CHRISTEPHI

My first choice for a costume for Miss M would have been Merida, the new Disney princess from Brave. I want to make her gorgeous dark green dress!  Alas, Miss M wanted to be Rapunzel, so pink and purple it had to be.  And once she had decided on Rapunzel, it was only natural her little brother wanted to be Flynn Rider (a.k.a. Eugene Fitzherbert). I picked up the Rapunzel pattern ( Simplicity 2065 ) when it was on sale for 99 cents.  I've had enough experience with Simplicity patterns to expect them to run insanely wide, so although my daughter wears size 6 in ready-to-wear clothes, I made her a size 4 in width (and a 6 in bodice length, but 4 in skirt length).  I lengthened the bodice for two reasons: 1) the dress in the movie is longer waisted and 2) it means she'll be able to wear it longer!  Even so, it's a wee big big around on her.  Room to grow! I found the directions to be sparse and sometimes just plain strange.  A fully lined bodice  and a neckline faci

KCWC Day 6 found me deviating from the "rules" a little.  Instead of sewing kids clothing , I finished up a kids toy .  I started the mattresses for this Princess and the Pea a while back, but hadn't gotten around to finishing them, or sewing the princess herself.  With a little friend's fourth birthday right around the corner, I figured I'd better hurry up! Little Guy came along just as I was about to stuff the princess and wanted to help.  I put a small pouch of zinc coated BBs in the bottom of her to counterbalance her heavy head!  Then we filled her with fluff. "Winnie the Pooh has fluff!" said the little mister.  "But not me. I'm full of bones!" Her hair is wool suiting (washed and dried so as to be thick and wooly), her face is tea-dyed kitchen toweling, and her dress is a piece of cherry blossom quilting cotton I bought back when Miss M was a newborn!  I embroidered her eyes and mouth and used a stiff paint brush to brush

Day 4 of elsie marley 's Kids Clothing Week Challenge found me coming down with a cough and cold.  But here's the embarrassing thing: I started this flannel hoodie dress for the Spring KCWC!  Yeah, it's been shifted back and forth in an increasingly shabby pile for months!  It was time to put it out of its misery. It's timely, because this hoodie dress has a special purpose.  It's meant to be a swimsuit cover-up and in just over a month, we are taking the kids to a hotel with an indoor water park.  The prices are *much* cheaper in November, which is convenient because both the kids birthdays are in November too!  The best part is, the kids don't know we are going! I'm loath to put any of my KCWC garments in the flickr group this time because we've been having such gloomy weather, which means my photos are coming out awfully!  I keep hoping we'll get some sun so I can get some good shots! I wasn't as productive in my time Thursday a

Day three of KCWC !  Today I worked on a little outfit for a wee friend who is celebrating his third birthday this Saturday.  He's the fourth of five brothers, so I wanted to make him something extra special just for him, to celebrate his uniqueness! I used two Ottobre patterns: the "Morris" necktie (3/2009, #22) and the "Ashley" slipover vest (6/2007, #22).  They both went together like a dream!  The tie is made of a slightly heavier quilting cotton and lined with light weight bleached muslin.  The vest is soft velour and rib knit.  Happy birthday, little James!

Belle is my favorite of all the Disney princesses.  (I love this analysis of Belle's character!)  So when a lady from church asked me to make her daughter a Belle dress for her 4th birthday and Halloween, I was happy to oblige! I used Simplicity 4764 , view G (with modifications) in size 5 length and size 4 width. The bodice was constructed of 2 layers: outer of sparkly satin and lined with 100% cotton muslin.  I used some corded trim as piping around the neckline. The skirt was constructed of 4 layers: Lining of bleached cotton muslin Two tiers of mesh netting sewn to the cotton lining and then overlayed by mesh cut using the skirt pattern pieces. Underskirt of yellow taffeta. Overskirt of yellow sparkly satin.  I cut the overskirt 6 inches longer than the underskirt and used 16 inch pieces of quarter inch elastic to shir the full length of the overskirt "Belle style." I really enjoyed making it and it turned out even better than I expected!  At o

Day two of KCWC !  Yesterday I finished both pairs of penguin pajamas before going to bed (at midnight!), but I didn't get pictures of them until this morning. I used penguin printed thermal knit and ribbing (dark red for Miss M, and black for Little Guy including the sleeves).  I only had two yards of the thermal knit, so I was pleased to squeeze both pairs from it! I made sizes 104 and 116, a little too big on purpose!!  And I fully intend on passing down the larger pair to Little Guy when Miss M outgrows them! Today I made two pairs of fleece pajama pants -- making absolutely no effort to match the plaid! -- from 2 yards of polar fleece I got at JoAnn a couple years ago.  They are the Simo sweat pants pattern from Ottobre (4/2008, #27), but with no cuff. I also made another pair of thermal knit pajamas (same pattern as the penguin ones) for Little Guy.  I only had one yard of the star print thermal, so no matchy-matchy this time.  Unfortunately, before I had a chan

I wasn't going to participate in the Kids Clothing Week Challenge this time. Partially because last time it was a bit of a disaster, and partially because I have so many other projects that need finishing that I really don't need to be starting new projects. But it just so happened that I (finally) got my sewing area cleaned up and re-organized so that it's now available for immediate use. AND, we just had our first freeze of the season, which means it is time to pack away the rest of the kids summer clothes and bring out all their cool weather clothes. They've got enough hand-me-downs to suffice, except for pajamas. So I decided to make them some pj's this week and whaddya know, it's KCWC this week! I got a tiny bit of a head start Saturday night by cutting out a pair of fleece pj pants for each of them. Last night I traced the proper sizes of the Night Owl shirt and Stripy Legs pants from Ottobre 6/2009. Today I cut out three pairs of pajama