Hey June Racerback Dress

Sometimes, I make the kids something I really, really, love then don’t let them wear it (example 1, example 2)! It’s too precious, too much work, too fine of fabric, and totally not the point. Not so with the Racerback Dress from Hey June. This pattern is quick to sew, with a relatively small amount of fabric. I don’t cringe when L puts this dress on to climb trees and play kickball. If she messes it up, I can make another one in an afternoon. This is the perfect #simplesummersewing project for kids! 

The dress is three pieces (front, back, and upper back straps) and finished with neck and sleeve bands. The two piece back is a great opportunity for mixing colors and prints. It's a simple dress, that can be made in a ton of combinations. I made this Racerback Dress with part of my Acorn Valley haul. It’s the perfect weight, and a color L loves. I cut a 7 to allow room for growth, but a 6 would have been plenty generous.

Pattern: Racerback Dress from Hey June Patterns

Print Fabric: Acorn ValleyKnit designed by Patty Young 

Solid Fabric: Upcycled T-shirt

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Simple Summer Sewing is the easiest sew-along ever! Get the details on Petit a Petit + Family, and read about our fantastic giveaway for August here!

Simple Summer Sewing on Social Media:

#simplesummersewing on Instagram

#simplesummersewing on Pinterest

Simple Summer Sewing Inspiration:

July Simple Summer Sewing Recap on Petit a Petit + Family

#SimpleSummerSewing + Giveaway on Petit a Petit + Family

14 Women's Simple Summer Sewing Patterns for July on SweetKM

16 Kid's Simple Summer Sewing Patterns for July on SweetKM

Simple Summer Sewing Projects:

Cinnamon Sallie Dress

Tired Skirt Dresses

Naturally Dyed Zipped Pouch

One Pattern Three Ways & Kid's Clothes Week

It's a very busy week in sewing land. I'm making the most of Kid's Clothes Week and my latest post for Petit a Petit + Family with my favorite kid's t-shirt pattern. Head on over to the Petit a Petit blog to see how to transform a simple t-shirt pattern into 3 unique summer staples for boys.

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Luckily, this little project coincides with the last Meg (Elsie Marley) directed Kid's Clothes Week (KCW will continue with Julie as its new host). Since my daughter started kindergarten I've fallen off the KCW wagon a bit. It's so easy to whip up a dress for a toddler and take a few quick photos. It's harder to negotiate picture time between school, and homework, and park time (though much easier to find an hour to sew!).

Kid's Clothes Week was my first entry into a virtual community of any kind. Before KCW I kinda thought the internet was a place where people said mean things anonymously. But that is definitely not the case. My first, timid Flickr based experience with KCW set the tone for many very supportive and enthusiastic interactions to follow. Seeing something I made on Meg's blog made me realize the power of virtual connections. Thanks Meg!

This is the first thing I ever sewed for Kid's Clothes Week back in 2012. I made it with my first indie sewing pattern, before I had a serger. After I took the photos, part of the neckband fell off, and J never really wore it! I like to think my t-shirt construction has come a long way since then!

Here are a few of my favorite KCW makes:

Playtime Dress  /  Liberty Theo  /  Rainbow Dress 

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You can see my other KCW makes here.
You can read my contributor post to KCW here.
And don't forget the whole point of this blog post, One Pattern Three Ways, here!

KCW Day 8: Citronille Suzanne

Kid's Clothes Week Day...uh...8!? This dress was finished with plenty of time to spare, but my little model was getting a bit fatigued with the photographing, so I let this one slide until the very last possible second yesterday to photograph.

For the sake of my self imposed use-the-stash rule for this KCW I cobbled this look together from a few of the most burdensome pieces from my stash. You know those pieces of fabric you love too much to cut into and are happy just to own, or the perfect vintage pattern you are so satisfied with the cover art that you don't need to make anything from it? Well this is the opposite.

I bought this pattern when I was brainstorming for the summer 2014 KCW (you can find the original article I wrote for KCW here). But I never found the "right" fabric, and didn't end up making it. Now, 9 full months later, I was feeling pretty guilty about this pattern.  I came across this version by At Luce Ends, and I decided to give the ol' Citronille Suzanne a try. The fabric, on the other hand, is a very recent acquisition. I'm not even sure it ever made it into the stash cabinet. I bought it for a design I pattern tested a few weeks ago (have a sneaky-peaky over here). When I opened the package, I had a what-was-I-thinking moment. Nothing against the print, or the colors, it just didn't resonate with me, and I knew I would never wear it. Sometimes when you set very specific parameters for yourself magical things happen. But all I can feel for this dress is indifference (though now that I'm looking at the photos, I'm sorta liking it better).

PATTERN: This is the Citronille Suzanne, and my first Citronille pattern. I was drawn to this pattern because it it written for woven fabrics, but it has no fasteners and goes on over the head. Therefore, it is something my kid can get herself into and out of without my help. The front and back are the same so it's impossible for her to put it on backwards. Both the format of the pattern and the instructions are sparse. It is a very straight forward and very fast make.

FABRIC: The chambray is the very last from my first Lou Box Top. The print is Copenhagen Baby Blue Floral Print from Mood. The under skirt is eyelet inherited from my mother in law's stash.

SIZE/FIT: I sewed a size 6, the fit is rather boxy in general, and with the length, I think this dress will fit for quite a while.

ALTERATIONS: I went down a size on the sleeve, because I thought I would like the proportion better. I do, and it is still easy to put on. I did all french seams, and I lined the skirt. The result is a dress that is 95% reversible. If you look closely at the hem, or the underarm seam you can tell they are the wrong side, but in these fabrics I don't think an innocent bystander would notice (sewing friends will spot it first thing).

While I'm feeling pretty underwhelmed with my first attempt, I will give it another try. This design is too kid friendly, and there are too many cute versions of this design out on the inter webs to give up on it entirely.

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You can also find this dress on:
Kid's Clothes Week
Kollabora
Straight Grain Sew + Show

KCW Day 3 : A girl and a garage door

Kid's Clothes Week day 3 - more stash busting. This is my favorite stashed combo of the week. I got this stripe fabric at Jomar in South Philly a while ago. I made a top for myself with it, that I never blogged. The floral is from Girl Charlee, and the neck band is from a dress I made a while ago. I actually made L a whole dress out of the banding fabric, but it's still too big. 

I think I've made a raglan t-shirt for every Kid's Clothes Week since I started sewing along. This is the Oliver + S Field Trip Raglan. I've made it as a dress once before, and the t-shirt many times, this time I used 3/4 length sleeves. A raglan really lends itself to pattern mixing.  The same thing with a set in sleeve pattern wouldn't look half as nice, but the raglan really draws the sleeve into the whole composition. 

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You can also find this dress on:

Kid's Clothes Week

Kollabora

KCW Day 2 : Stash Busting

Image from INSTAGRAM

Today I find myself with a significant backlog of finished projects that have not been photographed or blogged. I am both pleased and bewildered that I have produced a significant enough volume of finished garments to even have the option of falling behind. I enjoy the process of documenting almost as much as the sewing and wearing, so today I hope to get out the very tedious camera tripod, brush my hair, dab on some blush, and dig myself out from under some of that backlog. But first... It's Kid's Clothes Week. 

When the weather turned in Philly a few weeks ago, I made the biannual pilgrimage to Target to pick up some seasonally appropriate clothing for my growing children. I flipped through racks of shoddily made knit dresses, in prints that I don't really care for and I thought, "I have a whole closet FULL of prints that I don't really care for, I can sew my own shoddily made dresses!" With this pile of what-was-I-thinking fabrics, along with a few basics culled from the old stash cabinet I whipped up some spring staples.

No one is going to heap accolades onto these dresses, but they serve the dual purposes of making room in my stash cabinet, and covering my kid's nakedness. I will try very hard not to point out further flaws in these humble garments and allow you to discover them for yourselves. Now may I present the first two outfits of spring time.

PATTERN: Both of these dresses are made with the Oliver + S School Bus Tee  with the View B sleeve option. The body is cut off 1 1/2" below the underarm seam. I attached a gathered rectangular skirt that is 1 1/2 times the width of the resulting bottom edge. The legging are the Oliver + S Playtime Leggings. Both are excellent patterns and I feel like I've gotten my money's worth with this post alone. These will definitely be wardrobe staples as my kids grow.

FABRIC: The fabric for the dress above is a knit blend purchased at Joann last spring. Based on the frustrated cursing I did while hemming, I would say there is some rayon in the blend. The dress below was made with a vintage knit fabric from my MIL's stash. Both sets of leggings are jersey knits of forgotten origin.

I have two more stash fabric projects planned for KCW. What are you sewing?

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You can find these outfits on:
Kid's Clothes Week
Kollabora

KCW : Zonen 09 Ole

Kid's Clothes Week Day 4. Day 4!? Where has the week gone? My first (and only) submissions this season are this lovely Ole Cardigan, and Field Trip Raglan. Please accept these submissions and my apologies for over scheduling myself with the winter sessions of every extra curricular activity available in my fair city, greatly diminishing my free time to sew.

Everyone knows I have a bit of a crush on Zonen 09, so I was thrilled to be asked to make an Ole in celebration of the English release of the pattern. I have a bit of experience with Zonen 09 after sewing a couple of Theo button downs in the past. The Ole (like the Theo) is a fairly sophisticated make, it is nicely detailed, infinitely adaptable, and a VERY satisfying sew. Zonen 09 is known for crisp urban boy's wear, but Mina Dotter made her girl version look so appealing, L got first dibs on Ole.

PATTERN: Ole jacket from Zonen 09.  I totally under estimated this pattern when I was fabric shopping (and when I was sewing, more on that later). In my mind it was a cardigan because I planned to make the simplest shawl collar version, but it is so much more. Depending on the weight of the fabric you choose it could be a full on spring jacket, with on seam pockets on the outside and two options for interior pockets. It is fully lined, and can be completely reversible. It can be fastened with buttons or snaps. The Ole is in English, but maintains a few characteristic of it European decent. Seam allowances are not included on the pattern pieces, so I added 1/2" to each piece when I traced them. I know many people add the seam allowances on the fabric, but because I'm not used to doing it that way, I would rather screw up on paper, then forget and screw up my fabric. It is also formatted for A4 printing, making it a skosh too large for American letter size copy paper. I use legal size paper as a substitute for A4.

FABRIC: The exterior is a vintage polyester knit from Crafter Glow. It is medium weight and doesn't have much stretch. The interior is light weight cotton jersey from Girl Charlee. The buttons are vintage from my stash. 

SIZE/FIT: Like the Theo, the Ole comes with two fit options, standard and slim. L measured a 5, but I made the size 6 standard because I wanted it to be roomy enough for more than one layer underneath.  Even the standard fit has a nice long and lean look about it. 

I'm not gonna lie, this pattern kicked my butt. The whole thing seems silly now, but that's the way it is when you're learning new techniques. I read the instructions for attaching the cuff to the lining and the exterior at the same time 1 million times. ONE MILLION!!!! But I just didn't get it. I figured that it was the bagged lining method that I tried with the Salme Cropped Blazer, so I went back to the Grainline tutorial I've used in the past. It worked like a charm, though because I followed the Grainline instructions as exactly as I could, my assembly isn't quite what is specified by Zonen 09, and I had to do a little fudging of the finishing with some top stitching at the end.

When I finished I went back and read the instructions again, and they made perfect sense. If you have bagged more than one jacket lining over a year ago, you'll have no trouble at all. If you have never done it, baste everything as a test run. I ripped those g.d. cuffs off (after serging too!) so many times I very nearly gave up. The point is it's tricky, but not rocket science. The perfect fit and thoughtful details of this jacket are well worth stretching your skills. Next time I'll be bagging linings and attaching collars like a pro. 

Because you can't wear just a cardigan (and it wouldn't be KCW if I didn't sew at least one t-shirt), I whipped up a new Field Trip Raglan to go with it. I've made this pattern many times (here, here, here) before, which makes it easy to alter with a dependable outcome. The sleeves are vintage knit from my stash, and shorted to three quarter length. I added an inch of length to the body, and made the neckline 1/2" bigger for a girlier look. The graphic is from my Conversation Heart Valentine Pins, blown up to t-shirt size and applied with a freezer paper stencil. 

STYLO Restyled : Bimaa Bat & Small Fry Skinnies

As you saw yesterday I made a ton of stuff for STYLO magazine. After a few weeks of sewing like it was my job, I need to convince myself that the distinctive Hansel & Gretel looks can be broken up and remixed into my kids real wardrobes. 

Its a double pattern review day, something I would normally never do (I like each little thing to have its own tidy box). I didn't post this before Halloween because I didn't want to spoil any STYLO surprises (and I hadn't taken any pictures yet) by jumping the gun with these sweet little skinny jeans. With that safely behind us, let's talk about J's Halloween costume before anybody puts a turkey in the oven. 

The bat is four separate pieces. The wings are the kind you see all over the place with elastic that goes over the shoulders and little loops at the tips to put your fingers through. They are self drafted and sewn with black crepon from Joann. I used black vinyl at the tips for reinforcing, and at the back where the wings meet. The mask is a free download from the internet cut out of felt.  I added the ears, and a vinyl layer for a little more interest. The top is a Bimaa sweater, and the bottom is the Small Fry Skinny Jeans, both can be put into the standard wardrobe rotation after Halloween.

For the Bimaa:

A week before Halloween I went in search of a shawl collar sweatshirt for J. I looked at the Bimaa (the day before it was rereleased!), but it only went up to size 6. I let the idea drop, thinking I still had time to draft my own collar and tack it onto a t-shirt pattern. A few days (or was it hours!) before Halloween I was desperate for a shawl collar sweatshirt pattern for J so I went back to the Bimaa thinking I could make size it up myself. In that week Lou Bee Clothing had release a new version with expanded sizing! Yay! Problem solved. Two hours later I have a smart little shawl collar sweater for my bat.

PATTERN: The Bimaa is a standard inset sleeve t-shirt pattern that comes with 3 neck options: hood, cowl, and shawl. All are just adorable, and I will definitely be making other versions in the future. The sizing is now 6months - 12 years, AND its gender neutral. The Bimaa has a ton of bang for your buck.

FABRIC: Fleece was on sale the day I was there, so I made it work. Both costumes are outerwear weight, making them perfect for chilly Halloween wear (except it was 75 degrees the day we trick or treated!) I used some leftover charcoal gray knit as an accent at the collar and cuffs, and some black vinyl to add a little detail at the shoulders.

FIT: I sized up to an 8 because the fleece didn't have as much stretch as a knit, and its pretty thick. I could have gone up another size.

ALTERATIONS: I added thumbhole cuffs (cause I'm on a roll). I also added shoulder patches (a la Trine & Brienne). They go a long way to add some detail to an otherwise plain sweatshirt.  J thinks they make him look like an "army guy", so you'll be seeing more in the future.

Now the Small Fry Skinny Jeans:

PATTERN: This is the Small Fry Skinny Jeans by Titchy Threads. You've seen these guys all over the interweb for good reason. They are a perfect reproduction for hand making convincing looking jeans. I had some reservations about making a pattern from a designer I had never used before that involved so much finishing and my first fly zipper. No reason to worry, the instructions are very clear and thorough. I didn't have to do a single thing twice. 

FABRIC: This is medium weight Italian Stretch Denim in Indigo from Michael Levine. It is perfect for these pants. It is sturdy but lightweight, and has just the right amount of stretch to make seriously slim pants play friendly. 

FIT: I sewed a 6 and added 1" to the length of this pattern. These are some seriously slim pants. They fit my super slim J perfectly. My kids HATE jeans, they are stiff and restricting, and the snaps always pop open, or they sag at the bum. Somehow these jeans don't have any of those issues, and J loves them. 

Both the Small Fry Skinny Jeans Pattern and the stretch denim were provided to me for free. I assure you the opinions are my own. If I hated them I would have said nothing!

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Linking to 

Straight Grain Sew & Tell

His & Hers Compagnie M Charles Pants

Have you seen the new Charles Pants by Compagnie M? This was my first foray into pattern testing, and with mixed results. I was in the midst of a (not yet released) deadline driven project when I signed up and I didn't read the instructions quite like I should have. Honestly, I never read the instructions quite like I should (husband has stopped reading at this point as a frustrated affirmation of my negligence! :).  I'm a visual thinker, a faithful believer in the show-me-don't-tell-me philosophy of life. Lesson learned, I will be more careful next time. These are my second and third pairs of Charles pants. With the messy first pair out of my system, I'm pretty happy with these.

My favorite thing about the Charles pants is their gender neutrality. Either kid could wear either pair of these pants without a sideways glance from the most conventional passer-by. They are even wearing the same shoes! I love a full skirted dress as much as the next sewist, but I get a real thrill from making something for child #1 (male) that child #2 (female) can wear a few years later without compromising style. Compangnie M is know for little girl clothing, but this boy friendly design has got me excited to see what Marte comes up with next.

PATTERN: Charles Shorts/Pants/Dungerees by Compagnie M. Can be made as pants, shorts, or overalls. This is a simple skinny leg pant pattern with a functioning double sided button fly, and an elastic back waist.

FABRIC: Both the fabrics and buttons are Fabric Row finds. Both are 100% cotton prints sturdy enough to be a bottom weight. The brown on J has the added bonus of being flannel with a subtle herringbone print. I wish I had bought more, by the time I realized J could use a bigger size the fabric had sold out. L's cream and black fine lined plaid has a streak of mustard in it. When I first saw this fabric it brought the Mara Blouse (pattern also by Compagnie M) I made over the summer to mind.

Sadly my go-to PA Fabric Outlet is going out of business. PA Fabric Outlet is my favorite place to blow a spare 1/2 hour recreational shopping. The main appeal is that I can walk there, the button selection is second to none, the sales people leave you alone, and there is a park around the corner to satisfy by shopping companion(s). I'm gonna miss this store, until then I've been burning money there.

FIT: Both kids are wearing a size 6. I had to let the side seams out of J's because they pulled to much with the shirt tucked in. Next time, I would make him a 7 or even an 8 (though he measured as a 6). L probably could have worn a 5, but after seam ripping J's I didn't want to take any chances with them fitting her for the whole winter.

ALTERATIONS: The only alteration I made was to widen the legs about 1" on each side of each leg piece on L's pants. I like the skinny look (particularly on J) but thought I'd mix things up with the second pair, so they aren't too matchy, matchy.

Here she is in her grown up pants looking for all the world as I imagine she will 10 years from now. Already with a perfect eye roll technique.

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Linking to:

Kid's Clothes Week
Straight Grain

Field Trip Raglan Dress with Thumbhole Cuffs

This girl has been growing a lot lately. It seems that her dresses become tunics before she gets to wear them twice. She is in desperate need of easy wearing play clothes and separates. I had some grander KCW plans in mind, but when it came down to sewing or fabric shopping, I decided to stay home and make something. As mentioned in the pervious post, I've had cozy long underwear-ish t-shirts on the brain lately. I had base layers in mind when I first started experimenting, but then I saw Ute's amazing tunic with thumbhole sleeves. Of course! Why isolate the coziness on a base layer when you can have it on every layer!?!

This is the Oliver + S Field Trip Raglan T-Shirt pattern. I added about 12" to the length. I also added 2" of width at the bottom of each side seam, then connected that point to the corner of the arm opening side seam to get a simple A line dress. Of course, the thumbhole sleeves were part of the research for the last post (how to make thumbhole sleeves). This is the size 5. L can wear a 4, but I wanted some room to grow, and there's plenty.

This crazy big print is some sort of cotton blend knit from my mother in law's stash. I think it's a print you either love or hate, and I'm not sure which side I'm on. I've been saving it for long enough that I must at least like it. There is certainly no chance it will go unnoticed. The arms and neck band are charcoal heather jersey knit. I wish I could remember where I bought it, I would get a whole lot more. Its got a subtle haylo of soft fuz that makes it extra snuggly. 

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Linking to:

Kid's Clothes Week

Frontier Dreams
Straight Grain

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