hunting would be a good opportunity to incorporate the chevrons.

Riley Blake has a line of chevron patterned fabric and I just loved the colors of one of the patterns.  It was perfect and spring-timey.

However, once I chose the fabric I was at a loss as to what to do with it.  I didn’t want big, busy, chevron-y skirts, but I had a hard time thinking up something else.  My friend Anna suggested doing something with a box pleat with the chevron inset.  I love circle skirts for the girls and I thought having the little pleat would be a fun addition.

My other dilemma was deciding what to applique on their shirts…I didn’t want a bunny or an egg or anything that would limit the outfits’ use to only Easter time, but I couldn’t think of anything great until I stumbled upon the idea of a hot air balloon.  Christian solidified this by sending me this awesome picture…

So, here are their sweet outfits.

A few details…

• The skirts are actually only a 3/4 circle…they have a nice twirl and bounce to them, but they lie a little straighter while being worn.
• The box pleat inset is 1/4 of the circle so that is why they twirl so nicely…the inset makes the skirt have a full circle hem.
• I love using bias tape hem facing on circle skirts (SO much easier to hem this way) and the chevrons cut on the bias have awesome visual interest.
• I used a wide elastic waistband and just stitched the top of the skirt to the bottom of the waistband.
• The skirts were actually pretty simple to make…once I conquered the math!  You should have seen me…geometry was not my favorite in school and that has not changed.  Luckily I found this circle skirt calculator from The Snugbug that is SO helpful.

I just love how they turned out.  I wish I had some better pictures of them wearing them.  We got several cute pictures of them egg hunting, playing, etc., but not many great ones of the actual outfits.  So, here is a sampling of “action” shots of them running and twirling and enjoying the (finally) beautiful spring weather.

And now I am off to relax after a busy weekend.  We had Dinah’s superhero birthday party on Saturday.  It was “incredible” and I can’t wait to share about the event later this week!

Project Run & Play is back!  This time around is only four weeks and I have vowed to work ahead a little bit…just so things don’t get out of control and I miss out on entering my submissions.

Week one is: Inspired by Art—Choose an artist, art movement, or artwork and create a children’s look inspired by your choice.

When I read the themes I knew I immediately wanted to do something based on the Impressionists…they are generally my favorites.  I was feeling particularly drawn to Van Gogh’s work.  (Probably because I just recently watched the “Vincent and the Doctor” episode of Doctor Who…there is just something moving about the way Vincent describes how he sees the world at the end of the episode.  I know, I know…nerd alert.)  Irises are one of my favorite flowers and I have always loved his interpretation of their beauty.

So, with that awesome image in mind I set out looking for fabric and a dress shape that would evoke the fluidity of his strokes and the shapes of the irises.  A normal “smooth” fabric just wouldn’t work for the feel I wanted and I eventually thought of using gauze.  It is a semi-sheer, wrinkly fabric with a ton of body and movement and I knew it would be perfect.  And then in the process of searching for something else altogether I ran across this pattern.

I love the circle skirt on it and the way the tiers can look like petals.  Perfect!

I altered the pattern in a couple ways…first, I decided not to mess with doing a zipper.  I thought it would be too fiddly with this slippery fabric.  And then because the fabric is so light I felt it would be too heavy.  I just added a loop of elastic cord and a single yellow button at the top to be the closure.  This created a cute little peek-a-boo at the back.

It also made the skirt be two true circles which was perfect for spinning!

So, one thing I forgot to count on after I had painstakingly ironed and hemmed both skirt tiers is that this gauze fabric would fall out differently on the bias.  And now my circle skirt is rather asymmetrical.  I mean, it works for the feel of petals of an iris, but just something to keep in mind for the future.

Dinah did love her new dress…which is great, because she is quickly growing out of everything and I lost my main provider of hand-me-downs last year.  So, she will be getting the majority of the new clothes this time around since Esther has a TON of dresses that I just pulled out of storage.

And I had to share this picture.  Whenever we say, “Smile, Dinah!” she does this.

No one knows why.  Weirdo.

And one final story about this dress…it is probably my most beautiful dress on the inside.  I used french seams on the skirt and I actually took the time to hand stitch the bodice lining down.  It was a lot of work, but I was really happy with how it turned out.  And then Esther broke into the sewing room and got a hold of a Sharpie and thought that Dinah’s dress needed some decoration.  Ack!  There was a huge black mark along the back shoulder of her dress.  Christian broke out the Carbona and scrubbed and scrubbed and now you can barely tell it was there!  Whew!

Since Esther was only a few days old she has had the nickname of “Esther-Bear.”  She was a VERY vocal little baby and was always making growling noises.  I don’t know if that’s the reason, but she has always loved Winnie-the-Pooh.  As young as 18 months old she would “sing” the little Winnie-the-Pooh song.  So, I’ve known for a long time that we would do a Pooh theme for her Second Birthday.

Now, many of you know that Esther’s birthday is actually in December…so, why did we have her party in February?  Well, the week her party was originally scheduled for in December all three of us girls got nasty colds that developed into upper respiratory infections.  Sadly, the day before her party I just had to cancel.  I meant to reschedule for sometime in January, but there seemed to be a lot going on in January and it got pushed back to February.

Okay, first for some party details:

This was our party space…we went to one of the smaller parks in the city so there was just the one pavilion with three tables.  But that was perfect for our little party.

I made a little pennant banner for our Esther-Bear.  I finally invested in some paper crafting tools, like a corner rounder and a scalloped punch.  Making decorations for this party was a breeze with those.

And this was our food table…we served strawberry lemonade (which is one of our birthday party traditions) along with…

Veggies from Rabbit’s Garden and…

Silly Ole Bears (aka Gummy Bears) and…

Hunny Combs and…

some Tigger Tails.

These were really easy to make and you can find a bajillion tutorials online.  Basically I got those Wilton orange candy melts, melted them and dipped my pretzel rods in.  I let those cool and then I melted chocolate and drizzled that over the orange.  I will say this…I totally used the wrong kind of chocolate.  I mean, it was tasty, but it didn’t really set up hard like the orange did.  We had to keep them frozen/cold right up until the last minute because the chocolate got really sticky.  I just used some chocolate chips we had on hand, but apparently that was not the right kind of stuff to use.  I suppose I need to use some sort of candy making chocolate.  It didn’t really matter…they were a BIG hit.  Adults and children alike gobbled them up.  So, I declare them a success.

And of course there were cupcakes!

I will say that making these was my best baking endeavor ever.  I didn’t really do anything from scratch, but there were still really yummy.  I took two different batters (a butter yellow mix and a lemon cake mix) and blended them together.  The result was a tasty, moist cake with a slight lemon flavor.  For the icing we doctored up the canned butter cream icing with about a half a cup of creamed honey (we found ours at Trader Joe’s) and a quarter cup of cream cheese (just to cut the sweetness some).  These cupcakes were SOOO good.  They were light and sweet, but not too sweet.  Just perfect.

Some other things that contributed to their success: 1) I actually measured out 1/4 cup for each cupcake, so they were nice and uniform. 2) I purchased appropriate tips for piping. 3) I researched some methods of frosting cupcakes so I could get the look I wanted. 4) I purchased the super cute bees from a confectioner on Etsy.  They were perfect and added just the right touch.

The other little cupcakes were a surprise from my mom.  She knew the theme and made those super-cute little cupcakes.  Basically they are little bears in a bathtub.  They were very yummy and had the surprise of ha Rolo candy hidden in the center.  Thanks, Mom!

For the favor bags, I just got regular red paper bags and I glued this image to the outside.

At the dollar store I found Winnie-the-Pooh puzzles for the older kids and little Winnie-the-Pooh stamp sets for the little ones.  Each kid also got a couple lollipops, a bag of Teddy Grahams and a little bee magnet.  Of course, I neglected to get pictures of the magnets, but you can see a couple extras decorating the food table in the pictures above.

It actually ended up being a perfect day for a party.  We decided to have her party at a park and I am not sure I will ever go back to house parties again.  Even with transporting everything there and back, it was just so much easier!  We had wonderful weather (although a bit windy) and the kids had a great time playing on the playground and exploring the “Hundred Acre Wood.”

*Note…I feel kind of weird posting pictures of other people’s kids…so, you just get to see mostly mine.  But don’t worry…she did have friends there!

Waiting not-so-patiently for her party to begin.

Sliding!

Whee!

Swinging with her little cousin

Just a girl and her bear.

Dinah and her Granny off to explore.

Getting ready to sing to our Bear.

Digging into her cupcake

Post-cupcake frosting face

Dinah “helping” her sister open presents

Happy (late) birthday, little Bear!

Thanks to everyone who was able to come!  We had a great time!

Last year three of my very good friends from college had babies. Since I began sewing I have tried to make a quilt for each new baby added to our group. So, I had a busy quilting year!

The fun part of making baby quilts for my friends is hunting down the perfect fabric for them.  I like to use pre-cut charm packs (5 inch squares) for my quilts.  They are an inexpensive way to get a sampling of designer fabrics.  It is perfect for me because the fabrics are already coordinating and they are already cut into quilt sized squares.  I also usually make sure the quilt is small enough that I only need purchase one yard of backing fabric and then I choose one of the prints in the charm pack.

I have used quilt patterns/tutorials before…notably the Charm Squares Baby Quilt from Oh, Fransson!  But recently I have just been browsing the internet for quilt looks that I like and designing my own.  That process is more time consuming, but worth it.

Alright, I don’t pretend to be a great quilter.  I have gotten better with each quilt and I have learned a few tricks that make my life easier.  Also, I get really bored with quilting…so I don’t do anything bigger than these baby quilts.

Okay, so here are the quilts I made last year…

First up is Waverly’s…

It is made with a random charm pack of Amy Butler fabrics.  Waverly’s mom has a taste for bold colors and prints so I knew Amy Butler would be a great choice for her little girl.

I always hand embroidery the baby’s name (if known) onto the quilt.  It is part of what makes each quilt unique and something special for each baby.

Up next is Ella Katherine’s…

Ella Katherine already has a big brother and their mom was planning on a shared room.  She picked out the Fly A Kite line from Riley Blake for me to make some Pennant Banners with their names for their room.  I just loved this sweet fabric so much that I went ahead and used it for her quilt too.

One of the tricks I’ve picked up is a cheater binding method.  I use this tutorial from Made by Rae and it has revolutionalized quilting for me.  Typically, the part of quilting I hate the most is the binding part, but this cheater method looks great and I get perfect corners every time with no fighting.

Because I did a square quilt I needed to piece the back.  In order to “hide” the seam I chose to add a little surprise of a few blocks on the back of the quilt too.

And finally, Emily’s…

For Emily’s quilt I used Willow also by Riley Blake (I have found I am just really drawn to Riley Blake fabrics, especially for these quilts…Dinah’s and my nephew’s will both be made with Riley Blake fabrics.)

I really loved how muted and sweet these colors are and I have been digging gray with yellow and pink lately.  As Mugatu would say, “Gray is so hot right now.”  (Also, ignore that random, giant blade of grass in the following picture…I don’t know how that guy snuck in there…but he will not be tamed!

I do have more quilts out there…older ones (pre-blog) that don’t have very good pictures.  I will try to dig out the photos and see if I can clean them up and make them more presentable.  Those older quilts/blankets are cute, but you will definitely see how I’ve gotten better over time.  I’ll share those soon.

But next time I will be telling you all about Esther’s birthday party we had over the weekend.  It was so fun and I can’t wait to show off share all the details!

So, here were my grand signature style plans:  Up until just before the week of the challenge I was planning on making corduroy pants and cute tops from the Oliver+S After-School pattern.  I was also going to finally make them their coats that I had wanted to make way back last fall.  And then the weather changed to sunny and warm and I just couldn’t bring myself to make fleece coats for the girls in February.  In Florida.  It was already almost 80 degrees.  I started thinking of spring and sundresses and strawberries and I changed everything at the last minute.

I got fun springtime colors of the “linen-look” fabric from Joann, found some cute accent fabric and decided to make Geranium dresses.  I got a great start on them, but then the first paragraph of this post happened.  And then the weather changed.  Again.  The past couple of days have been the coldest of the entire winter!  So, they have remained unfinished…for now.  I’ve decided that I just love this pattern and the way the dresses are turning out, so I am going to make them the girls’ Easter dresses this year.  That means you’ll have to wait to see them in their entirety, but I’ll give you a sneak peak here.  (Sorry about the phone pics!)

This one is Esther’s…don’t let the bad phone picture fool you…this is an awesome turquoise-y blue that looks so good on her.  Christian picked out the accent fabric…isn’t it the best??  I got as much extra as I could so I could make a top or skirt or something else out of it because it just so cute!

And then this one is Dinah’s…I let her choose between this hot pink and a purple.  No surprise she chose the pink.  Christian actually picked out Dinah’s accent fabric too.  The pinks look like they were designed to be paired…they match so perfectly.

Baby Miriam (have I mentioned we are having a girl??) might get the purple one later this summer…Rae’s pattern goes down to even the tiniest sizes, so I don’t think I can resist!

I had a great time sewing along with Project Run & Play again and I am looking forward to the new season coming up.  I do have to change how I budget my time though.  Basically, I HAVE to make myself sew at least a week ahead of time.  While this seems obvious to those who are better time managers, finishing projects without a looming deadline has always been hard for me. (Ask my costume design teachers in college!)  So, that is my goal and challenge for the next sew-along…to finish my look by the weekend before the actual challenge begins.  Hopefully I can stick to this!

Now, I am going to take a short break from sewing children’s clothing and switch gears to sewing baby quilts.  Can you believe that I have made around 10 quilts and not one of those has been for my own children?  I haven’t even made my nephew’s yet!  So, that is what they are all getting in their Easter baskets this year…their baby quilts.  Dinah’s is only four years too late!  Poor, deprived children!  I will show those off later next month when they are finished, but in the meantime in my next post I will show off a few of the ones I have made previously.

Hey everyone…I can’t believe it is already week 5 for Project Run & Play.  This week’s challenge was to take a men’s shirt and remix it into something new.  I found this shirt on Pinterest a long time ago…

…and knew that I would like to attempt something like this for a men’s shirt refashion in the future.

So, I was excited about this challenge because I already had a great idea AND I had several of Christian’s shirts in my refashion bin waiting for me to get around to them.

My first step was to think out the whole process of remaking this shirt from scratch and write it down.  After I had that clear in my mind I was able to get started.  AND now that everything is pretty much all written out I think I will put together a tutorial for you all.  Look for that after this cycle of Project Run & Play is complete.

Okay, so this was the shirt I started with.

Just a normal pinstriped men’s dress shirt.  It is a muted light green in color with navy blue pinstripes.  My original plan was to use only fabric from the shirt…just like my inspiration shirt.  But when I started cutting I realized that 1.) The colors were just too boring to not use a contrast and 2.) There wasn’t enough length in the sleeve to make a sash long enough for Dinah.  So, contrast fabric it was.

And I am so in love with how this turned out!

It ended up being the perfect little shirt dress.  It will be cute for church or school and she seems really comfortable in it.

Some details:

For my pattern I adapted the A-line dress pattern that I used for the Polka-Stripe Dresses to be sleeveless.  The armholes ended up a smidge too big, but they are still okay.  Just a mental note for later dresses made from this pattern.

I used a navy blue cotton to make bias tape for the neckline and the armholes.  I made half inch double fold tape for the neck and quarter inch double fold tape for the arm holes.  There is also a little sash made from the same fabric.

My new favorite thing is hem facing.  I just love the little pop of color it adds to the hem of a dress.  (You can just see it peeking out a bit in this picture.)  And it helps with things like fabric yardage.  For example…making this dress from Christian’s shirt I realized that if I included a normal hem allowance that the dress might end up being a little short.  Enter hem facing!  This way I only had to include a quarter inch hem allowance and I was able make the dress an appropriate length.

I replaced the boring clear-ish buttons on the shirt with some navy blue buttons from my stash.  They are actually some vintage buttons that my grandma sent to me awhile back when she was clearing out her stash.  I’ve received a couple boxes of things like buttons and lace and bias tape and other trims.  It is fun to dig through them and find the perfect thing for a project I am working on at the time.

And I love the ruffles along the front!  Just what was needed to make such a neutral-manly print seem a bit more girly.

And, really, one of my favorite things about this dress is that it is so one of a kind.  I mean, making things myself usually has that result, however,  making something from a widely available pattern from widely available fabric means that item *could* be duplicated, if wanted.  But unless you could hunt down another one of this random shirt from early 2000′s Express there is no way to make another exactly like this one.  I should refashion more…one of my other favorite outfits was this one made from vintage pillowcases.

I guess that really is the fun of making and designing clothes for our kids…making pieces that are unique and really fit you and your child’s personal style.  And that is what next week is all about!  Signature Style Week is coming up!

This week over at Project Run & Play we are getting a head start on Valentine’s Day.  We were challenged to come up with a look inspired by Valentine’s Day.

So, as I always do for inspiration, I took to Pinterest to see what I could find that was Valentines-y.  A quick search for Valentine yielded some mixed results, but a few vintage Valentines popped up.  Aha!  I changed my search to “vintage Valentine” and I got so many CUTE results.  I mean, really, Valentine’s Day cards used to be so much cuter.  Seriously, who wants Sponge Bob on a Valentine?  Does that really say “love?”  Anywho, I just loved the idea of copying an outfit from this precious artwork.  Check out my Project Run & Play board for a bunch of examples that I toyed with…They are all so cute.  But the one I ended up settling on was this one…

I loved this one for several reasons…
it was more casual so she could wear it to her school party…
we already had black pants and red sneakers, so…
all I would have to do is sew the shirt, which was great because I knew that by week four I would need a bit of a sewing break.

I also loved that it lent it self to cute Valentine’s Day gifts for Dinah to exchange at class.  I am going to print them up and attach them to little watercolor palettes for a whole “art” theme.

I used the Oliver+S Family Reunion Dress pattern (View B…the blouse).  While I’ve used the popover sundress a couple times, this was the first “real” pattern from them I’ve made .  I have to say I do love how clear their directions are and the patterns are very user friendly.  To make this top or dress you don’t have to do anything really complicated, but it is rather finicky and rather time consuming with all the pin-tucking  basting, etc.  So, if you plan to use it, just be aware of that.

As you can see, I did make one major modification…I added long sleeves.  That was pretty simple.  I just traced the top part of the sleeve pattern and then extended the sides straight down.  By doing that and not tapering the sleeve I was able to get the fullness at the cuff that I wanted to replicate.  I also added a small keyhole opening with button at the cuff.  This allowed Dinah to easily put on the shirt, but for the cuff to be nice and snug at the wrist.

I also added this little heart.  I used hand embroidery running and back stitches and am really pleased with the result.  My original plan was to add a little white pocket trimmed with the red rick-rack.  But that was a major fail…attaching the rick-rack was a nightmare around all those curves.  So, while that was a fail, I feel like it was pretty lucky since I like the embroidered heart WAY better.

Dinah was not feeling very cooperative this afternoon, but I promised her two Hershey’s Kisses AND painting time after the shoot.  That perked her right up and she was a perfect model again.  I mean, she makes some cray-cray faces sometimes, but she is just so photogenic it is hard to get bad pictures of her.  I usually have tons of nutty pictures that I don’t use in my posts…I should do an out-takes post sometime.

Okay, some things I just love about this shirt…

The pop of red rick-rack peeking out from the neck facing and cuffs.

The accents of black buttons to keep it from getting too treacly sweet.

The way the fabric is slightly shimmery, but not overtly glittery (which you may not even be able to see in the pictures…).

And that heart…love!

I do have enough fabric to make something for Esther for Valentine’s Day, but I am not sure what I should make for her…I don’t think I am going to do this exact thing since that shirt was a lot of work, but something to coordinate.  Hmmm…anyone have any suggestions?

This week is Boys’ Week over at Project Run & Play. The last time I participated in the sew-along there wasn’t a boy-specific week. Since I didn’t have a boy to sew for, I counted myself lucky. This time when the challenges were announced, I was actually excited about this week. Since my little nephew (the “Bug”) was born I wanted to make him a real outfit and this was the perfect opportunity!

Now, I’ve sewn clothing pieces for boys here and there, but never a whole outfit. For this challenge I knew I wanted to do something more than just a little shirt and maybe some pants. I wanted the whole shebang! Hat, shoes, appliqued onesie…the works. I did some reconnaissance work on Pinterest for some cute boy patterns and/or tutorials. I stumbled across this shop and her adorable patterns for little boys. That hat! I knew this was the way to go.

So…I made a little baby suit! Here are the details:

The vest is made of fine-wale chocolate brown corduroy and I used pale blue to accent it. I even had these shiny pale blue buttons in my stash. How fortuitous!

The back is the blue accent with a cute chocolate stripe. I used this to also accent the hat and make his tie. (See below.)

Under the vest I just put a simple white onesie that I appliqued with a tie made from my accent fabric. I didn’t realize how high the vest front came up, so you can’t really see his tie…maybe he will get a bow tie for Easter.

For the pants I used this pattern for baby skinny pants. I kept the width the same, but shortened both the top and the bottom…he is a short Bug. It was the perfect look I wanted. Many times pants patterns for babies are too wide at the ankle to accommodate for their diapered tushies and chunky thighs. These have a nice tapered leg that looks great on. But they aren’t too tight either. Perfect.

And my crowning achievement…the hat!

I love it so much…so cute! It was actually pretty easy to put together. Just a bit fiddly since there are a lot of pieces and steps. But nothing was really hard to do. The idea behind this hat is that it should be reversible. But the way the elastic is sewn in the back make it look kind of rough on the inside, even though the outside looks really nice.

Here is a picture of the inside of the hat so you can see the accent colors. (I angled it so you can’t see the ugly part.)

So, by now you are all saying, “Where are the pictures of the cute baby????”

Don’t worry, they are coming. He is precious. So precious, in fact, that I got distracted from taking pictures of the clothes the precious baby was wearing! So, I’ve got many pictures of the Bug looking cute in his suit, but it is hard to see the shape, etc. of the clothes in the pics. Hence the boring shots above.

Okay, without further ado…here is our Buster Brown Bug…

He was not in a very smiley mood this afternoon. He was perfectly amiable, just not smiling.

Mostly he looked at his mother like she was nutso.

Or at me like the camera was going to steal his soul.

Luckily he is still cute, smile or no smile.

Eventually his mama was able to wrangle a little smile out of him.

And then shortly thereafter he decided his hands were super tasty.

Tasty!

Nothing we could do would convince him to put his hands down…so, that was kind of the end of our photo shoot.

Are we done yet, Aunt Harmony?

His little suit was so cute on him and actually seemed to be comfortable. At least he didn’t scream at us the whole time he had it on. He even tolerated/liked his hat!

This is his casual, just-got-off-his-paper-route look. He’s chillin’.

I also had forgotten how quick (and small) baby clothes are! From un-ironed fabric to finished garment I probably spent only 5 hours cutting/sewing/working on his outfit. Not too shabby!

This was a fun project to work on and I foresee some more sewing for the Bug in the future. And who knows, maybe this baby I’m cooking is a boy and I’ll need to expand my repertoire even more!

Headed to Disney for the weekend! See you next week with a couple Disney related projects and an early Valentine’s Day Project Run & Play challenge.

I hate missing deadlines! These dresses were originally supposed to be submitted for Project Run & Play’s week 2 challenge: Stripes and Polka-Dots. I was really excited about this challenge too, because I already had this awesome polka-dot corduroy. I got it last fall to make new Fall Dresses for my girls, but pregnancy exhaustion struck.

So, when last week started I pulled out the fabric and fell in love with it all over again. AND I noticed that the polka-dots actually make a stripe pattern…bonus! Many of the folks sewing along with the challenge were doing interesting things mixing up prints and while that is awesome, it just makes me nervous. I guess my style is much less adventurous than that. The fact that I actually was hitting both polka-dots and stripes in one awesome piece of fabric made me even more excited to get down to work on them. And then…life struck. My children were crazy-pants all week and didn’t actually go to sleep until after 9 pm each night…I had to finish up a couple orders for the Shop…I got a wicked headache that lasted 2 days…our pest control company sprayed the house one morning and then 7 hours later the floors were still soaking wet, effectively locking the small children and pregnant people out of the house…it was just one of those nutty weeks. I was able to work on the dresses here and there, but just couldn’t get them done for the Friday at 8:00 am deadline. Boo. But I plowed on and finished them this weekend and the girls were able to wear them to church this morning.

And now that my whining and excuse-making are over, I present to you my Polka-Stripe Dresses!

Since I bought this fabric I have been going back and forth in my brain over what I wanted them to look like. I decided this week that I wanted to do a simple a-line dress to show off the print on the fabric. But because that would be too easy I wanted to give myself a couple challenges.

The first challenge was the sleeves. I took an existing straight sleeve pattern and expanded it using ikat bag’s sleeve adapting tutorials. I wanted a slight puff at the top and quite a bit of volume gathered into cuffs just below the elbows. Esther’s didn’t turn out as big as Dinah’s, but I love the result of both for each of their dresses.

And the other challenge was to do a real button placket. Um…I have to say this was A LOT more daunting. I looked up several tutorials and settled on this one. Okay, in theory it seemed simple enough. And it was…sort of. They turned out okay, but I need lots more practice to get them to look better. Esther’s is slightly crooked and both of them are hideous on the inside. But on moving children you can’t notice any imperfections and no one will ever see the insides.

Each girl had a different contrast color for the lining, underside of the button placket and the hem facing. And they each had fabric covered buttons (my favorite!) made with some of their color dots.

After church today we went to a friend’s house for lunch and I took our pictures there. Dinah was being a good model again…

…but Esther was a wild woman! This is mostly what she wanted to do…

These were definitely better late than never.  I just love how they turned out (though Dinah’s is a bit big on her right now) and I am glad I set myself new challenges, even if it meant I missed the deadline for the contest.

Next week: my little nephew gets to be the star of the show for Boys’ Week!

So, does anyone have tips for making a better button placket?

This week’s Project Run & Play challenge was to remix the Party Dress from The Cottage Home.  I have to admit I struggled with this one.  A pattern like this is very basic and yet very specific.  A basic, lined bodice is pretty much the foundation for almost any garment.  AND I had made dresses almost exactly like this before.  (The girls’ Easter dresses from last spring…I used them for my Signature Look the last time I participated in the sew-along.)  So…what on earth could I do that would adequately “remix” it??  I was thisclose to just skipping the first week.  However, my out-of-the-box thinking, creative-minded husband came to the rescue.  He was looking at the picture of the dress on The Cottage Home’s site and said…what if you did it like one of those infinity dresses?  Eureka!  I loved this idea!

I recently helped a friend figure out the best way to wear one of these dresses for her brother’s wedding, so they have been on my radar.  Apparently they are (were? Am I behind?) all the rage for their simplicity and versatility.  The idea of one for little girls appealed to me for the same reasons.  Although the top did need some tweaking to make it more appropriate for children.  (for example…my girls are not going around strapless!)

What I ended up creating is a simple tank dress made of a two-way stretch jersey that I found at Joann.

It has a lined bodice and a slightly gathered skirt.

For interest at the hem I added a band.

And instead of a normal sash, I gave the dress two loooonnnnggg sash pieces at either side that can be used to wrap around the little one in several different ways to give the dress a new look every time she wears it.

Except for fighting with the knit, this was a really easy dress to create and I thought I would share a little tutorial with you!  These will be super comfy and fun to wear in the spring/summer (although it is 80+ degrees here this week!).  My girls loved them and didn’t really want to take them off.

I am so glad that I didn’t skip this week!  I just love these simple dresses and they will be a great addition to their warm weather wardrobe!  I just wanted to share a few more pics from the photoshoot today…Dinah was being a ham and it was cracking us all up.  I promise I did not coach her at all…these poses came straight from her crazy, three-year-old mind.  :)   Just scroll down for the tutorial…

Infinity Dress Tutorial

Materials Needed:
Stretchy knit fabric (preferably with two-way stretch)
Coordinating thread
Ball point needle for your machine
Walking foot (optional…but I find it helpful)

Step One: Create your pattern, calculate your measurements and make your cuts

The first thing you will want to do is make a tank top pattern if you don’t already have one.  This is super easy…just go dig out a knit tank top that fits your child well, fold it in half and trace.  Don’t forget to leave a bit of room for seam allowances…I did 0.5 inch for this project.  I made the front pieces a bit lower in the neckline than the back, but you could do them the same if you wanted…that is totally a personal preference thing.

Next you will need figure out how much fabric you will need for your skirt and the hem band.  Here is the formula I used:

((Waist x 1.5) + 1) / 2 = each skirt panel width  (That 1 is added for seam allowance.)

My measurements:
Dinah (4T size):  ((22 x 1.5) + 1) / 2 = (33 + 1) / 2 = 34/2 = 17
Esther (2T size):  ((19 x 1.5) + 1) / 2 = (26 + 1) / 2 = 27/2 = 13.5

For the length, you need to measure how long you want the dress to be.  I did from about 4 inches under the arm to right at the knee.  Take this measurement and add 1 inch.  Next subtract 3 inches (or however big you want your band).  This should be the length of the top panel of the skirt.

My measurements were:
Dinah:  14 + 1 = 15 – 3 = 12
Esther:  10.5 + 1 =11.5 – 2.5 = 9  (I made Esther’s band slightly smaller)

So, to recap my top skirt panels were:
Dinah:  17 x 12 inches
Esther:  13.5 x 9 inches

The band panels should be twice the length you want the bands to be plus 1 inch and as wide as your skirt panels.

My bands were:
Dinah:  17 x 7
Esther:  13.5 x 6

And finally you will need your sash strips.  I just cut two strips for each dress the width of the fabric.  For Dinah’s I did 5 inches and for Esther I did 3 inches.

Isn’t math fun?  Or not…okay, here are all the cuts you need…

Cut 2 of each:
front bodice piece
back bodice piece
top skirt panel
hem band
sash strips

Step Two: Make the bodice

**Note: for all my stitching I used a stretch stitch on my machine, a ball point needle, and a walking foot.  The stretch stitch I used looks like a little lightning bolt.  You could also use a very narrow zigzag stitch.  This just allows your seams to stretch just a bit with the fabric so your stitching doesn’t pop.**

Pin front bodice piece to the back bodice piece at side seams encasing one end of each sash piece at the sides.  Leave about 1 inch on either side of the sash in the seam.  You will have to gather the end of the sash pieces to accomplish this.  Pin together the front and back bodice lining pieces at the side seams, as well.

Stitch the side seams together on both the bodice and the lining.

Place the bodice and lining right sides together and pin bodice to the lining at the neckline and armholes leaving the top of shoulders open.

Stitch along neckline and armholes.

Turn the bodice wrong side out and press well.

Pin the shoulder seams right sides together and stitch.

Finish the seam as you choose…I just trimmed to a 1/4 inch and did a simple zigzag stitch.  I also hand tacked the seam down at the shoulder, just so it laid nice and flat.

And now the bodice is finished!

Step Three: Make the skirt

Fold hem bands in half lengthwise, wrong sides together and press.

Place raw edge of hem band along bottom of skirt panel, right sides together.  Pin and stitch.  Finish seam and press band down and seam up.  Repeat for the other half of the skirt.

Pin skirt panels together at side seams, matching the hem band seam lines.  Stitch together and press seams open.

Near the top edge of the skirt run a gathering stitch.  Pull the bobbin threads to create a slight gather around the top of the skirt.

**And, I apparently was in such a great hurry to finish these up that I totally forgot to take pictures of these final steps.  Hopefully this makes sense and you can figure it out. :/ Sorry!**

Step Four: Finishing it all up!

Pin your skirt and bodice right sides together.  Match up the side seams and adjust your gathering so the skirt panel width matches the bodice.  Finish those seams and press the seam allowance down toward the skirt.

And you are done!  Now you can wrap up those cuties however you wish!

If you make one of these, I would love to see it!  Add your pictures to my Flickr group!