Tag: oliver + s pattern

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A “Library” Easter Dress

Sadly, I never got around to making my Valentine’s Day pumpkins. I promise I will procrastinate Halloween again so I can carve some hearts in February! Since I’m touching on other major holidays in this post, how about I cover Easter too!

I had to settle for making a dress for the girl child since I procrastinated on those pumpkins so long they ended up in the trash….a shame really. I didn’t get fun or food out of them this year. I totally didn’t slack on the Easter dress though. I dug through my stash of patterns a whole week before Easter! Woooo! Go me! I was deciding between the Oliver + S Garden Party dress or the Library dress. I even put it to a vote on FB but came up with a draw. So, I asked the 2 year old in the house. She grabbed the pattern and said “This one mommy.” There was no way to refuse that. So, the Library Dress it is!

The next day the little miss and I hit up the store and got our material. I have tons of fabric in my stash but not enough of a main fabric for the pattern and who doesn’t love buying new fabric. I didn’t think to write down the good info on the fabric though.

 The pattern has a view with a collar and without, and short or long sleeves. I went with no collar and I decided to omit sleeves completely since it was a week before Easter and it was already in the 90’s here. I didn’t want to add extra bulk by lining the entire bodice so I opted for double fold bias tape to finish the sleeves.

I went to town transferring the pattern and cutting everything out. I prefer to make clothing a bit longer for kids who are growing so quickly so I made the size 2T pattern but went with 3T in length. Except for a few small errors in the directions when it came to piecing the waistband to the bodice, it was easy peasy. Pleats are not my favorite thing in the world to sew, but there were not that many and I do love the look.

 Then, I got to the part where I had to pin the sides of the skirt together and finish the sleeves….something was off. I don’t know if it was a mistake I made or something to do with leaving the sleeves off, but the skirt was not lining up by a half inch. I even hit up the forums on the Oliver + S site to see if anyone else had that particular issue. I didn’t really get much response (not that I expected it though). In the mean time, the dress just sat like this while I tried to figure out what to do.

In the end I just decided to cut off the offending half inch from the arm hole and call it a day. Everything lined up beautifully after that and my little miss kept begging to put the dress on.

 

I love the buttons down the back too. On the forums, some of the others out there kept talking about putting a zipper in. I don’t think I would like the dress as much. As they say….it’s the details that make the dress. I still have not figured out who “they” are but since they are backing me up on this, I’m going with it!

 

And a shot of all the kids and while I did do Easter baskets before the egg hunt, I totally forgot to bring them to their grandparent’s house.

 

Here are some close up shots of the details and the fabric as well.

Dress Front

No Collar and I used the contrasting fabric for the facing.

 The piping to edge the waistband matches the arm hole bias tape.

Dress Back

Buttons.

I loved making this dress and can’t wait to make it again. Going with a different view to get a different look. I have some great corduroy sitting in my stash that would make a great winter dress with the long sleeves….

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A Birthday Dress…Ice Cream Style!

Somebody turned 1! How in the world did time fly by sooo fast?

I of course had to make a birthday dress for Miss Faye. I bought fabric a few months ago that I just loved and knew I had to use (the one on the right is the main fabric, I also got the blue to go with it…the red was for a different project).

 I just never really found a pattern I liked. Then I got busy with life and almost decided to not make a dress at all. Well, I decided the day before her party that I was going to make a dress and that I would again make the Ice Cream dress from Oliver + S. I just made one a couple of weeks ago that turned out GREAT! There are a couple of different style options for this dress. I decided this time to go with the color blocking option. I added a top layer again (I really wanted to show off the fabric that I got a few months ago. I had the royal blue fabric that I had picked up at JoAnn’s, and I also had a beautiful light teal that I had picked up at Hobby Lobby. I still needed 1 more color to pull off the color blocking so I dragged all 3 kids to a local quilt shop after I picked the boys up from school. There, I picked up a great jewel tone royal purple by Michael Miller from the Krystal collection.

I got home and tossed my new fabric in the wash at around 4:30 pm. Then it was dinner and bed time for all the kids…by the time I sat down to start the dress it was 11:30 pm. The party was at 11:00 am the next day. I knew I was going to not be sleeping much if I wanted to pull this off.

I cut and pieced and sewed and altered the pattern to suit my vision…then I sewed some more. I had to go crash around 2 am. Faye woke up at 5:30 to nurse so I got back up after a much too short nap. I fed her and then went back to sewing. The house started waking up around 7:45 or so. I had to pause to wake up Mr. Cassie so he could take care of the kids…the dress was not done. I also called my mom to come over and help with the kids and party set up. I went back to sewing. Around 10:30 I stopped to go jump in the shower so I could sort of look presentable for the party. I got out of the shower, got dressed and then still had to finish the dress. I was sewing the button on as the first guest arrived. And what a lovely button it was!

I kept the little ‘V’ notch in the collar this time

 …and the color blocking with the overlay turned out adorable!

 The party was great…the weather was perfect, and Miss Faye looked awesome in her new Ice Cream Dress.

We of course took it off of her for cake…we don’t want to mess up such a cute dress!

All in all, it was worth it. I would stay up late again working my butt off for her. She is totally worth it. She fits into the madness that is our family sooo well!

Happy First Birthday Miss Faye.

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The Ice Cream Dress

 This was my first go at an Oliver + S pattern…well a paid for one anyway. I am very fond of the Lazy Days Skirt, free pattern on their site. 
My niece is getting married so Miss Faye needed a party dress. I already had the material…a pale yellow broadcloth from Hobby Lobby and a pair of white eyelet pajama pants from the back of my drawer; they just never fit quite right….so I was on the lookout for a pattern. Gail from over at Probably Actually just made another Ice Cream top and I knew that the dress version would be perfect for what I had in mind.
The pattern was easy to follow. They give great tip for making each step a bit easier. Overall, I’m totally in love with the dress I made! I made the 12-18 month size which turned out to be way too long…but fit great everywhere else. I kept all the extra material and just folded it into the hem. This way, as long as the head and sleeves still fit; I have 4 inches I can let the dress out at the bottom. I also modified the dress as well. I wanted the eyelet as an overlay and the pattern called for color blocking. The color blocking just was not what I had in mind for a party dress. I also didn’t add the pockets or the ‘v’ notch that should have been on the collar. I also added some ribbon on the bottom to sort of mimic the color blocking.
Here is the completed dress (well, maybe not…I think I want to add something up near the top).
  
I created the split by folding the eyelet in half after I already cut out the pattern piece. I marked in 2.5 inches (knowing that would double when I unfolded the dress) and around 12 inches up. I cut out the ‘V’ shape that I had created and then I unfolded the dress and continued cutting the front piece in half. I put in a 1/4″ hem going down each side and then I used my surger to sew the two halves back together.
I made the main part of the dress out of a pale yellow material that I picked up at Hobby Lobby. It was one of those purchases just because I loved the color. It was also only a $2 purchase…I mean, how could you pass something like that up! I just knew I would find a reason to use it.

I also picked out a fun button with the help of Miss Faye’s big brothers.

She looks adorable in the dress! As you can see, I added white ribbon on the yellow fabric and yellow ribbon on the eyelet. I choose three different ribbons to add some visual interest.

And someday my 11 month old will get some hair!

ETA….I did add some daisies! This dress is just perfect!

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A stress busting skirt!

I have been slack in the blog department. I have been keeping very busy though! I had a joint birthday party for the boys, I made a dress for Miss Faye, and we had an awesome camping trip. I will get posts up for all of those things soon!

For now, I made yet another Lazy Days Skirt for Miss Faye. The quick and easy aspect of the skirt makes me feel like I have accomplished something. Even if it only took me around 35 minutes to make. I have so many other projects that are huge time and energy eaters that ‘accomplishing’ something makes me feel like I’m out of the project rut.

Some of the projects that I’m working on…..

  • A set of cocktail sized napkins for a Montessori classroom (I’m actually almost finished with these).
  • A guest blog post for a good friend (not hard but I need the mental energy to rework a current post to make it ‘right’)
  • A 4th of July dress or outfit for Miss Faye
  • Planning and putting up a chicken wire fence to keep the bunnies out of my garden
  • Planning Miss Faye’s 1st birthday party
  • Making a party dress for Miss Faye
  • I got an awesome dresser that I garbage picked…I need to refinish/paint it
  • A full set of curtains for a friend’s bedroom

 Here is the skirt.

I used left over fabric from a birthday gift to Hugh’s Birthday Buddy. Shown in this post. I really liked it with the darker purple ribbon but I didn’t have enough so I made a quick trip to the store for this. I also added some top stitching around the waist and a matching purple tag. I also switched to using my surger.

I made this skirt a bit on the long side so that it will last longer for Miss Faye. Now, I need to come up with a top to match it…or at least sort of go with the skirt. Right now I have nothing.

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Another One!

I had to do it. I made another Lazy Days skirt. Miss Faye loves it. I used extra fabric I had from these wash cloths. I am officially out of elastic now and I have been having trouble finding it in bulk. I specifically like 5/8″ braided and for some reason that one is not that easy to find. It also looks like my little Miss is going to have red hair!