First Sewing Post in a Long Time

The nerdlet has issues with pants.  In lengths she wears an 8 or 10 depending on the pants, but she has a waist of 19 1/2 inches (49 centimeters).  In addition to this, like a lot of kids on the spectrum, she has tactile sensory issues which makes clothing difficult in general.  Mostly she likes to wear knit fabrics, but she will wear other clothing if it is both loose and soft.  If all that were not enough, she loves colors and patterns so while I have been able to buy leggings for her and just sew in the waist, it was tolerable to her and nothing more.  She recently requested for me to make her flannel pajama pants (which are 4T but she is still wearing) in other fabrics. 

So I decided to start with a pajama pants pattern.  I chose Ottobre 4/2005-10.  I went with a size 128 to start with.  I knew they would be short but I figured that the first pair would be just to try out.  I chose a lightweight denim that I got from from my MIL.  Other than the length I changed nothing.  they ended up being really big.  Luckily Darth Monkey, who is 3 years younger, is significantly larger in every way but height (though she might match her in the next year in height).  You'll have to excuse her pose.  I'll admit I didn't make her change it.

 I actually have a hard time fitting Darth Monkey's butt into normal pants so I might just use these as a jumping off pattern for pants made for her.  The front would need a bunch of excess fabric removed.

So after trying on the above pair, the nerdlet expressed that she wanted to wear them lower and she wanted a waist band, too.  I added 14 inches to the length and removed 5 inches from the top (an inch or so too much) and added a long waist band.  She's wearing them now, but I think they still need some adjustments for the next iteration. 

 If it wasn't winter, I might have a field day making her batik and other light cotton fabrics.  As it is I'll have to go through my fabrics to find something appropriate.  This particular fabric I've had forever and I made a fantastic skirt for my mom with it about a decade or so ago.

More versions of Ottobre 1/2016-18

After I finished the nerdlet's recent peacock dress, I made a number of other versions of the dress.  I'm just going to post pictures and not really go too much into them.

This one was for my niece.  I let her pic the fabric and when I pulled it out, her sister and my nerdlet wanted dresses from the same fabric, so I ended up making three dresses with this fabric.

The nerdlet's is only slightly different.

And a few more.

This last one was made from a fabric that Darth Monkey insisted that she had to have a dress from.  After it was made the bear cub decided it was hers and that was that.

Bear Cub Sweater

The best sweaters for my bear cub are a design for infants and toddlers from Ottober Magazine 6/2011.    The reason that I think it is the best is because it is lined and none of the seams touch the body.

It goes up to size 86 which is a size 2T.  I was planning to use the 86 and blow it up to the bear cub's current size, but I couldn't find either the magazine or the pattern sheet.  So I had to improvise.  I used a boys's sweatshirt with raglan sleeves that started at size 98 from Ottober 4/2010 for the length of the shirt and sleeves and estimated the size and shape of the pieces.

Here is Darth Monkey modeling the sweater.  Please ignore the dishes behind her that need to put away and may or may not have needed to be put away for quite some time.

My MIL bought the pink sweater fabric at Hancock's last week and she also bought it in purple and green so I will be making more assuming that this fits the bear cub well.  Based on the fit on Darth Monkey, I imagine that I might have to shorted all the pieces, but either way the bear cub will be wearing this one tomorrow since it is supposed to be close to freezing tomorrow and for us this means very cold.

My girls

My cousin dubbed this 'Hear a little evil. See a little evil. Speak a little evil.'

McCall's 6875 - Versions 3 and 4

It's been a while.  I've been coughing to the point where I had a hard time accomplishing anything.  I didn't have any other symptoms though so I have been ignoring it for much longer than the two weeks a virus should have cleared my system.  This past week it was much worse so I finally dragged myself in and I got a slew of drugs and am not feeling much better.

I mentioned before that I had a number of these dresses cut out and ready to sew.  The third version has actually been finished a while - probably since the day after I talked about it.  I have pictures of both the nerdlet and Darth Monkey in it.

It's much shorter on the nerdlet but it fits them both fairly well.  Like versions 1 and 2, this one and version 4 are both straight size 4s.

Version 4 was a little harder. It used to be that no matter what dress I was planning to make a yard was plenty, so I have quite a few yard cuts that haven't been made into dresses.  So version four has a different fabric for lining, some piecing on the front bodice and the skirt isn't cut as full as the pattern dictates.

Both sides have this extra piece on the sides. 

 

You can also see where I decided to just serge the bottom of the bodice lining and sew in on instead of turning it under and slip stitching it.

 The front ribbon does lie on the body when the girls are wearing the dresses, but it always looks loose when not on the body.

 And the back.

I have two others half done and one other started, but I'm not sure if I'll have time in the near future to finish them.

McCalls 6878

I'm going to be making a lot of yellow items in the near future.  I finished McCalls 6878 last night.  It's a brand new pattern and I couldn't find any reviews of it anywhere.  Here is the picture that the company posted on the front of the package.

I thought it was cute, if a little shorter than I like to have my girls wear and I was worried about the straps falling off as they really look like if this child moves they will fall off.

Turns out that I was way off on one and spot on on the other.  I made the size 4 since that works so well on McCalls 6875.  It was not too short.  It is longer than the long dresses and I actually put in a 4 inch hem.  I think it might be a good maxi for my 6-year-old if I were to just serge the bottom.  It is, however, falling off of the shoulders much more than this picture shows.  I suspect that they tacked the straps to make them curve less in the model and that they also put a much smaller sized dress on this model than she normally wears (possibly a size 2 on this size 5 child).

I couldn't tell when I finished it last night, but it looked very nice on the table.

It is huge.  After trying it on Darth Monkey, I tried to take it off and she wouldn't let me because 'she is going to wear her yellow princess dress!'  She also wouldn't model it for me, but here are the pics I did get.

My plan is to tack triangles off the of the straps in both the front and back where it will barely sit on the shoulder but will maybe at least stay on them.

I may make this again, but if I do, I will draft straight shoulders and likely change the construction of the sleeves quite a bit.

McCall's 6875 - Versions 1 and 2

Version 1 front

Version 1 back

Version 2 front

Version 2 back

I actually liked the blue a lot better, but I only had enough for one dress and I even shortened the straps to make it work.

Don't they look so sweet.  Until you realize that they aren't hugging.

These are both straight size 4s.  The yellow print is a Tutti Frutti fabric and the trim on both is quilting cotton.  I really like these dresses and will definitely make more of them.

2013 Review

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

 November

December

It has truly been a magnificent year!