Salsa Skirt, Child Size

After having made many of the Salsa Skirts for myself, I figured it was time to make some for Olivia. 

When I was at Swing Expo this year, I was stopped so many times while wearing my Wool Salsa Skirt and asked about the pattern.  I was a bit surprised by how many times I was stopped and found it interesting, since I wear this skirt at home all the time.  Perhaps it was seeing it in action while walking across the campus and the 'flirty, flippiness' to the hem that drew attention to it, since I wasn't wearing a coat.  Since it was obviously a favoured skirt, I thought I should make some for Olivia, so she too could have fun skipping along in a Salsa skirt.

Olivia has recently learned to skip.  She knew how to do it a bit, several years ago, but had forgotten and wanted to learn to do it and master it.  She would do a 'sort of skip' movement, but not a true skip.  For the past month and a bit, we have been skipping along where ever she decides is a good place to skip.  It took about a week of skipping through large stores and parking lots to get it down, but she has it down well, now.  Do you remember the enjoyment of skipping as a child?  I love holding hands with her and skipping around town. :)  These are precious memories. It doesn't matter to me if people think this old lady looks funny skipping around with her precious daughter, I am so thankful to be skipping with her. ;)  Olivia has some eye tracking issues which is why she is delayed in some of these activities. ;)

With Olivia's newly picked out knit fabric, I went about enlarging the children's Salsa Skirt pattern and sewed up a couple of new Salsa skirts for her.  This is the first one.  Olivia chose which way she wanted the stripes to go. :P  It was fun to have her select fabric and make decisions on the garments she wanted made up with the fabric.  She has a difficult time making decisions, always wanting what 'you' want, rather than having an opinion.  It has been fun to push her out of her comfort zone and have her make decisions. :)

Olivia thought a new shirt to go with her new skirt, using the extra fabric, would be nice.  We decided on the Oliver + S Hopscotch pattern.  I took the size 12 and enlarged it.  I found that depending on the type of knit, I needed to enlarge the pattern to have a little looser fit.  This knit is a loose knit, but I still chose to enlarge the pattern.  I added 1.5" to the length of the shirt and about 1" to the length of the sleeves.  I decided to double the width of the neck binding, which looks great.  I added a total of 2" to the sides of the pattern, which was .5" to each side seam.  The pattern is great and easy to put together.  I have made this a few other times, but as dresses, not as a shirt.  We will probably make a couple more of these to add to her wardrobe. 

Olivia put the dress and skirt to the test of skipping and twirling.  She really likes her new outfit. :)

Thanks for visiting.....

Carol