Free Pattern! The Other Birthday Dress

I showed off "the other birthday dress" in this post. I realised that since I'd already drafted a size 10/12 child's large pattern I might as well share it. And since I was going to share it I might as well make a mini tutorial on how to sew it.

Mind you I took no pictures of the process so all I have is drawings but if you have any knowledge of sewing it should be pretty clear.

If you would like to sew the dress using the same fabric, it is available in my Spoonflower shop here:

Party Animal Fabric 

 The fabric is designed to repeat perfectly on one yard of Modern Jersey. Other knits choices will work you will end up with less of the tossed print part of the fabric though.

You will need:
General Sewing Supplies-thread, pins, sewing machine, scissors etc.
Pattern available here-Party Animal Raglan
Less than 1 yard of knit fabric with 25% stretch and good recovery.

To begin download and print out the pattern pieces. You want to choose 100% or No Scaling or uncheck the Fit to Page box on your printer.
Trim and tape the pages following the diagram and then cut out the two pattern pieces.

Cut out two sleeves on the fold and two bodices on the fold. You will also need on strip of fabric 2x20 and one square of fabric 2x2 for the neckband.

I own a serger but at the moment it is being incredibly uncooperative so I sewed the entire dress using a narrow and long zig zag stitch. You can serge or twin needle it if you prefer.

Step one:

With right sides together sew the sleeves to one bodice piece
along the shoulder seams.















Step two:
With right sides together sew the sleeve to the other bodice half along the shoulder seam.
Repeat on the other side.Turn to right side and topstitch your seams if you desire.

Step three:

Turn dress inside out and match up the sleeves and bottom hem. Sew the side seams from sleeve hem to bottom hem on both sides, You can turn the dress right side out and topstitch if you desire. 

Step four:
To make neckband sew strip together to form a loop, fold loop in half lengthwise concealing the stitches to the inside.

Fold knot piece in half and stitch along cut edge. Turn tube so seam is on the inside.

 

Step five: 

Pin the knot piece onto the center sleeve portion of the neckline and baste in place. Center the seam of the neckband over the knot piece and pin evenly around the neckline. Fold the knot piece up to cover the seam and stitch the neckband to the neckline. Turn to right side and topstch in place.

 

Step six:

Hem sleeves and bottom edge of dress (I used a lettuce edge on the bottom)

See ya' later alligator.

The legaleze: I believe when you give you should give with both hands. What that means for you. If you want to share the file it would be nice if you sent people here to get it but you don't have to. If you want to change the file, change it. If you want to sell dozens or hundreds of size 10/12 raglan dresses be my guest. Enjoy!

The Other Birthday Dress...

Yes, I made two. But Modern Jersey was on sale at Spoonflower and I'd been painting these pictures and I already had the fabric mostly designed and let's face it, who doesn't love a raglan dress?

I drafted the dress myself using one of her school uniform for size/shape and modifying it for the raglan sleeve. I used this tutorial to get the sleeve right.
The fabric was designed specifically for this type of dress and sized specifically for one yard of  Modern Jersey from Spoonflower.com.
 The dress is switchable from front to back because Wub liked panels. Maybe the alligator a little more. The bottom hem is a lettuce edge in rainbow thread.

See ya' later, alligator!

The Birthday Dress

I used The Norah Dress and Tunic Pattern by Mouse House Creations with a few modifications (Primarily because I had printed the pattern piece and not the instructions and then could not figure out which computer I had stored the original file.)

The bodice is unlined and I did a bias bound neckline instead.
I added an exposed zipper at the back instead of the button and loop closure.
I left the hem straight to show off the border print fabric which gave the dress a handkerchief style hem.
I embroidered the collar, hem and sleeves. The collar also has celebrate embroidered on it.

It was a fairly easy sew (even without instructions) and I want to make her a few more as I love this silhouette on her.

The birthday dress...

This has been in my head for literally years. Ever since I made the green and orange version I've wanted to use Pink Blossom Festival with navy blue to make a maxi length Maggie May Dress.

 I used about a third of a full size fitted Cannon Monticello Blossom Festival bed sheet (If you are old enough you might remember them from the 1970's. They originally came from Kmart but I picked this one up at GW for like $2.00 ) for the main fabric and just a bit of a twin size, navy sheet set we bought on clearance at Target.

  I love this pattern and I cannot recall all the things I've made for Wub using it. Several dresses and top a few nightgowns and the top to her Christmas pyjamas a couple of years ago.

 I forgot to measure Wub before she left for school this morning so I was positive I'd made it ridiculously long. Truth of the matter, she is taller than I give her credit for because the length is spot on.

and like all the best dresses this one is extra great because pockets.

This is almost done. just needs buttons and buttonholes. We made a special trip out to Let's Sew (or as I like to call it The Magical Palace of Button Wonderfulness Also Fabric) so Wub could pick out her own buttons. She picked out some lovelies and I'll share as soon as i get them sewn. on.

A Dash of Rainbow

Funny, this is the second time I've made character inspired underpants for Kid's Clothes Week.

I used some of the leftover bits from her Christmas Rainbow Dash Lounge Wear and the Classic Panties and Camisole pattern from Peek-a-Boo Patterns.

I was having a severe case of clumsy fat hands but they still went together relatively quickly. About an hour 15 from dig out fabric to press down seams. I was too lazy to rethread the serger and couldn't find my glasses to thread a double needle so zigzag stitched they are. I bought the rainbow thread with this project in mind. So cute. Will definitely be making a stack of these in various fabrics.

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.

Ruffle Fabric Love

 It's been awhile but I made a commitment to not sew until the house was in order. After Mom died the house didn't just get away from me, it ran screaming wildly down the road and into the next state (maybe two states)
 I fully plan on doing a walk of shame/proud of my accomplishments post with before and after pictures of just how bad the den/computer/dining/craft/sewing room was when it's finally done but that is for another day. And although the den is not yet where it needs to be we've made HUGE headway. So I took a small break from de-hoarding and sewed up two things.

 I won this incredibly beautiful ruffle knit fabric from Simple Simon and Co. (Along with an AMAZING haul of other gorgeous wonderstuff)   It's original intention was a Coastal Curtsy Skirt from No Big Dill. Although that is an absolutely darling idea, I don't sew from myself and as soon as I saw the fabric I knew it needed to be a tank dress with gold trim. (And probably several other things because there is a ton of it.)

 Then Wub started taking dance classes and I realised she really, really REALLY needed a pair of ruffle shorts for dance class.

 So I folded about nine inches over on one side of the fabric and carefully pinned it in place making sure to keep the ruffles falling in one direction. Then I downloaded and printed off The Girls Knit Tank Top Pattern sizes 3-8 and FREE) from Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom. I used size 6 which was pretty roomy on Wub who's a RTW 7. I lowered the neckline slightly by following the size 4 neck curves. I also added 5 inches to the bottom to make it dress length.

 Then I found a pair of leggings and traced them to make the pattern for the shorts.  

 I was actually making these simultaneously can you guess?

 I was trying to be as careful as possible with the cutting and pinning because I didn't want to cut away bits of ruffle in awkward places. I was also really cautious with pattern placement because I wanted the ruffles to line up really well.

  The shorts were super easy. I matched sewed the seat and front seams first using a zizag then matched and sewed the inseam. One thing did do was pull a little bit of the cut ruffle out past the edge of the seam so when I sewed it together the raw edge would be on the inside. Because the fabric has such good recovery I didn't bother with a waistband at all. I may regret this after dance class next week but if I do I'll add one then.

 For the dress I followed the directions in the tutorial just making extra sure to pin the ruffles down in the right direction. It turned out super cute. She's going to wear it to a bridal shower tomorrow. Can't wait to show it off for real.

 And the "scarf" is just the leftover strip of fabric from the edge. I still have so much fabric leftover i could make her several skirts or dresses. I'm thinking about trying to dye some of it because even though I love the palest pink color of it, how many antique pink dresses/tops/skirts etc. does one girl need?

 So back to sorting, pitching and donating *sigh* but it was lovely while it lasted...