Friday, November 30, 2012

Another knock off....



As soon as I saw these pants from J.Crew I 1) pinned them. 2) I thought why have I never thought of this. It is such a simple way to twist the classic tuxedo pant and make it new yet recognizable - I love clothes like that. 3) I got to make some like asap.
And here we are.....Wilma needed pants anyway so she got a pair first.
The flower fabric (they are both corduroy) was Wilma's choice. I do love that fabric but I would probably have made them less romantic. But it is Wilma who is going to wear them so I guess it make sense I put my designer dreams in the background and let her take that decision.....as long as I can live with it, ahem!

I added some nice details like sewed on front pockets with a contrast color bias band in the opening.

Back pockets also with a contrast color bias band in the top opening. 

I made them a size 6 yrs even though she is only turning 5 in January - in other words I want her to wear them for a loooong time - so I decided to make the waistband adjustable with buttonhole elastic the classic way like you see above.


I knew they were going to be too long for her here in the beginning. So since I knew they were going to be rolled up I decided to make the roll up look nice by covering the seams with bias band. 

Here you can see a photo of the lowest part of the pants inside out. I did not put the bias band all the way up because I was afraid it was going to make the seams too stiff. And I want to come with an advice that I learned the hard way (as in redo-it-all-way). Don't use a bias band that is made of too thick fabric because that makes the roll up too bulky. Argh!


And they are playground approved too!

And if anyone wondered about the title ('Another knock off') it must be because you missed this guest post on Elegance & Elephants where I am part of the series Knock it Off and is knocking of another pair of J.Crew pants - YES I LOVE J.Crew....a lot!  
Hmmm and actually when we are at it I am already working on a third pair of J.Crew knock offs that will come on the blog soon. If you are curious you can see if you can find them on my Pinterest 'Favourite' board.

And remember if you like what you see and read on this blog you have several ways not to miss another post. See the right side column for Facebook, Bloglovin' and Google Friend Connect options. I would love to have you onboard! 

And to the best part (who does not like a feature):

Threading My Way_Featured

Knock it off.

Today I am not here, I am HERE participating in Elegance & Elephant's great series Knock it Off. In all simplicity I (and a whole bunch of other talented ladies) have been so lucky to be asked to find an outfit, garment, or accessory that we love - and copy it be inspired by it and make it in kid size.
Below you see the pants I made but if you want to see more photos, the pants I am inspired by, a tutorial to draft the type of pocket these pants have and some sewing tips to take it from good to great you have to click HERE.
(And yes that is grosgrain ribbons along the leg - I am kind of obsessed at the moment.)


Thursday, November 15, 2012

Sewing with grosgrain ribbons.

I don't like if clothes is tooooo cute and I think a perfect way to add a little coolness is grosgrain ribbons. I am also not at all done with the add-a-little-neon-to-everything trend (even though being a child in the 80's you should think I was cured for life?!) Well, guess not! And since you can buy grosgrain ribbons in neon colors (and lots of other beautiful colors) we have a popular product in my book. I bought mine at The Ribbon Retreat.
Wilma asked if I could make her a skirt in this star cotton fabric and I suggested we added some grosgrain ribbons - I guess it was my lucky day because she agreed.
Below I will show you how I ended making quite a fancy hem despite the lack of planning before I cut the fabric.



I got a problem with the hemming of this skirt when I cut the skirt before deciding where exactly to put the grosgrain ribbons. So when I decided on the placement I realized that the big hem that I prefer on skirts (and is so easy to make when the skirt consist of a rectangle piece of fabric) would require a stitch in the middle of the ribbons...what to do! Obviously I tried to convince myself to move the ribbons higher or lower but noooo my inner designer said this is where I want them. Argh, so stubborn!
Then I considered hemming the skirt first and then sew the ribbons on afterwards but then my inner seamstress was like noooo that would not make a very nice finish sewing those ends of ribbons together. The ribbon's ends have to be hidden in the side seam - where they by the way have to meet precisely. Argh, so anal! 


Soooo the only solution left was to hem the skirt and sew one of the ribbon stitches on in one stitch. Again if this was planned I could have made the seam allowance for the hem go all the way up to the top of the top ribbon. Then there would have been no visible stitches on the inside but the hem stitch but I think we are clear here that was not the case. So I went with the second best and stitched all the ribbons on the skirt and left out the bottom stitch on the top ribbon as you can see on the photo above if you look closely.

After sewing the side seam together and overlocking it, it was time to sew the two-in-one stitch. I helped myself by putting needles from the front side through the line in the ribbon where I was going to stitch and then making sure I hit the hem 1 mm from the edge on the inside.

.....and to my surprise it actually worked without giving me any problems or do-overs. I just sewed slow and made sure to stretch the fabric while I was sewing. 
Yay victory and both inner designer and seamstress was happy.
Now I am just hoping my photography skills improve so my inner photographer would be happy - ha, like I even have a inner photographer...I am hopeless! But I hope they at least helped a little bit illustrating what I have been trying to show you above.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Long sleeve version of jersey dress with vintage feel.

Nope, I should not be sewing at all and I should definitely not be sewing for the youngest of my daughters who has clothes raining down on her from her big sister. IF I should be sewing it should be for my oldest who has a closet full of too short pants and long sleeved t-shirts. 
Oh and I should definitely not be 'wasting time' blogging about it. And yet here I am with a new post of a new jersey dress for my youngest daughter - hmmmm. Some things are just more fun than others....sewing and blogging versus painting and organizing is a (selfish) no brainer for me. I keep telling myself that the reason I am not doing what I was suppose to do is that the builders are still working in our new house but the truth is that there are projects in the house that could be started now without interfering with the builders. I knew I would be bad at this house-owner-thing....useless really.

So here we are with a model I first blogged about in THIS post. The fabric is a lovely interlock knit from The Fabric Fairy that was part of my prize when I won the blog Crafterhours' Skirt Week 2012 (the judge's choice) for THIS a-line skirt. Yippie!
And why do I think you could be interested in seeing another version of this dress? Weeeell, massive changes has happened - it has gotten long sleeves. 
I did not even think about changing the sleeves until the fabric was already cut but since the short sleeve has a bit of gathering by the ribbon I originally finished it off with I thought I could just add a tight long sleeve to the short sleeve and make it into a......ehhhh okay I have no idea what that type of sleeve is called but look at the photos and hopefully you will know what I mean.
At first I cut the long narrow sleeve in the same flower fabric as the rest of the dress but that made it look like a night gown. I did not have enough of the secondary green fabric to make long sleeves but luckily my fabric stash contained this purple knit ribbon which was perfect for the job. 
At some point I was considering simply making her a long sleeved t-shirt in the purple fabric that she could wear under the dress because that would give the same 'look' and more mix and match options but I guess my laziness won.
I could have chosen to sew the purple rib directly to the short flower sleeve but decided to add a panel of green to emphasize the illusion of a short sleeved dress with a long sleeved t-shirt under.


Otherwise there are not changes from the first version beside making it a bit wider and longer....the girl is growing as you can see. 
My husband accidentally called her a baby (in the meaning that she is our youngest) yesterday and was told in a very indignant tone that she is NOT a baby she is a girl! 
Yes ma'am!



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