Sailorette in Action

  Oh hey! My niece is probably the most adorable ever!!!     Here she is sporting the tiny sailorette outfit, complete with snaps (cheating on the ill-fated button holes!) and cheese grin. This is a new phase for her, as she is normally pretty studious and laid back.       

She looks JUST like my sister in law in this photo above left, where she's waiving good-bye and pretending to leave out the front door. 

 

I think the outfit is super adorable on her, the shirt looks a tad big but with how fast littles grow, she will fit it in no time! I highly recommend this pattern. It is well drafted and easy to put together.

Tiny Sailorette!

I finally finished the tiny outfit and it has arrived to my niece!

The shirt is coming back, sadly. I failed to put the buttonholes in at the top due to so many reviews stating that you really didn't need them. FALSE. THIS IS FALSE. I am going to do vertical buttonholes so that I don't have to pull the entire sleeve off, but I'm hoping it fits her once they can fit it over her head!

I think I've just decided this is my go-to pattern when friends or family are having babies, because this goes together very nicely and easily and is SUPER cute. A TNT for the littles, if you will.

Seersucker shirt with Grey accents

French seam and bias tape finish

Bad Auntie read too many reviews that said the buttonholes weren't necessary

I've been prepping for my fall and winter sewing. I found that one problem I keep running into is lack of motivation to do the dull, dragging task of cutting and tracing once I've finished a project. My ah-ha moment came to me when I realized, if I dedicated a week or two to these tasks, then I wouldn't have to hem and haw or think about fabrics and what not.

Since I'm also currently on a "NOT ALLOWED TO BUY ANY MORE FABRIC" restriction, I'm working through stash for these projects. I've also decided that with all the ease built into the Big 4 patterns, I won't be tracing those off. There's just no point. I am small and picked up those patterns for $1 at Joann Sales. I will be tracing independent designers so those stay intact, since their sizing offers less ease and are therefore far more realistic. 

My floor, covered in patterns to be traced.

Sneak Peak

I'll be writing a full post tomorrow, but for today, here is a sneak peak at a project I finished earlier this week for my niece's upcoming 2nd birthday!

If you follow me on instagram, then you've already seen this. (username is @txristina, follow me for photos of my friends, monkey trees, sunsets from my roof and other fun things!)

I did finish the lonsdale, and I need to take photos. I've got a lot of fun things in store for fall/winter!

Sailor Outfit

Dearest friends:

I have been horrible about blogging of late, or possibly historically. I originally started this blog about 4 years ago. Then I stopped sewing due to life, and picked it back up again. Just because I haven't been blogging, that doesn't mean I haven't been sewing! Hoo Boy! No! I've been so busy.

First, I'd like to share with all of you, the list that I made, which details the things I wanted to get done this weekend. I left the list on my desk on Friday. BOOOO!

 What started as a small list, turned into a two sided list. The first of which was simply a list of blog topics I had. The second was my spring wardrobe plan!

As you can see, I've got HUUUUGE aspirations.

Now. My goal is to post at least once a week, even if it is just a single photo of what I'm working on. 

Here is something I recently finished:

A pair of tiny pants for an upcoming tiny human!

Oliver + S Sailboat Pants!

The Oliver + S Sailboat Pants are amazing. They came together really well, after a short mishap with my sewing machine's automatic buttonhole feature. Yes, I did indeed make SEVENTEEN practice holes to finally figure out what was going wrong.

In the end, I garnered success and the pants are put together. I finished most of the seams with a red bias tape. I used baby whale navy blue corduroy. That stuff is extremely fuzzy. I pre-washed all my fabric, and Holy Fire Hazard in the lint trap! The fuzz all over my sewing table at this point is enough to card together to make another piece of fabric. 

Let's see more shots, shall we?

BAM! Buttons! Button Holes! Topstitching!

I love the shape of the "pocket" area.

Seat, cute elastic gathering only in the back.

Red Bias tape finish on the facings.

I didn't finish the crotch seam or the interior leg seam, as I wasn't sure about bulk and how to do this while allowing the seam to lay flat. Since these are sailor pants, I didn't want to do a flat felled seam down the center and detract from the button detail. And, these are pants for a 2 year old, so, yeah.

Interior rear.

I did not finish the elastic casing following the directions. What did I do instead? I slapped some bias tape on the raw edge and sewed it down. CASING DONE. Less pressing, less bulk this way. I love the way it turned out.

Interior front.

Unbuttoned, interior front. You can see i pinked some of the crotch seam, but mostly turned under and stitched, which doesn't give a very good clean finish. I will be making these pants again for my nephew and I will instead finish the raw edge with a zig zag PRIOR to stitching together. Easy peasy.

Why red bias finish, you ask?

Because I'm also making the sailor top to match in a really great red, white, and blue plaid.

Interior Sailor Shirt front on the left, Interior Sailor Shirt back on the right.

Basted together at the top, see the cute buttonholes!

I've also managed to attach the sleeves last night, but they're not sewn up yet. Coincidentally, the installation instructions were the exact same set that Sunni detailed in a post today. The shirt went together really quickly. The pattern also comes with a version for a skirt. My plan is to create the pants and shirt for my adorable nephew, and create the skirt and shirt version for my adorable niece. Those will be surprise spring gifts. I'm so lucky to have one of each!

In the interest of brevity, I'll end the post now. I will be updating again (hopefully sooner than later!) about the Mad Men Dress Challenge, and some of the other items I put on my list above!!