The Crystal top

 As soon as my Wonderland fabric arrived in the mail, I knew exactly what I wanted to use it for. I love how effortlessly it goes with the Lizzy House ducks.

I used this amazing vintage pattern that my Mother-in-Law let me borrow. She made this pattern for my Sister-in-Law's first day of school way back when. Although the pattern is a 3, as you can see, it's huge. This Winter we'll layer with some long sleeves underneath -- or maybe a thermal.

And that's Crystal there in the middle on her first day of school! Weren't the 1970s amazing? (Happy 40th!!!). That is not my husband beside her. That is one of the neighbors. He would have been just out of diapers at the time.

I used a bright blue zipper in the back, royal blue bias tape for the hem, and the same color ric rack for the trim across the top. Also, I used my sewing machine's reinforced straight stitch to topstitch around the collar in the blue to give it a little kick. The sleeves on this thing are like crazy butterflies. I thought it would settle down a bit after a washed it but no luck. The pattern was actually super easy to use and I didn't have any problems with it at all. Very quick.  More pics on flickr.

Tillbrook Romper

After seeing this post over at Mon Ami, I had to buy this pattern and make the romper myself. I found Mon Ami Journal through the Elsie Marley Kids Clothes Week challenge and both are excellent blogs for inspiration.

Luckily, I found the pattern on Etsy right away. It was a size 3. Perfect!

The pattern was super easy to follow. I didn't have any issues with the instructions or the fabric. I chose Alexander Henry's Tillbrook Sprites for the body of the romper and some of the coordinating print for the straps. There is a LOT of pink in the pattern so I went with a solid green for the top and I love how it pulled out the hints of different greens from the foliage around the fairies.

I used teeny tiny buttons for the top closure. They have a hint of pearl to them that's a welcome shimmer against the bold green. The ones in this photo are green. The original buttons are red so they pop out more against the solid.

The 3t is a bit roomy but I'm hoping we'll get some use out of this next year. In fact, it seems like there is a trend toward vanity sizing in kids clothes and that really pisses me off. Kids clothing should correspond as closely as possible to the age. Two-year olds should be able to wear a size 2, three-year olds should be able to wear a size 3, etc. Of course there will be bigger kids and smaller kids but you get the idea. Zadie grew out of most 2t big box store clothing right about the time she turned 2. But when I sew vintage clothing patterns in a size 3 they are massive. Ok, end rant.

Anyway, to solve the problem of the romper being enormous, I just sewed a second button about an inch above the original. I took the photo above (with gnome) after putting the romper on her for the first time. In most of the shots, it is just hanging off of her (and her hair is wild). The new button makes it fit much better and when she grows, we'll just start using the lower button. This is the garment I used for the snap tape tutorial so you're finally able to see it in action. I don't know why it took me almost 3 weeks to sew a couple of buttons on.

NYC Summer: Garment District

I finally got the perfect fabric (I hope!) for my vintage shirtwaist dress pattern. I thought I had written a post about buying the pattern but I guess I only put the photo up on the Project: Project Facebook page. I even neglected flickr, apparently.

I've been wanting to make a shirtwaist dress for a long time. I love how they are dressy but casual all at the same time and you can just do so much with them. I spent hours on Etsy finding the perfect pattern and was thrilled with it when it arrived.

I knew I would go to Beckenstein Men's fabrics in the Garment District. I stumbled upon the store a few years ago when searching for the perfect seamonster fabric for the yeti loves seamonster dolls that never surfaced (ha ha, elusive beasts). I knew I would find the most amazing men's shirt fabric in the perfect color. I mapped out the spot (along with the other places we checked out) and made it the first stop in the plan. And it was closed. (Homer slap to forehead, doh!). I read the hours but I didn't pay attention to Saturday. So anyway, lesson learned (I should change the name of this blog).

But at a shop close by, I was greeted by incredibly helpful salesmen (yes, they were all men) who put up with wild child (brought in by Mr. Lemon from Starbucks because I needed help deciding what color worked best on me in the tragically flourescent lighting). The shop had a great selection and the quality and color I was looking for. I'm really happy with it. The grosgrain ribbon from last post will be used as the belt. I'll post some pics of the colors together after I decide which way to go. I am not sure you can really get the fabric from this photo. It's kinda coral and kinda pink and surprisingly like the dress on the pattern cover which was not my intention at all. I had wanted to go blue but threw that out at the last minute. The warp and the weft are two different colors which adds some dimension and enhances the texture.It's very good quality and probably cost less than I would have spent elsewhere. I have to say I will check this store out again. Happy accident.

Project: Special Robot Dress for the Robot Party (and free pattern)

I bought the fabric and trim for this dress long before I had any idea that I was going to throw a robot party extravaganza. But since it takes me months to get around to any of my sewing projects, the robot party was a fresh idea when I was putting it together and it just seemed right to do some applique. The fabric is a white dotted swiss with yellow dots that I just adore.

The pattern is a vintage Simplicity pattern 6241 from 1974 (a great year, I must say). It was an absolute breeze to put together and it fits really well. As with most crew neck patterns, I had to take the collar down about 1". I also straightened out the curved lines at the side seams to make it more A-line.

The robot applique is my own design based loosely on the robots I was sewing for my Etsy shop back in 2006. I pasted the pattern below. You can read my applique tutorial in detail here. The embroidery is mostly a backstitch. I included the legs but as you can see, I used ric rack instead and it gives a really nice feel to the piece.

Project: Making the pattern

Here is the pattern I worked on for my shirt. The foundation is the vintage Simplicity pattern I used to make the faux silky shirt. I wrote before that I really like how the shirt fits. And since I had pretty much worked out all the kinks of the pattern the first time, I'm hoping it will be a good choice for the ideas that are in my head. For the front of the pattern, I changed very little. I just taped the original to my window and then taped a bunch of pieces of office paper together and taped that on top.

As you can see, I kept the bust dart because it was the right proportion. I also really like using darts with knit because the detail elevates the t-shirt to a higher level. At the existing lengthen/shorten line, I took out about 1.5". With the silky shirt, the extra length makes it more dressy but with the fine knit, I think it will just hang down and look messy. Finally, I redrew the entire hem. I was wearing a shirt with a hemline that I really like so I took it off, set it on top of my pattern, and traced it. I'm sure the new neighbors liked that one.

The back is where I made the most changes. I started with the hem and length changes from the pattern front (you can't forget to do both sides!). Then I removed the shoulder dart and eased the fabric to the middle. Next I just eyed up how big I wanted that top panel to be (see my inspiration photo here) and drew a line perpendicular to the grain line since the middle back seam has a curve to it. I cut on the line and then added "darts" for the gathers. You can see in the photo where I added the blue to show you that. I wanted to keep the waist slim so I used that as my pivot point. I just started at the top edge and cut a straight line with scissors to the waist. Then I split the paper apart until it started to buckle just slightly then taped some paper from the recycling bin to the back of the pattern. (I should have used colored paper -- that's how I was taught. That way if I were to make changes to this pattern and use it again, I'd know what was original and what was added.)

I did this until I felt that I had enough in there. Then I drew a line with a ruler to clean up the top edge and added seam allowances to both pieces. I added a little more to the top of the sleeve pattern (not pictured) to give a little more gather to that using the same slash method. Since the existing belt pattern wasn't long enough, I added some length to that and also made it just a little wider. I'm not sure if the belt will look right with this but I'll make it and try it out. I made some adjustments to the collar to make it somewhere between a band collar and a Peter Pan. I have no idea how that is going to work. I did like the way the Simplicity shirt looked without a collar so that's my backup plan.

The waist of the original pattern is almost fitted. You can see how the pattern has a really nice curve there. I'm not sure at all how my gather adjustments are going to look with that. If you want to try my improv method of pattern alteration: Make sure you use the right marks on the armholes and sleeve pattern. One means the front and one means that back. If you mix them up, the sleeves will not fit. I often chop my little triangles right off; if you have a good pattern and you cut straight, your stuff should line up. I'm lazy but I do not cut corners (ha ha) on sleeves.

Project: The shirt I've been going on and on about

I was just about to drop out of Top Week when I saw this shirt in the bizarro Urban Outfitters catalog that started showing up in the mail regularly a couple of months ago. I love it but it really is unrealistic for me and a bit out of my price range. Then the light bulb went on inside my brain and I decided to make something similar to it. I am using that vintage pattern I was bitching about last week because it's actually a good fit and I figured I could work with it rather than start from scratch. The bust darts are spot on and the shoulders are a good width for my frame.

On the spur of the moment, I packed Zadie up in the car, called my mom to see if she could meet us at JoAnn's for a late afternoon fabric spree, and we were off. I found this awesome teal (I buy a heck of a lot of this color, right?) superfine knit on sale for 50% off and also picked up some duckcloth for another project I've got in my head with a 40% coupon. We met my dad for dinner and an hour or so later I was home all full of inspiration.

I traced the pattern pieces to have my foundation. First I removed the back shoulder darts and eased the extra toward the waist. I drew a line straight across the back pattern piece and added seam allowances. Then I added a bunch of darts to the new top seam without messing too much with the existing waistline (I don't want this to be too piratey).

This gorgeous cotton floral print is of course Heather Ross' Far Far Away double gauze that I've been hoarding since it came out. Yum. My pattern is cut out and I'll start sewing tomorrow after work. What do you think?

I'll take some photos of my pattern manipulations and write more about that after I see how it goes. I reworked the collar but I'm not sure I did that right.

Project: Rompers

This is the romper pattern that I'm going to use for that amazing alligator/crocodile fabric that I was going on and on about before. How strange is this? I bought the size 4 at a thrift store up in Pittsburgh and my MIL had the size 2. The cheaper one is from 1970 and the more expensive one is from 1972. It's like they just "updated" the hairstyles and changed out the applique. I love it. Check out the beret on that kid.