Huggable loveable (sentimental) fleece

      I am certainly a fleece addict. I have spoken about this before. I can't help it. So soft. Such fun prints. Such a quick sew with results that turn my kids into the most squeezable cozy little things around. When it is cold (which it typically is around here for several months out of the year - this year is not a shining example of this) they will go head to toe in fleece outfits. I might have to admit to doing the same thing myself in the name of pajamas when we are lounging around the house.
      So far this winter, I have made fleece leggings for myself (in a killer multicolored leaf print), for my husband (yup, leggings for him; he can wear them under his work pants - I even included a fly flap! black of course) and for each of my four nieces and nephews. I also made a cowl neck sweatshirt for my sister in law, and, point of this post, outfits for both of my girls at Christmas time.  I will have to come back another time to show you all the fun things I did with fleece on Halloween. So there is a small taste of my addiction. Not one I am even trying to shake however.
      Two years ago I made both girls fleece dresses and they still wear them, but the fit is getting pretty tight. It was time to update. I kind of wanted to make them look like little elves on Christmas and the younger one is totally into it. She was happy with me choosing all of the design elements of this outfit (we agreed together that she wanted a hood to snug up in). So she got a pointy, gnome-like hoodie in a plaid print. The front waist line is rounded, meaning that it arches up in the center. It is subtle though and can be hard to notice in the pictures. The skirt portion of the hoodie is cut on the bias for interest of the print direction. There is also a high-low hem that ended up being more dramatic than I intended, but I have decided I like it.

 I didn't even hem the bottom of this one. I planned to, but after she tried it on, 

then refused to take it off for a while, I realized it doesn't bother me. Fleece! Gotta love it. 

       

    Another thing I am becoming addicted to are heart shaped knee patches. So simple, so cute, so much more fun than plain solid colored pants.

           My older daughter wasn't willing to ride the hoodie train like her sister, so we moved away from the gnome / elf feel a bit on hers. Instead we went with a big cozy cowl-ish collar attached to a dress with a full skirt. The cowl is a contrasting fabric, which I like - it seems like she is wearing an infinity scarf. I used a long sleeve t-shirt pattern from an ottobre magazine as the base for both of these, hacked a bit obviously. On this dress I tried to hack it into a v shaped front waistline but that didn't work for me. Perhaps the fabric was just too bulky? Or else I should have cut the skirt differently. I ended up have to flatten it out a bit which added some extra fullness to the skirt in the form of those gathers that you can see in the picture below.

    I also made her some green fleece leggings with red knee patches. 

 You better believe there are heart patches under there!

     I really was drawn to this cardinal print fleece. It was a different kind of fleece; anti-pill instead of blizzard I guess; or maybe it was even micro fleece. Point being that it was even softer than the other stuff. 

     But mostly this is a sentimental thing for me. My whole family loves cardinals. My grandfather always loved them, along with anything red. Since he passed, we always seem to see cardinals hovering about when we are all together, particularly on special occasions, and we all agree that it seems to be his way of watching over us. This December we lost my grandmother. She had been experiencing dementia and kept forgetting that he was no longer alive, so she was constantly seeking him out. She was missing him so much. The last time I saw her, she spoke to me as if she were on the phone with me, not in the same room, holding my hand. She seemed to be holding two conversations; one with me and one with him. As if she were actually with him at the time and talking to me from across a divide. And soon afterwards she was finally able to rejoin him completely. Eleven of us spoke at her funeral. My brothers words brought happy tears to my eyes, as he asked us all to picture the joyous reunion the two of them were having. Shortly after my grandmother died, my mom had a male and female cardinal pair visiting her bird feeders. I have always loved watching cardinal pairs. They seem to have such strong bonds, neither wanting to stray far from its partner. A perfect image to frame in a heart. And possibly a reminder to treasure these kids, while they are so sweet and young, and are so unencumbered in their love for us, before all of these moments just go racing by.  

   

 Thanks for stopping by.

Fi Na Ly - more fleecy fun

   Some time this fall I stocked up on awesome fleece prints when it was crazy cheap at... where else- I need to broaden my horizons in terms of fabric shopping, but JoAnn's is so close by, the sales / coupons are so tempting, I know the layout of the store - for now I'm hooked. 

   And those prints are finally turning into some garments. It's cold enough outside, I'm not too sure what took me so long. I suppose I go in rounds of what I am inspired to do - cooking / baking / preserving; practicing violin (I'm teaching myself and it is slow going but very fun! When this school year ends and we don't have two kids in preschool anymore - because Fern is going into Kindy next year yikes! perhaps I will finally take some lessons); dance / yoga; researching / reading; office time; cleaning ? (am I ever inspired to clean? I don't know if I'd say that, but it has to happen every once in a while); back around to sewing. All the while trying to fit in outdoor time on a regular basis, and of course play time, library time, gymnastics....insert kid activity here. So I guess I do know why things take time. 

    This past week I went on a rampage of hoodies! One for each of the girls, and one for me. They think their father needs one as well, but I explained that his taste doesn't extend to the range of prints and colors that I like to use for the rest of us. He's mostly grey and brown, navy and green, while we are plum and pink with bikes and bright orange with birds and flowers. 

     Here is Fern's: (Althea's is exactly the same except for slightly shorter sleeves and different colors)

        We've got your basic raglan hoodie, drawstring hood and reverse kangaroo pockets.

We've also got thumbholes. Yes! I love thumbholes. The girls are pretty appreciative of them too right now. 

I got some pocket inspiration from Vera luna; I wanted to do something different than your average kangaroo pocket (they love finding their other hand inside the pocket, so the kangaroo was for sure). Especially since this print is so fun, why cover it up?

This was a good way to do it, and you get the added bonus of an extra pop of color at the side. 

It is so simple too; especially with fleece - so forgiving when there is no fray. I held the bodice up to one of the girls, figured where the pocket should go, then cut it out. Then just fold the edge of the pocket over about 1/4 inch and sew it in place. Then I added a big rectangle of the pocket fabric to the inside of the bodice piece as in the picture below. 

     It needed to be stitched across the top, but the sides and bottom were attached when the sweatshirt was sewn together and hemmed. Very simple. 

    I have been finishing my seams with fleece by opening up the fabric in the seam allowance and sewing each side down. I think it looks nice on the outside as well on the inside; it also makes for a flatter and more comfortable seam allowance.

        I made mine very similar to theirs. I traced a loose fitting knit raglan shirt and lengthened the sleeves. I free-styled the hood and made the front edge come out much farther than the one I traced. I also added long "arms" to the front of the hood that wrapped around the front of the shirt for a slight shawl collar feel.

 I also used the reverse pocket idea on mine, but in order to avoid the seam going all the way across the middle of the shirt, and also to save some fabric, I didn't do a full kangaroo pocket. Instead I kept the pockets more like the ones on my inspiration shirt. I have been wearing this hoodie almost every day (ok, I have actually worn it for part of every single day since I finished it - 5 days in a row and counting). The pockets are perfect; nice and deep to just drop stuff into them, they hold my phone without it ever falling out and keep my hands nice and cozy.

         I did actually make a couple things earlier in the season. At the end of November, I made a little dress for my two year old niece's birthday.

     I used the same pattern I had made for Althea's Red Riding Hood dress.  It has side seam pockets, a hood with a drawstring (a ribbon with little froggy buttons tied on!) and is a fleece dress- perfect for winter time. I'm not sure if I love keeping the sleeves attached to the bodice though. It saves a couple steps, but can end up a little hard to take on and off. 

   There were also some elf slippers for the girls, but I think that will wait for another time. I'll sign off with the girls dressed head to toe in this weeks sewing fun! Yay!

  This week marks the end of Project Sewn; they are already on their Signature Style week. There has been some really fun and inspiring stuff going on over there. I tend to sew more for the kiddos, but it is fun to try to sew for myself as well. It's definitely harder though. The wrong fit can kill it (or require a lot more work) when I sew for myself. The girls are pretty easy to fit, not to mention aren't very picky about things that don't fit perfectly (if it is pretty).
    I had some success the other night though that I was very happy with. I had some very soft knit material that I wanted to use to make a copy of an old favorite pair of pants that I love. They are wide legged "skirt pants" (as named by Fern) that have a wide foldover waistband. They are total lounging pants but I dress them up sometimes with a nice top and shoes and feel they serve my purpose well. Comfortable and flattering equals perfect in my book. And sewing more with knits has been something I've been working on. I was using exclusively woven cotton until recently. My new machine has some new stitches to try out which is exciting. I've also been learning more of what I don't know through reading other folks notes online.
    So I laid my pants out onto some paper and tried to trace them and make some pattern pieces without cutting them up. The old ones are a little pill-y but definitely still have some life left in them as house pants.  It worked great! I made a pattern piece for the leg and cut two; assembling them by first stitiching the crotch seams then closing the leg inseam. I didn't use a stretch stitch for either of these as the pants don't really need to stretch much vertically. I just used a straight stitch, then played with all of the fun types of decorative zig-zagging I now can do on the inseam seam allowance to finish that seam. And I did a flat-felled seam for the crotch seams. Note to self: remember that while flat felled seams certainly do make a very sturdy and finished looking seam to use for that part of your pants, you ARE actually top stitching right down the front of your new pants whilst you do so, so don't be to lazy to match your thread! Realized that about 20 seconds too late (yes I am definitely too lazy to take the seam ripper to a seam that is already 1/3 sewn, especially when doing so would very likely leave behind some carnage on the remaining fabric, front and center). I made the waist band by measuring a large rectangle about 2 inches shy of the diameter of the waist of the pants as they were sewn thus far (my pants were 31 so I cut my waist band 29). The other dimension of my rectangle was whatever I had for fabric, probably 10-11 inches. I then sewed the short edges of the rectangle together, decreasing my waistband length further to about 28 -28 1/2 inches. Then folded it in half lengthwise and attached to the pants, easing in the larger waist and stretching the waistband as I went. Here, I sewed with a stretch stitch which is a new feature to me. Worked great. The waist looks great, isn't too tight as I feared and keeps the pants nice and secure but comfortable. Final step was to hem the legs by folding twice and sewing a fancy wide zig zag.

Finished them last night; wore them all day today while driving to and from school and the Y and catching a yoga class. And there they are, already wrinkled and dirty. (They may have started off not completely unwrinkled - some double negatives for you to sort out and find my guilt). No less comfortable then they started out though, let me tell ya. They do justice to my favorite old pair; and they make me want to make several more pairs now that I know my lil pattern works. Alas, I blew my fabric budget for the time being at JoAnn's the other day during a sale they were having. 

I wore these pants today with a fleece dress that I finished several weeks ago and intended to present along with a pair of boots that I love in the project sewn "if the shoe fits week". They had an entire challenge dedicated to sewing an outfit based on / inspired by a favorite pair of your shoes! I love that idea. I am going to keep that in my back pocket if I am feeling short of inspiration sometime in the future (the mental whiteboard is chock full at the moment though, I love that feeling of overflowing with ideas). Anyway, I had decided to sew this dress in November when I picked up fleece for a dress for everyone. For my adult version I used Collette's Laurel pattern. I have used it once before and liked the result. This was a very different experience since my fabric choice was so different (the first time I used a heavy linen). I added on seam pockets, an oversized turtle neck / cowl type collar, lengthened the sleeves and added some leather patches on the elbows and shoulders.

I spent a lot of time thinking about the leather patches. I was really excited to sew with leather, had my special needles in hand, couldn't wait to see how the new machine would handle it. But I didn't want to overdo it. I was originally thinking elbow and shoulders, but it seems like a lot. A lot of sweaters you see with shoulder patches just do one (to reinforce it where you will be laying your rifle I do believe), so I decided to go with one. Then I couldn't stop with a plain square patch, so I angled the corners and cut some diamond shapes out of it. Then I had some cute little diamond cut outs, so I sewed them onto the opposite shoulder in a negative image of the other. Then I made the elbow patches diamond shaped as well. I think it jazzes it up a bit, and I know that sewing with leather was exhilerating! It was so easy! Sally (I think that is going to be her name) the babylock went through it like butter!

Fern took the following pictures for me; I think they came out pleasantly blurred. 

 

 I also like how those pictures show the shape of the dress. The back darts are a key feature to making an otherwise very boxy dress seem a bit feminine. I originally made this dress longer; I think I just maxed out the fabric when I chose a length. It was very cozy but the static generated when I wore anything underneath it was intolerable. Even with a satin slip in between. I was concerned about this, but hemming about three inches off the bottom solved my issue. I know I will always want to have something underneath, so going to short wasn't an issue (if it's warm enough to wear without pants, it's probably too warm to wear it at all). I was surprised to see that hemming made such a drastic difference. I used the same fancy zig zag stitch to hem as I did on the pants. Love that stitch! Now that it is hemmed, I think I've decided that I like it. I have been wavering a lot, although I will admit that with the temperatures the way have been this winter, I have sure reached for it a lot and layered it on. I can also confirm that I receive extra requests for cuddles when I wear this. We are all getting some miles out of our fleece dresses!

  It's an exciting time of year in the land of sewing blogs! Project Run and Play time! (A really fun spoof on Project Runway that takes place online as a sew-off between bloggers that sew for their kids). The main reason I started this blog was to be able to participate in sew alongs like this one, and to be able to comment on all the amazing things that I see others posting. There are so many incredibly inspirational acts of sewing happening out there! I don't know if I will be able to sew along every week since we have a little trip coming up, but I will try for at least three out of four.
   I was a little late catching on to the start date and themes of this season, but fortunately the theme for week one is "Winter Wonderland." This fit nicely with some sewing projects that I already had planned and designed and was set to sew. I mentioned before that I went a little nuts at Joann's during a fleece sale they had in early November. Dresses for all of us was what I had in mind, and potentially some leggings as well, because who doesn't want a pair of fleece leggings when it is 5 degrees outside?
So here are the girls in their dresses!

I posted about Althea's Red Riding Hood dress already, so I will just talk about Fern's Unicorn dress right now. I was trying to encourage them to pick a solid color of fleece at the store, but she fell in love with the unicorn print instantly (not surprised!) and was so enthusiastic about it that we compromised and got about 1/2 yard of the print and picked a coordinating color to make up the rest of the yardage. I love the result! I drafted the pattern myself and gave it a shawl collar, wide Aline skirt, on seam pockets and color blocked cuffs and skirt length. I also decided to make her a unicorn hat to match the one I made her sister for halloween, since she wears that hat all the time. You can't tell from the above picture since she wisely decided to wear her mud boots outside for these pictures, but she also has some color blocked fleece leggings to go along with the outfit. (Somehow head-to-toe fleece seems less absurd to me when I dress them in it then if I were to do the same for myself)

This was the first time I added a shawl collar to anything and it came together much more simply than I had been bracing myself for. I should have been focusing more attention on the sleeves probably, than the collar because they ended up getting a little bit awkward on me. It looks like there are some shoulder pads in there. This is a case where it would probably have been easier on myself if I were not too cheap to buy a pattern like the Bimaa Pattern I have read so many wonderful things about (which isn't expensive, but I have this stubborn streak where I always want to try figuring out the math of sewing myself instead of forking it over for patterns).

Nonetheless, she is so enamored with this fabric that she loves the dress no matter what. And that is why she gets to come to the store to pick out fabric with me! I am happy I got that white unicorn front and center right beneath the collar.

The dress is very long as you can see, and the cuffs are folded in half right now, so hopefully it will continue to fit her for a while!

Here she is in our "winter wonderland" reality: our muddy / wet / frozen ice skating rink of a back yard. She was quite excited to be Princess Unicorn out there though, on her Unicorn Skating Rink (until she fell in a big puddle and completely soaked herself; then indoors we went for some hot chocolate).

Here are her leggings poking out under her dress:  

And here they are on their own:

I didn't have enough pink fleece for the pants, but fortunately I had one scrap left over from the purple fleece dress I made Fern last year that was big enough to make up the difference. I like that it goes along with the pink / purple theme of the outfit but is a little bit different and continues the theme of color blocking. I used some purple elastic for the waist which is basically just top-stitched right onto the waist line. I modified a pattern I made for her last summer which was created by disecting a pair of stained pants that fit her well. I did end up adding a little bit extra to the top of the rear of the pants before adding the waist band after having her try them on and squat down for me. She's a princess, not a plumber. I didn't hem the cuffs on these pants. I love how fleece provides that option. I did use a flat felled seam for the crotch, and am very happy with that. It looks neat, lays flat on the inside and hopefully will hold up to wear well.

 And Althea of course needed to try on her sister's unicorn hat

Althea also got some fleecies to go under that red dress. It's hard to read the coloring here, but the pants are a dark hunter green which was the fleece that I chose for my dress. The hearts are red scraps from her dress. So now she can where them together without being too ridiculously matchy matchy. I love these little pants. They look much more finished than Fern's - although you can get away without hemming fleece, it does look nice when you do. There is a couple inches of extra length basted up in a hem on the bottom of the leg (I probably wouldn't have bothered doing it, but the extra length was sliding under her feet when she tried them on). I didn't want to lose any of the height of the waist, so I added a fleece waist band that is encasing a 1/2 " wide elastic which is a slightly shorter length than the rest of the waist band. These pants have a flat felled seam at the crotch as well. I'm hoping to get a few years out of them! 

Here's a little parting shot of the back pleat on the red dress!

I hope to be posting a little more frequently now that the holidays are over. Let's see what the new year will bring!

  FLEECY FLASHBACK!!

  The fleece dress I made for Althea that was the star of my last post was very much inspired by this dress I made for Fern last year.

Fern is one of those fancy little girls that wants to wear a beautiful dress every day of her life. I thought all little girls were like that, but her sister actually isn't. At the age of 2, she is thus far a bit more practical. We shall see if that holds out. Anyways, I saw a version of this dress and a pattern for it on pinterest, and it basically inspired me to break out that dusty 'ol sewing machine and climb on the sewing horse for the first time in quite a while. This dress is great. She provided a well done tutorial as well, which was just what I needed to really inspire me to go to the fabric store and get myself ready to sew. The only thing I would do different next time is sew the collar on with the seam facing the inside of the dress. She has it facing outside, I assume because there is a chance you would be able to see the seam when the collar is turned way out, ie:

but we never have it turned out THAT much. It confuses my husband greatly; he always wants to turn the dress inside out. He's right, it is does tend to look like a mistake, can you see it poking out there:

I recently decided it is driving me crazy enough that I am going to turn it into a french seam; quick fix. 

Aside from that simple detail though, everything is very well explained and easy to follow. And I am so happy she has this dress to feel fancy AND WARM in! Sometimes she uses it as a coat. She wore it quite a bit last year and it still fits fine. The above photo was taken this year, while the others were last year at this time. 

So I am very thankful to Un Petit Design for providing me with both the pattern and inspiration to start sewing things for my kids! I am so happy that I remembered how much I enjoy sewing while my girls are still so small and fun to sew for (and I am still staying home with them, providing more time for sewing!)

I am also planning on making myself a fleece dress soon. I think it will be a Laurel with leather patches mixed in and long sleeves. (I made a Laurel this summer and I find it very cute and flattering.) And Fern picked out some unicorn fleece, so she has another fleecy number in the works as well. It sure is cold out there; these can't get finished fast enough! 

(Unfortunately I can't even think about starting them until after Christmas though. Let's see if I can squeeze them both in between Christmas and New Years!) 

Here's some parting shots: I think a year made rather a lot of difference in that cute little face. It certainly made a huge difference that I notice every time she opens her mouth. 

I wasn't expecting four to be so old!

We've got a birthday girl in our house! This little doll turned two years old on Sunday. Of course it blows our minds that the time has gone this fast, but it is strange to me because she also seems so old sometimes. She has been mistaken for 3 by several people this fall. I am glad to say that she is still my baby though, and prefers to be rocked to sleep and even slept on my back in a baby carrier while I cooked dinner tonight. 

     Whenever we asked her what she wanted for her birthday ahead of time, she would reply "Happy Birthday to you! Blow out candles!" Oh, if we could all have the mentality of a two year old, with no concept of wanting things you don't have; with our highest hopes being that someone will sing us a song.
     Nonetheless, she did get a few things aside from cake and happy birthday. Including her little red riding hood / snowy day / gnome birthday dress!

     I am in love with this dress. It is made out of anti-pill red fleece which was just on sale at JoAnn's. She picked out the color and I bought one yard for $3. I made the pattern piece myself by tracing her and then laying a knit dress that fits her over my tracing and adjusting a bit.

The pattern piece included the bodice, skirt and sleeves, so all I did was cut two on the fold for a front and back. It ended up being much wider than I realized, so I included a pleat on the front, and an inverted pleat on the back. 

 

 I had been planning to leave the front plain so that I could attach a big kangaroo pocket shaped as an animal or something to make her smile. I ditched that idea when I added the pleats, but I like the overall effect of the plain red dress a lot. I added big on-seam side pockets because it certainly couldn't be pocket-less for this treasure hunting girl. You can see her hands stuffed in them here: 

(along with some canine photo bombing)

   The hood is just a large rectangle folded in half and angled slightly so that the point would be more prominent, then stitched up the back. I folded the front edge in about an inch to make a casing and stitched it down. I used some metal grommets for holes for the drawstring and attached the hood to the dress. One of dad's shoelaces works as a drawstring for now.

   I love fleece for several reasons, the main two being coziness and the fact that it doesn't unravel at all. So I didn't even bother hemming the sleeves or bottom and only tucked in the front of the hood once. I didn't even finish the seams that I did sew, so this little dress was a VERY fast sew. And for $3 with fabric to spare, this was very satisfying.

   My favorite thing about it, is that she loves it too. She didn't want to wear it when she first saw it, then was cold a little later and asked for a blanket. I asked if she wanted to wear her new blanket dress and she said YES! Then didn't take it off all day.

   Today, after her nap she came to me crying "riding hood!" wanting to wear it again. Of course I obliged her and my heart sang. Great birthday present for mama whose birthday is the day after Althea's. (I got a birthday dress too, I'll post that once I actually take a picture or two of it). I love watching her walk around in this little ensemble, and knowing that it keeps her nice and toasty on the chilly early winter days we are experiencing. I also love that she chose red and will fit right in with the colors of the holiday season.

 

  

Happy Thanksgiving!!