urban babies wear black

Earlier this week, I was staring at a few scraps black rayon challis left from a black maxi dress I made for myself. You know the conversation: can I really use these for anything or should I toss them? Often I use my scraps for K, but black? Then I remembered that actually I quite like her in black.  

Then I thought it would be awfully ridiculous if she had a black maxi dress too.

And I remembered this silly gag book. And I thought about how even more hilarious it would be if I photographed her in the dress doing the stuff in the book.

So here is my urban baby wearing black and drinking a latte.

I don't have to tell you it's not really coffee, right? It's apple juice. Organic, obviously, because we're urban.

And here's my urban baby on the way to the playground.

(OK, the playground isn't actually in the book, but urban babies do in fact go to the playground every day.)

And here she is taking a taxi at the end of a busy day.

(OK, we actually walked home, because that's what urban babies do, but I knew at this partcular time of day, ie prayer time for the mosque around the corner, there would be cabs parked outside our house and I couldn't resist staging it.)

So is this the most ridiculously impractical little thing you've ever seen or what? But otherwise the fabric would have gone in the trash and the popover pattern is so very easy, I thought it was all worth a little fun. And in her hair is a matching hair bow, because everything we do now has to have a matching hair bow.

Happy Easter!

Easter was a dreary affair this year, so we don't have any grassy Easter-y pictures of the dress. I kept it a little simple this year with a dress in some Japanese lawn from my stash. The fabric's sheerness did nothing for the print, so I paired it with some soft yellow shirting to enrich the color.  

 The facings and construction of this dress made lining it seem a little complicated, so I underlined the entire dress in the yellow shirting, which gave it a hand similar to double gauze. I used French seams throughout and clipped carefully at the inside corners. The facings are in the dress fabric edged with a little strip of ivory voile bias. It's as lovely on the inside as the out, so I can't imagine why I didn't snap a picture of the inside. I used simple shell buttons down the back.

The Birthday Party dress is actually a perfect Easter dress. It's generally chillier than you'd like and you have to cover the pretty dress with a sweater, which stinks if you have a nice bow in the back. But the Birtday Party dress has all the lovely details in the front, visible even under a little sweater.

We even found a matching ribbon in the stash.

The gloomy weather did nothing to quell the children's spirits, though, and they even managed to have a super quick egg hunt before the rain really came down. Thank you, Easter Bunny!

I've got a brand new pair of roller skates*

Saturday morning, I had a photo shoot for that big project I've been working on and only hinting at here. I was anxious to spend the rest of the weekend working on the Easter dress K has been asking for. But on Saturday afternoon, my new patterns arrived ahead of schedule and so I had to quickly whip up this little confection.

The new Oliver + S Roller Skate dress is my new favorite. It was the perfect antidote to the long, complex project I'm finishing. Even with matching stripes and French seams, this project only took a few hours. Yet, it's  absolutely charming. This is instant gratification at its best.

When I handed this to her last night, K squealed, grabbed the dress and hugged it close. When she got up this morning, she put it on right away. So here it is, a little rumpled, in action.

This soft, stripy shirting is by Moda. I scored it from fabric.com on clearance some other spring. I thought stripes would be nice for something, but every time I pulled it out, I found it just a little too saccharine. Just a little too much like a candy cane. When I saw the roller skate design, something clicked in my head and I turned the stripes sideways. Suddenly, it seemed very of-the-moment. I lined it with some soft bleached muslin because that's what I had and added twill tape bow. I didn't get a shot of the adorable chevrons formed at the shoulders.

In size 3, this takes only about 3/4yd of 44" fabric. The tunic version might only need a half yard. I have a stack of 1yd cuts bought when she was a baby that aren't usable for much anymore, so I've given myself a stash busting challenging for this spring. This dress will be key! I simply can't imagine a fabric this wouldn't look good it. It's a perfect canvas for bold prints you want to show off, or for embroidery or applique or any other embellishment you could dream up. Yet, the neckline and cap sleeves are charming enough details on their own with more restrained fabrics. The Flickr pool is quickly filling up with fabulous renditions. This is the new star in the Oliver + S line up.

*the name of the dress reminds me of this song by the 1970s folk singer my mother liked.

little warm toes

This week's frigid temperatures motivated me to push through second sock syndrome and finish up K's second sock. I've wanted to try socks for a while now, but sock knitting is considered addictive and I was nervous about that. Once bitten by the sock bug, people apparently never knit anything else ever again. I want to knit other things.

Socks are in many ways the bane of my domestic existence. There are five people in our house, three of whom have the infuriating habit of taking socks off and leaving them all over the house. One of those three is only two, so I'm confident she will grow out of that and her natural tidiness will prevail. But I despair of the other two. And so I battle socks daily throughout the colder months.

However, when it's really cold out, wool socks do keep toes warm. I finished an easy shawl started in the summer and went straight to the yarn store, but I was unable to commit a sweater that day. So I picked up a ball of sock yarn instead. I had a vision of sweet warm tiny boot socks, and I wasn't daunted that my sock book didn't go quite small enough for toddler feet. I winged it and tried them on her as I went. I carefully noted the number of stitches cast on and rows around the leg and foot so they would end up the same size. Somehow, the second one is bigger in the foot than the first. I ascribe that to the time lapse between the two socks.

You see, the tales of addictive sock knitting are only half true. The fact is, the first sock is addictive. I finished it in maybe two or three evenings of TV watching. I paused the TV every couple of minutes to force hubby to acknowledge the magic of the heel turn. Then I explained what turning a heel is. It was very much the exciting magical experience sock-knitters claimed. I was even able to rip back and restart the toe so it fit her better without any trouble. And baby girl was as thrilled with her new sock as I was. I promised her the next one was coming. That must have been November. Then came a spurt of warm weather, me in bed sick for a week, then her Christmas dress. Every so often, I would feel guilty about that poor second sock and manage a few rows. I learned that "second sock syndrome" is very real.

Will I ever knit another sock? Probably at least one. :)

(again, how cute are the tiny boots with the tiny boot socks?)

my favorite things

My darling angel robed in Liberty and tied up with a red satin bow! What else could a mom ask for?

Here is my fourth rendition of the Fairy Tale Dress. As before, this is a wonderful classic pattern that is well drafted with nice finishing details.  Probably many little girls are wearing some version of this dress today. I imagine each one is as unique as its creator, because there are endless possibilities to customize this pattern.

For this fabric, I wanted a more traditional puffy sleeve, so I redrafted the tulip sleeve and finished it with a bracelet cuff.  The collar would have been lost in this busy print without the tiny pop of bias around the edge. I spent a great deal of time and much hand basting to make that collar perfect, but I think the effect was well worth it. It works better here than a fully contrast collar would have.

This time, I went whole hog with the crinoline which gave just the right holiday puff to the skirt. I balanced a slightly less dramatic bow with a separate sash that goes all the way around. I wanted that pop of red in the front too. The sash is held in place by thread loops. This gentler bow is just right for a tiny girl.

Fabric is “Emma and Georgina” Tana lawn from Liberty’s fall 2011 collection. I fell completely for it while I was laid up in bed for a long lonely week and cheered myself up by ordering it all the way from London. The piping and sash are more Robert Kaufman radiance. This is my new favorite fabric! I made myself a blouse as well in this perfect Christmas red.

I used an invisible zipper this go because I couldn’t get a regular one locally and I followed Liesl’s directions to a T. The invisible zip is still a fiddly thing, but her method is very neat and tidy. I found it a little easier than other methods. I finished the zip with a hook tucked into the lining and a tiny thread loop.

Dolly’s dress also includes a crinoline and full lining! Kitty is thrilled that baby doll Chelsea has a matching red bow in back and shows everyone.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas with piles of fabric under the tree!

Bird in Hand

a Kestrel Coat review and tips for velveteen

I love this pattern. It’s such a distinctive little coat.  We get heaps of compliments on it everywhere we go.

The velveteen is some especially luscious Italian stuff I discovered at Gail K while I was in Georgia for the summer. I was blown away by its softness.  The neutral color is more inviting in person, a gentle and lovely taupe just perfect against the autumn leaves.

The lining is cotton voile from Valori Wells’s Wrenly line. I confess I’m not normally a bird person, but these little cuties in their brown and pink swirly trees were the perfect foil for the subtle taupe. I laid out my scant yard of Wrenly in one layer so that I could carefully cut the lining pieces to best advantage. You can see we have one bird peeking out of each front side piece.

A few more birds perch in the back pieces.  I trace my pattern pieces on tracing paper and that helped my line up the little birds carefully. I marked seams and centers on my pattern pieces as well as the birds themselves to be sure things lined up where I wanted them.

Buttons are just faux horn ones from Joann, similar to what I actually have on my pink JCrew coat. They are also much smaller than what the pattern called for.  Frankly, I think huge buttons are a little too corny for this elegant coat. She so very much wants to button them herself.

I cut a 2T with 3T length and hope to get two years out of this coat. I folded up the extra sleeve length, catch stitched the coat hem to the interlining, and fell stitched the lining to the coat. The hand stitches will be easy enough to unpick and let out next year. I used a layer of cotton flannel as an interlining for warmth. The sleeves are lined with ivory Bemberg rayon so we can slip it on and off.  I’m realizing as I look at these pictures that I should have redrafted the lining and interlining to a one piece sleeve to reduce bulk.  I added inseam pockets for tissues and little treasures.

The only other modification I made was to create a front facing out of velveteen for the lining. In part, I didn’t dare try fusible on this stuff for fear of flattening it out. Also, I didn’t want the front edge to roll out and show the lining. The buttons are backed with a square of sew in interfacing, though I wish I had backed them with smaller buttons too. I skipped the topstitching because I didn’t want to interfere with the lusciousness of the velveteen.  I was also terrified that – after all the trouble the fabric gave me—my machine wouldn’t handle the thick and slippery velvet nicely and I would ruin the entire thing with sloppy topstitching.

The Kestral Coat includes sizes all the way through size 8, and the Clever Charlotte blog offers a downloadable alternate collar for spring.  The pattern itself is clearly written and easy enough to follow.  The only tricky part is getting those pivot points where the collar attaches just right. The constantly disintegrating velvet made it especially tricky to see where I was going. I fixed it up at the end with a few hand stitches. The pattern itself could be accomplished by an advanced beginner with patience, as there are a lot of pieces to manage and many steps to follow, but I strongly caution against velveteen as a beginner fabric.  A nice cotton twill would be much easier to manipulate for a first coat. Wool coating would be another good choice.

While I’m pleased with the results, I had a terrible with the fabric. I worked up most of it in the summer and made such good progress I set it aside for a few final summer projects. When I picked it up again for the final stages of assembly, I discovered how badly the fabric was raveling and I struggled to salvage the project before it frayed away at the seams. The corners were particularly problematic. I used fray check, fusible interfacing and hand stitches to reinforce anything I could no longer reach with the machine. It was very upsetting after so much work. I don’t recall having such problems with velveteen before, but I haven’t used it for a complicated project before.  Below, I’ve included some tips in the hopes that you don’t suffer as I did!

Tips for working with velveteen:

·         I pre-washed on the gentlest cycle with Woolite

·         Cut all your pieces in the same direction as there is a distinct nap

·         A rotary cutter is helpful because this stuff is so slippery. Consider cutting one layer at a time and use a straight edge whenever possible.

·         When pressing, take care not to flatten the pile. This means use more steam than pressure and use a scrap of the velveteen as a press cloth.

·         All of my seams slipped around so much that I needed to pin and hand baste AND use the walking foot AND loosen the tension  AND larger stitches to keep everything in place. However, this did nothing for the raveling of the fabric and the integrity of the garment.  I advise re-stitching every seam with small stitches once it’s securely in place.

·         Velveteen ravels like nobody’s business, or at least this stuff did. I now suspect it has a little rayon in it. By the time I realized how bad it was, it was too late. I struggled to reinforce seams before the coat fell apart. Next time, I will overlock every pattern piece before assembly so that it doesn’t ravel away.

·          I wouldn’t trim anything without reinforcement. To get sharp corners without trimming, I reinforced with fusible interfacing, finger pressed one seam allowance, folded it up to the stitching line and then carefully used a knitting needle to push the corner into place. It took fiddling, but made for a stronger corner.

·         The automatic buttonhole foot could not handle the thick layers, especially close to a seam, so I practiced alternatives on scraps. I was unhappy with how the fragile velveteen looked with a handsewn buttonhole. I considered snaps, ties and hooks, but really wanted buttons. I practiced a manual buttonhole using a zigzag stitch several times on a mockup before making them on the coat. It’s not a perfect solution and I’m still open to suggestions.

·         Finally, I wonder whether underlining might have helped with the fraying issue, but I haven’t researched this idea just yet.

 PS – don’t you just love the tiny boots?  ;)

lost boys, fairies, pirates and a hurricane! – Halloween part II

It was a crazy lead up to Halloween this year. Not only did I have four costumes to make, but our car died right before the hurricane hit and we weren’t able to get it fixed until Halloween morning. So I wasn’t able to run out over the weekend for the last of my costume supplies and Jake and Peter had to go without boots. But I think buckets full of candy softened the blow.  On the other hand, despite a dreadful cold, I managed to finish Tinkerbell. I went way OTT with this, I admit, but I’m so pleased with it I just don’t mind. 

Our theme was my oldest son’s idea. You remember the Jake vest from C’s birthday? He loved it and wanted to wear it for Halloween too.  So P decided to be Peter Pan. Once he told K she should be Tinkerbell, she wouldn’t hear of any other idea.  I suggested a few easier things, like a beautiful butterfly, but she shook her little head and said with careful emphasis, “no. Ink-er-bel.”

Of course, Tinkerbell’s outfit is way slutty, so we needed something Tinkerbell-ish. Instead of going the Disney ballerina fairy route, I thought about what Tink may have worn as a little girl. The sweet tulip sleeves of the new Oliver and S Fairy Tale dress spoke to me.  Aren’t they exactly the sort of thing a little fairy would wear? I think poofy sleeves are great for a princess, but these petal shapes are right for a fairy. The fitted bodice worked with my vision too, but I drafted a different skirt.

I searched high and low for the right green fabric. It’s not easy to find nice greens out there! When a swatch of this heavenly emerald satin arrived in the mail from Hart’s, I simply couldn’t resist even if silk for a child’s costume is a bit splurgy. At least I only needed a small amount. It's hard to photograph a lusterous fabric, but this detail above with her monogram is a good representation.

If a silk dress with self lining wasn’t over the top enough, I added a hand picked zipper and sewed much of the lining by hand. It’s nearly a couture garment we’re looking at here.  That may seem like a lot of work, it really isn’t. Invisible zippers can be fussy and it’s easy for them to go badly wrong.  How many times have you ripped it out?  A hand picked zip doesn’t actually take any longer and it’s much easier to make sure that your waist seams line up perfectly.  There is no fear of ruining a beautiful garment because you have such control when you do things by hand.  I learned how from Susan Khalje’s Craftsy course and I now think they are a lovely touch on a special garment.

The lining was hand finished because of a few construction decisions I made.  Rather than line the sleeves, I finished the edge with a tiny baby hem before assembling the sleeve and inserting it. I pressed the seam allowance into the dress and hand stitched the lining over it.

To finish the pointy skirt hem, I doubled the skirt and stitched the triangles. I clipped and turned and really needed to treat the two layers as one to attach. I have pictures of that process I can share if there’s interest.  So I had to hand stitch the bodice lining in place too.

The overskirt is a separate piece. The leaves are cut from this amazing emerald silk gazar woven with gold metallic threads. I wanted to preserve the ethereal quality of this special fabric by using a single layer, so I sealed the edges with fray check. It doesn’t show unless you look very closely. I gathered the leaves just a tiny bit to add some body and attached them to some petersham ribbon following the tutu method from Little Things to Sew. 

The wings. Oh, the wings! This is my first go at wings, so I well, winged it. I wanted them to actually look like Tink’s, not dinky like the ones in commercial patterns. So hubby helped me draft them nice and tall. Which made it a little hard for them to stand up. So we added stronger wire. Which made it tricky to attach nicely to her dress. I wasn’t going to ruin a couture silk dress with Velcro!  I wished I had some Mummer costume experience. (If you’re not from Philly and have no clue what a Mummer is, you should visit us for New Year’s. Meanwhile, here’s a link.) In the end, I stitched a few shell buttons to the back of the dress, with a square of sew in interfacing behind, and made buttonholes in the organza.  They got awfully bent in the crush of children, but they help up and the dress didn’t get ripped. Many little girls gazed longingly at those enourmous wings!

For the shoe covers, I draped some muslin over one of her shoes and traced with a Sharpie to make a pattern. They weren’t mean to last past Halloween, so if she loves it, I may make her a pair of proper slippers to wear at home for dress up.

Shots of my whole group on the day of are here and my review of the Fiary Tale Dress on Sewing Pattern Review has some other details. I’ve entered it in the costume contest. There are quite a few amazing costumes in the gallery there, so I would appreciate your vote.

more Halloween

Costumes finished. Kids full of candy. No energy for blogging.

Details on Tinkerbell's costume to follow.

Meanwhile, please enjoy some very amateurish photos of the festivities.

 



And now for some wine and a long hot bath.

Happy Halloween!