Sometimes ambition leads to disaster...

Or potential disaster. Wub is not awake to tell me she hates this 'cause the neck is "too chokey"

I was going for a modified shawl collar/hoodie feel. Kind of failed. If by some miracle Wub doesn't hate it I will still probably rip out the collar and replace it with an actual hood because I'm not 100% pleased( or even 85% which is my benchmark for passable).

My double needle unthreaded it self on the last stitch and I'm too tired to see to rethread. 

If it takes me a further hour to fix it tomorrow can I count it for KCW twice?

By the way I've had this fabric in my stash for almost as long as I've been sewing. I kept trying to come up with something to do with it that would do the print justice. I do love the placement on the dress and hopefully with sleep and a try on by the six year old I will be able to look logically at a fix for it. 

Also by the way this is the same Old Swan pattern from earlier this week. 

___________________________________________________

Everything Looks Better in the Morning

 

 

And when Wubby is wearing it.

Buttons, Buttons, Who's Got the Buttons?

Remember when I said I was trying to psychically control Wubby into NOT being Elsa for Halloween? Remember how creepy that sounded? Right?

So my psychic controlling was to make an Elsa dress that was reversible

and the other sides was...

wait for it...

...Anna!!!

See? I'm not a creeper I'm an over achiever! And it worked because she wants to be Anna for Halloween. SCORE! (To be honest I would have been way happier making a White Tiger or Iron Fist or Ice man costume but you can't win 'em all. I did get to make her a cat costume for Book It Day
and that was salve to my wounded soul.)

I used The Cottage Mama's Party Dress pattern as my basis, which is a free pattern you can get for signing up for her newsletter or by joining her Facebook Group. It was pretty easy to make reversible by using her alternative construction method and a little wrangling on the back closure.

Because I couldn't figure out my embroidery machine and because it is a costume I ended up painting the "embroidery" on the Anna side of the bodice.

  The Elsa part was made by overlaying the sparkly fabric over the blue sateen sheet I used for most of the dress.

Both ladies needed outerwear. I used The Go To Cape pattern and a mink/sherpa blanket for the Anna part of the costume.

For Elsa I drafted a bolero jacket and sewed it up from a scrap of satin and some more of the sparkly fabric I found in the remnant bin at JoAnn's.

Everything was all done it just needed, you guessed it, buttons. I have to admit buttons are my nemesis. I usually put off sewing them on until it's a dire emergency if I don't. Part of the reason I love my new sewing machine so much is that it sews buttonholes and buttons like a dream. There may be a way to sew shank back buttons on by machine but I didn't want to risk it. Especially with them having to be back to back because the dress is reversible. So we sat and watched Cut Throat Kitchen and I sewed on eight very sparkly buttons.
Green for Anna

and blue for Elsa.

With my carpal tunnel fingers (There really should be a common term for fingers that don't work right anymore, like fish stick fingers or something.) it took me nearly an hour and half to sew, which qualifies it for KCW sewing. Woo hoo! SCORE again!

I still need to sew one buttonhole and one button onto the Elsa cape but I am out of white thread so a trip to the store is in order. However, I do have a really sparkly pin I can use, just in case....

What's wrong with me?

Don't answer that.

 I have literally dozens possibly over 100 patterns that I could choose to sew for Wub. It's KCW and I had plans to make her a Molly School Girl Blouse to go under her Un-iform Jumper* and with the maxi skirt I'm planning for Thanksgiving.. I have this beautiful mustard  with white polka dot fabric (in the same stash I won from Simple Simon and Co)s that I felt would be a great complement to the golds and oranges or in the case of the Un-iform gold and mint. (Long story promise to share sometime.)

 So when I dug it out the fabric pile, turns out it is mustard colored, just mustard mixed with a little wasabi. Not quite what I had in mind. Well, I have do have the Sweet Dream Pyjamas printed out and this great GW find from about a month ago. Cat in the Hat pjs?  Wub always needs more pjs.**

 I could always make her another Maggie Mae or the Molly in a different color. Or I could just draft a completely different pattern and make her a dress that way.

 Sure, I only have today off and I really need to get my butt in gear and start sewing if I hope to be done before dance class...but why not? Oh, and while we're at it let's draft a collar with a stand because we enjoy a challenge.

 So that's what I did. I call it The Old Swan Dress. It's a fit and flare shorty dress with a big ole' collar. I used a tutorial from Melly Sews to make the continuous placket and another tutorial from Little Kids Grow for drafting the stand and collar.

And pockets

I'm not sure what's up with the blurrity blurr on the pictures but you get the idea.  Anyway LOVE this dress. So much that I think I'm going to make her another one (or two) on Saturday. I need to adjust the stand and the collar ever so slightly in the next go round and then I may scan it and offer it up a freebie pattern. If anyone is interested leave me a comment. Wub is a RTW 7-8.

Tomorrow is going to be reserved for UFO's My UFO pile is so humongous if I post it all I'll look like I'm showing off. In reality it's mostly buttons and buttonholes though.


*

The Un-iform. Just needs a few finishing touches like buttons,

and for me to accidentally dye it pink then completely change the color by dipping it briefly in Rit Color Remover.

 

Turned out pretty rock and roll anyway.

** No, she doesn't.

Kids Clothes Week Day One

So, I don't really like Frozen. As in I will start ranting about how awful it is to anyone who will stand still long enough to hear my 100 things that are wrong with Frozen spiel and I think Olaf is stupid. Also Kristoff, Anna and Elsa's parents Anna and Elsa themselves and Hans. And those rock trolls..whu?

I even have a song:

"Do you want to make a movie?
It doesn't have to have a plot...
We'll just sing catchy songs
and make some pretty snow
No one will notice that it's not...
Making sense at all here
if we just sing one more song...
Do you want to make a movie?
Okay...why not?"

That being said, do you know who does love Frozen? Three guesses and the answer is Wub (of course)
I tried desperately to psychically control her into being something besides Elsa for Halloween (I sort of succeeded, more on that later.) And although I may be the kind of monster who can hate Frozen, I am not the kind of monster who can step on sweet little six year old's love of "the best movie ever." *sigh*

So I found Frozen fabric at W for $5.00 a yard and bought one yard of each of the Elsa and Anna fabrics. The flannel got made into a night dress almost straight away but the cotton was just waiting  for the right project.

I want to make Wub a maxi length skirt with a high enclosed waistband and a lapped side zip out of this luscious Joel Dewberry fabric I won from Simple Simon and Co. It's going to be part of her Thanksgiving outfit. But before I use up the last of prescious bit it I wanted to practice both the zipper and encased waistband.
Et voila!

 

 

It twirls like a dream. Fairly straightforward sew. The zipper is 85% perfect. (and I'm okay with that) I know you can encase a gathered waistband, pin and sew it in one go but my butterfingers would not let me pin all the layers together. I pinned the skirt to one side of the waistband, sewed it together then folded the other side over. pinned and sewed. A few buttons and I'm quite happy with the results. 

I do think I may take a couple of darts in the waistband to make it fit smoother. Or not it is just a play skirt. I also think I want the  Thanksgiving skirt to have a sash as opposed to a button closure. We'll see. 

So, zipper, enclosed waistband and Frozen fabric. I certainly do love this little girl.