Swim Lessons!

I'm behind the eight ball folks and didn't make new swimsuits (yet) for my girls.  But Miss BK did get a new coverup and I got to try a new pattern!

The new pattern is from Sewing Modkid Style by Patty Young.  It's the "swim cover-up" and I sewed a size 6.  The fabric is a stretchy terry that I purchased last year from Jo-ann Fabrics.  Per the pattern, I finished the sleeve and hood edges with FOE (fold over elastic).  I left off the kangaroo pocket as I was in a hurry.  *hanging my head in shame* which also explains why there's a ridgey hem since I didn't take the time to unroll the curled edge of the fabric as I was stitching 

 Naughty me!

But I did finish the cover up in time for the little girls' swim lessons. 

MG's is from last year.  It was a Burda pattern for a hooded top that I lengthened to hit mid thigh.  That one was another rush job and I totally winged it when finishing the opening.  I had finished the sleeves with a rolled hem originally but really liked the FOE on BK's so I went back (15 minutes before we had to leave no less!) and applied hot pink FOE to hers.  We won't discuss how crappy  great a job I did on that.

apres swimming

the girls were standing in clover and BK was keeping an eye on the honeybees:)

Summer Sewing

Oliver + S Swingset Tunic and Puppet Show Shorts

I stepped out of my comfort zone to sew up a birthday gift for a little girl turning 4 this weekend.  I used fabric from my stash (cotton floral from Jo-ann's and Lisette twill) to make a summer outfit.  I've only sewn the Swingset Tunic once before and I got stuck a little with the back button placket.  Luckily, I remembered that there was a tutorial for it on the Oliver + S Blog HERE.  We did tuck a little toy and a pair of sunglasses in with the outfit.  I hope the birthday girl (and her mom) likes it!

I don't think I ever shared this little top:

 

It was one of my many muslins for the Sandbridge Top.  This particular one was sewn up in a rib knit vs. the cotton/lycra jersey that I used for the final top(s).  In addition to the 2 tops I made using the sky blue stars fabric, I made a pink one to coordinate with MG's pink trim shorts out of raspberry pink interlock. 

All 4 of the tops have been getting a lot of wear.  For MG, the top(s) have enough of a "sleeve" to meet her school's dress code but are still cool enough for the hot and humid weather.:)

Tops and Floors

Another Oliver + S Hopscotch Top in the infamous owl knit.  This is the third one I've sewn up...the other two owl tops have been outgrown.  And I still have enough fabric for at least one more.

BK in Owls and MG in Flip Flops and Flowers

I've been adding length to the pattern since I was too lazy to trace off a larger size but I definitely think it's time to move up to a size 6.  The sleeve seam is sitting to the inside of the shoulder edge, especially on BK.  These girls keep growing!

As to the floors...

The dining room is 97% finished and the kitchen is done with the exception of quarter round.  Our family room is about 1/3 of the way finished but we have yet to touch the foyer or living room.  We were very lucky to have a friend who installs wood and laminate floors for a living come over on Saturday to get us started right.  As much as I thought that we knew what we were doing, we didn't!lol  I'm hopeful that the flooring will be all installed this coming weekend.:)

I'll leave you with a photo taken Saturday evening of BK...

13

My little girl is officially 13 years old. 

don't adjust your screen, the cake is in fact leaning!lol

We had an impromptu celebration at the house with hot dogs followed by cake and ice cream.  The cake was inspired by a pin that has been making the rounds.  No by scratch baking here...it was all from a box with a little food coloring thrown in.

K did get one present that was homemade...a summer pajama set. 

Ottobre Design 06/09 #38

Ottobre Design 06/09 #39

The tank top is a pink jersey (leftovers from BK's Badminton Skort).  I didn't realize that I wouldn't have enough fabric until I had already cut out the back.  So, I improvised and pieced the front together using a flatlock stitch.  I also eliminated the gores that are on the original pattern.  This is the same pattern (altered) that I used for the top of K's OBX dress.  One last addition is the ribbing at the hem.

The shorts are the Darla pajama pants pattern.  I made them shorts length and used a facing for the inner waistband instead of folding the top of the shorts/pants over to make a casing.  This gave them a little more depth to the crotch which I feel runs short in this pattern.  I used a Little Lisette poplin.

The pajamas fit!  And were well received.:)

Happy 13th Birthday, K!

Flip Flop Hopscotch and More Ruffles

See! I have been sewing. 

  

The little girls need comfy tops to go with their shorts and skorts so out the Oliver + S Hopscotch pattern came.  The fabric is part of the Ellie kit from Sew It Up.

I chose to change things up a bit by using ribbing to finish the sleeve edges .  I applied it the same way you do the neck opening.



And I finally got around to finishing the gray pair of ruffle shorts...

These are a tad more pratical than the white linen pair.:)

Under Construction

Since finishing up the third modified 2+2 top last week, I haven't been near my sewing machine.  

Shocking, isn't it?

What I have been doing is tearing up carpet and tack strips and patching our concrete slab.  Our family room used to look like this:

Now it resembles a construction zone:

That's only a small glimpse of our torn up house.  My husband and I also ripped up carpet in our living room (the kids' game/tv room) and the laminate flooring that was in the dining room.  All this de-construction is to get ready for installing new laminate flooring in all the downstair rooms with the exception of our laundry/mud room.  Hopefully, we will get started on the massive project this coming weekend.  I'd love to have it all installed and the house back to normal by the end of the month.  But knowing how home improvement projects always seem to take 5 times as long as I anticipate, I'm not holding my breath!

In sewing news...I'm looking forward to a slip cover sew-along that is going to be happening at sewingmamas.com.  Sandra from Sugar Cubes and Spice Cakes will be running it.  Check out the fabulous job she did on her couch HERE.  As you can see from the above pictures, our poor red couch has seen better days.  If we're going to have nice, new flooring we can't have a dingy, ripped up couch.:)  Also, if you haven't seen it yet, check out Tara's Class Picnic shorts with ruffles.  The shorts look great in chambray.

So, please bear with me the next few weeks if the sewing posts are sparse.  It's not that I won't be sewing...it's the blogging bit that's time consuming.  I'll be back, I promise!

Modified 2+2 Top Tutorial

The tutorial showing the modifications is up on the Oliver + S Blog!

Ruffle Shorts Tutorial

Inspiration Shorts from JCrew

Oliver + S Class Picnic Shorts with Ruffles

Note:   I'm making a pair of size 5 shorts so for the smaller or larger size shorts you'll need to adjust your strip length accordingly. For the white medium/heavy weight linen pair, I cut the strips on the bias and they were 60" long. For the gray quilting cotton shorts, I cut 4 strips selvage to selvage and pieced them together so they were about 84" long. 


Step 1:  Stitch front and back pieces together at the inseam.  Press open and finish seam allowance.

2.  Cut 1 1/4" strips for the ruffles.   Finish one long edge with a rolled hem.  Gather the other edge (on the gray, I used a ruffler foot set at 8).  Pin gathered strip to shorts, right sides together along the outer edge.  I matched the seam from my strips to the inseam of the shorts.

As you can see, on the front there was some left over.  On the back, end the ruffles 4 inches down from the top.

3.  Stitch with a 1/2" seam and finish seam allowance.  I hadn't done it yet on the picture below but you'll want to finish the edge above the ruffle on the back also. 

4.  Press top of ruffle to the wrong side and topstitch close to the edge.  If you have left over ruffle on the front, it's time to trim the excess off.

 

*Before you proceed you need to stitch the crotch seam per the pattern instructions and also topstich the faux fly*

5. Measure 2" from the notch at the top of the back shorts and mark it with a pin.

6.  Fold the back edge to the wrong side to where the pin is and press.  It will be 3/4" wide.

7.  Since the inspiration shorts have the front panel overlapping the back panel, you will place the wrong side of the front panel over the right side of the back panel.  Line up the topstitching on the front with the finished edge that is folded back.  The picture below shows where I already stitched it but I thought it might convey what you need to do a little better.

Mark 4 inches down as that will be where you end the topstitching that holds the panels together. 

8.  Mark your topstitching line on the front of the shorts with a chalk pencil or disappearing marker.   Topstitch along the existing topstitched line along the ruffle, across, and back up to the top. 

This is how the join will look on the inside of the shorts:

Now all you have to do is construct the waist bands following the instructions for the Class Picnic Shorts and you'll have your own pair of ruffle shorts!

I'm not done with the gray pair yet but wanted to share the tutorial while it was fresh in my mind.:)

Cinco de Mayo Show & Tell

But the only claim I have to this top is a general idea and the tracing/cutting of the pattern pieces.

Modkid Frida in a 4/5

BK (my baby) was born on Cinco de Mayo (May 5) 5 years ago.  Since this year seems to be the year of the birthday party in our family, I decided to go all out with a huge (for us) Cinco de Mayo party to celebrate.  We did something similar for her 1st birthday.

We had approximately 30 people (neighbors, close friends, and family) over for a gigantic mexican meal with tacos, enchiladas, fajitas, margaritas, Coronas, salsa, 7 layer dip, mini chicken taco cups, rice, and tortilla chips.  (No pictures as I hardly had time to take any)  You know how I'm always going on about how I do not enjoy party planning and such?  Well, guess what?  I didn't stress at all over this one and I was able to enjoy the party.  But I'm in no hurry to do it again!

One of the things that lightened the stress load was I turned over my idea of an embroidered mexican house dress to my mom.  And boy, did she deliver!

I was a bad daughter and didn't even get the pattern pieces to her until a week before the party.  The original plan was for her to do the embroidery and then I'd sew the tunic.  My time management skills seriously suck and I came to the realization mid-week that I wasn't going to be able to do it.  Mom to the rescue!  And if I do say so myself, she did a FABULOUS job.

The Frida Tunic is made from a white linen blend.  I was going to pair it with the ruffle shorts that I made from the same fabric but decided to go with the slightly stained (not that you can see) white denim Sailboat Pants from last year. 

The outfit held up to 3 hours of playing, eating, pinata busting, and opening gifts!

Happy 5th Birthday, BK!

Color Challenge: True Blue

Blue!  (and White)

 

Blue has always been my favorite color.  In elementary school where red or pink was what all the girls liked, I was a fan of blue.  30 years later, I'm still true blue.

My inspiration for the top was a tunic from the Santorini Sweetie Gymboree line.  I had pinned the top below and a few others from the same line because I loved the way the blue and white looked together.  

The shorts inspiration is a chino pair with ruffles from J Crew's children line.  

My base pattern for the top is the 2+2 from Oliver + S.  I modified* the top by eliminating the gathers in the front, adding a shaped facing with a slit, and having the bias binding on the sleeves be visible.  The blue floral print was from my stash...I believe it's a poly cotton blend, perhaps part of the Tutti Frutti line that both Jo-ann's and Hancocks carries.  The facing is a white cotton/lycra poplin.

The white shorts are the Class Picnic pattern from Oliver + S but with ruffles instead of the facings.  I used a white linen for the shorts.  The ruffles are 1 1/4" wide strips cut on the bias and are approximately 60" long.  (I pieced 2 strips together to get the length)  In a nut shell, I finished one edge of the strips with a rolled hem, gathered them, and sewed the bias strips on to the shorts.   I plan on posting a mini tutorial with pictures next week if you're interested.:)

Back View of True Blue Outfit

*and yes, I plan on posting a how to on the 2+2 modifications.  I'm working on a 2nd one for MG and  taking pictures of the process.  Real Life is taking priority this week with track meets (last one was tonight!), chorus concerts, and a Cinco de Mayo birthday blast for that sweet girl pictured above.:)