baby skirts!

I have a confession to make.  Um, I live in my pajamas.  Seriously.  I'm in them right now, and it's after noon.  After I shower, I just put on another clean pair of pj's, unless I'm going out.  And by out I don't mean to the yard or the mailbox, or the neighbor's house to let the dogs outside during the day.  I mean I'm getting in the car and heading somewhere.  There's no exception to this, except major holidays like Christmas and Easter, and not even always then.  I've been living this way for years now.  It's awesome.  

I pretty much don't dress Lila in "street clothes" either, unless we're going out.  But now that I've made a few of these skirts, I find myself actually wanting to put daytime clothing on the child.  During the day.  Even if we're not going out.  Yes!  That's how infatuated I am with these cuties.  My original "inspiration" skirt was a sweet find at a thrift store, before she was even born.  You can see her wearing it below - and OMG, I'm wearing street clothes, and I'm not in town!  It must be Easter.  Yes, that's from my Easter post.  Okay then.

So I liked that skirt so much that I made a sort of copycat, which you can see (not very well) in the photo below.  It's the only, and therefore the best, pic I have of her in it.  Sewing that skirt was a learning process for me, and it didn't turn out quite like I'd wanted.  But it's still cute on the girl.

And I've since made the two skirts you saw at the beginning of this post, one with gathers (which I adore) and one with pleats.  And just how cute is that mushroom fabric?  Too, that's how.  It's called "willow shroom" and it's by the Alexander Henry Fabrics Collection, 2009.  I think I picked it up at the Atlanta Sewing and Quilt Expo this spring.  As long as we're on the subject, the orange skirt is shot cotton by Kaffe Fassett.  Pictures cannot do it justice.  It's just so beautiful, soft, lightweight, and the colors!  Oh my.  You've seen me feature his shot cottons before, and you'll see them again, I'm sure.

Since my good friend Melissa requested that I make a tutorial for this skirt, well, I up and did!  Originally I was going to just do the pleated version, but then I made a gathered one for giggles, and liked it even more.  So you get both.  But you're gonna have to wait.  Not too long.  I've completed most of the tutorial, and I just need to find the time to put it all together with pictures and whatnot.  I expect to have it up sometime next week, with plenty of warm summer weather left.  Though I'm totally using the shroom skirt this fall and winter.  I'll just pair it with leggings.

The skirt will also come in two sizes - 12-18M and 2-3T, and can be made with or without pockets.  Plus the pockets can be square, U shaped, or whatever your heart desires.  So lot's of possibilities.  Okay, on to the action shots:

It was so hard to get pictures with the pockets showing.  So hard.  I mean this child just WILL NOT take direction.  Can you believe it?  It's like she has her own agenda or something.  Play, play play, all day long.  

Girl's looking a little wild in these pics.  I think because she needs her bangs trimmed.  I've done that once already, and she's not even a year old yet.  Do you know what I used?  Dog hair trimmers from Petsmart.  Bought them just for her.  They're perfect for the job.  What does that have to do with skirts?  Nothing. 

So be on the lookout for the tutorial!  I'm kinda excited about it, because I really am in love with the look of these skirts, and so wish to see them populate the Earth.

Best Wishes,

Teresa

baby pajamas: take 2

So this is my second rendition of the "discarded top becomes baby jammies" thing I've been doing lately.  As I mentioned in the last post, this is my way of learning to sew with knits.  And I'm definitely learning as I go.  

For instance: I got lucky with this pair of tops - they were both from Old Navy, and matched quite well. Except that the striped shirt is a good deal thinner than the solid gray one.  I thought this wouldn't be an issue, but it became one.  Looking at the first pictures again, you'll notice the cuffs at the bottom of the pants.  (Apologies for the dirt all over them - it's a long story.  I have a kid.  That's the short story).  Those cuffs are made from the same material as the pajama top, you know, to be cute and matchy.  Well, they're so heavy they weigh down the rest of the pants, and end up sliding under Lila's feet when she walks and crawls.  Also, I should have made them smaller than I did, so they would fit snugly around her leg instead of drooping there.  It would have looked better too.  

I considered removing the cuffs altogether and doing another lettuce hem, but decided to wait and see if she grows into them instead.  Because, and this just proves how overly critical we are of our own sewing, I put the original store-bought pants on her, and guess what?  Same thing.  Not quite as bad with the drooping, but still, the pants are long on her and slide under her feet, something that never bothered me until I made her a pair myself.  So they'll be a little long for a while.  

Allow me to dissect the shirt next.  I once again used Rae's Flashback Skinny Tee pattern, with great results.  I spoke about this in the last post, gushing about how much I like the pattern.  However, I had a sort of problem with the neck.  I initially was going to finish the neck with ribbing to match the bottoms, but it just didn't work for me.  When I measured around the neck and subtracted an inch, as the pattern says, I came up with a crazy big number.  I remembered reading Gail's skinny tee post over on probably actually that mentioned a similar issue, so I headed over there to reread it.  Gail's recommendation?  Follow the suggested length included in the pattern, rather than using your own measurement.  Which I did.  When I held up the finished neck ribbing (before sewing it on the shirt, smart me!) it looked suspiciously small.  Tiny even.  I tracked down baby and tried to squish it over her great bobble head to no avail.  Lila was not amused.

Here's the thing.  Knits are stretchy.  Some just aren't as stretchy as you need them to be to finish the neck.  Now I don't actually know anything at all about knit fabrics - what's a jersey, anyway?  This is why I'm learning with old shirts, and why I picked out fabrics that had matchy colors without thinking about whether their weight and stretch would pair well together.  But now I know!  Knits are like cheese and wine people!  Cheese and wine.  Except your cheese probably isn't stretchy.  Or maybe it is.  Um, I don't actually know anything about pairing wines either.  Shoot.

My point is, even with the neck issues, I still love this pattern and happily recommend it.  Here's what I did - I hemmed the neck to match the bottom of the shirt.  Just flipped it under, pressed, and sewed in place.  It made for a very nice, roomy, breathable neck that's easy to pull over Lila's enormous noggin.  Oh I do love how the Flashback tee can be personalized in so many ways.  As another example, I cut the seam allowance on the sides of the shirt in half, giving the finished garment more width and room.  I'm wishing I'd given it a little extra length to match the extra long legs on the pajama bottoms so she could grow into both equally.  Next time.  

See the cuffs sliding under her feet?  

And you can see how perturbed she is by that, right?  

I do believe I shall be making more jammies in the future, so be on the lookout.  First though, I have a long overdue baby skirt tutorial to put up, and Lila's first birthday is coming, so you can expect good things related to that.  

Best Wishes!

Teresa

sweet little dress: pattern review

Sweet little dress, and sweet little pattern as well!  This is the "sweet little dress" pattern by Leila & Ben, priced at $6. (You can purchase the 12M to 5T pattern here.  They also have a pattern for babies under 12M and another for kids age 6 to 10 on their website, all of them downloadable PDF's). 


First let me say that I actually had fun making these.  Yes.  Fun.  Otherwise I wouldn't have hauled off and made three of 'em.  Once I'd finished the first one, the rest came together extremely fast - less than two hours apiece.  And for that investment of time, I'm very happy with the results. 

One day I will rule this Earth...

I think the simplicity of the solid fabric, shot cottons by Kaffe Fassett, pairs beautifully with the understated details of the pattern.  My sister, who has a baby girl the same age as my Lila, saw the picture above and immediately requested one for her Kira.  She actually told me she'd pay money for one.  Which of course I would never take, but I tell you, she was enthusiastic.  Well, I can't have poor Kira going all nakey, can I?  So I made her one too - the pink one.  It's in the mail and on the way as I'm writing this.  (Don't tell!)

These are sized for a 12 month old, larger than our nine month old babies, so there's room to grow.  I modified the pattern on all three to make them more of a short dress, which will later function as a regular shirt.  I thought the shorter length, cut above the knee, was cuter for a baby, and easier for them to crawl, scoot, and pull themselves up in.  The purple one is hemmed very short, so that it fits as a shirt for now.  However, if you look closely, you'll see the hem is set higher, and that's because I have another, hidden hem rolled up and pressed inside there.  So all I have to do when I want more length is undo the outer hem, wash, dry, and press the bottom, and it'll be all ready to go - no more sewing required.  Yay!

see the different hems?

And looking closely at the hem on the blue dress, you'll see that I've added embroidery along the bottom, just for an extra little something (and because I've been searching for an excuse to try that stitch on my sewing machine, truth be told).  

What I Learned:

First, the pattern cut-out.  I had to pay a lot of attention while cutting out the pattern, and do a lot of cutting and taping of different pieces which had printed across multiple pages to form the body pattern.  It was a little confusing there for a second, and took a bit of time.  Looking closely at the pattern, I think it may be more of an issue for the 12M size than the others.  But with a bit of patience it came together correctly in the end - no big deal.  


To modify the length, I traced the bottom hem onto a sheet of paper, cut it out to use as a template, and then placed it over the original pattern, moving it up and down until I was happy with the length.  Then I traced it onto the original, and cut.  This left me a shorter pattern, but the same slight curve along the bottom the original version had.  Make sense?  

When cutting out the fabric, I realized the sleeve pattern was a mirror image just like the body piece, and could be folded in half and placed along the fold of the fabric for cutting, just like you do for the body piece.  Since there are two sleeves per dress this saved me a bit of time, and after making three of these, it added up.  If you have a baby you know what I'm talking about here.  Craft time = nap time - (cleaning+laundry+errand+cooking time) = not a lot of time.  Along the same lines, I discovered that sewing all four of the sleeve seams first, and then going back and zigzag stitching to finish them, saved some time. (Rather than sewing one, switching over to zigzag, adjusting settings, trimming, and switching back again as the pattern instructs).  

And a final tip: be careful when sewing around that neck hem - if your fabric is anything like mine, it will want to unroll itself as you sew that curve, and chaos will ensue.  The seam ripper will pay you a visit.  And you know you don't want that.  So take your time, and make sure those seam allowances are well pressed before you start.  Luckily, the neck is all elasticized in the end, so minor mistakes won't show.  And you know your little darling is just going to puke up all over it anyway, right?


In the end, this was a simple, easy to follow, guaranteed success kind of a pattern.  And because it's basic, I could envision all kinds of sweet ways to make it your own - embroidery, applique, coordinating sleeve fabric, bias tape or rickrack for trim along the bottom, pockets, buttons, golly gee.  I'm starting to want to make another, just so I can try out something from that list.  If you'd like to see some very cute variations of this dress using patterned fabrics, corduroy, and in full length, check out this post from Maggie over at Smashed Peas and Carrots.  Since I have the basic pattern through 5T,  I know I'm going to get a ton of use from it.  So, final review: I'm really happy with this pattern.  

my cutie patootie, with Sukie on guard

See the above photo?  That's Lila, pointing to the end of my blog post.  As in, finish up Mom, and come play with me!  Yes ma'am.

Best wishes,
Teresa