Kids Clothes Week: A Sally Dress for Easter!

My big goal for Kids Clothes Week was to make Dell this little Easter dress.  Everything else was just gravy, but this had to be cute since her brother has already gotten a little suit from his Nona.  And she definitely needed something with big pockets to hide Easter treasures.

Luckily, I had everything on hand and ready to go once I realized that this was the thing to do.  The fabric was bought, washed and pressed for last summer's Kids Clothes Week, but then found it's way to the back of the drawer once I failed at time management.  And the pattern is the Sally Dress by Very Shannon, another from Pattern Anthology, bought and printed ages ago.

I made the 4t size based on her chest measurement which ended up fitting her perfectly without changing anything, though it's a bit tight getting on and off.  I'll just pray that she makes it through the Easter festivities without spilling anything on herself and maybe see about adding a button placket to the back to make it last a little longer.

I also went with the longer sleeve, since we've still got snow hanging around.  And I added some bright yellow piping along the collar and waist.  I'm pretty excited to add piping to everything, especially since I've bought all the colors on super discount at Marden's.

The neckline was a bit tough to pipe, because you have to pipe the front and back pieces separately, then line them, then sew them together at the shoulders.  It worked, but the seams are a little bulky.  Good thing she's got plenty of hair to distract!

But the whole thing was super easy to make.  I think she'll need a couple more of these big pocket dresses for twirling and stashing this summer.

Linking up with Kids Clothes Week and Crazy Mom Quilts!

Kids Clothes Week: Vintage V-Neck Tee Wonkiness

Last night I finally went through all the drawers and pulled out the old t-shirts that hubs and I don't like anymore so that I can make them into tees for the little man.  I was going to just do the old standby and use a shirt that fits him now to cut new ones, but then I remembered that I had the Vintage V-neck Tee pattern from last fall's Pattern Anthology.

But for the life of me, I can't get the "V" to sit nicely!  I carefully pinned and stretched, but still ended up taking out the stitches twice.  And after the last sew, it still didn't look nice, but if I took them out again I'd end up shredding the gray fabric.

The "V" looks so cool, but I might just recut the pattern to a crew neck, because I just can't stand patterns that are too fiddly.  And I want to make at least two more t-shirts because the kid has almost none to wear this summer.

But, on a happier note, I finally busted out the non-straight-stitch-only sewing machine and got to do fun things like zig zag stitches and sewing with my double needle!  But now there's two sewing machines on the dining room table and absolutely no room for actually eating dinner.

Linking up with Kids Clothes Week and My Quilt Infatuation!

Kids Clothes Week: Purple People Eater Sweater Dress

I try to keep things even among the kids.  So after I made Isaac his green sweater, I bought some more yarn and decided to make the same sweater for Dell.  I was only going to change the front panel, but then I got a bit carried away.

The pattern is a top down raglan, so I started with the neck collar.  I didn't like how the first sweater had a K1P1 rib, so I switched that out for a K2P2 rib and twisted my stitches so that the rib would look neater.   Now it pulls together much nicer and sits right up against her neck.

The next bit to knit is the chest, arms, and back.  I've been wanting to play with more textures, so I just started scrolling through stitch libraries until I found on that would work well with my increases.  This honeycomb pattern is worked over four stitches, so I was able to just add half and full honeycombs when I had enough new stitches on the sides.

Then I put the arm stitches on to waste yarn and had to decide how much of the honeycomb I wanted.  I thought of just continuing the pattern to the hem, and finishing it like a regular sweater, but I got a lot of votes for a sweater dress from friends.  So I continued the pattern to just above the waist and then increased every few stitches so that it would flair out a bit.  I have no clue how many I eventually added, but it was enough.

Then I realized that I only had one ball of yarn to finish the sleeves (still on the waste yarn) and the bottom of the dress.  I'd already cleaned out the store and had to buy a different dye lot, so I didn't want to have to go back and add a third dye lot to the pile.  The solution was short sleeves!  Which is perfect since the weather turned warm, and long sleeves would have been too hot to wear in the spring.

In the end, I love how it turned out.  It's so different from the first sweater, but I love that I'm getting comfortable enough with my knitting to start doing crazy things like this.

Linking up with Kids Clothes Week!

Finish It Up Friday: Kids Clothes Week Edition

There's still two more days of Kids Clothes Week, but here's what I've gotten finished so far. 

There's two t-shirts, a Bimaa sweatshirt, two jumpers, and a pair of Parsley Pants. 

I have two more pairs of Parsley pants cut out and ready to sew later today. And I found a great sparkly knit that would be perfect for another Bimaa. I might try the cowl neckline if I have enough fabric. 

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish It Up Friday!
 

Kids Clothes Week: Crazy Stripey Jumper!!

Another finish for Kids Clothes Week.  I struggled with what to do with this fabric.  It's a random remnant that I found at Joann's that happened to find it's way into my cart.  I loved the pattern but it was kind of busy, so I thought I'd make a small library bag for her, but when I washed it, it turned into the softest corduroy I've ever felt.  So clothes it was.

I was thinking at first to make a simple skirt, but that would leave me with more scrap than I'd like, but not enough to do anything with.  So I found this top from Prudent Baby and thought it would be a good challenge to upsize it.  

I didn't print it out (because that seemed like more work), instead I pulled up the pattern pages full screen and sketched out a copy freehand. I double checked my pattern against her measurements, then had her try it on again before cutting out the neck pieces.  

It went pretty well.  I only altered the armpits, because they ended up being more of a "V" instead of a "U".

I may have bribed her with promises of cookies and fake mustaches.  Whatever works!

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday!

WIP Wednesday: KCW Edition!

Kids Clothes week is in full swing!  I set myself up for a couple quick finishes on Monday, which just got me all excited to make more.  Apparently, accomplishing stuff is addictive.

This is the stack that I'm planning on cutting into next.  The top two are flannels that will either become more tunics from a self-drafted pattern or button up flannels a la the Ethan Shirt that was in the SewFab bundle.  (They seriously planned that well!)

The middle two are quilters't cotton for dresses or skirts, and the bottom is a corduroy that I'll either make into Parsley pants, a dress, or both.

These jumpers are just waiting on hems and buttons.  Both are drawn myself, but the purple is based on the Olivia top from Craftiness is Not Optional.  And the stripes is based on the Snappy Toddler top from Prudent Baby, but I had to upsize it a lot, so I basically just winged it.

I feel bad about leaving the little dude out of most of my sewing, but he has so many hand-me-downs still to go through, that it's just silly to make him clothes.  I did find this t-shirt at the thrift store and had to re-cut it for him.  I love how it fits (tees are so hard to get right when you don't have a huge size to start with), and he won't stop wearing it.  I haven't been able to hem it because he wants to wear it all the time, so it might just go unhemmed.  

Linking up with Lee for WIP Wednesday!

Kids Clothes Week: Bimaa Sweatshirt

Starting off Kids Clothes Week with a Bimaa sweater and some Parsley Pants!  Okay, so it's Tuesday, and technically the second day of KWC, but just ignore that.

I'm totally in love with the Bimaa pattern.  I was really excited that it was included in the SewFab bundle (which isn't available anymore, but the link has all the patterns), but it looked more complicated than my usual kids' patterns.  But I had this cute pink sweatshirt material (bought at Joann's from the remnant bin - Jackpot!) so I figured it was worth a try.  I cut all the pieces the night before sewing, and the actual sewing only took about an hour.  Amazing!

I actually measured the little girl before cutting.  She has a 21 inch chest, so the pattern recommends cutting the 2T size, but she usually wears a 4T because of her height, so I went with that size instead.  The worst that happens is that she'd wear it next year if it was too big.  But it turned out perfect for right now.  I might make the next size up the next time so there's more growing room.

 I went with the shawl collar, because I didn't have enough fabric to cut the cowl or hood.  I actually had to cut one of the shawl pieces in two parts and stitch them together.  It was just under a yard of fabric, so a yard would probably be just right to make this again.

And of course, the Parsley Pants.  They're just the perfect fit.  And I love the piped pockets.  I may try the other styles eventually, but I'm obsessed with piping.