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!

Round Pink Cushion

I know that two cushion cover posts, and nothing else, in the last year does not make for exciting blogging. It is not exciting sewing either. We moved house a year ago and even though I have a space that I could turn into a dedicated sewing space, I have hardly sewn at all. That is partly because I feel I can't really indulge my hobbies when there are other things I should be doing, and partly because the creative part of my mind is kept occupied with interiors where it used to be fed by sewing. Let me assure you that interiors is a way more expensive hobby than sewing, and the stakes feel waaay higher because you can't just turn your mistakes into something else or donate it if you don't like it.

One of my new favourite blogs is interiors blog, Mad About the House.  Recently, she posted about the "Wes Anderson effect", essentially, the next iteration of Art Deco which sees our interior styles moving into pastels and round shapes.

While this look isn't really my thing, I do think it is fun and pretty, and a throw cushion is a great way to give a nod to a trend, show peeps that I'm in da club, if you will!

So my shopping fingers hopped on to eBay and got half a meter of pale pink velvet and a cushion pad. I got an 18" pad, but I wish I'd got the 16". I cut an 18" circle and gave it a 1cm seam allowance, I could have used 1.5cm and made it puffier too. (It's not a great pad, a bit mishapen, but not the end of the world).

I had some self cover buttons, left over from one of my very first sewing projects. They are plastic rather than metal, so I'm a bit worried about them breaking under the strain of the button tufting, but I couldn't manage to pull it that tight anyway.

I used fishing line for the tufting, and an yarn darning needle. Then I sewed up the gap which I'd stuffed the pad into and done!

Costs:
  Fabric: eBay, £5.95
  Thread: stash, £0.00
  Cushion pad: eBay, £3.72
  Buttons: stash, £0.00
Total: £9.67

African Wax Cotton Tote Bag

This is Bag No 3.

I was given this lovely African Wax Cotton as a gift, and I had a chance to make something for her daughter from it. It is a panel print so it was tricky to get something that made sense and had a nice balance of patterns in it. I'm pretty pleased with how it came out.

Dimensions are the same as the others: 88cm x 35cm with straps 7cm x 35cm.