September 2013 – Page 2

remember this spring when Cherie, Jess, and I had a rolling tour for the new Oliver + S patterns? (here are my roller skate dress and pinwheel tunic posts, if you’re curious)

well, we were fortunate enough to be asked to preview the fall patterns too, and this time Gail is joining us! Gail and I both chose to sew the Library Dress for our little gals today, and though we chose the same pattern options, our results are quite different! here’s mine…

the Library Dress is my favorite of the new fall patterns. i love the faux wrap bodice, pleated skirt, faced waistband, the fit, the interesting shape of the collar…it drew me in immediately! i sewed a 3T with the skirt pieces lengthened to 4T (i lengthened this pattern at the top, not the hem, by extending the 3T side seam lines up to the 4T height and used a ruler to mark where the 3T pleats would go, since it was still 3T width).

the main fabric is feathers from sun print by Alison Glass. i had gone to Bolt looking to find for the perfect fabric for this dress, and a stack of this print caught my eye from across the store. i continued shopping around but kept being drawn to these feathers, over and over. it had to be.

the print is modern and graphic, interesting, but not too busy…and the colors she chose for the line are really wonderful. i could have picked ANY of them and loved the result, but i knew Em loves to wear red and thought it’d really pop, so i went with the red (“rouge” to be precise).

feathers library dress

i wanted to add something to calm the eye, so i used robert kaufman essex yarn dyed black linen as the collar and waistband, and added a light blue piping. the pattern includes instructions for flat piping on the waistband, but i thought round piping would look nice too. i probably should have added a lightweight interfacing to the linen to make sure it held its shape, but it worked fine enough. i hand stitched the waistband facing for a perfectly clean finish.

feathers library dress

the dress itself is a really lovely and interesting sew. it’s not super fast – there are quite a few pieces to cut and assemble – but the result is such clean and nicely finished garment that comes together like a puzzle, which is what i always love about Oliver + S. there are plenty of ways to customize, too – collar or no, short or three quarter sleeves, mixing prints/color blocking…options to make a different dress every time.

Em gave me a nod of approval when i showed her the fabric, but when i showed her the dress itself, she said “ooooooo pretty!” which was great. she is not a subtle type gal – she loves to wear bold prints and colors – so this dress was a win, even without much twirl factor! 😉

one thing i realized though – she grew out of all her ballet flats over the summer! she wears playground-friendly tennis shoes to school, but can’t model dresses without ballet flats! must remedy.

bare feet will not do once the weather cools off.

okay! head on over to probably actually to see the lovely and peaceful crane-filled dress Gail sewed up! i’m always inspired by Gail – when I was fabric shopping for this dress, I kept coming across fabric I liked and then realized Gail had already used it recently! ha!

and if you missed them on Monday, check out Cherie’s adorable striped Striped Playtime Tunic + Leggings and Jess’ HOT PINK dress version! we’ll all be back later this week previewing the Art Museum pattern (assuming Cherie hasn’t had her baby by then!). it’s always so fun collaborating with these gals. 🙂

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i was provided with the digital Library Dress pattern by Oliver + S for free in exchange for this review. my opinions, as always, are my own.

guess who started kindergarten yesterday??

this gal.

i was glad to see that her school shopping list was slightly less cleaning-supply-based and more art supply/glue stick based this year – she even got to pick out “homework folders” (thank you Target for having an elephant folder!). and one thing that was actually on last year’s list for pre-k as well as kindergarten but i somehow completely neglected to send last year was a “button up the back art smock.” of COURSE i’m not buying something like that! 😉

it seemed easier to make one from scratch than to even try to repurpose one of my husband’s old shirts, and i knew just the pattern to use – the Art Smock from Little Things to Sew (affiliate link) by Liesl Gibson! that book remains my favorite sewing project book ever. i’ve sewn six separate projects from LTTS but some (like the bucket hat) i’ve sewn multiple times. i was reminded of the art smock pattern because of Gail’s version (always so good, that Gail).

this is my first time sewing the Art Smock, and since we were out of town for Labor Day, i ended up sewing it quickly on Monday afternoon (skipping the pockets). the fabric combo was kind of difficult to figure out – i wanted it to be cute and make her happy, but not too precious to my stash since the goal is for it to catch stray paint and marker. i made the medium (size 4-6).

i ended up going with two prints from Denyse Schmidt for JoAnn – i had just the right amount for the sleeves and was just a couple inches short on the body, but you can’t really tell; it’s just slightly less a-line in the front. the date on the selvedge said 2011, so i figure after 2 years it was time for it to get used! it’s quilting cotton but not thin quilting cotton.

here’s my little kindergartner in her brand new shoes and art smock – you can see her first day skirt (sewed Monday night) a bit too – i’ll post that another time. she also had me french braid her hair the night before so it was curly the next day – crucial.

i did not make her backpack this year. she chose one on a back to school shopping trip with her grandparents, it’s covered in Disney princesses, and i’m totally fine with that.

her brother wanted to wear his backpack on our walk to school, too.

how are your kiddos doing so far this school year? Em was thrilled to be back at school – and I think I worked through all my “my baby is growing up!” emotions last year, so it was a fun and exciting morning. can’t wait to see what fun things she learns this year!