Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Easter!

A few months ago I bought some light blue shirting fabric at Hancock's on the clearance table. A week or so after that I found a piece of cotton with a tiny floral print in the clearance section. I held on to the fabric and tried to figure out what to make. Then it dawned on me, Easter outfits, duh. 

Mina's dress was inspired by a dress from Livly, a Swedish company. I used some green bias tape from my stash for the design details. I inherited the tape from James' grandma Beardall by way of my mother-in-law, Melanie. It was tricker to use the tape than I anticipated, piping would have been a better option. It's pretty uneven in spots but no one said anything about it. It's possible that it isn't noticeable but I think they were just being polite. 


Magnus' romper has been a work in progress and a major learning experience. I thought I was pretty confident in my patterning skills until it came time to put the romper together. The front section was pulling in the worst way and it seemed really off grain. I went to bed thinking that I would need to re-cut most of the romper. I kept thinking about it while I slept and then while I fed Magnus in the middle of the night. Sometime around 3 AM I realized the body of the romper was fine, the COLLAR was too small. That was an incredibly happy realization! I measured the pattern and found that I had patterned the collar and collar stand almost an inch too short. That's massive in baby clothes! I revised the pattern and constructed a new collar and stand. I made a bow tie from Mina's leftover fabric using Delia's pattern. I love bow ties!

Fast forward to the week after Easter. 
General Conference weekend fell on Easter weekend this year so the kids didn't wear their outfits until a week later. Magnus' romper was a little short in the girth. I tried remedying the situation by unfastening the center crotch snap. When I did that I noticed that the stitching had come undone in the lower part of his romper. Apparently the stress of his diaper popped the stitches. After church I reconstructed the lower part of his romper. I reinforced the stitching in the seat and I added a gusset to the ack half. It made a world of difference. I should have added it in the patterning stage. Now I know!

It would be safe to say that toddlers and babies aren't the most cooperative of models. 
Oh well!