Thursday, April 7, 2011

Quick Kid Projects

For Christmas, I made these Composition Book Covers for my daughter and niece using two fabrics from Amy Butler's Love collection. I just winged the pattern based on the book measurements. If you look closely you'll notice that I sewed the pencil pouch upside down on my daughter's! No worries, it still holds the pencil snugly. This fleece robe is from New Look 6847, a versatile patttern, with options for unisex kids robe and pajamas (woven bottoms and knit tops). So far, I have only sewn the robe pattern.The fleece was chosen by my daughter at our local Hancock Fabric. I let her choose anything she wanted (but did strategically steer her away from the licensed character prints!). I have found that fleece is so easy to work with. Fleece edges don't fray, so for the pockets, I just pinked the edges and topstitched the pockets right onto the robe. When sewing with fleece, I have used a regular straight stitch, although I've read that a stretch stitch is best. Rather than make loops to hold the belt, I just stitched it right to the back of the robe. One of my robes is finished this way and it makes so much sense, rather than always matching the belt to the robe after laundering or constantly rethreading the belt through the loops...especially for a little person.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Ruffled Halter Dress

Ruffled Halter Dress by Oliver and S



In eager anticipation of summer weather, I made my daughter a summer dress. The pattern is the Ruffled Halter by Oliver + S, featured in Stitch Magazine Spring 2010 and available for free download. The pattern is actually a top, so for my dress version, I added an additional 4-5 inches of length to the bodice pieces and added a fourth ruffle. This came together quickly and is cute on my daughter. My model was not in the mood tonight, so the climbing wall will suffice as a backdrop!ruffled halter dress by oliver and s The fabric is Monarch in Tangerine from Valori Well's Del Hi line. The orange is a welcome addition in a closet overrun with pink and purple! A nice feature of this pattern is that the bias-cut ruffles can be left with a raw edge...quck and easy. I cut a large. My daughter has just moved out of 5T and now in a girls XS or 5. The dress is plenty big; you can see the elastic is quite scrunched along the back to fit. I left about two inches extra on the end of the elastic so the dress can grow with her.



I have not made many clothes for my daughter in the past - probably the opposite of most sewists with little girls - because it was so easy to find cute clothes for her as a baby and toddler. Now that she has moved into Girl sizes, I'm finding the styles to be less appealing....read: too "tween" for our tastes...she's still our baby :) With this in mind (and a ridiculous fabric stash staring at me) I see more little girl clothes in my future, especially ones that sew up this quickly.