Japanese toddler pants

I was given a Japanese pattern book awhile ago (thanks Kaz Kaz!) and as much as I'd like to recommend it to people as a great little book for baby/toddler clothing, I can't read Japanese and this one doesn't have any English on it at all (unlike the famous Stylish Dress Book, which at least has an English title). Here's a picture of the cover at any rate in case anyone wants to do some hunting and/or translating. 

The pants are made out of linen, with the pockets trimmed with some super cute Kokka fabric, which I picked specifically with my little nephew HYB in mind. 

I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out, although I think my lack of Japanese reading skills resulted in slight incorrect measurements - the trouser cuffs don't actually look like cuffs but more like a standard wide hem.

My favourite bit? The super cute pockets! It's the first time I've made rounded pockets and the technique shown in the book of gathering the corners of the pocket bottoms really worked well.

Here's a close up of the pockets attached.

Loving that traffic jam!

I'm tempted to make a matching top out of the Kokka fabric but I suspect it might be a bit too pyjama-top like. Thoughts?

Dress upgrade.... or is that upsize...

I've made this pattern (Butterick B4701) up 3 times now, once sized down to fit a 2-year-old flowergirl and twice for Princess S in a size 4. She's fast outgrown them but apparently the Princess loves her dresses so much that she won't let them go, so I thought I'd make her an 'upgrade' of sorts. She's just turned 4 and is about average size for her age, so the Butterick pattern must really cater to smaller-sized kids! Based on that I decided to just make the dress up in the largest size for the pattern I had, which was a 6.

I found a really pretty pink and white stripe cotton to make it up in. Unfortunately it has turned up looking a little red in the photos, so you'll just have to take my word for it.


This was my first effort working with stripes and I had decided at the start that I would try my best to match up any stripe joins in the fabric, so I was very conscious of cutting the fabric using the print as a guide as opposed to the fabric grain.


Now I know a 4-year-old isn't going to notice details like stripe matching, and if I didn't point it out, no-one else would either, but I'm sure everyone has a bit of anal-retentiveness in them. I just happen to have a larger dose of it :)

Woohoo! All lined up!
I have to admit I was really pleased with the result. Matching up the stripes around the zip was a bit of an effort, but as I tend to find zips annoying to sew in general, it was nothing new to do it a few times over.

My hand-stitching skills are also improving - you can hardly see the thread where I've sewn the lining to the dress *yay*


I guess it's true what they say about practice making perfect :)

The fairy effect

I just wanted to share that my most recent ruffled skirt has been well-received. The request stated that it needed to fit under Princess S's gauzy fairy skirt and as you can see, it does exactly that *hurrah*!


A green one has now been requested for her other fairy skirt... :)

Why am I so slow (or Ruffled Skirt No 3 - by request)

Now that Princess S can fit into it, she has decided that she must have a red version of the ruffled skirt I made for her awhile back.

I have been informed that there are several reasons for this request:

1) The ruffles on the skirt make it extra twirly (this is very important)
2) The red colour will fit perfectly as an underlayer to a fairy skirt (gauze and thus fairly see-through)
3) The combination of the skirt ruffles and the gauze will mean the overall fairy effect will be even more sticky-outy (gotta love synergy!)

So here it is. The ruffled skirt for the third time.


One would think that after making it 3 times I'd be super speedy with it, but no. It still takes me a couple of hours at least of faffing about before it's done.

Why oh why am I so slow?

Maybe it's because I watch shows on my laptop while trying to sew. Or maybe it's because I am playing 3 games of Words with Friends (a Scrabble rip-off) on my iPhone and keep checking to see if my opponents have made a move. Or maybe because I stop for a snack break every 5 minutes.

I guess everyone has different sewing habits and it's a case of doing whatever you are comfortable with. Unfortunately mine aren't very efficient!

Bibs for Bubs

Check out the bibs I made. They were surprisingly easy to make - I think the most difficult bit was selecting which materials to use to go along with my spotty pink flannel backing (proudly recycled from some PJ pants that were too holey to do anything else with).
I used the template from one of the books I bought awhile back, 'Bend-The-Rules Sewing', followed the instructions and voila!

The only changes I made was to add another layer of white cotton in the middle of the bib, mainly for aesthetic reasons as the spotty pink flannel was showing through the white cotton on the other side, making it harder to appreciate the pink fairies and pink and blue stars.

I was really torn as to which side was front - so I attached my snap fasteners to different sides on each bib and I'll leave it up to the Mummy to co-ordinate with bubba's outfit for the day.

I'll be making more of these.

Get Creative 4006: Little Girls' Dresses - modelled by Princess S

As the title suggests, I've gotten Princess S to model the dress I made for her not too long ago.

Note the model-ly pose on the left. Love it!

Feedback was that it was a bit of an effort to get her arms through the armholes and that the dress could really do with a zip somewhere so it would be easier to put on. Obviously this wasn't part of the original pattern but I'll look into it when I make the next one.

Seeing as the pattern size I used was for a 4-year-old and she's 3.5 years right now, I'm both surprised and grateful that it actually fits her. A previous size 4 dress that I'd made for her is now too small to fit so if I'm going to make another dress from this pattern for her, it better happen soon!

Get Creative 4006: Little Girls' Dresses

Using the same pattern as I did for the little girl's top/pinafore I made previously, I went ahead with my plans of making a some dresses for Princess S and Little Miss M.

Being housebound for a week with the flu gave me time to cut up the fabric and make up the dresses, but I must say they were a real effort seeing as even picking up the scissors was super tiring in the state that I was in.

After sifting through my stash I decided the dresses were both going to have polka dots. I started with the smaller dress first for Little Miss M - the top/pinafore I previously made for her using the 6 month old sizing fits her perfectly right now, so I decided that since winter is approaching I'd be better off making it for a 1 year old so it'll be ready for her to wear when the weather warms up again (or when she moves back to the tropics, whichever comes first). Instead of the typical pink combinations that lots of little girls wear, I thought I'd make it up in a bold blue/brown fabric.


I then moved on to the 4 year old version for Princess S in her favourite colour pink, accented with a variety of gelati coloured spots.


Here's my rundown:

Material
I used 100% quilting cotton with polka dots for both dresses. The pattern called for ric-rac to edge the dresses, but I went with no notions (mainly due to being unable to leave the house to go shopping!)
Plain white/pale blue thread was used for the stitching, depending on the dress colour.

Pattern (Get Creative 4006 : View B)
This view of the pattern was fairly easy to follow, with the only exception being that some of the steps were misnumbered in the instructions. I finished the blue dress as per instructions, but I have to say that I really didn't like having to finish off the sleeves with bias-binding. I made the binding myself, but ended up doing a long and messy job of it. I probably need more practice with this, but to speed things up with the pink dress, I omitted the binding and instead zig-zagged the armholes and finished them with a narrow hem. I also omitted the ric-rac as mentioned above.
Note the inside and outside of the armhole, done my way
(excuse the slightly crooked stitching *ahem*)
Would I do it again?
After making this up twice, I'm a lot more confident in what areas of the dress I would change if I made it up again (i.e. changing the armhole finishings). I'm sure you will all agree that making something up the second time around can make a big difference in how long it takes and what it ends up looking like - unfortunately for me I tend to get bored of making the same thing over and over - but in this case I'll probably try this again with the ric-rac trim to see how it looks if it looks good on the girls.

***EDIT*** (31/03/10)
The dress looks pretty good on, but apparently it is a little hard to get on and off. I think the next one may need a zip added.
***END***

Ruffled Skirt Take 2

I had another bash at the ruffled skirt for Princess S since the first was way too small for her. I guess I'm not used to estimating how big a 3 year old is since I don't have any kids and I was in such a hurry to make it I didn't have time to go to the shops and work it out from there.


As you can see I changed the colours up a little bit. Apparently when she got the last one in the mail she wanted to put it on immediately *yay* but it obviously didn't fit *booooo* so I'm hoping this one does or I'll be going for a Take 3 on this one.

Get Creative 4006: Little Girls Top

Using one of the many patterns I purchased from Spotlight's Get Creative range (win one here), I decided it was time to try my hand at making something for Little Miss SY2. I hadn't realised that I had patterns for 6-month-olds so I was very happy to come across this one. After umming and ahhing a bit I decided to try my hand at a little top for her.

Material
I used some very cute quilting cotton from Japan. The squirrels and hedgehogs on the pale pink background were perfect for a garment for a little girl.
Plain white thread was used for the stitching.

Pattern (Get Creative 4006 : View C)
The pattern was very straightforward and easy to follow. The only difference I made is that I didn't finish the bottom up with lace or ric-rac as the material was busy enough. I also omitted the bow for the same reason. I think if I made this up in a plain material a contrasting trim would be ideal.

Would I do it again?
Unfortunately I don't have Little Miss M around to test the fit, but I am quite confident she'll be able to wear this. I'm keen to try this out in a couple of other colours once I'm sure that the straps are the correct length (the design said adjust length to fit)

Hoping she'll like it.

More booties

It seems these days that there has been a bit of a baby explosion around people I know. Everywhere I look, I see expectant mums or a beautiful new bub (or two) so I decided that it was time to make a few more pairs of baby booties. Seeing as it has been super warm recently and one of the bubs I had in mind for pair lives in a tropical country, I decided to ditch the flannel and try them out in a lighter material - muslin.

I found some gorgeous pink and baby blue material, as well as some cheery yellow fabric with ducks to play around with and these are the results:


I'm very pleased with how they turned out, but I did at one point wonder if I had made a mistake in selecting muslin due to it being so thin. When I was sewing the elastic onto the inside of the bootie for the first time I was worried that the reinforcing stitches I was putting in were going to rip the fabric, but with a bit of care I managed to make it work.

Hope they are warm enough for teeny tiny feet!

First for 2010 - Inspired Ruffled Skirt

Happy New Year everyone!

As the title says, this is the first project of mine for 2010 - a ruffled skirt inspired by this post on Dixie Mango. The 2 skirts up there were so cute, I decided I needed to have a bash at it as well.

After umm-ing and ahh-ing over what materials I had in my stash to use, I followed the steps listed in the recommended online tutorial and came up with this:

The gingham print is actually a pinky-purple on white, which hasn't come up too well in the photo but you get the gist.

Hopefully it fits Princess S!

Flower girl dress complete (I hope)

After spending a day or so sewing away in the sweltering heat (Melbourne's hottest November in 100 years), the dress is complete!

Well complete as far as I am concerned - the only thing is I hope Cheeky Miss C can fit into it! She currently wears 18-24 month old clothing, and I unfortunately was armed with a pattern for 4-6 year olds so I decided to be logical about it and just size down the pattern proportionally. Then I realised that little kiddies tend to have different proportions to older ones. Hmm. Let's just say my fingers are crossed that there are no alterations required.

Here are pictures of the finished product - it required a metre of Ivory satin-polyester from Cleg's, a lot of thread, a 10-inch cream coloured zip and a heck of a lot of sweat. Like I said, it was hot!

Front

Back
I took creative liberties by adding a black ribbon sash to the dress - I don't actually know what colour ribbon the bride has in mind for it. I'm quite pleased with the result though - I hope the bride and groom are as well!

PS I forgot to add - this took such a long time to do because I am ridiculously slow at this and there was a fair bit (for me anyway) of hand-stitching involved... and boy do I hate hand-stitching...

Flower Girl

Yesterday, I got a phone call from a friend who is getting married in 3 weeks. I figured she was calling to discuss the agenda for the wedding reception, as I've been given the honour of being one of the MCs for the night. I was wrong.

Instead, she's had trouble finding a dress for her very cute little flower girl and asked if I could sew up a simple dress for her. She had seen the peach dress that I had made for Princess S awhile back (I actually doubt Princess S has ever worn that dress come to think of it!) and thought that that would make a great flower girl dress if done up in a different material, so I think I'll be receiving 2 metres of the specially chosen material tonight...


I'm quite excited about doing this but also a little worried that there will be a lot of disappointment if the dress turns out horribly! I'm just hoping the material isn't too slippery since I haven't been very successful with non-cotton material so far.

Wish me luck!

Girly Style Wardrobe: Pattern C

Princess S is getting a new dress posted to her tomorrow - a belated birthday present made using a pattern from Girly Style Wardrobe (ISBN 978-4-579-11132-9), a Japanese pattern book for girl's clothing that I purchased recently.

This was my first attempt at using a pattern from one of these books, and it was only after I started putting the pieces of the dress together did I realise that something was amiss. Some of the pieces didn't seem to fit together too well - so I was left wondering what I had done wrong. The pieces were from the correct pattern. The fabric was cut accurately. Why was there a huge lot of fabric left over-hanging on the back neck section??

I dealt with it with the usual *shrug*, lopped off the extra fabric and went about on my merry way. The result is as per below, which isn't too bad considering I realised later that I hadn't added any seam allowances to my pattern pieces! I thought they were all included in the patterns but further research showed me that that was not the case. Duly noted for next time.


I just hope it fits!

The dress!

I just wanted to show off a pic of one of the dresses I made for Princess S, modelled by her very own self.


She sure has the layering thing down pat - you can hardly see that it's actually a sleeveless dress - and I can't fault her choice of Mary Janes to complete the outfit. Admittedly there is a whole lotta pink happening but hey, she's a little girl. Pinkness is inherent.

xx

Bootie Call!

I am so so pleased with myself - I made some baby booties today *clap clap* ! Ok so I obviously couldn't resist with the title - can you blame me though? :D

I wasn't actually planning on being particularly constructive today but Ma and I decided to go to Spotlight to use up some $10 vouchers that their VIP members club sent us. Not sure why we got them but I wasn't going to complain about free money! (In case there was any confusion, I would like to point out that I LOVE free money. Just saying.)

While munching on my yummy lunch (thanks Ma!) and pondering on what I wanted to buy today, I spotted my copy of Meet Me at Mike's that I have totally neglected in the past few months and thought I'd have a quick flick through. There ended up being no flicking - the 'Teeny-tiny goody-two-shoes' were on the first page I opened and my mind was made up.

After a bit of umming and ahhing I decided on some floral pink and white flannel fabric - perfect for little girl bootie material. I used my $10 for the fabric, some elastic and a donation to Mum's stash. I did contemplating putting some of it towards a pattern for my jacket but seeing as I haven't done enough research, I thought it might end up being a waste.

Yes I was bad and didn't wash my fabric before putting it together - but I was impatient and I guess this was a bit of a trial run. The instructions were fairly straightforward until the end where there was a bit of head-scratching involved but all's well that ends well - check out the finished product!



The remainder of the fabric has been washed and is drying as I type for future projects. I am sure that if this pair is ever washed they'll only be suitable for premmies and teeny tiny newborns - but sometimes things are a lot cuter when they are smaller :)

EDIT - If you want to see some really impressive knitted booties, check out Frannie's super cute knitted baby set (Hai Frannie!)

Finally - dresses done!

So I know that in my previous post, I said I would work on my dress for my niece Princess S over the weekend and hopefully get it all done, but as usual, I let myself get distracted by all sorts of non-sewing activities. Always fun, but not so constructive.

Still, I had to get it complete before this weekend as I was due to visit Princess S and her parents - and visiting them means hopping on a plane so it's not quite as easy to justify putting the project off until the next visit - especially since little ones grow so quickly!


As you can see, it has a gathered skirt section, 2 ties to tie into a bow at the back, and a zip. The top section has been lined.


I found the following when making this up:

Material
The embroidered cotton I had selected was beautiful to touch - lovely and soft - but also very thin, which means that I had to be extra careful. Any mistakes I might make could weaken the surrounding material and I didn't want to chance that since I had only enough to just cut out the pieces for the dress. It is gorgeous fabric though - I'd definitely work with it again but next time ensure that I have lots of extra on hand.

I used some thin soft white cotton for the lining and basic black thread and a black zip to complement the embroidery.

Pattern (Butterick B4701 : View B)
I liked that the dress was quite simple and that the instructions were easy to follow. My main issues with this dress was the fact that it required hand-stitching in a couple of areas - under the shoulder seams to tuck away the unfinished ends into the lining, around the zip to secure the lining to the dress and hide the zip, and another couple of spots to secure the lining to the inside of the dress. My hand-stitching skills are shoddy at best, and doing this took me almost as much time as it took to sew up the entire dress. Luckily, since the stitches are supposed to be hidden (more complexity!) you can't see how ugly they are.


I also managed to mess up the zip a little - when I basted the zip it, everything looked great, but once I secured the zip in with proper stitching there was some pulling at the base, and also the top parts of the dress don't match exactly. Frustrating, but I didn't want to undo it all for fear of weakening the material too much. I hope it's not too noticable but it is very difficult to be objective about something you just made.


Would I do it again?
Yes, definitely. In fact, I did! I tried making the dress in View A, with an floral peach cotton fabric. The difference between the 2 views is that this dress has a fuller skirt, whereas the skirt in View B is gathered. I thought the result was great - and lining the inside with the same material meant that it was less obvious if there were any issues with the zip alignment or under-stitching. I also tried my hand at adding some white piping (more hand-stitching!) to hide the waistband at the front.





Overall, very happy that both dresses turned out well - I think once Princess S has them on, any issues I have won't be noticable at all. The next time I make this dress up, I might just line the whole thing so I avoid the whole hand-stitching issue!

An outfit for S (Butterick B4701)

I have given up a little on making things for myself. With my body not being a perfect match to pattern sizes, I get a little impatient when I make something and then have to alter/tweak it, so I am giving myself a break and am instead making a dress for my niece, Princess S. The way I see it, kids generally either fit into clothes or grow into them eventually. No lumps and bumps to worry about.

I bought this pattern awhile ago - it looks simple enough and quite pretty for a little girl.



There doesn't seem to be a huge difference between the 2 dresses - the design diagram below just shows that one is gathered and the other is just cut as an A-line skirt.

I've bought some bright pink cotton with an embroidered black border edging - I plan on using this edging as the bottom of the dress rather than hemming it - and due to not having a huge amount of it on hand, I'm going to go for View B.



I'm also going to use white cotton to line the inside rather than the pink. Hope to get this done by the end of the weekend.