Maternity dress finished! And a few other projects

First off, I finally decided what to do to finish of my black dress. I shortened it by a few inches and used more of the teal to do an outside casing over the elastic under the bust. I think I like it a lot more now!




We recently put our boys in a bunk bed. I had initially done Ian's half of the room in the IKEA "Barnslig" theme with duvet cover and animal prints for the wall. So we bought another duvet for Benny, and I had a piece of their fabric in that line, so I did a valance with some polka dot cotton to contrast. Still have to hang the pictures again.



And I whipped up a Charlie Tee for Project First Day. Super easy to understand pattern! A couple years ago I picked up a pile of men's tees in huge sizes on clearance, and as I can't find cute knits locally, I just upcycled one of them. I used existing hems with the fake layer for the sleeves and back, but had to cut the front higher on the tee to keep the screenprint, so did a new hem reusing the contrast fake layer from the original tee.

Upcycled Men's Dress Shirt...

...to boy's dress shirt!!

This was my husband's favourite button-down shirt, but his wide shoulders strained the seams so they started pulling apart. It's a very soft, drapey fabric. I used the Pox Couture Kid's Summer Shirt pattern. I placed the collar pattern on the existing collar, and made a centre back seam as it would have been too long otherwise. Placed the shirt fronts on the original button and buttonhole plackets, minus the seam allowances. Unpicked and used the original yoke and back. If I do this again, I'd upcycle a shirt with an existing pleat at the centre back already, then I could just use the whole back.


The pattern is fabulous! Amazingly detailed instructions with line drawings, just 4 pages, the pattern pieces are very professionally done, with seam allowances marked on each piece. Lots of great tips in the pattern for construction of a couture garment. The fit is great too, not as boxy as a lot of the Big 3 patterns I saw. I did the 2T size for Benny, who just turned 2. He was almost exactly the measurements the pattern listed.

Still has the printed care tag in the back!

More knitted things for baby girl

I've slowed down some with the knitting lately, as I'm finally feeling a little better this pregnancy - enough to get out more and do other things. But here are the last two finished items, which were waiting for buttons till last night.

This is the dress I posted about a while back - I chose the hearts fabric. I think it's about a size 6-12 mo (stretchy bodice because it's knitted).

This little sweater is the free Autumn Leaves pattern. The yarn is some I dyed when I was first experimenting with "breaking" Wilton's icing dyes. This lovely seafoam and lilac colourway was dyed on a Patons Classic wool white base with Wilton's Delphinium Blue, which is a gray-blue. This is the colour it's supposed to be:
When I added acid to the dye, it broke into it's component colours, and this is what I got:

Embellished hoodie

I picked up this little hoodie a long time ago (I think when I was expecting Benny, before we knew he was a boy) and found it in a box the other day. It needed something to pretty it up. I'm not sure if it's complete yet or not. I have to get an idea of what's cute for a little girl and what's too much! After sewing for boys, this is totally different!

Fishsticks Designs shorts

Now I've sewn from all three of the Fishsticks Designs patterns I got in the mail this week! Thanks for great patterns, Bonnie!

Pattern: AJ Bottoms Fishsticks Designs, shorts option
Fabric: flannelette, waistband black interlock with internal FOE
Sizes: Rockets 4T, traditional rise; Puppies, 2T, diaper rise

In a hurry, cut one leg of the puppy print upside down, but they're sleep shorts and to try out the size anyway...

Here's Benny in his:





Pattern: Inside or Outside Pocket Pants Fishsticks Designs, shorts option
Fabric: cotton twill, internal FOE for waistband
Sizes: Green 4T and Charcoal 2T

[ETA pic] Here are the boys in their new Sunday shorts!

Kids Clothes Week Challenge

I participated in Elsie Marley's Kids Clothes Week Challenge this past week. I sewed every day for at least an hour, some days for 2 or more! Such a great motivator to get some things done for my little people.

Here are all my finished items!

Pink dress and matching bloomers (NB)
dress pattern: Itty Bitty Baby Dress by Made by Rae
bloomers pattern: Newborn Bloomers by Fishsticks Designs
fabric: quilters' cottons and cotton interlock

Purple Argyle Dress (3-6 mo)
pattern: Sweet Little Dress by Leila and Ben
fabric: Fabricland flannel coordinates

Camo shorts (2T, but fits 4T)
pattern: Butterick 3475
fabric: cotton pixelated camouflage twill

Blue Dress (1 yr)
pattern: Summerlin by KathrynIvy
fabric: quilters' cotton and Lionbrand Cotton-Ease yarn