Ottobre 1/09 #36, jeans attempt two!

After the Kim disaster I decided to go back to Ottobre for my second attempt at jeans for Princess. The spring 2009 issue had a pattern she liked the shape of, the Sarita jeans #36. Some bright pink heavy cotton and fancy variegated thread later I had these for her to try:





The topstitching looks really bright and cheery, just the way she likes it :) It's Jean Stitch thread again in the Jewel colourway.



I had no issues sewing the pattern, it went together beautifully as so many Ottobre patterns do. I even took the time to topstitch the crotch and inseams though you'll be pleased to see I used a slightly more subtle thread there!



The zip fly sounded a lot worse than it actually was, Ottobre's directions were very easy to follow. I had a bright pink zipper in stash and Princess picked out a shiny silver button from the button jars.



The inside looks nice and neat for a change, the cherries fabric on the waistband was a leftover scrap from one of her favourite outfits. I pressed up the seam allowance on the waistband facing before sewing it on and that helped a lot when it came time to sew it down.



It's all going well so far, right? No seam ripping, no sewing frustrations and she can actually get them up past her hips. That's when my problems start though, when she puts them on. Princess loves them but I look at them and think "No, no, no!" In my opinion (and I'm the mother, it's my opinion that counts!) the style is much more suited to a tween/teenager than it is to my seven year old. The rise is just a bit too low and they're very fitted through the hip and bum, too fitted for my liking! What do you think?







There is one small fitting issue at the back waistband, it gapes away about an inch from her spine. Is that a sway back? My finger is the photo is just sitting in the gap, I'm not pulling at the fabric at all and can easily put it between her skin and the fabric.



Any links to a good tute on how to alter for that would be appreciated, please save me from my appalling google skills :) I am also still looking for a trouser pattern that we both are happy with, wish me luck folks!

Farbenmix Kim and trying something new

Do not adjust your screen, I really have gone all pink! I've been exploring the new settings Blogger have on offer, what do you think? You can change the layout yourself (I hope!) by choosing one of the options on the pink bar below the blog title. Try them out and let me know if you like it or not :)

To the sew'n'show. Princess has had a growth spurt recently and is in need of trousers. As it's winter I wanted to make her something a little heavier and warmer than I usually would which meant trying out some non-knit and non-elastic waist patterns. After the immediate panic at the thought of tackling a fly zipper I calmed down and traced the Farbenmix Kim pattern, cut up some long stashed embroidered denim and started sewing. On paper I really, really like the Kim because of the hem panels. The front has a lovely shaped piece with elastic gathering and the back gives you the option to put in two to three rows of ruffles, there are some gorgeous examples in the Farbenmix flickr pool. In practice however it was a complete disaster. I had them completed except for the zipper and waistband and I decided to try them on Princess to check the length, my poor girl couldn't even pull them up past her hips. This is apparently one very, very slim fitting pattern for really skinny kids with no hips and no bum. They were salvageable though, I made them into an elastic waist and took two inches off of the legs and now Monkey has a new pair of trousers instead.

Here they are, the snazzy gold top stitching is Jean Stitch thread in, I think, the Jean Gold colour.

Farbenmix Roxy - Hello Kitty

A winter dress for Princess this time though it has finished up as more of a tunic! I've had the Farbenmix Roxy pattern sitting unopened for ages and never realised that it had a long sleeve option until it was recommended to me in a thread on SewingMamas. I had been looking for a new pattern to use for Princess as she asked for something different from my usual go-to patterns so this was perfect. Princess chose everything about this from the fabric to the very bright yellow dye to the applique and ribbon placement. She was very precise about which ribbon went where and how Hello Kitty had to be dressed, I had to unpick and move a row of ribbon before she was satisfied :) I think the end result is very cute and a very good fit but as she's right at the upper end of the size I made it's a little short to be called a dress. I will have to make her some leggings to wear with it, what goes with bright yellow??

The applique is from a colouring page and the Hello Kitty ribbons are from Ebay.

Ottobre 04/04 #10, yes again!

The third and final dress for Toddler this winter  is my old favourite #10 from the Ottobre winter 2004 issue. I've lost count of how many times I've made this now, I just love it. Toddler chose the main fabric and the ricrac trim, I squeezed the contrast pieces out of leftovers from a pair of Monkey's trousers and dyed the fairies with Dylon powder pink machine dye. This was always one of my favourite fabric prints and it has been in my stash for a long time, she better not ruin this dress!



I remembered to clip the neckline seam allowance before understitching it to the neck facing and that seems to have stopped the problem I have of the facing rolling slightly to the outside even when it's topstitched.



Showing off my hard won invisible zipper skills :D



Toddler modelling and just because he's cute a bonus snap of our cat Shadow giving his seal of approval :)

Ottobre 03/05 #21, twirly shirt dress

This is the second of Toddler's winter dresses and it's a nice pattern, I've made it once before for Princess. It has a shirt style bodice with a gathered tiered skirt and there is an optional separate underskirt which looks very cute underneath it, it peeps out at the hem and puffs out the dress skirt beautifully. Toddler chose the fabrics and I dyed them with Dylon dyes as leaving them white is really not an option with this child.



I ran very short on fabric for the dress so the inner collar stand is cut from the skirt fabric, the top tier on the dress skirt is pieced from scraps and the hem frill is missing. There are also no instructions given on how to put together the collar and stand, the pattern instructions refer you to a separate magazine page but they're not there. I have a feeling you can download them from the Ottobre website but I'm not sure. I opted to wing it :)



The underskirt uses the same pattern as the dress skirt with a little extra width to the top tier to allow for an elastic casing, it's a lovely twirly skirt which can of course be made and worn on its own if you're looking for a full, twirly skirt pattern.





Toddler took it out for a test spin in the garden.

Autumn dress for Toddler

What do you do when you really don't like the fabrics your child has chosen for a new dress? Embellish the life out of them and try to cover them up!





I am completely in love with this dress now that it is finished, it took hours to stitch out all of the embroideries and while it didn't take long to hand sew the buttons and roses I really, really hate hand sewing and was very glad when it was done. The pattern is Ottobre Autumn 2006 #10, Toddler chose the fabrics from my stash and approved my other additions :) The fairies are from Emblibrary and stitched out very well.

         

I digitised the text on the bodice using my embroidery machine's software and built-in fonts and I lined the front and back bodices instead of using facings.



The overskirt and sleeves are hemmed using a decorative stitch that looks like little flowers and the underskirt has orange flowered ricrac, satin bows and heart shaped buttons.



And of course you need some modelling shots :)









The best thing about this dress is how much Toddler loves it, she asks for it in the morning when she's getting dressed and hugs it when I give it to her :) It makes it worth the 7+ hours it took to finish!!

Polka dots and ribbons

Toddler needed a quick pair of trousers following a growth spurt, Ottobre Spring 2010 to the rescue! Pattern #2 minus the pockets and hem frills sews up very quickly and the red polka dots go really nicely with her Muksis tunic.



And a new Ebay store for my favourites list, vivimagasin sells some of the cutest ribbons I have seen. I bought a few for the girls, delivery was free and took around ten days to arrive in the UK from Hong Kong. The girls love them, it's just as well I got three colours of Hello Kitty or there would have been some fights!

Jalie 2449 wrap top

Another cold weather top for me and yet another pattern I've had for ages without sewing up. The fit is OK, I had to add a 3" contrast band at the hemline to get it to the length I like (i.e. actually covering my tummy!) but I quite like the way that looks and will do that again if I make another one instead of lengthening the pattern. One thing I really don't like is that after cutting out two full length front pieces the instructions tell you to cut off the left front just below the waist. It reduces bulk at the front I suppose and makes the top a little cooler to war but good grief it is annoying! It makes it awkward to put the top on in the first place and I have to fiddle with it every ten minutes to stop it riding up and looking awful. This one is for the charity shop and the next one will have two full length front pieces both sewn into the hem band.

Ottobre Woman CW303

I love this pattern and have made several tank tops and short sleeve T-shirts from it, with autumn drawing in I made my first long sleeve version. Rayon lycra fabric from Tissu and a freezer paper stencil that is included with the pattern. I was really pleased with this, the sleeve length is just where I like it.

School uniforms

The kids all started a new school this year which meant a little production line sewing. Eleven navy blue tops later, I lost the will to sew for a while after this! All the tops are from Ottobre Spring 2003, #'s 31 and 16. The navy blue cotton lycra came from Tissu which is one of my favourite online fabric shops. I also made two pairs of grey trousers, one each for Toddler and Monkey, using the Vilkas pattern from Ottobre 04 2008. They're both a size 98cm but Monkey's are lengthened a lot.