Baby Vintage....

I love a good vintage pattern just like everyone else.

I can't tell you how many I have in my stash.  I even went so far as to learn to grade patterns up in size for those patterns that I just fell in love with but only come in a size too small for my needs.

Well a while back my mom sent me a box full of vintage patterns, and I'd say a good third of them were children's patterns. Needless to say this pattern caught my eye for my granddaughter:

Vintage Simplicity 8051 2 piece button sleeper

 Then over the thanks giving I caught the door-buster sale of 70% off on flannel, which came to about $1.70 per yard.  I only needed 1.5 yards to make the two piece pajama.

I decided to make view 1 (the portrait of the little girl).  This pattern calls for felted seams (yea, right!), like I'm going to go to all of that trouble for a toddler.  NOT!.  I did short sleeves.

Finally being "stingy", I didn't have gathered lace in my stash like I thought I had.  I wan't going to make a run to the store for like a yard of lace.  I did have some flat lace, so decided I'd do my own gathering.  I hand stitched it with thread.

Next onto making the garment making.  Normally, I trace my patterns, since todays pattern come with multiple sizes.  Since this pattern is single sized (only a size 2 pattern in the pakage), no tracing required.

Why do I trace?  Well I've got several from back in the day, that I wish I had left in tack.  I'd love to make them again, but because I cut to the size I needed, I can't use them now.  I hate to admit it; but I'm no longer a size 10 (ha-ha).  So now I trace when I have a multi size pattern.

Back to the pajamas ....

I had this flannel, that I had purchased.  I just couldn't resist the stick girls all in a line!

I used gripper fabric for the bottom of the feet and some 3/8 inch buttons that I had in my stash.

The first thing I had to do was line my girls up in a row across the seams. (I know I complained about the felled seams, but not matching the little girls was just going to annoy me).  The buttons are along the front (3 total).  And the back has the elastic gathered at the waistband: The soles of the pajama pants are done with gripper fabric, t add some traction.

The elastic is placed in the entire waistband.  It is allowed to lay flat in the front, and the button holes in the front waistband are sewn thru the elastic.  Along the back waist the elastic is stretched, resulting in a gathered waist in the back of the pant. The top has button closures in the back.

And when its all said and done, I have a completed toddler pajama set.

Excuse my cutting area!

She's not quite a size 2 yet, but she'll grow into it (that's what my Mom would say).

Now on to the other 6!  I'm making some in anticipation of the next grandchild.

Happy Sewing!

Padding the Dressform.....

Well, as I said in a prior post, its time for me to actually pad out my dress-form to actually resemble my body size/shape.

Most of the time I just used it for hanging my outfits on to take pictures.  I've gotten to a point where I know my body shape pretty well, and can make adjustments without having to make a muslin.  But I finally decided it would be nice to have one a dress form that was similar in shape to my (i.e. one with a rear).

So since I have access to Craftsy Unlimited (aka Bluprint), I decided to view the class:  Fitting Essentials: Customize Your Dress Form.

The class provided good, step by step instructions on how to pad your dress-form.  

It recommends you have a partner to do your measurements.  However, my husband is not that 

handy with a tape measure.  So I just altered my pattern till it was a snug fit.

The pattern I used is Butterick 5678:

I altered the pattern so that the front was cut on a center fold and placed a zipper in the back.  I also did my standard alterations thru the hip/buttocks area.

I hate that I didn't take a picture of my form prior to my padding alterations; but it is what it is.

My original dress form is a Fabulous Fit form that I purchased several years ago.

Its a decent duplicate for now.  Over time I can adjust the padding as I get a better feel for the accuracy of my padding.  

Dide

Back

Front

The bagginess at the bottom is from the drawstring at the bottom of the cover.  Because this dress-form has a wire rack at the bottom the drawstring can only be pulled in a certain amount.  Maybe, I'll think of tapering the bottom of the cover to fit the dress form.

I've still got some fine tuning to do such as adding more padding in the shoulder; but the padded form is a lot closer to my actual body.

Happy Sewing. . . . 

Halloween has come and gone!

Well as a follow-up to my prior post, my granddaughter had her first Halloween.

She wore her kangaroo outfit, with "baby roo" in hand:

There was one accessory that my son and his wife bought that I totally never thought about.
He and his wife decided to dress as Aussie "croc hunters":

But the most memorable moment for me is when she discovered her "baby roo".  My son got it on video and sent to me. It's moments like this that made the costume worth the effort, and is why I sew!

Hope everyone had a pleasant Halloween!

Sandy

Prepping for Halloween

Well, its getting to be that time, HALLOWEEN!

So my son wanted to dress my first grandchild up for Halloween.  They were going to dress her as t bumblebee!  A bumblebee, of all things!

Grandma to the rescue!  No way is my first grandchild going to be a Bumble bee!  Why not a Mama kangaroo with a baby in her pouch!   So Simplicity 8765 to the rescue!

This is close to a onesie!  It’s got a hoodie! (This works wonders for the cold climate they live in).  And then finally the baby roo!!!

So off I went to JoAnn’s fabric, to get some “plush” fleece at 1/2 off (plus 20% coupon).  All total the materials only came to $14!

I did decide to make an alteration to the pattern.  I decided to put a draw string in the hoodie, so they don’t have to worry about a hat for her, and it won’t slide off.

.

Of course I made it a size larger than needed (so she can wear her clothing underneath and have some “growing room”, in case they want to use it again.

It only took about 4 hours to make.

When I was making baby roo, I forgot to fold the ears before sewing them in.  So the fun about sewing is that its easy to recover.  No, I didn’t grab the seam ripper, no way was I picking this little fella apart.  Instead, I took needle and thread and hand-stitched a fold in the ears.

Baby Roo with out folded ears

Baby Roo with hand-stitched ears

Finally, I decided we needed to make sure “baby roo” was safe and didn’t fall out of her pouch, so I added a seatbelt!

I'm going to hand-stitch around the eyes/nose to ensure everything stays put.

Here's the almost complete outfit!

Vogue 2067 Donna Karan

I've had this pattern in my stash for quite some time.  Last year before my sewing mentor passed away she helped me alter the pattern (you'll see why in the pictures).

I decided to make View B.  I did my initial alteration of widening thru the hip.  Here is a picture of the initial dress I made in a grey knit:

Front View.

This is the front view of the dress.  I got the fit down pretty good.  Of course I forgot to lengthen this, so it placed it at just below my knee.

Side View

However, when I looked at the side; this was just way-y too low in the arm and back area.  There was no way I could wear a bra with this (not even a strapless one).  Besides I'm not into showing that much of my back and sides.  

So my first job was to alter the dress in those areas, that means bringing up the side and back.  The key thing was to alter the side and back pieces correctly since the side seem is actually along the back:

As you can see from the line drawing the dress is cut pretty low in the back.  So off to do my alterations I went.  The pattern pieces for the dress are circled.

The side and back pieces was alter as shown on the picture; the light blue line represents the original pattern:

Back

Side

So I re-made the dress with these alterations in a black knit:

 Here is an image from the side, so you can see how much I raised the side.

The back has been raised considerably (now I can wear a strapless bra with it). And finally the front view:

Needless to say it lengthened it. Although it looks floor length on my dress form, its just above the ankle on me.  This dress was more comfortable for me to wear.  I still wear the first dress; but as a jumper with a t-shirt.

As I look at this dress on the dress form; I think my next project will be to alter it to my size.

Also, I made the dress a third time in a brown knit.

Happy Sewing!

My “NEW” old iron!

As every “extreme” seamstress knows, “It’s all about the pressing!!!”.
Pressing can make the difference between a garment lookin professional or home-made.

Like anyone that does a lot of sewing,  I had to have an iron that generates a LOT of heat and steam.
But I needed something I could use when I traveled.  I tried one of the newer traveling but was never pleased with the heat they generated.

So one day I was at the thrift store, and guess what I saw!  A smaller version of those heavy metal irons that your mom used to have.  A GE travel iron!

The iron cost only $5, and works like a charm!  I’ve had it now for a couple of years.

I didn’t have anything to carry it in, other than the flimsy little pouch that came with it.

So I found this amazing pattern: “Caddy Pad” at my local quilt shop

This pattern is a carrier and pressing pad.

Here are pictures of the finished product:

Happy Sewing!

If at first.....

So I decided I wanted to make Simplicity 8641.  As you can see from my project sheet, I chose a striped denim chambray.

I had this wonderful notion that I shouldn't have to do any alterations, since the dress didn't appear to have any shape.  Well, I was almost right.  The operative word being "almost".  Turns out the dress fit, but was snugger through the hips than I am comfortable with.  This is why I always try to make a muslin first, to avoid these types of disappointments.  The finished jumper turned out very nice thought: 

I was so pleased with how it turned out;  but disappointed that it was too snug through the hips.

So, this is why you should make a muslin or at least do a little extra in the seam allowance to allow for adjustments.

So I decided to remake the jumper.  I had another piece of fabric that I got from the thrift store (I buy fabrics from the thrift store to use for creating muslins of my garments).  I had 3 yard piece of a red chambray:

Needless to say this version turned out to be an excellent fit.  I ended up making the back skirt a size larger (I cut the upper bodice and front a size 16, and the back a size 18), and added a 1 inch seam allowance just in case.  This muslin will become a wearable one.

It is a very comfortable dress, and I will definitely make it again.  I have another dark blue stripe chambray, so I'll give it another try.

I thought about making myself fit the original (aka diet); but remember the purpose of sewing is to make the dress fit your body; not your body fit the dress!

Happy Sewing!