Birdie tunic

after making something very very similar as a christmas present for a little girl i know mademoiselle e. ordered 'one the same'.

as her every wish is my command i obviously obliged.

the pattern is based on the square necked yoke dress pattern from Homemade Kids Book II but I shortened the length to make it tunic style (mlle e. is "off" dresses at the moment).

the fabric is a very soft corduroy with a brown background, cute turquoise birdies and pink flowers with various green coloured leaves. there is an opening at the back which fastens with two heart shaped buttons which you can just make out on the photo below if you look hard. the yoke section is fully lined with a turquoise cotton which I also used to bind the bottom section of the back opening.

as it is november i had envisaged the tunic being worn over a long sleeved tee but it was warm last weekend and mlle e. cannot abide being too hot so it was worn as is.

i love this fabric and there is still some left but i'm not sure it would look so cute on me!

Baby Blanket 1

Babies need blankets. Everyone knows that. So, what better to do, when waiting for the baby that doesn't want to leave your stomach, than make some blankets.

Firstly, the sort of quilt blanket. 

Sort of, because the front is made up like a quilt - 9 squares with appliqued images all bound together nicely, just like a quilt.  Only I have had never quilted before you see and I had horrible images of all my hard work doing the appliqué and binding it altogether so nicely ending up in some tangled ugly mess so, rather than quilt, I decided to just add a backing of lovely snugly 'doudou' fabric.

the 'doudou' fabric backing, and the obligatory 'label'!

Here are close ups of the appliquéd squares:

the star

the elephant

the apple

the cat

the tree

the bird

the dog

the balloons

the fish

And, here, a little person enjoying a kick

"will I be able to wear those boots soon?"

The Summer Holiday wardrobe - the playsuit / romper #1

The girls have decided to design themselves a summer holiday wardrobe.

The first outfit had to include shorts, not be 'too hot' and be strapless (!)

Presenting romper #1

cotton shorts and jersey strapless top

all held together with elastic at the waist and elastic around the bust

the 'model' pose

Two other variations are to come together with other outfits - a perfect capsule collection for a summer holiday!!

Weekly Sewing News

As promised here is the first of my sewing updates.

As I had a few months off blogging there are various garments that I made that I haven't yet blogged about - these I will pick up over the course of this month when they are worn for the Me-Made-June challenge.

These weekly (or so) updates will focus instead just on what I have been up to over the last week (or so), sewing wise. That, of course, means that sometimes they will be packed with photos, information and new projects. Other times the content will be fairly light. Now that I have that disclaimer out of the way let us proceed!

I have already posted about the Sobretto tops I made last weekend (click here if you haven't already seen them) but you may also remember the summer dress hanging in the photo with the tops.

This is one of a number of dresses I have made with the same pattern (albeit with a couple of tweaks here and there).

First I made the Blue dress, shown here on day 11 of the Me-Made-Challenge.

The pattern is from the Sewing in No-Man's Land blog (the Bottom Mellow Dress Pattern) and features a yoke made up of a back piece and two front pieces that meet at the centre with gathered short sleeves. The bottom part of the dress is just a front and back piece stitched up the sides and attached to the yoke. There are no fastenings as the dress is easy to slide on and off. The pattern provides for small facings for the front central yoke pieces but for this Blue dress I made proper front and back facings. I also added a button at the centre bottom of the front yoke and rather than gathering the hem of the sleeves I made a small pleat on each sleeve and again added a button.

The yoke and sleeves are made from a retro cotton fabric with  a small blue and red pattern and the bottom part of the dress is navy blue jersey fabric.

I cut the bottom pieces of the dress slightly wider than the pattern suggested and made an inverted box pleat in the centre at the front and a pleat on each side to accomodate a blooming waistline (obviously the jersey fabric also helps). I did, however, end up taking it in by a couple of centimetres on each side so the added width was probably not necessary.

Once finished this Blue dress just left me with scraps of the blue jersey - not really enough to do anything with - except, the yoke of another dress just the same!

Again I used a complete front and back facing to add structure to the yoke but this time I used the same fabric as I used for the skirt section for the sleeves - a Liberty of London floral print in blue, orange and yellow.

Rather than pleat the front and back skirt sections I gathered them - with the front gathers going right across the front. As I cut the back skirt piece slightly less wide than the front section the gathers at the back are just in the centre.

The third and final dress using the same pattern is altogether more summery. Rose print cotton for the yoke and white eyelet for the skirt section.

For this dress I went back to the pleat detail when attaching the skirt section to the yoke and I also used the same fabric for the yoke and sleeves.

So after three Sobretto tops and three simple dresses I was on a roll of quick and easy projects. 

This time last year I was waiting for my youngest niece to be born and so now her first birthday is fast approaching. As she is coming here for three weeks in the summer I thought she is probably in need of some cool summer dresses so out came the pile of pink and other girly fabric and here is what I came up with:

The pattern is another free downloadable pattern this time from Oliver & S. The pattern actually starts at age 2 but I just downgraded the sizing a little. The first dress is in pink cotton gingham and the trim at the yoke is white cotton lace. 

The second dress is in a cotton floral fabric with white ric rac trimming the yoke. 

For both dresses I made matching bloomers - using the pattern from here.

Just as I was finishing up I happened to peruse Burdastyle.com and saw the free pattern for the Rae blouse (see here). Sundresses are all well and good but a girl needs a little cover up to protect from the burning sun or at the end of a hard day at the pool doesn't she so I used the remains of the white eyelet fabric to make this

A three quarter length sleeve blouse in white eyelet with pleats at the front and a button back. I used some of the pink gingham for pockets. The pattern calls for the neckline to be bound in bias binding but instead, to keep the clean line of the white eyelet fabric I drafted a facing for the front and back necklines.

The next photo shows the pleats and the square neckline

The gingham contrasting pockets

I was going to cover buttons for the back using the scraps of the pink gingham but then when fabric shopping on Tuesday I saw these and so saved myself a job!

Needless to say, I also made matching bloomers - this time with bias binding round the leg holes and waist and with a ruffle on the bum!

Finally - yes it really has been an exceptional week, sewing wise, I made myself the Liberty blouse seen on day 9 of Me-Made-June.

The pattern for this blouse came from the Japanese pattern book Les Couleurs Francaises- and is the top part of the shirt dress pattern that I used last year to make this dress (posted about here).

This time though I made it blouse length, cutting it off just under where the buttons stop, I added the sleeves - short gathered sleeves, also with gathering on the sleeve hem and added elastic in the hem to stop the bottom billowing out in a nasty tent style way.

Given that with the dress I only ever undo the top button and slip it on and off over my head I also sewed up the last few buttons on the blouse using a contrasting red thread as a sort of design detail and for the top two buttons I used red spot buttons. I used another Liberty bias to bind the hem of the sleeves.

Bias bound sleeve hems

Red spot buttons

Sewn down buttonholes

I like the detail of this blouse - the gathering at the bottom of the yoke on the back and the gathering on the hem of the sleeves and I might well make another - maybe making the next one a little bit longer so it could be worn as a tunic.

Gathering at back yoke

Elastic in hem

Well, that is all for this week. But I will leave you with a peak at what is on my cutting table for next week....

Christmas Dresses - more details

Remember these?

Christmas dresses

Way back, I posted about these dresses when I started working on Christmas projects. The dresses were destined for 3 nieces and 2 daughters as Christmas presents. The red ones for the littler ones and the purple ones for the more grown up among the gang.

red pinafores

 The red dresses were made from this pattern (see below) which, annoyingly, stubbornly refuses to rotate so you will have to bend your head I'm afraid to get a good look. Otherwise, it is a great pattern - very simple and quick to make up and lends itself to both plain and very patterned fabric. The pattern also contains appliqué patterns to imitate the illustrations on the pattern of hearts, round or stars, if you should so desire.

I kept both red dresses simple as I had spotted some red and white spotty tops and stripy tights to go with them and here, modelling the smaller version perfectly is my gorgeous niece:

You will see that I added large navy buttons as closures and, if you look closely at the second image, you might be able to spot that I used ladybird fabric tape as hem tape. As my little niece is only 6 months and I was using corduroy fabric I used a contrasting cotton fabric for the facings rather than the corduroy. This stopped the top of the dress being too bulky and (if you look back at the first image) makes it look rather funky on the hanger, even if i do say so myself!

Now for the purple dresses.

purple pinafores

They were all made from this pattern

purple dress pattern

which gives 6 variations of a basic pinafore. The larger two dresses were basically the same variation - the same as the model on the envelope wearing the orange dress - made up of a bodice with facings which attaches to a skirt section and the closure is a centre back zipper. The smaller dress, for Mlle Evie was based on the variation show by the model on the envelope wearing the green dress only I didn't add the section on the bottom of the skirt as, either my daughters are very short or the pattern was drafted for very tall children!

The largest dress, a size 8 years I made up exactly as per the instructions but instead of using a lapped zipper at the back I inserted an invisible zipper. I used Liberty bias to finish the sleeves and the inside of the hem.

The second dress, a size 7 years I made up in the same variation but I added Liberty covered piping where the bodice of the dress attaches to the skirt. I also bound the sleeves with matching Liberty bias and again used the bias to bind the hem. I did, for this dress, use a lapped zipper as I wasn't sure that an invisible zipper would 'like' the piping!

The third dress is made up of a lined bodice with straps which again attaches to the skirt sections and closes with a centre back zipper. I again used an invisible zipper here (partly because in clearing out my cupboard I found a bag full of invisible zippers!). Mlle E then decided that the dress should have a bow on the front, as it does on the pattern envelope, so I foraged amongst my scraps and found the perfect Christmas bow

Even she had to admit that that is a bow!!