Project Run & Play Wk 1 - Rainbow Brite Inspiration

80's cartoons? What? I was in high school and college for most of the 80's. Yes, I'm that old. So thank heaven for Google and Pinterest. I discovered Rainbow Brite and thought I could work with that.

On my list of fall clothes for Elena I had wanted to make pieces based on a sweatshirt fleece skirt at H&M (not listed on the website now so sorry, no picture) and this vest on Pinterest. Rainbow Brite's skirt and sleeves are the same shapes as my inspiration pieces so by incorporating some rainbow colors in a shirt, wa-la - it's Rainbow Brite!

The skirt is a 1/4 circle based on her measurements and using sweatshirt fleece from Girl Charlee. After cutting it, I stitched lines about 5/8" apart on 45 degree angles across the whole thing to give it some dimension. I sewed up the back seam, hemmed it, and added a knit waistband using leftover navy cotton spandex also from Girl Charlee.  

Elena chose the shoes, not me. I wanted her hot pink crocs.

I made the reversible vest using basic dress bodice pieces and some almost semi-circle pieces for the sleeves. I again, did the stitching on the fleece after cutting each piece, before assembling. The reverse side is a floral/leaf print flannel. It ties shut with fleece tubes. I debated adding rainbow colored beads before the knots, but wanted to keep it neutral and versatile. 

Since I love to refashion, the t-shirt is made from 3 t-shirts from my stash. I wanted to incorporate some rainbow colors without actually making a rainbow. If you've been reading my blog lately, it won't surprise you that I went to the CINO Nessie top pattern. Again. Great shape with color blocking built right in. Another easy and useful piece for her fall wardrobe. (If you'd like to see some of my other versions of Nessie, try here, here, and here.)

I think that Rainbow Brite is represented in color and shape and playfulness without being too literal.

But here is the best part. The skirt and vest are so useful in other ways too. Elena has lots of different tops and blouses already in her wardrobe that look cute with this, but I did make one more blouse for fun. It's a peasant style with a ruffled collar made from lightweight cotton.

But this next one is my absolute fave. I paired it with a homemade puffed sleeve tee and the reversed vest. This one could have been used for my signature style as well. This one melts me. 

This was such a satisfying project. I'm soooooo ready for fall so my sweetie can start wearing these pieces.

Besides all of the fabulous inspiration provided by the Project Run & Play contestants, my other favorite part is learning of new bloggers to follow so there are links at the top of the sidebar if you 'd like to follow me by e-mail or Bloglovin. Thanks for stopping by and see you next week for some serious refashioning of hand-me-downs!

"Q" is for Quilted Vest & Questions

Letter "Q" week for No Big Dill's Sew All 26 has not been an easy one. I made this vest a couple weeks ago and have struggled with it since. I cheated and used pre-quilted fabric that is leftover from making my niece a laptop bag for her birthday. The bias binding is french script also from the bag. The vest may have been more successful if it was just a couple inches longer, but I was using scraps.

Elena has worn it once so far for her daddy's birthday party, but I wasn't in love with it. It's a little stiff and makes her look like a linebacker wearing shoulder pads. Maybe not that bad, but she was a little top-heavy with her skinny legs. I didn't take any pictures that night but it looked like this with a t-shirt and tribal leggings (all made by me as well).

She is absolutely over the photoshoots for a while. I can't feed her any more mini-marshmallows in good conscience so there are no pictures of her wearing it.

I felt like it could use more volume and something to make it more little girlish so I made a quick peasant blouse out of eyelet. I can't get her to even try it all on together yet but it should look like this.

Ehhhhh, kind of not crazy about that either. 

I suspect that the vest won't get a lot of wear, but the blouse will and the leggings too. So I'll call it a win since the blouse may not have gotten made if it weren't the vest.

So the Question is: What do you think? With the t-shirt or with the blouse or just not at all?

Snowflake Dress

I found this snowflake print fabric at the thrift store this fall. I've been planning on making this dress for a long time. I thought it would fit nicely with Katy of No Big Dill's Sew All 26 challenge for "S" week. Who knew it would also work out for a Project Run and Play sew-a-long for week one's theme - Winter Wonderland. Yay!

The dress is from a McCall's pattern 6785. I used it before for this tunic. It's a raglan top with some variations. I'm going to use it again to make a few more tops for spring. After I finished the bodice, it seemed like it was going to be a little short so I added the yellow knit band around the middle. I love gray and yellow together. It injects a little sunshine into typical gray winter days. The pattern doesn't line the hood, but I added gray knit for a more professional look. It would like pretty cruddy without that I think.

I made the vest by starting with the Zermatt Bow Swing coat pattern that I used here before. I left off the sleeves, extended the shoulder out to a cap sleeve, and left off the bow. I still used the facings and then added a lining of more of the bright yellow cotton lycra from Girl Charlee. I opted to close it with a painted button and loop of elastic sewn under a piece of the snowflake fabric. The vest fabric itself is from a hooded fleece scarf my mom passed on. Not much fabric to work with and wouldn't have worked for anything bigger than this 2T. Actually, I had to use a different fleece for the back facing and shorten the whole thing by a couple of inches. I love seeing the yellow peeking out at the armholes.

The white leggings are my own pattern and are made of cotton lycra from Joann's. Nothing exciting but very useful. And very dirty after the outdoor portion of our photo shoot. Oh well. Thank goodness we took some pictures inside first.

And now the pictures of Elena enjoying the new outfit on a rare sunny day.

Once I attached the skirt to the bodice, the weight of it pulled the whole thing down making the yellow band hit a little lower than intended. I still love the color pop but I may go back and shorten the bodice an inch. What do you think? The overall length is good, but the waist is a little low, right? Although Elena loves it and wore it all day and she is not known for keeping her clothes on, so that must mean something!

The BBC Vest

     I grew up going to the fabric store with my mom and looking through those pattern books. I thought it was so fun and so inspiring. Once she settled on a pattern, I wanted to be the one to go find it in the rows of file cabinets. That envelope held all the creative possibilities.

     Fast forward 30 plus years and the world of patterns has changed. I still buy patterns sometimes at Joann's when they are 70 cents or $1 each, but I find them to be kind of basic. I have trouble with the sizing and the directions sometimes leave me scratching my head or looking for a bottle of wine. Sometimes I have to just put the directions away and look at the project and do what makes sense to me. But I will say that I have learned a lot and I find them very useful as basic pieces to mix and match into something more interesting. You know, frankensteining.

     The PDF patterns are very new to me. I purchased the Sew Fab bundle recently, but the first one I bought was the ShwinDesigns BBC vest. I was inspired by this one by Craftiness is not Optional and this one by girl.Inspired. I finally sewed one up yesterday for my little Elena.



     The fabric choice is a little busy for me but I LOVE the shape of this vest. The racer back and the peplum are adorable. Based on the measurements given, my tall, thin girl required the 12-18 month size in width and a 2T in length. But oh yikes, it is hard to tell with this pattern what is the width and what is the length on those collar pieces. Things were not matching up, but I eventually figured it out and it all worked out perfectly. It fits her sooooo nicely. But next time, I think I'd pick one size and just go with it.

     Did you see what I said? Next time. I guess that means I'm considering making more of these. This one was a little bit like giving birth. It was pretty tough for me to get through but in the end, it was so beautiful, I fell in love and forgot all the pain. I can hardly even remember it now. I mean, look how cute it is. Those pleats in the peplum are to die for.

 

     We are having such a nice fall around here. We had a great time down at the beach today. No wind, no waves, mid 60's. When I suggested we go to the beach, she went and grabbed a swim suit and added it to the diaper bag. She had to settle for throwing rocks into the water.

 



       

 

   

     I was very lucky to inherit a large amount of my mom's stash of buttons, trims, fabric, etc. when she did some recent purging. She is pretty excited that I'm using so much of it. That's where I found this button.

 

     Overall, I liked the BBC Vest pattern very much. It really makes a beautiful product in the end. I could see a fancy one being part of Elena's Christmas outfit this year.