PR&P Week 3: Sheet to Chic

This week the Project Run & Play theme is Earth Day. The challenge involved using all Earth-friendly materials. 

The journey of making this little outfit took approximately 18 twists and turns over the last week. Kristin and I keep talking about how we can totally understand how the designers on Project Runway get so dramatic and crazy. That was me this week. (As if this is even near the amount of pressure they feel. They get like 3 hours to make couture and they have to do it on camera. I'm totally crying them a river.) Anyway, I like where it ended up, but MAN I'm I glad to be done with it!

First I thought I would just go the thrift store and find some materials I would be inspired by. I went to one Goodwill, felt pressure to leave because of my kids being crazy, and just grabbed a couple things. When I got home I realized I hated them- what was I thinking? Wasting $15 on old clothes you don't want to use is not a good spur to creativity. (Goodwill is so expensive lately!)

So I decided it would actually be more of a challenge to make something beautiful out of a grody old sheet that was in my closet. I didn't want it to look "upcycled" from old clothes, but I wanted it to be stylish and little vintage-inspired.

Then I saw this photo here. I loved it. I don't know how they did that effect on the bodice but it's pretty crazy awesome. I figured I had a whole lot of fabric with a sheet right? So I'll just make a boat load of tiny 1/8" bias tape and do it that way. Hmm. Not as fun as it sounds. 

As you can see, my embellishment does not really live up the original. I don't think it was bias cut fabric they used, because I certainly could not make it behave that way. So please don't think my design lame after seeing the original, but this is how inspiration works I guess. It's always fun to see where people's ideas come from. 

The color of the dress was also not my original intention. I had to use color remover on the sheet, which started as dingy blue/gray. Then I bought "grapefruit" fabric dye. I thought it would be much brighter than this. I even dyed it again and it was still pretty pale. It took me a good two or three days to cope with this color, but now I love it. It fits the baby and fits the dress. 

Once I coped with the color, I had to throw in some fabrics that were more "me," and I think they all play nicely together. The lining and underskirt are Berry Bush, from Cloud 9 organic fabrics. It's from Sewn Studio of course. Sewn actually has a pretty nice little selection of organic cottons, which is really nice to have available. The leggings are from an old knit top of mine from Urban Outfitters that I hadn't worn in forever. The color and print are so cool. I love these leggings and she'll be wearing them a lot. (You can't see in the picture, but there is actually a wolf on her left leg. What is with me and the wolves??)

The buttons are my favorite favorites. They are for reals vintage from my mom's grandmother's collection.  They make the whole thing feel special. And the pin on the shoulder is the perfect accent. I bought it at a local boutique, the Spotted Goose. 

Here's a nice picture of me looking blurry and concerned about a half-second before Elsie fell on her face during the photo shoot because she was running around so fast. Nope, wait, that's not why... it was because I bought her shoes for this outfit that were too small and they made her fall. That's why she is mostly shoeless in the pictures. Just do me a favor and imagine her wearing some amazing vintage white leather moccasins that we have but were also too small for her little potato feet. Geez babies, it's hard to keep you eco-fashionable with all the constant growing. 

By the way, Elsie's daddy took the pictures this time. Aren't they fantastic? 

Vote for your favorite Earth Day look right here. 

KCWC Day 6

Yikes, I'm a little late wrapping last week up. I don't know where this week has gone. Mostly into pots of chili, pumpkin farms, hanging out with good friends, enjoying the Walking Dead premiere, keeping up with a scooting babe and delving once again into sewing hell. (I know, I said never again. They pay pretty well, what are you gonna do?)

I made this little Amelia top on Saturday, which ended up being my final KCWC garment. Sunday was just too perfect not to go to the farm... So I made something 5 out of the 7 days, which I'm really happy with. I usually sew at least a little every day, but trying to finish something every night really is a marathon. A fun one, nevertheless.

I really adore how this pattern turned out. I just need to find the right color onesie for Elsie to wear underneath. I added the piping detail around the neck and under the bodice, and used it instead of the fabric trim suggested around the bottom. I'm mostly just a huge fan of piping. It makes most everything better. But putting it one the corners of the neckline was pretty tricky. I'm pretty sure knowing how to bind a quilt helped me with that one.

The button is from my mom's vintage collection. I just love the pop of brick red, very fallish don't you think?

I'm entering into Celebrate Color this month. I hope to scrape together a couple more entries, but October is disappearing way too fast. How did that happen?? I still have to start Halloween costumes and make my LTTSA aprons- I still haven't got past the cutting!

Speaking of the sew-along, if you are waiting on your leader to get her crap together, just check out Jenny's post. She links to a great bias tape tutorial, and gives awesome tips for sewing with laminates. Love it. And don't forget, if you link up this month you might win a couple Mama Stellato patterns- including this Amelia top if you want. Yay for sew-along sponsors.

WARNING! Totally unnecessary and gratuitous kid/pumpkin pictures ahead...

KCWC Day One

So if you don't know what Kids Clothing Week Challenge is about, let me explain just a little. Meg of the blog Elsie Marley runs it in spring and fall and challenges everyone who would like to join in to spend one hour a day sewing for your kids, for a week straight. Then we all add our creations to the flickr pool and blog about them and tell each other how awesome we are. Well, that's what blogging is always like, but this week is intensive and all about kids clothes.

So yesterday was the beginning- I think. Lots of people already had stuff made and blogged yesterday, but I didn't do my 1-2 hours until late last night, as usual. It's the blogging about it every day that might get really tricky...

Anyway, I made a fall dress for Elsie, who is nearly 6 months(!):

The pattern is the Charlotte Dress from Mama Stellato. I love this pattern. It's super quick to go together, but the options for details and embellishments are endless. If you have a daughter to sew for, this basic peasant dress pattern is a must. I know I'll use it over and over. 

I used fine charcoal corduroy left over from the penguin backpack, some AMH Innocent Crush for the sleeves, and bright pink 1/2 ric rac. Loving ric rac lately. It's funny how important finishing details have become to me in my clothes sewing. When you first start sewing, you are happy just to get through a pattern without puncturing any fingers or throwing your machine out the window. It's nice to feel comfortable making a pattern your own.

I even added a cute little tag in the back. It's actually a scrap from one of my Echino squares I cut into. It was almost painful to cut that first square up, but I'm glad I did. Well, I was glad now I'm a little angry...

See, this is the little quilty project that I'm using it for. Looks nice so far right?

Well, it has this happening all around the edges thanks to a certain 2 year old who got a hold of my thread clippers while I was at work and his dad was feeding his sister. Of course it's probably my fault for leaving my stuff out, but... grrrrrrrrrrrrrr! This one might have to go away for a while before I have the motivation to repair it. At least none of the Echino pieces were clipped into. 

On deck tonight for KCWC is two LBB Hoodies. I love patterns that I can use for both of them, and hope I can zip thru them assembly line style. 

Finally, some good news for those planning to make the LTTSA apron this month- Rachel from Mama Stellato has agreed to giveaway one of her pick 2 pattern packs to one of our lucky entries! And there are going to be two winners this month, I'll tell you about the other prize later this week. Anyone can join in the sew-along and link up their project to enter, check out more info here. 

A baby dress

But not for my poor neglected daughter. Remember that time I made her a dress a week before she was born? I'm really glad I had that pregnant motivation because I haven't sewn her a thing since. She just grows out of them too fast! And I'm not saying that in the drippy emotional mother sense, I'm just sayin, she literally grows out of them quicker than I can make them. So, Miss Elsie, you are punished with the wearing of generic onesies for all that healthy growing you are doing. Why do children's clothing brands feel the need to put little sayings on every single item of clothing? It can't just have cute purple flowers on it, it also has to say "daddy's favorite" or "silly-dilly little dumplin puddin-pop face of sugary-sweet bunny-bunny hop land."

Anyway, I made this dress a few weeks ago for one of my bestest friends who is having her first baby this month. It's Rae's Itty Bitty baby dress which is really fun to make. And the fabric I found at Joann (gasp!) on clearance. Definitely the cutest stuff I've found there in a while. Or maybe I just don't go there anymore. I'm a total quilt shop snob now, I won't deny that.  

Speaking of fabric snobbery, I'm doing an echino swap. So.... that's pretty awesome. I will end up with 28 amazing Echino prints in 10" squares. I'm thinking I won't even cut into them, just make a square patchwork quilt. We'll see, but I'm pretty excited to get my hands on them. (If you don't know Echino, here's a lot of the prints.)

And here's a peek at my current quilting obsession project. I really need to learn how to survive on four hours of sleep. Time to get back at it, this one has a looming deadline. 

Dress a Week #7

This week's dress is actually a couple of matching skirts. One for the lovely Lily, nearly 2, and one for my little Elsie. They are future BFFs of course.

This one I made the MADE way- I know, do I look anywhere else for kid's clothes instructions? Not really.

This is the one for little lady, and since I didn't really know what size to make the waist elastic, I cut 2.5 inches off the end of an orange tshirt sleeve and made that the waist band. The problem is, it stretched out some in the process of sewing it on and now it looks pretty big.

But then I realized that I can just measure her this summer and turn that orange part into a casing for elastic that actually fits. Problem solved.


The fabric is Moda Chrysalis Release, which I got from Sewn.  But you can get it here.


I think this will be the last installment of a Dress a Week. If I have any extra energy for sewing while I wait for this baby next week, I will need to sew up some shorts for H. He really has none and it's getting pretty warm around here. (Halleloo!)



Which reminds me, will you be participating in Elsie Marley's Kid's Clothes Week? I may be completely kidding myself that I will be able to spend an hour a day sewing that soon after the baby comes, but I gotta have goals, right?

A Dress a Week #4

Last week, I got out Hendrix's big tote of 0-6 month clothes to pull out what I could use, or alter to use for a girl. It was nostalgic and sweet to look at his tiny teeny items, but it also confirmed my suspicions that yes, little girl clothes are generally more fun. 

So I made a couple of dresses from nautical-looking onesies of his. This one's skirt was made from pieced old t-shirts. It was inspired by this version, although I put mine together differently. I love the stripes and colors, but when I first attached the skirt, the front of that seam was really jacked up. I was able to pick it out and fix it, but you can see where the old stitches were on the cheap onesie material if you look closely. It's still cute enough for my own kid, just enough of a screw-up that I wouldn't gift it to someone else's kid. 

When I made this second one, I followed Prudent Baby's instructions for attaching the skirt, which made about 159 times more sense. Then I added the purple ribbon just for extra flair. It's her super-hip, mixed prints, chevron and strips outfit. 

And then I couldn't resist sticking Florence Henderson on a onesie, of course. This is what was on that yellow tshirt I used for the anchor dress. It also said "Florence Ya'll" above her face, (you locals might appreciate that) but the words wouldn't fit. This onesie really makes me smile. Hopefully my daughter will grow in a natural mullet like that. 

A Dress a Week #3 (Plus some extras)

I finally got to use some Innocent Crush! I think I have wanted to make a dress out of that particular fabric on the left, probably since I was small enough to wear this dress. Yes, I know that doesn't make any sense, but I also know it in my soul to be true. Got them both at Sewn, of course.

I used this great tutorial on how to make any dress pattern reversible. But I drew the actual pattern myself, which I've never tried before, so I hope it actually fits her at some point in her life. It looks like it should though.

And here's a peek at some of the pillowcases dresses I made for the sew-along. The deadline is this Wednesday to be entered into the drawing for prizes, but the charity is always accepting dresses. I'll keep the button in my sidebar so you can find the info, it's a great idea and a great cause. Plus Vanessa's tutorial and pattern is fantastic anytime you just want to whip up something cute for a girl in your life.



So yeah, a lot of dresses here this week. Poor Hendrix needs me to sew him something manly. But he and I had a great weekend together, including several dance parties to this song:
(and yes, we do like to wear tribal scrappy-fur vests like this, it really enhances the dancing.)




Really, any song with a double-clap is just irresistible.

A Dress a Week #2

Second week into my goal and I haven't flaked. (Pats self on back.) The thing about girly little girl dresses is that they're so fun they practically make themselves. I don't think I'll have too much trouble continuing my one a week goal. See my first one here. 

I used these instructions for this little jumper, and AM Horner's Woodcut in Passion fabric. My favorite part is the buttons. They are from my grandmother's vintage button collection which my mom recently gave me some of. Aren't they the perfect color? They are actually just sewed onto the straps because I was too lazy to learn how to make button holes. But the back of the straps are unattached so that I can fit them to baby girl, so I will probably have to learn by that time. 

I also made a quick new nursing cover this week, since my old one is blue with robots. I actually bought that deep red fabric intending it for this project, but then I cut through the middle of it in the completely wrong place. So it became the jumper, but I'm glad it did. I like this bright yellow fabric, I just feel like it might scream, "Hey look everyone! My boob is out under here!" which would just be silly :)

A Dress a Week

I've given myself a little goal of making one dress a week until baby girl arrives, sometime late in April. I know I will probably have TONS of time and energy to sew once I have a newborn and a two-year old here, but I figured I'd get a head start.

For my first go, I made Rae's Itty Bitty Baby Dress. Really simple pattern to follow, and of course, I love the piping around the middle. This is her first dress ever- she doesn't even own any store bought ones yet, so HA! I win.




I got the beautiful fabric from Sewn Studio down the street, who had their grand opening celebration this weekend. My mom was in town, so we got to go together and she won this book in a drawing. She's going to "share" it with me. (Translation: give it to me after she makes one bag.)

And here's a sneak peek of some AMH fabrics I got for more tiny dresses. I love it. 

  

(P.S. There's a new contest I might have to enter. We'll see.)