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 ~

Easter Dress ~ McCall's M6273

Foolishly I decided to finally sew Miss K's Easter dress on Thursday and Friday (needing it for today, Saturday).  I've had M6273 in my stash so I figured I would attempt it.  Miss K picked View C (the pink and white one on the left).


I traced the pattern, pre-washed the fabric, cut and marked it on Thursday and then sewed it all on Friday.  All in a size 8 which Miss K wears in RTW. The dress is fully lined so it is like sewing 2 dresses. We drive a bit of a distance to visit relatives and the dress looked great after the long car ride!

There are a lot of pieces to this dress.  The pattern calls for 2.25 yards in 45" wide for the dress and 1.5 yards in 45" wide for the lining.  You will also need 2.25 yards of 2" flat eyelet trim, a 16" zipper and a hock and eye.  I waited to the last minute to get any supplies - picking all but the lining up on Tuesday night (Hancock's).

Tutti Frutti (2.5 yards) $17.48
Eyelet (2.5 yards) $4.35
16" zipper $1.99
Total without lining: $25.13 ~ the lining I had already at home and I used exactly 1.5 yards and most of the Tutti Frutti and Eyelet. I would say the entire dress cost about $30; this could have been cheaper had I planned ahead and picked up the fabric and notions on sale.

I followed most of the directions up to the hemming.  #19 and 20 I did not hem the ties as suggested because I didn't want the edges showing.  I sewed them right sides together and turned them inside out - like a tube before attaching them.  This worked but they are skinnier than they should be.  I serged the bodice sides after step 22.  I forgot to serge the lining and dress sides as well as the back of the dress before the zipper.  Mostly because I was pressed for time; I went back and pinked what I could.

The zipper is really long and doesn't need to be.  You could get away with only doing the zipper from the skirt gathering up to the neck; maybe a 9" one? or a 7" one?.  It was a real pain to sew on all those gathers!  I used elastic tape for the gathering itself but it was tough.  It felt like I was making 3 feet of fabric fit into 12 inches.  My machine hated attaching the skirt to the bodice with the 2 fabric layers, 2 lining layers, and elastic tape in the middle. I broke 2 needles and bent a lot of pins.  I also was trying to be so careful to keep the bodice straight underneath but ended up sewing into it and had to rip it out and do it over.

When I got to the hemming I was plain burnt out.  I didn't follow the directions really. I serged the bottom of the dress fabric, turned up an inch, pressed and sewed.  I then turned the lining up 1 inch, turned it up again 1 inch into a double fold and sewed it.  Finally I attached the eyelet by laying it on top of the very edge of the lining hem and sewing it on.  Is this right? I don't know but it worked!

We didn't attach the bow because I liked the dress without.  The "drape" on the front waistline didn't really want to drape at all.

Too bad it is so cold still here in Wisconsin so Miss K had to wear leggings and a long sleeve shirt underneath!  This is a cute sleeveless dress but there is way too much work involved for me to do it over again.  We plan on having Miss K wear it to 2 weddings this summer so at least we get some use out of it!

Overall she looks cute in it and the dress looks pretty- it was just more work than I wanted to deal with on our busy Thursday and Friday.  Miss K got lots of compliments at Easter though so maybe it's great? We took the pictures as we were walking out the door this morning (15 minutes late). I wish the weather would turn nice so we can get outdoor pictures again!

I hope you have a good Easter.

~ Happy Sewing! ~ Kristin ~

Happy Easter! Meet the girl bunny puppet!

So Easter is here and my kids are at Grandpa's.  I totally forgot about Easter Bunny stuff when I agreed to let them spend the night! What was I thinking!! Oh well, I figure the Bunny can hide their stuff before they get back home tonight. 
Fast forward to today at noon when I realize I haven't made girl bunny hand puppet yet!!!!!!!! Yikes!  Panic sets in.  Scramble to find all pieces and start to whip her up.  Only took 20 minutes as sweat was beading on my forehead.  I could just picture Miss K, apple of my eye, crying HER eyes out because Mr. T had an adorable puppet and she didn't.  Sigh.

Crisis averted, Girl Bunny Puppet made and I even added a cute pink bow.  What do you think?
I'm loving her!!  Template and all credit for the design goes to The Purl Bee

I had the Easter Bunny type up a cute rhyming letter for the kids and somehow a carrot ended up on the floor by the letter. Oh my! and Easter grass is trailing through the house... did the Bunny sneak into our house?? lol.  :)

Happy Easter to you all!

Easter Bunny Puppets!

Easter time is so fun!  I had my eye on these ADORABLE BUNNY puppets for the last 2 weeks and I was just dying to make some!  I jumped on my favorite fabric site and ordered the materials quick!  They arrived today and I quick made a bunny.  I am planning on putting these in my kids Easter baskets on Sunday!!! I can't wait to see their faces! :)  How cute is this little guy? (apologize for the crazy picture but he is in hiding in the spare bedroom so my kids don't see him).

Want to make some of your own?  They are fast and fun!  Head over to The Purl Bee and get the pattern and instructions!!!

Easter Dress

Miss K grabbed this fabric the last time we were at the store for her Easter dress.  She is starting to love fabric almost as much as I do!  Now that my serger is here I've been going crazy with it.  I love it so much! 
I used Simplicity's pattern 2377; fabric and ribbon are from Hancock Fabrics.
In hindsight I should have used a solid color for the chest but it's still ok.  Miss K has already put it on and twirled around the house in it :)