Super Fun Girls Coat on the Way

My niece is adorable and is just coming into her own in fashion terms.  I spoke to her about her birthday and Christmas presents this year (she has a December birthday) and we decided I would make her a present this year.  I was tasked to make a "super twirly cool coat".

So, off to find a pattern and go fabric shopping - since we all know I hate fabric shopping (NOT!!!).

I have decided to go with Vogue 9043, View B.  I was originally thinking View C (the long one) but when I found the perfect fabric and there was only two yards left, View B became the selection.  I also think it is more practical for an 8 year old.

In choosing the fabric, I had some parameters.  The birthday girl want pink or pink and blue.  The birthday girl's mommy wanted washable and something that won't show dirt in 5 minutes.  So a print was automatically my way to go.

My problem is that I love wool and I have no problem spending money on quality wool, but washable was one of my key requirements.  After a LOT of thinking, I decided to look into a faux fur and ended up selecting a minky fabric.  My plan is to underline with organza (poly for washability) to add body to the minky fabric and line with cotton flannel for warmth.  So here are the fabrics I selected:

Next step is to cut the muslin and do a fitting.  This is going to be fun!

Gotta Catch Em All - Pokemon!

For Halloween this year, I got out on the easy side.  This is my little Ash from Pokemon.  The shirt/jacket and gloves were all I had to make.  The shirt is made from a blue cotton twill and underlined with a heavier cotton twill to add more body so it would flow away from the body just like in the cartoon.  The pattern was created by altering a simple kids button down shirt.  I added the pockets (both fully functional of course) and made the sleeved from a faux linen fabric.  It is fully lined.

Ash has fingerless single finger gloves, but the fleece that I purchased was just too bulky for that with little hands, so I made them a simple thumb and fingerless mitten sort of glove.

All in all, the costume was a success.  EVERYONE knew who he was and he was thrilled with his costume.  I was originally hoping he would be able to wear it to the summer comic-cons, but the way he is growing, it may be going to his little brother for con wear.

Here are a few more poses, just for fun:

And since I don't want his little brother to be left out, this is Minecraft Steve in Diamon plated armor.  I made the armor from rubber floor tiles and hot glue.  Not my best work, but he loved it, so I win!

That 70's Skirt

This weekend I set out to do something unheard of - sew something simple!  I am also on a serious fabric buying diet right now, so stash diving it was.  I started by getting out my little big box of vintage patterns (I am a pattern addict too) and started on the search for a vintage design.  I found this  70's Marie Osmond wrap skirt and fell in love.

I went stash diving and found this lovely bottom weight Hawaiian print cotton blend. It has some stretch in it so there must by some nylon in it.  It is a sateen for sure though.  I have a ton of this stuff so I will be making a matching crop top soon. 

The pattern was already cut to a medium, which should have been my size, but it turned out too big.  I ended up removing 4" from the sides and bottom for a perfect overlap.  I left out the pocket since I felt it broke up the print too much.  I used simple black cotton bias binding all around.  The skirt is supposed to tie, but I hate ties so I used a hook and eye and snap for a closure.  A little vintage wood button from my stash finished off the waistband.

 

I had a lot of fun making this.  I think it took about three hours with little people interruptions and tea breaks.  I will for sure be making more versions of this pattern.  Up next is a leather mini version.

What do you think?

Emergency Project: Cold Weather Waterproof Mittens (Part 2)

So last weekend I finished up the cold weather mittens just in time for the craziest weather we have seen in years.  The mittens are usable and soft, but not exactly the couture work I prefer to produce.  All in all, the wearers are happy and warm so it all ended well.  But some notes on the journey there.

I printed and cut out all of the patterns from my previous post (Emergency Project: Cold Weather Waterproof Mittens Part 1).  I looked them all over and ended up using the pattern from FleeceFun.com.

I had originally wanted to make these mittens waterproof but the weather came upon me faster than I had planned and a trip to the fabric store was not panning out.  I ended up pulling out the stash fabrics.  I usually sew for adult women so I did not have much fabric that was honestly appropriate for the cause. Thanks to a spree of pajama pant making in the fall, I did have small stash of polar fleece fabric.

I am not too fond of this stuff, but it makes good for items for the little ones and my husband that will need to withstand many trips through the wash and still stay warm.  Honestly for my husbands mitts I wish I would have had some boiled wool.  I could have gotten out the wool fiber and felted the proper fabric by hand, but spending hours laying out wool and then felting it in the middle of a snow storm was just not appealing.

Onto some shop talk.  I started out wanting to make these mittens extra warm, so I cut the outer layer from polar fleece and the lining from cotton flannel. I had a "bright" idea to use some fusible fleece batting on the lining fabric to increase the warmth.  I was also very "smart" and cut and fused both of the child sized gloves before really testing this idea out.

After assembly line rotary cutting the pieces and fusing the fleece I started sewing the mittens up.  There are good instructions on the site, but the seam allowance of 1/2 inch for both the lining and outer fabric did not work out so well.  I did the first glove using and trimmed it as best I could, but the thumb became way too small with the lining.  Additionally, my youngest boy did not like the stiffness of the fused flannel in the glove.  So for speed and sanity, on the kids gloves I skipped the lining.

To get the elastic in, I used some ribbon to create a casing inside the glove and 1/4 inch elastic to hold the glove on.  I just did quick rolled hem on the edge and voila, a mitten.  My older son soon decided he needed his gloves EXACTLY the same as his brother.  (My boys are 17 months apart, so they are more like twins.  They are also 5 and 7).  So in the same manner, mitten set number two was produced.

Now, on to my husband's mittens.  After my mistakes with the mittens for my kids, I decided to try a few changes.  I fused fleece to the large back hand piece but not to thumb lining pieces.  I was hoping this would add some wind resistance.  I also used 1/2" seam allowance on the lining pieces and a 1/4" seam allowance to the outer pieces to account for the bulk created by the two seams touching and the extra thickness in the fabrics.  I also decided to bind the edges rather than turn them.  I was lazy and sometimes I just don't want to turn pieces through a small hole when they are odd shaped.

It turns out I was correct and my hubby tested the mittens out a lot over the past few days.  The temps have been below zero here and he said his mittens kept his hands quite warm.  The kids love their gloves too.  They may not have turned out waterproof or quite the seamstress mastery I like to create, but my customers are happy and hands are warm so I can feel happy with a job well done.

Peter Pan Collar for the Gothic Lolita

My little sister has always been a huge fan of Japanese culture and for her Christmas present I offered to make her something special.  She responded with a request that was rather suprising - a lolita outfit.  Now we are not talking a cosplay lolita outfit, but the amazingly girly lolita style.  While my sister does not seem the lolita type, I was more than happy to jump at the opportunity to work in fluffy silhouettes and ruffles and lace.

The main part of her present was a massive circle skirt with pleats, self drafted and designed, that I will be posting about soon.  As a side note are the accessories.  Lolitas love accessories and the more the better.  The first accessory to go into the mail was a peter pan collar with leftover bits of lace and cotton batiste bits from my grandma.

As I have never really had a reason to make a collar like this, I googled around a bit ended up using the wonderful free Peter Pan Collar pattern at Elegant Musings.  There is a spectacular tutorial there and the collar came out very pretty.

I did make a miscalculation on the lace and it was too tight so I had to graft in some additional lace.  Its not my usual level of perfect, but for a costume piece I decided to let it go as I had only small bits of the lace left and leaving the house to go shopping for more lace while it is 9 degrees outside was not an option in my mind.  I sent it off today and cuffs will be the next item on the lolita list.

BurdaStyle 80s Night Pattern (Pattern Preview)

So I love BurdaStyle patterns and you will be seeing a lot of BurdaStyle pattern reviews and previews from me here.

Today, BurdaStyle released 9 new patterns under the inspiration of 80s Night party patterns.

Sequin Shirt on BurdaStyle

So first up is the Sequin Shirt.  This shirt looks pretty basic from the diagram.  I personally could not tolerate the sequins on the neck roll against my skin but this could be a fun casual sweatshirt pattern made up in a fun print to go with jeans for a casual work day for me.  Below is the second pattern which is basically the same pattern with longer cuffs, bodice and waistband.  You can see the print is pretty nice here, but again, I would like it in some sort of cozy fabric or a sweater knit.

Drop Waist Dress on BurdaStyle

The Fur Jacket below has a ton of potential for me as I love faux and real fur and have been tempted to work with rabbit fur.  I could always try a faux fur version and then maybe made the plunge into rabbit.

Fur Jacket 12/2010 on BurdaStyle

Now here is a pattern I can really go for.  The Cutout Dress looks to have a ton of potential and I would so wear this in a heartbeat.  Here it looks to be made up in wet look spandex, but stretch faux leather would be really me.

Cutout Dress 12/2010 on BurdaStyle

The other patterns were a bit ho hum.  The worst of the group would be this little ditty.  Yuck, I would have to redo this whole thing to make it wearable for me.

Wrap Dress 12/2010 on BurdaStyle

So a few winners here.  The more I think about that cut out dress, the more I think it would be fun to do this with the cutout side as a tiny sleeve or hmm, maybe....oh well, too much to sew and not enough time.