KCWC & SF

April 19, 2012October 3, 20129 Comments

i was sneaky. when i made Rae’s flashback skinny tee for my niece, it was to practice the pattern so i could remix it into a dress for a guest post over at elsie marley! HA! my post is up today – check it out here.

you guys are all signed up for Meg’s Spring Kids Clothes Week Challenge next week, right? it’s one of the most motivational blog events out there, especially for those of us that have lots of projects piled up in our heads and just can’t seem to ever shorten that list. it’s a great way to pound out a nice base of clothes for your kids during the transitioning seasons. during fall 2011 KCWC, i completed 5 items in 6 days! it felt great. here’s what i sewed:

hopscotch skirt | polka dot PJs | rosy pierrot | sailboat cords | angelina tutu

i’m not sure how much i’ll be able to accomplish this go around, but maybe i’ll surprise myself! i’ll likely be spending a good portion of the weekend tracing and cutting to get ready. i’m hoping to try the new oliver + s croquet dress, sew at least one pair of pants for my growing boy, and i really want to try some pinned-long-ago tutorials from blogs i love. but that could all change…we’ll see what happens!

and hey guess what else? this week i got to visit one of my favorite cities, san francisco, to take a 2 day class for work. most of the time i was stuck on the 21st floor of a high rise office building, but i DID have an evening free, and i made the most of it! i met up with cherie of you & mie (she’s a new blogger on the rise with the coolest taste – i mean look at this adorableness and all of this!). we had emailed a back and forth a bit, and she was super awesome in person – there was no lack of conversation in the 5 hours we hung out, and we’d never even met before! i guess when you’re both sewing/blog nerds there’s lots to talk about. 😉

we drooled all over four floors of amazing fabric at britex (look at all those rows of liberty!!!), had a lovely french dinner, then wandered around the city hunting for dessert. it was wonderful. i wasn’t too thrilled about being away from the kids, but meeting cherie gave me something to look forward to. thanks so much for making my trip a great one, cherie! i want to move to your city!!

i bought a couple things at britex…now to figure out how to work them into KCWC! can’t wait!

littlepinkkcwcbutton

housecaping

April 15, 2012July 9, 201212 Comments

soooo….remember my sheet as top? it ended up winning reader’s choice for week 2 “top of tops” over on made by rae! yahoo! thanks so much to rae, the judges that selected me, and everyone who voted. i didn’t make that top with a hope of winning anything – i was just testing my limits, excited to have a kick in the pants to sew for myself by one of my favorite bloggers. but i must say, never having won a thing like this before, i’m kind of giddy! my prize is $30 to modern fabric studio, and there’s so much awesome fabric over there i’m not sure how i’m going to spend my winnings! don’t worry, i’m sure i’ll figure it out. 😉 the judge’s choice this week is my pal sophie! funny thing – in her tribal trending tank post she mentions MY wiksten tank, and in my sheet as top post i mention her pussy bow blouse! i guess it’s kind of perfect that we ended up top of tops together this week…and we live halfway around the globe from each other! man, isn’t the internet cool?

did you see that season 4 of project run & play is now underway with a whole new group of fabulous designers? it’s so fun to watch these gals compete, now knowing what it really takes to execute these types of incredible looks. always fun to be inspired, too. week 1 was a remix of dana’s circle skirt which i’ve used quite a few times for my twirly girl, and the entries were so great. check out the rest of this season’s topics here (MOVIES! COLOR CHALLENGE! so jealous!). i plan to sew along in a “just for fun” capacity this season whenever the inspiration strikes and i have the time (and i hope some of my season 3 peeps join in too, wink wink!!). check out the rest of the sewalongers in the PR&P flickr pool.

also, i finally got it through my head how to make a button for my blog (over there in the sidebar) and how to organize my tutorial page so it’s MUCH easier to navigate. check that out here, with more to come! i might repost my guest tutorials soon just to have them all in one place…fair warning. 🙂

now one kind of annoying piece of business. i use flickr to host the images for this blog, and apparently flickr and pinterest are working out some kinks right now. i found out that most of the recent images on my site suddenly turned “unpinnable” on thursday, the day i posted a tutorial (of course)! i think it’s working now so a few photos from each post are pinnable, but please let me know if you ever have trouble with it. i’m a big pinterest fan – i’ve been on there since the very early days (2010!) and it’s great for keeping track of inspiration, recipes, and tutorials. i crop my kids’ faces out so i’m fine with anything on this site being pinned. i guess i just wanted to put that out there – i like pinterest, i’m not trying to hamper pinning, and please let me know if you want to pin from my site and can’t. if you’d like to follow me, my pinboards are here!

finally, the photos you’ve been seeing throughout this post are of the superhero cape i sent off to willa, daughter of reader jill, who won my first blogiversary giveaway a few weeks back! i sewed it in willa’s (errrrr jill’s) favorite colors and topstitched it with silver thread, which looks pretty darn cool when it catches the light. enjoy your cape, willa! Em tested it out for you and it flies just fine.

that’s it! thanks. stuff just had to be said. i feel better now.

sunshine dress tutorial

April 12, 2012March 5, 201433 Comments

it took me a while to decide on the design for Em’s easter dress this year. i knew i wanted to do some sort of color blocking, but i wasn’t sure how. i kept thinking horizontal, kind of a 60s mod, but i wasn’t super inspired – i wanted it more feminine and different. i tried my usual tricks to get inspired – i put it in my head before bed, hoped it came to me in the shower, etc., but it wasn’t happening. and then for some reason i put some mozart on as i was driving one morning (amadeus soundtrack), and this design hit me like a flash! crazy! i sketched it as soon as i was off the road.

between the two tones of kaffe fassett shot cotton i had recently bought (butter and sunshine), the easy shoulder ties (no zippers!), and easter symbolism, this was it.

the piecing technique is very similar to how i made my flapper tapper dress for project run & play, so i thought i’d do a little tutorial for it. the dress itself is Rae’s itty bitty baby dress in the 3T version, but you could use this technique on any simple bodice/skirt combo. i raised the neckline, narrowed and shortened the shoulder ties, and lengthened the bodice of the 3T IBBD slightly, then added a circle skirt from dana’s tutorial (use the bodice measurement as the waist measurement for the skirt). if it’s not pink, it must twirl for Em to wear it, and twirl it does!

TUTORIAL

i made the dress with 1 yard of each fabric, though I’d recommend buying a little more for a 3T – it took some creativity as i cut. shot cotton was perfect – lightweight for the piecing, but not see-through.

take the bodice pattern and trace it onto freezer paper. as i’d done some alterations to the pattern and made a muslin first, i used my altered piece and reflected it for a full bodice so it was symmetrical.

use the pattern to cut out a back bodice and two lining pieces out of the darker fabric.

now for the front piecing. from one corner, draw radiating lines up through the bodice using a straight edge. i drew one stopping in the middle of the neckline, and one that hit right under the arm, then one below. as you create your design, try to be conscious of the shape of your resulting pattern pieces and how you’ll put them back together. i started them each a small distance from each other, not a sharp point.

label and cut out your pieces. i found that once you just have triangles in front of you, it’s really hard to remember what is the top and bottom and where things go, so i labeled mine “light” and “dark” and wrote “top” on each so i didn’t piece them upside down.

fuse the freezer paper to your fabric, and use a ruler to add a 1/4″ seam allowance at the parts where the bodice will be pieced (no need on the shoulder ties – just where there will be seams between the two colors). cut out each section of the bodice.

arrange them back together before you start sewing, just so you know you’ve got it right.

sew each ray with a 1/4″ seam, right sides together. press seams toward the darker side as you go. when the top is done, use the back bodice piece as a pattern to trim away any wonky bits, then match them right sides together and sew the side seams with a 1/2″ seam.

pin and sew bodice front to bodice back around the shoulder ties, neckline, and armholes. clip into the curves and turn right side out. press.

for the skirt piecing, fold your circle skirt in half. draw radiating lines using a straight edge from one corner to the edge. label the sections that you’ll be replacing. cut out one section of the skirt labeled “dark” (top layer only!) and use it as a pattern to cut out the same shape from your contrasting (darker) fabric.

piece in the wedge, right sides together. cut out the next section from the circle skirt and repeat. if necessary, trim around the bottom of the circle skirt for uniformity, using your original circle skirt template. finish each seam as you go, and press toward the darker fabric.

gather the top of the skirt to match the bodice if necessary. match the side seam with the rightmost skirt ray, and pin the skirt to both bodice layers, right side together. sew with a 1/2″ seam and finish. press seam toward bodice.

hem the skirt by pressing 1/4″ toward the wrong side, again 1/4″, and stitching. you’re done!

it looks nice belted with a pettiskirt (tutu) underneath…

or without, for a more casual look.

either way, if you make it in yellows your little gal is sure to say the same thing mine did: “I’M A SUNSHINE!!”

if you make a pieced dress from this tutorial, i’d love it if you added it to my flickr group! and as always, please let me know if you have any questions. happy sewing!

hearts and plaid

April 10, 2012April 13, 201219 Comments

my niece just turned one, and i decided to make a comfy little outfit for her to wear this spring and summer as she transitions from crawling to walking. inspiration struck late on this one, so i ended up making it the morning of her birthday party while O napped and my husband took ballet class duty with Em!

the shirt is rae’s flashback skinny tee pattern in 12-18 mo. it was my first time making it, and now i’m kind of in love! it came together SO quickly and turned out great! it’s made with an old but not-worn-much jersey knit shirt of mine from old navy (i think it was one of those shirts that i got early in my pregnancy with Em – too big for non-maternity, not big enough for maternity). the lighter purple trim is a tank top that was too small and also never worn, and i added a little heart appliqué to the chest for extra cuteness.

i took rae’s tips and sewed most of the shirt with my walking foot, using a narrow zig zag stitch. the walking foot made sewing jersey muuuuch easier. i’m a convert.

to go with, i made a simple skirt with the scraps of the original sweet tartan dress. there’s just one seam in the back, an elastic waistband, and I added a double stitched hem. dana has a simple skirt tutorial here if you need instructions – a toddler skirt was my very first sewing project, and probably one of the easiest things to make!

and, um…i happen to have a 12-18 month size person in my house, so he got to model this soft and comfy little outfit for his girl cousin! i’m calling it a “utilikilt” while he wears it. 😉

for a kiddo that doesn’t prefer to wear clothes at all, this skirt seemed to give him a bare-legged “free” feeling that made him very happy. he was really digging it. the funny thing is, he’s a total boy with a big pot belly, and his cousin is a string bean with delicate features. this outfit just made him look like a boy wearing girl clothes rather than a girl…even though he’s just a baby! it was cracking me up.

he’s very proud of his tummy, as you can see. 🙂

i had to work on some sewing projects so the tutorial for Em’s sunshine easter dress is hopefully coming later this week. i’m so excited to show you more pictures of it!

have a lovely easter!

April 7, 2012April 8, 201211 Comments

wishing you and your family a wonderful weekend. i hope your days are full of hugs, sunshine, and great food (even if you don’t celebrate easter, it’s a great excuse to have brunch! mmmmmm….brunch).

we’ve actually got two birthdays to celebrate as well as easter! pretty sure both kids will get a big kick out of easter egg hunting this year, given that everything round is a “BALL!” to O and he likes to collect them everywhere he goes.

O’s vintage shirt is from stacy’s shop. Em’s sunbeam dress is based on the 3T version of Rae’s itty bitty baby dress, made in shot cotton with a circle skirt (using Dana’s tutorial).

i’m working on a tutorial for the pieced bodice and skirt, a technique you can incorporate into many different patterns! it’s actually the same method i used for my flapper dress, if anyone has wanted to know how i did that. i hope to have more about this dress and the tutorial up next week.