Fresh Sewing Day - January Summary

January flew by!  I can't believe it's already time to do a summary for Fresh Sewing Day and the Small Blog Meet.  For those coming from the Small Blog Meet, I am a quilter that loves to piece and quilt, and sew clothes for my 1 year old daughter.  Welcome, and please check out the other projects on my blog.

I joined two bees so far this year.  I'm really enjoying it so far.  It's a lot of fun to do colors and blocks that I wouldn't have thought of myself.

For the Stash Bee, I made this red and yellow block for Heather from Quilts in the Queue.

I made my test block for the 4x5 Modern Bee.

I also participated in Kids Clothes Week.  Part 1 of my week can be found here.  The pants were really the highlight of the week.  I finished up the week by turning the Oliver and S Hopscotch Knit top into a onesie.  The completed outfit is shown below.

She kept pulling on the neck, I think because it is much stretchier than the onesies she normally wears.

It's such a soft knit, I kind of wish it was for me.  However, I only had 1/2 a yard, so I managed to get a 12-18 month onesie and thought I was doing good.

The linen pants are a little big despite being 12-18 months, but I'm ok with that because I love them and hopefully they will still fit this fall.

And now, she shows off the whole outfit :)

Thanks for checking out my blog, and I hope you stick around and see what else I have here!  

Linking to Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day and Small Blog Meet, Anything Goes Monday, and Feather's Flights.

Kids Clothes Week: Winter 2014, part 1

I am super excited for this Kids Clothes Week: Winter 2014. I have vowed to spend 1 hour per day sewing for my daughter. That means realistic sewing for me - and includes pattern prep, cutting out fabric, sewing, ironing, and everything else involved.  I don't have time to spend hours everyday sewing and pump out dozens of garments.

Part of this experiment for me is to realistically see just how much time these activities take.  I can't actually tell you how long it takes me to make a shirt or a pair of pants.  Even if I can estimate the sewing, I don't count the prep work of the pattern and fabric cutting.  This week, I will.

Day 1 - 1:00:42

I was 42 seconds over my 1 hour time limit, but I did manage to trace and cut out two patterns.  I will be making the Oliver + S Sandbox pants in size 12-18 months and the Hopscotch knit shirt in size 12-18 months.

Partway through tracing the tissue paper pattern on tracing paper, I was definitely cursing my cheapness thriftiness for buying the paper pattern on sale instead of buying the digital pattern at full price.  Those tissue paper folds are surprisingly difficult to get flat enough to trace over.

Day 2 - a little over two hours

I cut out the fabric for the pants, then started on the pockets.  Those pockets took probably 45 minutes - I would leave them off in the future, but they really are adorable and make the pants.  That took me to about 1.5 hours, but my daughter was napping, so I kept going.  At the end of the time, I had the pants mostly done, leaving the waistband to go.

How cute is it that the pockets even have a coordinating lining?  I love Oliver + S.

Day 3 - a little over an hour

The sewing is serious when the serger and regular sewing machine are sitting next to each other.  

My timing is getting worse instead of better.  I wasted some time first trying to figure out how to use the buttonholer for my vintage Singer.  Then, I discovered I did not have the cam for the 3/8 inch hole I needed to make.  Then I make the drawstring, which should be a quick thing, but with the stretch striped linen I'm using - took FOREVER.

By this point, I was frustrated and decided to just do the waist as an elastic waistband instead of the way the pattern called for.  Once again, I was slightly thwarted by my supplies because I only have 1/2 inch elastic, not the 3/8 inch required.  It fit in the waistband, but it just took a lot more time because it fit so tightly.  At least there was a bright spot today - I finished the pants!

The fabric is a linen blend from Mood NYC.  I picked it up when I was there after Christmas.  It's nicer fabric than any pants I own, but it is adorable, and I am considering remaking these pants in every size because they look that good.  The weight is perfect for spring, and I am very pleased with the fit - it was just too dark to get a photo of them being worn.

Oliver + S patterns are so wonderful.  They cost a little bit more, but from what I have seen, they are worth it.  The finishes are always professional, there are no errors in the pattern instructions, and the forums are active if you have any questions or issues.

Although, I just realized I still have not made one of their patterns as written.  This pair of pants is on my projects page.  Let's see what gets done the rest of the week!

Oliver and S Fairy Tale Dress Christening Gown

A tale of two christening gowns: The heirloom and the Oliver & S Fairy Tale Dress

Situation: The first was my baptism dress from when I was baptised and my mother passed it on to me to use with my daughter.  I was baptized at 6 months so I thought it would fit my 9 month old daughter.  Unfortunately, it did not fit.  That left my mother and I to start making a dress Thursday morning for church on Sunday morning at 9:00 am with the added detail that 6 additional family members were arriving Saturday afternoon, so it had to be finished before then.

Solution: We chose to flip the Oliver & S Fairy Tale Dress.  I wanted a peter pan collar and sleeves with an empire waist to echo my original dress that my mother had made.  The fairy tale dress gave me that bodice top and the adjustments gave the long traditional bottom.

To accomplish this I had to make a couple minor adjustments to the pattern.  I cut off the fitted dress at an empire waist height, and adjusted the skirt length to go down to the floor.  I also took a lot of the gathering out of the skirt because of the silk dupioni fabric I chose to use, and I also felt like it would be overwhelming for such a little girl.

My daughter measured 19.5 inches at the chest which put her as a perfect size 6-12 months, but due to the compressed time frame I didn't have time for a muslin and couldn't risk it not fitting.  Therefore, I made the 6-12 month size with the 12-18 month width as you can see in the bodice pattern photo.  After it was finished, she had enough room that I'm sure the 6-12 month width would have fit perfectly fine but I just couldn't risk it turning out too small.

I also added ruffle fabric for the skirt.  I made the ruffle fabric about 4-5 inches longer than the silk just to cut down on bulk and make it easier for my daughter to move and easier for me to hold her.

To add the ruffle fabric I used the silk as the lining, but not as the lining like the pattern calls for.  Due to the thinness of the ruffle fabric, I could not use it as an outer layer to attach the zipper to.  I treated the silk and the ruffle as one (outer) layer of fabric with no lining.  This (combined with the empire waist) led to a couple minor differences from the pattern: 

- The skirt seams had to be finished because they were not sandwiched within the lining.  The ruffle fabric does not fray so it did not need to be finished - I just cut it at the length I wanted.  

- I did not use a side seam for the ruffle layer.  I used the entire width of fabric by the length I wanted for the skirt and only had the back seam.

- Shorter zipper: with the empire waist there is no need for such a long zipper.  I ended the zipper about three inches below the empire waist and it was long enough to get my daughter in and out easily. The instructions for an invisible zipper were good, but I hadn't done one in forever so the Coletterie tutorial helped fill in the blanks for me.  

- Lining: My mom hand stitched the lining down on the inside of the dress.  We also left the seam of the skirt and bodice upwards instead of ironing it down like the pattern calls for.  That seam was then covered by the bodice lining.  

- Hook at top of zipper: I left it off and it stayed closed just fine throughout the day.  

This was the late night photo when we finished the dress Friday night - ahead of schedule!!

I added some silk flowers to both the bodice and the bonnet.  I used this tutorial from Just Another Hang Up for the flowers.

 The bonnet is a combination of several tutorials that I found online because I didn't find a single one that was what I wanted.  I got the shape from this one and the ruffle from this one.

I love how the combination turned out!  The tulip sleeves, peter pan collar, and ruffle fabric made such a sweet dress.  This may have taken more time to make than the time she wore it for, but I really love it and maybe someday this can be worn again.  The wrinkles show she wore it most of the day.

Lastly, a vintage view of a beautiful girl in a dress made by her mom and grandma on a quilt made by me.

Linking up to Show and Tell, Made By Hand, Fabric Tuesday and You Flew Tuesdays.