Rainbow Mermaid

Little A has been loving her Descendants dress, and as soon as I realized how much use it was getting, I knew I needed to make another. On a lark - and in the middle of an I-swear-I'm-not-buying-any-more-fabric stint - I saw this set go on sale at Miss Mac Fabric, and I HAD to have it.

The original plan was to make a PaB Violet with a mermaid center and fishtail sides, and then add in the CKC Haven's hood. But that fish-scale rainbow stripe turned to to be really, REALLY bright, in person, and I began to suspect a dress with it on the sides AND on the hood would be too busy. And my daughter LOVES the hood on her Descendants dress.

So, I switched gears to a "solid" bodice, which could support the Haven pocket, and CKC Haven's hoodie (modified) it was.

This time I skipped the bottom cuff and just lengthened out the bodice/skirt accordingly, as I had done last time with the sleeves. I'm not sure if that was an improvement over a 2.5" band of scales at the bottom, but it did save me some time in cutting & sewing.

I will admit that after whipping out those two Care Bear Dresses in a weekend, this dress felt like it took FOREVER. But, the time spent definitely paid off.

My daughter loves the dress, front and back...

And as always, she can't resist a dress with a pocket! I'm glad I took the time to fussycut so the sleeves are even, and so Ariel could be centrally placed. A still says her Descendents dress is her favorite, but it's obvious that this is a close second!

It's always satisfying to make a garment that your child likes, and doubly so when you go from feeling guilty to making something this thrilling.

Cuteness Report!

My son has been a longtime Octonauts fan; for at least a year, it was in near-constant rotation on our TV. By the time I bought this fabric last November, I was beginning to suspect the obsession had run its course: but the price was right, and I couldn't resist the memories. 

Then this February, out of the blue my son started binging on Octonauts again. What luck! A window of opportunity, as they say. I took the main character toss (my favorite part) and paired it with a royal blue solid from Sweet N Charmed.

One of these days I am going to have to work up the nerve to make another hoodie with some of my precious boy fabric. But, since I just wanted to get this DONE and on my kid, the Made By Jack's Mum Explorer Raglan was the logical choice; at this point I've figured out the correct sizing for my kids, and I know how to choose and place fabric to get the look I want so... Despite its quirks this is definitely a go-to pattern for me. 

It's also been kind of fun to compare these shirts to the ones I made in November and see how my product has improved. I learned about the the triple stitch on my machine from the SLPco Facebook Group while making the Science Dress, and it's made me a lot more enthusiastic about topstitching. I'm also getting better at 1/4" seams, and my necklines are definitely getting more even and less caddywompus. 

This particular shirt was made in a size 4T for my son (who wears a 2T in ready-to-wear), but shortened by about 2" on the bottom. It's a little large yet, but I hate making things that don't have room to grow. These photos were taken before I worked up the courage to try double needles on a the neckline, but the shirt has since been updated with them. 

And my son loves it! It was definitely a case of the right fabric at the right time, and I'm glad I made the space in my project queue.

A Wicked Patch Job

On literally the first day that A wore her Descendants Dress socially, a mini-disaster struck: A friend's cat got his claw stuck in A's dress.

Fortunately, the cat (who should probably be venerated into sainthood for his patience) didn't panic or hurt A at all, but he did tear a small hole in the arm of her dress with his efforts to get himself unstuck. I'll admit I wasn't the *happiest* I've ever been, but A was devastated. "My dress is ruined!" she cried. Well...

Not so fast, kid! I do have to give major thanks to the CKC Message Boards on Facebook - which came up with a ton of clever solutions for fixing the problem, from adding cuffs back to fingerless gloves and colorblock sleeves. But the winning suggestion came from a poster who pointed out that custom ribbon on Etsy is usually perfectly washable on normal laundry settings. Hello 1" patch!

15 minutes of searching with the Etsy app on my phone, and I had 3 candidates for a "patch ribbon" lined up. I was trying to get the logo, but my daughter declared SHE liked the CGI characters best, soo... Compromise!

The patch is about 4" worth of 1-inch ribbon from TheBowzStore on Etsy, with the characters for her and the logo for me. My husband (an ex-firefighter) helped me burn the ends, and I sewed it on by hand using a quick whipstitch. My daughter loves it, and I love that this quick fix turned out both functional AND beautiful.

Care Bear Dresses

I know my nieces already have tons of cute dresses, but one of the perks of Seamstressing for yourself is, you get to create matching outfits. I initially resisted the call of this Bears that Care fabric in pink, but when Firefliez Fabrics had a Black Friday sale at 30% off, my self-control faded. Who can resist outfits for brother and sister in the same fabric, different colorways!

I only bought one yard (custom knits are expensive!), so I was faced with the challenge of how to get two dresses out of one yard of fabric. Enter the Violet Tunic by Peekaboo Patterns, acquired from Etsy. The silhouette reminded me of a cute photo of my niece in a candy-cane-like red and white striped dress at Christmas, and the construction looked pretty straightforward. So I bought it (and, uh, a bunch of other stuff) at the Peekaboo Etsy Shop. As I had suspected, it was a pretty quick make.

As it stands, I think I'm acquiring the level of proficiency where I *don't* have to follow a pattern exactly. I skipped the pockets on this one (sacrilege, I know) and both dresses came together pretty quick. I did a 4T for V, and an 18m for L. The above photo was the front, and the below photo is the back.

Since the pattern was so straightforward, I didn't have much in the way of feedback. I found it marginally annoying that seam allowances were all over the place (default 1/2, dress side seams in 3/8", neckband 1/4") but since I'm a consummate instruction-reader it was just annoying and not problematic.

I also used this project to try out a new skill: double needles. I'd been admiring them on the hems of shirts as of late, and it seemed a good solution to the problem where the seam allowance inside the neck likes to pop up, but I don't trust a triple stitch to be sufficiently stretchy.

My first try with "universal" double needles from my local sewing store resulted in skipped stitches, so that was out; but persistence prevailed, and 2 days later (ie, the time it took the needles to ship),I tried again with some Schmetz Stretch Twin Needles from Amazon. The "stretch" needles worked out great, and is the final result:

And here's the smaller dress (for L, who is 2), paired with the Kimono for my nephew. They make a cute set!

Now, all that's left is to hope that they all fit - at the same time, preferably.

Care Bear Kimono & Footie

One day, I went to clean out A's closet, and texted my (pregnant) Sister-in-law to verify her girls' sizing and see if she had use for any hand-me downs. Her response? "V and L are size 4T and 18m respectively, and have 18 million clothes. Baby boy is a newborn and has ZERO clothes." Well, that's a disparity. I didn't have any hand-me-downs for baby boy at the time, but fortunately I don't *need* storebought clothing to ensure he has something to wear.

The fabric for this project was left over from C's Maternity shirt, and after some time spent on Etsy, I sprung for a Baby Kimono pattern from Brindille & Twig.

I made it in a 0-3 month size, and was pleased with the results. It was my first time working with snaps - so that was an adventure - but overall I was happy with how it turned out. And snaps are way, WAY easier than buttons or zippers, which is good to know for the future.

Since I had (barely) enough fabric left over, I made the footies as well. That way, my nephew could have a full set. I fussycut both toes from the scraps (although if  had it to do over, I would have skipped the cloud), and barely eeked out the legs without color blocking. They're pictured here before I added the elastic.

The set came together quite adorably. I forgot to take a picture off it, but the pads of the feet are also the same yellow as the binding. The left leg of this photo hints at it if you look carefully.

From a sewist's perspective, this was my first B&T pattern, and I'm probably not going to rush back for more. The instructions were clear and easy to follow, and the photos in the instructions were super helpful, but the construction of the garments took some shortcuts I didn't care for. On the top, the binding leaves a raw edge on the inside, and my first attempt at sewing the binding on clamshelled pretty badly (I had to rip it out & try again). On the pants, the method for attaching the elastic was fast, but left a raw edge on the inner waistband that wasn't terribly attractive. Sigh. B&T also calls for 1/4" seams, which aren't my favorite when working with knits. So, there wasn't anything particularly *wrong* with the patterns, but the line definitely doesn't mesh with my sewing style even though they design a lot of cute, unique garments.

That said, the real question is if the final product meshes with my Sister-in-law's dressing style! I have to admit I sat on this for a bit before sending it out, but my Sister-in-law should be getting a package later today. We'll see what she thinks when she gets it.

Long Live Having Fun

My daughter went through a Disney's Descendants' phase last fall, asking to be Mal for Halloween and wanting a Descendants themed birthday party. Good Descendants knits are, as it turns out, REALLY hard to find; I searched fruitlessly through most of October. But in a stroke of what can only be considered AMAZING luck, I scored the second-to-last yard of this beauty on a site I had *just* joined earlier that day (and for other reasons) In November. Serendipity, I'm sure.

When it came, I had to hide it from my daughter so I could finish my Christmas(ish) projects. I'd initially thought that this dress would be another Isla like the Science Dress, and I sketched out some of the options to see if I could give my daughter some input into the design process. On a lark, I also sketched out some dresses that incorporated design elements from two OTHER patterns I'd recently downloaded but never tried as well.

My daughter skipped over all the Isla options, and instantly decided she wanted "the dress with the hood." She pointed me to the straighter silhouette, so CKC's Haven Hoodie it was.

I agonized muchly over which green to choose for the inside of the dress' hood. My daughter initially said pink, but we talked her into green once we pointed out none of the Villain Kids wear pink regularly. Purple Seamstress Gave me two options:  Should I go with the Kelly Green like Mal's outfit? Or the lime green like the logo (and Mal's magic)?

I stared at my color card for hours, ordered both, and *still* couldn't decide. Fortunately, once it occurred to me to ask my daughter, she settled it authoritatively in favor of lime green .

Seeing the green up against the flames of Mal's magic, I do have to admit she was right.

This was my first Create Kids' Couture (CKC) pattern, and I am definitely hooked on the ease of printing and thoroughness of directions. That said, I did make some significant modifications to the pattern to achieve this look: I removed the cuffs at the wrists and added length to the sleeves to compensate, and I removed the cuff at the bottom, opting instead for a contrast band that continued the line of the skirt. I feel this generated a similar look, but with a slightly more fashion-forward (and year-round!) silhouette. Which is great, because my daughter approves!

This dress is called upon at least once a week, sometimes more if we do a load of mid-week purple laundry. Little A is thrilled that she can put both her hands into one big pocket, and she's already said she wants her next dress to have a hood too. This dress isn't quite as *fast* as the Isla or the TDD Peasant, but I somehow suspect I will make it many times over just the same.

Scientific Seamstressing

A friend of ours, who has a daughter A's age, has had a really rough year. The company she loved working for went under, and she had an application to PA school rejected not because she wasn't qualified, but for administrative reasons that can't be fixed until next year. Ugh.

I can't fix what truly ails her: a "gap year" for a person whose type A personality abhors uncertainty and loose ends. But I *can* send her a vote of confidence for her (eventual) chosen new profession. Last year her daughter *lived* in a science-themed dress from Princess Awesome, and it doesn't take a rocket-scientist seamstress to reverse-engineer *that* sewing pattern. Especially not if that seamstress has already made two OTHER Islas from Simple Life Pattern Co.

I'd looked for a nice, science-y print for a while last year, scouring all the custom knit sites. But when I went to the Quilter's Festival in Houston with my Mom (you can see her recap of our trip here), this print called "Geek Chik" by Studio E caught my eye. I wasn't *Opposed* to wovens (they're what Princess Awesome uses after all), I think it just hadn't been on my radar at all. So, I picked it up.  

I paired it with a nice, solid royal blue from Sweet N Charmed, and I was just going to leave the front plain until I saw the corresponding panel. I couldn't resist! It is woven, so I'm hoping it won't limit the stretch of the garment as it goes over the head *too* much, but I love the way it looks. Apparently the molecule on the front is Caffeine - not a substance that I think mixes with 5-year-olds overly well - but hey, the organic structure and the magnifying glass are still cool.

Also, there was one other detail I couldn't resist. The Isla has directions for a heart cutout on back, and a files section with pattern pieces for other cutouts. None of those cutouts was a scientific tool, but it did give me the idea. So, bonus beaker on back!

I think my friend is waiting until it warms up a little bit before she lets her daughter wear it, thanks to the cutout on the back (in January! Oops...) but I know she was happy to receive it!