No sewing, just sketchin'

So I haven't been to doing too much sewing, but I've been doing a lot of planning. This is what I do in the evenings to relax. Often I'm too tired to do something focused like sewing, but I love to do the sketches while I watch Mad Men (yes, I'm still watching Mad Men).

These are mostly Ottobre patterns, because my two Ottobre magazines were sitting right next to me on the couch.

The boy child only needs pants, but lots of them. He so thin that all of his other pants don't really fit him.

Here's what's funny about me and planning though, I probably won't make most of these. But I really do enjoy sitting on the couch and drawing and coloring them. :)

Does anyone else sketch things out like this? 

Jalie 3024 - Another Cute Jalie Dress!

Remember the cute Jalie dress I made the other day? Well, I loved it so much I made another one! This one is very different though. This one has binding on the neckline and the arms and the main body is made from a double knit. I love the graphic print of this one.

 

My binding rocked if I do say so myself. I’m really getting the hang of the binding part.

 

And yes, I wore it just like this with my sneakers. All the bright colors made my happy.

 

Now I have three matchy outfits. I really like how they are all similar but not the same. I really, really am out of this fabric now.

KwikSew 3672 - Simple Knit Skirt

I will be making more of these skirts. I will also make this top. With modifications. I read several reviews of the top and how the finishing is, well, lacking. But, this time, I made the simple flared skirt.

 

 

This is made from another piece of Spandex House fabric. I can’t find it on their site, but it’s galaxies. It’s pretty cool fabric if you ask me.

 

Yes, my children took these pictures and “helped” me pose.

 

This is a great, simple, comfortable, knit skirt. It is a bit on the short side, however. I may add an inch or two the next time I make it.

 

The waistband is a simple yoga-type band.

 

One of my twins said this looks like a bat and now that is all I can see.

 

Before cutting into my fun Spandex House fabric, I tried it with a cheap JoAnn’s denim-look knit.

 

I did a gold color for the hem to mimic the colors of denim jeans.

 

I’m glad the fabric wasn’t expensive beacuse it already has two runs in the knit after one wearing.

Next up? I have another Jalie 3024 that I bet you’ll like!

Ottobre 06-2015 #13 Snazzy Leggings

I’ve made these leggings before and they girls love them. I am still making them in size 128 and adding a few inches of length. These Little People are long and lanky. Regular leggings either fit in the waist and are capri length or fit in the length and show crack with every movement. You moms out there know exactly what I’m talking about.

 

This time I made this with fabric from Spandex House. The girls fell in love with this ice cream fabric. It’s a thick poly/Lycra fabric that has fabulous stretch and recovery.

 

I substituted the “stretch grosgrain ribbon” with FOE in a fun glitter pink.

 

And this, by the way, is not the way she’ll be wearing it to school. There will be a longer tunic and TOMs, not these heeled sandals and this short top.

 

The other pair is hearts and green stripes. I can’t find the exact fabric on the website. That is the one downside of Spandex House, they don’t have a great web interface. You have to look through pages and pages of fabric. There is no way to sort by color or designs. So, this fabric is on there, but it didn’t show up with the keyword “heart”.

 

One of the things I really like about this pattern is how high up in the back it goes. There is not any chance of butt peakage when they bend over or do cartwheels.

 

I used the same pink glitter FOE on both pairs.

 

I explained how to do this here, but I really like this ruching down on the legs. You really could do this to any pair of leggings. Pardon my peek-a-boo basting threads.

 

Ice creeaaammmmm.

I don’t know about you guys, but we have had about five days in a row of 70 degree temperatures and it’s too hot for me!

Ottobre 03-2016 #25 Another Knit Dress

Yes, I know, I may be getting mildy repetitive. But, I had the same fabrics out on the cutting table and it was almost all used up and then the machines were already threaded with the appropriate colors, and the magazine was there . . . .

I made this in size 122 with one inch added to the skirt length.

You can tell she is almost in the next size up!!

Yes, same double knit body and mustard yellow as the last dress. This time, though, big changes!! A red v-neck for the neckline!! Wooo, didn’t I tell you you were in for some big changes??


I love the ruffle sleeves and the neckline. I bound this one also using my new binding attachment.


Doesn’t it look professional though?? I love this thing.


I left the sleeve edges raw. You were supposed to finish them with a serged, rolled, or overcast hem. I decided to use raw edges so that it more closely resembled the hem, which I again left raw.


I’m getting so much better at lining up the edges when I serge the bound edges together. And instead of trying to stitch perpendicular to the coverstitching, I now topstitch over the coverstitching to secure the serged edges. It works so much better for me. Here you can barely see the topstitching on top of the line of stitches closest to my thumb.


Here are the two dresses side by side. Matchy, but not too matchy.


I am out of the yellow fabric and both of the black and white prints. I love completely using up pieces of fabric!

Ottobre 03-2016 #31 Knit Dress

Isn’t this a cute little Ottbre dress? I made this for the nine year-olds. When I asked them about it, they said the floucy bit at the top needed to go. They are nine going on sixteen, you see. I made it in size 128 but added an inch in the bodice and added three inches to the skirt length. They are long and lean.

She loves it!!! Even with my added inches, you can see it is still probably too short without leggings. It does fit really well though!!

I love these graphic black and white colors with the yellow. The black and white is a double knit (both prints) from the National City Swap Meet and the yellow is a double knit from Fabric Mart. My binder seems to love double knit, so I took full advantage.


I’m doing a much better job of getting consistent results.


I left the hem raw.


Just look at that binding!!


I’m loving my new (new-ish) binder and my newest Ottobre magazine. I’m already planning a matching outfit from a different pattern in the same magazine.