watercolor ruby top

September 24, 2013September 23, 2013108 Comments

a little while back i got to test out Rae’s brand new adult lady sewing pattern, the Ruby Dress & Top! it’s a flattering yet simple design that takes pretty much all of the tougher parts of adult sewing out of the equation (no darts, no zippers or buttons or closures of any kind…that stuff). it’s also a quick one to sew up. you can sew this pattern!

and you should.

because even though my face is a bit like 😐 in the photo above, i think this top is great…and the tweaks Rae made with the feedback from testing made it even better in the final version. that girl really takes her time to get the fit just right, something i really appreciate with her patterns.

it’s a SUPER fun (and maybe even a little overwhelming?) pattern to pick fabrics for. you can really go a million different directions with it. i used a semi-sheer lightweight rayon/poly type blend from the back of an Old Navy shirt I bought for the other side (eyelet). it moves around a lot which made the skinny bias binding way harder to apply, but the drape is nice.

the bottom fabric, which i ADORE, is from Skylights by Rosewood Organics. i got it at Bolt (I think?). such a cool watercolor design. i made this summery top when it was still 90 degrees out and it’s definitely fall here now, which just means i’ve got a whole new color palette to choose from when i make Ruby 2!

i usually sew a medium in Rae’s patterns but here I made a size large, because do you know what else the Ruby Top is great for…?

…hiding an early baby bump!

yep yep, 18 weeks along with baby number 3 over here, and so excited! i know at least one observant blog friend guessed it based on my posting slowdown this summer, but seriously guys, little #3 really kicked my butt in the first trimester. so tired and most food just made me feel sick. i’m glad to have some energy back now so i can sew in the evenings if i want, or in the daytime for that matter (i was pretty much napping when my kids did – good for the baby but frustrating for me, since i ACTUALLY ENJOY DOING THINGS)!

i’m due in late February and we can’t wait to find out gender in a couple weeks, though Em is CONVINCED it’s a girl and has even told us what we should name “her.” in the meantime, she nicknamed the baby “Avocado” based on the size i told her the baby was at the time, and loves to give her little “sister” kisses, bring me blankets and Mommy Elephant to snuggle with when i’m tired, hold the doppler machine and listen to the heartbeat at the midwife…she’s a loving little mama and it’s the cutest. it’s really fun to have her understand what’s going on.

O seems happy about it sometimes, and sometimes indifferent. because he’s 2. 😉

and there ya go – my secret is out! i’d never announced a pregnancy to blogland before…hope i did okay. 😉

> > > :: < < <

thanks for the great announcement project, Ruby Top! check out Rae’s highlight reel of my fellow pattern testers here, video tutorials on how to line the yoke here, and Rae’s supercool arrow dress that started it all here.

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. 🙂

striped divided basket

September 18, 2013September 17, 201317 Comments

one trick pony over here. someone’s got a baby comin’? time to make another divided basket!

this one was for my sister-in-law’s baby, her fourth boy! a family friend was so thoughtful as to throw a baby shower for her, which i love – fourth babies need new special stuff of their own too, ya know?

i sewed this basket up before the shower, which was held when my SIL was around 36.5 weeks pregnant. just four days later, little W made his grand appearance!

mmmmm baby toes.

anyway…i got the 2am call to come stay with the sleeping older three boys while husband and laboring wife headed to the hospital, a dream come true for me – i love the excitement of labor, even if i’m just back at the house trying to sleep but having too much fun getting 4am text messages. 🙂

i made this basket to coordinate with little W’s nursery, which has a slightly nautical feel – it’s blue and white with red accents and some natural wood too. i chose striped ikea canvas with a robert kaufman red canvas binding on the outer pocket, and natural linen handles. the inside is denyse schmidt for joann.

here are a few shots of little W’s nursery. i think my SIL decorated it so nicely – it’s a really peaceful room to be in and gets beautiful light, too!

you’d relax there if you were a little one, wouldn’t ya? i like the idea of the daybed in the nursery for those inevitable rough nights.

have you made a divided basket yet? if not, you should! such an enjoyable sew, so fast, and so fun to personalize, stuff with goodies, and give as a gift. i’ve now made three to give away (the other two are here and here), and i love making them every time.

oh and nope – still haven’t made one to keep yet!

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.

library dress in feathers

September 11, 2013December 2, 201317 Comments

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.