Gingercake

Make it Work

When I made my tunic that I wrote about in the last post, I first made a quick version in thrifted fabric to make sure that it would fit and I would like how it looked on me before I cut into my nice fabric.  Last week I made this top for Anne without any trial runs and quickly regretted that hasty decision!  

Hopefully you are thinking- what is she talking about??  It looks fine!  And it did turn out fine but I had to think of Tim Gunn telling me "make it worrrk!"  since I made some silly errors at first.  I used the Dearmykids pattern that I used to make this shirt about 18 months ago.  I knew the size 4T wouldn't be big enough for Anne now so I enlarged the top piece and added more width to the bottom.  Well it turned out HUGE!  Like she wouldn't be able to wear this for about 3 years.  I should have printed out the correct pattern size and gone from there but I didn't want to bother with having to get new ink for my printer!  The pattern is awesome but it prints on like 20 sheets of paper.

This beautiful AMH voile does not like to be seam ripped.  Especially after you happily serged all the seams so proudly thinking you are making the cutest tunic for your daughter ever.  After I put it aside for a few days and felt bad about ruining this expensive fabric, I had the idea to add ruching to the arm pits.  Yeah!!  This was a great- although not perfect, solution since the top parts still gapes open on her a bit.

In the picture of the back above, you can see the ruching a bit better. It looks nice her and hopefully I'll post a picture of her in it later this spring/ summer.  Lessons learned: don't just wing it on expensive fabric AND if you ignore that first lesson, set it aside until you come up with a solution to fix up your errors of overconfidence!  Maybe someday you will make a shirt way to big for your child and remember this trick and it will be a help!  Do you have a fix it trick that has helped you out of a similar mistake?  I need all the help I can get :)

 

Easy Knit Dress- Last day of KCWC

I made this dress on Saturday morning.  It was FREEZING here!  I actually wore long underwear that afternoon to the girls soccer games and I was still cold!  So this summery dress seemed a bit out of place, but yesterday afternoon it warmed up enough to take a few good outside pictures.

I basically followed the warhol dress pattern from MADE.  Super dooper easy and a great way to build your confidence with knits.  Just use your iron, ball point needle and beginners can easily accomplish this.

I bought this fabric to make a skirt for myself.  It's from Joann's- in the back of the store red tag section.  Not much of a deal at about $9 a yard but it was the nicest knit I could find there.  The skirt for me may still happen but it will have to be a lot shorter now!

I knew my almost 8 year old would like the tie at the shoulder and it is a clever and easy way to finish the dress.  I think maybe I made it a bit too long- any thoughts about that?  She doesn't seem to mind and seems happy.  She did not like this fabric at all untilI I made it into a dress and then suddenly she decided it was pretty and she could wear it.  Sometimes we have to take risks to sew for our kids, right??

She had no serious modeling bones in her body for this photoshoot and that is why her face is cropped in the above pictures.  Here is one where you can see how she really was acting as her sister danced around like crazy behind me.  

A great FREE pattern to try if you want to attempt a cute summery knit dress!  

Tee Shirt Nightgowns- KCWC day 2

My Father in Law gave my husband a bag full of XL undershirts.  He said "just toss them if you don't need them!"  I wanted to pass them on to the goodwill but my husband wanted to keep them "just in case".  Hmmm.  A year later the bag was still untouched and I finally looked at them- nice quality lands end white undershirts surely could have some use, right?  I washed them and bleached them and finally dyed them tangerine orange and sunshine yellow.  Now, THAT was something I could use.  

Super soft peachy tee shirt material makes a pretty cute nightgown.  I used the existing hems for the sleeves and bottom hem and since I haven't tried to make necklines with knits (yet!), I made an easy peasant dress collar.  Finally,  I cut out a heart for some other scrap knit and zig zag stiched it on to give some extra cuteness.  I used my serger (thanks again Mom!) for the sewing up the sides.  This was a fast project!  Certainly under an hour.

We took these pictures this morning at about 7:30 AM.  Isn't the light pretty?  She slept in the nightgown last night and loved it.  Here is one last shot for you of the nightgown in jumping on the bed action.  My daughter wanted to make sure I included this one.  This is how all our photo shoots end these day with requests for "action shots".

More about how to take jumping pictures here.  Not the most exciting sewing project ever but I liked using some of the hand me down undershirts (and I have plenty more of this "fabric" now too!) and it was fun to experiment with using RIT and all that.  Have you been making clothes for your kids this week?  I am finding myself wanting to sew other things but I am trying to stay on task!

Gingham Dress : KCWC day 1

We'll see if I make it through the whole week but I did start off on the right foot!  I started Sunday since it was rainy and cold here and the kids wanted to watch Harry Potter again.  I couldn't pass up 2 unexpected hours to myslef- right?  When making this, I was inspired by this dress and this dress.  I love how you can make gingham and plaid prints play around when on the bias.

 I decided to build on an existing pattern that I had.  A simple peasant dress from ManiMina.  It turned out to be pretty blousy for Anne- 2 of her could have fit in the size 5!  So I did ruching around the waist (with 1/4" elastic) which made all the difference and was such an easy fix.

In order to use the fun diagonal pattern that is created by putting the gingham on the bias, I made bias tape binding for the sleeves and neckline.  I also made ties at the sleeves for an extra detail and the pockets on the bias too.  I used the extra neck bias tape as a loop for an oversized button in the back.

She put some leggings on after out pictures and I liked the outfit even better!  Looking forward to seeing her wear this all summer.  Are you doing Kids Clothing Week Challenge?   

Distractions

Today I needed a distraction from pattern writing and Cal and I needed to get out of the house. We paid a quick trip to the thrift store and although I was looking for other things, I ended up in the t-shirt section.  I don't usually shop the clothes since I am a bad clothes shopper in general (my poor mother has experienced this over and over and over!), but since I was looking at clothes to repurpose I actually did OK over there!

Elsie has decided jeans are no longer acceptable in her wardrobe.  In an effort to make it through this stage without so many tears before school in the morning, I bought these nice LL Bean tees at the thrift store ($3 each!) and used the Lil Blue Boo Leggings pattern that I already bought last year.  That is one easy and quick pattern!  

I know I could have gone to Old Navy or Target to buy leggings very cheaply but those places are pretty far for me to drive and the Goodwill is only about 5 minutes away.

She's stylin and I had a break from the computer screen!  The shirts were extra large so I just used the existing hem.  When I make this pattern again, I will make sure the knit is more stretchy since she had trouble pulling them on.  Once they are on though, they are mighty cute and comfortable!

Crazy and disheveled little sister wanted to get in on the picture taking action...

There was plenty of left over fabric and I used a new grey tee shirt and a green thrift store tee shirt to make a quick dress for Anne.  I used this tutorial as inspiration.  The seams on the outside are genuis since they hide imperfections and I like the look.  This was REALLY fast and the result is great.  Knits are very forgiving and easy with the right tools.

 and here she is in rock star pose (which I guess is just mad face)...

and finally some freckles and whispy orange hair to go with your coffee this morning...

This dress is a great beginner project.  The hard part would be making that tee shirt top and it is already done for you since you just cut up a plain tee shirt!  I used my ball point needle and just a regular straight stitch.  No need for the serger with either of these projects.  Also, be sure to try that lettuce edge hem!  That is so fun and easy!  Just zig zag along the edge and you get that darling hem.  

I hope you feel inspired to try something new!  Let me know how it goes!