The 'Easy' Empire Waist Top

Not sure where to start with this blog post, there's so much to say about the top I just made my daughter.

First of all let me say I love Amy Butler. Her fabrics are gorgeous and her clothing designs are lovely. BUT - and it's a big 'but' - the actual patterns and instructions leave a lot to be desired.

I own her book Little Stitches for Little Ones and to be honest it's one of the reasons I started sewing (that and the fabulous O+S patterns that I saw at a market one day and just had to have). It's got so many cute projects with lovely photography and gorgeous fabrics. I've made a couple of things from the book before without too much drama, but this top was really difficult.

First of all, the sizing. The patterns in the book only go up to sz 9-12 months. Disappointing, as my daughter is 2 years and 2 months. I decided to have a go at enlarging the empire waist top pattern for her and was really shocked to discover that the 9-12 months size was actually too big for my 2 year old. Now she is not a tiny kid by any means, she's bang on average weight for her age, and super tall, right at the top of the height chart. Yet I had to shorten this top by 3.5 inches and it still reaches down to just above her knees. I realise this top is meant to be roomy but it would absolutely swim on a 1 year old.

The pattern instructions are really flaky. I read and reread them several times before I cut into my fabric (which I love by the way) but still found them so confusing. I doubt very much the pattern was tested. I persevered with them to construct the bodice but after that kind of gave up and did my own thing. There are very few diagrams too, and the ones that are there are frankly a bit silly and point out the obvious. They don't really help much with the construction of the top.

All in all I'm happy with the finished result, although it's not as polished or well thought out as many other patterns out there. The bodice is quite bulky (6 thicknesses at one part of the shoulder) and as I said before, the sizing is way off. There are some good bits though, the top itself is super cute, and there are some lovely details, such as the slit on the cuff and the double stitching around the v-neck and sleeve.

If you're going to attempt this one yourself, be prepared to adjust the size considerably (especially for a child younger than 1) and be prepared to improvise when the instructions just don't make sense!

I used fabric from Annette Tatum's House collection: Lilac in navy and Garden Vine in lilac. I love it. Blue and purple is one of my favourite colour combinations.


The finished top. The lilac band at the bottom is my own addition to help tie it all together. I took 3.5 inches off the length but added 3 inches to the sleeve to make it a 3/4 length sleeve.


The back. It fastens with a loop and button, which I haven't sewn on yet.


It's got some cute details - I really like the little bow and the cuff slit.


I really like the double stitching.


My daughter taking it for a test drive. She's scrunching it up here - it actually falls to about an inch or so above her knee

Birthday party dress, take 2... and 3

I blogged my last (and first) attempt at the Oliver + S birthday party dress last December. I love the pattern so much that I've since made it twice more, once for a friend's little girl and once for my daughter's birthday party.

This time I used satin ribbon instead of the tabs across the pleats and am happy with the results. It gives the dress quite a different feel and is much more girly. I think I prefer the tabs though, they're a bit different and look so cute.

I made the first dress out of fabric from Lecien's Grandma's Flower Garden collection. I'd seen this fabric numerous times online and loved it, and fell even more in love when I saw it 'in the flesh', so just had to buy it. Although the print and colour were even better in real life, I was so disappointed by the weight of the cotton. It was extremely lightweight, almost flimsy. It was so thin that the pins slipped out on their own as I was sewing.

I also should have thought more about fabric placement - lesson learned for next time.

I used an old favourite fabric for my daughter's dress, Fresh poppies in green from Amy Butler's Midwest Modern collection. I adore this fabric and will really miss seeing it in my sewing cupboard, although I only had one yard of it so it really was a case of use it now while my daughter is still little.

I'm very happy with the end result. It's a very fresh and girly dress, and best of all it's NOT PINK! (I love pink, but we have way too much pink in this household). The dress took a lot of punishment at the teddy bear's picnic we had to celebrate my little girl turning two, and washed up beautifully.


The finished Lecien fabric dress. This photo is a little dark as I took it in artificial light.


Close up of the ribbon detail. Still not convinced I shouldn't have used cream ribbon instead.

My daughter's 2nd birthday party dress


I used pearly buttons down the back. I thought about using pale blue but am very pleased with the neutral colour.


Close up. I sewed the ribbon on before I tied it to prevent it from drooping.

Sweet and simple bloomers

I have Spring and Summer babies, so they spent many of their early days in nothing but a nappy and a singlet (in fact that's all my son is wearing right now). A couple of friends have recently had babies so I decided to make them some cotton bloomers to cover their nappies and keep them cool.

The pattern is from Lotta Jansdotter's book Simple Sewing for Baby. The projects in this book are sweet and very basic, so suited to a beginner. More experienced sewers would be able to whip up most projects in an afternoon or less.

The bloomers turned out well, although I think next time I will adjust the pattern slightly to widen the crotch.

I used Sandi Henderson's Ginger Blossom fabric for the girls' bloomers. The orange boys' bloomers are from a scrap I found in my cupboard (!) and the blue fabric is from Amy Butler's Belle collection. It also happens to be one of my all time favourite fabrics.

I'll use any excuse to make button clips, so I made a couple of pairs to match the girly bloomers.


Just love, love, love that blue fabric. I have metres of it!


Bloomers and matching clips using fabric from Sandi Henderson's Ginger Blossom collection.


Taking them for a test drive! Bloomers by me, cute tush by my son.

Baby blocks

I've had an unfinished project sitting in the cupboard for months and finally managed to pull it out and finish it yesterday while my son was asleep. I'm cranky at myself for not finishing it sooner, but I procrastinated on the hand-sewing.

It's a Christening present for a friend's daughter. I used prints from the Moda Urban Chicks collection with a coordinating pink and green solid. The pattern is from Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones. The pattern was straightforward, although it took me a while, having never used a rotary cutter before.

The blocks are stuffed with cubes of medium-density foam that I had cut at Clark Rubber. They worked out at about $1 per block which I thought was a pretty good price. The foam is a few centimetres bigger than the fabric 'shell', which gives the blocks a nice rounded look.

Hopefully they'll keep little hands busy this Summer!

More booties and accessories

Thought I would blog some of the other booties I have made - this is such a quick pattern to stitch that I usually make a pair for every new baby. I also have lots of fun choosing the fabric to use.





This pair was made using the Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric based on Eric Carle's book. I adore this fabric and bought a heap of it, as it you can turn it into a nice unisex baby gift. I cut out and blanket-stitched the fruit pieces onto a plain white Bonds top to match the booties.

The next pair of booties were made using vintage Japanese kimono silk, so they're truly a one off. They were for a little girl so i also made a pair of matching covered button clips. Cute!

Booties!

I received Amy Butler's book Little Stitches for Little Ones for xmas 08 and fell in love with it. So many gorgeous fabrics and so many beautiful patterns.

In April 09 my first nephew was born so I decided to put the book to use and make him something. As I didn't have a machine at the time I needed something small I could handsew relatively quickly. I chose the 'cutie booties' pattern.

I think it worked out pretty well - my sister in law was happy to receive them! The pattern itself wasn't too difficult, although like all of Amy's patterns could have benefitted from more pictures. I also found the instructions a bit cumbersome. For example, it said to cut out the main pattern piece in the main fabric, fleece and interfacing, then fuse them together. It's *so* much quicker to fuse them together then cut them out.

I have made these booties several times for gifts since this first pair, and have altered the pattern and method to suit me. Nothing too major, just little changes that I feel work better.