easy, breezy summer skirts

Asha was in need of some skirts that came down to her knees.  Now that she is old enough to start middle school next month, she is not so excited to model the clothes anymore.  Can you tell?     

skirt one

fabric: Walmart calico, 100% cotton

pattern: Holiday Girl Clothes, view19

size:140

skirt two

Alison gave me the four tiered skirt piece a while back.  I hemmed the side seam and put cotton/lycra knit on for the waist band.

skirt three

fabric: heavier poly/cotton blend that used to be Scott's mom's jumper

pattern: Holiday Girl Clothes, view 18

size 140

Skirt and Blouse

  Patterns:  Girly Style Wardrobe (skirt)            

            New York Style kids clothes (blouse)

Fabric:  Liberty of London

             Linen and Japanese lawn

Size:  130 & 120

Finally getting back to the sewing machine.  This is my favorite skirt pattern and it is a joy to sew on such delicious fabric!  

Camisole

fabric: my sister's old skirt
pattern: Sweet Girl Clothes, view f
size: 140

There is nothing more satisfying than giving another life to a beautiful piece of clothing. This was my sister's skirt from her early teen years. I left the side seams and the bottom hem intact.

Christmas Dresses

Pattern:  millimilli

Size:  110 cm, 120 cm

Fabric:  textured cotton knit from Haberman's

This is the same pattern I used for Christmas two years ago, it is a simple joy to sew up and so comfortable to wear.  I did not have enough fabric so the sleeves were slightly flared then cropped.  Also, this knit was a lot more loose and drapey than I expected so I added a back tie (there was not enough fabric left for a bow).  The hardest part of this dress is sourcing just the right fabric......I'm starting now to look to make them again for Easter.

Halloween

Asha was a journalist. A french kind. I made the jacket as you saw in the previous post. She made the "press" tag. Bryan generously gave her several vintage cameras to complete the look.

Jerome was the Grim Reaper. Although I didn't use any Japanese pattern to make it, I thought I will add it just because. I made a simple tube skirt with a draw string, a top on a bias, and attatched a hood. Scott's sister, Karine, gave me some black remnants from her project, so there was no cost. Because I draped everything straight on the body, the fit was great. Jerome made the sythe with card board, aluminum foil, and duck tape.

Cropped jacket for Asha

Last year I made a goal to challenge myself physically and see if I could get back in shape before I turn forty. I am not going to bore you with the details here, but let's just say it has been a journey. As it turns out, I am not good at managing two projects, and sewing had been put on hold... until this past week.

In August we took a trip to Banff and surrounding national parks as a family. On one of the harder hikes, I was trying to make conversations with Asha in a desparate attempt to distract myself from the huff and puff. The topic of Haloween costumes came up. Before I knew it, I had committed to sewing Asha a jacket. Who knew being in nature with people you love could make you do such things.

Fast forward to last week...

I turned to my new sewing book I got from Japan titled "Sweet Girls Clothes" and choose style V in size 140. Here are the measurements the book gives for size 140. Height 140cm, chest 68cm, waist 57cm, hip 73cm. I think it is a smaller size 10. This is what the cover of the book looks like.

I used denim from my stash.

To minimize bulk, and to keep the project interesting, I tried my hand at a Hong Kong seam. Changing the thread back and forth got tedious, but I love the end result.

A picture of the jacket complete with the rest of her Halloween costume is coming in the next post.

Birthday Dress

Book:  Sweet Girl Clothes

Size:  120 cm

Fabric:  Cotton calico and white cotton pique for the yoke

This dress was a gift for my daughter's 6th birthday.  Just this summer we moved to a farm so I've been a bit busy for sewing, but she had to have a dress dress for her birthday and I had to try out this new book.  

I don't have my sewing room set up yet so most of it was done on the living room floor with young children crawling and running around and a on top of the workings.  This does not make for very accurate sewing or tracing.  It turns out I made a large error in tracing the wrong neckline for the dress, I traced  style S not D.  I did correct the mistake but it did cost me some time.  Speaking of time, I thought this dress would be a quick sew-up but I was wrong.  I had it cut out the night before and was hoping to sew it up in just two hours in the morning, it actually took me about 4 1/2 hours and kind of wish I spent more time playing with my daughter on her birthday than sewing.  But she was happy with the product and wore it two days in a row.  

I had originally planned to use a brown and white cotton pin stripe but the barely 6 year old girl objected.  I've learned to sew to their liking otherwise I waste both time and resources, she picked out the yellow calico from my stash and we both were pleased with the result.

This dress is two pieces, a straight line dress with yoke and skirt apron on top.  We used fabric covered buttons for the yoke.  I can't say it was a joy to sew up with limited time, but it was a joy to see her celebrating in the finished product.  I'm sure this dress will see many days of wear!

Sweet Girl Clothes

Marie' went to Japan this summer and came back with this book.  Just the thing I needed to get back at sewing "sweet girl clothes".

Sizes: 100cm - 140cm (plus a few styles for an adult)

This is a great book with styles moving from summer into Fall.  Thanks Marie'!

Baby robe and pants

Book:  Lockstitch baby, style #7 & #15

Size:  70 cm

Fabric:  Knit

What I love most about Japanese patterns is the simplicity of the design and construction.  The fit is usually good but in the case of the robe I believe it was a bit off so I had to make some adjustments.  Again I discovered that in these books any garment not photographed on a live human tends to have an fitting issue.  Here is what it looked like before the adjustment:

I believe it was way too wide.  Since I decided to line to the edge I simply top stitched through both layers and made a casing for elastic to pull in the sides.  And I think it looks quite pretty now.  Here is the back:

Since I made the pants before I know they are a great fit.  I just had trouble with the hemline stretching out a bit.  Also I forgot to reinforce the snaps and had to unpick them and fuse some squares of fabric underneath to prevent the snaps from tearing out of the knit.

And because I love cute Japanese design I had to throw in some cute little Japanese tights in with the outfit.

Easy little jacket

This jacket was inspired by one of our favorite Japanese pattern designers Iroha.  Unfortunately she has shut down her shop and is no longer offering patterns.  The pattern is really quite simple though, just two rectangles.

Marie' and I will work on our own instructions and recommended measurements if there is interest here.

This one was made out of a cotton/Lycra interlock from Yellow Bird Fabrics in Salt Lake City.  I'm offering a bunch of photos here so you can see how the jacket changes to the shape of the wearer (please excuse the awkward modeling and photo taking skills of my 5 and 7 years olds).

Back:

Side:

Neckline:

Drapes over the shoulder:

Closure:

Would love to make another one out of this from Emmaonesock.