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.  

   

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Tribal print dress

    Out of that knit fix bag I was mentioning, there was a black and white tribal print that I was drawn to right away. It is also very soft, but not see through. I still had some of that black stretch denim lying around, so it seemed like a match made in heaven. I made Fern a short sleeved dolman style dress out of it, with the denim on the shoulders. It came out very cute.
     I also decided that the pants I was making for myself were not going to happen, and turned them into pants for her! It was such a relief to just stop looking at them and worrying about dealing with mistakes I had made and to allow myself to start fresh on a new project, while at the same time
using some of the work I had done instead of throwing it away. I had made back patch pockets for my pants, which were a little smaller than I had intended them to be, and they were perfect for (almost) 6 year old sized pants. I made them a stretch pants style pant for her, and included a lace tuxedo stripe made from a roll of stretchy lace trim I had picked up somewhere along the lines. I love this little outfit.

Such a huge fan of that double needle

She wore it to school with bloomers instead of the pants when the weather was still warm

     For Christmas, both girls received American Girl dolls from their very generous grandmother. I have explained to them that I will not be purchasing them any of the items in the catalog / store for their dolls, (except possibly the violin; I suppose I have my own weak spots) but that I certainly will sew them some matching clothes. Fern is very keen on matching her doll. So a doll sized version of this is up near the top of my list right now. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Burnout flower dress

    Well, nothing like a little PR&P to get a girl back on her blog! Poor little neglected blog. Oh well, here I am, so let's see, where to begin. I do still sew, I just don't post. I bought a knit fix from Girl Charlee at the end of the summer as some back to school sewing inspiration. It was fun, but it's not within my budget to buy a mixed random bag of fabric every month. I still haven't used the majority of it, but hopefully soon. I did end up with some fabrics that I liked and wouldn't have chosen myself, so that made getting a random bag exciting. I also ended up with some that I am not wild about though; I want to love everything in my cart when I checkout from a fabric shopping experience. There is a facebook group where folks trade and buy / sell items from their knit fix bags, so perhaps I should just hop on and make some trades.

    One of the fabrics that I never would have picked out myself was this pink and brown burnout with brown polka dots. I have to admit I really did not like it at all when I first pulled it out of the bag. It is super soft though, and Althea came over and was totally drawn to it. She had no doubts that was the one she wanted me to make her a dress out of. She actually wanted a nightie, I believe (this girl spends as much time in her pajamas as possible - runs upstairs and changes into jammies the second she gets home lately), but we compromised on a dress for school. I drafted her a sweet little tank dress with cap sleeves and a layered skirt. The burnout is super see through, so I knew the skirt would have to be layered. The whole dress is actually lined with the burnout, and the lining makes the lower layer.
    I believe that at the time I was making it, project run and play was on a month dealing with hand sewing. So that inspired me to add a flower applique and to hand sew around the edge of it, and to add a few little swirls. I never hand sew, so even this little bit was kind of a big deal for me. It was a hit; the dress is now her flower dress.

 The top of the dress is a brown knit of some sorts; an old Tshirt probably. And I like how it came out. The fabric has grown on me. It is hard to argue with the softness of it all. It is so light weight that the edge rolls up a bit since I left it unhemmed, but I think I like it that way.

       


 
     She was very happy with it, and wore it on a constant rotation this fall, so it's a win!

Upcycle First Day Dress

   We are super lucky to have in our family a set of twin girls who are two and a half years older than my oldest. They also have an older sister, and multiple female cousins on another side of their family. So we get ridiculous amounts of clothes handed down the line to us. Which is awesome. We have a lot of the basics covered and just have to supplement their wardrobes with occasional items (that I sew for the most part). On occasion, there is also an adult item included in the bag of goodies that gets passed along to us. It is very kind of my aunt to think that I can fit into her clothes, but generally that's not the case. She has great taste though, and there was one really fun tank top that Fern loved. So I turned it into a dress for her! Refashions of that nature are so quick and satisfying. She adores the dress and wore it on the first day of school (among hundreds of other occasions).

 As close as she dared to get to the swan

First day of school! With Daddy and Althea (and some grapes from the yard!)

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!

Mes Deux Demoiselles

Project Run and Play is really proving to be inspiring and fun for me so far this year, and it is only in its second month! I started this month not sure if I would join in- it is SO COLD here the Mademoiselle Muscle Tee from Living With Punks wasn't speaking to me at first. But having the whole month is enough time to let ideas bounce around in my head and start to meld with other things that have been inspiring me.

Two of my first projects of this year were, maybe not complete failures, but certainly a chance for me to eat my words  (I had told my SIL over Christmas that my sewing is going great and things are generally turning out as I intend them to). I rarely sew for my husband, so I figured for his birthday in January I could whip up a quick pair of grey sweats to replace his favorite, completely worn out, pair of Champions. The combination of that zero stretch sweatshirt fleece (which caught me off guard, I didn't realize there wasn't any stretch at all in something so comfortable) and the fact that I was sewing for him and not a five year old girl really got me off my game. I did finish them and he wears them daily, but they required a full crotch adjustment, several mouthfuls of words I don't want my kids to learn and about five times as much time as I thought I would spend on them.

I am also in the midst of sewing myself a pair of jeans, which I thought I could wing using a pattern I have for stretch pants. Alas, I added much more than necessary to the pattern when I cut it out, used flat felled seams for the crotch when I started sewing and already put in a fancy false zipper with the double needle and have come to realize that the fit is terrible and I am going to have to seam rip those nicely finished areas to make up for it. Ugh.

So I hope these things can just come in twos and that I don't have a third sewing disaster in my near future. In the meantime, I had the excess black stretch denim from my jeans lying next to a spontaneous purchase I had made of a couple yards of this lovely peony print knit that was on a sale rack by the cutting counter (I am such a sucker for this; I just about always impulse buy a yard or so of something whenever I go into JoAnn's). They looked so nice together, I figured they would be making an appearance sooner or later. Then I went back to JoAnn's to take advantage of a sale to get set up for another project I have been dreaming of, and the remnants were 50% their 50% price, so ....
a yard and a half of this lovely stretchy white lace made it into my basket. I also had a red knit shirt in my repurpose pile, which capped off my pile of inspiration (I LOVE being inspired by fabrics):

With all of this coordinating fabric I started planning a mini collection instead of just one item.

So far I have complete three of these items, so without further ado:

Mes Deux Demoiselles

Althea (on the right) is wearing a dress with the muscle tank as the bodice in black stretch denim and an a-line skirt made from the peony knit. 

The bodice has one of the peonies cut out and appliqued to it (with a straight stitch since the knit doesn't fray) on top of an appliqued lace heart (attached with a zigzag of white thread). 

The neck and arm trim is sewn on in the style of quilt binding, meaning that I folded a strip of fabric in half, and first sewed it to the inside of the garment instead of the outside. Then I folded the trim out and over the seam line and sewed it again from the outside of the garment, there by enclosing the seam. (The denim would have frayed otherwise). I used the salvage for the bottom hem of the dress - I like how there is a thin edge of white along this edge (only the opposite salvage bore the designers info).

As you can see, she can move really well in it!

  Fern is wearing two items: a Mademoiselle muscle tank with the front and back pattern pieces cut and pasted a bit. She also has a simple half circle skirt with a two inch waist band.

  She was very jealous when I finished her sister's dress, and was coveting the appliques. Althea declared herself "The rose princess" when she first tried on the dress, and although Fern's skirt was already done, she was so sad that she didn't have a shirt to match. This led to a big discussion of being happy with what you have and choosing happiness over sadness. It also led me to add a flower heart to Fern's shirt. I hadn't been planning to do this; I didn't want them to be total twinsies (although the same print on the skirt and skirt of the dress means they basically already are). But it is a cute addition I think, and this shirt will be great over some stretch pants.

 Worn with the skirt, I think it looks best tucked in. 

 The lace on the shoulders and the back bodice are all one piece: I folded down the arms on the front bodice and cut out the red knit like that. Then, I trace the folded section onto a separate piece of paper, cut it out and taped this onto the back bodice piece. (I know it would have been easier to cut the pattern piece itself, but now I have it still in one piece for next time)

      I added the neck and arm trim the same way I did it on the dress (sewing it to the inside of the shirt, folding over and stitching again to the outside, enclosing the seam) because I thought you would see the red raw edge through the lace. But I actually think I should have just done it as the tutorial recommends. Both of these fabrics are so fine, they laid down nicely along the seam and wouldn't have posed a fraying problem. They weren't very noticeable through the lace either. Seeing as I had already sewed them on backwards though, I proceeded as planned. This resulted in such a thick pile of fabric stacked on top of itself in the hems that there is some bunching now. 

      Well, now I know for next time! This is a great pattern that my girls are still growing into - it fit a little larger than expected on them, but I would always rather have it that way then too small!
      They love their "rose princess outfits" and now will get to enjoy them for years to come!

Thanks for stopping by!