Houndstooth pants

Right before our February trip to Disney World, I sewed up a storm.  I made a few tulle O+S Onstage Tutu Skirts for the girls and some quick maternity separates for me.  The day before the trip I decided that the boy needed something too.

I didn't have time to draft a new size of my other go-to trouser patterns, so I decided to use the O+S Sunny Day Shorts pattern (size 3T) with added length.  When I tried the unhemmed pants on him the morning of the trip, I didn't like how they looked, so I threw them into the WIP basket, where they sat for two and a half months.

Blue Steel.

During KCW I finally hemmed them (that is all that was left to do!), and I'm actually quite pleased with the result.  I don't really remember what my beef was with the fit of the pants back in February - maybe they were too big.  He has grown a bit lately.

I cut the pieces from a scrap of heavy-weight houndstooth shirting (at least, that is what Robert Kaufman calls it; feels more bottom-weight to me) left over from my Amish Washi Dress.



I added front and back pockets, and lengthened the pattern.  I didn't get a photo of the pocket linings, but they are gray-and-white gingham.

He is is a big fan of the front pockets.

I like the houndstooth pattern a lot for a little boy.

It dresses up for church, but it also looks great with sneakers and a t-shirt - it kind of has a funky skater feel to it when styled more casually.

Hi ho Silver!

More baby stuff

I sewed most of these clothes months ago when I was in super-nesting mode, but I left most of the knit items unfinished due to frustration with my machine's refusal to hem the thin jerseys.  Bolstered by my knit sewing successes during KCW, I finally pulled them out and finished them.  I had limited myself to stash fabrics (with a special emphasis on using up small scraps) for the gender-neutral newborn layette, and here is what I came up with.  Fabric from Girl Charlee.

The t-shirt in this set is an XXS from Simplicity 5316, modified to remove the unnecessary side snaps (I've always been able to get it over the head just fine without them).  The pants are from a Made By Rae tutorial which I modified by lengthening the rise (to make more room for fluffy cloth diapers) and adding a yoga-style waistband (more comfy than elastic, and easier to sew with my serger).  I drafted the hat pattern.

This t-shirt and pants both from the same Simplicity 5136 pattern.  The pants (which are supposed to be 0-3 month size) look particularly huge so I don't know how they will fit for a newborn.  This wasn't meant to be a matching set - again, stash remnants (almost all from Girl Charlee)!  The hat pattern is my own.

This cloud fabric is a soft and comfy modal/cotton/lycra blend hat my machine really did not enjoy sewing.

These swaddles are from a free Lotta Jansdotter pattern.  I made the owl print one first but it seemed small so I lengthened the pattern for the second swaddle.  The outers are woven cotton prints and the inners are soft cotton knit.

My oldest loved swaddles, but the other two hated them, so I'm not sure how much use these will get.

Don't mind the wrinkles, they've been rolled up in a basket for months.

KCW Day 7: Paisley Boho Maxi Dress

Pinterest is driving me crazy.  Has anyone else noticed this?  All of a sudden my feed has blown up with "chosen for you" pins selected, apparently, by an algorithm that doesn't take into account whether I have already pinned said item.  It's super-annoying, because in at least half the cases, I HAVE already pinned said item.  This a) tells me that Pinterest has kind of become a closed loop and b) I don't check it much anymore.  I do still use it to pin things (mostly sewing related) that I find online, but the feed is kind of useless to me now.

BUT, yesterday I logged on and saw, at the top of my feed, the Boho-Maxi Dress tutorial from Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom, selected especially for me.  I had actually pinned this ages ago, but had forgotten about it.  My girls have been dying for maxi dresses and I wasn't sure what I would sew for the last day of this KCW.  It was serendipitous.

Anyway, as this dress requires nearly 2 yards of 45" wide fabric in my girls' sizes, I had to dig into the mama fabric stash box.  I found this paisley pima cotton lawn I got over a year ago at FabricMart.  When it arrived I immediately regretted the purchase - I couldn't think what I would possibly make myself with it.  So it went into the bottom of the stash box.  When I presented the girls with their fabric choices, though, little sister immediately grabbed it and called dibs.  I'm really glad she did because this stuff was a dream to sew.  It gathered perfectly, pressed crisply, and didn't make my machine crazy.

The pattern is very cute and sews up quickly.  The straps are a little wide for my taste but that is easily remedied in a future version (and big sister has also chosen fabric from the mama stash box, destined for the same pattern).

Six sundresses, two pairs of pajamas and the completion of a pile of WIPs later, this KCW is over!  I am not quite sure what I will do with myself now.

KCW Day 6: Two more comfy knit dresses

So the first fish dress I sewed ended up stretching horribly in the bodice due to un-stabilized shoulder seams.  I tried to fix it but I completely botched that.  I decided to scrap it and make one last fish dress   (again using my modified version of the Comfy Knit Dress tutorial) out of the remainder of my mom's old blue dress.  I didn't have enough fabric for the whole bodice, so the lining and the back bodice are aqua Laguna Jersey knit.

I made another out of some cotton/lycra jersey I just got from FabricMart.  I have a ton of this jersey now because they mistakenly sent me one yard instead of the 1.5 I ordered - and then to make up for the mistake, they sent two more yards in the mail.  If you like it, there is still a ton left on the site.  The jersey curled like mad but it seems to be very nice quality - supple and stretchy yet quite lightweight. The rest of it might make capri leggings and/or new pjs.

I actually did attempt pattern matching on the front bodice this time, and I'm pretty happy with the result!  The bodice is lined with a scrap of Free Spirit cotton/lycra - another jersey I like to work with.

The skirt is quite long - the proportions are actually nightie-esque - but this way it should fit her again next year.  The girls would not pose for photos today.  It wasn't actually warm enough to wear the dresses outside so they went on photo strike.

Little divas.

KCW Day 5: More stripey boy pjs

I made another set of summer pjs for my 2-year-old using stash scraps.  The top is made of the last of my dreamy Land of Oh striped interlock.  Even my machine likes it - see that hem?



Don't mind the loose thread.

The top is another super-lengthened size 12-18 month Oliver+S Field Trip Raglan.  As the interlock isn't very stretchy I probably should have drafted the next size up.  It should fit for the year though.

For the pants, I used the Oliver+S Playtime Leggings pattern in 3T - for no reason other than that the pattern piece was sitting on my ironing board and it was faster than digging out the Growing Up Sew Liberated Sleeping Johns pattern again.  I just cut off some of the length and came up with these breeches.  The fabric is some very bright yellow cotton/lycra from Girl Charlee awhile back - the color wasn't quite what I thought when I ordered it and so it has languished in the stash several years.

For the waistband I used my new favorite finish - serving the elastic directly to the edge of the fabric, then turning it to the side and topstitching right through the elastic using a three-step zigzag.  It looks so much better than my knit elastic casings, and seems to be holding up a bit better in the wash.  I have read that this approach only works if you use woven elastic or knit elastic - braided elastic apparently is weakened by sewing through it (oops, I used braided elastic in the legs of all my cloth diapers!).

The baby woke up super-cranky from his nap and although he was thrilled to try the pjs on, posing for photos was not high on his priority list.  Check out those teething cheeks.

I think I'm just about out of boyish knits now.  Whenever I am shopping for knits I get seduced by florals so that is mostly what is left in the stash.  I have checked out the usual suspects but I'm having trouble finding anything other than stripes or solids - and while I love those, I feel like I should branch out.  Where do you get your boyish knits?

KCW Day 3 - Fish Dress #3

My sister requested the black fish dress fabric for my niece.  She wanted the whole dress made out of the black fish fabric.  I used the same Comfy Knit Dress tutorial I'd used for the last two dresses, but I extended the bodice upwards about 3/4"(I had already lengthened it about 3/4") and only sewed one tier this time. This dress is about a size 5.

I'm much happier with the bodice fit now.  I am planning some (non-fish fabric) Comfy Knit Dresses for the remainder of KCW with the new mods.

I couldn't bear to just leave the dress black and white so I added some teal buttons I bought before we left Georgia and finished the hem with a teal zigzag.

And that's all there is to say about that.

KCW Day 2 - Fish Dress #2

Last night I sewed up the second fish dress out of my mom's old clothes using the Comfy Knit Dress tutorial.  I am much happier with my fabric choices this time.  I used a jegging fabric (left over from these jeggings) for the bodice and some scrap cotton/lycra knit for the lining.  Then I used the green fish dress for the bottom.  I had some thrifted buttons in the exact right shade of green.

I remembered to reinforce the shoulder seams this time, and I also shortened the straps a bit from my last dress.  I still feel that it is a little low-cut, so for the next dress I plan to redraft the front bodice.  I didn't notice it looking too low cut on the model when I first looked at the tutorial but upon reexamination I do think it is just drafted a little low for my taste. I plan to go back and add a green ruffle peeking out of the top of the bodice to fix the situation.

I should note that I did lengthen the straps originally, per the tutorials instructions for sizing up, however, that was necessary to ensure that the armhole was deep enough.  So I will need to just draw the top of the bodice about an inch higher for the next version.

I do still really like this pattern - it sews up quickly and it is so perfect for a little girl's summer dress. After I complete the fish trilogy, I plan to sew up another couple of these dresses using some stripey knit I got at the G Street fabrics $2.97 table.

Perfect playground wear and I know it will get a lot of use at the beach later this summer!