As usual.....

....I'm terrible about updating!  There's been some sewing and a lot of crocheting going on in the background, but I haven't updated the blog in six months.  Oops!

I sewed a Fourth of July outfit for my niece, with matching doll skirts.  This came about as a total impulse.  I had purchased fabric last year for two new twirly skirts, then never gotten around to them.  And I was in JAF and randomly found a patriotic tutti fruitti fabric in the clearance section, which sent me to the non-clearance section, where the sale price was actually cheaper than clearance.  That then made me look for coordinates, and I ended up with three fabrics that (mostly) went together.  (This of course also caused me to finally cut out the fabrics I previously bought, but those haven't been stitched yet.)

Since I bought these on impulse, I wasn't sure how much I'd need, which meant of course that I went back and bought another yard of the butterflies two days later.  (Plus more for another skirt....sigh....I have a problem.)  And then came the issue of my serger deciding not to do any gathering, and then my ruffler foot decided the same.  So between my ruffling issue and my fabric bought on impulse, I ended up not ruffling these *quite* as much as I might have otherwise.  (I had to hand gather the tiers.  I remember why I started using the serger, lol.)  And then, naturally, I stitched the trim onto the third tier the wrong way.  Sigh....

So after all my issues, it was sadly Sunday before I finished the outfit, which means that it did not reach my niece in time for today.  However, she'll get it tomorrow, and I'm sure a new outfit is fun even after the Fourth. ;)  In honor of the recent Solo movie, the applique on her tank top is a patriotic Millenium Falcon.  And the skirt was "based on" the Sophia Tiered Skirt from Funktional Threads.

The dolls of course need some love, as well.  These skirts are based on a free pattern, the Moo Skirt from The Sewing Geek.

Hopefully I'll be hearing in another day or two how much she likes her new outfit!

More twirly skirts!

So of course I couldn't stop with just those previously blogged little girl skirts.  Um, no.  I had bought enough of the tutti fruitti fabric in my initial shopping trip for five skirts.  And then when I went back for yardage for the Sophia skirt, I had gotten enough for two of those.  So it was time to finish these and move them out before summer ended and my niece couldn't wear them!  (Yes, I'm blogging late....again....)

These are all iterations of the Rachel skirt.  I used my serger on all of them to ruffle the middle and trim tiers.  I really like how they turned out!  The purple wavy lines/colored dots on white skirt is a size 4 (my niece is going to be four soon), with regular elastic.  The other three are all size 5, with buttonhole elastic.  I figure that way she can use them now, but she won't outgrow them before next year.

And I had to make another Sophia!  This one is also a size 5 (the last one was a size 4), with buttonhole elastic.  Takes some of the guesswork out of these, which is great!  I included a note with them for my sister-in-law to let me know how that holds up in the wash.  These recent skirts are my first time using it, but I really love it in my boys' store-bought pants!

The Husband was surprised to see this combination, and even more surprised to hear that I'd been the one to pick it.  He thought it looked very summery, like corn, and I told him that was the intention.  I really stink at combining more than two fabrics, so I was just looking for two coordinating colors that were in the dragonfly print.  Still not my style at all, but I think it looks good.  Hopefully my niece likes it!

Twirly skirt!

My niece is of an age where she loves "twirly skirts," and I got a request from my sister-in-law to supply some.  And JAF was having a sale on their Tutti Fruitti collection, which are basically lightweight, seersucker-like prints.  So I figured, why not have some fun?  I bought several to go together, then realized that without any measurements to go on, I had zero idea how to make something that might turn out wearable.

Enter the Sophia tiered skirt, from Funktional Threads.  I know it's basically an everyday tiered peasant skirt, but since I had no measurements, I wanted sizes and cutting measurements so that I had a better chance of making something usable.  I chose the size 4 because my niece is 3.5 years old, and apparently it worked out well, because it's a little big.  (Yay!)

I really liked the results.  As you can see, this is basically a circle skirt - it's even too full to lie flat as a circle!  I'm not sure that this would have worked as well in fabrics that weren't so lightweight - it might need wider elastic to still stay up.  The ratio on these layers are 2:1, with each successive tier being twice the width of the previous.  This means that you're gathering 7.5 yards of ruffle!  Yikes!  

The instructions tell you to gather each layer by stitching two lines of gathering stitches, then pulling them tight.  I think that's a recipe for broken threads and much frustration, so I pulled out my trusty cording foot and zigzagged over thick crochet thread instead.  Still annoying and time consuming, but not nearly so frustrating.  And I have also ordered a ruffler foot, so we'll see how that works out for future iterations.

Also, the yardage requirements assume single layer ruffle at the bottom, but the instructions give the option for a double-layer ruffle (to avoid hemming 7.5+ yards of ruffle!).  Do yourself a favor and buy a little extra yardage to do the double-layer.  You're welcome in advance.

All told, I do like the results.  This is not something I would have ever come up with otherwise, but then I'm the mom of boys.  I definitely see more of these in my future, but I'm going to play with the ruffler foot when it arrives.  That gathering was for the birds!