gleeful on-the-go romper

This is Quinn's Gleeful On-the-Go Romper. I sewed it up for Kids Clothes Week, and I even took photos of it right away. The delay from that step to this one is inexplicable, but I'm going to take a leap and blame the children. Cool? Cool.

I love babies in rompers. L-O-V-E! I based the top on the envelope neck tee from the Growing Up Sew Liberated book. I drafted the bottom half based loosely on a romper Quinn already has. I fussed around trying to figure out the crotch snap situation for awhile, finally settling on sew-in snaps.

And, you guys? It totally worked out! The romper fits! It's cute! The snaps hold! It seems like the boy is comfortable! High-fives all around!

The photo shoot, though...O.M.G. It mostly looked like this...

Or this...

And then we got photo-bombed. Puppy on the loose! (Don't worry. We made sure it got back to our neighbors safely.)

Oh, and another thing I love: this fabric. It's one of the knits from Caroline Hulse's Gleeful collection for Art Gallery Fabrics. So cute! I wanted to make Quinn something for Kids Clothes Week that fit the Kid Art theme, but I didn't feel like letting the baby loose with any art supplies. I figured fabric with a bit of a kid-art vibe was the way to go, and I immediately thought of these adorable and sunny doodle lines. I stalked various online fabric shops hoping to be able to order it in time for my KCW sewing, and it was available just in time! Hooray! (I ordered it from Hawthorne Threads, and it came super quickly. I was so excited.)

KCW Days 1-4: Adelaide's Wild and Free Geranium Dress

The first thing that came to mind for me when I learned that this week's theme is "Kid Art" was letting Adelaide loose with some fabric paint. She gets some art project fun, I get some adorable hand-painted fabric, and we get to collaborate on making something in the sewing room. Win, win, win.

She did an awesome job with her fabric painting (no bias here, nope, not at all). There was no end project in mind when I doled out the materials. I picked this mystery fabric out of the remnant bin at JoAnn Fabrics ages ago. It's got a linen-ish thing going on, but I don't know what it actually is. Looking at my stash, this is what seemed best suited for a three-year-old's experimental fabric painting. I really let Adelaide do her own thing with the fabric paint, though I tried to keep about three colors in her tray at a time to avoid having everything turn to brown from overenthusiastic color mixing. 

Her finished piece definitely had a border-print vibe, and my mind went straight to the Geranium Dress pattern. I asked her what she wanted to make with the fabric, and she didn't know, so I made the suggestion and she agreed. 

The bodice is some chambray from another project. It happened to match some of the paint perfectly.

Adelaide even picked the buttons herself.

As I've mentioned here before, Adelaide isn't one for fussy clothes. I have to make a real effort to not treat something like this too preciously or she will NEVER wear it. I have to check myself: what is the point of a kid having clothes if I'm going to get bent out of shape when they get grass stains or ice cream on them? I'd a million times rather her wear something lovely and stain it (or rip it) than never wear it. She's my rough-and-tumble, garden-loving girl, so if she can't wear something for all that entails, it's not worth making. 

So here she is, watering the garden in her brand new dress. Perfectly Adelaide.

Gingham Portfolio Top

I'm back with a little selfish sewing today. I made my first Simplicity 2245 Lisette Portfolio Tunic. This pattern has been covered extensively all over the internet already, so I'm not going to bore you with too many details.

I made a top for my first go-round. Of course, this means the coolest feature (the awesome front pocket structure) is missing, but I wanted to check the fit before committing the extra time and fabric on a dress version. I'm glad I did, because I don't feel like the chest fit is quite spot-on yet.

I did add a little length (2 inches, I think), because I like my tops to be a little on the long side. That was definitely a wise choice, because I wouldn't wear this if it were any shorter.

And if I'm ever again thinking of making this pattern in gingham, please stop me. The pattern matching is not possible (or maybe it is, but don't tell me about it, because I don't want to know that it's just me) -- I made some effort but eventually gave up -- and the non-matching kind of drives me bonkers.

Overall, I'm fairly happy with this top, though. It's not perfect, and I'd investigate a few tweaks before making it again to see if I could make it a bit more flattering, but it's comfortable and breezy and I'm a sucker for gingham. It's a good just-a-bit-dressier-than-a-T-shirt summer option.

Navy Plantain Tee

I love sewing for myself, but I'm rarely overly pleased with the results, at least not in that I-wear-it-all-the-time way. I have no use for clothes that aren't really darn comfortable, at least not on a regular basis. And I also don't really like to have to spend time each day thinking about putting an outfit together. What I really want to be able to sew for myself are just some good, flattering basics. But, man, that's hard. At least for me.

That photographer of mine, he sure has a good sense of humor.

With that in mind, I decided it was high time I tried sewing myself a T-shirt. I had seen some really cute versions of the free Plantain Tee by Doe and Deer, so I decided to go with that. It's a scoop-neck tee with a slightly flared bottom. I used a very stretchy jersey from my stash, bought at JoAnn fabrics. I don't remember exactly what it is, but it's one of those Sew Classics types that they always have in stock.

I had fun sewing it up. It was fairly easy, once I get my machine settings right for the crazy stretchy fabric.

I'm not sure how I feel about the results though. It's just not quite right on me. For one thing, the fabric is just too slinky. It's comfy, but it's not very flattering and shows every bump and undergarment strap. I'm breastfeeding and wearing nursing tanks, I've grown two kids, that level of detail is not really going to work for me. (These pictures are the least lumpy of the bunch, and it took some doing to weed the others out.)

Photobomber Adelaide, kind of staring at my butt.

I also think the armholes may be too big. Actually, I may have wanted a smaller size altogether. I don't know. I definitely think the flared bottom is just a bit too unfitted for me and I'd be better off with something with a more defined waist.

But I don't know...It feels nice on even if I'm not happy with how it looks in the pictures. And I'm very happy with how the sewing went. I may try again with a few modifications, or even modify this one a bit to see how it goes. At any rate, it'll be fine around the house or with a cardigan over it (and I love me a cardigan).

For the record, I have no idea what I'm Vanna-White-ing it about here.

I'm in the middle of sewing another shirt for myself right now, this one a woven tunic, and I'm having some of the same issues. I'm finding it really difficult to find patterns that look comfortable and fuss-free but also flattering on me (is it the C-cup? the hips? just the nursing tanks?). Sigh. If you have any awesome pattern suggestions, please, help me!

KCW Project 1: There's Always Room For Ice Cream Tunic

Kids Clothes Week is, of course, over by now. But it takes me awhile to get a post up these days, so here you go.

First, let me just tell you a little bit about Adelaide. She is almost three. She loves digging. She loves dancing all crazy to Michael Jackson tunes. She loves wearing jeans because that's what cowboys wear. She has very strong opinions. And she never wants to wear anything fussy, meaning she's kind of a T-shirt girl (chalk it up as a "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" thing).

Yeah, that's a wrinkly sheet taped up as a backdrop. Winning.

Before I knew her so well, way back when she was either in utero or a teeny tiny baby (I can't remember for sure), I saw this super cute Lisette ice cream/popsicle fabric at JoAnn's. I snapped it up with plans for making an adorable little dress at some point. Well, once that kid got on the move and vocal about her likes and dislikes, I decided not to waste the time or fabric on something she probably wouldn't enjoy wearing.

These days, particularly during Quinn's naptimes, Adelaide likes to hang out in my sewing room with me, playing with fabric scraps and wooden spools while I work. It is fantastic, seriously, one of my dreams come true. Sure, I end up getting less done than I would all by myself, but the other day she asked if she could sew something on my machine and my heart melted into a gloriously mushy puddle.

Pockets are serious business.

One day, she spotted the ice cream fabric. And it was love. Cue weeks of asking if I'd made her an "ice cream shirt" yet, even with some very polite "please" action thrown in for good measure. That kind of request just cannot be ignored. So, despite my reservations, I decided to place Adelaide's Ice Cream Tunic at the top of this season's KCW list.

Not sure what she's doing to Big Bird here, but it seems menacing.

I went with the Made By Rae Geranium pattern, making it with the cap sleeves, tunic length, side seam pockets, and plain neckline. It sewed up really nicely. The pattern was great, very clear. And the size 3 is a great fit for my smallish nearly-3-year-old.

It's pretty stinking cute too, though I may be biased.

Will she wear it? Time will tell.

Sewing maternity clothing, take two

As you may have guessed by the lack of posting, I didn't really follow through with this edition of KCW. Whoops. I finished the sun hat (yay!), but then I was all "It's sooo hot and I'm sooo huge and tired," and I gave up on everything ever sewing for the rest of the week.

I don't know whether it's the heat (oh my god, so hot), the fact that there's a toddler to take care of, or just me being a couple of years older this go-round, but damn, the last couple weeks of this pregnancy have been so much harder than I remember from any of the pregnancy with Adelaide. I can't help but complain about it a little bit (sorry), but at least I am sparing you pictures of my puffy feet and such. Instead, I will show you pictures of something I made for myself before KCW and the horrid heat wave of doom.

This skirt may not be much to look at, but it is quite comfortable and filled an immediate wardrobe need (the need to not wear the same skirt to work every single day). It took about an hour to sew up and used about a yard and half of fabric (some of the same purple interlock I used for Adelaide's shorts). It adequately covers me, is really comfy and breezy, and doesn't fall down, so I am rating it a total success. Hey, look, not all my homemade maternity-wear has been a complete failure!

I just winged it, but there are a ton of tutorials out there for similar skirts (both maternity and non), so I'm not going to bother with a more detailed how-to. Basically: rectangles. Nice.

KCW Days 1 and 2: Adelaide's summer hat

I actually started this hat for Adelaide a couple of months ago, but then I got busy and abandoned it until Kids Clothes Week reminded me that I should probably finish it up before a) summer is over and she no longer really needs it and b) her head gets too big for her to wear it.





It's the bucket hat from Oliver + S: Little Things to Sew. It was a fairly easy piece to make, and the pattern and instructions were very simple and clear.



The bird fabric (from the Park Slope line by Erin McMorris) has been in my stash for ages, just waiting for an appropriate project. The other fabric is just some quilting cotton from JoAnn Fabrics that I've had sitting around forever.



The sewing went really well with this project. It was very pleasant. Always a plus. I think the only thing I did differently from the directions was with the interfacing: I used some crazy-stiff fusible interfacing I happened to have sitting around. It made the brim a bit more structured than it is supposed to be, but I think it still looks and works fine. And it meant I didn't have to make a special interfacing-buying trip to the fabric store, so I definitely am sticking by that decision.

Shorts for a 2T diaper booty

I have a problem with 2T shorts. Wait, scratch that. 2T shorts have a problem. Okay, more like problems. 2T shorts have problems.

Adelaide wears cloth diapers. As you may or may not know, cloth diapers can add a substantial amount of booty to an otherwise scrawny kid. This wasn't a major problem in the baby sizes, but now that Adelaide is firmly into the toddler sizes, we're having issues. Because you know what doesn't work on a huge cloth-diapered tush? The teeny-tiny fitted shorts with a low rise and a half-inch inseam that I always see in the toddler girls' department at every store ever. The toddler boys' department is usually a bit better fit-wise, in that the shorts have some space in the rear. However, they usually are way too long and/or only available in two or three ridiculously boring colors.

Obviously, I needed to employ the magic of sewing.



So I took the one (seriously, the only one) pair of shorts we own that I consider a truly good fit for her diaper-clad tush: a pair of knit shorts from the boys' department of Old Navy. I traced a pattern, grabbed some interlock and ribbing from my stash (both from JoAnn Fabrics, I think), and whipped up these shorts.





I'd make them a bit shorter next time, but otherwise I am very happy with them. They fit well, both in the waist and on the cloth-diapered booty! And Adelaide didn't protest wearing them! And they seem comfortable! And sturdy! Also, I really felt good about the sewing of the knits this go-round. The interlock helped, as it's a rather sturdy and easy-to-sew fabric, from what I can tell. But I've also been messing around with my machine trying to figure out my stretch stitch options, and I think I'm making some progress. So hooray! Can you tell that I'm very excited about this? Victory is mine!**



Problem-solving sewing is the best. Especially when it works.






*Admittedly, my extreme joy over my moderate success with this project probably has something to do with how not-so-great I felt about my last sewing project.