Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Andrew's raincoat

This is a size 8 Oliver+S school days rain coat. I used PUL for the outer again, but I bought it from a different place than where I bought the light blue PUL for Daniel's. This PUL didn't want to have button holes put in the front tabs so I made a cord from the lining fabric and used toggle closures instead. I want to put resin snaps on the plackets to hold the front closed but my son never does them up on his corduroy jacket so I probably won't bother. He likes the toggles a lot, they are easy for him to fasten. No modeled pictures yet. It's currently -8 with snow in the forecast :( I'm going to make a fleece insert with sleeves that will button into the lining. This should do him for a fall jacket too. The lining is Henry Glass dogwood, a fun fabric but only about half of mine was usable. The paid print was way off kilter along one selvage.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Curtains for Danno

We got new windows last Fall. Part of the project was making the boys' windows larger and higher off the floor. This was done in October. We also painted the rooms and papered an accent wall in each. Little guy hadn't had any curtains since then. It was fine for the winter since it was dark so early in the evening, but lately it's been almost daylight at bedtime. I couldn't put it off any longer. I bought the supplies for these a couple of weeks ago but I wasn't quite sure how to put them together. I have some printed fabric with cars on it, the same as in the pants I made for him in March. I wanted to incorporate that, but maybe it will have to be an accent pillow. Or, I was thinking I could applique something onto the finished curtains in the vehicles print. His name? Something fun?
He loves orange and it works well with his blue room. I tried and tried to find some ready made curtains in orange that could block light. No luck there. I bought a single sheet set and an oversized light blocking panel from the drapery section. I cut the light blocking panel in half and cut and sewed some of the extra width onto the top to make them longer. I cut the twin flat sheet in half and folded it/pressed it/pinned it around the panels. I made a simple fold across the top to pass the curtain rod through. It was a pretty easy project. Start to finish it was about 3 hours. They work quite well to block light, too. A bonus of using a sheet set is that now he has a fitted sheet and a pillowcase to match his curtains. He woke up this morning at a reasonable time and told us he had a great sleep. Success! Bedtime was smooth last night too.

It's overcast right now, but when the sun shines it's lovely in his room.


This is a before picture, if you are interested. The old window was narrow and very low to the floor. It didn't open large enough to meet code, either. If a fire marshal had seen these (both boys' bedrooms had the same windows) he would have had a fit! Also, this window was broken :\ Just the inner pane. Not sure how it happened, maybe the house shifted a bit.

A lot of structural work had to be done to support the roof over the new windows. The guys at MadDesigns did a fantastic job. Craig did the drywall repair for us overnight so the workers could put the trim on the next day.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

I can't believe I did this

I didn't even know where to begin in matching up this printed fabric when I was cutting my pieces and I guess I just gave up. Once it was sewn it became obvious to me. Ugh. We'll call this one a house dress. Would you wear this out of the house? Next time I have a print like this I will handle it properly, I promise.

This is view A of the new Lisette portfolio dress.


It's a good thing we can learn from our mistakes. I'm usually so careful when I lay out my fabric, but this print was off center and it caught me off guard. My instincts were laughing at me when I was cutting. I knew I was doing it wrong but I kept on going. Why did I do that??? Next time will be better. I'm thinking a rose colored brooch/flower would put a little distance between the prints to balance it and make it less obvious.


The left and right fronts should be a mirror image of each other. It's pretty bad, isn't it? *sigh* Next time..

Pretend you only saw this part. A cardigan will go a long way to cover it too.

Monday, April 4, 2011

1 more Ice Cream dress

When I bought the fabric for Luan's dress I originally had this swirly teal to pair with the plaid. When I got it home and cut it out it looked all wrong. So, I went back to the store and got some more fabric. The first time I got the coordinate that I actually used for Luan's dress and the second time I got a chinese koi pond print that works really well with the swirly teal. I wanted to finish up with the ice cream dress pattern and the pieces I had already cut out so I made up a second dress to put away for later. I'm sure we'll get invited to another birthday this year ;)

It still needs a button, story of my life :)



Once again, top stitching with Aunt Millie is a joy like everything else. She has become my primary sewing machine. I only use my fancy computerized Kenmore to wind Aunt Millie's bobbins, do the basting for gathering and to make buttonholes. Oh, I'm sure I'll use the kenmore for knits, too. One day.


Saturday, April 2, 2011

Portfolio dress for me

It's no secret that I love Oliver+S patterns for my kids. Everything about them is just fabulous. They fit well, look nice and are practical. This spring the same designer released a series of patterns for women via Simplicity. I was hesitant about these patterns since they are Simplicity and I'd not had a good experience with their patterns in the past. I waited for a few people online to sew some of these new patterns up and reports were very good. Simplicity likes to add in extra ease to their patterns and as expected this is how these patterns are too, but not terribly so. I was advised to go down at least 1 size, so I did and I think the result is very nice. I will warn you that this is not fabric I would choose for a dress. This is technically a muslin to see how the fit of the pattern is and I did not want to cut into anything special to do this. The fabric I used is from my friend who cleaned out her sewing cabinet last year and a scrap I had from some doll clothes. It's loud but it kind of works, especially as a beach cover up. My son said he would be able to see me from a mile away.
I made view B of the Portfolio dress and I am very happy with the fit and the construction. I will make at least one more of these and likely a couple in the longer length too.


As I would expect from Oliver+S the details and construction are flawless. I really like this dress. I used my vintage Singer for all construction but I finished a few seams with my serger.


I like these cuffs too, so tidy! And the pockets are brilliant, they disappear and are seamless from the outside.