Ottobre 4/2011-1

I used FOE (fold over elastic) for the first time and I'm a big fan.  I bought some from Jo-Anne's with my 40% off coupon to try it out.  It's pretty expensive from there, but I think I'm going stock up from an online source.

Here is the shirt I made for the bear cub.

I really liked it the way it came out, but the fabric I used is a really warm knit and so she won't be able to wear it until it becomes cold again or if she's going to be in air conditioning all day.  The bear cub has already gone to bed or I would have posted a pic of her in it.  It's a size 80 lengthened to a size 92.

My MIL made these dresses for my girls.  It's based on pattern McCall's M6310.  They are all size 1 in width and then lengthened for each girls dress depending on how long they need them.  She also removed the zipper and made the twist back into button straps so that we can adjust the length.  I think they are my favorite dresses that my MIL has ever made and they'll likely be in them once a week.

That's the nerdlet's favorite store in the background.  She's turned down her grandma's offer to go to Toys R Us in order to go to Costco.

I have been doing a small amount of sewing, but haven't felt up to posting here.  I'm going to try to be better.  I still need to post about the bear cub's starting school and yesterday was the last day for the school year.

Flowers at the zoo

I only know the names of a few of these.  Feel free to let me know if you can identify any of the rest.

plumbago

impatiens

Primrose

snapdragon

canna lily

madonna lily

another canna lily

dwarf ponciana or peacock flower

Not a flower, but it was really interesting and kind of painful to look at this tumor on this fish.

They are all looking over there and I can't get them to look at me.

So I moved to the direction they were looking.

New Look 6881

I won a giveaway from Victoria.  She sent me beautiful blue and purple plaid taffeta and blue tulle that was already cut out and the pattern.

Here is the pattern.

What is really interesting is a couple of days after I received this, my MIL saw it and told me she had purchased this same pattern and was making a dress for the bear cub with it.

Q gave me a sewing weekend by taking the girls up to see my mom yesterday and I had planned to get a number of projects done, but this was really the only thing I did because I got really sick and ended up spending most of the weekend on the couch watching "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

Anyway, the dress came out beautifully and I really love it.  I don't normally like plaid, but if I were to choose one, this would be the one that I would pick out.  I had some purple trim that matches it exactly, though for some reason, the flowers look off in the picture.  I did alter the construction a bit so that there would fewer seams against the body and also I gathered the tulle on both sides since I felt like it didn't have enough impact as a single layer.

It's a little short on the nerdlet for my tastes but I think it will be long enough for the bear cub, but she wasn't in a good enough mood to play barbie dress up doll for me tonight.  In any case, it will fit Darth Baby perfectly when she grows a few inches.

My MIL made a lot of changes to hers.  She took out the zipper, altered the construction, removed the lining, and possibly others than I haven't noticed yet.  Katie had no interest in modeling this one and as it is slightly shorter than the one I made, I figured it will be fore the bear cub anyway, but here is her version.

My MIL makes a lot of clothes for my girls and I normally don't include them, but I really wanted to show how much possibility there is in the pattern.

I haven't included a lot of sewing posts recently, not because I haven't been sewing (though it has been less), but the bear cub has recently started preschool at a elementary school that isn't that close and I've been really busy with that and a few other things.  I plan on posting on her entering school and also catching up on the Burda magazines, the most recent of which I actually loved.  I'm also really excited about the upcoming Ottobre magazine.

Writing Excuses

Two choices for the bear cub's written excuse note:

Dear Harmony Hills Email Harassment Team Member:
Please excuse the bear cub for her absence on 04/17/2012 as she had diarrhea.  I decided to keep her home in order to not infect any of the other students with a pathogen that infects the digestive system.  Possibly if you didn't do such a good job with the email harassment then the parent of the child that she got it from might have made the same choice.
Also, I would appreciate it if you would also excuse her absence on 04/05/2012.  I realize that I'm requesting this quite late afterward and am including a doctor's note in the hope that you will cease the repeated emails on the subject.
Trying to be a conscientious parent,
Kimberly

or

Dear Absentee Fascists:
Please excuse the bear cub for her absence on 04/17/2012.  Yes, I do realize that being at school is important and that unless there is a grave reason for her not to be in class that I should send her to school.  I'm hoping that sending this note and acknowledging the importance of each school day that you will not feel the need to send me 50,000 emails on the subject the rest of this week and next.
Thanks so much,
Kimberly

Likely, I won't send either note, but instead the first main body line from the first, but I really, really want to send one of these.

My Girls on Easter

And my favorite!

Adjusting Patterns for Children with Unique Shapes

Happy World Down Syndrome Day!

In honor of this special day, I'm going to make a little post on sewing for children with Ds. Because all of the things associated with Ds are in the general population, I think it will help a lot of people trying to sew for their kids with unique shapes.

First, I made a chart in inches of what an average child that patterns are made for. This is actually a cross between the Ottobre sheet and the Big 4 (Simplicity, McCalls, Vogue, and Butterick) according to randomly chosen pattern sheets. I used the sizes for girls, but if you have a boy, the difference will only show starting around puberty (unlike ready-to-wear). I believe the big fitting issues that have to do with Down syndrome are the length of the sleeve, the length of the inseam and outseam, and the distance from neck to edge of shoulder. To begin to find what your particular child's fitting issues are, I would take each of the measurements on the charts. When you compare to the chart, you will find where your child has fitting issues.

Height	Chest	Waist	Hip	Sleeve	Back Waist	Outseam	Shoulder	Big 4
19 3/4	17	18	20	7	0	12 1/4	0	Premie
22	17 2/4	18 2/4	20 2/4	7 3/4	0	13 2/4	0
24 2/4	18	19	20 3/4	8 3/4	0	14 2/4	0	Newborn
26 3/4	18 3/4	19 1/4	21 1/4	9 2/4	0	16 1/4	0	Small (1/2)
29 1/4	19 1/4	19 3/4	21 3/4	10 1/4	0	17 1/4	0	Medium
31 2/4	20	20	22	11	0	18 2/4	0	Large (1)
33 3/4	20 2/4	20 2/4	22 2/4	11 3/4	0	20	0	2
36 1/4	21 1/4	20 3/4	22 3/4	12 2/4	8 3/4	21 1/4	3 1/4
38 2/4	22	21 1/4	23 2/4	13 2/4	9 2/4	22 3/4	3 1/4	3
41	22 3/4	21 3/4	24 2/4	14 1/4	9 3/4	24 2/4	3 2/4	4
43 1/4	23 2/4	22	25 1/4	15	10 2/4	26	3 2/4	5
45 3/4	24 2/4	22 2/4	26	15 3/4	11	27 2/4	3 3/4
48	25 1/4	22 3/4	26 3/4	16 2/4	11 2/4	29 1/4	4	6
50 2/4	26	23 1/4	27 2/4	17 1/4	12 1/4	30 3/4	4	7
52 3/4	26 3/4	24	28 1/4	18	12 3/4	32 1/4	4 1/4	8
55	28	24 3/4	29 2/4	19	13 2/4	33 3/4	4 2/4	10
57 2/4	28 3/4	25 1/4	31	19 3/4	14	35 2/4	4 2/4	12
59 3/4	30	26	32 1/4	20 2/4	14 2/4	36 3/4	4 3/4	14
62 1/4	31	26 3/4	33 2/4	21 2/4	15 1/4	38 1/4	5
64 2/4	32 1/4	27 2/4	34 3/4	22 2/4	15 3/4	39 2/4	5
67	33 2/4	28 1/4	35 3/4	23 2/4	16 1/4	41 1/4	5 1/4

Patterns for the Big 4 have a lot of ease for movement and growth. This means that most of the clothing made from these patterns are going to be fairly baggy. This is important because you do not want to choose a larger size for growth, because it will be gigantic on them. I trace all my patterns for my girls (though I wouldn't have to for Darth Baby as she fits the mold fairly well).

For tracing the patterns I use the widest medical table paper. For dresses and tops, the first thing that I trace is the shoulder area for the size for the shoulder area. On children with Ds, it is my belief that this is going to be a much smaller pattern size than for height, even if your child is a heavier child than average. The key here is to make sure that the head opening is traced for the larger size and the end of the shoulder and the top of the armhole is for the smaller size. It is also important to extend any openings for the neck area as a smaller size will still need to open up for their head. So if it asks for a 7 inch zipper, you may want to choose a 9 inch or if it uses buttons, you might want to add an extra one, you will also have to extend any areas associated with that opening. I would do this after I had the rest of the pattern traced and then make those adjustments to the tracing.

To make adding sleeves and using their adjustment easy, trace the armhole for the size that best fits your child around the waist. After the shoulder and armhole have been traced, move the tracing so that the marks you have made now line up with the larger size that you are using at the shoulders. Then start tracing from the armhole to the bottom of the pattern. For the sleeve length, only feel the need to make changes for long sleeves and simply shorten the sleeve at the arm opening by the difference between your child's arm and that of the ideal. If there is more to the pattern than a simple hem, make the changes just above what the opening would require. For those sleeves that are graded, make as smooth a line from the opening to your change, or you could even make a straight line with a ruler.

For pants and skirts, choose the size on the waist measurement and shorten the length of the pant to fit your child. For overly thin children, this may not work. For the bear cub, who is quite thin, I choose the size based on height, and then adjust both the length and the width. This is because if I make the size for her waist, then the pants will not come up completely to her waist. I hope this helps anyone sewing for their special someone. If you need more details or maybe some pictures to help, let me know and I'll take some when I adjust a future pattern.