Ice Cream & Weekend Sewing

Ok, so I know this is a day late but I do have some fun things to share.  The weather this weekend was so nice and we had a great time outside with the girls.  We washed cars as a family on Saturday and the girls had a blast helping us; mainly splashing around in the soapy water!

There was a little sewing going on this weekend but most of it was for orders from my shop.  I started a Sorbetto Top from the lovely Sari at Colette Pattern Company.  I am using a light pink texturized voile that I picked up from Fabric.com a while ago.  The fabric was not what I pictured when ordering but it is perfect for this little project.  I did make a few changes on the pattern but I will go into more detail when it is all finished and I have a chance to show it off.   

I have decided to participate in the Kids Clothes Week Challenge over at Elsie Marley.  Meg hosts this awesome sew along twice a year to help motivate us all to sew more for our kids.  When you commit to being part of the sew along you are saying you will sew for your kids an hour a night for a whole week.  This year KCWC will be going on April 23^rd through the 30^th and I have committed to participate.  My plan is to have all my outfits cut out and ready to go so I can start sewing right away.  This will give me more time to finish outfits instead of worrying about prepping.  If you have any little ones you would like to sew for you should really participate.  It's so fun seeing what others are sewing and getting such great ideas for your next project.

In tune with KCWC I just picked up the Charlie Tunic and the Charlie Dress Add-On from Rae at Made By Rae.  I have been waiting for her to release the Dress Add-On for a while and I am so excited that it is here.  I have great visions of a short sleeve summer dresses and some fun fall dresses for both the girls from this pattern.  Now I just have to decide what fabric I am going to use for my first dress.

I started and finished two tops that were not on the to-do list but have been on my mind for a while.  I picked up the Oliver + S Ice Cream Dress pattern about 6 months ago and was a little intimidated by it.  I was worried my take on it would not look as good as all of the other great dresses and tops out there.  I should have never doubted Liesl because both the dress and the top came together quickly and the directions were very easy to understand.  My Mother in Law gave me these cute coordinating green floral fabrics to go with a specific top pattern for one of my girls.  I liked the top that she originally had in mind but could not stop thinking about how great these would look as Ice Cream tops.  

I decided that I would make M an Ice Cream Top in size 2T with the main floral fabric.  The top for M took about 1.5 hours total to put together and it was all finished in just one evening.  The top turned out great and has been worn a couple of times already.  I used a flower shaped shell button for the closure in the back and it looks so cute matching the flowers on the fabric.  I was a little worried about the neck opening because some of the other ladies on the Oliver + S forums have mentioned that it was hard to get over their kiddos heads but this went over without any issues.  I would only change one little thing and that would have to be the length of the top.  M has a little round belly and this top is on the verge of being almost too short.  When I make it again I would probably add about 2" to the length of the top to help with this.  She is just starting to lose her baby fat so this might not be a problem for much longer. 

For A I wanted to make the Ice Cream in a tunic length top with the main floral fabric for the body of the top and the lighter green fabric for the shoulder/sleeve area and the bottom band.  This took me a little bit longer than the top but it I still finished it up over just two nights of sewing.  Right now A is so happy with anything that I sew for her.  She is always asking me about what I am working on and if it is for her so she was so excited when this was just for her.  I ran into a small snag when sewing up the bottom panel of the tunic  Somehow the band was much wider than the body portion that I was sewing it to.  I am not sure why this happened but I think it has something to do with the fact that I used the shirt size for the body of the fabric and then jumped to the band from the dress pattern.  Instead of taking the band apart and cutting it down to size (which I should have done because it is bugging me now) I just made a little tuck in the band fabric on each side.  It is almost unnoticeable and really blends into the tunic especially because of how the fabric flows.  I picked a plain button for the back so nothing too show off but the top as a whole looks so good. 

This pattern is so versatile and I can't wait to make more of these for the summer and for fall to layer with long sleeve tees.  I already have another top planned for A in some Valori Wells Karavan. 

Project List for the Week

Lil Blue Boo Perfect Shorts – For A 3T – Michael Miller Hot Pink Interlock Finished – Just need to take pictures

Sorbetto Top – For Me – Texturized Pink Voile – Just need to finish bias binding!

T-Shirt Dress – For A 3T & M 24m – Tula Pink Prince Charming – Cut out

Clever Charlotte Phoebe Flutter Blouse – for A 2/3T – Lisette Lawn Fabric – Cut out

Oliver + S Class Picnic Tunic - for A 3T - Lisette Sateen - Cut out

Cheers,
Erin