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 ~

Orange you glad to see me? 06/2013 Ottobre

Such a fitting title for this post :D
I wanted to make K a t-shirt dress sort of like a mini skater.  I saw pattern #26 Pumpkin Pie Jersey Dress in Ottobre 06/2013 and knew it had potential.  Why buy a new pattern when you can use one you already have, right?

(apparently I can't take a straight picture lol)

I traced the bottom front skirt (piece 3) and used it as both front and back for lower skirt in it's entirety, not as pieces.  I also traced the bodice front (piece 1) from the center front on just one side to make it possible to cut 1 piece on the fold.  I cut the back bodice on the fold too - not adding seam allowances to that center line.  I made the sleeves short sleeves because we are hopefully on the warm up around here.

When sewing I assembled just like my lady skater dress and used clear elastic tape in the waist part.  This fabric is a rib knit but stiffer because of the orange print.  I didn't' want the waist to stretch out or sag. The shoulders have fusible stay tape and I opted for my normal neckline of folding the strip in half, sewing it, then flipping and top-stitching it down.

I sewed a size 140 for the bodice, sleeves, and top of the skirt panel.  I then graded out to a 146 near the hip to bottom of the skirt.  I also tried a hollow chest adjustment in the front bodice by darting 1/4" out.  I think it fits her much better in the top.  I love the overall fit - it has a 60s mod appeal to me.  I'll definitely be making this again for her and love that the actual dress pattern uses different fabric pieces (awesome for using up scraps).  I would say that I fit this on 1 yard of 55 ish inch wide fabric.

I used my new cover stitch machine on all hems, the top-stitching on the neckline, and top-stitching the waist seam. Wow!  I love that thing.  This saved so much time on this dress.  And it sews sooooo fast - I need to get a bit better with my control of it, but man I love that thing.  (does anyone with a brother 2340 know how to make the looper thread a little tighter? I've tried the looper on 9 with needles on 3, then 8, then switched it to looper on 3 and needles on 8.  I'm ok with how they are now but would prefer them just a bit tighter.)

I also whipped up this pair of pj shorts out of the craziest piece of scrap.  (pattern Jalie 3243) It was only as wide as each leg and very long.  I would have to say it made up about 1/2 yard out of the stash.  K has a kwik sew nightgown in this fabric and she is also happy to have the print in shorts.

Now that the cover stitch is set up I am chomping at the bit to sew a million things.  :-)  It's almost too bad that I have to make K an Easter dress because I'd rather sew so many other things.

March Totals:
Stash used: 1.5 yard
Fabric Out: 20.5 yards + 11 scrap pounds
Fabric In: 9 yards

Totals for the year to date:
Stash sew this year: 14.5 yards
Fabric out in 2014: 74.5 yards!
Fabric in 2014: 64 yards

~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~

Well, I did sew up some things...

First, some super cute humor to lighten the mood. I saw this online and laughed so hard.


Anyway, onward.  My bruised and battered arm is all healed up from falling on the stairs a few weeks ago.  My sinus infection/cold is also gone (yay!) so I have been pushing forward with the sewing.
I picked up another fitting book and have high hopes for my alma (will sew this up next week).  I am confident it will be awesome. Oh, and school started again, boo.

I wanted to get some fabric moving out of my stash so I grabbed this thin cotton knit with tropical birds on it to make K some pjs.  You can't go wrong with pjs.  I had 2 yards, the fabric has minimal stretch, and very soft.

Top is Jalie 2805 in size O for the width and M for the height.  Bottoms are Ottobre 06/2013 #38 in a 134.
The top fit nice, a tad snug.  The bottoms were really snug - I should have gone up a bit in size to account for the lack of stretch.  Live and learn.  2 yards out of the stash! Yay.

(omg is she getting my swayback already? lol)

the pants didn't survive the day - due to the tightness

Oh and I finally got a pic of K wearing the previous Ottobre 06/2013 #38 with a tons of stretch. They fit nice and will be great leggings. She thought wearing them around the house all day was fun.

I also removed/sewed up 1 yard of the only flannel in the stash.
Fun drama with this.  It started as 1 yard and I wanted to try the Jalie 3243 pants pattern.  Size O. Well, the fabric wasn't long enough so I thought "ok, I'll make capri's with elastic in the legs, cute."  I cut out the pattern and went to start sewing and found this huge hole in the fabric! UGH.

 So I proceeded to hack more off and make them shorts.  

And when ironing, found ANOTHER dang hole! 

Terrible fabric. I patched this small one quick and called it good. 

 My typical luck. K likes them, they are soft.  Plus They fit her well and now I can make her some cotton pants with the pattern.

I'm also working on this top with 1.5 yards of knit from the stash


and then moving back to the alma. Total I will have used up 6.5 yards of stash so far this month.

What are you currently working on?

~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~

Blue Linen Pants ~ Jalie 3243

In August I made Miss K the cutest pink linen shorts with this pattern.  I loved the outcome but wanted to make a few changes when I went to sew pants for me.

(Be prepared for some spur of the moment, exhausted mom-needs-kids-to-be-back-in-school photos)

I won't repeat the information I listed on the shorts post but only the updated things I did to the linen pants.

First, I wanted to make the waistband separate.  I don't like how they went over the top of the pockets in the original.  To do this I took the facing pieces and measured them.  Facings and pants already have seam allowances added.  Facings were 2 inches wide so I took this off the top of each side of pants patterns at the waist.  I also had to take it off the top of the pockets and pocket facing.  I then knew I wanted to fold over the waistband and not fiddle with facings so I added an inch to each waistband facing to equal 3 inches (1 inch elastic casing and 1/2 inch seam allowance for each side when flipped down).  I didn't want to over-think things so I just went with this.  I should have made the facings less curved, or curved correctly because when I went to sew them together they didn't line up quite right.

The pants sewed up just fine.  My hips measure at 42 inches so this is right at a size X.  I went with the size X (or 41cm, 11US) straight through.

I thought the rise looked high but kept at it.  After the pants were made I tried them on and I think that they are just a tad too tight in the butt/hip area.  I think I should have went up to a size Y (or 12US).  I measured the inseam before sewing and they were at a 31.5.  I measured my favorite pants and they measured 32.5 so I added an inch to the inseam.  The pants are long, I could have left that inch off.

The rise is a bit high in front.  I tend to wear my pants very low and don't like things going across my stomach by my belly button.  In the future I would curve out another 1-2 inches in the front only.  The back appears high but when I sit down they are just right without showing backside.

I'm not super crazy about them.  They are comfortable but appear more like lounge wear or pajama pants.  Perhaps it's the color I chose.  Also, the pockets aren't big enough to get my hands in comfortably so I'd add the 2 inches back into the pockets, which would also lower them down. I would like to try again with a more "mature" colored fabric such as a black, gray, or tan.

Likes:
simple pattern
fast to sew
very comfortable

Dislikes:
tiny pockets
higher rise
a little tight

So to re-cap, things to change for next time:
re-curve the front waistline to be 1-2 inches lower so they are lowrise
re-draw the waistband so it lays/fits better
add 2 inches to pockets and pocket facings to make them bigger/longer
use a different colored fabric
possibly use wider elastic in pants - using 3/4 inch because that's what I have, may try 1.5 or 2 in.

I do still like the pattern.  I just need to make some of the changes.

Fabric: 1.75 yards of "solid linen blue medium" from Hancock's sale last week.  originally $17.99/yard but I got it for $3.20/yard.  Total cost= $5.60
the 1.75 is for non-directional fabric.  You would use a bit more like 2.25 if you had a print or nap.

~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~