Thursday, March 1, 2012

Easy Peasy wrap dress....

I really love Kimono style tees for a new baby. New babies hate having things pulled over their heads, its no wonder, I wouldn't like it much after going through the birth process either!

I got a great deal on some fabrics at JoAnns yesterday and also picked up some brand new Carters Kimono Tees for 3 for $3 at Ross yesterday. When I got home I started playing with fabrics. I wanted to achieve and easy ruffle skirt onsie type thing without having to cut up the tees, which is more time consuming. Lets face it, easy is my best friend right now.

After a bit of fabric and 20 minutes I came up this little number.

Its a simple ruffle skirt attached to the bottom of a infant kimono tee. Its so easy and fast to make and I hope to put on, I will update when baby Zen gets here to try it on. It no harder than to just snap the tee and tie the sash. I think it will be great for those Sunday's when we are rushing to get ready.

I think I will work on a tutorial and better pictures soon, like all my other projects, LOL. I think next time I will make the sash a bit longer so it can be tied in a bow, but over all I love it.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Altering a pattern for maternity wear..

Cute maternity patterns are few and far between and while I love drafting patterns they do take some time. Altering a pattern using this quick flat pattern technique, called "slashing and spread" will help you take any pattern you have to maternity.

One key thing you need to remember when altering a pattern is you never, ever want to add width to the outside edges. This creates and ill filling pattern, and while it may look ok in Knits, it will look weird and hang weird in woven fabric.

Ok so we are going to start with our pattern. I have drawn a simple sloper sketch to show you how this works. I would suggest tracing your favorite pattern on some butcher paper for this process so you can re-use your pattern after baby. You will want to make this in a size larger than you would normally wear, you will grow when you are preggo.

We are first going to lay out our lines. I am using different colors to show the two different directions we are going to cut.




We will want to first to draw our lines to add room for the tummy. One thing to remember is the more cuts you make the smoother and more neat of a transition you will get. Each line will be cut. So starting below your bust point you will want to draw lines starting from one central point to the bottom of your pattern in 1 inch to 2 inch increments.

Being pregnant with #7 I have found that your belly can grow between 15-20 inches by the time its all said and done, so we are going to do a lot of slashing and spreading. You are going to want to make from 10-20 slashes, although my picture dose not show them all.

Now we will slash, cutting from the bottom up to the top leaving a tiny bit of paper at the top keeping it attached so we can spread the sections. Place your slashed pattern on top of a new piece of paper. Once you slash your pattern you are going to spread each piece evenly and then tape or glue each piece down.




Now we need to add length. We are going to measure 2 inches up from the bottom, and draw a straight line from side to side (shown in the green line in the first picture). Then we are going to spread this pattern starting from 2 inches in the side seam and ending at 4 inches in the center front. You will repeat this spread on the back, but you will only drop the back 2 inches straight across. Tape or glue down your pattern again.

To finish off your pattern you will clean up the outside lines by redrawing your lines. Unfortunately this is a bit faint in the pencil so this is shown in not so straight yellow lines, make yours straight (or follow the original direct of your pattern if it has curves) lol!


You may wan to add elastic or a tie to the front or back to accommodate your growing belly when you sew this. Thats it you pattern is ready to use!

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Memories of Projects past...

As I am putting together this blog I came across pictures of projects I have sewn in the past. All of them are sewn from patterns drafted by me. Enjoy~

This little dress is a simple pleated dress with a handmade hair clip for a friend. It had a matching red cloth diaper to go with it.

I drafted the patterns for the top and the skirt for this Kimono outfit in my flat pattern design class. The dress is made from silk and satin and was lots of fun to make. It took me about a week to draft the pattern and make the dress.




Some bamboo velour cloth diapers from my own pattern and hand dyed by me.

A pea in the pod....

I love, love easy little cocoon swaddlers almost as much as I love drafting patterns. So when I saw the price of buying a swaddler, my little mind kicked in to over drive and in an hour I had drafted the pattern and sewn two of these bad boys.

The orange on is out of a knit interlock and the polka dots is out of a light weight knit. Print out the pattern and have fun sewing this simple project! http://www.scribd.com/doc/80508026/Evolution-Baby-Cocoon-Pattern

Kimono Dress and Sun Bonnet


I wanted to make something simple for baby Zen, a kimono dress. It will be very warm in May when she comes so something lightweight was a must. After searching I could not find a pattern that I liked, so I pulled out the pen and paper and drafted this simple little dress and bonnet to make for Zen.
The entire dress takes less than 1/2 a yard of fabric and 3 yards of binding and can be made reversible if you want. I didn't because I wanted it really light weight for the summer, although I did make the bonnet reversible, it was super easy and was made for little scraps.

I plan on posting a free pattern soon for both so stay tuned!