magentaa bimaa (and a skirt)

October 19, 2013October 20, 201315 Comments

helllllloooooooooo!

rare saturday post for you today, because i, along with my pal Erin over at hungie gungie, am the last stop on what has been a pretty epic tour for the Bimaa Sweater Pattern by LouBeeClothing!

i chose to go pretty basic with my Bimaa – i noticed recently that almost every top, dress, legging, and shoe that Em owns has some sort of print on it, and while print mixing is “in” these days, i believe that only applies to two prints, not three or four, which she has often been known to combine. this kid needs more solids to go with all the print stuff.

when i went shopping (at fabric depot), i looked for the perfect solid, and found this magenta knit. it’s a blend of some sort, and i was so excited about the ideal weight to drape ratio that i didn’t check the bolt to give you any details about it (BAD BLOGGER). it sort of turned purplish if my iron was too hot, though, so it’s got more stuff mixed in there than your typical interlock, i’m guessing.

i love how Sarah’s patterns are basics with a twist – they’ve all got unexpected design elements that make them really stand out. plus, they’re just so darn COOL! i can’t wait to sew up some Hosh Pants (and see if I can persuade Em into wearing non-leggings-pants).

i chose to sew the cowl neck version of the Bimaa (there are also hood and a shawl collar options included in the pattern). i love a good cowl sweater though, and a mini cowl was just irresistible. the pattern goes from size 12 mo to size 6, there’s no hemming (i sewed the whole thing with my serger, and did the sleeve cuffs with the same method as the waistband), it’s a super fast and painless to sew, and turns out a very stylish little sweater, don’t you think?

this Bimaa is a size 4T, which is actually larger than i usually sew for her and didn’t match Em’s measurement on the chart, chest-wise, but i saw Jess’ version and knew our little gals were the same size, so i went with it. i will say though, i think this pattern is sized to fit pretty snugly. Em is at the bottom of the weight charts for her age and the 4T fits her great, but if your little one is normal/larger, might wanna size up from what you usually sew, at least in width.

for a normal-height skinny kid like mine, though, the slimmer sizing is refreshing – i usually sew 3T bodices for her but i actually prefer to sew closer to her commercial size, ya know? she’s 5 and a half and wears a 5 in store-bought clothes.

to go with the Bimaa, because she really loves choosing her own skirt/top combos these days and she’s been getting so much taller, i made her a swingset skirt by Oliver + S. i was so hooked on the pattern after making Sadie’s, and i thought the fuller silhouette would be the perfect way to show off the Bimaa. this swingset is also a 4T, and i think i added a bit of length for extra growing room.

the skirt fabric is Heather Ross’ Pink Cricket Clover from Briar Rose for Windham, which I got again at Fabric Depot (but you can find online here). i always love the base fabrics Heather chooses for her lines – the “quilting cotton” Briar Rose is light and soft and awesome for kid’s apparel…never mind her perfect designs. so sweet and playful.

it’s got an organza-type ribbon and is lined with a loosely woven cotton stripe in magenta/red as a fun surprise.

great little layering pieces for fall, winter, and maybe even spring if her growth spurt slows down!

you can get the Bimaa pattern right here and the swingset pattern right here. both are PDF only.

oh and don’t forget to head over to check out my buddy Erin’s Bimaa today too (TEASER: it’s got EARS!) and enter to win a copy of the pattern in her giveaway!

> > > :: < < <

thanks so much for having me on this fun fun tour, Sarah!

i was given the Bimaa Sweater Pattern for free as a participant in the blog tour, opinions are 100% mine.

feather skirt for sadie

October 8, 2013October 8, 201315 Comments

i may have mentioned here before that Em and Sadie, daughter of my good blog friend, Vintage May partner, and amazing sewist Jess, are the cutest little long distance buddies. they text emoji “conversations” back and forth, they FaceTime, they send each other drawings with giant 5 year old lettering and stickers across the envelopes (with Jess and i squeezing addresses into whatever blank spaces we can find). i’m sure the post office loves those.

for Em’s birthday in May, Sadie was excited to send a present, and she and her mom worked together to make this ADORABLE skirt, which quickly became Em’s favorite and is in constant rotation. Sadie turned 5 in August, so it was high time we returned the favor!

Jess had written a post saying Sadie loves feathers, which gave me the hint i needed to sew up this skirt for her. the pattern is the Oliver + S Swingset Skirt, which hadn’t grabbed me as a must have until I saw Gail make a few. now that i’ve made one, i’m totally hooked! it’s not quite a circle skirt but it’s very twirly, i love the triple waistband (two rows of elastic and one ribbon), and i love the fact that it’s lined! it’s a quick, fun sew but has more style than the simple rectangle of fabric skirts i usually make.

i used a vintagey lace trim for the “ribbon” since it seemed very CINO to me. i think it came from Cherie (Daiso?).

the feathers i hand drew, stuck on with steam a seam lite (affiliate link) and topstitched around the edges and up the middle using silver metallic Gutermann thread. the top feather is white seersucker, the middle is heather ross far far away double gauze, and the bottom is violet cotton couture, all scraps from prior projects (maybe you can guess them? i used the HR pre-blog/flickr only).

the skirt fabric itself is Denyse Schmidt for JoAnn a couple years back. still getting good mileage out of the 2.5 yards I picked up, originally intending on making something for myself with it!

i sewed a size 4 since Em and Sadie appear to be almost exactly the same size, and threw in some other goodies including this drawing of Ariel (Sadie’s favorite Disney princess) done by Em. Ariel is wearing a “on HUMAN legs!” pink fancy gown, complete with a castle, ocean, and seagulls.

word has it Sadie was thrilled to get our little gift. and one day soon, these two little long distance buds are actually going to get to meet each other in person!!

plans are in the works. 😉

fanfare for the little ones

October 4, 2013December 1, 201318 Comments

okay so remember back in May when Quilt Market was in Portland and I got to meet and hang out with Rae, and then she and Cherie and I went to lunch, and then Rae came over to my house for a bit? the story’s all here.

welllllll when Rae came, she brought strike offs (early versions) of her upcoming (now available) line of organic flannels, called Fanfare. as an experiment, we randomized the stack and handed them to Em, then asked her what she thought. she flipped through them, and when she came to the PINK ELEPHANT FLANNEL, she giggled, rubbed it against her cheek, and wouldn’t even look through the rest! she was sold. her one complaint was that it was too small to be a blanket!

but now, the wait is over. Fanfare is out and available for purchase at these shops! and as a super exciting perk of being buds with Rae, i got a package straight from Cloud9 with bundles of Fanfare for me to sew with. omigosh guys, this stuff is SOFT. like ridiculously soft – and upon washing, it only got SOFTER. the colors are perfect for fall, with mustards and grays and aquas and peachy pinks. and the elephants (plus the rest of the critters/shapes in the line) are adorable. i want them all. oh and by the way, it’s also organic!

i knew right away i wanted to sew up lounge pants for both my kids. when i find fabric as cute and cozy as this, i just want my little ones to be wrapped up in it and wear it around…and that’s exactly what happened.

O didn’t take his off for a couple days straight after he put them on! Em, unfortunately, has to go to school, but changes into hers whenever she can.

i chose two of the three elephant colorways – pink for Em, and gray for O, and paired them with coordinating confetti for the waistbands and bindings. the pattern for both is the Oliver + S Bedtime Story Pajamas (pants only), which was one of the very first patterns i ever bought and remains a go to. so fast to sew and i love the pop of contrast the bindings add.

Em has actually grown out of my pattern – the smaller range only goes up to a 3T. it fits her waist but not her height, so i guessed and added 1.5″ to the length and they fit her just right. O’s are a straight up 2T and a roomy fit on him, mostly because he’s now potty trained (yay!) and doesn’t have a big diapered tush to keep them up.

i put O’s mattress on the floor of his room for these photos, and i’m pretty sure it’s the most fun they’ve ever had in a photoshoot. trouble was, either she was moving…

or he was…

pretty much the whole time. so we’ll see how much lounging actually gets done in these puppies…apparently “jumping pants” may be a more apt description.

wish me luck?

thanks so much to Rae and Cloud9 for generously sending this fabric for me to play with, and be sure to follow along as some of my favorite bloggers in blogland show off what they made with Fanfare! it’s the coziest blog tour ever – get all caught up here.

for Portland locals, Fanfare is available both at Bolt and at Modern Domestic, and for those in Seattle or elsewhere, it’s also available at my lovely sponsor Drygoods Design (in store and online)! if you can, you should really go touch it and see for yourself – you’ll be sold on the feel as well as the CUTE!

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PS – the winner of the Sally Dress pattern giveaway is Beverly Clemmer! congratulations Beverly, let me know if you didn’t get my email. 🙂

tutu for a two year old

September 20, 2013September 19, 201321 Comments

just as divided baskets are my go to gift for baby showers and new babies, dress up clothes are my go to for two/three/four year olds. i love giving personalized superhero capes (my simple tutorial is here), especially to boys. but tutus for little gals are so sweet and fun, and for new 2 year old K, daughter of longtime family friends and daycare buddy of my son, i felt that one was really necessary.

i love this tutu pattern – easy and painless to sew, and it feels so elegant. it’s from the book Little Things to Sew by Liesl Gibson (affiliate link) and if it looks slightly familiar, it’s because i used the same pattern for Em’s Angelina Ballerina halloween costume a couple years back! Em and her friends still wear it as dress up, which is the beauty of this tutu – it ties in the back and is highly adjustable as the child grows! i like to make it a little on the long side so it lasts.

i took Em shopping with me at Fabric Depot to pick out the colors of tulle and ribbon – i nudged her away from a few super bright/clashy colors, but in the end these colors are pretty much all her choices and i love it! the fun part of this pattern is picking out the layers of color. we started with a deep magenta, then a couple lighter pinks, ending in a pretty gold color. i think it looks a bit like a sunset.

the ribbon is satin but the less-expensive stuff – i should’ve upgraded to a double sided satin, but didn’t think about it until i was back home sewing. you see both sides of the ribbon, just be aware of that. they both need to be pretty.

the color is bright and fun and K had her mama help put the tutu on right after she opened the gift, so I hope that was a good sign that it’ll be in solid dress up rotation for a few years to come. 🙂

herringbone art museum vest and trousers

September 13, 2013January 6, 201421 Comments

i’m back with the other pattern i sewed from the new Oliver + S fall line – the Art Museum Vest + Trousers! this pattern is the “boy” offering for the season and though i did sew it for my little guy, it could definitely work for a little gal too (as Cherie and Rachel clearly show!). i chose to go pretty traditional/formal with my fabric choices, which could be boring, but look how dapper he is!

herringbone art museum vest and trousers // skirt as top

like he’s ready to go to a wedding or something!

herringbone art museum vest and trousers // skirt as top

the pattern consists of a fully lined vest with front darts, welt pockets, and a back belt, as well as flat front, slimmer leg trousers with lots of professional options – slant front pockets, separate waistband, belt loops, and back welt pockets!

herringbone art museum vest and trousers // skirt as top

i believe this is the first Oliver + S pattern to include welt pockets. it’s funny because since i basically learned to sew from Oliver + S patterns, and i rely on Liesl’s patterns to teach me new techniques which I then apply to my sewing elsewhere. this time, i had already sewn welt pockets from a few other patternmakers and had a handle on how they worked, so i was very curious to see how they were tackled here, especially with the darts underneath.

herringbone art museum vest and trousers // skirt as top

gotta say – i LOVE Liesl’s method! it was different than how I’d sewn them before, and a few more steps, but MAN they result in a perfect finish. everything is so clean, the contrast pocket bag is such a fun touch, and i like that i don’t have to topstitch around the outside to make it all stay in place – the origami you do makes them stay that way!! seriously, i sewed the vest welt pockets around midnight during a marathon sewing sesh and they STILL look perfect, and i give the pattern full credit for that.

while i had no trouble, discussions with others made me think there should be some sort of companion photo walkthrough of this welt pocket process, just because of the limitations of the diagrams in the pattern and the different technique. maybe it’ll end up on the Oliver + S blog someday…i think if people get stuck that might be helpful. just read the directions completely, though, and you should be fine. full disclosure there.

i should also mention that i sewed this vest and pants in one long nighttime sew. i had the pants pieces cut out but nothing else done, and sewed it all in about 6 hours, ending at 1:30am. i don’t recommend that – but we were out of town the last two weekends and last week was short and crazy with back to school, so all of this week’s sewing and blogging has been a little bit compressed!

herringbone art museum vest and trousers // skirt as top

okay back to the Art Museum. i sewed 18-24 month size in both pieces for 2.5 year old O based on his measurements. Gail finished her pants sooner and told me they ran a bit long, so I felt okay going with the smaller size instead of the 2T like I’d originally planned. my pants are about an inch too long, but are folded under for the photos – I wanted to keep the growing room for this guy but didn’t want saggy ankles on the blog. trickery.

the fabric is from Bolt again, and the bolt said it was “Marc Jacobs Pale Herringbone,” which i couldn’t find online (…if you call Bolt i’m sure they’d sell you some!). it’s a bottom weight cotton twill. i was looking for herringbone and i think my most successful boy clothes are made with heavier fabrics, so this was perfect (plus it’s washable). it has a little stretch in it but not too much. it’s awesome stuff.

i lined the pockets, waistband, and center of vest lining with some Birch Organic elephants (by Ellie Fam) which i first used here, along with some dark brown quilting cotton for the front vest lining. i’m kinda ready for fall, can you tell?

herringbone art museum vest and trousers // skirt as top

and this guy’s ready for a monster truck rally. every pickup is a monster truck.

i agree with Rachel’s assessment that while the Library Dress was the pattern that most caught my eye, and the Playtime is a great basic set, the Art Museum is the best sewing pattern – it teaches you SO many valuable techniques, results in a super professional finish, is unisex, can go formal or informal, and fool someone into thinking it’s storebought. i look at these garments and i still can’t believe i sewed them! it’s a sewing class in a pattern. all Oliver + S patterns are that way though, and that is why i love them. I’ve never taken a formal sewing class but look what I can make just by following the directions! i dunno. it’s pretty cool.

check out Gail’s ADORABLE version of the Art Museum Trousers on her little conductor boy, and check out Cherie’s vest paired with a dress for her little gal! so ridiculously cute.

thanks so much for following along!

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i was provided with the digital Art Museum Vest and Trousers pattern by Oliver + S for free in exchange for this review.  my opinions, as always, are my own.