Category: kids clothes

a gender-neutral baby gift

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i get it, some people like a delivery surprise.  i couldn’t wait that long to find out what i was having with either of my pregnancies, but i see how the “it’s a boy!” or “it’s a girl!” moment could be pretty special after labor and delivery.  my cousin therese, having her first baby next month, hasn’t found out what she is having.  she had a baby shower this weekend, and the “not finding out” element definitely presented a challenge for gift-giving!  i’m not a person that’s TOO hung up on gender roles, either, but it sure makes it easier to know a little more about who you’re sewing for, you know?  anyway, it’s sometimes just as fun to have restrictions.  i kind of like working that way.  gotta be more creative.

i decided to make another two projects from my now well-used and dog-eared copy of “little things to sew” by liesl gibson – the cozy winter hood (with ears!) and mittens.  i made them in an extra-small, but they fit O perfectly at 9.5 months, so i think therese & chris’ baby might get more use out of them next winter instead of this one.  both the hat and mittens are made in a supersoft white microfleece and michael miller celery ta dot flannel.

i couldn’t help myself and also appliquéd a 0-3 month onesie with little clouds.  i love the white-and- natural linen together.  these photos were taken in O’s room (which i need to finish up and do a room tour for).  isn’t the wall decal perfect for a baby’s room?  it’s by shanna murray.  i’m in love with it, and my little guy is definitely growing strong so far!

therese seemed to like the gift at the shower, and i can see myself making another of these hoods for O for the wintertime.  it came together quickly and lives up to its name – COZY!  the mittens are great too, they stayed on O’s hands despite crawling around.

happy laboring, therese!  i can’t wait to meet your little one!

twirly tula skirt

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this skirt has been in my head for two months now, and it feels really great to have it come to life.

i recently discovered the glamourai (you know, like samurai?) via pinterest, and kelly has the most amazing style. this skirt is a loose interpretation of a gorgeous vintage number that she posted about here. someday i’d love to be lucky enough to find/make a skirt like hers, but in the meanwhile, i decided to make a more colorful miniature version for em.

the pattern is the free twirly skirt tutorial, by house on hill road. i made a couple of erin’s coffee cozies when i was first learning to sew, she saw them on flickr, and encouraged me (a couple times) to start a blog. i remember checking out the skirt tutorial and being a little intimidated by it back then, as a beginner. pretty funny now – it was a joy to sew, quick and smart. i made the smallest size and cut the full width selvedge to selvedge, which is plenty full for a 3T (a little tip i picked up here).

the print is from parisville by tula pink. em was excited that it has HER favorite colors (pink and purple) and MY favorite colors (blue and green). she’s VERY into favorite colors – a regular buddy the elf! 🙂 the hem and waistband are kona aqua (leftover from my picnic blanket). the tie is grosgrain ribbon.

top it off with some after dinner froyo and shoulder rides from daddy when little legs get too tired to walk, and you’ve got one happy girl.

fruit stripe beach robe

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ever since summer began, i’ve wanted to head to the oregon coast.  the weather looked good, so on sunday we drove over for a day trip.  em was shovel ready!

of course, after waiting all summer long to go, we ended up there during hood to coast weekend (which is, ohhhh…only the largest relay race in north america).  we had friends and family running it, but somehow didn’t make the connection until we were driving over that we were heading right to seaside, the town where the race ends!

thankfully, the race ended on saturday and the crowd was largely dispersed by the time we got there.

em rode the carousel, ate elephant ear and saltwater taffy, rode the tilt-a-whirl twice (she’s so brave!), swung on the beach swings, and played in the sand.  the water was FREEZING so there wasn’t much of that.  it was cool, but not too windy.  perfect weather for a cozy beach robe to cover up the swim suit.

the pattern is dana’s beach robe, made with an ikea towel (thinner and easier to work with than the towel i used for my niece’s robe).  the fruit stripe gum-esque bias binding is a seersucker from joann, and the hood lining is basically beautiful by maywood studio.  em picked the towel out herself, so she was very happy with it.  the robe transitions well from beach wear to tilt-a-whirl wear, too. 🙂

also making its official beach debut, the picnic blanket!  it made a good landing pad for mr. i’d-just-love-to-shove-a-handful-of-sand-into-my-mouth.  have a snack instead, buddy.

i’m just happy i was able to cross BEACH TRIP off my “must do before summer’s over” list.  yay!  i’m feeling much more content with fall coming now.

french sleeve one-piece dress: now and then

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i’m not a big pattern repeater, for the most part.  too often, i make something, love it, vow to make it again, and don’t.  this is a case like that.  i made this dress nearly a year and a half ago, it was one of my favorites on em, she grew out of it, and i recently decided it was time for the next version.

THEN:

NOW:

which may not seem so bad, but this is what happens when she lifts her arms…

with leggings or jeans it could still work as a tunic, but we still have about a month of summer left here (fingers crossed), so i wanted her to have another “transitional” dress to carry her through fall/winter too, all layered up.

warning:  i sewed this dress, along with my prior two sewing projects, while listening to “watch the throne” (by kanye and jay z) on loop.  i think em caught the vibe (though she hasn’t listened to it, OBVIOUSLY).  check out these moves:


she’s about to call the paparazzi on herself!

the pattern is “G” from “les couleurs francaises” by yoshiko tsukiori (isbn 978-4-579-11279-1).

i got it at uwajimaya in beaverton, for the locals.  they have a great japanese pattern book selection.  the fabric is a tonal stripe by momo for moda.  the contrast is gold roses from heather ross far far away II.

here’s a little tip for sewing with japanese patterns – figure out the kanji characters for “right side” and “wrong side.”  it helps with patterns like this.  🙂 hopefully you can zoom in on this photo and see it.

couple other quick hints: add 1/2″ seam allowances except where indicated (the pattern shows to add more at hemlines and for the shoulder cutouts), and measurements are in inches rather than centimeters (in this book, anyway).  they really are pretty simple patterns, though there is bound to be some head-scratching involved when sewing in a foreign language.

i think this one should last her for a while.

little petal dance skirt

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em is still loooooving her ballet class.  we are in full-blown ballet mode over here.  whenever she meets somebody new (a neighbor, a friend of mine, the cashier at the grocery store), the first thing she announces to them is “i go to ballet class!”  it’s pretty much the greatest thing in her life right now.  i’m loving it too – it’s really fun to watch her concentrate so hard, and do her pliés with a big smile on her face.  i took her to see a oregon ballet theatre rehearsal of “the nutcracker” at a public park, and she was completely riveted.  she’s in the white sweater sitting on the bench.  she sat like that for about a half hour.

we loaded “the nutcracker” score onto our ipod and she dances around all the time at home.  as you can see, she’s itching to go en pointe like the big ballerinas.

small issue, though.  originally, i had her going to class dressed in her leotard and tights with a bun, you know, the classic little girl ballerina outfit.  about half the girls in the class had the same look the first day, but each week, more and more started to wear dance skirts (not tutus, these just drape and flow and are allowed by the dress code).  soon, it was just em and one other girl with no skirt.  after her class two weeks ago, em DEMANDED that she also have a dance skirt.  i’d say it’s 3 year old peer pressure, but really em wants to wear skirts/dresses every hour of every day, so it’s no big surprise.  i took her to the fabric store that same day, found the “silk georgette” rack in the wedding section, and then proceeded to fight her away from baby pink and HOT pink because i just couldn’t handle that.  too much pink for me.  i finally talked her into a shimmery fuchsia.  surprise too, the fabric wasn’t as spendy as i expected.  $3.50 for a real silk dance skirt = not too shabby!

the green poplin waistband is my touch (it’s leftover from this skirt).  i thought the green would make the skirt look like a flower (inspired by this beautiful photo i spotted on pinterest).

i asked the saleslady at fabric depot about how to actually sew silk georgette (i’d never sewn with something like that before).  she suggested a size 10 needle, and maybe a rolled hem?  i bought the needle, fretted, did some google searching, fretted some more, tried to serge it (no good, too bulky), then finally decided to try a baby hem.  jackpot.  it worked with no trouble at all!  i gathered it at the top with basting stitches, then added the slim green waistband with 1/2″ elastic.

the shape is the same as her teacher’s dance skirt.  i cut a long rectangle, rounded the edges, and overlapped them by a few inches in the front.  she seemed to love dancing in the skirt on and i caught her swishing it around and watching herself in the mirror during class.   it moves really beautifully, and i’m not afraid of fancy fabric anymore!  it was easier to sew than i expected and i’d totally make more of these, if her ballet obsession continues…which i think it might for a while.