kcwc prep and kid pants!

It’s that time of year again…Kids Clothes Week Challenge is upon us!

I’m guest posting today at Elsie Marley (I know, I can’t believe it either!) and I’m super excited to be part of the pre-KCWC excitement this time around! I hope you’ll go check out all the fun variations of Dana’s basic Kid Pants in the lineup this week. I went the corduroy and hedgehog route myself. Here’s a peek, but you can get all the details here!

If you’re not familiar with KCWC you can read all about it right here (and more here), but the jist of the challenge is to sew kids clothes for an hour a day, for seven days. The event happens once in the spring and again in the fall, and the great part about participating (aside from ending up with some lovely little garments for the season) is that hundreds and hundreds of people are sewing along with you and posting photos in the flickr group, which is full of the greatest handmade kids clothes you ever did see. It all starts on Monday, so if you haven’t done so already, go sign up by leaving a comment on this post!

And preparing is part of the fun, too – I don’t have any definite plans yet for next week, but I’ve got a big list going and these are some of the things I’m hoping to put to use:

I like to have all my patterns traced and cut out the week before so that I can just sew when the time comes, and while I never get around to completing everything, it’s amazing how productive you can be with all that prep work done! I’m trying to keep things simple and realistic this time, being eight months pregnant and all. Cutting out patterns on the floor and standing at the ironing board all evening (along with staying up past 8pm, frankly) are challenges in and of themselves at the moment. But I’m going to try!

Happy planning and sewing, everyone, and hope to see all your amazing creations next week!

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back-to-school dress (for real this time)

So last year around this time I made Lila an honorary back-to-school dress and lamented the fact that she didn’t have anywhere to wear it. But she started preschool yesterday, so this is the real deal. Her very first first-day-of-school dress, an Oliver + S Jump Rope dress.

I made this version of the dress last June – I loved it on Lila and hated watching her grow out of it! The smaller-sized pattern only goes up to 3T, and it’s a slim fit, so this was my chance to make another.

It feels a bit blasphemous to pick favorites when it comes to Oliver + S patterns, but I think this one might be it for me.

There are so many great details and I love the professional-looking end results. I have pored through the Oliver + S flickr pool and the Jumprope Sewalong pool studying the dresses made from this pattern, and my favorites are the simplest ones – small prints, subtle dots and stripes, and almost solids – those seem to highlight the dress’s details and are always the one that stand out to me.

This polka dot fabric (Lucy’s Crabshack by Moda) was Jump Rope-worthy to me, and the candy-colored dots on the navy/grayish background seemed like the right combination of summer and fall to be a good back-to-school dress.

Lila is not much for dresses, and I doubt I’ll convince her to wear this one more than a few times. But she wore it on her first day of school, so I’m satisfied. The dress got lots of compliments at school, and no one asked if I made it, which always make me feel like I’ve done at least a decent job.

This is definitely one of the more labor intensive Oliver + S patterns (second only to the School Days coat in my experience), but absolutely worth the effort, and the stellar directions will walk you through every step. The pattern is out of print but available as a digital download. I will most definitely be investing in the larger sized pattern for this one. Like it or not, Lila, there will be many versions of this dress in your future.

Thanks so much for everyone’s well wishes for Lila’s first day of school. She was beaming from ear to ear when I picked her up, and has agreed to go back next week (as long as I drop her off and don’t stay, she says!) which is all I could ask for. When I dropped her off yesterday I didn’t even make it down the front steps of the school before I started crying, but it didn’t last long. Plus, I’m pregnant, so it hardly even counts.

And here she is with her new lunch bag, which was ridiculously fun to pack.

I really wanted her to be surprised when she opened it, but she begged for a peek before we left for school, and in the end I’m glad I didn’t miss out on seeing her face when she looked inside, because it was awfully sweet. Everything but the fruit came home uneaten, but all she ever eats is fruit so it was no big shock. And I had no trouble finishing the remainder when she got home.

And last, here are the couple photos I took with my phone when I dropped her off yesterday.

Already hard at work within the first three minutes of arrival:

A nice sunny reading corner:

And check out this display of preschool intimacy!

That’s her BFF, Norman. They didn’t just meet that morning, I promise…

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lunch!

Tomorrow is Lila’s first day of preschool, and along with going to preschool comes packing a lunch…and yet another opportunity to sew something fun! Luckily, one of my many purchased-long-ago-but-never-made patterns was this little lunch bag:

The pattern is called Love your Lunch Box by Gingercake Patterns. She designed it for her daughter to carry to Kindergarten, so it’s perfectly sized for little hands (though big enough to carry an adult lunch, too).

The inside is lined with laminated cotton for easy clean up:

And there are two little outer side pockets

which are perfectly sized for snack bars and fruit leathers and such.

I worked backwards with the fabric on this one – I knew there wasn’t going to be a huge selection of laminated cottons to choose from, so I picked something neutral for the inside then looked through my stash for something to match. This is a Japanese print I bought a few years ago at Cool Cottons, and I’ve been waiting for the right project to come around to use it.

The outer layer calls for heavy weight interfacing, and the inside in insulated with Insul-Bright batting. So it’s got a nice sturdy shape and keeps the contents cool or warm.

Update – Oops, I just realized that her name needs to be on it somewhere (duh). Rubber stamps on twill tape to the rescue.

I bought a little two-tiered bento box to put inside, and now I can’t stop perusing the millions of cute little bento lunch ideas floating around online.

And this may be humorous to no one by me, but when I went to upload my lunch bag photos, my husband had done his own little clandestine photo shoot. Clearly I’m not the only one around here who’s been researching preschool-appropriate lunches. Ha ha. Funny, honey.

Lest you think we eat Pop Tarts over here, those were purchased by my husband for a camping trip and never opened…until the middle of the night last week when I discovered them in the cupboard and the baby begged me to have one, so what could I do? And that corn and crab chowder, which was a bad idea in the first place, expired in 2006 – but instead of getting rid of it like sensible people, we somehow began a tradition of planting it in various places around the house for each other to find. We’re easily amused. And for anyone curious, the jar contains some highly suspect tuna fish. Kind of a seafood theme going on…

Anyway, it’s clear who’ll be in charge of packing Lila’s lunch.

Oh, and the pattern came with a bonus reusable snack bag pattern as well, so I made up a few of those to go along with the lunch bag.

These are the easiest thing ever. They close with a big strip of velcro and can be customized to any size. I lined them with some white PUL, that waterproof diaper fabric (thanks, Amanda!).

That’s it! Here’s a preview of Lila’s first-day-of-school dress. We did a day-before photo shoot this morning, just to be safe

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film petit :: amélie

I am so excited to be the very first guest to join Kristin and Jessica in their Film Petit series!

In case you missed their Film Petit kick-off, they both sewed outfits inspired by The Life Aquatic, and they were amazing. Check them out here and here. This month’s movie is Amélie, which happens to be the first movie my husband and I saw together while we were courting back in 2002. Having watched it so long ago, all I really remembered about the movie was loving it, and it was so much fun to see it again and get inspired to sew.

Amélie has a penchant for anonymous good deeds, and one of my favorites is when she kidnaps her father’s beloved garden gnome and asks a flight attendant friend to photograph the gnome visiting landmarks of the world, hoping to encourage her father to follow his own traveling dreams. That traveling gnome was my sewing inspiration.

I had some Heather Ross gnomes from a Munki Munki nightgown, so I decided to turn them into little gnome Polaroids.

Our little gnome wasn’t quite as ambitious in his travels as Amélie’s – but he did make it to couple of our finest local landmarks.

Trader Joe’s:

The neighborhood swimming pool:

A picnic at the park

with a visit to the swings:

And finally he ended up on the pockets of a little dress for Lila.

I used this A-line dress pattern from Etsy, which I found via Stitched Together (Rachel recently made two great versions). It’s a great simple dress that you can embellish any way you like. I added pockets from the Oliver + S Ice Cream dress and triple machine-stitched the stripey pocket yokes,

then added my gnome Polaroids to the pockets. I’ve seen Polaroid quilt blocks pop up in a few places and always thought they’d be so much fun to create. They were!

I added running stitches around the neck and armholes.

And a gnome covered button to finish it off.

Our little gnome even got a hold of some mysterious photos of Amélie herself!

Where will he pop up next, you ask? At the fabric store, of course

Don’t forget to check out how Kristin and Jessica were inspired by Amélie….and thanks to both of them for letting me get in on the fun of this terrific series! I can’t wait to see what they have up their sleeves for next month!

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oliver + s puppet show/playdate dress for vintage may (now with some sleeve-swapping tips)

Today I’m reposting my Oliver + S Playdate/Puppet Show hybrid dress from Kristin and Jess‘ lovely Vintage May series, and I’ve added some instructions for switching out the sleeves.

* * * * * * * * * *

Hello fine readers! I’m so pleased and honored to be at Skirt as Top today, celebrating Vintage May along with all these lovely guest bloggers! If you’ve ever visited my blog, you know that I have a bit of a love affair with Oliver + S patterns. In case you’re not familiar with Oliver + S, there are several reasons why they’re among my favorite patterns. First of all, each one is like a mini sewing lesson, full of tips and tricks for future use. The styles are always clean and classic, the fit is spot-on, the directions never let you down, and even the packaging is adorable (and vintage-looking!).

Have I sold you yet? Anyway, I think I’ve tried eleven of them so far, and have used many of those eleven over and over again. So when Kristin asked me to be a part of Vintage May, I immediately began brainstorming my Oliver + S options. Several of the patterns have a vintage or retro look to them, and I ended up combining two of my favorites into one dress, adding a few vintage elements along the way.

My starting point was the Playdate Dress (it’s out of print, but recently became available as a digital pattern) – there’s something about that yoke that gives it a definite retro feel.

And I borrowed the cuffed sleeves from the Puppet Show Dress (also out of print, but available to download as a pdf), which is another great vintage-looking pattern.

Swapping the Puppet Show sleeve for the Playdate sleeve was really simple, since the shapes were so similar. I used the size 3 sleeve from both patterns to create a hybrid sleeve. Just lay the Puppet Show sleeve on top of the Playdate sleeve pattern, and use the armhole curve of the Playdate but the length and width of the Puppet Show sleeve. Keeping the Puppet Show width (the line across the bottom of the sleeve) is important so that you can use the existing cuff pattern piece.

Your hybrid sleeve (the one laying on top of the Puppet Show sleeve below) will look very similar to the original Puppet Show sleeve – the armhole curve dips just slightly below to mimic the Playdate sleeve’s curve.

Cut your sleeves on the fold, and transfer the Playdate notch and the Puppet Show gathering dot. There are a couple ways to attach the sleeves, but I chose to follow the Playdate directions – the sleeves are attached before side seams are sewn since you’ll also be constructing side seam pockets. If you go that route, refer to the Puppet Show directions to complete the cuffs after you’ve attached the sleeves and sewn your side seams.

And that’s it! Back to the rest of the post….

The fabric also has a vintage feel – the print reminded me a bit of a vintage sheet, or a William Morris floral, or a Liberty print (and is probably as close to a real Liberty as I’m ever going to get!). It’s a soft and breezy cotton lawn called Spring, from Robert Kaufman’s London Calling 2 collection. And the colors definitely evoke spring! This is Vintage May after all, not Vintage November…

There’s pink and white mini gingham in the side-seam pockets and in the hem facing. I love a pattern that allows for hidden surprises like that.

And to throw a little more vintage into the mix, I added mini pompom trim under the yoke. Because pompoms make things look vintage, right?

Now this was a bit trickier than adding the flat piping that the pattern calls for, since the pompom trim has barely any seam allowance. So I’ll attempt to show you how I did it.

First, I sewed a line of basting stitches 1/2 inch from the raw edge of the neckline, which gave me a line to follow when I placed the trim. Then I matched the trim (where the poms meet the wee bit of seam allowance) to that line, pinned, and basted it in place along the line using my zipper foot – that way you’re not sewing over the poms. There should be 1/2 inch between the raw edge of the neckline and your line of basting stitches that attach the trim.

That second basting line becomes the guideline for placing your yoke. Do you think I used enough pins? The tricky part was stitching the yoke in place AND catching the pompom trim underneath – I had to sew very close to the edge of the yoke in order to catch it. The zipper foot comes in handy here, too.

In retrospect, it might make sense to actually sew the trim to the neckline rather than just basting. That way, even if you miss a spot as you’re top stitching the yoke in place, the trim is securely anchored under there. Or better yet, maybe there’s pompom trim available out there with a more generous seam allowance?

Thanks so much for having me, Kristin! I’m looking forward to the rest of Vintage May, week two!

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reversible bucket hat, now with pompoms

Last year’s Oliver + S bucket hat is officially too small. Time for a new one:

The pattern comes from Liesl Gibson’s book, Little Things to Sew, but is also available for free download on the Oliver + S website. And while I do own the book, I printed the pattern from the website so I wouldn’t have to trace the size I needed. Much easier.

After seeing some great versions of the hat with a widened brim (this one by Jessica of A Little Gray being the first), I decided to give it a try, and I widened mine by one inch.

Jessica will tell you how to do it right here. I also used her no hand-stitching technique in putting it all together. She’s a master of the bucket hat, this woman!

The pattern calls for interfacing on one side of the brim, but I interfaced all the pieces of the linen side to give the hat a little more overall structure.

I used Essex Linen in Natural and a Kate Spain Fandango print (left over from a little skirt I made last year), and added mini pompom trim around the brim. After making this dress, I’ve been looking for an excuse to use those little pompoms again. Also, the Playdate dress she’s wearing seems to have morphed from a dress into a shirt, and barely made it over her head (that’s what 14 months does, I guess), but somehow I tricked her into wearing it today. I have a feeling this might be the last time.

And yes, the photo shoot is now over….

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sandpiper for summer

It appears that summer has arrived over here, for this week anyway. The other night I made a Clever Charlotte Sandpiper top – it’s my first Clever Charlotte pattern and it was such a pleasure to sew. And such a cute little summer top (especially with some Class Picnic Shorts!)

The fabric is Kate Spain Bridle Path (I made this top in the green version, and I have a yard of the blue for future use, too) and lined it with a Moda pinstripe in lemon-lime.

The top can be made fully reversible by sewing buttons on both sides, but the print showed through a bit to the lime side, so I decided the lime would be the lining.

This is a size 2 cut to a size 3 length, which seems to work for me with most patterns these days.

I love the simplicity of the pinafore-style, and this pattern has such a nice fit and drape. I did make one change – the two back corners are supposed to dip down into points, but I cut mine so that the back hangs evenly. Because I’m super boring like that.

If you happen to want to be boring like me, just cut off a triangle-ish shaped piece from the bottom left side of the pattern piece. I actually cut the fabric according to the original pattern piece, then crossed the straps and pinned them in place at the buttonhole markings to see where the back pieces would overlap, drew my cut line right on the main fabric, then used that piece as a guide for the lining piece. But it’ll look something like this:

This is a great pattern, and also includes some very unique (and reversible!) capri pants. The construction of the top was super simple (and just one main pattern piece!). And the directions were wonderfully clear, with plenty of helpful diagrams and tips. My kind of pattern!

When I showed the top to Lila, she pointed out that it’s just like the little pinafores her babies wear, which instantly made it very popular. I would’ve sewn it for her way sooner if I’d made that connection myself!

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shorts on the line!

I’m guest posting today for the Shorts on the Line series with some unprecedented boy sewing! Click on over to imagine gnats for a review of the Oliver + S Sketchbook shorts pattern and a little coin pocket tutorial. And check out the past week’s worth of shorts inspirational while you’re there!

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(not quite) shorts season

June is notoriously cool and rainy around here, but we’re dreaming of shorts season, hoping we get to break them out at least by August. We’re preparing early.

These are the Oliver + S Puppet Show shorts in Robert Kaufman Carolina chambray (in black) and, randomly, the same Moda pin dots I used to make the Puppet Show dress for Christmas. With red top stitching. And a buckin’ bronco tattoo.

The Puppet Show pattern is available to download as a pdf, along with all the other retired Oliver + S patterns.

I love the gathering on the pockets and at the legs…such cute little details. I wish I’d had this pattern earlier, because I think they’re the perfect shorts for chubby little baby legs. But for now, these skinny little almost-preschooler legs will have to do.

And while we’re on the topic of shorts, have you heard about the Shorts on the Line series coming up in July? It’s a three week sewalong with prizes, so start sewing shorts and enter them into the Flickr group! I’ll be guest posting at imagine gnats on the 8th, so stay tuned. Until then, hope everyone is enjoying some actual shorts weather where you are!

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elephant pants

Have I mentioned that I love me some Oliver + S Sailboat Pants? The chambray pair I made in April were as plain and simple as you could get, so I decided the next ones should be a little more exciting and a little less practical. There’s nothing practical about elephants all over your pants, that’s for sure.

This is the same fabric (Daiwabo Tip Top Elephants) I used for my nephew’s Toddler Backpack last year. I had a decent amount left, and I must have laid out these pattern pieces on my remaining fabric three separate times before overcoming the denial that they weren’t going to fit. But then I saw that Cool Cottons had restocked it, so I hurried in and got myself another yard. It’s a lightweight canvas and I’ve wanted to turn it in Sailboat pants ever since I laid eyes on these and these in the Oliver + S Flickr group.

I used piping again (like these), but this time I made my own using this piping tutorial. You can’t beat the convenience of packaged piping, but the color choices are really limited and seem to lean toward the bright and garish side. It was just a little piece, so not too much work.

I mostly like these pants, but I will say that the 3Ts seem a little baggy in the crotch. You’d think I might have noticed that when I made the last pair, but apparently it slipped my mind. Anyway, I think lengthening the 2Ts might have made for a better fit.

Also, the elephants were printed at a slight slope, so despite my best efforts to cut on the grain, I ended up with elephants that don’t match up across the front of the pants. Not so noticeable when she has them on…but that’s when you do notice the saggy crotch. Ah well. On to something else…

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