Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Skulls and Rainbows

Mr. T makes an appearance.  Poor kid hasn't had anything made for him since the very beginning of January.  I got this awesome skull fabric and wanted to do teal sleeves to match, but T decided he wanted black sleeves. I explained that it gets hot in summer and black is not the best, but he was adamant.

Ottobre 03/2013 #39 Beisbol Raglan T-shirt

Size: 152 - T's measurements were just under this, and it fits perfect.


Fabric: 1 yard skulls fabric from purpleseamstress $10; a wonderful cotton/lycra.  The black is scraps left over from my lady skater also a cotton/lycra.


Instructions: I didn't use them. Sorry, lol.  This is the second time I've made this top for T, the first time was in August 2013 and I had no problems with the instructions.


Great T-shirt, great fabric, happy kid, happy mom.

And on to Miss K, who always gets new things.
Ottobre 06/2013 #26 Pumpkin Pie Jersey Dress
This is an instance where I got great fabric, had an awesome idea in my mind, and then when I made the dress it wasn't exactly as I envisioned.  But, surprisingly, Miss K is in love with it.

I've made this pattern 3 times now. The first being the Oranges dress in March 2014; the second being the cheetah dress in November 2014, and now the Rainbow dress.

I actually used the pattern skirt as it calls for with the different panels.  As you can see I did a rainbow around it.  The bodice I left as one fabric, not 2 like the pattern.  And I made the sleeves short because it is getting to be summer.

Size: straight 146, fit: great, although a bit short. Instructions are great, but I didn't use them.
Fabric: cotton/lycra for the plain colors.  Some from purpleseamstress, and some from fabric.com (Laguna, Kaufman) I could tell that the purpleseamstress is much better quality.
The bodice is luscious poly jersey from a facebook group "cuddle muffins".  It is called Shattered Showers and was $21 a yard.... yes, you read that right.  But it is amazing and K had to have it.  I used very little here for the bodice so expect to see this print again as I hoarded away 2 yards.


I had made up these yellow leggings to go under the dress, but K had her own thoughts on what she wanted to wear as leggings.

Ottobre 04/2013 #30; size 152 width and 146 height.  Fabric: purpleseamstress, yellow. This and the dress used up the 1 yard at $6.50.  These are just below the knee at capri length.

~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~

Monday, April 27, 2015

End of the month catch up; Jalie, Ottobre

April is winding down and I haven't had a chance to blog about these makes.
First up is a "meh" sweatshirt for me. I love this pattern dearly, but the fabric was not good.
Jalie 3355 

Ignore chalk mark in middle, I haven't washed this yet. 

Size: "U" for shoulders/bust/waist to "X" at the hip.  This is exactly to my measurements.

Fabric: I have a hard time finding good quality sweatshirt fleece.  If anyone knows of a good place, let me know please!  I picked up this purple from fashionfabricsclub "Regal Purple Sweatshirt Fleece" but it is a lot heavier and stretchier than I wanted. It is more like sweatpant material and less like a sweatshirt - if that makes sense.  $6.50 per yard and I used 1 1/8 yard.
The tie-dye fabric is an amazing rayon modal knit from purpleseamstress (flash sale at $4/yard).  I love it but it was not such a good idea to use it for the cuffs/hem band because it is too loose and flowy, not good recovery. Better for a maxi...yet to come ;-)

Fit: It is hard to tell with this cruddy fabric.  The arms are super long - which I do like in cold weather.  The fit is boxy- what you would expect in a sweatshirt.

Eh, you win some, you lose some. I might wear this, I might now, we shall see. :)


Ottobre 01/2011 #33 "Meet-up" T-shirt tunic
I picked up a cute green shirt for Miss K a bit ago for super cheap.  She didn't like the shoulders and arms because they were really tight but she loved the jewel part.  I lost the receipt so I couldn't take it back.  Then I figured I would just fix the shirt by hacking off the bottom and sewing up a new shoulder/sleeve/top bodice part.


Fabric: Scraps of Laguna Stretch Cotton Jersey Heathered Knit Pepper, Kaufman for the Gray. The green is from the old shirt ;-)

Size: 146
 New Shirt

old shirt


The pants are Ottobre 06/2008 #35 "Mimmi" corduroy pants
Size 140 Plus
Fabric: 1.5 yards of nice soft eggplant corduroy with a bit of stretch. I picked this up from Mill End Textiles in August 2013 for only $2.99 a yard.

I've made them twice before and this time I widened the waistband by 1"- it is perfect now
and I lowered the front rise by 1/2".  I think the rise is still a bit high so I might take another 1/2" if I make them again.  These are still a bit loose on K but just right height-wise so I will most likely add an inch to the hem next time.


These are a nice alternative to yoga pants and K doesn't seem to mind wearing them.


It is really hard to photograph these pants. They are a bit darker, eggplant


Added buttonhole elastic to make the waist adjustable. 

I have summer on my mind and so many shorts and tanks I want to get sewn up.
How about you? Have you moved on to summer sewing?

~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Me Made May 2015 Pledge

It is getting to be that time again!

me-made-may'14

Me Made May is rolling around.  I had fun participating last year so I am pledging to do it again this year.  I will try to take pictures of each daily outfit but I will only post a once a week update - so as not to bombard anyone with daily posts!

I'm hoping to find gaps in my wardrobe and weed out things that I just don't wear.

'I, Kristin of SunnySewing.blogspot.com, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '15. I endeavor to wear 4 me-made makes each week for the duration of May 2015; I also endeavor to clean out my closet and weed out the things that I don't wear'

(Totally stole that last part from Elizabeth at The College Seamstress , Thanks Elizabeth!)
In weeding through my closet I hope to find out WHY I don't wear certain things and take note so that if I do re-make I can address those fit issues, or fabric issues, or any issue it may be.

Are you taking part this year?

~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Easter and such

Friday before Easter I set out to make Miss K's Easter dress.
In 2012 she picked the fabric for this crazy dress. 
In 2013 she also picked the fabric and it was so pretty in this dress.
In 2014 I simply skipped making her a dress. (whoops)

So I felt that in 2015 I should make her one.
I picked out some pink/yellow/light blue plaid chambray from my stash and McCalls 6919.  I was going to try the plus size 12.5 but I considered the finished measurements and went with a straight 12 for K.



The pattern uses facings for the bodice by the buttons; it uses bias tape for the neckline and armholes.  I know facings are usually left as is but I despise them and after I spent all that time on this dress the facings started to unravel on the edges.  I ended up pinking them.  If I made again I might run bias tape along their edges.  K picked the buttons - pretty turquoise blue vintage ones.



The skirt portion is almost double wide of what the bodice is.  I took this opportunity to try out my newest toy - a ruffler foot; It worked great on the "6" setting with a 12 stitch length on my old Kenmore.  Ah, no more cruddy and uneven gathers.  The foot takes a quick getting used to but after that it is so nice to have.


The bodice on this dress is quite big in the neck/shoulder area and K isn't too fond of this.
Also, the fabric was not as nice as I hoped. It is sturdy and cute, but everyday cute and not Easter fancy cute.  I bought this fabric from fashionfabricsclub in February, 2 yards for $8 total.  It was listed as "dress weight" 98% cotton, 2% lycra so it has a tiny bit of stretch. It seems a bit heavy to me for a dress.


So... I ended up not wanting this to be her Easter dress and proceeded to start a new one on Saturday (our first Easter gathering was Saturday at 3pm).

I let Miss K pick the fabric and pattern for this second attempt.
She choose the Oliver + S Ice Cream Dress

The top, green fabric has been in my stash since June of 2012. It is Moda Marble Swirls Green and I had only 1/2 yard for $4.49
The middle fabric is 2 yard of cute little bunny fabric that I picked up August 2014 from Mill End Textiles - I used 1.25 yards I think. (no idea on price but most likely $3.49
The pink I had 1/2 yard of from Feb 2013 Monkey's Bizness Market Stalls Pink $4.49

 

Since I have made this many other times, I was confident I could bust it out in the course of the day just in time for the party.


Miss K wanted the dress, with the pink fabric on the bottom - but I cut out only 1 front panel and then didn't have enough fabric for the back panel. I only had 1/2 yard so this was changed to a shirt.


This time I made sure to interface the "V" portion of the neck as well as the parts of the pocket.  This allowed for crisp lines when I turned them.  I lined the middle portion with scraps of an old sheet because it was a tad see-through.


I finished just in time for this to be worn Saturday.  I had to do a really tiny hem because the original hem would have went right up into the pockets.  I had no time so I just serged the lining hem.

I tested another peasant type top (to try to find something for a tiered dress K keeps asking for).  I've made this once in the past but it was short on K and she outgrew it right away.

Kwik Sew 3169

I made the long sleeves with the elastic in them like the pattern indicated but K despised the elastic part - and the sleeve is in two parts, top and bottom, seam allowance makes up the casing. So there was no way to just take out the elastic without cutting the sleeves to short sleeves. I hacked the sleeves off and hemmed. Let's hope she wears this. She is ok with the top but not in love. This was the only good picture I got of the shirt.

Fabric: a Blue/Brown print from fashionfabricsclub.  They call it a cotton lawn.  1.75 yards at $5.01 total.  I ordered it Jan this year with this project in mind.

Moving on, the weather is warming up around here and shorts are on my mind.  I tried out a new size in Jalie 3243 for K, size 152 or "p".  These made great shorts for her in Fall 2013. I shortened the rise to her height of 146 and she thinks they are to short in back.  I will have to go for a straight size  next time though the front rise was great.


I also used up scraps from my awesome Lady Skater dress to try out the size of these cute Ottobre capris in 152. 03/2012 #29  I foolishly shortened the rise of these too - before K tried on the other shorts. She hates these and won't even wear them.  She couldn't understand why they were not pants and not shorts. Capris aren't for her. 


Now on my table I have a Jalie sweatshirt for me, sweatpants for me, Corduroy pants for K, another Jalie swimsuit for both K and me, and a Jalie tank or tee for me and K.

~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

March Recap 2015




10 items, 14 and 1/8 yards of fabric. Total fabric cost $79.23

How did I do for March with my resolutions?

  • 1 new pattern: Sort of. I was not able to get the Skater to work for me before so I'll consider this success a new pattern ;-)
  • 1 new Burda/Otto for me: didn't happen this month
  • 1 fabric stash: yes! 6 and 5/8 yards!
  • 1 me make each month in 2015: yes! 3


~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~