Shorts For Rose

I made these for Rose last week. They are McCalls 6403. I altered the pattern a lot to get them to fit properly and to get the style she wanted. I removed the pockets. Also, Rose 43" hips and a 28" waist. She is also tall so I had to lengthen the crotch depth 3 inches and lengthen the darts a bunch. Tall, curvy girls just aren't fair =)

Cherry Embroidered High Waist Shorts

I saw an adorable pair of shorts with cherries embroidered on them on Etsy the other day and decided that I must have a pair. They are cute but for the price of $57, I am definitely going to make my own. I did change a few things. I made them fully fitted instead of having the elastic at the back of the waist. I also skipped the pocket and put the cherries on the leg instead. I used my embroidery machine because I don't have the patience to embroider by hand.

Close up of cherries. Plus you can see where I used the really shiny 

polyester embroidery thread to do a little contrast top stitching around the legs.

Inside view- I am a bit obsessed with no having raw edges showing. 

Details

• Pattern: McCalls 6331 View A (from stash), Self drafted waistband - $1
• Pattern Changes: I lengthened both the front and back darts for a smoother fit. I also added a waistband.
• Fabric: About 1 yard light weight denim from my stash, a gift from Nanan - free
• Notions: Invisible Zipper - $2, Thread from stash - 50¢
• Time: I worked on them over a 3 day period. It would have been faster if I did not have to set up and take down my machines to switch between embroidery and sewing.
• Total Cost: about $4 (I saved $53 by making them myself)

Victorian Dress Complete!

No, the hat is not actually part of the costume...

I have finally finished my dress for Rose's Victorian birthday party. This is the most labor intensive project I have ever done but I definitely enjoyed every minute of it! I unintentionally picked a project that forced me to use many new techniques. I have never added trim to anything so that was an adventure, especially in the quantity that this dress required. I also had never made the bunched type overskirt and it to a bit of fiddling to get the folds to look nice. All in all I am pleased with the result.

For this dress I used a heavily modified Vogue 8615 bodice. I used McCall's 4090, View C for the skirt. I just made up the pattern for the bustle/apron thing (I am not really sure what to call the maroon part.) Sorry I don't have a better shot of the details and the apron in the back. I used the pink fabric with the floral print from my stash, so this one counts towards stash busting!

Sunday Strategy # 2

This week my goals are defined by the upcoming holiday and my sew along participation. Luckily, the Sew Colette 2.0 obligations for this week are light and I can focus on Halloween costumes.

1. Halloween Costumes for me, Brian and Billy.
2. Fabric for Peony. I have a few different options that I can't choose between. I think I should really make it in a flannel so it is nice and warm for the fall and winter. The only problem is that I have all these cute cotton prints that are just begging to be sewn into a beautiful dress!

Recap Of Last Week (Sunday Strategy # 1)

1. This week is the fall Kids Clothes Week Challenge over at Elsie Marley. I want to make a coat for Billy. I am going to use McCalls 6385 or Simplicity 2526. If I manage to get the coat completed I would like to make him a vest (Simplicity 1923) and a long sleeve shirt (Simplicity 1923).
• Completed the coat. Didn't get to the vest. Will Blog tomorrow =)
2. I need to do the fitting on my Colette Peony muslin for the  Colette 2.0 Sew Along.
• Done, again will blog later!

Sunday Strategy # 1

There is so much I want to do this week. Most of it revolves around various Sew Alongs.

1. This week is the fall Kids Clothes Week Challenge over at Elsie Marley. I want to make a coat for Billy. I am going to use McCalls 6385 or Simplicity 2526. If I manage to get the coat completed I would like to make him a vest (Simplicity 1923). If I have time after all that I would like to work on Billy's Halloween Costume.
2. I need to do the fitting on my Colette Peony muslin for the  Colette 2.0 Sew Along. This is going to be a doozie!

I think that is enough to keep me busy for the entire week.

Recap of last week (Monday's Sunday Strategy):

All in all I am pleased with the progress I made this week considering I did not have a sewing machine for 2 days. I like that the Sunday Strategy really helped me stay focused! Hopefully I can be consistent with posting them and then actually following my own plan.

1. Make my Colette Peony muslin for the Colette 2.0 Sew Along.
• Blogged here.
2. Get my patterns and fabrics together for Kids Clothes Week Challenge for next week.
• Ordered faux shearling from Hancock Fabrics.
• Chose Patterns
• McCalls 6385 - View B Coat. If my shearling doesn't arrive on time I will use Simplicity 2526.
• Simplicity 1923 - View C vest.
3. Finish fitting issues on Vogue 8615. I have already made this dress 3 times and still haven't gotten it quite right.
• I made up the pattern pieces with my adjustments but did not get to sew another dress since my machine died. I will try this one again in a couple weeks!

Mash Up Circle Skirt

I used 2 patterns for this skirt. I used Vogue 8818 for the skirt panels. I added the waist band from McCalls 6403 because the original skirt pattern uses elastic. I hate elastic waist bands because they add bulk to my waist and I definitely don't need that. I don't suppose I really needed to use a pattern for the waistband because it is just a rectangle, but, ehhh. I had to gather the panels a bit to fit them into the waist band. I like it though; it gives the skirt a little more volume. I did not add the lining because I used quilters cotton and it was already bulky. I also didn't add pockets. I just don't like pockets in skirts or dresses. Again, they tend to add fluff where I don't need any. I also think I will shorten the waistband a 1/2 inch or so on the next version. Maybe put some lace or ricrac around the bottom? This one is a bit plain.

Skirt hanging to set the bias.

Yellow High Waist Shorts

Again I used McCalls 6403. For this pair, I did the same alterations as my Floral Denim Shorts and more. I used the size 12 waist but used 14 for the rest of the pattern because I thought it would fix the problem with the hips. The fit is still not right but I will wear them. I am going to make another pair and just use size 12 and add length on the lines given. Maybe that will work.
I used 100% cotton twill from the Lisette Fabric Collection. It is nice and soft and very easy to work with. The fabric is a tiny bit see through. Also, after wearing them, they got incredibly wrinkly. I will use Lisette fabrics again and just add a lining.

This is part of my 13 by 13. Goal 3: make a pair of shorts.

13 by 13 - Floral Denim Shorts

Please don't mind the frumpy shirt. 

Fabric close-up

I finished my first project on my list of 13 by 2013 last week. Luckily, I was able to work on two of my goals at once. #3 - Make a pair of shorts and #8 - Learn more finishing techniques. I used French seams for the first time in this project. I used McCalls 6403 view A in size 12. I had originally made my muslin in size 14 and it was HUGE.

Image from http://mccallpattern.mccall.com/

When I was making my muslin, I had some trouble with the instructions until I realized that they were completely wrong. On the cutting layout they don't tell you that you have to use piece 2 (the pocket) for view A. They also don't include view A in the instructions for sewing the pockets. However on the pattern piece descriptions, piece 2 is labeled "Pocket A B C" The pattern piece itself is also labelled "Pocket A B C". Once I figured out that I had to follow the instructions for the other views, the project continued smoothly.

I altered this pattern in a few ways for my final draft. I removed the pockets and moved the front center fly zipper to a side invisible zipper. I also used bias tape instead of a hem on the bottom. For my next version I am going to make the legs a bit longer.