girl stuff



 

Burda pattern 9708 in "cherry baby" fabric from Lakehouse Dry Goods
child's sleeveless top, free pattern from jcarolinecreative.com,
in dotty Alexander Henry fabric and picnic print from Kokka

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Wee one's zigzag girl dress before and after.

Can you see how much better those armholes and sleeves are? I took out multiple inches there. On each side! I kept the skirt the same since I'd already added the bias edging to it and I kept the sweet cross-over bodice as well. (Thanks to Shelli for encouraging me to just keep it!) After being frustrated and disappointed with the way this dress came out at first (as well as the second and third times), I think I'm finally happy with it now. The skirt is still very poofy with those giant pleats, but that is the idea of the dress and now, at least, the bodice looks right. If I were to make the dress again, I'd probably cut the skirt to fit the resized bodice and leave out the extra yardage in the pleats. Luckily, wee one is girly enough not to be bothered by having like a yard of fabric around her torso!

pretty poofy, pretty blurry, pretty pretty

Wee one's been wearing it all day and we've already received several compliments - that skirt fabric is so fab, it just makes the whole thing - so I'm gonna finally call this one a success.

After making wee one's fun turtle top in the fall, I had enough of the aweseome Alexander Henry turtle fabric left over to make another. Wee one and I decided that a turtle top would be a great gift for her best buddy, Kaya's second birthday.

Wee one's version was all bright and ruffly, but Kaya's tastes are a little more muted and little less girly, so I did the sleeves in green and put elastic in at the neck and wrists instead of shirring them. It's still got a lot of the fullness and style of wee one's shirt, but it has a very different look overall. That Pink Fig Olivia Top is pretty darn versatile! I can't wait to try a version with shirring at the bottom.

A big, little dress for wee one. This dress is from Tina Givens' "Zig Zag Girl" pattern with some fabulous Alexander Henry fabric for the skirt. I'm trying to improve my garment sewing by trying out different dress patterns and styles for L. I liked this pattern because of its unique shape and construction. I think this oversize, kaftan-thing is sort of Tina Givens' style. Many of her patterns are like this (I really like the back on this one) and she herself is dressed like this in all the pictures I've ever seen of her (like this one). The finished garment is cute - I LOVE the fabrics together - but I wouldn't exactly call this dress a success.

First, the pattern was a little trying, with fabric requirements being underestimated (by half!) for the size I made (small) and with instructions similar to the laughably brief steeking instructions in a Dale of Norway pattern (Dale: now just sew and cut - Givens: step 1: sew binding to neck - you might want to make bias binding... 'nuff said, right? uh, noooo). So many of the instructions were so vague that I often had to just go from the pattern picture to guess what to do. I sewed up the entire thing once and only then did I "get" what I was supposed to have done, so I took it apart and resewed it a second time, finally producing a dress that looked and fit like the one in the pattern pic. I was already skeptical during the sewing about how this dress would really look on my gal, but it wasn't until after finishing the whole thing that I could stand back and really think about how I would change it. First, I think I'd prefer gathering or shirring instead of the pleating at the waist - it just emphasizes that potato sack look too much. Second, I remember being surprised at how short the bodice piece was when I cut it out. I ended up using bias binding to hem the bottom of the skirt so as not to lose any length there but next time, I'll definitely add on an inch or two to the bodice piece. And finally, I personally would lose the kimono-style v-neck and do a standard crew neck or gathered neck.

And so that's just what I'm going to do! I stopped by the fabric store this morning to pick up a bit more of the bodice fabric. I've already picked out all the seams. I can start resewing tonight. Even though it's frustrating to think that I will have sewn this thing three times, I feel like I have learned a TON about what I can do, what I like and what I want to put on my little girl. I'm confident I'll like the new and improved version and that having sewn this will help me make even better clothes for her in the future.

(UPDATE: check out the final version of this dress here!)

Now, there is one thing I already knew I liked on my little girl: pink ruffles.

While the zig zag dress was, well, zigging and zagging, I sewed up another pair of ruffly cords for wee one (again from Pink Fig's Bella Pants pattern), but this time with an even bigger ruffle! For an extra fancy outfit, I paired it with her ruffliest pink dress. I love it! I know it's a lot of pink and a lot of ruffles but she's not complaining (and she vetoes outfits at least once a week!). She likes getting a little gussied up and decked out. And it is the holidays, after all.

Wee one's new little black dress! She practically looks like a model walking down the runway, doesn't she? In reality, it's nearly impossible to photograph her in anything as she's constantly in motion, coming after the camera or playing with toys. When she bent down to play with her dolly and blankie, I was able to get this next pic that shows my favorite thing about this dress. I just love how that ruffle looks when she's in her standard baby-squat. Usually, it's a rather un-ladylike pose, but it's positively delightful in this dress!

The pattern is Pink Fig's "Lily Top". I had some issues with the Olivia Top pattern I made from the same designer and this one had the same issues (it's essentially the same pattern but with a ruffle and an optional sash, so be sure to check the corrections page on her website), but it also has the same awesome style and simplicity, so it was another big success. And with the added the shirring at the chest, it has that perfect girly shape.

It's too fabulous!

Yes, I'm a maverick. I didn't spend the weekend at Rhinebeck, like the rest of my party. Instead, I spent the weekend palling around with a known sewist.

I thought I was going to go to Rhinebeck. For real. Hubby had been making plans for how to entertain the kiddos for the day and a half I would be gone. It was all set. Then Rhinebeck snuck up on me. Suddenly it was "this coming Saturday" and I was in the middle of sewing Halloween costumes and fall outfits for wee one. Out of nowhere this image popped into my head: the possibility of spending my free weekend at home, sewing. My knitting and sewing buddy, Rhinebeck ride, and now fellow maverick, Johanna, had the exact same idea. So we did it. Our husbands took the kids out and away and we sewed and sewed and sewed and ate and sewed and sewed some more. It was awesome! I felt like a kid again, with no place to be and no responsibilities. I felt like Ron Livingston in Office Space when he decides not to care about work anymore. I felt like the maverick John McCain imagines himself to be. I'm not saying that having a family, being a knitter, or going to Rhinebeck are burdens I needed to be liberated from. It's just that it was so ridiculously fun to throw all my plans aside and do something totally different.

So here's what I sewed:

click for the big picture!

I finished the quilt top of my 2007 block of the month quilt. Twelve blocks, sashing and a pretty, pretty Kaffe Fassett border.

click for the big picture!

And I pieced together the big blocks for the sock monkey quilt. Wee one can tell that it'll be all hers once I get the border and backing fabric. For now, she'll have to be content with her new ruffly corduroy pants.

look they're the same color as Elmo!

These are from another Pink Fig pattern, the Bella Pants. They were so fun to make and I totally adore them! Wee one likes to shuffle around in them, watching the ruffles flop around and listening to them swish up against each other.

I also made progress on wee one's black dress and the boys' Halloween costumes. I'll show you more of those this week.

So I may have been a maverick this weekend, but I'm not switching parties just yet. I missed all of you whom I usually see at Rhinebeck! I've shown you what I did this weekend. Now you tell me a little about what you did and what I missed!

More sewing, but not Halloween sewing.

I spotted this fun Alexander Henry "Turtle Bay" fabric at my newest favorite local quilt shop and, knowing how good my girl looks in orange, decided I had to make her a little turtle top. I've been wanting to make her a peasant top with some shirring, so I ordered the cutie-patootie Olivia Top pattern from Pink Fig. The Pink Fig patterns are so hip and adorable but still nice and uncomplicated - right up my alley.

First, let me say, I LOVE how it came out. The pattern pieces are simple. The instructions have big photographs of what you're doing and the shirring wasn't hard at all.

Now, I did find a few problems with the pattern, namely, that the seam allowance wasn't given anywhere in the pattern or on the pattern pieces and that there was no cutting layout. I guessed at the seam allowances (they tend to vary for clothes from 3/8" to 5/8") and the thing fits, so no big whoop, but it was nerve-wracking not knowing for sure. This morning I discovered that the Pink Fig website has corrections for the pattern, including the 3/8" seam allowance (darn, I split the difference and sewed 1/2") and the fact that some of the grainlines were also off in the pattern pieces (another oops that I spotted, but was able to ignore). I still feel like a cutting layout would be helpful, or at least a note about cutting, as the sleeves need to be cut on the fabric when folded. (Ever knit raglan sleeves where the front raglan decrease line is a little shorter than the back? Rowan does this a lot. Well, you know you can't just make two of the same sleeve, you've gotta "reverse the shapings" for the second sleeve. You do that on fabric by cutting one sleeve reversed with the wrong side of the pattern or on the wrong side of the fabric.)

But, I got through these omissions just fine and am so thrilled with the result that I've already started a Lily Dress (another Pink Fig pattern) for wee one.

Hubby came in while I was working on wee one's new little outfits and asked, "oh, is this her Halloween costume." Ugh.

What a lovely day for a picnic dress.

After the ugly picnic yesterday, it seems only fair to show you wee one's new pretty "picnic" dress. The fabric, by Kokka, is called picnic. I found it at Purl Patchwork, of course. They have so many cool Kokka prints! I tried making a little smock dress for wee one with this fabric several months ago but the pattern just wasn't working for me. In disgust, I hid the pattern pieces I'd cut out far, far away and haven't seen them since. But after making the little child's sleeveless top pattern for wee one last week, I figured it'd be worth a try to make another one with what I had left of my original yard of fabric. It was tough cramming all the pattern pieces onto the fabric I had (I actually had to piece together the facing from smaller scraps!) but I did it! I even made the skirt section longer so this will fit wee one more like a dress than a top.

No try on yet, as I still need to sew on the snaps to close the back. Pics of the picnic this weekend, I promise!

Poor wee one had to spend another morning modeling a new outfit I've made for her. She makes it look easy though, doesn't she?

Here she is in a little summer top I've been working on for a few days. The pattern is a free pattern from www.jcarolinecreative.com (which also has tons of awesome fabric and ribbons!). It's totally wee one's style - she looks good in a high waist and gathered skirt. I got the fabric a while back at Purl Patchwork I think and after making a pointy kitty with it, I had just enough left over to make this little top.

I absolutely love it on her! It totally reminds me of some Shirley Temple type short-short poofy dress. Soooo cute! I really want to make more of these. It's a good way to get something sweet and pretty for her out of less than a yard of fabric. The only downside is that the pattern is only written for one size, so I may have to tinker with the sizing a bit in a month or two. But it's fairly straightforward sewing - I think I can manage.

For this result, I think I can do just about anything!

What's this, mommy?

You made me a new dress!
Yes, I did. Now, let's let the folks see it.

Burda 9708

And the pretty ruffle.

"cherry baby" fabric from Lakehouse Dry Goods

You want to wear it? Right now? Okay.

Very nice. But how about we just wear it all by itself?

Oh, and with your new favorite shoes? Alright.

Such a girl.