stitched together for rachel :: a little dress

Today I’m sharing my part of a collaborative effort on behalf of the wonderful Rachel of Stitched Together.

Rachel’s blog is one my favorites. It’s full of beautiful and inspirational sewing, glowing photography, and some of the sweetest models in blogtown. Rachel is expecting her fifth child any time now, and Victoria of As it Seams has organized a group of Rachel’s admirers to create a mobile for the new baby. The idea came from the mobiles Victoria and others have put together for the babies-to-be in their circle of friends. And while our group is composed of virtual friendships, each of us wanted to contribute to this exciting event in Rachel’s life – a new baby girl!

With three daughters and a fourth on the way, Rachel is the queen of dress making, and her girls wear them so beautifully. This baby has it made when it comes to stylish hand-me-downs, and I thought it would be fun to add a little dress to the mobile. This one is made from Essex linen, with batting in the skirt, a felt collar, and a few scraps and running stitches. I left the armholes open to slide a little wire hanger inside, which can be used to hang the dress on the mobile.

Congratulations Rachel, and enjoy these final anticipatory days as you wait to meet your new little girl. She is so lucky to join your beautiful family. I hope you both enjoy our collaboration!

You can check out the rest of mobile pieces via the links below!

victoria | as it seams // kristin | skirt as top

sanae | sanae ishida // suz | sewpony // nat | la gang a nat

 an | straight grain // heidi | elegance and elephants

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kcw leftovers :: the lullabye layette

I finally finished up the third of the spring Oliver + S patterns, the Lullabye Layette. Just one of the many things I had planned for Kids Clothes Week but didn’t make – that’s always the way.

It’s such a sweet little set, and I was so happy to see a little baby pattern from Oliver + S. The sizing goes up to 24 months, but to me this kind of thing is cutest in the tiny sizes (and for girl babies!), so I opted to make it in 3-6 months as a baby gift. Good thing other people keep having babies so I don’t have to miss out on sewing stuff like this.

 

The pants are shot cotton, which I chose for its baby-softness and orange hue – they’re light and airy and they feel great, but I should probably apologize in advance to their recipient because I have a feeling they’ll end up a wrinkled mess out of the dryer. It’s love/hate with shot cotton, I tell ya.

I added a little band of the shirt fabric on the back pockets by making some single-fold bias tape from a one-inch strip (cut on the grain). And I swapped out the snaps for buttons, only because I had three matching buttons in the correct size, which was too good to pass up. Otherwise I followed the pattern to the letter, and no surprise, it all came out just right.

Originally I chose the print (Leah Duncan’s Gentle Breeze from her Meadow line) for Lila’s Hide & Seek dress, but after I got it home I decided to set it aside for the layette. It’s such a delicate little print, it seemed just right for a baby girl.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the pattern comes with two addition garments, a sweet little jacket and a bubbly bodysuit. I highly recommend the Lullabye Layette, both for its undeniable Oliver + S quality and its squishy-baby cuteness. Thanks to Liesl for sending it my way!

 

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indian summer divided basket

Awhile back I attended a baby shower for none other than skirt as top. I guess you’ve got all the gear you need by the time you get to baby #3, so this was a diaper shower. But I couldn’t very well bring diapers without sewing something to hold them. Kristin has sewn a multitude of Divided Baskets as baby gifts, which I figured must mean she thinks they make good baby gifts, right? So I went with that. I looked through her Camp Ivanhoe Pinterest board to see what might work with the baby’s new room, and picked out a fabric from Sarah Watson’s Indian Summer line.

The Divided Basket is one of many wonderful Noodlehead patterns. This is my third basket (first two here) – it’s such a fun pattern with such a useful end result, and it’s surprisingly quick to sew after you get everything interfaced. This time I followed Anna’s advice from this post and used Pellon 809 in conjunction with fusible fleece for the main basket pieces. If you’re using all quilting cottons, this combination of interfacing gives the basket a nice amount of structure.

I also made some burp cloths by binding the edges of some cloth prefolds, same as the ones I made before Oscar was born.

Baby skirt as top, I can’t wait to meet you and maybe even mop up a little of your cute spit! 🙂

Pattern :: Noodlehead Divided Basket

Basket Fabrics :: Sarah Watson’s Woodland Pine, Moda Crossweave in Aqua, Kaffe Fasset spots in Sprout

Burp Cloths :: Joel Dewberry’s Herringbone True Colors in Turquoise, Lizzy House’s Pearl Bracelet in Tin Man, Dena Fishbein’s Tarika in Moss

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winter kcw :: first birthday ice cream dress

It’s Kid’s Clothes Week! And look at that, the button matches my first project. I should probably just quit now while I’m ahead.

Oscar’s dear friend had her first birthday last week, and since I don’t have a little girl to sew for anymore, I thought it would be fun to make her a birthday dress.

The pattern is the Oliver + S Ice Cream Dress, and it’s basically the same dress I made for Lila’s third birthday, but with some peachy-coral/minty-aqua prints thrown in. I used something new to me for the main dress fabric – an In the Beginning Modern Solid (in Lead) – these are yarn-dyed solids with two tonal colors woven together, which gives them a similar iridescent quality to shot cotton. They’re very soft like the shots, but slightly more substantial. I wasn’t sure the recipient would appreciate getting out the iron every time the dress was washed, so I picked this fabric in hopes that it wouldn’t wrinkle quite as much. That’s the one downfall of shot cottons – they wrinkle like crazy.

Oscar was kind enough to try it on for me, but it barely cleared his big old head. His 6-12 month sized days are long gone…

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keep clean bib

Many many months ago I tested the Keep Clean Bib pattern for Jen of Lea & Lars. Oscar wasn’t quite ready for bibs back then, and it somehow got lost in a mountain of unfolded fabric until just recently. But the timing is perfect – it fits, he’s a slob, and this thing has full coverage!

We had a similar bib from Ikea when Lila was a baby, but this one is better – the front is lined with flannel, and it’s so long that it doubles as bib and napkin-in-your-lap. Which is perfect, since it eliminates the need for the dishtowel I’d been using protect those fancy trousers he likes to wear.

I bought the Kokka cars when I found out I was having a boy…you know, because I’d heard that boy babies like car fabric. And the green stripes are Sunkissed by Sweetwater for Moda. Luckily it all coordinates nicely with the new high chair cushion.

Anyway, the pattern is quick and simple-to-sew, and I think we’re going to get a lot of use out of this bib now that it’s been unearthed from the pile!

P.S. The winner of the Gingercake On the Go Organizer pattern giveaway is Nichole (#52) – you should receive your copy of the pattern soon!

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a highchair cushion + a really good giveaway

This weekend I completed a super simple project that’s been sitting on my desk since I printed out the pattern six months ago – right around the time Oscar started eating solids like they were going out of style. He was really scrawny back then, so a little extra cushioning seemed like a good idea. I never got around to it though, and at this point I’d characterize him as semi-plump…but I like to finish what I start, so here it is, just half-his-life late – a quilted Antilop highchair cushion. I know it’s a pretty ubiquitous highchair, so I wanted to share in case anyone wants to pretty-up their Ikea Antilop, too.

The pattern for the cover is a free download from the BurdaStyle website. It was fairly straightforward to put together, even though there wasn’t much guidance to do so. I had to muddle through a bit to figure out how to piece the pattern together, and you have to add seam allowances (why don’t patterns just come with seam allowances? I’m sure there’s some reason I’m missing, right?). But I like how it turned out. And it’s free. So I guess it was worth the extra little bit of brainpower it soaked up.

Yes, this is going to get food all over it and have to go through the wash every now and then, but I love to see pretty fabric everywhere I look, and this fulfills that love for the dining room.

I used Joel Dewberry’s Herringbone in Pond – I wanted something simple that I wouldn’t grow tired of looking at after a few months, and this fit the bill. You need between 3/4 and 1 yard of fabric (in length) to make this, and I only had a 1/2 yard, so I cut my 1/2 yard width-wise and pieced it back together the long way. Luckily his little tush will hide the seam.

The Herringbone came from my sponsor, Llama Fabrics, and that brings me to the really good giveaway. Chio is offering up FOUR yards of fabric to one lucky winner! You can break it up any way you like – one four-yard cut, four one-yard cuts, five different 1/2 yards and a 1.5-yard cut – you get the idea….no equation is too complicated 🙂

You should look around for yourself, but these are a few of my new favorites from Llama Fabrics – Bike Path by Alison Glass:

Anna Maria Horner’s Dowry:

And of course, these brand new Herringbone True Colors by Joel Dewberry:

She’s also ordered some beautiful fabric that’ll be coming in down the line, like Pat Bravo’s Rapture and Sarah Jane’s Wee Wander. And there’s much more – I’m pretty sure you’ll have no trouble finding four yards worth of good stuff if you’re the winner, and if you’re not, it’s not a bad place to do some shopping – great selection, great prices, and as I’ve come to learn over the past several months, a very kind and generous shop owner.

So browse if you like, and leave a comment here to be entered in the giveaway. International entries are welcome, and I’ll choose a random winner on Friday, November 15th!

And for no reason at all, I leave you with one gratuitous photo of Oscar on his birthday bee…

Oh, and one last order of business – the winner of the Compagnie-M Swing Skirt pattern giveaway is Erin A. Keith! Erin, you should have already received your copy of the pattern – happy sewing!

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fall kcw :: birthday trousers

The calendar indicates that Oscar will be a year old in 11 days. So I made him some birthday trousers.

Do you recognize those pockets?

The pattern is the Oliver + S Art Museum trousers. I made them in railroad stripes last month, and that pair ranks as one of my favorite items ever sewn. For real, those pants make me so happy. It’s hard to say just why – the miniature grown-up details, the fit, the fabric – but it might also have something to do with starting to love boy sewing just a little bit. Anyway, another pair was in order.

These are made from Robert Kaufman’s soft, lightweight 21-wale corduroy in tan. I bought mine at Fabric Depot (and it’s all 40% off this week). I’ve sewn with this stuff a lot, and the quality is really nice.

I did the top stitching in orange to spice things up a little, and used Heather Ross’ guitars for the waistband facing and welt pocket lining. It’s pretty much impossible to get a photo inside those tiny welt pockets, and the insides will never be seen, but I can’t help it, I like knowing it’s in there anyway.

If you’ve never made a welt pocket, this is the place to learn. I’ll warn you though – if you’re making these for the first time and you haven’t made the vest, the welt instructions and diagrams are in the vest section, so you have to do a little extra thinking to transfer it all over to the pants. But it’s well worth the effort.

See how happy they make him?

That’s it for now. Next up is a little Halloween sewing. See you tomorrow!

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lounging in fanfare

If you haven’t seen these fuzzy little foxes yet, they’re part of Cloud9’s new Fanfare line by the fabulous Rae (of Made by Rae) – the prints are so sweet, and it’s the the softest, plushest flannel I’ve ever felt – no lie. Over the next week or so, Rae is having a little blog tour to show off some Fanfare creations, and I’m kicking it off today along with Deborah from Whipstitch!

It’s most definitely flannel season around here (lots of that non-stop pouring rain we’re famous for), and Oscar is very cozy in his foxy new Fanfare duds.

I’ve made lots of these little sets – the pants are from the Oliver + S Bedtime Story pattern, and the top is a store-bought tee with an appliquéd patch. It makes a cute little outfit, and the whole thing takes well under an hour to complete. Easiest lounge wear ever.

I chose the gold foxes and paired them with a gray crosshatch from Architextures.

And a cozy flannel crib sheet was also in order – in the gold Bunting print, to match. I’m a sucker for those triangles.

I used the super simple MADE tutorial (same as my last crib sheets) – the directions say your rectangle should be 45 inches across, and after washing the flannel it was about 41 inches wide, but the finished sheet still (snugly) fits our mattress. You could also use a crib sheet pattern with side panels (Amy Butler’s book Little Stitches for Little Ones has one, I know), if you want to add a little extra width.

And I love using organic fabric for crib sheets – I figure he spends a good 15 hours a day with his face pressed against that sheet…it’s probably a good thing. 🙂

Thanks to Cloud9 for the fabric, and to Rae for letting me in on the fun! If you’re on the hunt for Fanfare, Rae has compiled a list of retailers here. And stay tuned for the rest of her blog tour for more Fanfare projects!

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mini art museum trousers

More from the new fall Oliver + S patterns!

And no surprise, it’s another great one. The Art Museum pattern features both trousers and a vest – I wasn’t sure Oscar could pull off the vest at the tender age of 10 months, so I just sewed the trousers (for now!). And oh how I love these tiny, detailed trousers.

Having nothing to do with my sewing and everything to do with the pattern, these pants look so pro. And there was something extra satisfying about making them in the smallest size….grown-up details on tiny clothes are just so cute!

It’s funny – it’s just a pair of pants, and in a pretty basic fabric, but these little trousers make me so happy. I love watching Oscar’s little diaper butt crawling around in those welt pockets!

Speaking of which – I’d never made a welt pocket before, and I’m so glad Liesl was the one to teach me how – I knew she wouldn’t fail me. And of course, the directions were flawless. The first pocket took me quite a while (I’m pretty slow with new stuff), but the second one was a snap. The best part was a couple steps into the welt-making process, where there’s a line in the directions that says “If you check it from the right side, it will look rather impressive already.” She isn’t kidding! When I flipped that thing over I was pretty pleased with myself 🙂

And there are so many other little details, too – side pockets, belt loops, a faux fly, a lined waistband – these pants are the real deal.

And because of that they took some time – nothing difficult, but a good night’s work. And in my opinion, totally and completely worth it, even if he outgrows them in a few months. Which I don’t think he will, because as you can see, they’re long!

Based on his beanpole measurements, I cut out the 6-12 month size and lengthened the legs to 12-18 months. But I ended up cutting off the extra length at the end. I also hemmed them an extra 1/2 inch, and then rolled up the entire hem! It’s good though, they’re meant to be long, and he’s in the 96th percentile for height. I’d be happy if these fit forever 🙂

The fabric is Robert Kaufman’s railroad denim in Indigo, purchased locally (I think at Bolt). I was really excited when this line came out – any variation on chambray ranks high with me, and the railroad stripes have such a classic kid look. Goes well with dirty toes 🙂

Kristin and Cherie also sewed up the Art Museum pattern, so be sure to check out their versions, you’ll love them! And Jessica will be posting her ensemble on Monday, so visit her then. Many thanks to Liesl for providing us with the patterns!

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

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quick change trousers + a winner!

First, thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway – I just loved reading all the names and picturing all those sweet little girls wearing crickets and clover. I wish I could make something for all of you, I really do! In some other lifetime, maybe…

Anyway, the winner, chosen at random, is

#84, Einat!

That little Ice Cream blouse is traveling all the way to Israel to be worn by Einat’s daughter, Noa! 🙂

********

And now, on to the Quick Change Trousers. The pattern is from Anna Maria Horner’s book, Handmade Beginnings. These have been on my list forever, and now I just wish I’d made them sooner – they were so fast and easy, and deciding which fabrics to put together was really fun. It’s a great pattern, and I love that the finished product is two pairs of pants in one.

Oscar is a string bean of a 9 month old, and I made these in 9-12 months – the fit is very generous, especially since there’s so much built in length for the roll-up cuff. These are double rolled, so they should fit for a nice long time.

And while babies can certainly pull off a contrast print on their backside, I tried not to go too wild with my fabric selections. Side A is Essex yarn dyed Indigo (a slightly more muted version of my all-time favorite Essex Denim), and after seeing these pants from lea & lars, I couldn’t resist pulling out my Joel Dewberry Herringbone.

And for Side B, more of Violet Craft’s Bridgetown (as seen recently on Lila in skirt form…I can’t get enough of this fabric!) and some Lotta Jansdotter stripes.

I found the Essex locally at Modern Domestic, and the other three prints came from Llama Fabrics.

That’s all! More of these pants to come, for sure. And some back-to-school sewing, too!

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