My Final Roller Skate Dress...

Well, for now.

My kid now has three Roller Skate Dresses, and two Roller Skate Tunics.  Enough already.

This one is meant for the first day of school - this year, Julia is going to a new school.  She's spent the last two years at a great school, but now she's going to head off to the Montessori school that her brother attended.  I'm really a believer in the whole Montessori thing, especially for a kid like mine who has a November birthday, and won't be eligible to attend kindergarten until she's almost six.  I worry that she'd get bored with yet another year of the same pre-school stuff.  I hope I'm making the right decision....

Anyways, I decided to make a dress based on what Julia's working on right now - writing her letters.  She can pretty much write her name so that someone could recognize it, and she can identify a few letters, every once in a while.

The dress, again, is the Oliver + S Roller Skate Dress.  This is made in a 3T, out of a lightweight stretch corduroy, lined with a bed sheet that I'm now using to line just about everything.

So, I can make this dress with my eyes closed.  For this one, I decided to add a practice writing paper border which I painstakingly satin stitched over a couple of days.  The letters are not perfect.  But, neither are my 3 year old's!

It's really soft and comfortable, and since I know my kid likes this pattern, I was pretty sure she'd be up for a modelling session...which, she was!

The back has a really cool pink button with little beads that go around that I've been hoarding in my button stash forever....this was the perfect project for it!  Again, I used a little hair elastic instead of trying to make a button loop out of fabric - it's much easier, and looks really cute.

Here's a close-up of the satin stitching - hardly perfect, but does work.....

I've got a bunch of other back-to-school projects piled up and ready to go....ready for a new school year!

Should I Cheer, Or Should I Play?

First, as bit of a prelude, watch the above video...

This flipped creation was designed by my three-and-a-half year old.  I told her I was going to be in a contest to "flip" a pattern - specifically, the Roller Skate Dress and Tunic by Oliver + S.  Since I already had two Roller Skate dresses in her closet (one well worn, and the other barely worn) I showed her the dresses, and asked her opinion as to what I could make it into.

She requested a cheerleader outfit.

Which brings us to the debate.  Julia says she wants to be a cheerleader.  Whenever she says that, to anyone in our house, we groan.  No offense meant to any past or future cheerleaders, but why would you want to cheer for someone doing a sport - wouldn't you rather do the sport yourself?  Yes, I have this philosophical debate quite often with my three-and-a-half year old....

So, I made her both - an outfit to CHEER, and an outfit to PLAY!

 

Here's the pieces:

For the "Flip" part, I embellished the top with some heavy duty applique work.  For anyone who doesn't happen to be a basketball fan, this is the logo of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team. I removed the cap sleeve, added my daughter's favorite sleeve - the flutter sleeve.

 I changed the elastic casing to elasticize only the sides, and added ties.  For the shorts, I used the Oliver + S Sleepover Pajama bottom pattern piece.  I eliminated the waistband, and it turned out to hit my daughter exactly where she likes to wear her shorts; not too high on the waist.  For the skirt, I used the Oliver + S 2+2 pattern, and embellished the bottom with grosgrain ribbon.  The fabric for the top is Robert Kaufman Kona cotton - the skirt and shorts are a cotton twill.

Basketball button on the back, tattoo on the arm.....ready to Play....or Cheer!!

Thanks so much to Emily and Ashley of the famed duo of Frances Suzanne for inviting me to play along!  I seriously appreciate it - and, I had a ton of fun!!

Oh What a Beautiful Morning....

Mostly, I miss the east coast where I grew up.

Today, I love where I live now.  It was so absolutely beautiful out.  Not cold, not hot, sunny, but not too sunny.  A perfect day really.

I sewed up another Roller Skate dress for Julia, and took her to the beach for some photos to send to the grandparents.  My parents are old-school - I email them photos, and they print them on their computer.  I thought it would be nice to actually print some and send them to them by actual mail for a change....

Here's the dress - the fabric is a quilting cotton from Westminster, the designer is Jenean Morrison.  Since buying some of her fabric from her Grand Hotel line, I checked out her website (http://jeneanmorrison.net/) - her art is really cool - very much my style. 

I had to really think about how I wanted to place the fabric on this border print.  Since the bottom of the hem is curved, and the border is of course straight, I needed to leave a lot of the red at the bottom so that it didn't look like it was uneven.  I also needed to have the elastic casing in a good spot as well....I was happy with the placement, except I should have centered the pattern a bit better.  But, whatever....she's 3!

We went to the beach about 8:00 a.m. - the lighting was beautiful, the temperature was perfect.....I think I got a lot of good shots to send the grandparents....I think they'll be delighted!

 And, I don't know where she came up with the hands on the hips pose....

 This picture (above) is my favorite....the real Julia smile, as opposed to the fake picture taking smile...

  The above picture reminds me of a model face you see on runway models....

I need another pattern like.....

a hole in the head.  Or, so, that's what I thought.....

The new Oliver + S patterns came out.  I'm going to buy some for my shop - in fact, they're on order.  But, could I wait?  No.  So, I got the digital download of the new Roller Skate Dress pattern. 

When I first ordered Moda fabric, the new line from Zen Chic - Comma - just hit the right chord for me.  It's got bold patterns and colors - right up my alley!  For this project, I chose this:

I loved the colors, the print.  Everything.  Generally, I wouldn't use such nice fabric the first time I sewed a pattern, but I pretty much knew the Roller Skate pattern would be perfect from the ones I've seen popping up in the Flickr group right after the pattern release.

The pattern is a fully lined, very simple dress - with beautiful lines, an elastic waist, and a yoke overlay option.  I used some shot cotton leftover from another project to make this version:

My kid has some new orange Saltwater sandals, so we're also trying to incorporate some orange tones in the wardrobe....

The dress was simple to make, but the neckline could be a little fiddly.  Maybe that's why they rated this as a "two-scissor" pattern.  The construction - as you can always expect from O+S - was ingenious. 

I will DEFINITELY be making several more of these dresses.  This is a size 3 on my 3 year old - fit is perfect.

Post-photo shoot reward for pictures - playing with my buttons with some wooden dowels.....who needs toys!