KCW - Easter Dress #2

This year we are celebrating Easter with my in-laws a week late to accommodate schedules, and spending Easter Day with my family.  Two celebrations are as good a reason as any for two dresses, right?

Easter Dress #1 was originally going to be Lisi Loo's only dress, but then I saw this pin...and the next day my mom gave me some sheer curtains...and Easter Dress #2 was born (in my mind anyway - it was just completed yesterday).

This was always second favorite in my head...until I put it on her.  Now I think I love it even more than #1!

I used the same pattern I drafted for her Christmas dress since this girl only seems to grow up, not out.  (Seriously - she's wearing these pants today - now they're stylish ankle-length skinnies).  The only changes I made were to lengthen and pleat the skirt, to insert an exposed zipper instead of an invisible zipper, and to line the skirt as well as the bodice instead of using a separate underskirt.

The pleating was purely a measure of laziness.  Gathering has now dropped even lower than making buttonholes on my list of dreaded sewing techniques (or should that be higher?   Whatever - I just don't like it, okay?).  I was really pleased how it worked out so evenly with no measuring  or forethought.  Like I said: lazy.

I thought about adding some piping or a sash, but I'm glad I didn't.  Once I got it on her and you could really see more of the large scale pattern I think the simplicity suits it just fine.

I'm going to try to finish out the week with an hour of cutting/prepping tonight, and squeeze in a hour each day this weekend.  Maybe easier said than done, but certainly not impossible.  Like they say: it’s Kid’s Clothes WEEK, not Kid’s Clothes take-the-weekend-off! 

Linking up to KCW here.

KCW Stripes and Stretch

We did it!  We got pictures!  Pretty good ones, too, in my humble opinion.  Phew.  But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Here's my outfit from KCW day two:

It was blatantly inspired by this pin.  The pink pants are, once again, Lovely Rita Skinnies.  I know there are a bunch of skinny pants/jeans patterns out there now, and sometimes I think about branching out...but then I decide that it's better not to mess with a good thing.  I love this pattern and have definitely gotten my money's worth already - and I've only made one size so far!  Five times if I recall correctly...but still, one size.  These were made from an old pair of my pants (mini me?) and I used the existing hem which was slightly nerve wracking (no wiggle room!) but they turned out just right.

The top was self drafted, and I'm pretty much loving it.  I'm going to need to name this one because I see several more in my future.  (Although I may add one more inch of length next time.  Which may be later this week.  New estate sale fabric, remember?)

And now that the business end of this post is out of the way, let's get to the show.  We had two false starts this morning, but after some (unusually painful) grocery shopping, we walked down the street to our favorite park for some sunshine and fresh air.  There I found my toddler picture posing hot-spot:

She ran down...

She ran up...

She ran down...

She ran up...

She ran down...

and it was good.

You may be seeing a lot more of these barn doors in the future.  Crossing my fingers it wasn't a one shot wonder!

Linking up to KCW here.

KCW - Easter Dress #1

It's that time again - Kids Clothes Week!  (Participants dedicate at least one hour every day for a week to sewing up some clothes for your kids, for anyone not in on the fun themselves.)  Since this season's KCW is conveniently just a couple of weeks before Easter, I decided to take it easy and just commit (to myself) to a dress and sweater for the littlest lady of the family.  But then I went on Pinterest.  I think most of you probably know where this is headed....

So then my list expanded to a 2nd Easter dress (two celebrations deserve two dresses, right?), a new spring blouse, and a new pair of springy pants.  Not an impossible-to-complete list, but a little more than I was confident I would be able to through in a week.  So I did all my cutting and bodice sewing last week, leaving skirts, hems, closures, and the pants for this week.  I've dropped the sweater for now (not feeling it at the moment) but would also love to add the new Eos blouse if time permits.  I hit up an awesome estate sale on Sunday and walked away with approximately 30 yards of fabric for about $15.00.  'Cause that's what I needed - more fabric. And of course new fabric equals more inspiration which leads to an even longer list.  Oops.

Anyway...today I present my first completed garment.

It's so gray and rainy today we decided to bring spring inside - green grass and giant flowers?  I'll enjoy those any day!  Actually, they may stay up all week since we're not all that green outside on a sunny day yet, either.

I thought the flowers and eggs would make this a fun shoot.  Spoiler alert: I was wrong.  Between the gray skies and this little girl having some belly/diaper issues (stink-yyyyy!), we've been pretty miserable around here for the last couple days - and today is no different.  We started with eggs.


Then moved on to a chip.

 Then we got some of this:

And I, unfortunately, had to resort to the phone once again.  Argh.

The pattern is the Tuileries Dress from Kelly at Sewing in No Mans Land.  The lacey fabric was from a different estate sale, and the navy lining fabric was from my grandmother when she de-stashed.  The pattern only calls for a lined bodice, but since I was using the lace I did a full lining.  Added bonus: an extra full skirt.  If it wasn't for the head of the zipper (and a little sketchiness in the actual zipper insertion) this dress would actually be reversible, which I think is pretty neat!


My favorite part of this dress is the little pleated detail at the neckline - unexpected and quite a lovely feminine touch.

Back tomorrow with outfit #2.  It's all sewn up and ready to wear...but I'm going to need you all to wish me luck documenting that fact!!

Linking up to KCW here.