Ottobre 02/2005-12 Easter dress

Easter is such a great excuse to make a cutesy dress! Naturally I had to embroider it too. It's just so fun!

Myra is such a cooperative little model. She works the camera. Anyway, the dress, right? It is Ottobre 02/2005-12, which I made for Myra years ago. It's a nice simple dress with basic lines, which makes it perfect for embellishment!

The dress itself has a peasant style bodice, with elastic gathering at neckline and sleeve openings and a basic dirndl skirt. Normally it would be a quick sew, but I complicated it in every possible way...

First, I added embroidery. For the bodice, a triple easter egg applique framing Myra's name. This fabric is a shirtweight stretch cotton woven. Really perfect for this dress, but the stretch made the embroidery challenging. I ended up stabilizing with mid-weight cutaway, and floating the fabric. For additional stability and body, I also underlined the entire dress with silk organza.

The trio of eggs on the skirt actually needed more stabilization, despite their similarity to the bodice motif. I doubled the cutaway and that did the trick, again floating the fabric to minimize stretching during embroidering.

As if the embroidery wasn't enough to add to the complexity, I also decided to fully line the dress. For the bodice, I actually ended up simply underlining the front and back pieces. My brain wasn't up to figuring out how to attach those cap sleeves and the elastic in a fully lined bodice. I did add the lining pieces after stitching out the embroidery motifs, so the back of the stitching is covered.

To give the skirt lots of pouf, I added a tulle ruffle stitched to the lining in between the skirt and lining, so it wasn't scratchy against her legs. The lining fabric is Hang Free, so it is very soft and comfortable.

Despite the challenges of embroidering this fabric, I'm really glad I went to the trouble of making it work. I feel like I'm learning so much about machine embroidery with each new project. It is so fun to have a new challenge!

Ottobre 02/2005-12

I mentioned in my last post that Myra had already destroyed one of the dresses I made her last month. It was this one, and we both really loved it. She wore it constantly, so I knew it had to be replaced.

I used the same pattern as the pink version, Ottobre 02/2005-12. I did add a bit more fullness to the skirt, although the skirt as drafted in the pattern is nice and full.

For the bodice I used a women's button down shirt that I found at a yard sale for a quarter. It was really lovely, with pintucks and fagotting on the bodice, but much too small for me and stained. It was perfect for this dress. The skirt is quilting cotton from Hobby Lobby, left over from a dress I made for my niece.

Here is the bodice, close up. Isn't that pretty?! I underlined the front only with Imperial Batiste, as the fagotting is open. The placket is stitched closed along the original stitching line.

The back of the shirt was darted and had a shoulder yoke. In order to avoid the darts, I had to cut into the yoke for the bodice back. It was total seredipity that the yoke seam lined up perfectly with the edge of the sleeve. I don't think I could have made that happen if I'd tried!

OK, Mom. I'm really, REALLY ready to go to school! It's almost time and she is so excited!

Ottobre 02/2005-12

My little princess is starting preschool this year, and all of her summer dresses are too short! Time for some back to school sewing!

First up is this little dress from the 02/2005 issue of Ottobre. It is design #12, the "linen dress" featured on the cover. I mostly chose it for it's simplicity, and because we have always had good luck with peasant style, elasticated dresses for Myra.

The fabric is from Fashion Fabrics Club. It was billed as a cotton shirting, but it is definitely more poly than cotton and is very sheer. It's pretty though, and that is all that Myra cares about...

The bodice details show a little of the construction. I added a little ribbon trim to the front bodice, as it was a bit boring on it's own. I was surprised that the lower edge of the armhole isn't bound with bias, but the plain hem looks good and was really easy to do. In fact, the whole dress, from trace to finish, took just over an hour to sew. Win!

The fabric was really too sheer on its own, so I underlined the bodice and lined the skirt with Imperial batiste. It adds a nice weight to the dress and keeps it modest.

It twirls nicely and Myra really likes it. There may be another in her future, or at the very least, the top version. Cute and quick are a win in my book!

Can we go to school now?

Ottobre 02/2005-20

The first tee I finished for Kitschy Coo's "Make it in a Metre" series was Logan's pieced tee.

Although there is snow on the ground outside, Logan specifically requested a short sleeve tee, so I went on the hunt through all of my Ottobre magazines. I didn't really have a specific look in mind (other than short sleeves!) but I kind of thought I wanted raglan sleeves, and I sort of wanted to do some piecing for this one. Then I ran across this design in the 02/2005 issue, and I knew it was the one.

How fun is the swoosh across the front? I love that the red panel carries over to the back and that the sleeve matches the front panel it attaches to. I wish I could say I had cut the correct sleeve the first time through. Fortunately, the sleeves are small and my error didn't cost me. This was kind of a pain to trace and sew, since it has to be a single layer layout with each piece cut once, but that also meant I could be very economical in cutting my precious astronaut jersey. The coordinating fabrics are a cotton-lycra jersey from Fabric Mart (the white) and a cotton rib knit from Joann (the red). The curves in the piecing weren't exactly easy to sew, although since the fabrics are nice and stretchy, it wasn't too big a deal. I just had to be careful not to stretch the seams out as I sewed them. In the end, Logan is happy with his new (short sleeve!) shirt, and so am I.

Ottobre 02/2005-25

Events have conspired against me and I really didn't think I was going to get to show this to you today.  That would have been troublesome, since we are going out of town for a few days without my sewing machine, so it would have been next week before I got back to it.  I had almost finished it - it just needed buttonholes and buttons, and was taking a few "preview" pictures when Logan spotted it and started taking off the shirt he was wearing in order to put on the new one.  Mitch shuffled me off to the sewing room so that I could finish it!

And here it is!  I seriously don't know how I sewed for my boy before I found Ottobre...  Oh wait, yes I do - same boring shirt over and over again.  No more!!  This shirt has the greatest details!

Here is the line drawing.  Check out those great sleeves!  They are two piece raglan with great curves.

Here you can see the curve of the raglan seam, as well as all the cool double topstitching.

There are also two chest pockets with shaped flaps and buttons.  These were supposed to be pleated pockets, but I didn't want to disrupt Thomas the Train's face, so I cut them as flat pockets.

Check out the epaulets on the shoulder.  How freaking cute are those???

And the hem has a hip vent for a nice comfortable fit.
I wish I could show you a modeled shot.  Of course, once all the buttonholes were hurriedly worked and the buttons sewn on would he wear it?  Of course not!  Ornery kid...

Well, I'm off to San Antonio today for Fellowship Interview #2.  Wish us luck!!  I'll be back in the sewing room Monday.  'Til then!

Ottobre 02/2005-23

I know it's been a slow sewing week for me, but I finally got something finished!! I put the finishing touches on these adorable pants yesterday.Here is the front. As you can see, there were a lot of finishing touches! I love it!!
I know I don't usually find the back of boys shorts to be picture worthy, but these are cute. Complete with back yoke, pocket flaps (with rivets!) and belt loops.
Here is the front detailing. As you can see, there are rivets at the stress points as well as placed decoratively around the knee patch. The fly front is faux.
And here is the back, up close and personal. I love the yoke. Such wonderful details in these pants!

They went together easily, of course. This is Ottobre, after all. Even with all of the detail work, they really weren't all that complex. I hope Logan likes them.

Ottobre 02/2005-05

The more I sew from Ottobre, the more I love it!! Not only do they have the coolest boy clothes ever, the patterns are well designed and the instructions, even without diagrams, are easy to follow. I may never buy another children's pattern again.

I finished Logan's first birthday shirt. Obviously, he can't model it for you yet, but here it is.
And a close up of the cool sleeve detail.
No, I didn't have another difficultly with ripply hems. What the poor picture can't tell you is that this is a sleeve band rather than a hem, and it is just right! Thanks to good quality fabric, I had no trouble with this tee at all, despite the fact that the sleeves are rib knit. The design is great! The curved shoulder seam is so cute and goes together easily. All of the seams are top stitched. I used a double needle on the regular sewing machine, but coverstitching would work as well.

Now on to more birthday sewing!