More bags and a birthday shirt

I completely forgot to take a photos of a few presents I made for Christmas (green and black piped baskets for my mom and Aunt Janet, two bags for Sonia, a tote bag/pencil case/key chain for Corey's coworker, and an infinity scarf for my mother-in-law), but I managed to find a picture I had taken with my cell phone of some bags I had sewed for my neighbor, Heather.  The bag on the left was to be given to her niece.  The one in the middle was for her daughter, Kaitlyn.  The one on the right was for her nephew.

For Heather's sons (a fourth grader and a fifth grader), she and I picked more masculine fabrics.  I can't wait to hear what they put in their bags.

For Peter, I had to make him yet another number shirt.  He turned five on December 12th, and the day wouldn't have been complete without this!

He's pretty fierce for a five-year-old.

Last-minute shirt for Sonia

The morning Erin and Sonia left last week, I was sitting on the floor of Erin's room and looking at the cute shirt Erin set out to dress Sonia in for the car ride home.  I could make something like that!  So I ran downstairs, and instead of helping Erin pack and get her daughter ready, I sewed like a crazy woman and made this shirt for Sonia.  I drafted a pattern based on the existing shirt, screwed it up, fixed it, screwed it up again, and did a last-ditch Hail Mary move to save the shirt.  Amazingly, it worked.

The main body of the shirt is an old t-shirt of mine, and the sleeved and binding are from another t-shirt in the upcycle box.  I didn't get a chance to hem the sleeves because Erin needed to get on the road, but I don't think they look that bad raw.  The body of the shirt uses the original t-shirt's hem.  I love doing that!

I couldn't recreate this top again if I tried without getting my hands on Sonia's shirt again, but I might try, anyway.  The result was pretty cute, and the top was apparently comfortable enough for Sonia to wear it for a five-hour drive home with no complaints.  Score!

Daddy's shirt to sweet A-line tank

For our wedding, Corey bought Hawaiian shirts for all of the groomsmen and ushers and had them change into them for the reception. Somehow, we ended up with a extra one in size medium. Corey hasn't worn his size large in many years (Hawaiian shirts weren't in vogue in Nashville) but refused to part with either of the shirts for sentimental reasons. Luckily, he finally let me take the medium-sized one out of the closet when I promised to make something out of it for Charlotte.

I recently won a free A-line dress pattern from Seamingly Smitten and used it for the basis of a A-line tank. I wanted to do French seams on the sides so I cut the pattern a little wider. Turns out that made the straps a little too far apart for little Charlotte, so I added two pleats in front and a box pleat in the back to try to address this issue. Charlotte has yet to retry on the tank, but when she does I bet it will fit much better. One of the buttons was missing on the shirt, but I think I want to replace all three buttons with something a little girlier just for fun.

Ruffle strap top for Charlotte

The Ruffle Sleeve Top (which I think should probably be renamed the "Ruffle Strap Top", since those "sleeves" are much more like "straps") went together nicely with some butterfly knit material I found in the JoAnn's remnant bin.  Charlotte told me the top was "bee-yoo-tee-ful" and wanted to keep wearing it after I tried it on her for the photo.  I think I should have modified the sleeves to be one layer of material instead of two, since they are kind of stiff with the weight of this fabric.  It is nice for the ruffle to be double-sided though, and maybe I'll just get used to Charlotte looking like she's going to take off and fly every time she wears it.  Charlotte certainly doesn't mind, because in Charlotte World you can never have too many ruffles, sparkles, or pink.

How cute does that top look with those little capri jeans?  I'm rethinking making Sonia's top (see previous post) part of an outfit with a full skirt.  That much fabric might result in Sonia being overwhelmed with fabric and looking rather shapeless.  It would probably look better with some little knit capris or fitted shorts.  I'll have to check with Erin to see the state of Sonia's summer wardrobe to see if she needs something like that.

I hemmed this knit top using a method I saw on "Sewing with Nancy" -- using fusible web to stabilize the layers so they don't go wavy when you sew them together.  This knit was heavy enough that it might not have been a problem, but I wanted to try the technique.  I'm glad I did, because it really did make sewing across the grain (which is where knit is the stretchiest) very easy.

Next time I make this pattern (if there is a next time), I might actually grade down the width of the ruffled strap/sleeve (especially if I'm using a heavier knit).  A lighter woven fabric or lighter knit might be better, too.

Birthday shirt for Sonia

I meant to make a practice shirt for Charlotte using this sweet Ruffle Sleeve Top tutorial before I made one out of the material I had bought for Sonia's shirt, but I completely spaced and used the Sonia's fabric by accident.  Since Charlotte and Sonia have the same measurements right now, this was not such a big deal. Plus, the pattern is super easy and goes together really quickly.  If I had to remake it, it would not have been a tragedy.

It was, however, a complete success.  My usual model is playing outside with her little brother, so a pink hanger had to stand in.  The pattern called for a lightweight cotton, but I think a knit would be even better for this top.  I'm toying with adding pockets in a coordinating eyelet fabric.

Next up is a May Day skirt out of this fabric and the eyelet fabric to match!  Now I just need to run out and buy some more elastic for a waist band.

For future reference, I altered the measurements of the pattern to cut the fabric as follows:

shirt body = 40" x 18"

straps = 17" x 7" (x2)

1/4" elastic for the body = 23"

1/4" elastic for the straps = cut about 12" and then shortened to about 8" or so to fit Charlotte.

I think the bodice could stand to use a little less fabric, so I will probably cut Charlotte's to be 38" x 18".  I also strayed from the instructions to add a French seam rather than just zig zagging the vertical seam on the bodice.  It looks waaaaaay better on the inside.  I also used 1/4" elastic for the top of the bodice because I didn't have any 1/2" elastic on hand and figured it would work just as well.  I love this pattern and can't wait to make one for Charlotte!

Go Hoosiers!

Charlie Jo's CousAunt Abbey will be happy to see that Charlotte is all ready to cheer on the Hoosiers to victory! This was another Sandbridge Shirt made from a t-shirt we got for free at last fall's IU/MSU game. Peter threw a fit because he said HE wanted that shirt. I may need to grab the other free shirt we got that day and downsize it to a little t-shirt for him.

Niki's old t-shirt transformed

I had so much fun making this shirt (except for the time I sewed two pieces together with the wrong sides together and had to unpick the stitching -- unpicking stitching on knits is a pain in the buttinsky!) that I'm making another one today.  Sewing with knits still scares the heck out of me, but I'm trying to conquer that fear.  I wore my favorite purple Eddie Bauer v-neck t-shirt to DEATH over the past few years, so I decided it needed to be retired from my wardrobe.  I saw a tutorial for the "Sandbridge Top" and decided to upcycle the shirt to augment Charlotte's meager summer wardrobe.  (I love it when I have kids the same sizes as the bloggers posting patterns and tutorials.)

I love the result!

I reused the original hem for the shirt's bottom and the hem of the sleeves for each of the new shirt's sleeves.  Score!  I think I still need more practice with binding the neckline (maybe next time I will use ribbing?), but it still works out pretty well.  The arm holes turned out a little larger than in most of her store-bought shirts, but I probably could tweak the pattern to fix that.  Of course I forgot to do that on the shirt I just started making.  Oh well!