The day is finally here and I couldn’t be more excited to share with you the pattern I have been working on thanks to the help of the always amazing Lauren Dahl and her course on Pattern Workshop (affiliate link). You can check out my review of the first half of her course here. I hope to have a review of the second half of the course in the next few weeks, but you know I actually have to finish the course first 🙂
As any stay at home parent can attest, when you are sick you rarely get time off. A few weeks ago we were going to go on a last minute trip up to Vancouver to see my brother and sister in law. The night before we left, which was about 5 hours after we decided to go I came down with a nasty cold. The kind of cold where all you want to do is lay on the couch and watch tv.
I have been very busy testing patterns: Girls dresses, boys swim shorts and women’s shirts and dresses. My favourite part of testing is when the patterns start to release and I get to share what I made with the pattern. Today I am sharing with you my version of the Sweet Simple Dress by Allison of Freshly Completed.
More and more I let Sophie pick the fabric for clothes I am making her. I would rather spend the time making something that she is likely to actually wear than have to fight her into it. When this testing pattern came along, I brought Sophie into my sewing room and let her pick the fabric. Once the dress was made it seemed like she should be in Hawaii at a Luau instead of a traffic circle in Seattle.
For every holiday I have these grand plans to make the kiddos clothes. I usually go as far as to pick the patterns and buy the fabric and then all the sudden it is a couple days before and I haven’t started and I just abandon the idea all together. For Easter it wasn’t much different, I purchased the fabric a few months ago and never really settled on a pattern. Last week was spring break for the kiddos so I got even less sewing done than I normally would. Somehow I arrived at Saturday morning with a pattern for Ben picked and still no final decision for Sophie. Normally I would have scrapped the idea at this point but I was determined to make something, plus my in-laws were in town so I knew they would keep the littles occupied so I could get some sewing done.
The always amazing Amy of Peek-a-boo Pattern Shop (affiliate link) released her newest pattern today, the Seaside Scallop Shorts. I was lucky enough to test this great pattern, and you can tell Sophie was pretty happy about getting some new shorts.
These shorts have some really great details that not only give it style but also make it even more wearable for your little ones. The waistband is a flat front with an elastic back which is especially great for skinny mini’s like my kids who never seem to keep their pants up. You can add a fun accent fabric for the pocket lining as well which is a great way to add a bit of fun to the shorts.
Have you heard of the new pattern collection Willow & Co.? Its a collective of 7 amazing designers that all created new patterns for this upcoming Spring/Summer line Wanderlust. The collection is being released April 22nd but as a bit of a sneak peek I am joining others in the blog tour to show you one of the patterns being released, the Aster Cardigan by Vanessa of LBG Studios.
Yesterday life happened and so Kids Clothes Week day 2 did not. We are in an especially busy phase of life with our kiddos right now so sometimes sewing doesn’t happen. Thankfully nap time happened today so I was able to whip up a couple of t-shirts for Sophie while they slept.
Since Benny got a few new shirts on Day 1 I thought it was only fair that Sophie got some new shirts this week too. One of the patterns that was on my to do list for this week was the Celestial Tee from Figgy Studios that I got as part of the Perfect Pattern Parcel #2.
I love when designers reach out over social media to gather volunteers for testing their new or revamped patterns. Many of these designers get hundreds of responses to the tester call so when I submit my name I don’t get too excited because I know there are so many other people.
When it comes to picking the right fabric for a pattern sometimes the process is easy and other times you begin to question whether your vision is going to work in reality. My recent test of the Schoolboy Vest by Sew Much Ado in Sophie’s size was exactly one of those times where I started to doubt the awesomeness that I had envisioned.
Sophie has pretty clear wishes when it comes to the fabric for clothes I will be making her. No surprise that has resulted in most of her clothes being either pink or with pink in them. Because I can only sew so many pink things I decided to try and branch out and incorporate at least one of her other loves, flowers.
When my sister decided to throw a tangled party for my niece Elsie’s second birthday she asked if I could help with a dress. The original plan was to just take a Rapunzel dress she already had and alter it to better fit Elsie. After a bit of thought we decided it would be easier to sew something new.
Since the Rapunzel dress is quite detailed I thought I would go for a Tangled inspired dress that would work great for the party but that didn’t require things like embroidery and a corset. Because really a 2 year old would just be happy with a purple dress.
