Kid's Clothes Week Day 7

I finished off Olivia's butter fly shirt, using the same Women's Metro T-Shirt pattern.  Olivia and I started discussing t-shirt fringe, a few week's back when we were making her a western dress for an AWANA banquet at camp.  We ended up not making t-shirt fringe for that project, but it seemed like the perfect thing to add to a t-shirt.

The fabric is 100% cotton jersey and it's lovely.  This was a left over piece from a Hopscotch Dress I made her 3 years ago.  Do you notice what I did wrong?!  In my hurry to get the shirt cut out, I neglected to put my butterflies in the right direction.  Yes, indeed, I cut out the shirt having the butterflies flying upside down.  I was in quite the hurry as my husband was getting ready to replace the skylight, above where I was working, and I needed to get things done quickly.  We had an awful storm blow through, a little over a week ago and a baseball sized hailstone broke through one of our skylights.  Needless to say, we ended up replacing 5 skylights.  So in my hurried adventure to get this shirt done, I made a big mistake.  Oh well, Olivia didn't notice and neither did her big sister.  The fabric is soft and comfy so it will do just fine. :)

It was fun making the fringe.  I used a small sized rotary cutter to get the fringe cut in a uniform fashion.  We wanted to make the fringe long enough, but not too long as to cause issues with playing and getting caught in things.  We also wanted to make sure her belly was covered and not exposed by the fringe cuts.

For the shirt I used size M/L once again, M through the neck/shoulders and L through the width.  I added almost 2" to the length of the sleeve and 2" to the hemline of the shirt.  I cut the fringe 6" up from the bottom of the shirt and about 3" up from the bottom of the sleeve.  The slits were 1/4" apart.  Olivia is happy with her shirt and I am mostly happy with it.  We are considering making some other fringe T-shirts using some patterned designs.

That wraps up the week of sewing for children......but I'm not done sewing.  It was good once again to be forced to sew each day, for my child. :)  My other children were neglected in the clothing department, oh well.

Happy Sewing.......

Kids Clothes Week Day 6

I was able to finish up the Women's Metro T-Shirt high/low dress for Olivia.  We wrestled with whether or not to put an elastic waist in the dress.  In the end, we decided not to and she has the freedom to use a belt to bring it in, should she want to do that.  This will allow her two different looks in wearing the dress.  She's happy with her dress and I am happy to have another dress made for her this week.

Once again, I used the size M/L, M through the shoulders and L through the width.  I changed up the pattern from the waist line down, making it an A line shape, but then changing the hem line to a high low style.  I am not a big fan of this style hem line, but I am growing to like some dresses made this way.  Olivia is quite pleased with this one.

We are contemplating a couple more shirts to make with this pattern.  One of the ones we want to make is with a cotton knit and lace.  That might have to wait until next week.  Butterfly fabric is next. :) Edit to add, the butterfly shirt is cut and I have started sewing. :)

Until tomorrow......

Kid's Clothes Week Day 5

More than an hour was used for sewing time today.  I got the fabric ready, measured and sized the design of the dress we wanted to make, marked and cut out the dress.  Then I had time to do some stitching, preparing the hems and will finish up tomorrow.  Once again we are using the Women's Metro T-Shirt pattern by Liesl + Co.  Size M through the shoulders and neck (front neckline dropped, slightly) and size L through the width, then A Line shaped and lengthened for the dress.  This is a longer style dress with a high low hemline.

Olivia likes the chevron pattern fabrics, as do I.  This dress is being made form the Riley Blake collection.  The knit is made form 95% cotton 5% spandex and it's so soft and wonderful to wear.  It's also wonderful to sew.

This will be Olivia's third dress this week.   It's wonderful to see the wardrobe getting fulfilled....just in time, I'm sure, for another growth spurt. ;)

Tomorrow I will finish up the dress and we might have time to cut out and start one more garment....we hope!

Back tomorrow......good night! :)

Kid's Clothes Week, Day 2.

I finished up Olivia's dress and cut out and started the sewing of her new maxi length dress.  She's excited to finally get a maxi dress.  Olivia loves this new dress and can hardly wait for her new, new dress. :)

For this next dress, I used the same, liesl + co, 'Women's Metro T-Shirt' pattern, again using the size M through the shoulders and the size L for the width of the pattern.  It has a nice relax fit, giving Olivia time to enjoy her dress and not grow out of it, too quickly.....at least I hope she doesn't.  Olivia is growing like crazy at the moment.  She needs new clothes!

While Olivia did not dye the fabric, no time to do that, we chose a fabric she has liked for over a year, wanting a dress made from it.  Because of the lovely tie dye fabric, it makes it almost seem as if it was created by Olivia, but it was not.  This fabric is 100% cotton jersey, but we have a piece of fabric, with the exact same tie dye, in a light weight twill. :)

For day three, I will finish up the dress and hopefully start cutting the next garment.

Good-Night..........

Selfish Sewing Week.....

This past week was deemed, "Selfish Sewing Week".  The idea behind it is that so often, we are sewing for other people and here is one week we set aside to sew for ourselves.  It's nice in theory, but reality says otherwise. ;)

In keeping with the theme of trying to do at least one hour a day, throughout the week, I attempted Selfish Sewing Week, but I didn't accomplish a lot. ;)

I started out learning a very, very valuable lesson.  When printing PDF patterns, 1/6" of an inch off, makes a HUGH difference.  I did check the measurements of the testing square, first, but I was in a hurry and I thought it was correct, or so close to correct, it must be correct and I'm just picky! :P  Well, after taping, tracing and cutting out a muslin, then sewing, I knew something was off.  Sure enough the whole thing, along with the other patterns I had also printed off, taped together, traced off and cut out the patterns, were going to be off, too. :(  I took a great deal of time to fix this error.  I will have a post coming about the PDF issue, just to warn others who might have this same error.  I may not get to that post until next week.

Once my pattern was correctly printed, taped and traced off, I was finally able to do my Women's Metro T-Shirt pattern, by Liesl + Co.  Here's what I did each day:

-Day one of the week was spent tracing off the wrong scaled pattern, cutting and sewing a muslin.
-On day two, I spent the day fixing the error on the scaling, then doing that for the other patterns I had incorrectly printed off.  I traced off and cut out the pattern and my new t-shirt.
-Day three, I sneaked in some time to sew the shoulder and side seams.
-Day four, I decided how I wanted to finish the armholes since this was to be a tank t-shirt. I put the neckline together and hemmed the shirt.
-Day five, no time to work on the shirt, but hit the fabric store while out doing errands and purchased a 3 metre length of silk fabric for a skirt and scarf I want to make for myself...that's truly selfish!
-Day six, I cut out the binding for the shirt, the rest of the time I selfishly spent repairing a skirt for my daughter so she could wear it (much more important than my tank t-shirt and I was so happy to do that. :)
-Day 7, I sewed the binding on the shirt.... with the exception of tying off the coverstitch tails, which I will do tomorrow, in the light of day.

The Salsa Skirt was made back in February for when I attended Sewing Expo.

Until tomorrow,

Good Night......