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.