Thursday, October 17, 2013

Emma's Winter SWAP: Outfit #1

Since I only have one little girl child, and her wardrobe is immense and mostly handmade, I've been in the habit of passing down Myra's clothes to her sweet little cousin. It makes me happy to think that the item that I crafted are of use to her. This winter, Myra has apparently been unusually hard on her clothes, so there wasn't much to send. I decided to take this week to make a few things just for Emma and to try my hand at my first kid SWAP (sewing with a plan).
And here is Emma's first outfit! I think it turned out really cute. Each piece was intended to be a useful individual wardrobe basic as well, so hopefully she can mix and match them a bit.
The first thing I made was the red tee. It is a simple long sleeve, cuffed tee. The pattern (and all of the patterns for this outfit) comes from the 01/2010 issue of Ottobre. This is style #22. It's a great wardrobe basic. Emma is an icy blonde, so I thought this saturated pinky-red would compliment her coloring.
Of course, I couldn't stop at "basic" and added a line of hot-fix crystals to the neckline. Every girl likes a little bling!
Since Emma lives in a colder climate, I also wanted to make her some layering pieces. I was thrilled that I had enough of this awesome cheetah corduroy to make this jacket! The pattern is # 19 from the aforementioned Ottobre. I lengthened the sleeves for warmth.
I also added some curved patch pockets. Kids need pockets.
The edges are finished with a topstitched facing. I like the clean lines this gives. I used covered snaps for the closure. I really agonized over the closures and went back and forth over several options. So, I did what any Sewcialist would do - I polled Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. The vote was unanimous in favor of the snaps! And I love them. Thanks, y'all!!
The final piece in the SWAP which works with both outfits, is a basic pair of pants. This is design #13, a simple elastic pant which I've made twice for Myra. I love the shape of it. I made this out of a wool poly suiting with a thick, sweatery feel. It's really the loveliest fabric and should keep Emma nice and cozy. You'll be seeing more of it, since both Myra and Logan requested pants from it when they saw Emma's!

Satshbusting bonus - except for the snaps on the cheetah jacket, every single thing for this ENTIRE SWAP came from my stash!!! Woo hoo!!