Should You Need Us

Sadly, A friend of mine recently lost a beloved pet. To be sure, the cat in question lived a long, happy life, but it's always hard to let go of our furry friends.

Fortunately, my friend is a HUGE Labyrinth fan, and it just so happened that my Labyrinth-inspired fabric had arrived earlier that week. So when she texted me and pointed out the truism that "adulting sucks," I knew what I had to do.

This is a Hey June Lane Raglan, which is designed for a relaxed fit. It's straightforward - as most raglans are - and I was able to cut it out and sew it up in a weekend.

The panel and sleeve fabric are from Fabric Anthropology, and the solid on the back is from Purple Seamstress. I made this according to my friend's measurements and she reported back that despite the advertised "relaxed fit" she would have preferred it to be a little looser. Notes for next time, I guess. But it still looks good, and I'm pretty sure she was touched by the gesture :-)

And she wasn't the only fan of this shirt - as she put it "I think [my daughter] would have fought me for the right to wear this shirt as a dress if the sleeves were shorter." Sadly, that was my only panel, but I'm sure I can find something else for a kid of such great taste.

And I'm glad that a handmade item can bring such joy, no matter the circumstances.

It Takes Two

They say "once begun is halfway done," but when it came to my daughter's Back-to-School outfit, "Done" turned out to be only halfway there. Why, you ask? Well because in the final stages of finishing my daughter's top, I found out what, exactly, she was dreaming of pairing all my hard work WITH. Namely, the pink leaf skirt she made last April.

I'm pretty liberal about mixing colors, but this was a bit much even for me. Not to mention the whole swing top + skirt silhouette combo reads like a Christmas tree. So, with less than 48 hours to go before back-to-school started, I plowed through the rest of the Ruthie and plotted ways to switch my daughter's allegiance.

Fortunately, indecision at the quilt shop had left me with extra coordinating fabric, and a kind soul on the VFT Facebook Group was able to confirm that the VFT Allie was both on sale (20% off) and a fairly quick & easy sew if you skipped the bow part.

So quick and easy, in fact, that I came up with a last-minute idea: perhaps my daughter was so attached to that pink leaf skirt because *she'd* sewed it. Did I think she was up for sewing an Allie? In the end I took a leap of faith and found that yes, she was.

I still handled the iron, the scissors, and the serger. Together we hemmed everything in the flat, and I finished the waistband when the elastic back looked challenging. But she carefully guided it through the machine herself, and handled lots of the pins. As the hour got late, she still told me she wanted to wear her pink skirt. But having learned to play the long game, I finished the shorts myself after she went to bed and laid BOTH choices alongside her Ruthie top for the morning. When she came downstairs the next morning, this is how she was dressed:

I count that as a definite win. My first-grader got to show up in an outfit she helped make, and I got a photo for the album where everything is matching!

Well, if you ignore the backpack, anyway. ;-)

Death By Ruffles

Or a Back-to-School adventure.

This year, I actually had a break in my schedule long enough to sew a Back-to-School outfit for my daughter! She'd picked up a lovely Moda Simply Colorful Red print at our Local Quilt Shop over the summer and was aching to have a top made out of it. I had a Moda Smitten Red Plaid in my quilting stash that paired perfectly, and together we settled on the VFT Ruthie as a pattern, since I'd been so pleased with the one I made for her cousin.

There was only one complication; I thought I was offering Ruthie, the simple version. My daughter, however, ordered me to scroll down on the website and informed me that she much preferred her Ruthie to be the ruffled version. Oops. Since it was her back-to-school outfit I didn't want to smash her budding fashion sense: But Ruthie the ruffled version 1) is a lot more work thanks to all the gathering and 2) only has cutting charts for a dress.

Cue some serious Math-ing. I took a notebook to my son's Tae Kwon Do lessons, and worked out what pieces I would need to convert Ruthie into a size 6 top with two ruffles in the middle and (per my daughter's instruction) a third ruffle on bottom. It turned out that was a LOT of fabric - so much so that another trip back to my favorite LQS was in order. That's when I discovered the same print in white. I bought more of the plaid AND some of the other coordinate, "just in case" (which I was grateful for later).

The VFT Ruthie is cute and easy to assemble, but messing with all those ruffles was TRULY a labor of love. There's no way I would ever have done that voluntarily for myself. Sewing through all those layers was kind of an adventure, too, but this time I took another sewist's advice (can you tell I like the VFT Fan Group?) and hammered the thicker seams before I sewed them. It was strangely satisfying to pound on the fabric, and it worked out well!

The best part is, my daughter was thrilled with the final result. The sizing ended up bigger than expected: we had to cross the straps in back to make them work with the shoulder flounce, and I'll definitely size down a little if I make her another. But, it's still twirly and fun.

She wore it to school her first day, and let everyone know it was mom-made. Sounds like a win to me!

UPDATE: I also posted the in-progress pic to the Facebook Fan group for VFT, and was surprised at the requests I got for describing my ruffling technique. I hardly consider myself an expert, but for the record these ruffles were made by initiating the gathers with my Serger, ironing them before attaching, and then attaching them carefully using my even-feed foot. I mathed this dress out for a 2:1 ratio on my ruffles, and the ruffle fabric is single-folded and gathered at the top.

Have Courage... and try Fluff

With my local nephew growing like a weed, it was time for a new outfit. Having just done a Brindille & Twig Polo Romper for my other nephew (of Golden Sun fame), I was ready to see if I really had worked all the kinks out for a second go.

For this romper I chose an amazing print that came all the way from Japan. I loved the characters, loved the artwork, and shipping wasn't half bad. It was definitely a longer wait than most customs, but it was totally worth it.

I'd like to say the second romper made up faster than the first, but honestly, I think it was about the same time. There was lots of "wait... so how DID I solve that" on the repeat run, and one of the drawbacks to a PDF pattern is you don't have printed instructions to mark up. The second time around I made notes on the pattern pieces themselves, hopefully saving myself the trouble in a future run.

The OTHER best thing about this fabric was... the host offered a blanket as well. Remembering my challenges with the Gotta Catch Em All Cotton Lycra/Minky combo Blanket I did some digging, and came up with a recommendation to work with "Fluff" instead.

When the Fluff originally came, I wasn't sure if they'd sent me Minky by mistake, or if I actually had Fluff on hand... it still felt like Minky. But I can honestly say that whatever I got, sewing this blanket up was SO MUCH EASIER than Gotta Catch Em All had been.

The final product is soft, and delightfully cuddly. My SIL refers to it as the magic blanket because apparently just touching it is enough to calm my nephew to sleep. And my BIL had a blast recognizing all the characters as soon as he saw it.

Definitely another winning set!