Two Little Dresses

I made these two dresses for the granddaughter, who will be 7 years old this fall.

This first one is McCall's L9462. (sort of) It's made from scraps so the skirt is pieced together, as you can see. And I added pockets which don't exactly line up but it's okay. It has pockets! It's a little short. Not too short, just that she will grow out of it sooner.

Next is New Look 6205. First time I have used this pattern. And I forgot to add pockets to it. My bad. It was very easy. I like it so well I really wish it came in my size too.

She likes them both. Pink and purple are her favorite colors.

A Quick and Easy Tunic

When I saw this adorable fabric with antique pickups and flowers and such on it of course I had to have it. And what else could it be but another McCall's 9065?

Short sleeves this time and an un-banded collar because a band is just too much fabric up around my neck in the summertime.

(Yes, that's my front door. Of the new house which we're not living in yet because we're still building it. But we're getting closer.)

The Fine Art of Never Letting Go

I'm sorry I don't have a Before photo. So here's the story. I made a dress ages ago - maybe 20 years, I can't remember - out of this really cute yellow and white check with ladybugs. But it didn't turn out well. I loved it until I put it on and looked in the mirror, then it just didn't work for me. I tried once to fix it by making a complete new bodice for it. Slight improvement but it still didn't work. So for years I tried to think of something else to do to fix it. I considered giving it to Goodwill but it's so hard to let go.

Finally a few weeks ago it hit me. Why not make something for the granddaughter! The pattern is McCall's L9462, plus pockets from another pattern.

Yes it's wrinkled. Don't judge; Her mom honestly doesn't have time for ironing.

You may notice she's holding something very small in her hand.

It was quick and easy to make and she likes it.

But the story doesn't end there. I had a few little scraps left and I had an idea. So I searched for and quickly found some black and white stripe fabric. I used New Look 6963, my current favorite long shirt pattern and here's what I came up with:

And the back:

This is different for me. I don't often wear stripes and never anything as plain as black and white stripes but I love this. Sometimes less really is more. Less of this adorable ladybug check fabric works so much better than more. And best of all, I was able to let go and yet not let go.

For a Small Person and What's Next

UPDATED

For the past two weeks I have been sewing for my granddaughter. Pictures of clothes laid out on the floor are not the best so you'll have to use a little imagination but my model is an hour away and I wanted to show that I have been sewing. These are both McCall's 9227.

I have also been using up small pieces of leftover fabric to make shorts and these capri pants.

I'm probably going to take these to her later today.

* * * * * * *

Now I'm really wanting to sew something for myself but I really don't need any more clothes and I'm getting to the point where I can't stuff one more thing into my tiny, overstuffed closet. But, on the other hand, I have all this fabric. I do have three more pieces for the granddaughter and lots more leftovers that might also be enough to make little clothes so maybe I should keep working on that.

I "decided" that I would spend some time altering and fixing some things that I love but that are not quite right one way or another and I actually did one of those. I'm pretty sure something new is coming soon though because the urge is irresistible. I have two new Vintage Vogue patterns that I am excited about: 9106 and 2960. I'm excited about these but also anxious because I'm pretty sure I'm going to have some fitting issues with both. And 9106 is crazy. Those skirt pieces are huge and it requires 60 inch wide fabric. There is not a lot of 60 inch cotton available but I do have some on order. It's a solid color! Can you believe it?

UPDATE: I just got done cutting out the pattern pieces of Vogue 9106 and I have figured out two things. 1. I think the designer might have been high. 2. Although the pattern only gives yardage and cutting layouts for 60 inch wide fabric I'm pretty sure I can make it out of 44 inch fabric. I just need to figure out how much I will need. Probably a lot.

The Last of 2018

Here it is - the last thing I sewed in 2018.

I bought the floral fabric about 6 or 7 years ago, I think, at the quilt shop in the little town where my mother lived. There was only a little over a yard of it left. I wasn't sure what I wanted to make of it and, feeling sentimental about it, I wanted whatever I made to be perfect. I liked what I did with McCall's 9065 last January and it seemed like the perfect solution for the problem of what to do with just a little fabric.

I found the dark green fabric to go with it at another quilt shop, one near me. Here is a close-up of the two fabrics.

And it did turn out perfect. I love it. I made two minor changes: I made it slightly longer and I added side vents. Okay, maybe those aren't really perfect.

I love these fall colors and I'm a little sad that fall is past but I'm not strictly seasonal with the colors I wear so I will wear it again before next fall.

Early Fall Top

Here's the fabric...

And here's the tunic...

It's a McCall's 9065 with the same changes as this one from last year. I love it. This olive green is one of my favorite fall colors. The fabric was just two yards from the deep stash. I was originally going to make a different kind of top but I'm really loving this pattern.

Goal: Sew fabric that I have had for 2+ years at least once a month (or 12 times this year) 9/12

(Yeah, I know... not doing so good on the using new patterns goal.)

Another One For the Granddaughter

Meet my friend Jacqueline - Jacqueline the Ripper.

An evil looking thing isn't she? But I couldn't get much sewing done without her. Most recently she helped me finish this adorable little dress.

It's another McCall's 9227, view B this time. It's not that it was a difficult pattern; I just kept making stupid mistakes - really hair-brained. But we got through it and in the end it turned out great. The only changes I made this time were leaving off the tie belt and adding elastic at the back waistline and adding side seam pockets. Granddaughter is just like her Nana when comes to pockets. They are a must.

I haven't had the chance to give it to her yet but I know she will love it. It's a style of dress she really likes and this is such a fun colorful print. Click on the pic to make it larger and have a better look at all the crazy stuff going on - little deer, birds, giant butterflies and I'm not even sure what some of this stuff is. So much fun.

A Dinosaur Story

My grandson was about 6 or 7, I think, and in the middle of a serious dinosaur obsession. (Also a shark obsession and an alligator and crocodile obsession; pretty much anything that can kill you horribly he loved) He's a teenager now so this was a while back. I was looking around the fabric department at Walmart, because fabric, and I found a dinosaur print flannel. The background was different size rectangles in red, blue and, if I remember correctly, tan or brown and the dinosaurs were green and brown. Now a normal grandmother would have bought some and made her grandson some pajamas but I'm not normal. My first thought was to make a shirt for myself so I could be the cool grandmother who's not too grown up to wear dinosaurs.

The lady working in the fabric department that day appeared to be about ten or more years older than I was at the time. As she was measuring out the fabric she commented about what a cute fabric it was "for a little boy." I suppose the smart thing to do would have been to just agree with her and leave it at that but I admitted that I was planning to make a shirt for myself. She laughed like that was the craziest thing she had ever heard and said something like, "You must really like dinosaurs." I told her that I like a lot of different kinds of prints and she said, "Well, I guess so," in that tone that suggested there was something definitely off about liking anything other than subdued, tasteful little florals and such.

I made the shirt and wore it for several winters but for the last three or four years I hardly wore it at all and although I still liked it I decided I needed to make some sacrifices to make room in the closet for some new things.

The point of my telling you this story is to observe that for each of us there are things we do not wear not because we ever consciously think, "I do not wear stuff like that," but because it just never occurred to us to choose it even if, in a way, we like it. But once we wear one of those things we do not wear it becomes something we do wear and the next time we come across a cool dinosaur fabric, or whatever, it's a perfectly natural thing to buy it and wear it.

So I found this really cool dinosaur fabric at eQuilter and, naturally, I bought it. It's one of the lighter weight quilting cottons, nice, light and breezy, perfect for summer.

I used McCall's 9065 again. This time, as you can see, I left off the sleeves. I only had to raise the openings about half an inch for modesty. I also made it with an unbanded collar. I had to make a back facing and change the front facing a little bit. The original only goes to the front yoke. For this version I had to make it go all the way to the shoulder seam.

I also made side vents.

You can't really see it in the photos but I used gold color thread, exactly the color of the gold dinosaurs, for the topstitching around the collar, neckline, arm holes, and hem.

I love it. I think this might be my favorite made from this pattern so far. Maybe. It's hard to say. I love them all.

Another Little Dress and Another Stash-Bust

Another McCall's 9227 for my granddaughter.

Those are not the cap sleeves from the pattern. I just wanted little ruffles so I made little ruffles. Also added the border, like on the last one. On this one I left off the sash and used elastic on the back waistline instead. (I do that on my own dresses that are supposed to have a sash because I really don't like sashes.) I feel like this photo doesn't do it justice. It's super cute and I can hardly wait to see her wear it.

I have had the pink fabric for about three and half years so it counts toward my stash-busting goal of sewing from my older-than-2-years stash at least once a month or an average of 12 a year. The blue pin dot fabric is much newer. Both came from the local quilt shop.

By the way, this and the other little dress are a size 5 in case you were wondering. It's a bit long because she's tall for her age and also she likes her dresses sort of long - well below the knee but not necessarily maxi.

Goal: Sew fabric that I have had for 2+ years at least once a month (or 12 times this year) 4/12

Birdhouses, Birds, and Flowers

This little dress is so freaking adorable I can hardly stand it.

It's for my granddaughter. She told me a while back that she wanted a dress with birds and flowers on it and this is what I came up with. I used McCall's 9227 view A but left off the ruffle and drafted my own curved yoke and butterfly sleeves and added a border to match the yoke.

Sorry I didn't think to photograph the process. Here's a quick tutorial for butterfly or flutter sleeves. To make a pattern piece for the yoke I cut a complete bodice front out of Swedish tracing paper (but you could use any paper) then I traced the edge of various large bowls and plates until I got a curve I liked.

The Crazy Fabric Saga Part I

You know, sometimes fabric has a mind of its own. It knows what it wants to be and sometimes what it wants is different from what we had planned for it.

I guess I should call this Part II because I first posted about this fabric back in October but let's just call that the prologue. Anyway, I only bought three yards of it or else this wouldn't be a "saga".

My original plan was to make a tunic, McCall's 9065, my current pattern obsession, but the fabric started speaking to me and telling me that it really wanted to be a circle skirt. A lovely idea but... my tunic... my vision!

The solution to the problem was in the comments to that original post - make the back and sleeves a solid color. Thank you, Jo. I'll be honest, at first I wasn't wild about this idea. I wanted the whole tunic in this fun fabric. But it was the perfect solution to my problem. I love the way it turned out and I have enough of the fabric left to make a half circle skirt with a solid color bodice. That will be Part II, coming this spring or early summer.

The solid color is Kona Cotton Pomegranate. I ordered several swatches and this was the one I liked best, which was a bit of a surprise. I had in mind something closer to a true red but this pomegranate color is wonderful. I love it! It doesn't show true in any of the photos, sadly.

Here's a pic of the side.

I'm glad it was warm enough to take pictures outside yesterday, a little bit cooler than I like but tolerable for a quick photo shoot. This morning a cold front moved in. It was 55F when I went to the grocery store at about 8:30 along with the hordes of people who rushed to the store because there's a 20% chance of half an inch of snow and we might be snowed in for a whole....... day. By the time I got home it was 33F.

This fabric is a bit lighter weight and less stiff than the other two Dutch wax prints I purchased last year, just about perfect to go with the Kona cotton. Here's one more happy pic. Sorry, I know you're probably tired of looking at my face by now. :-)

A Lack of Impulse Control

I was going to sew the orange, teal, and brown fabric next but the morning I was going to cut it... HOLY SHIRT it was cold! So flannel was on my mind. I knew - I knew - that in just a few days it would be near 80 degrees Fahrenheit again but the flannel kept calling to me and so...

This is really a very nice flannel. I'm guessing it's about 7 - 8 ounce? Very warm and soft. I love it. I think this might be my Christmas outfit. Unless it's 70+ degrees on Christmas which totally can happen in Oklahoma as can -20. We hope for something in between those two numbers.

The pattern is McCall's 9065 again, view B all the way this time. I had to shorten the sleeves about two inches. That and raising the neckline an inch like I did before are the only adjustments.

And So an Obsession is Born

I have a habit - I don't know if it's a bad habit or not - of using the same pattern over and over again when I find one I like. Here is my second McCall's 9065 and I have in mind at least three more that I want to make very soon.

But first I want to talk about the fabric. The little local quilt shop used to sell one and two yard pre-cuts. I say "used to" because I have not seen any there since they changed ownership, which is actually probably not a bad thing. I would go in and grab several two yard cuts, whichever ones caught my eye, with no real idea of what I would do with them. This was one of those pieces. You might not want to stare at it for too long if you're prone to seizures.

.

Isn't that the craziest? Honestly, I have a little trouble making my eyes focus on it. I have had it for a couple of years and the other day, for no particular reason, I thought of it and decided to try to get another M9065 out of it.

I shortened it about two inches and as you can see made elbow length sleeves. I also raised the neckline a little bit so I won't be flashing everyone. (I have an idea for fixing the first one. It's really just too low.) I like it and I'm thrilled that I used a piece of fabric that I wasn't sure when I would get around to, if ever.

As I said, I have already planned three more tunics from this pattern, all long sleeved. One will be a cozy red and white plaid flannel and the other two beautiful, beautiful Dutch wax prints (likely another new obsession but I'm going to try not to indulge any more for a while) that I ordered specifically for this purpose and received today. I am really excited about these.

Summer... No, Wait! Fall!

Hey everyone, I bought a new pattern and actually used it only a few weeks after I bought it! And if you're saying "So what?" maybe I should tell you that I have patterns I bought over 20 years ago and have never used. (But I will use them! Someday.)

Anyway, this:

(I always forget how incredibly yellow the overhead light in this room is.) I used the hem of View B and the sleeves of view A. They are supposed to have tabs but I'm not fond of sleeve tabs so I left them off and stitched down the turned up cuffs so they will forever stay in place with no fuss.

I swear my topstitching was straight before the camera got a hold of it. The camera hates me. It not only makes me look fat and old, it makes my sewing look wonky. (Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

I originally bought this lightweight cotton fabric with the intention of making a summer top but the days have been a little cooler and I was inspired to make this instead. And I love it! It was super easy to make and it fits perfectly without any alterations. The neckline is maybe a bit too low for cool weather, not to mention modesty if you're concerned about that sort of thing, but it's okay. I'm definitely making more of these.

Here's one more pic:

Oops and Nice Recovery

I don't have a before picture. I photograph almost everything I make so I thought surely I had to have a picture of the dress somewhere but I didn't find one. Here's what happened. It was a simple A-line dress. I loved it, mainly for the fabric. I have a bit of a thing for ladybugs, you see. But it had a couple of problems so I didn't wear it very often. One problem was that the arm holes were a bit too small. Easy to fix, right? Well, perhaps I am a bit overconfident at times. When I got done "fixing" the arm holes they were way too big.

So for a while I pouted and tried to think of a way to fix them again. But the armholes weren't the only problem. The pockets were too small to be useful (I made it before I got a smartphone.) and I don't wear A-line dresses much anymore. So I decided to give it up and make something out of it for my granddaughter.

It's McCall's 9227. I lengthened the skirt because she's tall for her age but I might have lengthened it more than I needed to. I think it will be okay though. She often wears longish dresses and not just the ones I make. I will get to see her and give it to her this weekend.

Now I have just one problem: I no longer have a ladybug dress. I can't not have a ladybug dress. Must go fabric shopping.

* This was actually a while ago that I made this and I already have something else to show off but who knows when I will get around to it.

* * * * *

UPDATE:

It turned out to be a maxi. She loves it. Here she is watching the eclipse, wearing the dress and her dad's welding mask.

A Quick Little Dress

Something I made yesterday for my granddaughter.

I added the patch at the last minute when I realized that it's very difficult to tell the front from the back.

This is the pattern.

Dark Purple Drapey Thing

I don't generally go for this kind of drapey neckline but there's a gorgeous piece of fabric that I've had for a while (not this fabric but another one) and it seems like it needs to be something like this so I bought this pattern for it but I've still been hesitating to start it. Then I saw this extremely cheap dark purple polyester and thought it would be good for trying the pattern for the first time.

And here's the result.

I don't know... I sort of like it and sort of don't like it. I definitely don't like the way the hem came out. I'm going to blame the fabric for that. This was is a very easy pattern but this fabric was a bit hard to work with. By the way it's quite a bit darker than it looks in this second photo. That's it under the pattern in the first photo. It's closer to the actual color, at least on my screen.

Aside from the bad hem, I still have mixed feelings about it and I'm not sure if it's because it's that bad or if I'm just not used to wearing this style of top. It's indecently comfortable though. It's so lightweight I feel like I'm not even wearing anything.

I'm going to sew at least one more test top before I cut into the precious fabric but I still think this is the right pattern for it. I'm just not sure if I'm the right sewist for it.

Really Quick Leggings Post

I actually had a lot more to say about these but I'm in a bit of a rush. I found this wonderful, buttery soft stretch "ultra-suede" and immediately knew I had to have some leggings out of it.

That's how they will appear in public but you want to see more don't you? No, you just think you do. You really don't.

Okay, fine. Here's my "sexy leggings pic". I hope this doesn't spoil anyone's appetite on the day before Thanksgiving.

Pattern: McCall's 6173, with a lot of fitting tweaks.