Ottobre 03/2014-16 sparkle tee!

My sassy girl recently outgrew her entire tee shirt drawer (conveniently timed for Top Month!), and there was much weeping and wailing as I "made" her get rid of many of her favorites. I told her to choose a few for me to recreate for her. One of those was a RTW Old Navy top that I had added HTV to. It was a beige shirt printed with gold stars all over it, and I really wasn't sure I would be able to recreate it. Where was I going to find the fabric?!

FabricMart came to my rescue with this grey/silver version that Myra just loves. Whew! I was afraid I was going to have to cut a zillion tiny foil stars. That would have been not so fun...

The original shirt had long sleeves and a gathered neckline. Myra requested short, puffed sleeves, since we live in the South and it's hot here. We found a perfect pattern in the 03/2014 issue of Ottobre. The original was designed for striped knits and to be cut on the bias for a diagonal stripe, but I didn't need that, so we cut it on the grain instead. Otherwise I didn't change the pattern at all. It's a really nice basic tee.

The neckline is a nice high scoop, gathered with clear elastic and bound with self fabric. Those stars gave my coverstitch binder a wee bit of trouble, but they sure look nice. The sleeves are puffed just at the cap and hemmed.

The top came in two lengths and I sewed the longer one, in the hopes that Myra will be able to wear it for more than 5 minutes. She's growing so fast these days!

At Myra's request, I replicated the decal on the original top, this time with silver glitter instead of gold. We do love to sparkle around here! I was so happy I was able to replicate a favorite top, and even to improve on it!

*************Tip for tops********************
Since it is Top Month for the stashbusters, I though I'd share a little tip for hemming in a tight spot, such as sleeves on a child's top like this one.

When I know I'm going to have limited space for pressing my hem (or and binding/bands - pretty much anything that is getting sewn in the round), I press the allowance up before sewing the piece into the garment. If it is a particularly small piece, like doll clothing, you can stitch the hem at this point as well, but I don't do that for human clothing, since it leaves a bump under the arm. Pressing the hem is at least 4000X easier on a flat piece than it is once the sleeve seam is sewn and you have a tube to deal with. Once the hem is pressed, it is much easier to fold up and stitch. As I mentioned, this also applies to binding and bands - press them in half before you sew them into a loop. It will be much quicker and easier! I hope that helps with your knit top sewing!

Ottobre 03/2014-35 dress

After I finished cutting out my last dress, I had about a yard of fabric left over. I don't really use ITY much in small pieces, but I thought Myra might like a dress to match mine, so I went hunting for a pattern with similar features, particularly the gathering in the bodice and skirt.

After a perusal of my Ottobre collection, I found this dress from the 03/2014 issue. I love the style lines. It's a really nice echo of my dress, with the bodice gathers and waistband, but with a more youthful feel.

Ottobre suggested woven fabrics for it, but it works well in this lightweight knit with very few changes. I omitted the zipper, and rather than gathering the neckline with traditional gathering stitches, I used clear elastic so that the neckline would have sufficient stretch and recovery for the dress to go over Myra's head.

And of course, I added pockets. Dresses need pockets.

The design of the dress is fairly straightforward. The bodice gathers into the neckline binding and into the waistband at center front and center back.The skirt is full and gathered evenly around the waistband. Since the design is intended for wovens, the waistband has some ease in a knit.

I used my coverstitch binder to do the neckline and armholes. The pattern includes a pattern piece for bias binding, which I used to measure the elastic for the neckline. Myra loves her new dress and says she understands now why I like to wear dresses every day. They're so comfortable! Now to go hide my ITY stash before she claims it all...