Mermaids and Whales! And the latest Ottobre

Whenever I get a new issue of Ottobre, Myra is the first to peruse it and make requests. Usually, I make a mental note of which styles she likes and either promptly forget, or get to it much later, when she actually has a wardrobe need.

This time, my happy, twirly girl got the dress she asked for. And bonus leggings! Because snow.

The dress is #18 from the 01/2016 issue of Ottobre. It's a fairly basic style. It features has a slightly raised waistline, long raglan sleeves and a gathered skirt. Not super full, so it's economical of fabric. The neckline is bound, which I did with my coverstitch machine.

Despite being fairly sparing of fabric, the skirt is slightly flared, so it twirls nicely. The leggings pattern is from the same issue of Ottobre (view #15), and is a simple one-piece leggings pattern. No bells or whistles, but a useful basic. Myra declares that the outfit is so comfy that she could wear it as PJs. But she won't because it's too cute.

The fabric is by Lillestoff, and I bought it at Kitschy Coo. It's very soft, but also sturdy and warm, so it's perfect for a winter outfit.

Lately I've been feeling the need to embellish everything I make for Myra. She likes bling. So the mermaid at the center front of her bodice got some sparkle on her shells and at her waistline. Those 2mm rhinestuds are made for doll clothing, so they're tiny but I think they're the perfect little adornment for Myra. She loves the sparkly mermaid.

My sassy little girl is growing up way too fast, but I'm glad she still loves a twirly dress with mermaids.

Ottobre 06/2010-15

This cute face. How do I ever sew for anyone else?? Sadly, Duncan's wardrobe needs are simple, and he does have a lot of Logan hand-me-downs.

But he doesn't have much in the way of long sleeve shirts, which gives me an excuse to sew my favorite pattern with my favorite fabrics.

I mean, seriously. Those hipster frogs are killing me. I got them from Kitschy Coo, of course. The solid green is from Hobby Lobby. It cannot compare at all to the Lillestoff frogs in quality, but it is the right color.

The pattern is from the 06/2010 issue of Ottobre. I have made it at least a half dozen times, and I will make it many more. I love the seaming. Such a nice flattering curve to the raglan seam! And I love the slim, modern fit. It's pretty much the holy grail of shirt patterns and I will cry when my kids outgrow the size range.

But before that happens, I'm going to make it a bunch more times.

Because this face, y'all.

Ottobre 06/2010-15 tee shirt

Several months ago, Logan started drawing pictures of a rocketship. They always look like this. Then Amanda unveiled this fabric. I'm not exaggerating when I say my jaw dropped when I saw it. It's Logan's rocketship!!

With the collision of the #sewbluefebruary Sewcialist theme and the Stashbusters Sewing for Others theme, it seemed the perfect time to pull out Rocketboy and make up a shirt.

The pattern is from the 06/2010 issue of Ottobre, and I've used it before here. Lillestoff fabric is a wee bit spendy, so I like to use it on a pattern that I know is a winner, and Logan wears his "fire shirt" all the time.

I used a nice beefy interlock from Chez Ami for the white contrast, and topstitched all the seams with a chainstitch. You can barely see the white stitching on the raglan seams, but the blue around the neckline shows up in the sleeve area.

While I had the white interlock out, I made a bunch of undies as well out of various scraps of "boy" printed jersey. This is the Kitschy Coo Boy Cut Brief. I love, love, love this underwear pattern. There are only two seams in the body and the bands are soft jersey - no elastic to bind and pinch! Logan has sensitive skin and some sensory issues so these undies are a godsend.

So Logan, do you like all your new clothes? Yeah? Give us a funny face!

I love this crazy kid.

Ottobre 06/2010-15 tee shirts

Nature's Fabrics strikes again. When I ordered the pink penguin interlock for Myra and Emma's nightgowns, I spotted this awesome flame like graphic print that I just had to get for the boys.

Now that Duncan has grown into a 98 in Ottobre, there are a ton of patterns that are in both boys' sizes. I love that!

This one is a raglan tee from the 06/2010 issue of Ottobre. Otto intends it as an undershirt, but I like the slim fit and I think the curved raglan seams are too cool to hide.

The flame print fabric is the star. It is really amazing quality - nice and beefy, but still stretchy. I would compare it favorably to the Lillestof that I've sewn. I wanted a nice quality solid black, but none of my stashed jersey was nice enough. I ended up using some Sofia double knit, which is really perfect. It pairs nicely with the jersey. The cuffs and neckband are ribbing from my stash.

To spice up the shirts a little more, I added a bit of topstitching to the raglan seams and topstitched the neckbands. I think it is a nice little touch that gives it a more professional look.

I really love the way the raglan seams follow the shoulder line. It gives the shirt a sleek, fitted look.

Both boys are really happy with their shirts, and I am pretty thrilled that they are still willing to wear matching clothes. I wonder how much longer I'll be able to get away with that?

Ottobre 04/2011-15

For Myra's "Make it in a Metre" astronaut tee, I wanted to make sure that the end result fit her uber girly personality.

I think the fabric is nicely androgynous, so I wanted a pattern that upped the girl factor. I also wanted to play with raglan sleeves again in this fabric. Ottobre 04/2011 had the perfect thing, #15 - the "Dreamland" tunic. It has simple style lines that allow the fabric to be the focus, while the gathered sleeves and neckline with keyhole opening add some girliness.

I used the same three fabrics as I did for Logan's tee. This time, I used my coverstitch binder to bind the neckline and armholes with ribbing. Prior to applying the binding, Ottobre has you gather them with clear elastic cut to the finished measurements. This method worked so well. It was much better than gathering with stitches and then staying the gathers with more stitches. It left a nice stretchy edge. Myra can even get the top over her head without unbuttoning it, and she has a giant melon.

Here is the cute little keyhole. I love it. I used a fun star button to tie in to the theme of the print. This is totally Myra's favorite part of the top. She shows everyone her star button. For the loop, I used a clear hair elastic. Easy peasy and works great. This piece used up the largest pieces of my knit, but I think it was worth it. We both love this cute top!

Ottobre 01/2010-15

Thank you so much to everyone who commented and emailed me about my last post. I really appreciate all of the support, advice and words of comfort. In retrospect and taking all of what y'all said into consideration, I think I'm going to dedicate July to "Balance". I have tons of projects that I want to do. Some are for me, but many are not. I'm going to try to find the balance that works for me.

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I'm not usually a matchy-matchy mom. In fact, I think this is the first thing I've made for Myra that matches something of mine. It is also the last piece I had prepared to keep me busy sewing while we waited for our things to come from Texas. I really thought I was over prepared, but since we are still waiting, apparently not. Fail, North American Van Lines, fail. We have been told that the truck has left Texas though and is scheduled to arrive on Tuesday. Keep some fingers crossed for me, will you?

This pattern is from my much used 01/2010 issue of Ottobre. In fact, this blouse is the only reason I had this issue with me at all. When the issue first came out, I knew Myra would be getting this blouse, but at the time the smallest size was too big for her. And now she's wearing the second size up! Growing. Too. Fast.

The pattern is so cute! It is a yoked blouse with gathered shoulders and back, a rounded collar and button bands (although I used the snaps again). The sleeves are puffed and elasticated and the hemline is slightly curved and has a little strip of ribbon applied to the right side. Of course, the ruffles just ramp up the cuteness factor. Since I had just made my blouse, I changed up the order of construction from the directions. I found it easiest for me to apply the ruffles and bands to the front first, so that I could do that flat, then construct the shirt. I also did the collar before the sleeves. I always do, since I find that the flatter I can lay the collar, the easier it is to attach.

I just love the back. The gathers are just so pretty. I cut the yoke on the cross grain to take advantage of the stripes and enclosed all the yoke seam allowances. Even without my serger, this little shirt is pretty nice looking on the inside. The only exposed seams are the armscye and side seams. I double stitched those and pinked them.

Here is the front up close. You can see that the shoulder is gathered into the yoke. There was a lot of gathering on this blouse! I finished the ruffles on both shirts with a serger rolled hem. This was actually the last thing my serger did before I packed her up. You can also see that the collar is finished inside the shirt with a bias strip. This is absolutely my favorite way to construct a one piece collar! It is so much easier and cleaner IMO than the way the Big 3 does them with the weird clipping and hand stitching.

Even though both Myra and I really like this blouse, I'm betting that she doesn't wear it much. Myra is pretty much a dresses only kind of girl. Time will tell.

Ottobre 04/2004-15 in black for the Ring Bearer

You saw the waistband to this guy yesterday, but after the final touches are all on, they are finished!

Why they look blue in this picture, I do not know. They are actually made of a black pique that I found in the clearance section at Hancock's. The fabric for these pants was a surprising challenge! Since I seem to be incapable of purchasing solid color fabrics, I had no solid black anything in my stash. On Monday when I hit the Hancock's sale, I thought I'd pick up some black suiting or twill, but there was none to be had!! What!! Fortunately, this pique was left over from the summer, and was 50% off, so I grabbed it. I think it turned out pretty well, although it ravelled like the devil.This picture is more true to the color, which means that you can't see any of the detail. The back yoke is pretty cool, but it's just like the last one. In terms of finishing, since this fabric was crazy ravelly I overcast all of the edges before I started construction, so there wasn't anything to finish once I got going. Nice, actually. The fly went together very well, so I don't have any pictures of wonkyness there this time. I remembered the interfacing and it was all good. the only real difference between these and the previous pair is that I refashioned the other pair, so I didn't have to construct the hip pockets. They were already there! The slash on these pockets is very much on the bias, and this pique is a pretty loose weave, so it stretched like crazy! Fortunately, I remembered a tip from Power Sewing for stabilizing a bias cut pocket with a piece of woven selvage.

So that is what I did! And it worked great!! The pockets are totally stable. No stretching at all. Of course, it also doesn't hurt that it is both understitched and topstitched per the pattern instructions. I thought that was a little overkill, but I did it and I admit - they look great.

I should have some fun pictures of all of this wedding gear to show you soon! The wedding is Friday and the reception Saturday!! I got these pants done just in time. Whew!

Ottobre 04/2004-15

I am one of those people who cannot abide having unfinished projects hanging over my head, so I had to finish these pants before I started on Myra's flower girl dress. These are a pair of dress pants, refashioned from a pair of pants that Mitch had worn out, but in areas that could be cut away.Here is the front.
Back - I love the yoke!
And side. The front slash pockets are salvaged from the original pant as are the belt carriers, zipper and buttons. I am happy with the way that they came together. Ottobre has yet to fail me.

A few things that I am pleased with...
My hems are hand catchstitched. I am beginning to actually like handwork. The hems are very deep, in fact, the pants themselves are quite large. Between the fact that it is impossible to accurately measure a wiggly 3 year old and the rapid growth rate of the same 3 year old, I made these pants WAY too big. There will be plenty of hem to let out, should the pants survive that long.
I also borrowed a trick from RTW and added an adjustable waistband made of buttonhole elastic that can be taken in and let out by simply moving the elastic tighter on the buttons. This is one side, but there are buttons on both sides so that you can adjust the sides evenly. If anyone out there is interested in a tutorial, please let me know. I will make one with the next pair of pants!

A few things that I am not as pleased with...
This stain!! I knew it was there, but failed to account for it when I cut out the pants. Grr!
My zipper. I forgot to interface the front flaps where I attached the zipper, so I got some bunching when I stitched it down. I decided to see how well I would do inserting a fly front without checking and re-checking the directions, so I did this one without even looking at them. Other than the interfacing, it came out pretty well, and I definitely won't forget again!!

I also was in a bit of a rush with this one, since I wanted to get on with the flower girl dress. For seam finishes I just pinked all of the seams. This seems like a bad plan on a loose weave linen, but the original pants had pinked hems, which held up well, so I may get away with it.