Kids Clothes Week - Spring 2016

I made an attempt this past week to join in with Kids Clothes Week.  Success?  Failure?  Well, a little bit of both.

I set my sights high and pulled fabric for about 8 items.  What I ended up with was this:

I guess in the normal world of sewing, I'd be happy.  I completed both outfits this week, worked 40 hours, did about a million kid activities and took about 10 trips to the dog park.

The details:

Outfit number 1 - two free patterns from Oliver + S - the Popover dress made into a tunic, and my much-used Sunny Days Shorts.  The top and shorts are both size 5.  On the tunic, I added width on the front panel and gathered it a bit.  The fabric is a nice light seersucker from Robert Kaufman.  The shorts are a medium weight cotton denim fabric that has been living in my stash forever.  Nice to use that stash fabric!  I shortened the shorts 2 inches from the pattern length - works better with the heavier fabric. I added pockets to both the front and back of the shorts....gotta have pockets!

Outfit number 2 - the Butterfly Blouse and Skirt from Oliver + S sewn in a size 5 with 7 length.  The top is Woodland Clearing lawn and the skirt is a heavy cotton linen.  I've made the skirt a bunch of times for school uniforms, but this was the first time I've made the top.  It's a very sweet pattern - I definitely recommend it!

 Here's some modeled shots of both outfits (no pictures of the shorts yet!):

Thanks for reading.....can you tell my sew-jo is back?  Makes me happy!

February Free-For-All - Popover Sundress Inspiration

Welcome to visitors from the Frances Suzanne blog - what a great idea they had to showcase free patterns!!

Where do you get inspiration for your sewing?

I *used* to rely heavily on the now near-dead Flickr website.  When I started sewing for my youngest, I got tons of inspiration there - I "favorited" items to document where I'd like to go with my sewing.  When I started a new creation, I'd go there to see what other people had done with similar patterns.  I joined groups, made friends.

Then, Flickr pretty much died.

Now, I get lots of inspiration searching Instagram.  But, unless people hashtag correctly or in a predictable manner, it's tough to really keep track of what you like.   I've never been much of a Pinterest person.  So, when I signed on to showcase a free pattern, I - of course - chose an Oliver + S pattern, then went back to my old friend, the Flickr group.  A group of folks who do seem to still hang with Flickr are the O+S people - which is a good thing.

I chose the Oliver + S Popover Sundress.  Even though this is a free pattern, it includes all the high quality finishes you expect from an Oliver + S pattern, including a bonus doll pattern.  Little things like a beautifully finished yoke, and a reminder to iron down your stitches to set them really set Oliver + S patterns apart.  In my opinion!

I had made this previously for a charity event making dresses to send to Haiti, but never for my child.  When I'm searching Flickr for inspiration, I search first the pattern name within the group, then refine by "interesting".  Who knows exactly how Flickr determines interesting, but it definitely gives you good results.

When I searched the Flickr pool for the Popover Sundress, I found some interesting trends.  It seems like some of the most popular sundresses were:

1.   made from large scale prints
2.   made from plain fabric, with lace inserted in the yoke
3.   made from a border print or applique

So, in the spirit of trying to be interesting, I made 3.

Here's my large scale print...

For this version, I used some very interesting Kokka double gauze from my shop.  I shortened it into a tunic.  Since this was a woven, I decided to try a size 5.  Probably a bad decision.  I used foldover elastic for the straps - a good decision.  However, this particular FOE was a bit too narrow.  Still, in spite of the pitiful look on my child (stomachache) she does really like this top.  A lot.

Here's a phone picture later in the day to prove it!

I was struggling for inspiration for a border/applique version.  Then, sadly, I got inspiration from my old dog Luther.  Luther went to doggie heaven this past weekend.  A very, very tough weekend in our house.  I decided to do a black lab version of the Popover Sundress - more for my benefit than anyone else's.  (If you'd like to see photos of Luther in his heyday, you can check my photo website here:  http://www.harrisdigitalpix.com/galleries/animals/7/ - Luther is the black lab mix.)

For this version, I used some more fabric from my shop (yes, more shameless promotion!!) - a ponte de roma double knit.  Seriously great fabric, seriously great to work with.  Since the Kokka top turned out big, I sized down to a size 4 with 6 length.  This one worked perfectly.  Until......the kid put it on and FREAKED OUT about the ties at the shoulders.  No, those are NOT going to work for her.  After the photos, I cut off the ends of the ties.  She seems to be ok with it.

Last, but certainly not least, I made a basic black dress from more ponte de roma double knit with some very nice organic lace from Organic Cotton Plus at the bodice.  Really, this dress can go anywhere. For this version, I used a wider foldover elastic - much better.

Julia wore this black dress out to dinner tonight - at the restaurant, she told me that she wants more dresses like this - oh yeah, success!

Thanks to Ashley and Emily for asking me to participate - such great inspiration from a bunch of very talented bloggers!