My Sewing Space

"A dress? To wear to bed ?! For ME?!?!" Okay, so the concept of a nightgown is a bit new to my daughter. I don't wear one and she's never had one, but she's getting used to the idea. The Preacher's grandma gave me this flannel and I just barely squeaked this out of it, but it is perfect for a nightgown. I made a size 4 and lengthened the skirt and sleeves by 1.5". The pattern suggests sewing flat lace to the top of the collar, but I didn't find any lace that I liked, so I put white ric-rac around the collar edge instead. It's inserted like piping. I seem to be on a bit of a New Look streak lately. I think this was a good pattern. There isn't really a lot of fitting work to fuss with on a nightgown like this, but it did seem to be drafted well. I'll be entering this for judging in the fair in the "girl's nightgown" category. My daughter doesn't quite understand why she can't wear it until after the fair, but she kn...

I have a new niece, too. Of course, she needed me to sew something for her. I've had this pattern in my stash for awhile now. I really liked all the views and despite my annoyances with Big 4 patterns for kids, I thought I could make this work since it was so cute. I haven't gotten around to sewing it for my own daughter yet, but I will... It does seem to be a good pattern. I made size large and it seems to be similar to RTW size 24 months. I compared it to a couple of my younger daughter's RTW dresses. We'll have to wait awhile for a fit eval, since the beautiful little girl is just over a month old. A couple of years ago my aunt gave me this lovely cotton poplin. It is a border print and I used some of it to make a shirt for my older daughter. The collar, cuffs, and button band used the border. There was still a good amount of it left and initially I had envisioned View C with all the ruffles out of the border print. But, when I laid it out, there wasn't enough ...

Despite the numerous bad reviews of this pattern, I still went ahead with it. The reviewers generally did not like the sleeve with darted shoulder and found the neckband to be a real problem. I like the scoop neckline and the short raglan sleeves. I thought maybe I could change the sleeve to get rid of the dart. Off I went to check out Fit for Real People from Palmer/Pletsch. Of course they had the info I needed about removing the dart from a darted raglan sleeve. From page 176: "Today, most raglans are undarted or seamed. A darted raglan is rare." That explains why I had never seen this before. Because the dart is at the top of the shoulder, it doesn't show up on the pattern drawing for the front or the back. I don't think I would have bought the pattern if I knew about the dart. I'm pretty sure it was only $1.99, but still.... I might be starved for mental stimulation because I have quite a few knit top patterns that fit well and I like, but I still wanted to ...

Okay, who puts their 18-month-old in white clothes? Uh...me. But when she looks as cute as this, how can I not? This white cotton was leftover from a shirt I made a couple of years ago, the pattern was $.99 and the buttons and trim were leftover from other projects. So, even if she only wears it once or twice before it is riddled with stains it's no big loss. I made the size large, but left it at the NB (newborn) length. I wanted this to be more like a top than a dress. I had thought I would shorten it more, but with all the fullness from the gathers (and the big round belly underneath), it stuck out kind of funny. The armhole binding/shoulder straps worked out pretty well. The pattern piece was just the right length and the markings were good. I like the cross-over front and the eyelet trim. I changed the back to close with buttons rather than a zipper. There are three buttons on the bodice part and none on the skirt. The shorts are from Simplicity 5316 . The pattern doesn't...

“Well, would ya look at that!” “Mom, are you wearing a blanket?” Those were the responses of my four-year-old daughter and two-year-old son when they saw this top! I got a pretty good laugh from that. This top was too easy. It took about as long to put together as it did for my husband to take my kids to the doughnut shop. Hardly even a blip on the sewing radar. The sleeves are cut-on so the only seams are shoulder/top of sleeve, underarm/side seam and center back. Slap on a neckband, hem the sleeves and bottom and you’re done. I cut a size 12 initially but should have done a 10. I decreased the width of the neckline by .5” on each side and left the depth unchanged. The neckline is still really wide. I increased the length of the sleeves by 1.5” and added 1” in length to the bodice front and back. After getting the pieces together it looked too big on me, so I took it in at the CB and side seams by .5” I’m really not sure what I think about the top yet. It is a little different from my...