Project Run and Play Week #3 "It's All in the Details"

Candy Striper Couture

Well I fell off the planet last week and didn't get my outfit sewn.  I was stuck on the outfit I was going to do for the chevron week though and decided that I would alter it and make it for this week.  

I had a collection of a set of two pink striped pillow cases, an off white women's skirt that would have fit my left thigh, and a pair of girl's 14/16 leggings in a pink and gold leopard print.   For some reason each piece seemed to fit together and scream out to me......make something with us. 

Recently, I drafted a new pattern.  I fell in love with the Oliver + S Roller Skate Dress pattern but reality is that the pattern is $15 dollars and I just don't have that kind of money.  So looking at it I thought, hey I can make that pattern myself.   Famous last words......

Well I played around with the pattern a little bit and ended up making a dress that was great....but too big in the shoulders.   So I started to play around with the shoulders doing a folding detail and it came out super cool.

So I decided to use the same pattern for this dress that I made.....with the intention of duplicating the same look in the shoulders. 

I decided to add an insert into the front of the dress that incorporated all the different fabrics.  As I was playing with the insert I realized that I had 2 different colors of piping, and 3 kinds of bias tape in my stash that matched the outfit.  So I decided that they would play up the detail.

FYI.....I don't sew with piping.  The last time I tried it was a disaster.   But as they say on Project Runway...you gotta take a risk.  So I went for it.  It went better this time. 

I put the piping throughout the patchwork on the front and included it in the casing on the sleeves.  Also I used it along with bias tape  around the neckline.

I played with the folds on the sleeves as well and created a neat and different look.   The bias tape around the neckline kept it from being as clean as I wanted.  Next time I will do the seaming first and then the bias tape.  I added some vintage buttons to the sleeves to add even more details.

To finish the outfit, I used the leggings to create a pair of leggings for my 5T daughter.  

Overall, I love all of the details.  The outfit is way more detail oriented than I am normally, but I really like the effect!  The end result looks a little bit like a candy striper outfit, but the details bring it to a whole other level.

Art Inspiration: Daughter of Man

So this week Project Run and Play started All Stars week.  The theme of the week is Art Inspiration.   This is the second outfit I made.   I loved the first one, but for something different.  So I went back to the painting I had originally wanted to do but couldn't figure out how to make it work.  
I chose the painting "Son of Man" by Rene Magritte painted in 1946.  It is one of my favorite paintings for its story and just plain oddness.

 

So after extensive thought this is what I came up with

 

 

I used the idea of a suit and made it for a girl with a circle skirt and a ruffled vest.  I had been blog trolling and found Shwin and Shwin's post on the "vest of friends".  It inspired me to make the ruffled vest to go with this outfit.

 

 

I used some wool dressy material that I had found at a garage sale a year ago.  To bring in the idea of the green apple I used a sheet I got for $1 at the Goodwill to do all of the lining, the waistbandm, and the apple applique on the front of the skirt. 

 

 

Then I knew that I needed to make a red tie.  I followed the tutorial from I'm Sharing the Wealth and used one of my son's ties as a pattern.  I wanted it to be long to bring in another dramatic piece.   To keep the front part of the tie attached to the back part I used a button as a faux tie tack. 

 

I didn't have the time to make a shirt, so I used one that I had in Aria's closet that I had gotton on clearance.  It worked perfectly and saved me a little bit of time!

 

Lastly, I had to make a bowler hat, since finding one wasn't going to happen.   I make a three dimensional one using stiff felt and put a green and red bow with buttons on it. 

 

Aria loves the outfit and is still wearing it!



Spring Fever Remix: The Cat's Meow

So it is the eleventh hour and I am once again posting for Project Run and Play.  This week we were given the Spring Fever Dress pattern from Jessica at Me Sew Crazy.  I loved the dress, it was so pretty and frilly.  I must admit, in general I am not a frilly girl.  At least not in a traditional sense.  I am more likely to gravitate toward a solid or crazy pattern rather than a floral.   So when I set to come up with an idea of how to remix this dress, I thought about five hundred different options.....I hated all of them!  All of them just didn't seem to capture who I was and what I like for my daughter to wear.  

So I gave up!

Until Wednesday.  I sat doing a particular boring task....which shall not be named.  My mind wandered and I started thinking about this picture I had pinned on my pinterest board.  It is from the brand Bang Bang Copenhagen.  It floated around pinterest for a while and I just loved the cat collar. 

Suddenly it hit me that this would be a perfect adaptation for the Spring Fever Dress.....so The Cat's Meow was born.  

I kept the bodice front the same and simply lowered it a little bit.  I also kept the back portion of the bodice but just removed the insert creating a scoop in the back.  

When I tried the bodice on it did not quite fit, turns out it was bigger than I expected.   So I cut the back and overlapped it creating a button up section. 

Then I created the bib portion and appliqued on the nose of the cat.  Then I simply used a zig zag stitch to create the whiskers.   Finally, I finished the face with two blue buttons for the eyes.

I attached the collar while seaming in the bodice neckline so that it was completely encased in the dress.  

I really liked the little sleeves on the Spring Fever dress, inspiration hit me and I decided to make them a little more triangular so that they would look like the cat's ears. 

Instead of a layered ruffle skirt, I added a circle skirt to the bottom.  I love circle skirts because they look so sleek and twirl amazingly.   Because I wanted to add a little more color to the outfit, I paired it with a pink pettiskirt underneath that I already had. 

I wanted to add some more pink accents, so I created a headband wrapped in pink ribbon, added some black kitty ears, and put a pink bow on the ear.  

The bodice was still a little big so I put a pink long sleeve shirt underneath it for now.  She will have plenty of room to grow into it.  I also think that I will add a tie to the waist so that I can cinch it in a little bit (didn't have time though).  

I finally found some sun to take pictures in......by a hill of all places.  The kids had fun chasing each other though! :-)

Project Run and Play Week #6 Signature Looks Week

Wahoo!!!  I made it.  I set the goal to sew along with each week and I did it!   Signature looks week was both the hardest and the easiest for me.  It took me some time to think about what would be a signature look for me, it was a challenge. 

Most of what I sew tends to be very eclectic.  I can do things that are very pretty and girly, but honestly I gravitate towards things that are a little bit different in nature.

I also have to design for my environment.  Living in Colorado, one would assume incorrectly that it is wintry and cold all winter.  However, where I live, the weather makes crazy temperature swings on most days from fully bundled to shorts and t-shirts by mid-afternoon.  So the more the pieces can mix and match, the better they are!

Usually when I go to design something it is the fabric that determines what direction I am going to take.  Most of my clothing is upcycled from other garments, but I like to take those pieces into slightly unexpected directions.  

The start of this outfit came from a Run DMC shirt that I found at a garage sale for 25 cents.  It was a little grungy and went through the wash about 3 times before I would even touch it to cut apart.  I decided to make a peasent top tunic with the shirt. 

Since the shirt was a little thin I lined it with a leopard print material that is also light weight. 

The sides and sleeves of the shirt couldn't be salvaged, so I found the rememnent of a material that looked like splatter paint and seemed to fit the eighties vibe. I used it to create the band around the bottom of the shirt and the sleeves.  I completed this tunic top a few months ago but my daughter never wore it because I never had anything for it to go with. 

I made a simple pair of black capri length leggings from and old t-shirt to pair the tunic top with.

Gravitating back to my signature style which involves a lot of layering and mix and match pieces, I still wasn't happy. 

Next I found a sweatshirt in my stash that was a size 10/12, clearly too big for my size 4/5 daughter.  I decided that I wanted to turn it into a dress.  I cut down the sleeves and slimmed down the sweater to make it fit better.

I wanted to embelish it since it was just a grey sweatshirt.  I decided to do some applique stars.  To make it fit with the theme of the original tunic top, I used a sharpie to write the lyrics of Run DMC songs in different directions on the fabric and then cut out stars. 

Then I did a quick zigzag around the stars making them a great pop of color against the sweater.

I tried it on with the black leggings and it just wasn't interesting enough.  So I made another pair of leggings using the sleeves of a long sleeve red t-shirt. 

I wanted to try something different, so I took my sharpie and started to draw designs onto the legs.  On one leg I drew pictures of boomboxes, headphones, microphones, sunglasses, cassette tapes, and turn tables.  I loved the look but knew it would be too busy on both legs, so on the second leg I drew stars and collections of dots.

Paired with the sweater dress I thought it was great.  But I wasn't done yet.  I decided that I really wanted a little bolero vest to go with it as well.  

I had a little red sweater vest that was just strange looking, but had great material that I used to make the outside of the vest.   The inside of the vest I lined with the same leopard print material that I lined the tunic top with.  I used black bias tape to do the binding on the outside of the vest, this let it pop a little better.

Finally, I made a headband using rosettes made of scraps of the material that I used in all of the outfits. I put it on a stretchy headband because I love the way it works to frame her face. 

I love that all the pieces of the outfits can mix and match to create looks for cold winter days like today, or warm summer days that are soon to come! (She loved the sweater dress and leggings so much that she wore them to the sitters all day....so needless to say not as put together as it was when she left in the morning!)

Project Run and Play Week #5 Men's Shirt Challenge

This week was the Men's Shirt challenge.......I actually thought it was last week...oops!  Ont top of that, I forgot to take a picture of my Men's shirt before I chopped it to pieces!  I knew even before starting that I would be sewing for summer since my daughter already has way too many winter clothes in her wardrobe.  (Hence the reason that the pictures are taken indoors since she is sleeveless and barefoot and it is snowing outside!)

I had been buying some Men's shirts to do things with the material this summer.  When I went to one garage sale, they had several men's work shirts that were all the same.  Even then I had my idea.....but never got around to making it.

I decided to make a pair of pants for my daughter.  Since the shirts matched I decided that I would use one shirt for each leg. 

I loved the idea of the buttons running down the legs and decided to do that to both legs. I cut the pieces using a basic pant pattern that I drafted and have used over and over again.

Originally, I was going to make these ruffle pants, but once I got them sewed I suddenly decided that I wanted to make them adjustable length pants.  

So I put a loop on the pants that could button onto the pants at any point going up the leg.  Ultimately I did the loop wrong and it bunches if I do it anywhere but the bottom button.  I love the look anyways!

My daughter loves the pants and they are super sturdy because they are made from work shirt material. 
To finish off the outfit, I made a simple tunic top with button back that has pockets on the front.

Originally, the pants were suppose to go with the outfit I submitted for valentines day.  Sooo.......the apron top of the dress (made from the leftover shirt pieces) also matches the pants. 

I love the fact that the material almost makes the pants like jeans which means that it will go with a variety of different tops I already have!