I'm kind of embarrassed

I'm way behind on blogging about projects.
Here we go...
My Mom's Lucy Wilde costume.  I still haven't seen Despicable Me 2 so I watched the trailer a couple of times and I looked at pictures from the movie. Here is my sketch of the coat and the approximation of the pattern pieces.

 My Mom was hesitant to spray her hair orange so I styled a wig.  I really could have used my friend Molly's expertise with that part!

 Mina the Ewok.  I was pretty happy with the results.  I made little boots but they kept falling off and one got lost. So, pink tennis shoes were her footwear for Halloween.

 I threw my costume together.  The pants were made from stretch denim with ribbon trim on the sides.  I was going to include a side zipper but opted to make them like stretch pants. I figured that my poncho would cover up the waist so I didn't even bother with a waist band.  I was also kind of nervous about how the pants would fit due to pregnancy bloat.  They seemed to work out fine and the poncho covered EVERYTHING!

This next project took a really long time.  It wasn't any more difficult that anything I made before it was just that I felt so rotten.  I had some problems with the lining and the iron. I remedied both by using a larger pressing cloth.  I wound up cutting THREE SLEEVE LININGS for one arm because I melted two of them. In the process I of melting the first one I burned my hand. My patience went out the window during my first trimester.

In the original sketch the sleeves as well as the pockets and yoke were going to be cut from the striped sweater.  I didn't have enough so I used the gray for the hood, sleeves and body of the coat. I painted the toggles black with acrylic paint and added black buttons to the sleeves for decoration. 

Last up, Mina's coat for this winter.  She can still fit in her coat from last year but it's kind of short.  Okay, really short. I took her measurements and started patterning.  I hoped that her wiggles didn't mess up the measurements too much.  

I was inspired to use a double collar after I saw this adorable picture on the Hucklebones website.

The shirt isn't available now but I loved the look of the collar.  I think I'll revisit it for a dress or a cute top.  

 Mina's coat was once a cashmere sweater that I bought for $5 at DownEast in Logan.  I was a poor grad student and I couldn't believe my luck! The sweater bit the dust in the washer so I washed it a few more times and then dried it in the dryer.  I shrunk up nicely and now Mina has a cute new coat.

 It's closer to purple rather than bright magenta.  I'm still working on my photography skills.

Recent projects

One of the fun things about freelancing is the variety of projects I get to complete.  This past week I finished a wedding dress, a Clara Barton costume and a romper. It sounds really random but that is how things go!

The wedding dress was for one of my childhood friends. She found a cute dress on-line but knew that she wanted a higher neckline and sleeves.

So, she bought two!  I draped a new bodice and used the fabric from the spare dress to construct it!  It was a little time consuming but all in all it was a really fun project!

The Clara Barton costume was for my cousin's school project.  I couldn't find any pictures of Clara Barton dressed as a Civil War nurse but I did find this doll:

Emily (my aunt) found a large long sleeved shirtdress at the DI which I used as the base for the dress.  Grace came up for a "fitting" so I knew how small to make a the dress.  It was pretty funny to see her wearing a dress covered in safety pins. After that I cut the dress apart and put it back together again. 

Emily bought a cheap white sheet that I used for the apron, collar and petticoat.

 I'm pretty happy with the end result, even though she does look a little bit like a maid.  It's an elementary school project, not a play!

 I made another romper for Mina out of the extra dress fabric from the last post. I over estimated the fabric from the baby dress, I really need to work on my estimating skills.

I used the pattern from her orange romper but I altered it so the arm holes are smaller, the body is longer and the waist band is a little higher. 

The only thing I would change is the width of the crotch, her diaper shows between her legs.  It's pretty nit-picky because you only really see it if you change her diaper.  Other than that, I'm really happy with the end result.

Sweater jumpers

A little while ago Mina and I went to the DI with the specific goal to buy a wool sweater or two.  I wanted to make a cute jumper for Mina to wear to church.  Jumpers are great because they last a little while longer than a dress because you can swap out the shirt underneath.  I found two nice Merino wool sweaters for $10 total!  I love the DI. I also love argyle sweaters and I don't think there are many things cuter than a baby in something argyle. Since I had two sweaters I decided to combine them into one design.  Actually, two designs.  Sometimes I have many ideas and I need to put them on paper to figure out which one I like better.

A bit of patterning later and I had an almost finished jumper.  I just needed to finalize the size of the bow and the belt.

Also adorable? Peter pan collars.  I am a huge fan.
Mina was able to wear her new jumper the next Sunday.  I even made a bow headband to go with it.

Sorry about the quality, we used my phone and Mina is a very wiggly model.

I love the shoe-tights, they make getting dressed so easy!

The second jumper outfit was constructed from the same two sweaters but this one wasn't for Mina.  Last week in Relief Society we had a service auction and I auctioned off "a custom baby item."  The night was really fun, we all amassed points by taking a survey and then we bid on items. I won a really cute garland for Mina's room and the girl who made that won my item.  A week later and this is what she won:

The headband, jumper and booties, not the baby.  She has her own baby.

 I made the top of the jumper out of navy wool and the skirt and details out the red.  The headband and booties are made primarily from the red wool.

It's official, I need to learn how to take better pictures.  Anyone want to give me some pointers???

Dresses for Mina

I'm pretty sure I might need an intervention at the rate I'm going. So far I have made two dresses and a coat for Mina this month. I made one dress out of an old pair of stretch Levi's that I wore during my pregnancy. The other dress was made out of two black tee shirts.

For the denim dress I used an existing dress to draft the bodice pattern.  I used it mainly for the shoulder slope and the armscye.  I made the waist a little bigger and I thought I made the skirt longer (more on that later.) I hadn't taken into account the fact that the "fabric" wasn't nearly as wide as the pattern pieces I had drafted for the skirt.  I pieced the front and back pieces and hid the seams in the pleating.

I had drawn a little sketch of the dress when I drafted Mina's coat pattern.  A little while later I found a very similar dress on the BabyGap website.  I made a few minor changes because I liked the BabyGap dress so much.

Mina in her finished dress!

She still isn't totally steady, hence the death grip on her arm.  She was wiggling all over.

Some things that I learned as I made the denim dress:
1. I should have continued the facing down the sides of the keyhole in the back.  I just folded over the seam allowance and top stitched.  It would have been a better idea to make an L shaped facing for the back and mitered the corners.  Oh well, live and learn.

2. The waistline was a little tricky to maneuver around when we put the dress on Mina.  Part of the issue might have been that James put a long sleeved onesie on Mina under her dress.  It was pretty trim to begin with so the extra layer wasn't helping.

3. You can't tell in the pictures but the skirt was a little short and the waist was a little long.

4. I don't own a serger so I need to finish the edges in another way.  The hem should have been roll hemmed and the seams should have been zig-zagged or finished in SOME way.

Round Two- Tee shirt dress

I wanted to remedy some of the problems with the denim dress and make another dress for Mina to wear to church.  I had two hand me down tee shirts that apart from being too short, they were in great condition.  I decided to branch out and make a knit dress for Mina.

My little sketch, a pin tucked bodice with long sleeves and gathered skirt.

I used the same bodice pattern and altered it to accommodate the detail in the front.

One of the tee shirts and some of the pattern pieces.

Cutting out the bodice...

I got the idea to sew the sleeves into the bodice at the armscye from Delia and her baby cardigan tutorial. It makes it so much easier to sew a tiny sleeve into a tiny arm hole!

The finished dress:

And this is the only picture I took of Mina wearing the dress, it's just a picture of her face.

And the lessons learned?

1. Knit is hard to sew without a serger.  I had to re-stitch several seams where the machine skipped.  It wasn't a massive problem but I was making a little dress so I guess it was proportional.

2. Knit doesn't really pleat that well.  I probably should have used a piece of lightweight interfacing on the front to give more structure for the pin tucks, it might have made them look neater.

3. The keyhole was pretty big. I will probably add another button to wrangle it in.

4. I sort of cheated a little with the hem and the cuffs.  I lined the pattern pieces up with the finished edge of the shirt so I didn't have to hem it!

And one final lesson:

I need to take an extra minute and use my camera to take pictures instead of my cellphone. 

Hello October!

October marks the official start of fall, for me at least. I think the actual official start of fall was a week or so in September but it doesn't matter. October is a wonderful month, it starts with General Conference and ends with Halloween. It gets the holiday ball rolling, the leaves continue to change, the weather cools down and I get to break out the cute fall clothes.

I have some big plans for October...

• I'm going to make Mina's Halloween costume
• We're going to have family pictures taken
• I'm going to get my butt in gear and exercise for reals and not for fakes.
• I want to make a coat for Mina

While James and I were shopping for fabric for Mina's blessing dress he had an idea for Mina's Halloween costume.  We decided then and there that we would decide every other year for costumes until she's old enough to choose her own.  James' choice?

 A dalek.

Yes, a dalek.

It's an alien from Doctor Who.

We brainstormed it out and I'm going to make it into a dress and a hat.  I'll use stuffing so it will be soft instead of rigid.  She's a baby, after all. I think I'll make the dress more of jumper so if she gets too hot (or annoyed) we can take it off without having to totally change her clothes.  I think she has some plain long sleeved onesies...

In honor of a new addition to our family and employment, we are having family pictures taken.  I am so excited but also a little nervous.  My body is different now and I'm still trying to come to terms with it.  I'm incredibly grateful that I was able to deliver a healthy baby but it would be nice if my old clothes fit again.  Maybe I just need someone to dress us for our pictures...Ugh.

I got my butt off the couch this morning and took Mina on an hour walk.  She slept through a good chunk of it and only cried once.  I thought it would be a lot colder so I wore my windbreaker.  I was so sweaty by the time we got home.  It was gross.  But, sweat is a good thing.  I should do it more often.  I figure if I document my progress I'll be more likely to stick with it. I figure I'm already off to a good start because I remembered to wear my track pants and not my scary stretchy pants.

Last up, Mina's coat.

I realize she will grow fast and won't get much use out of it but I still want to make a cute coat.  Here are some of my inspirational images:

Baby Gap

J. Crew

J. Crew

baby Dior

baby Dior

My plan is to combine all the coats into one cute, classy coat.  I'm going to follow lead of my friend Delia and use an old sweater for the coat.  She is amazing...Maybe I can finish it for our family pictures...

FYI, these coats retail for  $49.99, $188 and $845!

The lining of the baby Dior coat, I love the fabric and pleats:

Orange! and Olympics!

This is the last time I'm going to mention this but...

I LOVE THESE ORANGE TRENCH COATS!

Suitsupply really hit it out of the park.

Much better than the US (sorry Ralph Lauren)

 or Great Britain.

Initially I was really confused when I saw these outfits because I had heard Stella McCartney was the designer (they were designed by Next.)  Turns out she designed the competition uniforms, in a continued collaboration with Adidas.

I think these are pretty cool. 

In other news, there's not much to report.  Still no baby, just aches and pains and irregular contractions.  Nothing like pain that does nothing... 2 weeks until the due date.