Star Wars T-shirt

 

This t-shirt was literally YEARS in the making!

Following the success of our first trip to Disneyland in 2017, we planned a follow up for 2020. Oops.

I didn't need new clothes, but my husband did, and I also knew that we would be able to visit Star Wars Land, which opened since our last visit. He is a big Star Wars fan, so I got him a Star Wars t-shirt, which happened to come with some pyjama pants.

I figured that the pants would have enough fabric for a t-shirt for me, if I pieced a seam through the centre. I used the Kirsten T-shirt pattern from Maria Denmark. I got this through a newsletter signup many years ago, and I've made it twice before. Here, and here. I chose this one because I could fit it on the tapered trouser legs, and it has integrated sleeves, so less fabric needed.

Here it is, laid out on the pants legs. The print runs both ways up, so I didn't have to worry too much about pattern matching. 

After I got everything made up, I had a few errors to sort out. I don't know what on earth I did with the neckline. (This was three years, and an international move ago.) Did I turn it around and add this panel to the original front neckline? Probably. All I know is that now, that pieced section is at the back. 

I had a dreadful time with the neckline trim. This is the point where I put it away, and thought I would never resurrect it. The movers shipped it for me, and we re-booked our trip for November 2022, so I thought I might have another go. Even better, my overlocker and sewing machine worked in our new country, with a power converter!

I thought about doing three different colour trims, for the neckline and two sleeves. There are flashes of red, blue and yellow in the black and white. I thought it might add a nice pop of colour. But in the end, I went for the easiest option and trimmed the neck in the same fabric. I had to unpick this once because it was gaping too much. 

For the sleeves and hem, I just overlocked the edge and zig zag stitched them down. I shortened the hem a lot, which helps it skim my tummy better. Things always ride up on my hips and create fabric folds in my middle section. Above the hip, but below the waist, is the right length top for me. 

I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. I like how it is not obvious Star Wars at first glance, but not hiding either, and I always love taking something unwanted and turning it into something wearable!

Bloody Angel

This is the inspiration drawing for the Halloween costume of a Bloody Angel. So good! I was hoping to do it justice and not let the artist down.

I decided to go with the dress pattern from Simplicity K1699. The double seam in the sleeve would make it easy to increase them to the bell shape. Based on her measurements, I cut a size 12, which is the same size as I used for my Scuba Dress. It came up pretty small though, I wouldn't make this size again. 

Fabric was just an old sheet, and the blood is fake blood from a Halloween store. All in all, materials for this dress were very cheap! I got fancy and added a panel of Broderie Anglaise fabric to the front bodice. I wanted to make it more angelic and less sheet-like. I got this fabric as a scrap from my mother-in-law.

I decided on a bias binding facing for the neckline. This pattern has a real problem with how high the neckline is. I lowered it after a fitting and it is still very high. 

Fastening is by buttons. Nine buttonholes!! I added a facing for support and modesty. I also reinforced the base of the opening with a little triangle of fabric. I was getting fancy! But I didn't do any seam finishes, and I had to press the life out of the hem to get that curved edge to sit flat.

To finish off the costume, kiddo added wings, a halo and a bloody knife.

Happy Halloween!

🎃 👻 ✞ ☠️ 🧹 🕸 🕷 ⚰️ 👽 🤡 

Disney Doll Playsuit

 

Oops, I did it again! A second doll playsuit rolled off the assembly line, less than a week after the first.

Partly because I was clearing out the outgrown summer clothes, and partly because it was an easy make. So I went for it again. This H&M t-shirt was purchased for our Disney trip three years ago. Youngest doesn't fit it any more, but it is cute and I was keen to keep it for her in some way, shape or form.

I am always fascinated by how the scale of the pattern changes so dramatically on doll clothes vs children's clothes. On a child, the t-shirt is very spotted. Here it was, being worn at Disneyland.

On the doll, I tried to pattern match to get all the faces the right way up, and to have some of them visible, and in sensible places. I mostly succeeded. I also unpicked the Disney label, and included it in the back!

The bias straps were cut from whatever scraps were left afterwards, they are pieced under the arm, and one of them is cut on the bias, the other on the stretch grain. I considered doing a contrast bias, but I didn't have a good matching stretch, so I kept them in the t-shirt fabric. They probably look more pyjama-like because of this, but I'm not sweating it.

The construction is the same as the previous one, with shorter shorts because I didn't make cuffs.

Doll Playsuit

It is nice to sew something again. I haven't been at it properly for years now and I've missed it. Life just gets in the way sometimes, but this was requested for an upcoming birthday, so how could I refuse to make time for that?

I was searching my stash for something summery and these two fabrics, although not my particular style, just make me so happy! The yellow is polycotton left over from my Eurovision Circle Skirt. A circle skirt of that size leaves a lot of leftovers, and this pattern didn't really require much fabric anyway.

For the pattern, I used the bodice from the Oliver & S Popover Sundress and combined it with bottoms drafted from the American Girl Molly Pyjamas. 

You can see from these layouts how I altered the two patterns to be suitable for a playsuit. For the bodice, I didn't really measure the length, I just decided to pick the length at a fitting. The dress can only be put on the doll over their head, and this doesn't work for a playsuit, so I added width at the top of the bodice so that the suit can be pulled up from the shorts. You can see that I just drew a straight line up from my side seam, and then cut the armholes at the normal size. I cut a piece of elastic the same length as the "proper" bodice neckline and used this to gather the neckline to fit. The finished result is a tiny bit too voluminous, but it is a style that is in fashion, so we're ok. 

For the shorts, I added about an inch to the top of the waistband for a casing, and flared out the side seams on the legs so that I could make cuffs. I left loads of length for this purpose. The final shorts have only about a 1.5cm inseam.

I tried the shorts and bodice on the doll, and measured where I wanted the waist elastic to sit. Then, made a casing, attached the bias binding and made the cuffs. 

I think this playsuit would also look cute, and totally different, with the two fabrics reversed. Stand by!

Costs: 

 Fabric: stash

 Pattern: free

 Elastic, x2: stash

 Thread: gift

Total: £0

Ruffle Cold Shoulder Top

When one is a tween, it becomes more important to have a wardrobe of “fashion” choices in one’s clothing. When one is the youngest, and therefore has more clothing than anyone, of a shorter lifespan than everyone, one’s mother is not taking her to the mall for new clothes.

Instead, the poor child gets offered an upcycled ruffle top from an old sheet. Thankfully, she loves it!

The fabric is an oldie but a goodie. Honestly, this sheet has been upcycled more times than the Von Trapp family’s curtains. I used it for my first Sorbetto - which then became the lining for a Sorbetto Dress - and this particular piece was previously a ghost costume, which will not be reprised. It is a cotton sateen in a high thread count with a lovely light blue-ish colour. I call it Eau De Nil.

For the pattern, I Googled a ruffle top tutorial and came up with this one from We All Sew. Sometimes, my linked tutorials and calculations get lost over time, as websites are upgraded or overhauled, so I'm going to re-write the good ones again on this blog. They are linked too, so I've given credit.

The ruffle is 2 x the circumference of the shoulders and the bodice is supposed to be the bust circumference. I don't really get how this would fit over the shoulders, even on a very busty woman, but especially for a child. After I had cut the bodice, I had to piece another panel through the middle back to make it fit over her head. I also didn't get the armholes large enough, especially to allow her to wear the ruffle on her shoulders, so I had to unpick the bias binding from these and re-do them much, much larger. That was a pain.

My order of construction was:
Cut out two pieces of fabric, one for the ruffle and one for the bodice.
Piece another section into the back of the bodice
Slit two armholes and cut away a small width of fabric. Mine ended up being 20cm long, from the top.
Finish armholes with bias binding.
Finish hem of bodice and ruffle.
Attach ruffle to bodice, using overlocker to finish edges.
Fold over to make elastic casing.
Thread elastic and sew up final hole.

Costs:
 Fabric: £0
 Thread: £0
 Pattern: £0
 Elastic: £0
Total: £0

Donut Bites

This baking came out pretty well. Unlike the rest of the world, we haven’t done much lockdown baking. I’ve not really done much of anything, actually, except let the kids watch tons of YouTube. Unsupervised. The new fave channel of the Little Sis is Emma’s Goodies. We tried her 5 Ingredient Chocolate Cake, but I broke it on the way out of the tin, so it didn’t make the blog, but these Mini Donuts looked pretty good - and only TWO ingredients this time!

OK, so all the cooking oil, and the cooking oil smell, makes this a little more difficult than two ingredients would suggest, but they actually came out really well, and were pretty fun to make too.

Oh, and of course they were fun to eat...

Snakes!

Cathy makes snakes!

Uh oh, lockdown makes everyone a bit stir crazy, and I'm no exception.

This is actually a school assignment, and in the best school project tradition, most (all) of the work is done by the parents (mothers) for the children to pass off as their own. We know the teachers know this, but still they assign us this work.

This time, it is because it is possibly needed for the end of year play, which is supposed to be happening in July. I sincerely hope that they are able to go ahead with it, so I am supporting the art teacher as she assigns this to the kids for their remote school lessons, creating a multitude of jungle themed props.

Some of them are painted efforts, but since these snakes are made of fabric, that's where I come in.

I didn't take any in-progress photos, they are just scraps of fabric, different top and bottom and stuffed with toy stuffing. Finding the scraps, and piecing this one, took the most time. Actually, turning it right side out and stuffing it took longer, but unpicking the tongue and sewing it in the correct way out took no time at all.

The idea came from the art teacher, who found a Spanish blogger who created these. I can't read the the name of the blog so I'm not able to link it here, but I did copy the spiral pattern and created a cardboard template of my own. The seam allowances are just the spiral cut around, there are no spaces down the body.  My snake is a bit uneven. Maybe he swallowed a mouse.

The kids adore him, they have christened him Bondzi Simba Snooki and they fight over who gets to wear him around their neck, like a scarf.

The second snake, named Beyonce, was much quicker. I had just a scrap of this gorgeous blue/green jacquard so I cut a rectangle into a wiggly shape and cut the belly out of the school uniform fabric. I even clipped and notched the curves on this one. So fancy!