still a favorite

I'm sure all of you know this but even with sewing Emily's clothing it is hard to predict what will become a favorite and what will just hang in her closet.  It has nothing to do with how much work went into the garment, how expensive the fabric was, or really even how excited she was when first presented with said garment.  That's why I am particularly happy that the heirloom style/quality Easter dress that I made her 2 years ago is still a favorite.  In a way its almost a bad thing because she preferred it to last year's Easter dress and prefers it to this years Easter dress.  I thought it would be fun to post some pictures of her wearing it now at age 5 alongside the ones of her where it at age 3.  Its the dress from the Martha Pullen French Hand Sewing by Machine book and all of the details are in the original post.

Now for a few from when she was 3.

So as you can see the dress in considerably shorter now as are the sleeves but it still fits well.  In this era of throw away clothing its easy to forget that clothes even kids clothes used to be designed and constructed to last for years.  I do want to do some more real heirloom work in the future I love the drop waist styles that were made for slightly older girls but in the meantime I'm glad she is still a fan of this one.

summer nightgown

As I'm sure you can tell I've really been using my Oliver and S patterns lately.  She is by far my favorite kids pattern designer.  Mostly because the patterns are so well drafted and the directions are well written.  I also like that they are true professionally done patterns.  I guess I'm just a snob like that but oh well I like what I like.  My goal for the year is to use every single one of my Oliver and S patterns including every garment.  For example if its a top and a skirt I have to do both the top and the skirt.  That said if its a dress with two different sleeves or a top/dress I don't have to do both unless I want to.  With that I wanted to get the top from the badminton skort  done.  The problem was that no matter how many times I looked at it all I could think was nightgown.  So I decided to make a nightgown.

I used the width of a 5 with the length and arm hole depth of a 6 to get this fit.  I also pulled the ribbon in as far as I wanted it in the casing and then sewed the bow into place.  I didn't want it coming untied and getting tangled while she was sleeping.

The fabric I used also adds to the night time/babyish look.  Its got tiny little flowers and birds.  I purchased it at an end of bolt sale planning to make a summer top but it just seemed too perfect for this project.  I used to feel like I was wasting fabric using it for nighties until I did my year end roundup this year and realized that nightgowns are some of the longest lasting and most used projects that I make.  It helps that she gets taller more then wider but she can wear most nighties for 2 years.

Here is the closest I came to getting a closeup of the front.  It is pretty with the yoke, ruffles, and drawstring but it is also flitzy to put together.  For that reason I don't think will be using this pattern again any time soon.  I'm sure I will make up for that by using the skort pattern until it falls apart though.

I'm glad I made this one though.  It has that great classic little girl feel that I'm trying to get as much of as possible while she will still wear things like this.  I know my days are numbered.

making faces

I'm sure I don't have to tell you this but most of Emily's clothes are pink or go with pink.  The major exception are swim team shirts.  Our team colors are red, black, and white.  They also don't order shirts smaller then a youth M so they are practically swim team dresses but that's another story.  We work black leggings with them in the fall and winter but Emily needed some totally cool shorts to wear with them for summer.  Enter the Oliver and S class picnic shorts.  You may remember that I've already made the blouse twice  (here and  here)  but I bought the pattern in my quest to find the perfect little girl shorts for summer.

These are made from two half yard cuts of quilters cotton.  Black with pin dots and white with pin dots.  I really had to squeeze them in but I had the fabric in my stash and didn't want to buy anything extra.  The only change I had to make to accommodate this was cutting the waist band out of the red instead of the black.  It looks cute like that plus we never really see her waist band.

I made her a size 5 with slightly tighter elastic then the pattern called for.  The directions are very good and its not a bad pattern to sew getting the contrast bands on and looking nice is hard though.  Even using my special top stitching foot it still turned out a little wonky.  They fit nicely too.  They are rather short though so keep that in mind. 

So I think these are fun little shorts.  They certainly will not be becoming my go to shorts pattern but I enjoyed the construction challenges.  I'm interested in trying them again perhaps with pretty bias tape instead of the curved facings.  We'll see though I have a few projects in the Que already.

ice cream scort

I actually made this one before the last post but didn't realize I hadn't posted it yet.  You see I cut out a second badminton skort almost the moment I finished sewing the first one.  This one is from some pink ice cream fabric from this spring's lisette fabric line.

Emily was determined to wear it right away even though we had a bit of a cold snap here.  I like these pictures though because they really highlight her current style.  Right down to the swim band that she wears most of the time.  I mean you never know when you might need to go swimming in the deep end right?

One thing I like about this pattern is that it is short under a skirt not one of those weird skirt in the front shorts in the back numbers from the 90s.  Seriously ladies raise your had and leave a comment if you ever had one of those things.  I know I'm not the only one.

Here's a close up of the fabric.

The patterns back in the envelope for now but I'm not promising it will stay there.  I'm also tempted to sup in a different skirt.  That could be fun don't you think?

frogs

I know its easy to forget that I actually have 2 children.  Its just that Elijah is 10 now and he mostly wears athletic shorts and graphic tees.  I guess I could make those but really its just easier to buy them at Target.  He is a huge fan read as boarding on obsessive when it comes to frogs though and Emily spotted this frog fabric at my fav local store and wanted to get it for her brother.

Of course the problem was figuring out what to make.  He's really not interested in camp shirts out of wild prints so I decided on pj shorts.

These are the boy pj shorts from Ottobre 6/2011 in a size 152.  Gasp!  That's right my first baby is 5 feet tall.  He's also gotten so big and strong this year.  You can tell all the swimming is catching up to him.  He is really pleased with them he was just super tired from practice in these pictures.

Its a good pattern.  I didn't bother with the button fly but other then that its as is.  I did use both french and flat fell seaming  so they would not be scratchy inside.  Also just possible bc I didn't feel like re-threading my serger and it has pink thread in it at the time.  I really should sew more for him.  He's always so pleased when I do its just hard to figure out what to make for him.  I do have some tan ripstop perhaps a nice pair of shorts is in the future.  I think some mama sewing will happen first though.  We shall see I guess.  I'm still loving doing what I want.  This may have to become a permanent thing.

More Nighties

Not much to say here but I wanted to show you that even during my year of sewing whatever I want I have done a bit of needful sewing.  Emily has been in serious need of more summer nighties and I really don't like to buy them.  If they are long enough they are way to big around and if they fit around they are just too short.  These three were made for the same pattern as this one.  They were a great way to use the last bits of both polk a dot fabrics and most of the remaining frog fabric.  At some point I will make some more but probably using a different pattern just for the entertainment value.

Altered for Spring

When I made Emily's SWAP back in the fall I was so sad that she was in the largest size for the Otto Muffin Tunic.  Now I realize she is also starting to out grow that particular style so I decided to modify it for spring/summer so it could get a bit more wear before going into the hand me down bag.    I also made little bike shorts to go under by shortening this pattern.  Not that you can tell in the pictures but they are there so I'm OK.

All I did was cut the long part of the double sleeve off about 2 inches from the short part and then I folded it under as a binding.  This tunic had fax double sleeves.  It looks like a puff sleeve over a long sleeve but they are really just sewn together.  Anyways now its a sweet little short sleeve tunic that will hopefully take here through the summer.

Prof that she is wearing shorts.  They were squeezed out of a scrap of cotton lycra from my stash.  If I'm being completely honest they are not a perfect match but they are awful close and allowed me to use something else up.  I think the rise on this pattern might be just a little high on her but I'm not sure if I will bother to fix it next time since she wears leggings and bike shorts forever.  I'd rather have them a little high now then a little low later.