Owl Sweatshirt Tunic

Hey, you know what I thought might be fun? Giving a blog post a shot after a multi-year hiatus!

I made this simple sweatshirt tunic as part of my daughter's back-to-school wardrobe, which included exactly three things made by me: a top and skirt she wore on the first day back, and this little number, which didn't make it out of the closet until today (6 weeks after school started, for anyone keeping track.)

I like this pattern a lot.  It's the free Lena Dress from WenSJwe.  The directions are in Dutch, but, it's a pretty self-explanatory pattern so I figured it out! I made the long-sleeved version and did end up needing to make the sleeves a little wider, because my daughter has very specific ideas about what feels comfortable. We also decided to shorten it into a tunic, and I love the look.

The owl print is a thin sweatshirt fleece that I got from Girl Charlee years ago--I actually used it to make a dress for Little Sis when she was three, and this is what I've had left over for all that time!  I confess, the fact that the striped fabric she picked for the cuffs and yoke is cream while the owl print is on white drives me a little crazy, but I've learned to pick my battles on fabrics.  Just squint and pretend they match, ok? The stripes are a french terry that I picked up on the knits floor at Tomato in Nippori when we lived in Tokyo, for less than $1 per yard. I bought a ton of it so it just keeps showing up in new projects!

Lest you think it's so great how my kiddo will put on her handmade gear and swan around in a delightful photo shoot, I will make sure to show you all of the lovely outtakes, which make up most of the time we're taking pics!  She is currently watching cartoons, the bribe for finishing the photos with at least a handful that I can use.

Strawberry Newborn Set

You guys, it is so fun to be an auntie!  And it is so great to sew newborn things without having a newborn of my own!

We were so lucky to have my husband's sister and her husband and new baby in town when we returned to Portland from Tokyo--they live in San Francisco, so we weren't sure when we would get to meet the baby.  But they were here!  And we even got to take a trip to the beach with them!

This outfit starts with a sad story though--I actually sewed the outfit pictured above in June, and mailed it to Baby Cousin from Tokyo.  I also searched high and low for an infant sized jinbei, which I finally found and mailed along with the strawberry outfit.  But boo hoo hooo--the package never arrived!

Luckily I had enough fabric to start over again, so I dusted off my Portland machine when we arrived and gave it a try.  The old girl could use a tune-up probably, but she performed admirably!

Here's how the set turned out on the second go-round:

I was just going through the pictures of the original outfit, and I had almost forgotten that I made a second hat that was also lost--unfortunately I'll have to wait for our shipment to arrive from Tokyo to remake that one, since I didn't bring any of that fabric with me.

The main difference between the original set and the new one is that the first time around I made the hat reversible.

I didn't have enough fabric to do that this time, but it's still cute even with only one option!

The hats are the free baby hat from Zaaberry's pattern and tutorial.  To make mine reversible, I used the pattern for the knot-top hat, but instead of cutting a separate band for the bottom, I added 1/2 the length of the band to the main part of the hat pattern and cut out two from each fabric (so four pieces total).  I then sewed the two striped pieces together and the two strawberry pieces together, like I was making two separate hats.  BUT, I left an opening towards the top of the striped pieces, where the knot would be tied eventually, so I would be able to turn the whole thing right side out.

Once I had the two hats sewn, I turned one inside out, and slid the right-side out hat inside the wrong-side out one, lined up the raw edges at the bottom of the hat, and used a zig-zag (or serger) to sew around the opening.

Then I could pull the whole thing right-side out through the hole in the top of the striped hat.  I hand-sewed the opening closed, tucked one side inside the other and tied the knot, and flipped the brim up! Tada!  You do have to untie the knot to reverse the hat.

The shirt is the Tiny Tunic free pattern from iCandy Handmade.  She also has another version with a contrast peplum.  So cute and easy!

And last but not least, the pants are the Just Hatched leggings from Made by Rae, another free pattern!

I love how these patterns all go together, and how easy it is to combine different prints.  I fell in love with this strawberry print knit in Tokyo, and I'm wishing I bought more than 3 meters--it was only 200 yen (about $1.70) per meter!

Also, check it out--all three items fit Baby Cousin at the same time!

I'm pretty much dying from cuteness.

Skirting the Issue 2015: My contribution

Hi!  This is a quick post to show you a couple of quick skirts that I made and tell you about a really cool project going on this month, Skirting the Issue.  Simple Simon and Company host this event in order to inspire sewists to donate skirts to kids in foster care, just in time for the start of the new school year, and they are collaborating with several sewing bloggers this month to provide lots of free skirt patterns and tutorials.  The goal is to collect 1000 skirts this year, and if you'd like to participate the details are in the link I provided above--the basics are that you sew a skirt (or several) by August 15th and donate it to an organization in your area that provides clothing to foster kids.  Then you let the ladies at Simple Simon know how many skirts you made so that they can keep track.

I made this simple elastic-waist full skirt from some fun Melody Miller Rubystar fabric:

size 3T

And this knit a-line skirt with a yoga waistband, using this tutorial from Craftiness is not Optional:

this one is a size 5, but was totally too big for my skinny 5-year-old!

I'll be mailing my skirts to With Love Oregon, an awesome organization that helps set up foster parents with great quality clothing and other supplies they need to help them successfully bring a foster child into their family.  I'd be happy to provide you with a mailing address for your donations if you'd like to participate!

Summer Outfit from Free Patterns!

I have been struggling with getting decent pictures lately, which makes me less motivated to get new things up on my blog.  For some reason, I just could NOT get the photos of this outfit in focus.  My least favorite thing about doing this blog is getting photos of myself--sometimes, using the remote is easy, but more often than not I just can't get the focus or exposure right when I don't have anything to focus on.  As I was going through these photos, I can see my facial expression getting more and more strained as I failed to get the shots I wanted, and of course I feel weird whenever people walk by.

BUT!  I will still share the outfit, because these are good patterns and you should try them out.

You get the idea.

First, the skirt.  This is the free Simple Summer Pleated Skirt pattern from Sew So Easy, and here are my thoughts about it.

1.  The pattern goes together easily and looks really professional.  Here's my back zip!  I really liked putting it together.

Pattern matching WHAT!

2.  The pattern suggests using a lightweight drapey fabric, and I concur.  I used a stiffer Japanese linen/cotton blend, and I'm not in love with the way it falls.  This pattern is not meant for a structured skirt.  You could, however, use a more structured fabric for the waistband but something with drape for the skirt.  I was thinking the structured fabric would give the skirt more of a pencil look, but it doesn't.  I'm thinking of trying Delia's pleated pencil skirt to get the effect I was going for here.

3.  The pattern runs big.  I cut out the appropriate waistband based on my measurements, and had to cut out over 3 inches altogether.  Be sure to test your waistband size before you attach it to the skirt.

4.  There are POCKETS!  Yay.

The top is the free Perfect Cap Sleeve Tee from iCandy Homemade.  I have made this top a few times before, and I love its simplicity.  The free pattern is a size medium, and it works well for a loose top on me.  This time though, I was going for a more fitted look, so I tried cutting this one smaller just by placing the pattern off the fold a little bit.  That was not the best way to do the fit adjustment because now I don't like the neckline quite as much and the sleeves fit a little weird (I added the sleeve bands, but that's not the problem), but it's still baggier than I want in the torso.  I will have to play around with resizing this pattern differently to get the fit I want.

This fabric is a slub knit from Girl Charlee.  It's almost see through but not quite--I can get away with it if I wear a nude bra.  Anyway, I like this outfit better with the shirt tucked in (NOT my usual M.O. but in this case...)

Anyway, there's an outfit I made lately and am moderately happy with but not excited.  It can't all be perfect!