Two Khaki Skorts

The girls needed something khaki and knit and the only skort I could find was not exactly what I wanted and was more than I wanted to pay anyway.  Despite my fear of sewing with knits, I bought a yard or so of some khaki-colored knit fabric and brought it home.  We stared at each other for a while but ultimately came up with a skort.

I used a combination of this ruffled skirt tutorial and this tutorial for adding shorts under a skirt and making a skort. For the shorts, I modified this pants pattern (that I’ve used several times now). And I got the idea for the fun “lettuce” edge from part of this tutorial.

Look, shorts!  So glad they’re incorporated in the skirt—it makes it so much more useful for running and playing.  And I imagined it would be much more difficult than it actually was.

The I decided the Little Miss needed a skirt too.  I didn’t have enough fabric to make an identical skirt with the ruffles, but I was able to use the leftovers to make a simple skirt with the same hem.

And I added shorts to hers too.

The skirt is perfect for pushing Baby in the stroller while sticking out one’s tongue!

Navy and Lemon Polka Dotted Goodness

I set out to make a cute pair of matching dresses for the girls this spring.  I wanted navy and yellow but never found a print that I liked, so I improvised.  I used a navy fabric and added yellow accents: an inset in the bodice, lining, a ribbon belt, and a chiffon ruffle.

I love me some chiffon!

And I’d seen this ruffle-like inset at various places on other dresses.  I never did find a free tutorial, so I had to guess how it was made.  I made a ruffle, then gathered the other side of the panel as well.  I stitched them into the bodice and hoped for the best.  It worked, I think.

This dress was definitely a work in progress for a long time—my first vision of it had sleeves and piping and a trim at the bottom, but as I laid the pieces together, I didn’t like those things.  I also originally tried tulle on the bottom but I didn’t like the color.  And I tried four different options for the ribbon belt.  I mean, it’s just a piece of ribbon.  Yikes.

The pattern I used (which includes pleats in the skirt—fun!) was New Look 6957.

Double Cuteness

A good friend of mine is having twins (!) in a few weeks—a boy and a girl.  We’ve had a few conversations about the enjoyment of coordinating outfits for children (um…not that I tend to make my children wear matching clothes…not at all…) and we discussed that it’s harder to find things for boy/girl matching.  Not impossible, of course, but I decided I just had to make something.

So I did.

For baby girl, I made another itty bitty baby dress.  I wanted to find a fabric that worked as a girly dress but also worked for the boy tie.

Mmmmm…piping.

And I’m getting a little better at sewing hems and bias tape.

For baby boy, I wanted to make an embellished onesie with a necktie.  Comfy and dressed-up.  I found a tutorial with a printable pattern and it turned out on the first try!

I can’t wait to meet those babies!

Cotton Candy Goddess Dresses

I saw a dress at Crazy8 that was chiffon with a ruffled neckline. It looked cute and I wanted to make my own version. The basic pattern I used is for a shirt with a neck that looked about like I wanted it to. The free pattern and tutorial is available online here. I attached chiffon as an overlay and made chiffon ruffles for the collar.

They’re a bit of a fifties silhouette, and a beautiful shade of blue. Light and fluffy!

Itty Bitty Cuteness

I found a free pattern online (Thanks to the wonderfully talented Rae) that was so adorable I needed to find an excuse to make it. It is for an itty bitty dress for a baby. I know I could attempt to make it in a large size, but I think that a lot of its charm is its petite size. One of my dear friends from college was about to give birth to a baby girl—her second child but first daughter—and it seemed like the perfect occasion.

The pattern was very easy to follow and turns out beautifully! The bodice is lined but didn’t actually involve rocket science for me to figure it out. The piping and bias tape makes the edges look neat, and since the straps tie, there are no zippers or other fasteners as my nemesis.

One-Shoulder Ruffle

I found some cute fabric at JoAnn’s of all places, and it begged to be a dress for the elder daughter.  I had recently found a tutorial for a dress that involved a ruffle and only one shoulder, and it seemed like a perfect match.  Here is the tutorial I used for this asymmetrical dress.  I had a little trouble with drafting the pattern—I think I was missing an angle or something to write out the pattern in its original size, and then I made it larger (so it fit my size 4-5 kid).  I ultimately mostly drew the shape for the body freehand, and it is quite forgiving.

Petal Top in Action

Blogged about it here.

Ruffled Halter

I linked to the pattern in this blog post, if you want to make one too.  I think it’s one of my favorite shirts on the Little Miss.

It’s great for playtime…

And great for eating hangers…

And great for dining…

And great for making an escape…

And fit for a queen…

An all-around great spring top!

Market Skirts in Action

I blogged about the making of these skirts here, but finally took pictures of the girls in them.

Mom T-Shirt to Ruffle Cuff Baby Pants

So the Little Miss has managed to grow again, and since her seasons (and style) are a bit different from her big sister, I find myself needing new articles of clothing for her.

Most recently, her brown knit pants became more like brown knit capris and needed a replacement.  Since it is spring, knit pants are hard to come by (though I could have gotten more knit capris).

As I was going through my own spring wardrobe, I noticed I had two different brown t-shirts.  I do have a skirt that requires a plain top, but if I am ever at a point in my life where I wear two different solid brown T-shirts in a week, it is time for my friends to stage an intervention.  So I kept the cuter one…

…and sacrificed the other one.

{Baby toes!}

After having success with the Made “the basic pant” pattern, I decided to make knit pants.  Now pants frighten me a little, but they worked out last time, so I was prepared to try again.  Knits, however, terrify me.  The hardest thing for me is to not stretch out cuffs when hemming, so I cheated was resourceful.  I cut the pattern out so the existing hem from the T-shirt was the hem for the pants.  This meant I just had to sew the pieces together and make a casing which holds elastic and scrunches up anyway.  Success!

And they were really plain-looking (which doesn’t always bother me but did on that day) so I added a ruffle around each ankle.  I used any leftover bits from the shirt.  Since it was a knit, I didn’t have to do anything to the edges.  Easy!

Nursing Cover to Baby Shirt Refashion

I had a nursing cover (brand name Udder Covers, and available here), that was made of a cute purple damask fabric.  I didn’t have any friends to pass the cover on to, and I really liked the print of the fabric, so I decided to try to refashion it.  I wanted to make an A-line jumper, but it would have been too short, so I made a tank top.

(I made it a little big so it fits through this summer.  And sorry about the barefoot baby—we weren’t outside too long, and it was nearly 70 degrees today.)

The front and back are cut out of the middle of the cover.  I used the edges of the nursing cover to make the binding for the bottom hem, arms, and neck.  I had to undo the stitching and put it in again, but it had already been well-pressed so it looked nice.

One of my favorite things is the ruffle down the front.  I hardly did any work for that—it is the strap from the cover.  It even had the nice taper already.  I just gathered it and attached it to the front.

 

I’m excited for the nursing cover to have a second life.