Ottobre 4-2011-15 and another Jalie 2796 Circle Skirt

I pulled out an old favorite Ottobre 4-2011-15 to use for the top of Merida, but since it has been a while since I made it, I had to make it up again in red as a sample first.

The nerdlet decided to play the part of uncooperative child today.

I did get some cooperation after she had worn it half a day and had breakfast and spilled stuff on it.

This top is a size 98 in width and a 110 in length and made out of red rayon knit.  The Merida top is out of a cotton jersey and will not be so clingy.  When I showed it to the bear cub, once again she wasn't enthusiastic about it and my mother figured out that the bear cub doesn't want to wear red.  The nerdlet loves it though.

The skirt is a size 7 Jalie 2796 skirt with the Mickey fabric as another circle skirt.  The nerdlet fits into the size 4s that I made earlier, but she much prefers the extra room in the bigger skirt, so I likely will be making them bigger since they don't fall off of the nerdet who has the smallest waist of my three girls.

Minnie Mouse Outfit

So this outfit was a trial before I made the same outfit in red polka dots as a Minnie Mouse outfit. The top is Ottobre 6-2009-19 in a size 98 in width and a 110 in length.  I decided to try to use snaps instead of buttons and was not entirely successful in having the front hang perfectly flat.  The bottom is Jalie 2796 with an attached circle skirt.  

I showed the bear cub the skirt and asked if she was going to wear it tomorrow.  She said, "No!"  The nerdlet immediately piped up that she would wear it since her sister would not.  I'm hoping that it isn't too childish for 2nd grade because I don't think that there is anyway that I could talk her out of wearing it.  I just don't want her to be teased and since she is already a bit of a bully magnet so I worry.

Now that the bear cub has rejected the first of the line I plan on making, I'm wondering if she'll wear any of them.  The only sure thing is Sofia the First because the bear cub loves her.  Next up is Merida.

I'll try to post a picture of this one and it's trial with the girls in them tomorrow.

Jalie 2796 and Ottobre 6-2009-19

While I have not been blogging, I have been sewing.  My plan is to post a number of them in a row, but I'm going to start with what I finished today.

First is Ottobre 6-2009-19.  This top is a size 98 in width and a 119 in length.  It is meant for the bear cub, but I'm hoping it will fit the nerdlet also.  It is made from a tutti frutti fabric that I got from my MIL.  I actually just finished sewing on the last button right before sitting at the computer to post this.

Next is a matching skirt from Jalie 2796.  The skirt is a circle skirt that I sewed between the shorts and the waist band.  

I made the skirt opening 30 inches and then stretched the shorts and waistband to match to sew so that it would still stretch.  I loved the look of the circle after I hemmed it so I took a pic.

This was just a sample to see if I like it.  My bear cub cannot use the restroom herself unless she is in a two piece outfit and so I cannot send her in dresses to school like her sister.  I've been planning outfits that coincide with all the Disney princesses and a few other Disney characters.  This particular set is going to be for a Minnie mouse set that I have already purchased a red and white polka dot fabric for.  I'm glad that I made this ahead of time because I want to make so changes, but for the most part, I really like how it turned out.

Jalie 2805 and McCall's 6500

The girl that I've been tutoring, who I have nicknamed Rumplestiltskin's daughter because her dad is an evil troll that kept her trapped in a hovel and didn't give her any care or even take her to school, has been working really hard at catching up with her schooling.  I've created a learning plan and schedule for what we need to cover each day to catch her up for school when it starts.  After she finishes her day's plan, she is more than willing to do a craft with my girls and their cousin or to work on learning to sew.  This past week she sewed her first skirt and t-shirt.

The skirt is a simple tube made to her measurements.  She cut and sewed it with my guidance.  It's part of a costume that she's making.  I've been posting updates about it as she finishes pieces on Facebook and then I was telling my mom about what a great job she was doing and I got in trouble.  Apparently it is a secret so don't tell her that I'm bragging about her progress in studying and sewing every chance I get.

I think the only reason that I get pictures is because she doesn't realize that she can tell me no yet.  She didn't take off her denim capris before trying them on so it looks tighter than it is.  The picture is blurry because I forget sometimes to turn back on autofocus for things like this and I didn't want to ask her to change into it again.

Then she made the Jalie 2805 t-shirt in size T.  She traced it and pinned and cut it.  She sewed all but the hems for the bottom and the sleeves, which I did on the coverstitch machine.  I helped some with the collar, too.

She is so lovely and the shirt fits her well, but she is really self conscious in it that we may make the next one in a larger size.  It's actually really close fitting with little ease so I'll definitely take that into account when I make this pattern for me or my girls.

The other thing I was going to show is MIL UFO #6, which is McCall's 6500.  I actually bought this pattern and a couple like it to compare the different companies peasant style dresses, and I may or may not have even paid for the fabric, so I'm not really sure that this is really an MIL UFO so much as a dress I was going to make that I ended up making after all.

The dress was made for the bear cub, but the nerdlet is modeling it to earn enough Mommy faction to stay up late today.  There were a couple of changes.  I used 1/8 inch elastic instead of 1/4 inch elastic.  The trim was cut in half because when I received the pieces only half the ruffle was cut and I didn't have any extra fabric so I simply sliced the ruffle in two and used that.  I also removed the two folds.  After those changes, this is what it looked like.

I didn't really care for how gigantic it looked so I took 10 inches out of the elastic for the neckline.  This was the final dress.

It's definitely too short for the nerdlet to wear out without leggings, but it should be a fine length for either the bear cub or Darth baby.

Jalie 2796 Skort

I finished my skort.  It was pretty easy to put together.  Since I already posted about how I make the change to eliminate the fold around the crotch, I'm not reposting it now, but if anyone is interested in see the pattern change let me know.  I didn't change the skirt part at all.  The whole thing is slightly shorter than the pattern because I sewed the waistband on to the skirt inside out and instead of unpicking the whole thing, I just cut it off.

It's kind of amazing to me what a difference fabric choice and a second layer of fabric can make.  It's not just the color (though the black helps), it really doesn't make me look as lumpy and gross, even without the skirt part.  This is so comfortable and I'll definitely be making some more.  I used nylon/spandex and the shirt is the same (though I didn't make the shirt).

My mom called me and wanted me to get my pictures up so I had her on the phone while I took the pictures.

When I make these again, I think I'll draft a back skirt piece that is assymetrical and comes down about an inch more on my back right side.  My higher hip is pulling the skirt up so much that the shorts show underneath on that side.

I did do one thing that I wonder if it will come back to haunt me.  I used my coverstitch machine to make the bottom pocket seam.  I've never used the coverstitch for any sort of weight bearing before so I don't know if it's a sturdy enough stitch for that.  I'll let you know if it is a fail.

On another note, the nerdlet saw the stripe shorts from my last post and immediately demanded to wear them, so that was kind of nice.

Remakes into Jalie 2796

I went to put away laundry and found a couple of dresses that were damaged and since I had the pattern for the Jalie shorts on my kitchen counter I took some time to turn them into shorts for the girls.

The dresses.  You can see the damage letting your daughters play with permanent markers does.

And the final shorts. I just cut the neckline from the dress front and back and just used that for the shorts band.  I wanted to use the flower, but it was too big to fit anywhere.  For the striped dress, I placed the bottom of the shorts just above the ruffle.  I know the nerdlet will like the purple version.  I'm not sure about the bottom version, but I figure no one will see them under dresses and they are sort of cute in a bizarre kind of way so one of the girls might take to them.

 

And just because I think it's interesting, the size 2 pattern piece on top of the size 14 (before alteration).

Jalie 2796 - Adult Version

I finished the first pair last night and it isn't pretty.  Okay, there isn't anything wrong with the pattern, but really no one needs to see these shorts with me in them.  It seems I carry all my gross fat between my belly button and my upper thighs.  And for some reason, while these shorts are probably a size too big, somehow they still manage to cling enough to show what being serially pregnant and having three babies in three years does to your abdomen.  I think they will be fine for working out, but I'll also be wearing one of my t-shirts over them and since all my t-shirts are x-large or bigger to get over my chest, this means that they are all long enough to come down to my thighs.

I'm posting the pattern again so that no one has my image appear on their screen.  This is your opportunity to stop reading and close this post.

There is no resistance/support in the fabric that I used (the same cotton Jersey that I used for the nerdlet) and they are pretty comfortable.  You can see the fold right above my crotch.  It's actually two inches of folded fabric  I already have a fix for this as I did this with my favorite shorts here, and I'm going to adjust the shorts and make it into the skort before I traumatize any readers with another version.  I didn't bother to hem the bottom edge as I won't be wearing these.

Now that I'm looking at this picture, I think I should have left my legs in the picture and maybe that would have taken away from the horror a bit.  I could play with the filter and make it sort of artistic.

Then I could pretend people are just looking at my pretty legs.

Jalie 2796

I bought my first Jalie pattern.  I actually ended up buying 4.  I ended up buying 2796, 3135, 2805, and 2920.  I decided that I wanted the first two and they were having a buy three get one free so I found two more to add to my order.

Katie of Kadiddlehopper  and another blogger are hosting a swim suit sew-a-long.  I'm not really participating, but I am reading the posts.  She recently posted about SCUBA chic and posted a picture of Jalie 3135, which upon seeing it, I knew that I had to have it for my bear cub.  Children with Down syndrome often have a hard time regulating their body temperature, and my bear cub is very thin. Because of these two things working against her, she turns purple very fast.  I've bought neoprene tops for her and the nerdlet but the smallest size (size 2) is pretty loose and doesn't seem to help much.  I'm hoping that a suit that covers more might help more.  I haven't bought any fabric to make this yet, so it is currently just sitting by my machine.

Jalie 3135

I did, however, trace 2796 for myself (in size AA - American 14) and size F in width and H in length for the nerdet (size 2 length and 4 width).  The fabric I had for making this with only stretch 70% in one direction so I decided to make the nerdlet's version first, since the size 2 is actually 2 inches wider than her waist and if it didn't have enough stretch, she could likely still wear it.

Jalie 2796

I just made the shorts for the nerdlet (though I did trace off all the pieces in her size since they are really a good size for all three of my girls.  Though for me, after making sure the shorts work, I'll likely make myself a few of the skorts.  I'm a huge skort fan, even though I only have one in a size 12 that I used to wear before I ever had any babies and still squeeze myself into occasionally. These will be great because I can slip my phone and gym locker keys in the pocket.  Currently I have one pair of real workout shorts and more often than not I end up going in my regular shorts (Burda 06-11-111) and while they work, they aren't exactly ideal.

The nerdlet wasn't exactly cooperative and Darth Baby was more than willing to help make sure I couldn't get good pictures.  They started playing some version of swing tug-of-war with that blanket and I did the best I could with the pictures.

 

 

The nerdlet really likes them and she decided to go to sleep with them.  There is enough room in them that I think I'm going to try my size as is even though there is no vertical stretch.  I'm short waisted so I'm hoping that the lack of vertical stretch works out okay.  I can sometimes buy the low waisted jeans and get them all the way over my hips so I think it should.

I actually think the draft fits the nerdlet so well, that I may replace the pattern I'm currently using (a cross between two Ottobre patterns) for leggings and replace it with this one.  The nerdlet prefers to wear dresses most of the time and as she starts Kinder this fall, I think it's a good idea for me to make her some knee length leggings in a bunch of colors to wear under the dresses.

Since I have the pattern traced and the fabric washed, ironed, and ready, I should have my version sewn fairly quickly.