T-Shirts for Mr. T

I mentioned before that I'd traced some Ottobre patterns and by the time I got around to cutting them out, he'd grown enough that they wouldn't fit for long. I figured this out by cutting out the shirt you see above. This is the #12 shirt from the 4/2010 issue. I'd traced and cut it out in a 92 and sewed it up, only to discover that T. had grown enough for it to be rather snug on him. The shirt is supposed to look like two in one, with the hood in a contrasting fabric, so I dug up some brown and red Campan knit from a previous shirt I'd made him and used that for the hood. I'd already used olive green ribbing because it goes so well with the Ooga print but it didn't look good with the brown and red, so I went with the maroon ribbing on the hood. It definitely gives the impression of two different shirts, although it's obvious from the fit that it's just one.

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Here you can see the front pocket a bit better, although it still blends into the body of the shirt. I used the triple-honeycomb stitch on my machine to imitate a RTW coverstitch. Anyway, it works well and I used the same stitch when I made the drawstrings for the sweatpants in the previous post.
Having realized that the boy needed a 98, I cut out new sizes for him in 2 other shirts. The first is the Hippotamus Hoppulainen shirt from the 6/2010 issue. I like this shirt because I think it lends itself to a mix of fabrics while still looking sporty and boyish. For this I used the Michael Miller dinosaur interlock and a piece of orange and red Campan knit. That Michael Miller stuff shrinks like nobody's business and it's super soft! Maybe that's why it shrinks so? Anyway, the ribbing is a beautiful turquoise from JoAnn's. I wish it were slightly more green in color but I like the contrast of the turquoise with the orange.


This piece of Campan was really small - not even a half meter, so I had to really work to fit all the pieces when I laid it out. As you can see, I used the stripe for the front, back and the stripes on the sleeves. This shirt goes really well with the brown sweatpants in the previous post.


Last shirt in the list is the Pistachio-Chocolate reversible hoodie from the 4/2009 issue. I wanted something to match the blue sweatpants and dug out a printed stripe knit that I'd used for outfits for the girls about 4 years ago. I'd used it for an accent to a print, but it seemed like a good boy fabric. Then I dug around in my stash and found the world's softest navy cotton knit this side of paradise - totally serious about this. I want to curl up in it. Anyway, add to that some olive green interlock and some maroon ribbing and you get this:


I decided that I wanted the pocket and hood on the stripe side to match - hence the decision to do both in green. I used that tripe-honeycomb stitch again for the pocket hems and as topstitching on the sleeve hems. The navy side would have been too plain with a navy hood, hence the stripe. T. loves this shirt and wears it a lot with either pair of the navy "soft pants". It's his "cozy" outfit. I haven't gotten him to wear it with the navy side out - I suspect he likes the way it feels against his skin too much. But it would look fantastic on the navy side with the sleeves rolled to expose the stripe on the other side. This shirt is pretty heavy and he gets hot pretty easily, so I don't have him wear a shirt under it, though you could if you used thinner knits, as it's cut quite roomy. My only problem with this shirt is that I forgot how much the stripe fades, since it's not yarn-dyed but printed. Ugh. But he doesn't seem to mind and it gives it a sort of worn-in look that is generally achieved in RTW with acid washes and the like.

Boy oh boy!

I seem to have been remiss in blogging the many things I made for my son this fall/winter. So. Much. Stuff. So let's jump in.

Starting off with the pants:

This is, unfortunately, a pair of jeans that Mr. T rapidly outgrew. These are the "Rock Me" baby jeans from the 3/2009 issue of Ottobre, made in a really cool mottled grey and tan denim, with accents of khaki and white star print. The back pockets are embellished with Farbenmix knights ribbon, for a bit of pizzazz. The denim came from fabric.com and the ribbon came from etsy. I have to say that while this pattern is cute, it doesn't leave much room at all for growing. Had I known that I probably would have chosen something different. Alas, it's too late now. Maybe I'll have another boy and get some more use out of these. As it is, I had him wear them until they started to look ridiculously short before I put them in storage. I love how the characters on the ribbon look like the drawings from the book "The Princess Knight".


Next up, sweat pants or "soft pants", as my son likes to call them. As in,"Mommy, you make me soft pants???" My husband is afraid T. will grow up to wear track suits like the guys from the Sopranos, but right now he's all about being cozy and I'm all about the pants being easy to get on and off.



These are made from the same pattern, City Mouse sweatpants from the 4/2011 issue of Ottobre. I had traced a 92 but realized that he'd grown and wasn't going to be able to wear them very long, so I decided to trace up a size. This was a bit awkward, since the pattern only went up to a 92. I used a method from Teri's blog, Mermaids and it worked really well. I plan to use this for other items that I need to size up 1 size. Anyway, the brown pants are brown stretch French terry from Sewzanne's, with striped ribbing from the Ottobre shop on etsy. A very good deal, since you buy a meter but then can divide it up and get different colors. I got orange and brown, as well as orange and linden green and orange and light blue. The second pair is from a really heavy-weight non-stretch cotton sweatshirt knit that I got at JoAnn's. I also got the maroon ribbing there. The drawstrings for both pairs is cotton rib knit that I had in my stash. The third pair (pictured at the top) is the same navy but I had to piece the legs in order to have enough fabric. The green ribbing is also from JoAnn's.

Next up, shirts but I'll do that in a separate post.

Cherry Blossoms

So I've written about the Beignet skirt that I dreamed about, only to screw up when I made the decision not to make a muslin. Never again. But what I didn't say in that post was that I'd already made a top to go with it. More to the point, I'd matched the red wool to a red in the rayon knit I used for the top perfectly, and I'd had these visions of a wonderful birthday dinner wearing my new outfit.

I should backtrack and tell you that I'd been ogling the Hot Patterns website for years and finally decided that I wanted to try them. I'd kind of stopped buying patterns for myself when I came across their website for the first time, because I was focusing on sewing for Maeve. But I've been trying to get back into sewing for myself and I wanted something hipper than the average pattern. Fabric.com had really good prices on some of the older patterns by HP, so I ordered a few from them and this is the first I tried - the Plain and Simple Boy-Leg Body, the faux surplice v-neck version with long sleeves. Then I scoured the web and found this lovely rayon-lycra jersey in a cherry blossom print on etsy.

The instructions were limited, but easy to follow and I only have 2 complaints about this pattern: 1) Some of the pattern pieces didn't print properly. This was fixed fairly easily with a ruler and pencil but I still wonder if I made the pieces the right width (they were straight, so fairly easy to reproduce). 2) There are really no instructions for applying the elastic other than the directive to apply it. Yes, I could have googled it, but I was sort of lazy and just wanted to get it done. I'll have to research methods for future projects, but since this is something you wear with a bottom garment, the wonkiness of the elastic in this one is really not an issue. You learn from your mistakes, right?

I only made 2 changes to the garment construction and they didn't involve pattern modification at all. The first was that I chose to topstitch the band on the neckline so that it would lie flat when worn. I just used a straight stitch for this, since I'm unlikely to be extremely rough on this top it should be fine. The other change was that I used stay-tape on the crotch openings when I applied the snaps, since I felt that the stress on that area of the garment indicated a need for reinforcement. This jersey is not super thick and the snaps are pretty darn strong so I wanted to avoid any holes in the fabric from using the snaps.

All in all, not bad, although I think I'll have to make some carriers for my bra straps so that the shoulders don't slip down over them. But I can do that by hand, so no problem. And I think that if I make this again I'll use something a bit firmer - this rayon jersey is super stretchy and stretches easily, so I find it slipping down at the v-neck, which usually ends up in someone getting an eyeful of my cleavage. I don't mind so much if it's my husband but the preschool teacher doesn't need to see it.

Cardinal Sin

I should know better. Seriously. I mean, I've been sewing for so long that I should remember that I always need to double-check patterns before I make the actual garment. I mean, it's not hard to make a muslin, right? But I was excited about finally taking time to sew for myself and jumped in feet-first.

So, Colette Patterns Beignet skirt, red wool (a gift from my husband at Christmas) and some diamond-patterned red and grey-blue silk that I dug out of my stash and I was convinced that I'd have a beautiful skirt. I had it all in my head, especially after the button fiasco. How can buttons be a fiasco? Well, apparently finding a dozen buttons at the local JoAnn's is too much to ask. And I dug through my stash of vintage buttons, only to be immediately reminded that I stupidly used a majority of the red ones in a crafty project about 2 decades ago. Which sucks because I had these beautiful red glass buttons that would have been perfect.... but I digress. Anyway, no red buttons here and not enough at JoAnn's, so I resorted to buying some very cool-looking black buttons that have a decidedly Deco vibe to them.

Now that I had all my components I was set and had decided that I needed this to be what I wore for my birthday. And at that point I only had 2 weeks to make it which, while it sounds like plenty of time, is not really enough when I factor in the demands of my family - particularly since everyone got sick right around this time. I'm blaming the not making a muslin on this, since I felt pressed for time, but in reality I was just not thinking.

So I got everything cut out and missed my birthday deadline completely. But I still wanted to finish it while it's still cool enough to wear wool, so I charged ahead. In the process of sewing the skirt - which is always easy with Colette patterns - I found that the fabric I was working with was simply too bulky to press the seams to the side, rather than press them open, particularly at the top edge when joining the skirt body to the facings/lining. I know that some people think that it weakens the seams, but I highly recommend pressing the seams open when using thick fabric.

After attaching the skirt to the lining/facings I tried it on and looked in the mirror and instantly saw the problem - aside from needing to take in the seams a bit all the way around, I realized that the pockets were too low and therefore stuck out like wings from my thighs. Not an attractive look, I assure you. I should have taken the time to shorten the pattern properly prior to cutting out. Consequently it was also too long. Shortening it wasn't going to help this problem at all. So I put it aside to think about how to fix it. I don't want this to end up in the ufo pile. So what to do? I made a muslin, post-haste.

Since I didn't necessarily think that this would be a wearable muslin, I just dug around in my stash and found some navy and white gingham made from some mystery fiber (probably a poly blend of some kind) and some cheap polyester lining in a very pale grey. I didn't even bother to use thread that matched the lining - I just changed the needle to a smaller size and used the same navy thread I was using for the gingham. Also, I eliminated the pockets, since I didn't think this was something that would go into my wardrobe. I ended up shortening the skirt at the line marked on the pattern roughly 2 1/4". Then I sewed the skirt shell and tried it on. It needed taking in all around, so I resewed the seams 1/8" further in. Yes, this means that the seams got taken in 1/4" at each seam, for a total of 1 1/2" . That may seem like a lot but it helped a lot with the shape. In fact, the shape is so good in the back that when I finished the main construction and tried it on again (no buttons or hem yet) my husband commented that it made my bum look good. That, folks, makes it a winner.

So now it needed buttons. A quick search through my stash of blue buttons (yes, I have them sorted in canning jars by color) told me that I didn't have enough in the right size and in the right quantity. A brief stop at JoAnn's revealed a severe shortage of navy buttons so I took what I could get. But I did mention it to the manager - 2 cards of each button type is not adequate for most people. She agreed and said that she was trying to convince her boss that she needed more stock. I felt lucky to walk out of there with 12 of the same button in the right color. So now, the finished product:

It turns out that this is sort of wearable. And I like it. In fact, I like it so much that I decided I had to make a Jasmine blouse in navy lawn with a white tie and cuffs. Yes, the gingham is a little wonky in places but it's not really that bad. The hem was a beast to finish and get right - the gingham really fools the eye. And I hemmed it with a blind catch-stitch, which is easy to do and easy to mess up if you're not careful.

Colette Patterns Spring/Summer Palette Challenge

I don't know if I'm going to make the deadline on this, or even if I'll get everything done. But I intend to try to get all of these things done. My color palette consists of black, navy, cadet blue, red, maroon,  and pink. This is mostly inspired by the gingham and polka dots that have been popping up in the retro-influenced clothing in RTW and by things I've pinned on my pinterest board. But really this is a build on the gingham Beignet skirt that I made earlier, and a Chantilly dress that I made 2 years ago but never really finished and which had some fit issues. I really want to finish that dress properly and it happens that it fits my palette. Here's the fabric it's made from:

So that's my jumping-off point. Then I plan on doing a Jasmine blouse in this navy lawn with a white tie and cuffs in this white striped lawn, which was inspired by the navy and white gingham Beignet I mentioned earlier.

Next, I have another Colette pattern on the list, Ceylon. This will be made from a mix of 2 fabrics: a white and red polka-dot cotton poplin and a solid red poplin.

Apparently this is a really dress-heavy plan, since there are at least 2, perhaps 3 other dresses in this plan. First, being inspired by a photo of a field of poppies (red flowers and blue sky), I thought that this floral linen would make an excellent dress:

I'm planning to make this into a dress from the latest issue of Ottobre Woman, a fuller-skirted sundress. The next 2 dresses in line are going to be my versions of dresses I found on the Mod Cloth website. The first is a black and red dress that was called "A Cherry Good Day"which can be seen on my pinterest board here. I plan on using these 2 Butterick patterns to recreate this dress

and using black and red 100% cotton poplins:

The second Mod Cloth copy was a best seller last year, a pink
gingham halter-style dress. I don't recall the name of it but here it is:

As you can see, the bodice pieces are very similar to the Butterick on the left above and the skirt can be replicated with the one on the right. I already have the pink gingham in my stash - all I need is some white rick-rack. Finally, I plan on a denim version of the Meringue skirt from the Colette Patterns book, since I've seen so many cute denim iterations around the 'net. And I have some notion that I want to make at least 2 of the Sorbetto pattern in these fabrics:

Of course, I'd like to add a pair of sailor pants, too. Hot Patterns has a sailor pant that looks cute and I already own it. Plus, I think I have some navy linen in my stash....  But maybe I'll just stick with the Colette Clover pants pattern, since I like a slim capri pant for summer. Oh, and I want to make a fitted t-shirt with a cutout back like this one. I definitely can't pull all of this off within the challenge time frame, but since summer doesn't really start until July here, I figure I've got enough time. Still, I probably have too many ideas. Wish me luck!

A Piece of Me

I've been wanting to join the "beauty is where you find it" photo challenge over at luzia pimpinella and I'm finally jumping in. 

I'm cheating, though. I didn't take this one - Scott did. It's kind of hard to take a photo of your back.This was taken right after the tattoo was done. So, in the interest of being true to the challenge, here's a self-portrait of sorts, taken for the benefit of showing my new glasses:

I'm not really satisfied with either of these at the moment, so I'll try to take another one tomorrow that's slightly more creative.

Happy Halloween

Time to get caught up on posting the things I've been making.
October was a crazy month, full of sewing for the kids - well 2 of them, anyway. Halloween costumes at our house are always an "all or nothing" kind of deal. I always feel compelled to make something even more fantastic than the year before. This is good for my sewing skills but not always good for my sanity and certainly doesn't always mesh with my time constraints. But I persevere. Fortunately, this year Gwyneth made the wise decision to dress as Cinderella and I already had a costume that I'd made for Maeve, back when she was 4. Okay, I kinda urged Gwyneth to wear the Cinderella dress so that I didn't have to make a full-on Belle dress. But she agreed that it was a good idea and now she has decided to wear it for her birthday party in a week. Then, naturally, I'll have to take it to the cleaners. But I digress.
So first up this year we have Tallon as an elephant. I'm exceedingly pleased with the way that this turned out, if I do say so. The fabric was a genius choice, imho, because it really looks like elephant skin. This was a happy accident. I'd gone into JoAnn's to find some faux-suede for the costume and right next to it was this faux suede which had been treated in some way so that it looked like distressed leather/skin. The moment I saw it I knew it was the right choice. And it turned out that I was able to recycle an old french terry sweatshirt of mine that was barely worn by using it as the hood lining.
The pattern went together surprisingly well (McCall's 6105) although I did make some modifications to it. As this model contains patterns for 4 or 5 different animal costumes, it only comes in 1 size, rather than the standard multi-size range that most modern patterns come in. Tallon is a big kid. Last year I made a size 2 of the lion from this same pattern and length-wise it was a perfect fit, with little extra room. The hood portion of the size 2 didn't even come close to fitting his head, something I discovered after I'd made it. Anyway, in order to avoid this problem I sized up, thinking that I could always shorten the legs and arms. The hood ended up still being a bit too small, but that wasn't a hug problem the way it was last year. The genius in sewing the size 4, rather than the size 3 he wears in street clothes, is that I was able to use elastic and gathering stitches in combination to hike up the legs and achieved a really cute 'wrinkled elephant knees' look.
The other modification I made was to leave off the soles of the feet. The pattern was meant to have feet like a sleeper but really - how practical is that for a 3 year-old who will be outside trick-or-treating? Not very. So I simply attached the hoof pieces, backed with some sturdy foam that is used for headliners in cars. It was left over from another costume project from Maeve's toddler years (Blue from Blue's Clues) and was just the right weight and stiffness to keep the shape of the feet while still allowing Tallon to be able to wear his shoes. In this photo you can see the modified feet, as well as the "wrinkled knees" effect.
T was thrilled with the whole thing and went around stomping his feet -"walking like an elephant" - and trying to trumpet. He pretty much got rave reviews at every house we stopped.

For Maeve, the planning of the next Halloween costume usually happens the day after Halloween. So I was surprised that September rolled around and she still didn't have an idea. Her friend, K., was going on and on about how she wanted to be an "Irish Dancer Vampire" and telling Maeve to be a "Ballerina Vampire". I guess anything is a Halloween costume if you tack the word vampire onto the end of it. I convinced Maeve that this was not a good idea, since it usually lends itself to people asking "What are you supposed to be?" and then a puzzled look when you tell them. If it requires explaining, it's generally not going to work as a costume. I wasn't opposed to the idea of a vampire, though, since it's a traditional scary costume that requires no explanation and can look cool when done right.

After perusal of the Chasing Fireflies website, Maeve determined that she wanted to do an 18th century vampire costume, with a dress à la Marie Antoinette. The costume on the website was about $150 and didn't include the accessories - no way was I going to buy something for Halloween that cost that much when I could make a similar costume for a fraction of that. I searched for a pattern that was similar and then we went shopping. This was also a McCall's pattern, 5731. The problem with this pattern is that it's sized for girls up to a size 8, then it skips on to misses' sizes. I had to take the womens' size small and then cut it down, which required making a muslin of the bodice. I probably would have made a muslin anyway, just because the red brocade fabric was kind of expensive and I didn't want to buy more. So, a purchase of red and black poly/rayon brocade and some wretched black acetate taffeta was made, along with some black net lace and red scalloped lace trim and I felt like I could start the costume.
In all it went together pretty smoothly, with the minor exception of the bodice 'lacing', which I forgot to sew on prior to the bodice construction, in my haste to get started. An easy fix, though. I simply did it afterwards, and then covered the raw ribbon edges with the trim. When it came time to put lace at the neckline, we opted for a double-layer lace trim, since the neckline seemed a bit low for someone Maeve's age. Then we added a choker made from velvet ribbon and a cameo from Michael's jewelry section. I'd wanted a more traditional cameo, with a woman's profile, but couldn't find one that was the right color. Then I saw this one with the lilies and thought it was perfect, since lilies are often funeral flowers. Last, but not least, a Marie-Antoinette-style white wig with curls. It was only $10 online and I couldn't resist. I think it really made the look. My only regret is that I didn't have time to make a petticoat so the skirt would stand out better. Better pictures here, here and here.
They all got lots of compliments on their costumes, and that always makes me feel good. People went crazy over T's costume because he's just too darn cute anyway, and as an elephant he was hilarious, trumpeting all the time. They didn't get as much candy as in years past, but that's not really what it's about. It's mostly about dressing up. Interestingly, Maeve's friend decided to just go with a standard vampire costume and when she came to the door and saw Maeve's costume the jealousy was apparent to me, if not to Maeve. Maeve chose not to go with K. but do go out with me and the small ones, which was fine with me. K. is a nice kid, but she kind of gets ignored by her parents (she's the youngest) so she often resorts to telling whoppers in order to feel special and impress her friends and that makes me sad. Maeve recognizes this, so she often ignores the fibs. But I think she realizes that she has it pretty good when it comes to parental involvement compared to K. In all, they had a great time and really enjoyed themselves. The plan for next year? A full "Alice in Wonderland" deal, with Maeve as the Queen of Hearts, Gwyneth as Alice and Tallon as the White Rabbit. Scott has suggested that I make myself a Cheshire Cat costume but I'm vetoing that.