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.

if she got a problem, yo i solve it

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PROBLEM:

em wanted to bring her favorite buddy, frankie the elephant, along for a ride on her new strider bike.  stuffing frankie down her shirt didn’t work, so she tried my ergo carrier….which is just a tad bit too big.

SOLUTION:

i made a frankie carrier that’s just her size!

DETAILS:

the pattern is the bear carrier from little things to sew, a quick and satisfying project.  she’s actually even wearing a lazy days skirt i made pre-blog (frankie makes an appearance in that picture, too)!  i didn’t plan on her wearing two oliver + s items when i was taking these photos, but they go together nicely, i think.  🙂

the carrier has a special elephant pocket (daiwabo elephants).

em picked the pink fabric when i got a bit stuck (a lovely choice – it’s sevenberry voile i first used way back here, i added interfacing under the pocket to reinforce it a bit).  i lined it with the gray sunkissed stripe by sweetwater fabric from her alice dress.

with frankie snug in her carrier, she happily brought her along as she rode (and ran) off into the sunset.  aaaah, i love the magic hour!

it’s fun sewing for her because she is usually very appreciative, especially when i’m filling a need (although my fabric selection is still very limited by her strict “favorite color” guidelines at the moment, harumph!).  pretty funny to get special requests of “mommy can you make me that?” from a 3 year old.  i love it, though, i’m not gonna lie.

word to your mother.

sleeveless in seattle

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great blog post title, or the greatest blog post title?  hehe.  look, i made myself a dress!

my husband’s college roommate got married in a beautiful evening ceremony in seattle last weekend, so we headed up for a 27 hour getaway, sans kids.  i was pretty nervous about leaving O (especially while still nursing), but he and Em did great with grammie and grandpa and we got to sleep in until 9am for the first time since he was born!  anyway, back to the dress, my very first dress i’ve sewn for myself.  the photo above is pre-lunch, wandering around the pike place market area figuring out what to eat.

and then post-lunch in photo session #2, against this cool wall  i spotted near the market.  slightly buzzed from a pint of pike’s pale and belly full of sauteed mushroom burger, i was much more comfortable modeling!  hm…

the fabric is a green seersucker from joann.  i thrifted the pattern (butterick 6376) for 75¢.  i’m guessing it’s from the ’70s, don’t you think?

i’m not really a size 12, but i had always planned on omitting the elastic waistband and cinching it with a belt at my natural waist.  i think it’s a little crazy that i paid less for it in 2011 than it originally sold for!

this cracks me up too.  the original owner scrawled “skirt 13 inches longer.”  weeellll…i think i cut the skirt about 13 inches shorter than the pattern!  i cut it in a bit of a U shape so the sides have a subtle curved bottom like the hem of a men’s shirt.

my favorite part is the shoulder pleats.  i had to redo the neckline itself multiple times, because it looked like a potato sack or something.  it didn’t look like the package.  it was supposed to be finished with a neckline facing and topstitched, but after i had to go much deeper with the V, i just made bias binding and bound the neckline instead.  i like the contrast in stripes.  i had to do a little funky work at the bottom of the V because i cut the neckline a little TOO deeply, but it’s hidden by the belt.

all in all, i consider it a success and something i will wear on the remaining summer days, plus with a sweater and tights as the weather cools off.  as with my sorbetto top, i picked a too big of size and had to do a lot of adjusting to get the fit i wanted.  when i was actually wearing the dress, though, i didn’t feel self-conscious about the “mistakes,” i felt proud to be wearing something i made!

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.

pinwheel sailboat pants

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little guy is growing out of his pants again!  time to make him some.  we went to the zoo with gail on friday, and her little cutie, lila, was wearing a pair of chambray oliver + s sailboat pants (we know each other only through a longtime mutual sewing admiration on flickr, so it’s fun to dress our kids in handmades when we see each other).  gail told me these pants were a easy sew and they looked super cute.  sooooo i went ahead and started these at 9pm on saturday night for O to wear to his cousin’s baptism on sunday morning.  who needs sleep when you can sew!

the pattern came together really nicely, of course.  i made the 6-12 month size.  i had a little trouble figuring out a good boy fabric for them, but ended up raiding my husband’s closet and found this pair of gray j.crew chinos he never wore because they had spots on them.  i cut the pattern out of just one leg!  they’re a pretty heavy twill, but soft to the touch.

i hunted through my scraps for some stripey material to mimic these awesome sailboats but didn’t have enough, so i decided to cut into my recently-acquired sarah jane studios children at play pinwheel fabric for the facings. i’m so glad i did – i love it so much!  harvesting the buttons from my husband’s now-mangled pants completed the look.


this was a really fun sew, even though i was sewing late and definitely should have been in bed.  the details are just really nice, and i love them on him.

oh yeah, he can stand up holding onto things now.  he barely stays still for a moment!  the heavy material should be durable for crawling, too.  it’s gonna have to be, because he’s on the move.