Thursday, July 29, 2010

Sister Sunsuit/Sundress Pair

I found a tutorial online of how to make a sunsuit (or “bubble,” as I call it). Since the Little Miss has been wearing these almost exclusively this summer, I decided to try to make one. The first one I made was a refashion of a baby dress, but this one is from scratch. I purchased the remainder of the fabric on the bolt and it turned out to be exactly enough for the bubble for the baby and a simple sundress for the Peanut.DSC_0497

The sundress is basically the Sweet Little Dress (the same as this dress and any other dress I’ve made) but without sleeves. I made straps (thanks, Rae!) and ran some elastic through the top.DSC_0420 DSC_0465

For the bubble, I used this tutorial but changed the bottom. I based it off of an existing outfit that the Little Miss has. Pretty proud of myself for that, and for getting the snaps to line up!

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And totally randomly, the morning after I made these, the Crafterhours blog posted the same idea—making a dress for the older girl and making it into a romper for the younger! I love it!

Foray Into Foldover

I saw this Five Minute Skirt tutorial which used fold over elastic (FOE), and wanted to try it. Since it’s cut on the bias, it uses quite a bit of fabric, and if I’d make it for myself, it would use even more fabric. What’s a girl to do? So I made one for the smallest, most willing model in our house.DSC_0517Did you think I meant the baby? She’s small but not particularly cooperative when it comes to sitting still and being photographed. Sorry about Bitty’s lack of a shirt—she has a few she could wear with this skirt and I wasn’t inclined to make anything else once I finished.

And since the reason I bought FOE in the first place was to make headbands for the Little Miss, I made a coordinating one for Bitty.DSC_0519 Here’s the skirt. It’s not really quite so odd-looking—I took the picture at an angle. I did fudge a little bit on the proportions, as Bitty’s ratios aren’t quite the same as a person’s (and that’s just her leg length—to say nothing of her man shoulders!)DSC_0520 It took more than 5 minutes, but was not particularly involved.

Dress to Sunsuit Refashion

A couple of years ago, I bought this fabric and made a little sundress for the Peanut.  I was early in my sewing, and instead of actually making straps or anything fancy, i used ribbon.  I did use the excess fabric to make a diaper cover (which is nothing to write home about—you won’t see any close-up pictures of it.)100_6286 Here is the Peanut in the dress.  She was such a cute little baby! (I think she’s 12 months in these pictures).100_9027    100_9049

A glimpse of the diaper cover:100_9054.

Then along came the Little Miss, whose sizes—and seasons—didn’t match up with her sister’s.  She was able to fit into the dress this summer, though it was longer than it had been on her sister.  Also, since she’s four months younger, she’s not cruising and spends her days crawling.  Dresses are not so conducive to crawling.  I found this tutorial of how to make a sunsuit, and decided to refashion the dress into a sunsuit.  Easy peasy—I just needed to make the bottom of the skirt into legs.  I learned how to attach snaps, shirred the leg openings, and made nice straps for variety.  Here’s the Little Miss, showing it off:DSC_0710

When I get a chance, I’ll add a picture of the garment sans baby.