Watermelon Dress

I finally finished a watermelon dress for Dorothy.  I bought the fabric over a year ago, but never got it made last summer.  I cut out all of the pieces this Spring, determined to make it for her for the summer.  Then it sat for a long time, and I finally got it done this past weekend.  She loves it, which is great, but I'm not sure I like it.  I'm not happy with the way I sewed the gathered layers, and I think the pattern needs a little tweaking to look better.  I have an idea for a different version that I think will look better, so hopefully I can get to it before she outgrows this style of dress.

 It is a peasant top, tiered dress, which is a good look for her, but I'm not entirely happy with how I sewed it together or my fabric choices.

 I don't think there was enough difference in size between each of the tiers.  When I laid them out, before sewing them together, I wondered if the few inches difference would allow it to lay right.  I should have gone with my gut and made it fuller.

 All the fabric is from one line, but I'm not liking the green tier.  I wish I had stuck with just the red and the watermelon fabric and not used a third fabric.  It's not bad, but it could be better.

 I happened to catch her as she turned quickly.  If the tiers were fuller, the dress would twirl better.

 The cut of the top is really cute on her though and I want to try this one again, but changing the bottom of the dress.

Even though there is a lot of fabric, it doesn't slow her playing down.

Applique Shirts

Last Fall, a friend gave us a big box of hand-me-downs for Dorothy.  Inside were some darling shorts, but no shirts that matched (or maybe I was just looking for an excuse to make matching shirts).  The shorts actually fit around her waist, which is pretty rare, so I came up with three shirts for her to wear with the shorts.

 

 These are the very cute watermelon shorts that I wanted to match.  I looked through the shirts I had on hand and found a plain red shirt that matched color-wise.

I already had the watermelon applique design for my machine.  The red fabric is a scrap from a dress I am currently making her (I cut it out a long time ago, and have just now started sewing it).  I also already had the green fabric for the rind, leftover from doing a few Kermit the Frog shirts.

 Close-up of the watermelon.  I need to practice with some different camera settings to get sharper pictures.

It looks great, and is perfect for her to wear to her baton twirling class.  She practicing the routine so she can march in the Forth of July parade next week.

 I love this little hedgehog!  She's so cute and happy.  My pink fabric isn't a perfect match, but it is close enough.

 I did have to buy this shirt but it is such a good match that it looks like it was made to go with these shorts.  I think the stripes and the pink binding give it some much needed interest.

The shorts are pink, but have a little yellow trim on them.  I was happy to find that the pinks and yellows were so close that they went together even though the shirt and shorts are different brands.

 I have been wanting a manatee design for a very long time, but most of the ones that I could find didn't look much like manatees.  I loved this one, but it didn't come in my machine's format, and it was huge.  It also cost more than I usually like to spend on designs, but there was simply nothing else out there, so I decided to give it a try and I would modify it.  I'm so glad I did!  It stitched out great even after all my tinkering.

I wasn't sure if I was really liking the green outline on the manatee that Dorothy picked out, but it matches the stripes in her shorts really well and we have gotten a few positive comments on her shirt already.  Malcolm likes it so much that he has asked for one, and I hope to finish his this weekend.  Manatee shirts might become a summer tradition for my kids.

I have one more pair of shorts to make a matching shirt for, but I haven't gotten out to get a shirt to match.  Malcolm has two shirt requests in and I have Dorothy's dress that needs to eventually be sewn to also finish, so we'll see if I get to another shirt for her or not.

Bathing Suits

Dorothy is very petite and I could not find a bathing suit for her anywhere that fit properly.  If they were long enough, they were not small enough around in the leg openings to keep her covered.  I tried some two piece ones, and the rise wasn't long enough and the waists were too big, so the bottoms fell off.  After buying and returning several (I still have one waiting to go back to the store), I broke down and made her a couple the mostly fit.  They are a touch big in places on top, but at her age, that doesn't matter too much.

 Here they both are.  The one on the left I actually made last summer, just to see how it would go.  I didn't have a pattern and just sort of winged it with a tank leotard pattern as a base for the very bottom.  The bottom fit pretty well, but the top was huge.  I did some tweaking to it and it is good enough to be worn in public.  I'm probably the only person who even notices where it is a bit funky.

I bought the blue gingham fabric last summer on deep clearance.  When I saw it, I thought it would be cute for her to have a bathing suit loosely based on Dorothy, from The Wizard of Oz's, dress.  I broke down and bought a basic swim suit pattern, but added the ruffle, trim, and skirt.

 The backs.  It is hard to tell on the hangers, but the one on the left comes to a V in the back and the gingham one is an X.

 I didn't have time to take a picture before class started, so here she is afterward; cold.

 It looks like it did just fine in the water.  I was a little afraid it would stretch and get too big, but it still looks pretty good.

You can see under her left arm that it is still a touch too big, but it is much better than it was.  I cut about an inch out of the binding in the center back, then butted the ends together and sewed them.  I took a small tuck pleat in the fabric to make it lay flat, then covered the entire mess with a little bow.  It tightened it up nicely and looks much better now.  Not bad for just eyeballing how the top should have been cut.

 

 The bow gets a little saggy in the water, but I tacked it so that it mostly stays up.

I'm so pleased with how this one came out, and it went together relatively quickly.  I bought the pattern and trim on a Saturday afternoon, and when I had it finished on Sunday before the kids went to bed, my husband was shocked.

The white stripes are ruffled elastic.  I wanted something that would stretch with the material, and this was pretty cute.  The red ric rac does not stretch, but since it is on the skirt, it doesn't have to.  I debated if I wanted the red on there, and I love it so much.  It's a little nod to Dorothy's ruby slippers, and it adds a nice bit of color to the suit.

 The sun was too bright, so she covered her eyes.  It is just darling on her, and I saw/heard some of the teachers saying how cute she was on her first day of swimming lessons.

 The top is just a bit looser than I would like, but everything else fits wonderfully.  I cut this a size 3, but the length of a 4.

It lays very nicely across her back.


It cost me less to make these than what I was spending on ones that didn't fit.  I think next year, I'll just skip trying to buy her a suit and make her a couple.

Scottish Highland (sort of) Vest

Dorothy's school sent a note home that their final show of the year was to include songs from several countries/cultures and that the children were to dress in a traditional costume of their heritage or choice.  *blink, blink*

Ummm...well, I had a kilt when I was a kid, so maybe I could come up with something based on that.  I looked at pictures and decided that it would be simple enough, so we ran with a "Scottish" theme.  There is a chance that there is some Scottish heritage somewhere in our backgrounds, but I have no idea for sure.  Whatever, I could get close enough.  Here is what I came up with.

My mom made the kilt for me when I was little, from some fabric that her dad brought back from a trip, but I was pretty sure that it was bigger than what Dorothy wears.  I called her up and asked if she could find it and ship it to me.  The kilt was a little big, but not as bad as I thought it would be.  I added an extra hook and some velcro to tighten it up around the waist.  Then I took up the hem about an inch and a half.  It made the bottom a bit thick and heavy, so it didn't lay quite right, but it was fine for a school show.

The shoes were also mine from when I was little.  My mom had brought them up a couple of years ago as part of the Raggedy Ann costume, but they were huge on her then.  Now they fit, but I did need to re-glue the insoles that were pealing up.  I also needed to buy new ribbons for the shoes.  She loves these shoes and had asked to wear them more.  Free shoes?  yes, please.

I made the vest, using the pattern and tutorial from this site.  I just left off the lapels and added some trim to make it look a bit like the vests highland dancers wear.  The navy fabric is left over from some pants I made for Malcolm when he was 2 or 3.  It's a no wale corduroy and I just barely had enough.  I would have preferred to have the grain going the other direction, but I couldn't argue with free.  You can't see the lining, but it was also fabric left over from the same pair of pants.  It's a blue and green plaid flannel.

 She was pretty upset with me that she wasn't going to be wearing a "fancy dress" to her show and complained that the costume didn't have any sparkles.  I didn't have any diamond shaped buttons for the vest, but I did have some cheap acrylic gems, so I used those and told her that those were her sparkles.  I also didn't have any gold braid to trim the vest in, but I did have a large amount of gold ribbon, so I used that instead.  It didn't want to go around the sharp corners smoothly, but it was close enough from a distance.

I did not alter the pattern size at all and it seemed to fit pretty well.  I did add small hooks and eyes to the front to keep it closed.

 The knee socks didn't show well in the other pictures, but they were super cute on her.  I found the blouse on clearance for less than $6, and I figure she will be able to wear it with a jumper or something next fall.

Just to show of the cute braids.  I really should do her hair like this more often because it is so cute.

I was pretty happy with how her costume turned out and how little I needed to buy to pull it together.  It wasn't super authentic, but it looked good on stage.

New Leotard! (finally)

Each summer, the kids take a break from gymnastics.  Then, if they want to do it again the the fall, they start again then.  Just before summer started, Dorothy had outgrown one of her leotards, and the other was starting to get a little short in the girth.  When it was time to sign up for Fall classes, she didn't want to do gymnastics, and opted for a basketball and soccer class instead.  She hated basketball and soccer, I'm not sure exactly why, but the fact that she can't run very well (she's slow, and it is more of a jog, with an occasional skip/hop in there) might have been part of it.  Once that was over, she wanted to go back to gymnastics, and I promised I would make her a new leotard.

Well, she did an entire session in the one that was too small, because I didn't get it done.  I eventually, forced her to wear one that we received in a box of hand-me-downs because it actually fit and she would not be tugging at it every few seconds.  She hated that leotard for some unknown reason.  I promised her that she would only have to wear it for one week.  We picked out fabric (from my stash), agreed on a design, and I even got the front cut out.  Then I realized that I had cut it the same size as the one that no longer fit, not the next size up.  *smacks forehead*

I was frustrated and not motivated to get it sewn, so it sat in my sewing room for another two weeks (and she had to wear the leotard she hated, much to her disgust).  Finally, a plan formed in my head and I was ready to tackle the leotard again.  I cut out the back the same, wrong, size as the front.  Then I lined them up and cut them both in half and added a two inch insert of a scrap of bright lime green, holographic fabric so that there would be a band around her lower chest.  I just eyeballed the placement, and it could be about half an inch higher, but it isn't too bad.  Luckily, she is pretty tiny around, because her new leotard is not any wider than her old one, but the band bought her some length.  Hopefully this will last her for a little while.

The pictures are pretty terrible.  The lighting at gymnastics isn't great, and she doesn't hold still long enough for a photo with the lens open just a second longer.

 I embroidered three flowers on the front and the back because she wanted a "soft leotard with flowers on it."  She chose a wine colored stretch velvet for the leotard and agreed to my suggestion of orange, light purple, and hot pink flowers.  I had to surprise her with the green band, but she liked it because it sparkles.

 I had to guess as to placement of the orange flower I wanted on her hip/bottom because I have to do the embroidery before sewing the leotard together.  It got it just about where I wanted it

 Waiting for class to start.

 The colors look a bit off in both pictures (with and without the flash).  It's really somewhere in between how the photos look.

None of my action shots turned out well, but it seemed to move with her nicely, and I did not see her tug at it once, which is a huge improvement over the one that was too small.

Overall, I'm happy with how it turned out. 

Birthday Gifts

I have made several birthday gifts for my kids' friends over the past few months, but am terrible about remembering to take a picture before wrapping them.

This was a quick picture with my cell phone after gifts were opened:

 My typical gift, the first time one of my kids is invited to a friends' party, is to make a beach towel with the child's name on it.  This is one that I made, but there were two others that I didn't photograph.  Hopefully, the kids like using them all summer.

This is a shirred owl dress I made for a little girl's first birthday.  I guessed on size, but based on pictures I saw of her, it seems to fit.  Yay!  I always worry when I guess, but this style is pretty forgiving.  I love this fabric a lot (the colors are so fun) and have enough left over to make a dress for Dorothy.  It's on my list for next year since she has so many outfits for this summer.




Last, is a towel and bag combo I made for a school friend.  Normally, only one of my kids gets invited to the party, but since they both were invited, I decided to add a bag to my normal towel gift.

 This little girl is monkey crazy, so I went with a monkey theme.  I had the towel first, so then found fabric for the bag that matches.  Actually, Dorothy found the plaid fabric for me.  She loves to go fabric shopping!

Hopefully they can use the bag to tote her things to the beach or pool (or dance and gymnastics class).  The towel fits great in the bag too.

 I usually do some type of "beach" animal on the towels, but love how the monkeys turned out.  I might have to experiment with other animals.

 I've been wanting an excuse to try out this design.  It took me three attempts to get it right because I hadn't noticed that the design was just a touch too large for my hoop.  Once I resized it, it stitched out wonderfully.  It took almost two hours of stitching, and had a ton of thread trimming once it was complete, so I'm not sure how often I will do this one.  Malcolm wants it on a shirt; we'll see if I managed it.

 The bag wanted to flop open a bit, so I added a small snap right in the middle, and that helped a lot.

I love the banana lining fabric I found!  It's so cute, and it matches the bananas on the monkeys' bed perfectly.



I have one more towel and bag combo I'm working on; in a boy style (Batman!).  The towel is complete, and the bag is getting close.  I broke my last needle though, so I need to get some more so that I can finish it before the party on Friday.

Patchwork Rainbow Dress

I saw a picture of a rainbow patchwork dress on a friend's Pinterest page and fell in love with it.  I just had to make it, and I'm glad I did.  It is possibly the brightest, happiest thing I have ever made.  However, I probably won't be making it again because it took forever to get finished. 

I started the dress a month or two ago, and it was going well.  I just did a little here and there as I had time to work on it.  There are a lot of little steps, so one day, I would just cut fabric strips, another I sewed them together, later I cut them to length, etc.  My daughter got an invitation to a "princess birthday party" and was to wear her princess-y best.  She doesn't really have any fancy dresses right now, but I figured the twirly rainbow dress would be perfect; I just needed to finish it.  Let's just say, I'm glad it's done.

 The top really should have been a little bigger, but the bottom of the dress has massive amounts of fabric, so I cut a few corners to keep the fullness from being so much that she couldn't move easily.  It's still very cute though.

 When I first tried it on her to check the placement of the straps, they were placed too wide and were a little long.  I ripped them out on the back only and moved the to the center.  I love how it looks and it fits much better now too.

I think this might be our favorite summer dress this year.

Gymnastics Leotards

Dorothy has been doing gymnastics for a while and has just been wearing sweats to class.  The problem is that she only has a couple of pairs of sweats and they were often dirty and I was scrambling to get them washed and dried in time for her classes.  I have a bunch of leotard fabric that has been sitting around for several years now, and was never used, so I decided to try my hand at making her a couple of gymnastics leotards.

Here is my first attempt at making a leotard.  I decided to go with the bike shorts style because it offers more coverage (she has no rear end) and it meant I didn't have to add elastic, which I hate doing.  It's a dark navy stretch velvet and is so, so soft.

I appliqued a girl doing a handstand, since it seemed appropriate for a gymnastics leotard.  I used a scrap of lime green lycra with little holographic dots.  Dorothy likes that it is shiny and sparkly.  She wasn't willing to hold still and model for me, but I did manage some quick pictures with my phone.  The quality isn't great, and many were taken through the viewing windows, but hopefully they show the fit.  

For a first try, it came out really well.  I couldn't get the casings right on the arm and neck holes, so I cheated a bit.  They look fine from a distance, but I'm not entirely happy with them.  I did better in later attempts.

Ready to head into class, and the only semi-decent front shot I was able to get.

Warming up.  I like the line of the back of the leotard.

Waiting her turn.

She loves bars and the leotard seemed to move with her very well all through class.

My second attempt did not go nearly so well.  I let Dorothy pick out the fabric she wanted me to use, and she insisted on a hunter green crushed velvet.  It isn't something I ever would have picked for her, but she really fell for it for some reason.  She then wanted an orange fox on it, so I did that too (though when she saw it, she insisted that it was a cat).  This material was only a two-way stretch, instead of four, but I thought I could make it work.  I was wrong.  When I tried it on her, the legs were much too tight and it would not go over her (non-existent) hips.  Yeah, definitely needs to be able to stretch around as well as in length.  Too bad, because it was really cute.

I did, however, do a much better job with the casing around the arms and neck.  I didn't get the stitching quite close enough to the seam, but it got better and looked pretty decent by the next time I made one.

She was a little disappointed it didn't fit, and pulled really hard trying to get it on.

 My last try went much, much better.  Even the casing look pretty good.  Luckily, Dorothy was excited to get to choose more fabric (uh, oh, she might be turning into me a little bit) and a design to put on yet another leotard.  This time, she went with a jade green lycra with glitter sparkles all over, and a hot pink dinosaur.  Rawr! 

It's hard to capture the glittery-ness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The dinosaur is made with a stretch material I had sitting in a box that was bright pink, but nearly sheer.  It wouldn't work for a full leotard, but is fine for appliques.

Waiting for class to start.  The shoulders are set a tiny bit wide, so next time I'll trim them in a bit.  I cut this one a touch larger than the navy one, and it looks like she has a little bit of growing room in it. 

This one seems just a little more comfortable to her.  The legs and girth are a little longer, and she seemed to hardly tug at it at all.

She is pretty strong and can hold this for a good amount of time.  Now, if she would just focus a little, she could actually do some more difficult skills.

This was supposed to be a front kick.  Not quite there yet.

I had a lot of fun making these and learned a lot.  I would love to make some more, but she only has class once a week, so I think two leotards are more than enough.  I certainly wouldn't buy her more than one if I was buying them.  I justify the two because they were "free" since the fabric was just sitting here, but I need to wait and not make more until she outgrows these.