The Perfect Dress x2

Pattern: Sweetheart Dress by Patterns for Pirates ~ There are many variations to this pattern.  I chose: Short Sleeves – banded and knee length circle skirt.

Size: Large – Fits true to size



Instructions: Fantastic.  These are hand-holding instructions with step by step photos. This pattern would be excellent for beginners to advanced sewists. 



Fabric: 2 yards Charcoal Slub-Look Jersey Knit, 95% Polyester/5% Lycra, Looks and feels like an ITY.  I purchased this in July 2015 from fashionfabricsclub for $7 total for the 2 yards.



Thoughts: I love this dress. The fit is spot on and it is such a classic style.  I like how comfortable it is to wear and that it was a fast sew.  We had a funeral to attend the end of August and I had nothing to wear to the wake/viewing.  I made this and the following dress for Miss K in 2.5 hours total.  I see many more of these dresses in my future.

Pattern: McCalls M7079

Size: 12 for shoulders and bust, size 14 for the rest.

Instructions: this pattern is well written and well drafted.  No issues following the instructions.  This dress sews up fast. I must note that the pattern calls for you to simply turn and stitch the neckline, I used binding instead.

Fabric: 2 yards gray, super soft “Pontiroma,” a poly blend, lighter than Ponte, but a nice weight; from walmart; I forget when I bought this. Total for 2 yards was $10.88. 



Thoughts:  This style of dress looks great on Miss K.  I needed a respectable and conservative dress fast – we had no luck at any department store so I whipped this up and it was perfect.
Previous sews with this pattern:  A beautiful Roses Dress in August 2016;  and also a then-failed rib knit dress which K loves and wears all the time now, made in July 2015 (near the bottom of the post)



**We’ve had a rough couple months here at the Sunny household.  My husband’s grandpa passed away the end of August.  Two weeks later we had to tragically and unexpectedly put our much treasured Nala puppy to sleep.  She was only 6 years old.  Our house just doesn’t feel the same.  (You’ve seen Nala make a quite a few appearances on the blog here over the years). To top things off my truck broke down twice in this time and numerous small things happened as well.  My health has not been well – though fall is usually hard for me.  I am slowly trying to get back up and going so you will see more from me soon.** 


Happy Sewing
Kristin

What I’ve Been Up To

I thought I’d share what I’ve been doing the last week, craft wise.  I have been working slowly on my flannel shirt; I’m still in the pattern altering stages because I can’t make up my mind if I want a boxy fit or a more tapered fit.  Tapered seems to be winning though. 

I’ve also made up my mind to start working on some jeans.  Jalie jeans.  You will see more on that in the future. 

Since I received my Silhouette I’ve been playing with it quite a bit.  I love using it and feel like I want to vinyl everything!  It sure is addicting.  Here are some of the things I’ve vinyl-ed this week. 

A shirt for my husband who is an “Office” fanatic

*note* I purchased these next 3 tees at Walmart for cheap because it was faster than sewing them)

A Christmas T-shirt for Mr. T (from the movie Elf)

A Christmas shirt for Miss K (also from the movie Elf)

This toilet monster was made to play a joke on Mr. T (who didn’t even notice, sigh).  But I saw it on Facebook and had to do it; I actually really like it.  This is Mr. T’s toilet, not the main bath

Miss K helped me make this cup for her teacher and ornament for her Great Grandma

This tee was made for my nephew

And this was made for his brother, my other nephew

Mr. T requested this Pokemon Shirt (tee from Hobby Lobby as they are on sale this week)

And I made the kids these Sleep masks for Christmas; sewing the mask and then vinyling them

I also made Miss K a “mermaid tail” blanket.  She crawls inside it so it’s like she is a mermaid on the bottom half (it’s like a tube)  ** I forgot to add, this pattern is free and can be found here **

1 yard Purple Heart Polar Fleece, purchased Jan 2015 from fashion fabrics club for $4.50; and 1 yard Pink Zebra Minky, purchased from Mill End in Aug 2013 for $4.  This blanket cost $8.50 total

And Mr. T got a “shark” blanket, made to look like the shark is eating him.  He crawls inside this one too.  1.5 yards Fleece Hockey/Football from Fabric.com purchased way back in March 2012! $5.99  I was glad to finally get this out of my stash.  as well as 1 yard Royal Blue Fleece purchased from Hancocks sometime for some price. lol.  We'll say this blanket cost $10 to make. 

I vinyl-ed Miss K’s wall. It was hard to photograph this because her walls are pink.

In other random life things, we got our new washer 2 weeks ago and I love this thing!  It's our first front loader.  (Nala is not so sure about it)

What Nala is sure of is that she must help me with all my projects; Thanks Nala

We attended Mr. T’s winter band concert with my mom

We have a weird animal that made a den in our backyard next to our tree stump that is turning green

‘   

Oh and the dogs are finally getting along better after 11 months of torture

Other than that we are just hanging out and enjoying family time for the holidays.  I hope your family is all safe and well and that you are enjoying your holiday with them too! 

Spring Outfit for K (Ottobre's and Jalie)

Usually I sew what comes to mind at any given time.  I get an image in my head and off I go.  Sometimes this results in clothing pieces that do not match anything....  This time I decided I would make a whole outfit for K for Spring.

K is getting a little fuller so I wanted to try a few plus size patterns.

I started with a Tee.
Ottobre 06/2008 #36 "Tania" T-shirt. 

Size: I sewed a 134 for the neck/shoulders and 140 elsewhere.
Alterations: I changed the pattern from long to short sleeves.
Fit: It is a bit big overall but she will grow into it. I could have made this a size smaller like 128/134.
Fabric: I used a beautiful pastel butterfly cotton knit I picked up from FabricStalkers on Facebook. 1 yard $4. Yes, only $4 (it was on sale for 1/2 price).  It is a great medium weight cotton jersey.  I purchased it Feb. this year.  For the neckband I used some "Light Pink" Cotton Lycra from Purpleseamstress.

Sewing/Instructions:  T-shirts only have a few quick ways to sew them together.  I didn't read the instructions.  I sewed one shoulder, then used my binder attachment on my coverstitch to attach the neck binding. Then I sewed the other shoulder, added the sleeves, and sewed up the sides.  The last thing to do was hem; which I did with my coverstitch.

Next I moved on to sewing some pants.
Ottobre 06/2008 #35 "Mimmi" Corduroy Pants.
This is the second time I've made these.  I had an unpleasant go at it back in August 2013 where they looked cute but the fit was crazy weird. I told myself I'd never sew them again but here I am. LOL.

Size: I sewed a straight size 140 plus.
Alterations: I eliminated the pockets with flaps on the front - it created too much bulk in that area.  I drafted normal pants pockets with pocket bags.  I added buttonhole elastic into the waistband to make these have an adjustable waist.  I didn't add the belt loops because K doesn't wear a belt but she was pulling these up a lot so I might go back and add them.

Fit: Gosh they actually fit pretty darn good!  There is a bit of front crotch sagging but K likes to pull her pants waistline waaaaaaay down. She hates things near her belly button.  I will try this pattern again perhaps but reduce the crotch curve length.

Fabric: Dusty Pink Corduroy. It is lightweight and has great stretch.  I had 2.25 yards in my stash from August 2013. I bought it at Mill End for $2.99/yard.  I used 1.25 yards.  Total of $3.74. Ha! I used scraps from this failed dress  in May 2012 for the front pocket bags, it is called Jungle Gym.  The back pocket flaps were made with scraps from this cute dress in April 2013. It is called Dress up days bikes yellow.  Not thinking I put it in upside down.  Oh well. I love using scraps from previous makes because it get's K all happy.

Sewing/Instructions: Ok, I totally didn't re-read all my issues the first time and here they happened again.  The waistband is NOT drafted long enough to fit these darn pants.  I added 2" and I barely fit them on with much swearing.  The waistband is too skinny, It needs to be at least 1/2" wider.  I had forgotten how much time a zipper and pockets add to sewing; I had to split it up into a few days.  I also forgot to sew the back darts BEFORE doing the back pockets because those pockets go right up to that dart point (and slightly over).

(windy day)

(pants in action)

Other than that things were smooth.  I have sewn a good share of flies now but it has been awhile so I used the instructions for Jalie 2908.

Wisconsin Spring is unpredictable so I made K another Sweatshirt.
Jalie 3355

Size: Height of M and width of P.
Alterations: Added 1" to the hemband as it was super hard to stretch to meet the bodice fabric last time.

Fit: fabulous! I love this pattern.  I need to make myself one next

Fabric: I purchased 1 yard of this PacMan French Terry off a facebook group in July 2014 for $8.  I didn't realize until I started cutting that there were streaks from roller marks in the fabric :(  I could only squeeze the bodice front and back and hood lining out of that.  I was freaking out but then saw that the Lilac Cotton Lycra from Purple Seamstress matched almost dead on.  So I used that for the arms, cuffs, and hood.  I'd say that was another yard at $6.50. Total: $14.50

Sewing/Instructions:  I remembered to put the Kangaroo pocket on first this time.  All sewing went smoothly and I followed the instructions.  The extra inch on the hemband made all the difference.  However, the cuffs were so super small and I wasn't sure they would stretch enough to make it all around the arm.  I need to add an inch here as well next time.

And to finish off the whole outfit I made a pair of maching undies!  K will not wear store bought ones anymore so I thought this would be perfect.
Ottobre 06/2013 #33 Undies

Size: 152
Alterations: None.
Fit: the best!
Fabric: Leftovers from the t-shirt. a beautiful pastel butterfly cotton knit.  For the band and crotch lining I used some "Light Pink" Cotton Lycra from Purpleseamstress.
Sewing/Instructions: Super fast to put together. I used my coverstitch binder attachment to put on the leg bands.

Here is our new naughty puppy Link.  His personality is very opposite of our other dog Nala.  He bites, chews, sheds, and is very vocal. He will literally talk back to you when you are scolding him. He is wild.  Nala is none of those so it's been an extreme adjustment. An exhausting one too.  We are putting in this fence so he can run without being tied up; he is super fast and loves to run but we live on a decently busy highway.  The gate hasn't been attached yet for these pictures so he is tied.  He really wants to get at Nala all the time. . .

But she is smart enough to stay on the other side of the fence!

He is a rescue pup. They say he is a cross between a wiener dog and a Jack Russell Terrier. Anywhichway, he is a bundle of naughty cuteness.  He likes to give kisses and snuggle a lot too so it's not all bad!

Two weeks ago we had a really bad scare with Nala. She always has reactions to her rabies vaccines and this year was the worst.  I thought we were going to lose her.  She is only 5 and our princess.  Puppy hospital is expensive.  I never knew.  Anyway she got lots of shots and medicine and had the worst miserable week of her life.  She pulled through like a good girl and is back to her old antics.

Exciting things going on around here all the time it seems.

~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~

Miss Nala's Coat ~ Simplicity 2099

A long, long time ago (Oct 2012) I sewed our Nala puppy a coat with Simplicity 2099.

She has been wearing it since, but the bottom velcro always pops off and it is too tight on her chest and stomach.  I wanted to make her a new coat.

 she already got a spot of dirt on it, lol.  And I haven't washed my markings out yet

 This week is super cold here (-20 to -45 below most of the week) and I just shaved poor Nala's fur.  So she needs a new coat.  I measured her this time and she was more of a Medium than a Small.  That poor pooch thought I was crazy measuring her all up with my tape. LOL. I could just read her expression thinking "what are you doing woman?!?"

Last time I didn't like that the coat was unlined so this time I made sure to line it.  I used a piece of cotton for the outer layer and fleece for the "lining".  Everything went together fine.  The instructions are very easy and there are nice pictures steps along the way. Exactly what you would expect for an "it's so easy" pattern.  I sewed this up on my vintage Kenmore and it purred through all the layers and seams without issue.

This last week I also picked up a monogram unit for my Kenmore machine off eBay.  I was too excited to get it out and give it a try.  I put Nala's name on the back of her coat at the neck.  I should have used a darker thread color but I was rushing to get it done before my husband came home.

I was having issues with it too.  I couldn't get why it didn't want to go on my original fleece fabric.  It did not want to push the fleece around - I realized my tension was off much later in time. Then it kept getting hung up on the last letter and not moving - my foot was hitting the oval bar in the back because I have an adapter on my foot.  So I ordered a new darning foot to see if that is small enough, it should come soon.  My machine is low shank and the monogram foot that came with it is for high shank. So I just made the last letter with no foot on at all and the material jumped around a lot.  shrug. Nala doesn't mind but the last "A" is a bit choppy.

I put snaps in the coat this time instead of velcro but they keep popping open despite the coat fitting fine.  I may go back and put in a little velcro tab across the tummy.

I love how it looks; Nala, however does not enjoy wearing this thick coat.  It is quite funny the way she looks at me when I put it on her. The shoulders are too low and she doesn't want to walk right with it on.  I think the legs are too thick for her liking.  I might just do them in fleece without the cotton top next time.  They are about 2 inches too long for her legs too (that's why the cuffs are turned up- but that adds bulk too).  Lengthwise and width wise the fit is good. And it does keep her much warmer outside so she suffers through it.

fleece lining

**I have since altered Nala's little coat now that she has worn it a few days.   I cut off 2" on the cuffs and flipped the fleece lining over the cotton layer and stitched.  I also added a velcro strap to the tummy section (as the pattern calls for anyway).  It fits her much, much better and stays on her.  She is very happy with it now and can run around freely.

shorter cuffs, velcro tab

"Much better mom!"

This is a simple little coat pattern and an "it's so easy" pattern.  With a few modifications specific to your fur baby, it is an excellent coat and now Nala is much warmer.

~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~