Birthday Girl Pajamas

M’s 2^nd birthday was last night and of course I had big plans of several things to make for her.  Her birthday outfit was finished during KCWC so I was set for that but I could not decide on what else to make for her.  She has plenty of hand me downs from A but I still wanted to make her something special that she would also get some use from.  So, I decided to make her a pajama set for the summer. 

The blue and white striped flannel was something my Mom brought me during her last visit and was from her stash of fabric, and I picked up the butterfly flannel on sale from Joann Fabrics.  Both fabrics were washed and dried prior to cutting so hopefully most of the shrinking has already happened.  The only reason I mention this is because I once had a pair of flannel PJ shorts for A that seemed to shrink every time I washed them.  They went from being too big to too small in about a month’s time and it was not because she was growing.  I also learned my lesson about drying flannel in the dryer and after the initial was I plan on drying them on the line. 

So, back to the pajamas.  I used a pants pattern that I already had traced off and just shortened it.  I put the shorts together like normal except I left the bottom hem unfinished.  For the bottom ruffle I just cut a strip of the butterfly flannel 3” wide, folded it in half and then gathered it up.  Once it was gathered I sewed it on to the bottom of the shorts, serged the hem to clean it up and then just top stitched it.  For the top I knew that it had to be something sleeveless because of the hot weather here.  I wanted to do something similar to a pillowcase dress but did not want to worry about a tie coming undone.  I decided to do a twist on the pillowcase style top and put elastic in the casing of the body and just measured some straps for each side.  The ruffle on the top was put on the same way as the shorts except I used two pieces that were 3” wide and just sewed a rolled hem on the bottom edge for a longer ruffle.

These were so easy to whip up that I decided to sew a pair for A as well.  I made them both a little big so hopefully they will last for the whole summer!  **These pictures are of A modeling the new pjs.  M was wiped out after her birthday celebration and crashed after opening presents.

Cheers,

Erin

Blah, Blah, Blah

Ok, I know things have been pretty non existent here for the last couple of weeks.  The combination of KCWC sewing madness and speed sewing a couple of princess birthday dresses just put me over the edge.  I decided to step away from all of the girl clothes projects I had planned and wanted to work on something for myself that might take a little bit of time.  The Diplomat Dress by Lisette has been on my selfish sewing list for a while and I decided to just jump in.  After a few orders and some quick sewing projects I am back to sewing some princess dress up dresses for my little girls. 

I promise to be back in the loop and show you some of the projects that I worked on while I was gone from here as well as the new things I have going on.

Finished Items to Blog About

Diplomat Dress in Polka Dot Cotton

Colette Sorbetto Tank in Textured Pink Voile

Oliver + S Hopscotch Knit Dress – For A

Summer PJ Sets – For A & M

Working On

Blue Cotton Princess Dress – 3T – For M

Pink Cotton Princess Dress – 4T – For A

Purple Cotton Princess Dress – 3T – Birthday Present for A’s Friend

Felt Crowns – For A, M & Birthday Girl

Cotton Knit Shorts – 3T – For A – White Interlock, Denim Print Interlock

Animal Print Ice Cream Top – 3T – For A

Cheers,

Erin

KCWC Day 5, 6 & 7

Ok, so I dropped the ball a little bit at the end of KCWC but only in the blogging department.  During the weekend I worked on a couple different tops for the girls and at the end came out with several pieces for each girl and a good start on their summer wardrobe.  This is the first year that I have participated in KCWC and I loved it.  There was so much motivation from the flickr pool, Meg’s blog as well as all of the other bloggers that participated and posted about it.  I am still sorting through the flickr pool and looking for pictures that I want to save for future sewing ideas.

Since I didn’t do any blogging over the weekend I am going to do a quick wrap up of what I worked on for the last couple of days of KCWC.

Day 5

I worked on the second part of M’s birthday outfit.  I used the wonderful Oliver + S Swing set Tunic and cut the Children at Play parade fabric so it looks like they are parading around the hem of the tunic.  I am super excited about how this turned out and it looks perfect with the balloon shorts.  The only thing I am missing is the buttons for the back.  I picked up some small flower buttons last weekend but I am worried that they are too small so I might add some covered buttons instead. 

  

Day 6

On Saturday I looked at everything I had cut out and was not too excited about sewing anything in the pile.  I had an old shirt of mine that no longer fit and decided I would use the Toddler Swing Tank pattern from Kelli at True Bias.  Because I used a knit that would stretch I cut the back as one piece and because A is at least a 3T for length I added about 2” to the bottom.  I positioned the top just right so I could save the original neckline and used some of the scraps to make bais binding for the arm openings.  Because jersey does not fray I decided to leave the hem unfinished and help to preserve the length of the top.  This was a pretty quick project that I was able to finish in about 1.5 hours from start to finish.  This is something that A can wear to preschool and I don’t have to worry about her getting paint all over it.

Day 7

I had the Class Picnic tunic cut out for over a month and finally finished it this weekend.  The Lisette sateen is so soft and there was only a little bit of shredding while I was sewing it.  There are no exposed seams on the neck or bodice of this shirt which makes for no scratchy edges for my girls.  I added about 5” to the length of the top and my initial thought was it would be a tunic.  After I finished and tried it on A it ended up being more of a dress and I am still very happy about it.  She can wear it now as a dress and then when the fall hits she can pair it with leggings or jeans for a layered look.  With the way she is shooting up it might not fit as a dress long tough.  I have a couple of store bought play dresses in 3T and they are already becoming too short for her to wear without something underneath.

New Projects

We have a special joint birthday party that the girls and I will be attending this weekend for two little girls that live in our cul-de-sac.  They are sisters and one of them is the same age as M.

The theme of this party is going to be knights and princesses so I thought it would be fun to add to their dress up box. For my next project I am in the process of making them some princess dresses with cotton fabrics.  I picked up some white, light blue and purple cotton fabric over the weekend as well as some chiffon for an overskirt on each dress.  I am about half way through the first dress but will try and take some pictures while constructing the second dress so you can see how I did it.

Project List for the Week

Purple Princess Dress – 3T – For birthday girl S

Blue Princess Dress – 6 – For birthday girl K

Finish button holes and buttons on Swing set Tunic – For M 2T

Ice Cream Top – For A 3T – Animal Print

Cotton Knit Shorts – For A – Basic solid colors (white, black, navy) for under shorts

Cheers,

Erin