Tag Archives: sewing

Chevron Circle Skirts

So a couple weeks ago the Project Run & Play challenge of the week was to use a chevron pattern somehow in your design. I got my pictures all ready and went to write my post and…my blog was down. Boo! Christian did get it up running later that night, but the opportunity to write had passed. And now I finally have a minute to post what should have been posted a couple weeks ago…

I had a plan to make cute outfits for the girls to wear for Easter egg hunting, but my original plan was to do something really simple. Like purchased tshirt and simple elastic waist skirt simple. But when I saw the list of challenges for this PR&P season I thought egg hunting would be a good opportunity to incorporate the chevrons.

Riley Blake has a line of chevron patterned fabric and I just loved the colors of one of the patterns. It was perfect and spring-timey.

However, once I chose the fabric I was at a loss as to what to do with it. I didn’t want big, busy, chevron-y skirts, but I had a hard time thinking up something else. My friend Anna suggested doing something with a box pleat with the chevron inset. I love circle skirts for the girls and I thought having the little pleat would be a fun addition.

My other dilemma was deciding what to applique on their shirts…I didn’t want a bunny or an egg or anything that would limit the outfits’ use to only Easter time, but I couldn’t think of anything great until I stumbled upon the idea of a hot air balloon. Christian solidified this by sending me this awesome picture…

So, here are their sweet outfits.

A few details…

The skirts are actually only a 3/4 circle…they have a nice twirl and bounce to them, but they lie a little straighter while being worn.
The box pleat inset is 1/4 of the circle so that is why they twirl so nicely…the inset makes the skirt have a full circle hem.
I love using bias tape hem facing on circle skirts (SO much easier to hem this way) and the chevrons cut on the bias have awesome visual interest.
I used a wide elastic waistband and just stitched the top of the skirt to the bottom of the waistband.
The skirts were actually pretty simple to make…once I conquered the math! You should have seen me…geometry was not my favorite in school and that has not changed. Luckily I found this circle skirt calculator from The Snugbug that is SO helpful.

I just love how they turned out. I wish I had some better pictures of them wearing them. We got several cute pictures of them egg hunting, playing, etc., but not many great ones of the actual outfits. So, here is a sampling of “action” shots of them running and twirling and enjoying the (finally) beautiful spring weather.

And now I am off to relax after a busy weekend. We had Dinah’s superhero birthday party on Saturday. It was “incredible” and I can’t wait to share about the event later this week!

Iris Dress

Project Run & Play is back! This time around is only four weeks and I have vowed to work ahead a little bit…just so things don’t get out of control and I miss out on entering my submissions.

Week one is: Inspired by Art—Choose an artist, art movement, or artwork and create a children’s look inspired by your choice.

When I read the themes I knew I immediately wanted to do something based on the Impressionists…they are generally my favorites. I was feeling particularly drawn to Van Gogh’s work. (Probably because I just recently watched the “Vincent and the Doctor” episode of Doctor Who…there is just something moving about the way Vincent describes how he sees the world at the end of the episode. I know, I know…nerd alert.) Irises are one of my favorite flowers and I have always loved his interpretation of their beauty.

Source: vangoghgallery.com viaHarmony on Pinterest

So, with that awesome image in mind I set out looking for fabric and a dress shape that would evoke the fluidity of his strokes and the shapes of the irises. A normal “smooth” fabric just wouldn’t work for the feel I wanted and I eventually thought of using gauze. It is a semi-sheer, wrinkly fabric with a ton of body and movement and I knew it would be perfect. And then in the process of searching for something else altogether I ran across this pattern.

Source: butterick.mccall.com viaHarmony on Pinterest

I love the circle skirt on it and the way the tiers can look like petals. Perfect!

I altered the pattern in a couple ways…first, I decided not to mess with doing a zipper. I thought it would be too fiddly with this slippery fabric. And then because the fabric is so light I felt it would be too heavy. I just added a loop of elastic cord and a single yellow button at the top to be the closure. This created a cute little peek-a-boo at the back.

It also made the skirt be two true circles which was perfect for spinning!

So, one thing I forgot to count on after I had painstakingly ironed and hemmed both skirt tiers is that this gauze fabric would fall out differently on the bias. And now my circle skirt is rather asymmetrical. I mean, it works for the feel of petals of an iris, but just something to keep in mind for the future.

Dinah did love her new dress…which is great, because she is quickly growing out of everything and I lost my main provider of hand-me-downs last year. So, she will be getting the majority of the new clothes this time around since Esther has a TON of dresses that I just pulled out of storage.

And I had to share this picture. Whenever we say, “Smile, Dinah!” she does this.

No one knows why. Weirdo.

And one final story about this dress…it is probably my most beautiful dress on the inside. I used french seams on the skirt and I actually took the time to hand stitch the bodice lining down. It was a lot of work, but I was really happy with how it turned out. And then Esther broke into the sewing room and got a hold of a Sharpie and thought that Dinah’s dress needed some decoration. Ack! There was a huge black mark along the back shoulder of her dress. Christian broke out the Carbona and scrubbed and scrubbed and now you can barely tell it was there! Whew!

Ruffled Remix

Hey everyone…I can’t believe it is already week 5 for Project Run & Play. This week’s challenge was to take a men’s shirt and remix it into something new. I found this shirt on Pinterest a long time ago…

Source: janieandjack.com via Harmony on Pinterest

…and knew that I would like to attempt something like this for a men’s shirt refashion in the future.

So, I was excited about this challenge because I already had a great idea AND I had several of Christian’s shirts in my refashion bin waiting for me to get around to them.

My first step was to think out the whole process of remaking this shirt from scratch and write it down. After I had that clear in my mind I was able to get started. AND now that everything is pretty much all written out I think I will put together a tutorial for you all. Look for that after this cycle of Project Run & Play is complete.

Okay, so this was the shirt I started with.

Just a normal pinstriped men’s dress shirt. It is a muted light green in color with navy blue pinstripes. My original plan was to use only fabric from the shirt…just like my inspiration shirt. But when I started cutting I realized that 1.) The colors were just too boring to not use a contrast and 2.) There wasn’t enough length in the sleeve to make a sash long enough for Dinah. So, contrast fabric it was.

And I am so in love with how this turned out!

It ended up being the perfect little shirt dress. It will be cute for church or school and she seems really comfortable in it.

Some details:

For my pattern I adapted the A-line dress pattern that I used for the Polka-Stripe Dresses to be sleeveless. The armholes ended up a smidge too big, but they are still okay. Just a mental note for later dresses made from this pattern.

I used a navy blue cotton to make bias tape for the neckline and the armholes. I made half inch double fold tape for the neck and quarter inch double fold tape for the arm holes. There is also a little sash made from the same fabric.

My new favorite thing is hem facing. I just love the little pop of color it adds to the hem of a dress. (You can just see it peeking out a bit in this picture.) And it helps with things like fabric yardage. For example…making this dress from Christian’s shirt I realized that if I included a normal hem allowance that the dress might end up being a little short. Enter hem facing! This way I only had to include a quarter inch hem allowance and I was able make the dress an appropriate length.

I replaced the boring clear-ish buttons on the shirt with some navy blue buttons from my stash. They are actually some vintage buttons that my grandma sent to me awhile back when she was clearing out her stash. I’ve received a couple boxes of things like buttons and lace and bias tape and other trims. It is fun to dig through them and find the perfect thing for a project I am working on at the time.

And I love the ruffles along the front! Just what was needed to make such a neutral-manly print seem a bit more girly.

And, really, one of my favorite things about this dress is that it is so one of a kind. I mean, making things myself usually has that result, however, making something from a widely available pattern from widely available fabric means that item *could* be duplicated, if wanted. But unless you could hunt down another one of this random shirt from early 2000′s Express there is no way to make another exactly like this one. I should refashion more…one of my other favorite outfits was this one made from vintage pillowcases.

I guess that really is the fun of making and designing clothes for our kids…making pieces that are unique and really fit you and your child’s personal style. And that is what next week is all about! Signature Style Week is coming up!

Buster Brown Bug

This week is Boys’ Week over at Project Run & Play. The last time I participated in the sew-along there wasn’t a boy-specific week. Since I didn’t have a boy to sew for, I counted myself lucky. This time when the challenges were announced, I was actually excited about this week. Since my little nephew (the “Bug”) was born I wanted to make him a real outfit and this was the perfect opportunity!

Now, I’ve sewn clothing pieces for boys here and there, but never a whole outfit. For this challenge I knew I wanted to do something more than just a little shirt and maybe some pants. I wanted the whole shebang! Hat, shoes, appliqued onesie…the works. I did some reconnaissance work on Pinterest for some cute boy patterns and/or tutorials. I stumbled across this shop and her adorable patterns for little boys. That hat! I knew this was the way to go.

So…I made a little baby suit! Here are the details:

The vest is made of fine-wale chocolate brown corduroy and I used pale blue to accent it. I even had these shiny pale blue buttons in my stash. How fortuitous!

Buster Brown-Vest Front

The back is the blue accent with a cute chocolate stripe. I used this to also accent the hat and make his tie. (See below.)

Under the vest I just put a simple white onesie that I appliqued with a tie made from my accent fabric. I didn’t realize how high the vest front came up, so you can’t really see his tie…maybe he will get a bow tie for Easter.

For the pants I used this pattern for baby skinny pants. I kept the width the same, but shortened both the top and the bottom…he is a short Bug. It was the perfect look I wanted. Many times pants patterns for babies are too wide at the ankle to accommodate for their diapered tushies and chunky thighs. These have a nice tapered leg that looks great on. But they aren’t too tight either. Perfect.

And my crowning achievement…the hat!

I love it so much…so cute! It was actually pretty easy to put together. Just a bit fiddly since there are a lot of pieces and steps. But nothing was really hard to do. The idea behind this hat is that it should be reversible. But the way the elastic is sewn in the back make it look kind of rough on the inside, even though the outside looks really nice.

Buster Brown-Hat Back

Here is a picture of the inside of the hat so you can see the accent colors. (I angled it so you can’t see the ugly part.)

So, by now you are all saying, “Where are the pictures of the cute baby????”

Don’t worry, they are coming. He is precious. So precious, in fact, that I got distracted from taking pictures of the clothes the precious baby was wearing! So, I’ve got many pictures of the Bug looking cute in his suit, but it is hard to see the shape, etc. of the clothes in the pics. Hence the boring shots above.

Okay, without further ado…here is our Buster Brown Bug…

He was not in a very smiley mood this afternoon. He was perfectly amiable, just not smiling.

Mostly he looked at his mother like she was nutso.

Or at me like the camera was going to steal his soul.

Buster Brown-1

Luckily he is still cute, smile or no smile.

Eventually his mama was able to wrangle a little smile out of him.

Buster Brown-4

And then shortly thereafter he decided his hands were super tasty.

Tasty!

Nothing we could do would convince him to put his hands down…so, that was kind of the end of our photo shoot.

Are we done yet, Aunt Harmony?

His little suit was so cute on him and actually seemed to be comfortable. At least he didn’t scream at us the whole time he had it on. He even tolerated/liked his hat!

This is his casual, just-got-off-his-paper-route look. He’s chillin’.

I also had forgotten how quick (and small) baby clothes are! From un-ironed fabric to finished garment I probably spent only 5 hours cutting/sewing/working on his outfit. Not too shabby!

This was a fun project to work on and I foresee some more sewing for the Bug in the future. And who knows, maybe this baby I’m cooking is a boy and I’ll need to expand my repertoire even more!

Headed to Disney for the weekend! See you next week with a couple Disney related projects and an early Valentine’s Day Project Run & Play challenge.

We Are a House Divided

That kind of sums up Fall for our family. Most people who live up north are pulling out coats and warm socks while decorating with lovely autumnal colors. In Florida there is no Fall…it is October 1 and it was almost 90 degrees here today and there is no real relief in sight. I always joke that the leaves on our trees don’t fall off until the new ones push the old ones off in the Spring. And…in a college town Fall really means college football!

So, when it came time for me to take down my Summer wreath and put up a “Fall” one…my thoughts immediately when to doing a “House Divided” themed wreath. You see, while I live near the University of Florida and am married to a Gator, I am a (proud) alumna of the University of Georgia. And for those of you not from the South, ours is not a very friendly rivalry. The last Saturday in October things get a little intense.

But, we make it work…our love conquers all.

I’ve been eyeing those ribbon wreaths on Pinterest and was waiting for a good idea for using one and this ended up being perfect.

I got 1.5 inch grosgrain ribbon in red, black,orange and blue. I cut them all into roughly 10 inch lengths and finished the ends with little tails. And then I started tying…and tying…and tying. Then I went back to the store and got more ribbon and tied some more. Seriously…there is just about 100 feet of ribbon on this thing.

For the hanger, I painted our school initials and glued them to a white 1.5 grosgrain ribbon.

And now we can show off where our (divided) loyalties lie.

And, of course, I had to make my girls their “gameday dresses” this year. This year I used the Oliver+S popover dress pattern.

For the Georgia dresses I put simple white piping at the yoke to give it some visual interest.

On the Florida dresses I used ricrac…doesn’t it look like little teeth?

I also used my embroidery machine to add the team logos to the band at the hem. (I think I used the wrong kind of stabilizer, so just ignore the puckering there.)

The best thing about the Oliver+S pattern is that it is kind of adjustable because of the shoulder ties. As long as the girls don’t grow sideways too much they should be able to wear these dresses again next year. Bonus!

Also, I wanted to share my new trick with you all…I had a couple rubber stamps made with my logo. So, now I can use fabric ink to stamp my logo onto little tags or the backs of garments. I can even now include the size of the garment. So fun!