Birthday sewing.

Abby's birthday is coming up next week and I decided to make her new clothes to go with her Lalaloopsy doll.  I love how oblivious my kids are to my sewing at this point, I made every single one of these with her at home, and pretty much in the same room the whole time.  She never asked what I was making and I was careful to not let her see anything that would give it away.  Hm, guess she might have known, but I will pretend like she didn't. 

So I made a little of everything, and tried to find fun trims to add. Store bought Lalaloopsy clothing is very whimsical, so I attemtped to go for that look with some ric rac and lace.  Not quite the same, but oh well. And all of the fabric was from my scrap basket, so yay for stash busting!

The skirts were just my guesstimate, and I made them way too big in the beginning, I kept trying it on the doll and cutting more off.  I think I ended up going with a width of 13 inches on the skirt and 5 or 6 inches on the elastic for them.  (in case anyone else has a doll to make skirts for;) The shirt is a shorter version of the dresses below.

You can't really tell, but the top one has white ric rac around the middle. The pattern was a free one from here  .  She got the doll for Christmas and made her a few of this style back then and she really liked them.

So, the pants.  I made a pair out of a scrap of stretch denim, and I love them!! The capris need a top (as does the pink skirt), but the doll has been misplaced and I want to try it on the doll before I sew the lace on as I only have a small scrap left.  The pattern comes from here.

And this one is my favorite. Save the best for last, right? ;) If you thought baby sleeves were hard, you haven't made doll sleeves before!! I also made one in this style for Christmas, but I made it sleeveless and only one skirt.  The pattern is from here.

I just love the shape that the tulle gives to the dress. And it is on a doll, so no whinning about it being scratchy or having to add another lining, ha!

My first Ottobre.

After seeing many Ottobre creations in my flickr contacts stream, I decided to take the plunge and order one of the magazines to see how I liked it before I decided if I want to subscribe to it or not.
So, I received their current issue yesterday, and I am in love!! I have already traced off four items I am wanting to make asap:)  But I had to pick one to start with, but which one?? I went with #12 Kokeshi Doll Dress.  The little pleats did it for me, and though I screwed them up royally, I still love it.  And I now know what I did wrong on the pleats, and can fix it the next time around (I was too lazy to unpick everything as I had already sewn the facings on. 

I made size 80, the twins were both asleep when I finished but it looks about right for big twin at least.  Picking out the size to make was a bit stressful to me, I have no idea!! I googled inches to centimeters (hehe) and then also European to American size charts, and chose from there.  Big twin's chest measurement put her in 80, but neither of their waist measurements are even on the chart, how does that work?!  Plus, with other patterns companies that I have sewn before I know how they fit and can choose a size based on that.  So, I picked something that was taking up space in my stash in case it didn't work out:)  P.s. I now feel justified calling her big twin, they had their one year check up on Wednesday and she weighs 4 pounds 4 ounces more than tiny twin! 

Though I did mess up the pleats, and the lining isn't sticking out from the bottom of the dress like the picture in the magazine, I am satisfied with my first attempt at Ottobre. First a few Oliver + S family reunion tops then on to more from the magazine! ... and perhaps a new subscription is in my future...

Pattern stash busting.

I have been wanting to make a pair of Oliver and S picnic shorts for a long time, and finally got around to it! I got frustrated with the shirt pattern because I am pretty sure I traced of the wrong sleeve size and ruined a yard of fabric. (It was something I bought on clearance so I couldn't just run out and get some more to correct my mistake) Gr.  So I set the pattern aside and promised to get back to it eventually. 

The Joann's in town is moving locations and having a super liquidation sale on fabrics, I mean GIANT.  I purchased a ton of Lisette fabric that is usually marked $12.99-14.99 for just over $3 a yard.  My fabric stash probably tripled from all the lisette and knit I bought!  And  I saved a TON, so I was very happy:)

Those two points lead to my next!  I pulled out some of the Lisette twill and my picnic shorts pattern and got to work.  One nap time later and Abby had some fun new shorts!

I put the pattern pieces where I thought the rows would line up, but no, they don't. Sigh.  Oh well, she loves them anyway.

I just love the retro look!  Next she needs a shirt to go with them:)

The older two kids are going out of town this weekend with Grandpa & Grandma & cousins to the balloon festival.  It is so cool, a few hours north of here there is a really small town that every year holds a hot air balloon festival.  They float them bright and early every morning and one night (can't remember if it is Friday or Saturday) they shut down main street and line them all up while people walk around, then at dusk they light them all up.  Such a cool sight!  We went two years ago, but last year the twins were only a few days old so we missed it.  This year we Ben and I are staying home with the twins, too hard to get two naptimes in while you are camping with a rowdy bunch. Anyway, Jack typically sleeps in his underwear or occasionally with a shirt, so he needed some pj's.  I recently got the Oliver and S bedtime story pajamas from ebay (but it is now available as a pdf) so I made him a pair of the pants and a flashback skinny tee.   I like to race myself and see how fast I can make those shirts.  20 minutes from cutting to the last stitch. Not too bad!

Ben has a very similar pair, Jack thought that was pretty cool.

This sweet little face just makes me smile. It will be nice to have a quiet-ish weekend. He and Abby fight All.The.Time. ... When is school going back?? ;)

Happy birthday girlies!

I have been crazy busy this last week leading up to the twins birthday and was just sure I wasn't going to have the time/will to make them special birthday outfits.  (I have to sew to, remember? ;)  Buuuut, oh, about 10pm Saturday night I decided they NEEDED new dresses.  I am not crazy, right? *don't answer that*  So I gathered my materials and cut out two Oliver and S Ice cream dresses, view A minus the v and the pockets to save time, since I am crazy.  Only to realize I have misplaced my instructions. What??!!  But I had made it once before so I cautiously made the first yoke, it went perfectly so I got confidence and sped through it to the end.  I have only made view c and it doesn't have the hem facing, but luckily I have made my fair share of O+S so I was able to figure it out quickly.  So in between making sheets and sheets of cake balls I got the first one sewn up.  Then the second one got finished even quicker this morning during their nap.  Yay! They had new outfits for their party.

I didn't have time to get a hang up shot of the dressess yet, but I will:)

I made waaaay too many cake balls (and cake pops that aren't pictured) and two cakes.  The chocolate one is something I saw on pinterest.  But I failed at it.  It is a round cake with chocolate ganache poured over the top to make it look like a spilled ice cream cone.  Well, we live 25 minutes away from the in-law's and that is where we were having a combined birthday & father's day party and the ganache started to melt in the 105+ heat on the way over. Grrr. Oh well.

We let the girls go at the chocolate cake. Elizabeth went straight for the ice cream cone and pretty much stuck with that.  She took a few handfuls of cake, but not many.

George went crazy with the cake.  She doesn't usually eat much, and will stop when she is full (unlike Izzy) but she could.not.stop. with this.  Yeah, they both had a huge crash 30 minutes later.

And here is what the cake looked like after two nearly (birthday is on Monday:) one-year olds can do to a yummy cake.

For Stockton.

**if your name is Nicole and I am attending your baby shower this weekend, stop reading unless you don't want a surprise;) ... but I don't think you do (read this blog), so there!**

Ben's best friend from elementary school on is having his first child soon, and the baby shower is this weekend, so I thought I would whip up some fun, personalized shirts.  Funny story, they have been best friends for ages, and a couple years back Ben's uncle married Mark's mom, so now they are cousins too!

I went with the Figgy's "tee for two" again because it just seemed so boy.  I made two 12m size shirts, partly because that is the lowest the pattern goes and partly because everyone loves to give tiny clothes, so hopefully these will be needed. 

The dad is a huge Weezer fan, so much that he has flown to another city just to see them perform.  So naturally, the baby needed a Weezer shirt.  I followed the pattern and did it with the raw edges, more "rocker boy" right?

 

With this one I went with the raw edges on the inside for a slightly different look.   So, the baby is being named Stockton after John Stockton, very famous former Utah Jazz player, Ben suggested I make him a shirt with Stockton's number on it in the Jazz colors.  Well, Joann's is moving locations and is now pretty much cleared out of everything (and hasn't been getting anything new for months), so I couldn't do it in those colors, so I went with what I liked.  Ben's first and only comment?  It isn't the right green.  To which I replied, I didn't ask your opinion. So, Stockton may be getting another shirt in the "right green" after Joann re-opens. (buying online you don't always get the same color as you think you are buying, as in not quite the same tone/brightness, etc)  I put the number on the back to be more jersey like, and the kids both said "the number should have been bigger".  Pft. I can't win.  I used my twin needle for the sleeves and hem with a white and brown thread, I thought it would give a fun look. I think I have made this pattern quite enough for now... (6 times in 6 days!) It is time to make the girls their birthday outfits!!

Raw-edged raglan.

I am pretty sure I will be getting my money's worth and then some from my new purchase, the   Sewing for Boys  book.  I have made the pattern four times in two days (of course, I did have to buy the pdf of the tee for two for the twins size) and I have plans to make one for a baby shower I am attending at the end of the week.  I was going to make it today, but I decided to take a nap instead- ha!  But, I have finally regained my nights, so who knows, maybe I will make it later tonight!  The twins had been going to sleep between 11 and 1. Yeah, MISERABLE.  But a few weeks ago we finally had enough and forced them into a definite sleep schedule.  Before I wouldn't let them cry it out to go to bed and naps because I was worried about them feeding off each other and staying up even longer, but I finally had enough and am happy to report they will cry for about 5 minutes and then are down.  Hallelujah.  So now, they go down at eight thirty and if I have enough energy and planned ahead (as far as getting my supplies out of their room before they go down) then I am able to sew a bit at night!

So first I made this little blue number for Jack.  His favorite color has been blue for a looong time now, so he was super excited.  The shirt seriously only took about 40 minutes from tracing the pattern to sewing the last stitch.  I made the size 4/5 and it fits him great.  I made him try it on before I sewed on the neckband and he was so upset to have to take it off.  He put it on immediately and wore it all day (which is saying something for him... he spends 75% of his time in his underwear, 20% of his time in a shirt and underwear and 5% fully clothed.  No joke).

Ah, these are the kinds of faces I am getting from him lately.

I am loving the look of the raw edges, plus it is always a bonus when I don't have to hem anything!

Daddy is a huge gun fan.  About a year ago he was working on a guy's house who is an area rep for Glock.  Let's just say, that would be his dream job.  So he got to talk guns and the man was nice enough to send him home with some patches and stickers.  I asked him what I should applique Jack's next shirt with and he said the Glock logo.   I looked it up on the internet and got ready to try and draw it when he said why not just use this patch.  Sure, why not?  So I hoped Jack would like it (I made this one last night after he went to sleep)  He loved it.

This is him saying "Okay Mom, now I am done taking pictures, thanks". Such a polite child.

flashback remix.

Big twin a.k.a . Elizabeth has outgrown (or is close to) all of her 6m clothing, so .... time to make new ones!  When I was preggo with them I bought a few outfits as I wasn't sewing at the time and one of my all time favorite dresses I bought was from Carter's.  It was a knit, empire style that hit just below the diaper.  So, tunic length, I suppose.  Plus it was one of the 2 for 1 outfits on the hanger, so there were two coordinating dresses with one diaper cover.  I love to dress them in coordinating outfits, not a fan of identical outfits, just personal prefrence.  So anyway, when I started sewing I knew I wanted to copy it. ... And finally did!  I took the made-by-rae flashback skinny tee pattern and shortened the bodice, made it longer (obviously, ha!), widened the dress part, lowered the front neckline and added to the sleeve to gather it and make it more "girly". Phew! Did you get all that?

My serious little child:)

I used a knit I bought online from girlcharlee (the same one as the blue tee from yesterday) and it was a pain to work with.  Not only did it curl really bad, but I couldn't use it for the neckband! Grr. I tried to use it, but it wouldn't stretch enough.  Yesterday I thought it was something I did wrong when I sewed it on, but nope!  It was the material (though it was my fault, I should have tested it before I sewed it to the shirt).  So anyway, I used a dark purple ribbing for the neck binding.

Gathered in the front...

the back...

And the sleeves.

Then the length.  It is a little long for now, but she is in the smaller range for this size of the pattern so it is a little big around her chest (oh, btw it is the 12m size!).  Though, I guess it can never be too long... because you can always shorten it!  I used just a solid so that I wouldn't "waste" my fun stuff if it didn't turn out like I wanted, but I am really happy with how it turned out and already thinking of other ways to modify this pattern! 

tees for two.

Last week I ordered "Sewing for Boys" , after making Abby's  Zephyr by Figgy's I just knew I would love their book.  I bought it sight unseen because the darn Barne's and Noble in our town has been out of stock on it for months.  But, that is probably a good thing because I would have bought it on the spot and spent a lot more there than I did on Amazon.  The only downside was having to wait for shipping, so when it arrived yesterday I flipped through it and started planning immediately.

Yesterday I made two  badmiton skorts for the twins, but big twin (aka thunder-thighs, aka Izzy) didn't fit in the shorts part of it.  They were meant to be part of their birthday outfits and I was bummed she wouldn't fit. Sigh.  So I needed an easy project, a no-brainer success project.  So I decided to make Jack the "Raw-edged Raglan" from the book. (that I haven't shot a picture of yet) Success. Love, love love! As does he, he was wanting to wear it before I was finished- luckily it only took about 40 minutes from drafting pattern to finished product.

The book says smaller sizes are included, but they aren't.  Just 2/3-6/7.  Then I was looking for inspiration on line and it dawned on me that it was the "tee for two" pattern!  And I remembered Justine "saying" (writing;) that the smaller size range (12m-6/7) was available as a pdf now. Score!! So I downloaded it and printed it off immediately.  So, the twins now also have tees for two!

Georgie in her tee. Though, it turned out looking a lot more boy than I expected.  (the "A" is really a dark purple, not blue like it looks in the picture) She will just have to wear a big bow.  Jack gets so angry when people say they are boy and girl twin, though I think usually people assume Izzy is the boy.  George's eyes look awesome with blue shirts, that is why I chose this, plus sewing during naptime = I use whatever isn't in their room/ my fabric cave. 

Izzy's tee.  So, a little background on the applique.  When you have twins inside you the ultrasound tech/ doctor tend to like to make sure they are keeping the babies seperate, ya know, make sure they aren't measuring the same baby twice.  So they refer to one as baby A and one as baby B.  So, that is why one shirt has the different fabric for A and the second has the B highlighted.  Though, my whole pregnancy the girls were switched, Izzy was A and George was B.  Delivery day came and during labor we literally watched George push her sister out of the way to get out first, so they switched! And the first hours of life in the NICU they were baby A and baby B, since I wasn't able to go down for about six hours they asked Ben which was which and so he got to choose (though I didn't care who got which name). P.S. He did tell me I could change them if I wanted.

So, I have to say, I seriously LOVE photoshop.  This^^ is most of what I captured.  But, one good picture of Elizabeth, and one good picture of Georgia later and I get this...

How did mom's of multiple kids get good pictures pre-digital camera??

So anyway, back to the pattern.  I highly recommed it!! (and the book)  I love the casual, raw edge look.  Plus, bonus, no hemming!! Jack's is a two-toned blue so it is more obvious it is a raglan, but I like theirs too.  The fit is spot on, directions are great and such a quick sew- I made three in one and a half nap-times!

It only took me forever...

Finally. I started these sailboat pants the first week in May... and between sickness, other sewing that "had" to be done, and just a general not wanting to finish them I finally made them.  Not that I don't LOVE the sailboat pattern, I really do!  But something about making them in denim just turned me off. Pretty dresses or colorful bottoms are just so much more fun to make than denim pants.

My sister-in-law has complimented my teal pair I made ages ago a few times so I told her I would make a pair for my niece.  She measured in to the 18m size, but I made her the 2t with button hole elastic in hopes of long wear.  Guess I didn't think too hard about them being long pants in the summer... oops! But I haven't given them to her yet, so maybe they wont be too long. 

The one on the left is 2t and the other two are 12m.  I was also dragging my feet because I recently put the teal pair on each of the girls (different days, of course) and they both still fit very well in to the 6m size.  Hm. But I also put button elastic in their pairs so maybe they can get some use soon. 

And of course new pants need a new shirt.  When I went on my hopscotch kick I made one knowing I wanted to make one for my niece.  Her's is actually the rainbow one with blue ribbing, but I have misplaced it! Uh-oh, I better rip apart my sewing room.  I mean, the twins' room that also houses my sewing crap.

I raided my orphan buttons to find some fun random buttons for the elastic, I thought that was kind of a fun touch!

Now on to something fun!  I am thinking coordinating Swingset tunics .  Izzy has outgrown her 6m RTW clothing and the hand-me-down's in 12m from her big sissy are pretty much non-existent.  Abby basically skipped the 12m range, plus the few things she did have are wintery.  All the girls were summer babies, but Abby was a giant and the twins were teeny, so they are all wrong when it comes to hand-me-down.  Just another excuse to sew;)