Shirt Dress...or...ummm...Shirt Shirt?

Making a little girl's dress out of Daddy's old button down shirt is nothing new.  Although this dress is, in fact, a little girl's shirt.  Because the dress looked like a nightgown.  And nightgown chic is not something we're ready to attempt.

Depending on the angle and light, from a distance this shirt looks blue, or white, or pinstriped, but up close it has a really neat woven texture with shiny white, pale blue, and also charcoal threads in it.

I didn't realize how long this shirt had been kicking around until I cut the button placket off and found where my husband's mom had written his name.  HA!!!  That dates this shirt back to at least 1999.  I thought about trying to work in the name somewhere, but then I started to feel a little embarrassed that I still had a shirt that probably hasn't seen any action in at least ten years sitting around.  But then I just told all of you about it so I guess I'm not THAT embarrassed after all.

The pattern is self drafted.  It's actually a hack of a pattern of my own.  The original, which I haven't really shown here yet, is a full front piece with one button at the center of the low back.  I modified it so that the low back is one piece and the front is two with the button placket down the middle.

The sleeves turned out a bit Anne Shirley but the full skirt (I used the entire width of the original shirt) balances them out in a nice way.  I used the original cuffs, too.  Kept the height and shortened the length (Is that right?  I moved the button in but kept the wrist to elbow length - if that makes more sense.).

Now I'm off to tackle a long awaited (on their part) and dreaded (on mine) glitter project.  Glitter is my frenemy, but I can hold her off no longer.  Wish me luck and a quick clean up.

My First Aster

Has it really been over a month since my last post?  Oops.  Well, I'm back - with my first Aster Cardigan!

As you may be aware, I have a thing for little cardigans but have always just used my own self-drafted pattern.  And I had every intention of continuing to do so, but there was a sale on Friday and the idea of having the pattern already graded and ready to go every season for the next however-many years she fits the pattern was just too tempting to refuse.

I sewed it up in size 2 (perfect fit!) exactly according to directions, and while it wasn't quite as fast as I thought it would be, it wasn't a tedious or difficult sew and I'm pretty sure the next will go significantly faster with this first one under my belt.  Isn't it cute?

The fabric was from JoAnn last year, I think.  It's reversible, with dots on one side and stripes on the other.  I originally planned on getting fancy with striped side out on the collar and cuffs, but realized that I was trying too hard.  Simple is more my style and I'm so happy I listened to my gut.  I love this little sweater.

The buttons are vintage from my stash, and the binding on the neck was just a scrap of yellow knit I  had leftover from another project.  Can't go wrong with yellow and gray, can you?  Speaking of gray - it's a rainy morning and so not ideal for photos, but at this point I figure it's now or never.  I'm getting on this horse again no matter how grainy my shots are!

What I'm (we're?) really excited about is using this pattern as a base for my usual adult-cardigan-refashion.  In it's simplest version, I'll probably just leave off the collar, lengthen the sleeves and leave off their bands, and keep the length but lose the hem so the sweater will be a little longer.  There are so many other options in between, though.

(I got happy faces in these pictures by discussing Halloween with her - which should explain the "scary" roaring pose as well as the happy jig at the end.  Halloween - not my favorite, but she and I have a pretty cute plan this year that I'm not totally dreading sitting down to sew.   Baby steps for this Mama.)


**Updating this post to note that I finally updated the Gallery.  Kicking my check lists' butt today!  "Wee-haw!" as Lisi Loo would say.**