Erin is responsible for most of my daughter’s summer wardrobe, this year and last.  Her tutorials are easy to follow and super adaptable. I made a bigger size of the Twirly skirt this year, but it seams my daughter didn’t grow that much so I guess it will fit next year too.  Though I’m sure I’ll want to make another one when next summer comes around. I’ve got some more summer clothes for her in the works, but not much planned for my son. Are there any good, stylish tutorials or patterns for boys out there, beside the ubiquitous “easy pants?”

On a completely unrelated note, I’ve been asked to make the pattern for my kiddy messenger bags available for purchase. I would love to do this, but worry about copyright and pattern bootlegging (ha!). Do any of you sell PDF patterns? And if so do you have any advice on the subject?

I wish I could say I just whipped this up, but it actually was kind of a pain with my pregnancy brain. It’s from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross which I was lucky enough to get at the library–the wait for it now is a year, I think, and for good reason it’s an awesome pattern book. I tried to make a kimono like this from Martha Stewart when my kids were infants and I could not for the life of me figure out the directions. I think the pieces are still cut out somewhere waiting for me to get a clue. These directions had a little mistake in them and the more I looked at them the more confused I got.  Finally I gave up and then of course I figured it out: all it needed was a tie on the inside (the directions make it so all the ties go on the outside).

And voila! The fabric is a really lightweight denim or chambray maybe–is chambray just a really lightweight denim? And it’s this lovely gray/black/navy bluey color. I got tons of it at a mill end shop and I love the way it drapes and wrinkles a little like linen.  It’s supposed to be gender neutral, but I think it looks a little on the boy side, so I may just whip another up because I could whip it up this time.  I made the bias tape  (another reason this project took longer than it should have) and while I was at it I made more to finish the dress I started last year.  Well at least it still fits her.  Just.

I was going to make a dress that looked just like this, but then my muddled pregnancy brain got in the way and I cut the fabric on the selvedge instead of the fold. Then after picking out another lovely piece of fabric I did it again. Amazingly I didn’t just go upstairs and eat chocolate, but instead picked out fabric that I had yards and yards of so I could continue to screw up and still get a dress out of it.  And ta da! I cut on the fold (yay!) and used the elastic thread that’s been sitting in my drawer for over a year. I used Erin’s sunny dress tutorial, but stopped after 5 rows of shirring because I liked the baby doll shape of the dress. I never did like the straps that tie (even though I know they are super useful) so I made thicker straps instead. Then high on my one success, I made my son matching shorts. They are a little longer than shorts–board shorts? short pants? long shorts? everyone has a different name for them. I think they are just cute as hell.

oh and thanks for all your comments on the last post. I guess I’ve never read the comments on apartment therapy before. I didn’t know they liked to get down and dirty. I wasn’t hurt at all–everyone’s entitled to their opinions–but I think I may put a disclaimer on my blog about using my photos (to be fair, AT did credit me, they just didn’t get the facts straight) or maybe even have an edited version appear in RSS readers. How do you protect your work?

Sorry to disappear like that, but there hasn’t been much sewing around here lately. Actually none. This dress is the last thing I made (the day before christmas of course).  It’s a simple enough dress, but the gathers were a royal pain in the butt. Velvet isn’t one of the suggested fabrics for a reason. It never gathered enough–the fabric was just too thick–and I had to put the button waaaaay over so it would stay up on her shoulders.  And that is button, not buttons, because I got the flu and five button loops and five covered buttons just seemed like a lot more than I could handle.  But she wore it to christmas dinner and was just the cutest (and that was really the point right).

I will be back Monday with the Mobile Swap 2009 sign up. Last year was a huge success and a lot of fun to boot. Check out last year’s flickr group just to see the amazingness and check back next week to sign up!

Popping in to say there are a few city skirts now in my etsy shop. There is just one size, but it fits 2T-4T–just right for those cute preschoolers. There will be more little people bags in the next couple of days as well, for all those who asked. Hope you had a good holiday weekend!