Kids Clothes Week: Day 3!

Today’s sewing brought to you by this tool

That’s right, a seam ripper. Adding the piping didn’t go very smoothly. It’s been more than 10 years since I last tackled sewing in piping so I did what lots of people do…I headed to the internet for some tips. I don’t have a piping foot for my machine, so I tried using my zipper foot and then proceeded to swear and yell while ripping it out 3 times. Finally I put my regular foot back on the machine and got the piping to go in nice and smooth. Well, except for sewing the skirt into the waist multiple times in both dresses. It’s that kind of night.

In the end I got both finished except buttons and buttonholes. I couldn’t find any buttons to match in my stash, so I’ll hit up a store this weekend or maybe even one of these evenings if I have a chance.

I think I like them as is with the selvedge edge as the hem. What do you think? I’d love to hear some opinions since I have a few more days to finish these before the deadline!

I tossed these cute fabrics in the wash tonight. Tomorrow I think I’ll start on a skirt for DD1 in either the umbrellas or the lemons.

22Apr2015

Kids Clothes Week: Day 2!

by alwaysacraftylady

Dinner time, bath time, nurse the baby, and do the dishes. A mother’s work never seems to be done, but tonight I carved out my sewing hour again. I made good progress on my girls’ outfits! Bodices are ready to be attached to the skirts. I made could have kept going tonight, but I want to add navy piping between the bodices and skirts. I need to be more rested to tackle piping!

I think they are off to a good start. And it is nice to make clothes with just plain quilting cotton. I’ve been using other types of cotton fabrics lately and quilting cotton is just so much easier to work with.

I’m exceedingly pleased with the the way the backs of the skirts meet.

However the back of the viewfinder bodice was not as orderly. Of well. Tomorrow I tackle piping, hemming, and buttonholes.

21Apr2015

Kids Clothes Week: Day 1!

by alwaysacraftylady

And so it begins. Today is day 1 of Kids Clothes Week and I am joining the challenge to take an hour a day to sew for my kids.

Step 1: Get your dog to get off of the fabric.

I have some good fabrics to pick from, but I only had a couple choices washed and ready to go, so I picked a couple prints from the Cotton + Steel Playful collection. Did you know the jacks fabric has a border? I did not, but now that I do it will be at the hem of DD1’s dress.

Tonight I was able to get DD1’s dress and DD2’s tunic cut out. Tomorrow I’ll start doing the sewing!

15Apr2015

Clothing Sisters

by alwaysacraftylady

So confession time. My favorite part of having two girls…matching outfits. It is soooooo about the matching outfits when your girls are young and the parent is still mostly selecting their clothes. I live for holidays. My husband is not a huge fan of putting our girls in perfectly matching outfits, so we reached a compromise. Coordinating outfits.

For Christmas they had coordinating sparkling dresses I knitted. (This is seriously the best picture I have.)

So as Easter approached I started searching for the best pattern and the best fabric to use. Ultimately I landed on the pattern Geranium Dress by Rae Hoekstra. If you’ve read pretty much any blog that features little girl’s clothing you have seen this pattern before. I’d say for good reason, because is it dead simple to make, classic, and easy to modify.

For the fabric I settled on two prints from Nest by Free Spirit Fabric. The fabric is so lovely. Soft, easy to work with, and washed really really well.

I did the ruffle trim on the sleeves for both, but DD1 has a dress and DD2 has a tunic. She’ll be trying to crawl soon and I know dresses are much less practical for that stage of baby-hood. Both outfits are fully lined. DD2’s tunic was pair with Rae’s pattern Big Butt Baby Pants that I shortened to bloomers. They’re trimmed with some sweet lace I purchased at a rummage sales more than a decade ago.

Sadly I have no photos of both dresses together. DD1 was recovering from a stomach bug and DD2 only has short windows of time when she is willing to be photographed. Oh well. There’s always the next holiday.

Anyways, I really loved making these outfits. I love it a whole lot and seeing these photos is making me even more excited for the start of Kids Clothes Week! I wonder how many things I can crank out in 7 days? I’m hoping at least one school dress for DD1 and one more tunic/bloomer set for DD2.