Skirts for Asha

Asha was in need of some skirts that came down to her knees.  Now that she is old enough to start middle school next month, she is not so excited to model the clothes anymore.  Can you tell?     

skirt one
fabric: Walmart calico, 100% cotton
pattern: Holiday Girl Clothes, view19
size:140

skirt two
Alison gave me the four tiered skirt piece a while back.  I hemmed the side seam and put cotton/lycra knit on for the waist band.

skirt three

fabric: heavier poly/cotton blend that used to be Scott's mom's jumper

pattern: Holiday Girl Clothes, view 18

size 140

camisole

fabric: my sister's old skirt
pattern: Sweet Girl Clothes, view f
size: 140

There is nothing more satisfying than giving another life to a beautiful piece of clothing. This was my sister's skirt from her early teen years.

Asha got a hair cut and got a contact lens. Yes, she only needs one.

bibs

A lot of babies are born among our loved ones. Some girls I had in Young Women are starting to have babies, and that is very special to me. Seeing them make wise choices and lead beautiful lives give me a lot of joy as I work with 12 and 13 year old girls in Young Women again.

This post is for my mom. She assures me she wants to see my bibs even when they are the same bibs I always make. I can never thank my mom enough for teaching me how to sew. She shared the joy of working with my hands through her beautiful creations. She continues to be my inspiration.





And there is more to come...

Halloween 2011

This year our friends(the same ones that had the 80's party last year) invited us to a murder mysery party. The sciene was set in Chicago in the 20's. Scott was a shady business man and I was a sociolite . Here we are on the way to solveing a mystery.

Jerome was the Grim Reaper. I made a skirt with a draw string, a top on a bias, and attatched a hood. Karine gave me some black remnants from her project, so there was no cost. Because I draped everything straight on the body, the fit was great. Jerome made the sythe with card board, aluminum foil, and duck tape.

Asha was a journalist. A french kind. I made the jacket as you saw in the previous post. She made the "press" tag. Bryan generously gave her several vintage cameras to complete the look.

Kai's costume came from Amazon. He was very paticular about exactly what kind of Ninjya he should be, so I didn't bother teaching him about real Ninjyas, nor worrying about making him look authentic.

We successfully steered Quinn away from the pink flamingo costume, his original plan. This picture was taken at the church carnival.

Cropped jacket for Asha

Last year I made a goal to challenge myself physically and see if I could get back in shape before I turn forty. I am not going to bore you with the details here, but let's just say it has been a journey. As it turns out, I am not good at managing two projects, and sewing had been put on hold... until this past week.

In August we took a trip to Banff and surrounding national parks as a family. On one of the harder hikes, I was trying to make conversations with Asha in a desparate attempt to distract myself from the huff and puff. The topic of Haloween costumes came up. Before I knew it, I had committed to sewing Asha a jacket. Who knew being in nature with people you love could make you do such things.

Fast forward to last week...

I turned to my new sewing book I got from Japan titled "Sweet Girls Clothes" and choose style V in size 140. Here are the measurements the book gives for size 140. Height 140cm, chest 68cm, waist 57cm, hip 73cm. I think it is a smaller size 10. This is what the cover of the book looks like.

I used denim from my stash.

To minimize bulk, and to keep the project interesting, I tried my hand at a Hong Kong seam. Changing the thread back and forth got tedious, but I love the end result.

She wore the jacket to church. A picture of the jacket complete with the rest of her Halloween costume is coming in the next post.

shorts

Last night I wanted to watch some talks I had recorded from the BYU Women's Conference. I knew I would fall asleep if I sat down, so I decided to sew. I don't know the logic behind it, but I get more out of those talks when my hands are busy.

I was happy to find a pair of Asha's shorts all cut out and ready to go from last year's project pile. The fabric came from an extra large pair of white shorts I bought at a yard sale for 50 cents. It has a heavier weight with good amount of stretch.

I drafted the pattern with Alison's help a few years back. Size 130. You can see another pair I had made with this pattern here.

The fabric I used for the elastic casing is voile from Ana Maria Horner's Little Folks collection. This light weight fabric is not sheer, drapes beautifully, and has a subtle sheen to it. It feels similar to the lawn of Liberty of London, but for the third of the price. Check out Anna Maria's entire fabric collection here. It is a true work of art.

T-shirt resizing - tie dye

before: size 6-8 and boxy

after: size 5 slim

before: size 12 and boxy

after: size 8 and girly

I traced the shape of Kai's Old Navy size 5 shirt for his, and used Milimili's cap sleeve pattern for Asha's.

T-shirt resizing - boxy to girly

At the end of the school year, Jerome brought home a men's size small t-shirt from the D.A.R.E. graduation, that he had no interest in wearing. Asha said she wanted it, so it got dropped in the resize pile. Fast forward to this week, and I realized that Jerome and Asha could use some t-shirts. I dug in the resize pile and came up with a few things.

This one came out the best because the sleeves were wide enough for some puffy details. I used a Milimili pattern in size 140. More shirts using this pattern here and here.

Quick refashion - 90 minute shirt

Quinn has been experiencing a growth spurt, averaging an inch a month for the past three. He started this fall/winter season with 18-24 month clothes, then 24/2T for a few months, and now threatens to move on to 3T before spring comes.

I went looking for warm 3T clothes in Kai's bin yesterday, but without much success. I remembered Kai spent his 3T time in San Diego and didn't need much of that. He just wore a hoodie when it got a little chilly. And that is how I ended up at the sewing machine making t-shirts during Quinn's nap.

I used a "90 minute shirt" tutorial that Dana of MADE put together. The idea of finishing two shirts during one nap appealed to me. No binding, snaps, or buttons sounded great.

Dana shows you in great detail how to make your own pattern with an old onesie you cut up and use as a templet. Since I didn't have one on hand I could part with, I printed out the picture of hers and photocopied it at 400%. Of course the whole pattern piece didn't fit on the letter size paper. I focused on the arm and neck details, and then traced it to my pattern paper. I added sleeve and body length to Quinn's measurements.

The actual sewing went very quickly. Ironing the ribbing in place before sewing helps. I used a large white t-shirt I picked up at a yard sale just for a project like this.

It looked very cute on, but I made a few adjustments to the pattern to make it perfect. I made the arm hole bigger, shoulders wider, and the back top seam lower for our chunky boy. Below is the improved version. The gray and green cotton-lycra knits are from fabric fairy.

This is a great tutorial if you have the patience to work on the pattern until you get the fit just right. It may take a few tries, but it is worth the effort.

Easy Summer Dress

Just a quick post to let you know what I have been up to. I am finally back in the groove.

This easy dress is the first of several projects I have planned for spring and summer.

Pattern: Style 114 of May 2009 Burda Magazine

Fabric: herringbone cotton from Japan (I love the bumpy texture and gauze-like softness of it.)

I first made a muslin with a $1/yd fabric I had on hand. It fit without any adjustments, so I ended up sewing it up to another dress.

Here is another gathered camisole for Asha. (the first one posted here.) I cut up my tunic. It was one of those "I will wear this when I loose weight" purchases. Now, two kids later, I would be happy if I could go back to the size I was then, and the tunic had to find a better purpose. I kept the side seams and bottom hem intact, so it ended up being a quick and fun project.

Winter coat for Kai - Oliver and S, school days jacket and coat

He is so happy that he has been wearing it since nine this morning.

Pattern: Oliver and S, school days jacket and coat (link to the pattern here)

Their blog had great fabric suggestions for their patterns. I have bought two more patterns from them, and can't wait to get to work. Here is a Flickr group where you can see what other people have made using Oliver and S patterns.

Size: 4

Kai took after his father, and is very lean. Although he will be five in May, the measurements suggested I make a four. I am glad I did.

Fabric:

outer- thick dark denim with some stretch (Wal-mart, $3/yard) I should have bought the rest of the bolt. It was sold out when I went back. That was after I washed what I bought and decided I really liked it.

lining- thick fleece (the kind you see on sporty pull-overs) This one came from a fleece warehouse in seattle that has since closed. Since I wasn't sewing much back when Scott's sister took me there, I just picked up a kitchen garbage bag sized remnant bag for $10. I am proud to say that the piece I used for this coat was the last piece of that bag, and now it is all gone. It only took me 11 years and 9 moves.

lining for the hood- fine wale corduroy from the RS closet clean-out.

Christmas Dress

This dress had been on my sewing planner since summer, but I didn't get to it until the day before the first Sunday of December. Talk about procrastination, and thank goodness it was a quick project.

What makes this dress unique is cutting the fabric on the bias. I love the slimming silhouette and how it moves.

The book tells you to roughly cut the main pieces out, hang them on a hanger over-night to let it stretch on the bias, and then cut it out exactly. I should have taken that seriously. I did 4 hours. The wool stretched another third of an inch while Asha was wearing it, and covered the ruffles more than my liking. I am going to take the blind stitches out and hem it shorter for the full effect.

Pattern: Style D-1 of "Concert and recital dresses for sisters" (link here)

Size: 130

Fabric: The grey wool came from the thrift store. You can't beat $2.37 for 3 yards. The black satin used for the lining and the ruffles came from Joann's.

Turtle neck and Camisole

I am finally back on my own computer. While my hard drive was being replaced and the OS upgraded, I had more time to create instead of admiring creations of others.

This is the closest to the true color.

Fabric:

turtle neck - premium stretch cotton knit (10% spandex)

camisole - Liberty Tana Lawn

Patterns:

Everyday Girl Clothes from Pattern Label

I graded up to size 130

A Winter jacket for Quinn

Quinn had a Gap corduroy coat last year that I loved.  It could be dressed down for jeans, while also looking great with church clothes.  Now that he has grown out of it, it was time to sew one up for this year.  I started with suiting fabric I had bought when Jerome was little.  I was pleased that I still liked it after 9 years, while fashion trends have changed quite a bit.  I added a lining of sweatshirt fabric for warmth.  I made a label out of the tiger in a Echino scrap fabric Alison had given me.  It pulled all the colors together and gave the jacket that little detail I was after.   

  

The mustard corduroy came from what was left of Asha's bubble skirt, and the sweatshirt fabric for the lining came from Scott's old Cougar sweatshirt.  

Pattern: Toddler Boy and Girl Clothes

Size: 90