Ottobre 02/2009-5: Vibrant Color stashbusting theme

The April theme for the Stashbusting Sewalong is Vibrant Color, and I got in right under the wire with this top!

I actually hadn't really planned to do the color theme this month, although I do love bright colors and I have plenty in my stash. I was just kinda sewing along, and I made a dress out of this fabric for Barbie. It was still sitting out on my cutting table and I decided to go for it, but for me! Barbie can't have all my fabric.

Choosing a pattern was more of a challenge than usual though. I could not decide what I wanted! I even had a Burda partly traced then changed my mind. In the end, I went with Ottobre 02/2009-5, the Waterfall blouse. I've been looking for a cowl neck top that wasn't super low cut, and I think I've found it!

This cowl drapes gracefully, but is high up enough that people in front of me don't get a view of my bellybutton when I bend over.

The feature that keeps the cowl in place is the shoulder seams, which are rotated slightly toward the back. That way the cowl is draping from behind the shoulder, rather than down from the neck. It really works well. The back neckline is finished with a facing, I topstitched it down. Rayon jersey tends to roll out.

I'm so glad I jumped on the Vibrant Color bandwagon! I really love this top. The fabric and pattern are both great, and I know I will wear it a ton, and definitely use this pattern again.

Ottobre 03/2008-19, Rainbow polka dot unicorn style

Myra personal style has experienced some evolution lately. She still loves pink, princesses, and all thing frou-frou, but she's expressing that love in a more understated way. Princess printed tops with skinny jeans or a high-low tunic with ruffle detail and bermuda shorts are much more likely to get worn than a fluffy dress.

But it's Spring, and I always make Myra a fancy dress for Easter, and she's been crushing on unicorns lately, so I decided to try for this pretty but not too fluffy style, made up in unicorn themed coordinating prints by Riley Blake Designs. Which fortunately, she loves, Whew! The pattern is from the 03/2008 issue of Ottobre, style #19. It's a sweet dress that I've wanted to make her for some time.

The skirt is a gathered half circle and the band at the bottom is nicely shaped for fullness. She might be growing up, but she still loves a dress with some twirl! She's been favoring longer skirts lately, so this length is about perfect. Functional when she wants to run and climb, but still long and girly.

The dress closes with a back invisible zipper. I love how the back band isn't broken up by the center back seam. It meant the construction was a bit less intuitive, but it still went together well with typical great Ottobre drafting.

Ottobre's instructions called for a lined bodice, but a separate petticoat in lieu of a skirt lining. I elected to line the entire dress with white satin. The bodice is lined with a lighter charmeuse weight satin and the skirt is lined with heavy bridal satin to give it more body. I finished the lining with a serger rolled hem in pink to tie it together.

I was really worried that this dress was going to be a flop, since she really hasn't been wearing dresses much, but she truly loves it and I've had to fight to get it off her since I finished it. What a relief!

The Barrie Boy Cut Briefs!

So, in the interest of not getting weird Google search hits, we'll be referring to the above items as "pants" in the UK sense. Just to make that clear. But I'm excited to finally have some that FIT!! Just released yesterday, the Barrie Boy Cut Briefs by Kitschy Coo.

In fact, I love them so much that I am posting pics. Because I have never had a pair of store bought pants that did not expose cheek or creep into inappropriate places. And these stay put!! No creeping, no shifting, no need to tug on them all day. They are awesome.

I thought it might be interesting, in the interest of science, to do a little comparison photo between the Barrie Briefs and my typical boy cut brief, which I get at Target. The thing I noticed immediately is that the backside/leg coverage is completely different. The storebought pants have a higher leg rise, but angle up sharply so that the coverage in the rear is compromised. The leg openings also do not pull in snugly. These factors make them very pretty on a table or hanger in the store, so we buy them, but they don't curve around the body, so they're uncomfortable on.

Unlike the Barrie Briefs, which come low enough on the leg and are full enough in back to cover the topic, and which also feature snug leg bands, which hold everything in place. This rocketship pair was the first I made. It is the low-rise in a straight size 4, and it is perfection.

This pair is my favorite. In general, I don't wear cotton knit pants, so I made this pair out of mesh with stretch lace in place of the bands. I used the same pattern pieces, including using the band lengths to measure my stretch lace. I used a scrap of cotton knit for the gusset and constructed them per the instructions, except that I topstitched on the lace rather than sewing it on like a band.

In addition to being insanely comfortable and fitting like a dream, they are super fast to make and take very little fabric, so they're super economical. So, see you later poorly fitting Target pants - I'm wearing the Kitschy Coo Barrie Boy Cut Briefs from here on out!!

Pajamapalooza 2015

I took over 100 pictures. And that was the best one...

It seems like every year my kids all need PJs at once. You'd think I could manage to plan for this better, but every year it seems like I am making 12 or so sets of PJs. At least this year it was just the boys.

Sort of. Myra has a collection of nightgowns that I made her several months ago. They all still fit and she loves them, but a friend of hers gave her these fleece pants, and she needed a top to go with them.

It turns out to be sort of fortuitous actually. I've been wanting to make this pattern (Ottobre 06/2010-18) for her since the magazine came out. In 2010. I even bought this fabric with this very pattern in mind. In 2010. I was so on the ball about it in fact, that this is the largest size the pattern is drafted in. And when I got the magazine she was too small for the smallest size. Seriously, how does that even happen?!

Since I had waited until the last possible moment to make this, I decided to go all out with the topstitching. I did a line of stitching on either side of each seam, with the thread color contrasting the fabric. Myra loves it. And it wasn't as hard to do as it looks. I just threaded my coverstitch with the two colors in either needle. This pic also show the cool fabric. It is a knit double cloth. The pink layer is an athletic mesh which is bonded to the green jersey layer. The green shows through the holes in the mesh, and the pink bonding stitches show on the green side. It's a very neat effect.

Duncan's PJs are extremely basic. The pants are one piece pants adapted from Sewing for Boys. The shirt is long sleeve, cuffed sleeve from Ottobre. I honestly can't remember which one it is, but there is one in nearly every issue.

He likes them, and I made 3 sets, so I busted a ton of stashed flannel and knit scraps on these. Total win.

And last but not least we have Logan. Logan decided recently that he wanted to change PJ styles. His past pajamas have been long sleeve and long pants, both made of flannel. He told me a few weeks ago that these were too hot (note: It was snowing at the time.) and that he wanted short sleeve tee shirts and shorts for sleeping. So, here we go. This is set #1, made with Ottobre 03/2013-23/39 and 06/2011-37. 

I've made him two sets so far, and he's very happy with both. You can see the second set in the top picture. Those two sets were random stashbusted fabrics, but I find that the stash is very low on older boy friendly knits, so I ordered a few, and then I'll make more. You can never have too many comfy PJs.

Honey, I Shrunk the Vogue 8379!

So, I had this crazywonderful idea. Barbie sized patterns are great and all, but I was on the hunt for a specific thing, and the 1/6 scale pattern world just wasn't doing it. What I really wanted was the Vogue 8379 wrap dress. But sized for my dolls. What is a sewist to do??

Get a little creative! That's what! This dress is exactly was I had in my head. Seriously. Exactly. And it really is Vogue 8379!!

You know those pattern piece diagrams that are printed in the instructions? Did you know that they are actually drawn to scale? They make a great starting point for a playscale pattern! I scanned the diagram into my computer, then measured the back piece at the waist. I compared it to a Barbie knit top pattern that I drafted. The math worked out well, as my Barbie pattern was 3mm across and the Vogue was 1mm. I told my printer to scale it up 300% and made a test dress.

My test dress demonstrates how much taller Barbie is than the average woman, But other than the length, the fit is really good overall! I added 1/2 inch to the bodice length, 1 inch to the skirt and 3/4 of an inch to the sleeves. If Barbie were human that would be 3 inches added to the bodice, 4 inches to the sleeve and 6 inches to the skirt. She's tall!

 On the final dress, I added the collar as well. For the sake of my sanity, I omitted the teeny weeny facings in favor of a plain hem, but I did the ties just as the pattern instructs, including the hole in the side seam for the belt to wrap through. I love the way this customizes the fit in my version of this dress, and I wanted it to work for more than one type of doll.

I really love the way it looks on Ksenia! She is a Phicen Fire Red Rose, and she is much curvier than Barbie. I love the way a wrap dress works on a busty figure. Now I can't wait to try some of my other patterns for my girls! So much variety!! SO many great details!! Squeeee!!