Thursday, September 30, 2010

Apple Dress

the pleated jumper pattern I drafted a few days ago, plus an apple pocket and some puffed sleeves!

the apple pocket is VERY much appreciated by the bean....

and I love the flare of the skirt.... tres Shirley Temple, n'est pas?

the apple fabric is a remnant from Joann, and the apple pocket is from some polished cotton remnant...
I shirred the cuffs of the sleeves, put an invisible zipper in the back....
we'll see how this zipper survives the laundry here.... It's one of a pack I bought at Marukai, which is an awesome Japanese store (sorta like a small Target, in that they have groceries, housegoods, stationary... like CVS without the pharmacy?) near me... they have the coolest zippers, and the cheapest... instead of $1.50-ish each, they have PACKS of 3-5 invisible zippers (depending on the length) for $1.29.... but instead of having fabric sides, they have what feels like fine polyester webbing.... I'm intrigued....
Now I just need to go through the button jar with her to find something awesome for the top closure....
while I type this, she's systematically coating the front of this dress in vanilla yoghurt, so I've got to go do some laundry....
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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

same dress, different pics...

I finally got this dress off her, so I decided to seize the moment and photograph it before she grabs it back... it's a little wrinkled, it's been napped in, eaten in, etc, but it's still cute!

I used hem lace for the first time; I didn't have brown, so I used bright red for a little secret pop of color....

the back has an invisible zipper and an AWESOME vintage button...
the embroidery took me about 4 hours, and the dress 2...
it's always a good idea to spend oodles of time embelishing a toile, right?
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these boots were made for walkin'!

Tada! here's the finished dress! the embroidery spruces up the plain pleated top, and the pleated front makes the skirt much more fun!

we found these awesome boots in our garage, not sure who handed them down to us....

they're still too big, but she loves them!

I'm psyched to make her a little ruffled-collar, puffed-sleeves white tshirt to go under it, with white tights.... it'll be perfect for the cooler weather we get here all winter (if we EVER get cooler weather! we're in the middle of a VERY unusual heat wave!)
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Monday, September 27, 2010

HEAT WAVE!

My kids may have lots of awesome, cute, tailor-made (or mama-made) clothes, but during record-breaking heat, they prefer nudity, so I have no adorable modeling photos tonight.

I'm pattern-testing right now. I really want to make the Bean some Shirley Temple-esque dresses... modernized for easier construction, but with that really-expensive-vintage look...

First up, to check my sloper, is a simple pleated-front jumper.
I found some brown wool (a remnant from m&l, maybe? I think I bought it to make D pants, but there isn't enough), and it's super soft. But plain. And DARK brown! (like a Hershey bar)
So I spent my evening under very warm wool, trying to cool off, embroidering this design on the front bodice.
I really like it, even if it didn't come out perfectly symmetrical. I need to figure out a better way to transfer to dark fabric...

Busy Bee Dress

I'm still wrapping things up from KCWC, here's a dress I meant to sew on Saturday, but then I went to my guild Sew instead....
the top is the Bubble Dress by Oliver + S, (sized 18-24m), and the bottom is just a simple gathered rectangle, because I don't actually like bubble skirts... the top was made from a fat quarter I bought years ago (I know because the shop I bought it from closed years ago), and the skirt was a remnant piece, it used all I had to make this skirt (which is why it's so short!)
I asked C to enlarge the bee/wasp/bug from the floral print for me, and I embroidered it last night onto the pocket.
I really don't like the peekaboo thing happening between the bodice and the skirt closure... I even moved the buttons and holes in more from where they were marked, and there's still a rather large triangle of skin showing... It's definitely design and not just an accident on my part, so now I know for next time to change that aspect if I don't want it again....

Sunday, September 26, 2010

More pants!

D wanted LOTS of pockets, so I made up some butt pockets...

some side pockets...

... and some SHARKS inside!
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See all my pants?

in order, from left to right: B leggings, D pants, B leggings, D pants, D pants, B jeans, D pants
here's the secret in the burgandy pants (flames!)
and BUGS in the blue pants!
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Saturday, September 25, 2010

another cute dress...

The Bean didn't want to take this one off, but we managed to put the new jeans on too... sooo cute!

here's the dress I made thursday (yesterday was hand finishing day), made from a vintage Simplicity pattern

yeah, Babydoll (that's her name, seriously) got a matching dress... (a la the ones I made before, I didn't match the STYLE, just the FABRIC...)

she's pretty pleased with it...

now I have 4 hours left to whip out 2 more pairs of pants for D, and maybe another dress or 2 for the bean.
or not... I think it's movie night for me and C....
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Friday, September 24, 2010

Bean pants!

Finally finished the Yale knit pants, using Blackberry Ridge worsted wool.... I think I'm going to use duplicate stitch to embroider YALE down the left leg's outseam....
I also just whipped up a pair of jeans for her out of an old pair of my jeans (from express, pre-babies), with a fold-over ribbed waistband. 20 minutes, start to finish, since I used the existing outseam and hem... Love it! Hopefully they'll fit.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

KCWC tally so far...

the peacock dress
2 (of 4) pairs of pants for D (dark green and navy, which I still need to photograph, but he's sleeping in them)
plus I'm working on knitting the Bean a sweater (using this pattern, but I'm taking a risk, as I've never made it before, and lengthening it on the fly... we'll see how it turns out...)
I'm trying just to make what they NEED, rather than what I want to make (ie, no hats for D, as he has plenty, ditto on shirts for him)
not bad, right?
I think I have one more dress in me tonight... time to tackle the vintage simplicity dress. it's ALSO mindblowingly cute!

KCWC-day 4 (or 5, as I'm including weekends in my tally!)

Ok, so I didn't get anything done this morning, as it was my first day as a working parent at D's co-op preschool. AMAZING!
and then, when D was in a snit this afternoon, the Bean and I sewed this up, (I'm pretty proud of it, and of the effort/pleasure ratio)...
I totally have my sewing mojo going right now, so as soon as the kiddos fell asleep, I started sewing.
and this is what I made:

doesn't it just make your head explode at the cuteness????
can't you just SEE my little Bean in this dress? (with her bright green leggings, as I don't have enough yellow to make matching bloomers) (UPDATE! click the link to see the photoshoot with matching doll dress!)

this print is a pillowcase (35% polyester, ICK, but TOTALLY worth it for the colors and print!) from my AWESOME grandmother (Hi Gram!), and I love love love it, so it had to be a dress. (Bonus, I cut the dress out so the existing pillowcase hem is the hem of the dress! yay!)
Here's the back:

I have to confess, I HATE regular zippers, but I don't have any invisibles on hand that match, and I DID have a regular zipper that sorta matched, so I took a deep breath and did it! yay!
oh, and did you notice the coup de grĂ¢ce for head exploding cuteness?
look at the top, and see what I found when I went through my Gram's button tin:

oh yeah, PERFECT MATCH!
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Babydoll needs pockets too!

The Bean just convinced me that Babydoll needed a peacock dress too. Most importantly, she needed POCKETS!
drafted the pattern and sewed it up in less than 20 minutes! Granted it's not awesome craftsmanship, but my 22-month-old is quite pleased. Especially with the pockets.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

a photoshoot.... of sorts

so here's a better pic of the peahen dress... We (the Bean and I) made self-fabric buttons, just because. I think I'll add them, I took this picture with them on where I'd like them to go, and I love the way they look.

the Bean, however, IMMEDIATELY picked them up and insisted that they had to be in the pocket.

I will take that as a warning that I must sew them on VERY well.
and here are the two dresses together, the Peafowl series.... :)

(I think I need to get more green Kona to add a ruffle to the peacock dress!)
of course, after this boring photoshoot, the bean insisted that she be photographed too!
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Peahen dress?

I found a bit of remnant dark blue linen this morning, JUST enough to make another peasant dress, but since dark blue isn't particularly appealing to little girls, I used more peacock feather fabric for contrast. The bean sat on my lap for most of the sewing, her mantra was "another peacock dress!"
thanks to the new one, I was able to take the old one off to photograph it, so I'll be updating that post next...
now if I can figure out how to get this one off to cut the threads, I'll be all set...
(I'm thinking of this one as the peahen dress because it's less flashy...)

Monday, September 20, 2010

One dress done!

I cut two others out, but the Bean REALLY wanted a peacock dress.
So here she is, having woken up as I was threading the elastic through the neck casing to finish it off.
She likes it a lot, and has been shrieking like a peacock everytime she looks at her pocket.
Unfortunately for my and my camera, withing minutes of trying it on, she spilled on the plain pocket, so my awesome photoshoot planned for the am might be less awesome now. Boo.
here's a picture of the dress without the Bean in it.... it's been worn for 2 days straight, and only removed now because she spilled the dog's water bowl all over herself....
I'm loving the peacock pocket I embroidered though... nothing like turning a 45-minute easy dress into a 6 hour heirloom, right?


Day 1 of the challenge!

A pair of pants for D. Based on the Oliver + S sketchbook shorts, and with special secret rainbow pocket linings.