More Salsa Skirts

Back in February, I was busy getting ready to attend the Sewing Expo.  I was on deck to make a few Salsa skirts for us to wear.  I made a total of  7, two for me, two for Olivia and 3 for my sisters.

All skirts are made out of knit fabric.

This skirt is Olivia's and it's made from a cotton/poly blend from Girl Charlee, which I see is not in stock at this time, but is in the cream with green writing.

 These three skirts are made from a cotton/poly blend as well, again, from Girl Charlee, which they do still have in stock. This picture is before I finished up the rolled hems on the skirts. ;)

There are only two in this picture, but I did make three of them.  They are made with fabric from Fabric.com, the designer is Robert Kaufman and the fabric is so wonderful!  So, so soft and just the right weight.  It has 95% cotton and 5% lycra, which make it a dream to work with and to wear.

I have seriously lost track of how many times I have made this skirt...LOTS!  I have made it in floor length, stretch denim, knee length stripes, and all for small people, too.  Great, fun skirt to make and wear. ;)

Good night......

Carol

Sewing Expo Day One

Today was our first official day of classes.  The first official day of the expo is tomorrow, Thursday the 28.

My sister, Cathy and Olivia and I took the class titled, "Patter Design Magic" by Jan Bones.  If you have never had the pleasure of taking one of Jan's classes, I would highly recommend her classes, if you ever get the opportunity.  She is always a pleasure to have as an instructor.  She is thoughtful, kind very informative and knows her craft very well.  You can read about Jan and view her patterns at Lingereie Secrets but her patterns are more than lingereie.  I am always encouarged and learn new techniques every time I take one of her classes be it a short 45 minute classe or a 4 hour class, like today's class was.

Later in the afternoon we had the pleasure of meeting up with Rhonda Pierce, with Schmetz Needles for tea.  What a great group of ladies we met with to discuss blogging and sewing. 

I have taken a couple of classes that Rhonda offered in the past, and found out how much I do not know about the proper needles to use.  What once was an intimidating subject for me has become less so over the past few years.  I confess, I am still learning and enjoying the process very much. 

Did you know it takes 11 weeks from raw material to the production of a needle?  When  I first heard that a few years back, I was amazed.  With that in mind, you can see why these quality needles are the best and it helps to put into perspective the great bargain it is to purchase these wonderful needles.  My personal stash of quality needles has gone up tremendously.  Maybe when I get back home I can do a post on needles. :)

I am hoping to blg each day, provided I can get wifi access.

Happy Sewing,

Carol

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