Summer clothes for Milly

Here are some clothes I have made for myself over the last month or so. I haven't used a pattern for any of these. Instrad I been having fun experimenting andI have been basing my designs on clothes I have seen other people wearing.

First up is a Bias wrap skirt I saw in a shop while holidaying in Broome. I ended up buying the skirt but then created my own version at home.



This picture pretty much explains the pattern! its a huge semi-circle with a waistband and tie added to the top.

Next up is a shirred top with a difference. One of the mums at playgroup was wearing a shirred dress where the rows of shirring at the front split around the bust, making a kind of gathered area for your boobs to poke into. It looked really pretty on her so I decided to give it a go. I made a tube of fabric using light weight cotton and then shirred 8 rows, but splitting the second 4 rows from the first 4. I also shirred some strips and used them for shoulder straps. I have done a rolled hem on all the edges (you can see this easily as I used white thread). Overall I think this design is really pretty and quite flattering, but I need to work the design a bit more. I think the split needs to start further back under the armpits and not be so wide. In my version the fabric sort pof puckers where the split shirring joinds up again. Elizabeth is modelling the top, bit it was actually designed to fit me. She looks rather pleased with it and I have a sneaking suspicion that she is going to claim it for her own wardrobe!

The last item I have to show you is something I made about 3 months ago. Its just a classic shirred boob-tube dress. I picked up the fabric for $2 and thought it would make a good beach/pool dress for our holiday in Broome (hence why I made it 3 months ago but didnt photograph until recently when I finally got to wear it). They arent the best photo's but you get the idea. I was so lazy with this dress than I didnt even bother doing a hem, the white bit at the bottom is the fabric selvedge! I did more than the usual amount of shirring than one normally does on a shirred dress, this was mainly because the fabric changed colour from dark blue to brown about 1/3 of the way down and that seemed a natural point for skirt to start flaring from. Doing so many layers of shirring was pretty boring... hence why I never bothered to do the hem. But I do think its quite a nice flattering look. I have also worn the dress as a skirt a couple of times and the shirring makes for a nice drop waisted look.

Cable beach in Broome!

Gathered spiral skirt

I have been making a few classic tiered skirts lately, you know where you have strips of fabric with each layer more gathered than the one above. I use the gathering foot attachment to make the process a bit quicker, but even so it takes a while and a bit of fiddling as you have to calculate how much fabric you need per layer blah blah blah. While doing one of the skirts I struck upon the idea of just making one really long strip of fabric (I made mine about 6m long and 3 inches wide) and then gathering it using the gathering foot (reduces it down to about 5m long) and, finally, joining the gathered strip into a layered skirt using one continuous spiral seam.

Guess what? It worked! And it worked really really well!

You can see here how I tapered off the last layer so the hemline isnt wonky. I added a rolled hem all the way around the hemline after the spiral layering was complete.
At the top I also tapered the start of the spiral (centre of pic just below waist hole) and added the casing for an elastic waistband seperately after the spiral layers were completed.

If you have a gathering/ruffler foot for your overlocker or sewing machine its a really simple way to make a twirly gathred skirt!

Custom orders

This is all a bit mixed up but here are some pics of custom orders and photographs sent back to me from customers.

Bugaboo Bee with custom order pram liner. I have added one extra set of slots because the Bee has the waist straps anchored in an unusual place. IT also has 5 different shoulder slot positions, but I have not added in any extra to the 3 that are already in my liner design. I think three is plenty to choose from!

I have blogged this hood before, but here it is on the customers red based Bugaboo Cameleon.

Same customer with a Valori Wells hood (which has also been blogged before)

Lily wearing size 2 Dungaree's

Critters and Creatures pram liner in a Bugaboo Cameleon

Same liner in a Mountain buggy Urban

Matching hang bag

Size 2 Dungaree's in Oilily Kimono Blossom fabric

Lily again in another pair of size 2 dungaree's. Lily is just over 2 years old.

Size 6 Classic cut Denim shorts with orange topstitch detail.

Hungry caterpillar creations plus more....

Here are some pics of a large pram accessories order I completed a couple of weeks ago. The owner received the items and sent me these pics.

First part of the order was for a pram liner and stowable blanket featureing the Andover Hungry Caterpillar fabric. The pram liner uses the spots fabric from the H.C range and the stowable blanket features the H.C panel. The owner has a boy and felt the butterfly on the panel was too girly, so I sliced that out and rejoined the panel. (The butterfly is being worked into a girls pinny...stay tuned!). The Reverse side of the blanket is made from dark blue towelling. The customer specifically wanted blue and I couldnt find any microfleeece or chenille that matched and then finally struck on the towelling! Its a great cotton alternative to microfleece or polar fleece.

This is a pic of the liner in my pram before I sent it off, it shows the blanket neatly stowed into its pocket and sitting in the footwell of the pram.
This pic shows the blanket in better detail.

A close up of the caterpillar... I did some shadow quilting around him.
This is the reverse side of the pram liner, gorgeous stripes. The customer also has a Quinny Zapp pram and she sent me a pic of the pram liner in it. The blanket still functions in the reverse mode (you see the blue toweling and the H.C. fabric is on the inside), and when stowed sits nicely in the footwell of the Zapp.
The customer also ordered a second liner. One side was this Michael Miller animal fabric.
And the second side was my favourite fabric of the month... Michael Miller Traffic jam. The customer has kindly photographed it in her Bugaboo Bee.
The blanket also attached to the second liner... here it is attached with the blue animals facing outwards.
I have a heap more crafty things to blog and have been patiently waiting for the school holdiays to end so I could spend some time organising my photographs and typing up the posts. I have pictures of completed orders, stock that I have sent to Babygoose childrens boutique in Perth and some personal sewing! Hopefully I will get to it over the next day or so.

Me me me me sewing

Well selfish in that its not tin whistle sewing. Thanks to some turorial hopping and discussions with my online crafty buddies I have worked out how to finish the necks on stretch knit t-shirts in a way that doesnt look too home made. Please dont ask me which tutorials because I cant remember, I read them weeks ago and was working from memory last night when I made this t-shirt. I have been using some opshop t-shirts for my practice runs. I pick up the tshirts for a few dollars in when I see colours that appeal to me and then tuck them away in my "recycled" fabric bin. I cut out the pattern pieces so that I use the existing coverstitched hems on the opshop garments. This saves me having to do the hems myself and this gives the t-shirt a better finish. I love the colours on the t-shirt George is modelling. The orange was from a mans polo t-shirt and the green was a womens t-shirt. The red collar was from an old long sleeved tee of mine. I topstitched over the raglan shoulder seams with a twin needle using contrast red thread and it looks great!
This tee I am not quite so happy with. The neck ended up a it wider and, I dunno, it just doesnt speak to me. I think maybe its the colour. Oh well George can use it as a daycare t-shirt.

I've been developing an adult-sized pattern for a retro-inspired smock (that will be for my own use... not for sale... well not unless your exantly the same size as me!). Below is my latest version..this one is almost there, I just made the arm holes a tiny bit too gapey. Its fine if I have a long-sleeved Tee underneath (which I do in winter) but cant wear it as a top in summer unless I put a singlet underneath also. The pictures are a bit washed out, the fabric is a daisy broderie anglaise in cherry red. I picked it up at spotlight ages ago.

This is a little pair of pants I made for my3 yr old step-nephew, Oscar. He came over last week and picked out the fish fabric himself! This is an altered version of the burda pattern I blogged a few entries ago (the traffic jam shorts). I made the legs one-piece, added the turn-ups and snapped on one of my tin whistle treasure pouches. I do actually have my own tin whistle Expolorer pants pattern but I think this Burda one is so great I wanted to try it out again.

Elizabeth sews some more

I think this must be her neatest effort yet, and it was quite a complicated pattern. I helped her along by reading the pattern for her and telling her where the seams needed to go, but otherwise the sewing was all hers. The pattern is Butterick 3714, which is more designed as a flowergirl or formal dress, but we chose the simplest variation and made it shorter in length and added the tie for a more daytime look (daytime in a very over the top pink kind of way). The bodice is fully lined and there is a zipper in the back, which she has put in very neatly (I did help by pinning that in place for her).
Here is Elizabeth modelling a new skirt I have decided to add to my tin whistle range. She has been making the single layer twirl skits for a while and sells them for $10 each. She even has her own label "Little whistle". The new version adds some layers to make it more fun and interesting to look at. There have been various prototypes blogged the last few months. I'm still working on a name... something along the lines of an iced cake I think. I am sure it will come to me! This one was made as a present for a little classmate of Matilda's. Matilda helped me make it by sitting on my lap while we did the rolled hems on the 3 layers.