A few more clothes

This dress is another variation built off the Dear My Kids' pretty ruffled pinafore wrap dress. I took off the wrap front and added giant keyhole to back. The keyhole was meant to make the arms easier to get into, but I made it a little lower than I should have, so I added some pleats to close it up a bit. Now it's a perfect-for-summer dress.

I had a yard and a half of navy flocked dot cotton fabric and decided to try my hand at something else, so I bought Figgy's Ayashe blouse pattern. The pattern has a few different finishing options, like a bias tape neckline or a mandarin collar; I went with the bias tape neckline and elastic waist. The instructions of the pattern are quite detailed, but as a hobby seamstress, I don't always have the patience to get that "pro" finish. Let's just say I fudged a few steps with the serger. The way the sleeves were attached was a different process than the method I was taught, so I used the more familiar method to me. They turned out just fine and I'm pretty sure the results would be identical either way.

Next up? The Oliver + S Sailboat Top (with short sleeves), then maybe onto a few pairs of shorts/skorts.

Clothes for the kid

Hopefully I'll be pushing out a baby mid-Kids' Clothing Week Challenge, so I wanted to get a head start and use up some of the fabric stash I have on hand to clothe Mabel this summer. Plus, sewing has been a good excuse to sit on my rump and make things without the effort of renovating another room in the house.

A little bit of the sewing I did: The Pretty Ruffled Wrap Pinafore minus the ruffle. It was too snug on Mabel, so it will be a gift. I liked the fabric so much, I used it for the second version, too.

Pattern minus the wrap, shortened to shirt length and a gathered ruffle at the bottom. This one was a birthday gift for a friend of Mabel's. The crown was part of the gift as well, and just a little something I made up on my own.

I made a purple gingham shirt just like the middle one, and then this madras version. Shorter bodice, longer gathered torso, added pockets and fudged some fluttery sleeves. It's a far cry from the original pattern, but built from the same concept. I made one more tunic (without the wrap) in this Merlot swirl pattern (Jenaveve Collection by Valeri Wells for Free Spirit Fabrics).

Now I've turned my attention to shirts with sleeves to outfit M through the summer. Wish me luck figuring out how to read the Figgy's Ayashe pattern. The pattern itself is written really well, but I have a feeling there will be numerous user (that's me!) errors.

Early recap of KCWC so far

A quick recap of things I've made for M this month:

Then the first two things I made for the Kids Clothes Week Challenge. he wrap dress from Sunday. The pants I made on Monday were cute, but a little too slim for M.

Yesterday I went for a quick-n-easy project: a simple circle skirt. I used Made blog's tutorial but made a covered elastic waist since I didn't have any thick, fancy elastic on hand. I'm really enjoying picking through all the fabric pieces I have already. It's paring the back stock down while giving me a fun challenge to match complimentary patterns up. (If you want to make a circle skirt that fits 2T to 3T, I have a jpg collection in google docs to make the circle cutting easy as pie.)

If I decide to try another pair of pants, I have some super cute, colorfully striped fabric that would be just perfect for these flat front pants.

I think I only post pictures of myself in this plaid dress. It, too, has a circle skirt and is probably why I was determined to make one for M. I love to randomly spin around the house and watch it flare out. Other times I hoist it up like Melissa Gilbert/Laura Ingalls does at the beginning of Little House on the Prairie as she's walking through the fields.

Just for the record, M likes to spin around and see her skirt flare up, too.

Kids Clothes Week Challenge: Day 1

It's Kids Clothes Week and this blog has a great list of tutorials to try. What is the Kids Clothes Week Challenge?

Want to join? Go to Elsie Marley's blog and sign up, join the flickr group if you want to show off your creations, and dust off the ol' sewing machine!

I cheated and started yesterday because I have to take time when I can find it. Using the "It's Mother's Day and I want to sew" excuse helped me get the time to do it, though. Here's what I made: a Prudent Baby wrap dress in a cherry print with a gingham skirt. The fabric is from the same batch as this dress; there are so many great fabrics in that batch that I'm eager to make more more more cute pieces for little M and I won't have to fork over any money for materials. 

I should've done it with snaps like they suggest, but couldn't find any snaps and when time is limited you just have to go with the supplies on hand. Buttons, I've got lots of cool, old, pretty buttons so I used those. I'd show you the button holes, but these button holes are actually way worse than the first button holes I ever made, so don't look closely. Just look at M's cute little face and then glance at the dress.