Back to School Sewing

I had to take a short break from me-sewing to make up some things for Miss K for back to school.  I spent two nights going through all my Ottobre magazines and picking out things to make her.  I have a huge stack on my kitchen table that I’ve slowly been tracing and cutting fabric for.  I finished up these things over the last two weeks. 

Ottobre 04/2012 #28 “Fancy Mix long-sleeve T-shirt”

Size 146 height and for shoulders/bust, 152 waist. 

I made this once before back in Oct 2013, but it was too big at the time.  I have Miss K’s size down to a T now with Ottobre.  This was a fast sew after attaching the yoke and the bit of gathering.  K loves it and it’s a great pattern to mix up scraps with for the yoke and sleeve ends.  I used clear elastic to do the gathering and my coverstitch for the hems and neckline.

Fabric: 1 yard hot pink/black leopard spots on grey, cotton lycra from Purple seamstress.  Purchased in Nov 2014 for $10. The pink is a Hot Pink Jersey Knit, 50% Rayon 48% Polyester 2% Lycra, from fashionfabricsclub.  Purchased in Jan 2015. I only used a tiny bit of this, we’ll say 1/4 yard for $1.

 

Total Cost of shirt: $11.00

 

Ottobre 06/2012 #30 “Sulka Jersey Dress”

Size 146 height and for shoulders/bust, 152 waist/hip

I’ve also made this pattern once before in Sept 2014 as a leopard dress for K.  This time I wanted to use some super cute sweater knit.  Last time the sleeves were a bit tight so I added 1/2” to the width.  I also had to underline the dress with tricot because the sweater knit was too loose and wanted to grow every which way.  It was pretty sheer as well.  I used clear elastic for the waist gathering.  I was silly and attached it to the “right” side of the skirt so when I attached it I had bits of it showing.  When I went back to serge a larger seam allowance it chopped off most of the elastic so the waistline is a bit saggy.  It doesn’t want to hold it’s shape well.  Sad, because this fabric is so pretty.  Luckily K didn’t notice. 

Fabric: 2 yards, Sunset Stripe Sweater Knit, 95% Polyester 5% Lycra. Purchased June 2015 from fashionfabricsclub for $7.90. 1 yard of tricot Purchased May 2014 from fabric.com, $4.78

Total Cost of dress: $12.68

 

Ottobre 03/2012 #34 “Jungle Stripes Jersey Dress”

Size 146 height and for shoulders/bust, 152 waist/hip

This is a favorite pattern of Miss K’s.  It is a super comfy knit dress and has pockets, so perfect for her.  I’ve made this a few times

1. Yellow Summer Dress
2. Pink Thermal Nightgown
3. Pink and Black Stripe Dress
4. Pink Flannel Nightgown

K wears them until they are worn-out (actually she still wears the yellow one for bed, and I just took away the other pink/black one).  K wanted me to re-make the pink/black striped one because it is her favorite.  This time around I omitted the pleats in the neckline because they don’t look very nice when finished and create too much bulk at the neckline.  I simply smoothed out the neckline when tracing, folded it over for a 1/2” hem, and inserted 15” of 1/4” elastic to make it a peasant neck.  Easy and only took about 1.5 hours of sewing.

Fabric: 1 yard of Hot Pink/Black Stripe Ponte de Roma Double Knit, 97% Polyester 3% Lycra, purchased two weeks ago just for this project from fashionfabricsclub, $4.95. This fabric washed, cut, and sewed like a dream.

Total cost of dress: $4.95 and K is super happy so win-win.

Awesome stripe matching, even on the pockets!

 

Seaside Notions “Point Mugu Maxi Skirt”

Size 12Y in waist and 10Y in height.

I was able to pattern test for this maxi skirt, and K loves her maxi skirts.  It went together pretty straightforward.  I didn’t care for the interfacing in the waistband (in my opinion knits should not have interfacing where they are required to stretch), so I omitted that.  I was testing the regular skirt, there is a cute ruffle option you can add to it as well.  The skirt is for woven or knits.  K loved how it turned out and I am interested in trying a woven version.  The size chart was spot on, too.

Fabric: 1 yard of this blue floral 70s look cotton lycra, purchased May 2015 from FabricMart, $2.40 and 1.5 yards of light pink cotton lycra, purchased Feb 2015 from purpleseamstress, $9.75

Total Cost of skirt: $12.15

You can view/purchase the pattern here if you are interested.

 

I still have 2 more tops ready to sew up for K and I’d like to make her some pants before I can stop with the school sewing. 

 

Can you believe Fall is almost here?

Unselfish Sewing

 

I did a bit of unselfish sewing this last week.  My nephew had his 2nd birthday and I gained a new niece (about a month ago).  Different families, however, both families are into tractors.  One family being rednecks (lol); the other family are actually farmers. 

I set out to make the nephew farmer a cow plushie out of Farmall fabric.  And the niece a dress from the leftovers. 

I scoured the web for an appropriate cow plushie pattern.  Being from Wisconsin, we know cows.  Seeing as he is a little farmer, he would definitely know cows.  I wanted a cute, fat cow that looked realistic.  I found many weird skinny cows and clownish smiley cows but only one that fit what I wanted.  (Technically this is a bull, not a cow)

This pattern was written well with many pictures.  There was only one spot where I scratched my head and wished for a clear picture.  It took me almost 4 hours to sew this guy up.  I forgot how many small corners and items are involved with plushies!

Fabric: 1/2 yard Farmall fabric from fabric.com $4.60 and 1/2 yard black anti-pill fleece from Wal-Mart $1.49.  The pattern cost $8.50 – I picked it up from the Rumpled Quilt Skins website.  (note: For some reason the pattern wasn’t sent to me via email so the next morning I emailed her and she responded immediately with the pattern).  Total for the cow: $14.59

Thoughts:  I think he turned out great.  I took care in hand sewing the belly shut after stuffing him.  I despise hand sewing but this ladder stitch was perfect!  I do hope he enjoys the cow.  I would recommend any of her patterns on the site.  I may try my hand at a few more as Mr. T thought the cow was “so cool” but prefers pigs (it’s a Minecraft thing).

 

Next up was the dress.  I traced out an Ottobre dress but decided not to sew it up as it had more steps and I wanted something fast and simple.  Someone was talking about the Geranium dress on a Facebook group and I thought it would be perfect.  Since I was using the 0-3 month size it was free (even better!).  This pattern is from Rae of Made by Rae.

front

I printed it off and cut out the pieces with ease.  There are only 2 pieces included in the pattern (the front and back bodice) and the measurements are given for a rectangle for the skirt part. 

back

The instructions are excellent for a free pattern and includes photos of the steps.  The one part I disagreed with was that no interfacing was recommended for where the buttons/snaps would be.  To me this is essential.  Anyway, I sewed this dress up in no time. 

clean insides

The bodice is lined and there are no seams to be scratchy by babies stomach.  I used red snaps per Miss K’s request.  I mailed it out right away before little Miss E could outgrow it!

Fabric: 1/2 yard Farmall fabric from fabric.com $4.60.  I sure wish I sewed when my kids were little.  These things take such small amounts of fabric and so little time!

look, so small!

July Recap 2015

11 items, 18.5 yards of fabric. Total fabric cost $83.05
How did I do for July with my resolutions?
1 new pattern: yes, 5
1 new Burda/Otto pattern for me: sadly no, but I used a few of the Big 4 this month. (Technically I have a Burda skirt in progress but it is not quite finished yet)
1 fabric stash used: yes, 4.75 yards total (I’m embarrassed to tell you how many yards came INTO my house this month…)
1 me make each month in 2015: yes, 4 things for me