Love Sabrina

I'm feeling a little word-impaired tonight, so this post will be light.

Another Sabrina, this time the dress version. For V-day, of course, but also suitable for the rest of the year.

Fabric: Chez Ami stripe cotton/lycra jersey, cotton rib knit from Golden D'Or fabrics via the Walmart clearance table. Man, I miss Wal-Mart's clearance stuff. So sad they decided to downsize their fabric departments. :(

Pattern: Mamu Sabrina. I shared my thoughts about this pattern in this post, nothing new to say. Except that it won't be my last version. :)

She hasn't mentioned it, but I suspect this dress is really comfortable. I have the woman's version of the pattern, so I might be making some of my own very soon.


She was a little upset when she didn't see any heart fabric on my cutting table, so I added this reverse applique on the pocket. I also added a few embroidered ribbon trims. The ribbon is more of my vintage garage sale stash stuff.


More Sabrinas to come!!

Modkid Maya Take 2

I had more fabric slated for the Maya pattern, so for this one I tried to make it as different as I could. I sewed the short-sleeved version, and I didn't feel like sewing more ruffles, so I changed the neckline to a tie one. I think I might like it better than the ruffles, and it was far easier. :)

Fabric: Pink Blossoms by Patty Young for Michael Miller Fabrics. The trim is Solid Raspberry.

Pattern: Modkid Maya. I am in love with this pattern. I don't think I'm done with it yet. Amertized out of how much I will sew it, even full price, this pattern is a bargain. I LOVE Modkid patterns! Have I sold you all, yet???

If I were a really awesome blogger, I would have taken pictures on how I changed the neckline. Buuut I didn't take pictures. Whoops. :p I will say that I took the neckline binding piece and added, oh, something like a good 18" inches on either side of it. So, 36" total to whatever its original length was. To attach it you:

1. Sew both shoulder seams.

2. Fold your new, extra-long binding piece in half, right sides together.

3. Sew along the short sides and 18" in on each long side.

4. Turn right sides out & press the whole thing flat.

5. Clip about 1/4" in from where you stopped your stitching.

6. Decide where you want your bow to be on the front of the dress/top, and mark that as your "center".

7. Mark the rest of the neckline in quarters in relation to your new "center".

8. Mark the non-tie part of your binding strip into quarters (just as if you hadn't added ties on either end of it).

9. Attach the binding as per the instructions, except you will be sewing it in the round.

10. Topstitch as directed & then tie a bow.

Yay, it's a bow neckline.

I love how simple this skirt is, and how little fabric it uses up. I think it's definitely going to be a staple knit skirt pattern for me!

Up next, more Michael Miller knit projects!

Modkid Maya Take 1

This week I've made two dresses from this pattern. I am finally getting around to sewing up my treasure trove of Michael Miller knits that I purchased in the Summer, right before we moved.

I think need to intersperse quick, simple projects like this in with the challenging ones if I want to increase my volume AND skills. My daughter is in dire need of new clothes after all my sewing neglect this Fall, so I need to step it up. I sewed 3.5 outfits for her this week, and it feels good!

Fabric: Carnival Bloom and Clown Stripe 100% cotton interlock from Michael Miller fabrics. Usually interlock knit is very stable and easy to sew, but I find these a bit stretchier than the interlocks I am used to. I think each garment I've made from it needs a good run through the washer/dryer to tighten everything back up. That's a good idea with all knit garments you sew, but especially important when you use knit fabrics without any spandex in them. If you are new to knits here are some really great tips for working with them.

Pattern: Modkid Maya. A great beginner knit pattern. Excellent directions, simple but cute. No complaints. The sleeves are a smidge long, but that makes for more growing room.

I made the dress view. No sense making a separate top and bottom, since I knew she would never wear them independently of each other.

The waistband of the dress version needs to sit up on the waist so that the top will blouse out over it. She kept pulling it down; I kept pulling it back up.

Since a 100% cotton knit like this has poor recovery (i.e. it doesn't bounce completely back to it's original shape once you stretch it), I think it's really helpful to gather the skirt section to the waistband with clear elastic. Here is a tutorial on how to gather with clear elastic, but to be honest, I don't measure. I pull either medium-much or a lot-much (kind of hard to explain the "feel", but after doing it a few times, it becomes natural) on the elastic as I sew. If I didn't pull the elastic tight enough I cut off some of the excess skirt and then sort of fudge it as I sew it the the waistband or whatever. Usually my fudging is about right, though. Once again, I order my clear elastic by the 10 yard-ful from Sewzannes.

I love, love the huge, bright flowers in this print. I fused a few scraps to a knit interfacing to stabilize them a bit, then cut out the flower shapes. I glued them onto a brown velvet headband, which you can't really see in her dark hair.

I gathered these strips the old-fashioned way. Sigh. Sometimes ruffle gathering like this feels tedious to me, even though it doesn't take very long. You just have to be so careful to get them straight, and I don't feel like feeling stressed when I'm sewing a simple t-shirt dress. I love the result, though.

As the sleeves were a little long, we just cuffed them to get them out of her way. I have a feeling that after a few washes, this won't be much of a problem anyway.

Coming up, another Maya!

Jump Rope Dress

Ahh, finally done!

I am embarrassed at how much I dragged my feet on this project. Even when I had time to sew, I found excuses to not work on it . While sewing on 7 buttons and hand-stitching the inside collar, I looked at this mass of what suddenly looked like prairie-homeschool-corduroy on my lap and thought, "this dress is awful, I might hate it, and I am going to have to chalk up all this work to a learning experience."

However, as I neared the finish line, it began to seem kind of cute-ish. When I put it on DD (who was thrilled, BTW), it looked even cuter. Like the classic shirtdress it is supposed to be, it was perfectly age appropriate and timeless on my 5 year old girl. Whew.

Fabric:

Cotton corduroy from Joanns. I have been pretty happy with all the cord I've purchased there. It is slightly thinner than what you might get from, say, Robert Kaufman or Michael Miller, but that suits our milder weather. This particular cut has been sitting in my stash for nigh on 2 years.

Pattern:

Oliver & S Jump Rope Dress. Comparing O & S's pattern catalog against my 4 years worth of Ottobre backlist issues, I tend to have similar ones already on hand, so it is hard to justify purchasing one. Don't get me wrong, I really like a lot of the their patterns; it just doesn't make sense for me personally to collect them. But, this is the only non-Big 4 shirt dress pattern I have been able to find in my daughter's size, and I have heard so many good things about O & S that I wanted to try one of their designs.

Well, this is a completely awesome pattern. So well drafted, such good instructions. Even with high expectations, I am very impressed. This one was a labeled a 3 scissor pattern (out of 4), and I think that's about accurate. I usually use quicker, ready-to-wear techniques to construct my garments, but for this one I wanted to go old-fashioned and did everything exactly like the instructions said. Pressed open seams and all. Several of the style features were out of my comfort zone, and I'm so happy to have challenged myself:

-Button placket - You see these on the sleeves of men's shirts--it's a faced opening that is not on a seam, but rather opens up in the middle of the fabric. On this dress it's on the center front of the bodice.

-Collar

-Cuffed sleeves with a button tab that comes up over the cuff

-Gathering the old-fashioned way -- Make two lines of long stitches, then pull up on the threads to gather the fabric. I usually use my serger to gather, but in the spirit of slow old school, I forewent the serger this time.

I think the length is perfect for now, with a enough growing length to last us into next Fall.

I had this Latte With Linky bracelet for me, but I thought it went so perfectly with this dress, so I put it on DD. She LOVES it.

The pockets have a faux flap on the front, so when you sew the button on, you also sew the flap to the front of the pocket.

Unfortunately not matter how much I told her that, DD insisted that there was another pocket opening underneath that flap. Of course, she came home from school with a missing button. Denying that she had tried to dig underneath the flap for the fabled second pocket and popped off the button. Sigh.

I thought the sash tied in a bow looked all Happy Hands at Home, so I did a knot instead. Under much protest from the wearer. "But I want a pretty booooooow...!!"

Mostly everything on this dress is top stitched, but it sort of melts right into the corduroy. BTW, I am a poor photographer, but my camera really hated this fabric. I wish the details had come out a little clearer. The silver lining is that, even in person, any top stitching mistakes are basically impossible to see.

These button tabs are faux, as well. Hopefully she doesn't try to unbutton the cuffs, because then we'll have more missing buttons.

Classic expression for her. Just. Thinking so hard about some hare-brained idea. Such as, "Mommy, I have a great idea! I'm having a party tomorrow, so let's send out invitations. Here, I'll address them."

(You can guess what the addresses look like. Then when I try for the umpteenth time to explain that this is not how the world works: 1 day notice parties, lumpy envelopes with play-doh creations inside, markered addresses like "Prncus Avlin, hr has", the waterworks come...sigh. Then, more of these expressions.)

Lots of stuff to come.

Tillbrook Mia

These Tillbrook Fairies made quite a splash when they came out, oh, something like 2 years ago? Naturally I have hoarded mine, saving them for the perfect project.

But now I have decided that there is always more fabric. So into the rotary blade and sewing machines goes my treasured pieces.

I wanted to use up a good bit of the 5 total yards I had of this line. I still have about 2 yards of the all-over fairies and .5 of the mushrooms left after this, so I will save those for a later dress. Probably something super Summery or something.

Since we're just barely into Winter, and this pattern is short sleeved, I also sewed a long-sleeved shirt (Ottobre 4/2004 #36) and 3/4 leggings (Ottobre 2/2007 #17) out of some cream colored 100% cotton interlock from Joanns.

Technically you should sew leggings out of knit fabrics with lycra in them, but I suck at following rules. This is what I had on hand that matched, so I went with it. I put slightly more ease in the leggings (added width at the side seams and around the crotch/back centre seam for DD's badonkadonk), and I think they fit fine. The first pair of leggings I bought at Target 5 years ago didn't have any lycra in them, and they held up fine for several years. We will see how these do.

On with it:

Fabric: Tillbrook Fairies by the Alexander Henry Collection. I used the border print for the skirt, the all-over fairies for the bodice and ruffle, and the mushrooms for the sleeves and belt.

Pattern: Pink Fig Mia. This was my first Pink Fig pattern. I must say that I am not drawn to hoard very many of their patterns, because so many of them seem to be similar. I think this is one of 2 or 3 peasant top patterns they have in their collection. For the price of a boutique pattern, I would rather get something unique, complex, and with several versions, as in Sandi Henderson's wonderful Portobello Pixie line. Oh well. I will say that this pattern appeared to be well-drafted, and the instructions were good. I came out of it with a smidge more respect for Pink Fig than I started with. This is one of the cutest peasant top patterns out there, and I do recommend it.

The Tillbrook border print actually has quite a bit of burgundy at the bottom, which I'm not a huge fan of. I set my rolled hem right at the bottom of the last mushroom row to cut most of the burgundy off.

The Mia actually has a double-layered skirt. The top skirt is cut so that it is slightly shorter than the underskirt. The underskirt has a 3" ruffle attached to it, so this way you get a good 2" of ruffle peeking out. I totally adore the look. (And so does she.)

The belt keeps riding up above the waist seam, so I may add some waist carriers at the side seams to keep it more in place. The waist seam isn't hideous per se, but I think it looks much better if it's covered up.

She insists this is her ballet dress, and asked to wear it to ballet. Which I haven't signed her up for yet. Because I'm a bad mom. Or, because I haven't been able to find one that is close and doesn't conflict with her school schedule. Help?!

The front and back bodice are both completely shirred, and the sleeves each have 2 rows of shirring. Combined with all of the rolled hems, this project is not difficult, but definitely tedious. I love the look of shirring, but I can't say that I enjoy sewing all of those shirring rows! Plus, I have had too many shirring disasters over the years (pulled out elastic, too-tight elastic, elastic that won't shir), that I always feel a little nervous when I do it. I think I've got it down by now, but I'm still left with the tedium.

Love these 3/4 sleeves. :)

See what I mean? Could there be more rolled hems? Okay, there could, but I mean seriously. This was definitely a 2-night project.

I wanted the ties to have a little more whimsy, so I did my own thing and made them shaped. It's subtle, but I love the way they turned out.

I did a quick little ribbon bow and ribbon covered headband for this, and you can't see, but I also hot-glued 2 pearl buttons in the middle. It goes with this dress, but will also match anything else she has that's pink. Part of me is scared, however, that it looks like a baby headband. DD loved it and wouldn't take it off though, so that is all that's important. I refuse to squash her free spirit (hey, did it work with me????).

I am trying this sewing schedule where I get all the dishes done, etc., and DD down by 7pm. Then I sew from 7-9pm. After that I can come down and spend some time with hubby or read. So far it's working great, and I am loving the production level I have. A few nights a week, I let myself sew until 11pm, in which case I can usually finish an entire project. Of course, times and needs change, so we will see how this works out long-term. If needs be, I may have to adapt the schedule.

Next up: either pjs for my son, or a corduroy shirtdress for her. We will see...

2 Hot pink dresses

I switched everything over to hot pink, and have been cutting/sewing up all sorts of variations-on-a-hot-pink-knit-dress for DD. I love hot pink; it makes me so ridiculously happy to sew it. And, pretty much, quick little knit dresses for DD are my favorite kind of garments to sew. I finished both of these in 1-2 hours, not including cutting, which I do at night while we're watching tv.

This one is the Mamu Katrin, which is the same pattern as the hearts dress in the last post. I used a wooooonderfully soft polka dot interlock knit from Joann's. Everyone is always knocking Joann's, but really, sometimes they DO have nice stuff. Especially lately. I can certainly find enough stuff to break my budget every time I go in there! The tights are from Old Navy (DD says they're scratchy, grr), and the shoes are from The Children's Place.


When my mom saw DD before we walked outside to take pictures, she commented that she looked Christmasy. I thought, heeeey, why not? So apparently I've gotten a head start on my holiday sewing, without even knowing it. Maybe DD can wear this for the early Christmas we are having with my relatives later this month.



This next one is lengthened from tunic pattern that was in the Autumn Ottobre issue this year. I always enjoy taking Ottobre tunic patterns & fiddling with them to make simple dresses. All of their patterns work so well together, you can easily switch out sleeves with other sleeves, tweak details, etc. DD will pretty much only wear dresses, so I have to make this top-to-dress sort of modification a lot.

Fabric is a cotton/lycra jersey, and I used black picot edged elastic to finish the neckline and sleeves. I did not make the leggings; they are from Target. I know I will see 50 other girls wearing them before Winter is over, but whatever. Fabric.com sold out of a black lace-print knit that I was planning to buy & use for this purpose (and a dress for me, so sad!), so oh well. I love them, and they inspired the dress. It was like, "she must have black lace-print leggings, now what would go with that?" So off I went to my stash/patterns & came up with this. Can I be super proud of how it turned out? Oh, and her shoes are also from The Children's Place online. I am such a happy shoe customer there; I have been super pleased with their selection, quality, and fit.





On another sewing note, I was so excited yesterday when I got an email from an editor at Sew Hip (a UK sewing magazine) saying that they want to use pics of my gray dress in an upcoming issue. I guess they are reviewing The Sophisticate Dress pattern by Anna Maria Horner, and they needed a larger size picture for their review. I haven't heard back from the editor, though, so until I actually get confirmation, this is still just hearsay. But, even the thought is flattering!

Anyway, the dress saga continues, because I was checking my Flickr account today, and I saw a new comment on one of the two pictures of this dress. It was from user annamariahorner, and it said, "You look beautiful!" Did I mention that Anna Maria Horner designed the dress pattern and I am a huge, HUGE fan??? (Yes, she is really on Flickr and yes, she checks her own pools.) Like, holy cow, that just freaking made my day!!! God bless Flickr. :) :)

Okay, gotta go, have a busy day of sewing up more hot pink dresses!

So pretty, so speedy

I finally braved the coverstitch machine this week, and...I am in love!!! It makes the prettiest, flattest hems. It is probably my quietest machine, just purring softly as I feed my fabric though. And it is freakin' fast--I sewed 3 dresses for DD today alone! Now I feel like I am actually getting somewhere on our Fall wardrobes.










I love this Halloween print. It's little pumpkins with the word "boo" scattered around. It's not always easy to find sweet Halloween prints, so I was really happy when my co-op offered it.

I'm not going to go into detail on all of these dresses, but can you tell that I have white in my serger and coverstitch these days? Re-threading is such a PITB that I am really trying to group my sewing by color as much as possible. It takes a little bit of planning ahead, but it does speed things up. I have two pairs of pjs for DS and two more dresses for DD, and then I can switch out. Ugh, I am so sick of white!

To le coverstitch!