Kids Clothes Week Day One

Whew! I only just signed up for the Kids Clothes Week challenge yesterday and I got this outfit done around 2am this morning! I haven't sewn for my little girl in awhile, which is indeed rare, but she needed a vacation from modeling. Now she's back and in bright summer neon! Perfect for the summer version of KCW, yes?

I call it the Neon Princess in Summer outfit. It's my idea of what a princess in plainclothes would look like in summer when she kind of wants to fit in with the crowd and yet still keep elements of her princess style as well. 

That is so my daughter by the way! She's always playing dress up but now she's got a dress that mimics a princess in plainclothes. She can wear it out and about without being overdressed!

The front of the bodice is made from a stretchy and comfortable knit with a neon apple print. The back of the bodice, bow, and leggings are made from a thrifted fabric in a neon coral. It feels almost like a taffeta- when I iron it, it turns purplish and as it cools, it turns back into this bright neon coral. I picked up about 4 yards worth for just $6. I could totally see a big, poufy, full-on princess dress with this fabric- but maybe some other time. 

The double layered skirt and sleeves are made from white eyelet lace, which she absolutely loves because of the daisy-like flowers. And the leggings are trimmed with white eyelet ribbon, another thrift store find.

The boat neck bodice is sewn with princess seams- so appropriate for a princess in plainclothes, huh? 

I just love the bow on the back! Such a cute, unexpected little surprise.

Despite the awkward stance, she actually loves the dress. Might be because she helped choose the combination of fabrics but she loves that I actually made something pink and princess-y for her! 

Day One of Kids Clothes Week is done for me! Yay! Onto Day Two- something in the works for my oldest. Oooh boy! Time to get really creative!

If you want to check out what others are making for Kids Clothes Week, check out their new website here: www.kidsclothesweek.com. See you tomorrow for Day Two and thanks for stopping by!

Summer Dresses - Two Ways for Two Teens

Do you have teenagers who are too snobby to appreciate homemade clothes? I don't, yet. =D I have two lovely teenage nieces who came to visit from Florida recently and I used the opportunity to make a dress for each of them. A problem arose when I realized I didn't really know any trends that appealed to teenagers these days. Pinterest easily and quickly took care of that problem!

I have a very eclectic fashion sense- I love classic silhouettes but I can also appreciate the flowy Boho style as well. I also love vintage everything but adore modern details as well. I like to mix and match the styles along with my fabrics to create looks that are fun, unique and wearable! 

And that's how these dresses came together! First up, this adorable summer frock is for my younger niece who's very pretty, very sociable, and loves attention.

Living in Florida means lots of hot weather and this simple dress is lightweight and flowy so it should get plenty of wear, I hope! The skirt is a crinkled chiffon in a dove gray color and the top is made from  a woven cotton from Walmart, I believe it was called "Zoey Floral."

The neckline is adjustable by simply pulling the ties tighter. No zippers or buttons to worry about on this one! I love those kinds of dresses the best!

Dress number two is for my oldest niece who's an aspiring thespian who appreciates vintage and retro styling more so than her younger sister. She also loves collars- something I've noticed in her fashion choices on FB.

I love tulip skirts and peter pan collars! Oooh- and covered buttons! This dress is chockfull of details- no wonder it took 3Xs longer to sew than the first one! But it is so worth it, wouldn't you say?

Simply hanging on the hanger does it no justice whatsoever...so I may have a photo of me in it to show you how it looks when worn- but I'll need to do some major Photoshopping first, ok? Haha! It's a bit tight for me as I'm much bigger than my niece. I think it may be time to invest in a dress form at the rate of sewing that I'm going at these days!

The skirt and trim are made from a retro 1980's fabric I discovered while thrifting. I almost didn't buy it because it was much brighter than what I normally like but I went for it anyway because the floral print was irresistible! 

And the bodice was made from a light blue chambray that I had in my stash already. Have you noticed how I love the contrast of solids and florals? I wish I had had striped fabric on hand instead but that may have been too busy for my nieces. 

Luckily, both my beautiful nieces each loved their dresses. I created each one with their personalities in mind and whenever I look at the picture above, I can see them in each dress. So for now, I have pleased two teenagers with some homemades and I know for many sewists, this is quite a feat!

 Next up, I'm sewing for the boys again and I'm sew freaking excited about it because I've just discovered how much fun it can really be! The fun is in the challenge itself of creating colorful, modern clothes for boys to rival those of girls. Stay tuned and thanks so much for stopping by my little corner of the Internet! Happy sewing!

Fourth of July Dresses on the Models!

I finally have photos of my models in their 4th of July dresses! Aren't they THE CUTEST EVER?! I'm so blessed to have such adorableness run in my family genes. Haha!

My sister did an awesome job photographing her two little girls, don't you think???

The dresses make them look like such sweet little ladies.

The fit of the dresses was spot on. I'm so happy about how they turned out for the girls!

I'm speechless at how darned cute she was in this dress!

I've got a couple more dresses coming up in a bit...for my other bigger nieces. Unfortunately, they are already on their way back to Florida so I won't have pictures of them in their lovely handmades, but I will definitely post what I made for them. My older nieces are so different in personality and temperament and it really shows in the style of dress I chose to make for each of them! Stay tuned!

A Classy Navy Knock-Off Dress

I finally made something brand new for myself! Not a refashion, not an upcycle- but something completely brand new and mostly original. 

I love summer and I love dresses- especially easy pull-on dresses that are pretty. I fell in love with this dress I found on Pinterest. I loved the color, but mostly, I loved the neckline. I recreated the neckline but the rest of the dress is quite different. Check it out!

I started by creating my own bodice pattern based on my personal measurements then I copied the neckline from my inspiration dress using bias tape and added fluttery sleeves for a little more detail. The skirt is a tulip shape, very different from the original but so easy to recreate by just cutting your fabric in a curve at the edges. And then I added the elastic inside at the waist and finished the skirt hem with more bias tape and voila- a very classy dress in one of my favorite colors and patterns! 

It only took a couple of hours to complete because there are no buttons or zippers to fuss with. I used a chevron chiffon fabric and a navy silk-like polyester. 

I believe the total cost of materials for this dress would be around $3 only! Yep! I got a great deal on these fabrics at my local Walmart a couple months ago. The chiffon was $2/yard and the navy fabric was $1/yard. I only used 1/2 yard or less of each fabric for my dress and a little elastic from my stash and I got this awesome dress out of it! This is why we should all make our own clothes, right?

In future, I would pair this dress with a colorful skinny belt, maybe yellow, and matching shoes. And yay- I do have yellow peep toe flats that would look adorable with it!

I originally wanted a fuller skirt but am glad I went with a more close-fitting version. It balloons out from the empire waist when sitting and if it was any fuller, I'd probably look pregnant. Slimmer skirt equals slimmer silhouette. =)

I loooove how it turned out! It's comfortable and so pretty. I'm thinking of making another one in a peach color and when I do, I'll share my bodice and skirt pattern with you all so you can make one too. Thanks for stopping by today! Hope you found some inspiration in my latest project and definitely stay tuned for a future tutorial and pattern for this dress! 

A Family Day Out in Red, White, and Blue!

We had a wonderful weekend, how about you? I think it was mostly because the weather was so cooperative but I also got to spend time with family and friends and grill tons of yummy...chicken! Seriously- that's all my kids will eat these days! But it was delish still and I will just have to find different chicken recipes to change it up a little bit!

As promised, I've got my little girl's 4th of July dress all done! It was really quick this time because I had already made the skirt the same night I pulled an all-nighter to complete the ADORABLE peter pan collar dress from my previous post. Don't ask me why I had to make two skirts for one dress- let's just say I really suck at math.

We went out and had a fun family day at the playground and then went to visit grandma who's currently going through chemo for stage two breast cancer. She's one tough lady and I admire how well she handles all three kids when they invade her little home! 

On to the details about the dress...I kept it as simple as possible. After completing the previous (and more work-intensive) two dresses in less than 12 hours, I just wanted this one to go fast. I layered leftover lace at the neckline of a bodice that I copied from a peasant top. I created lace bias tape to use as the straps, connected the top and bottom and lastly, put in an elastic waist band to give it shape. Simple and quick and so easy to put on by herself!

We paired it with her "Dorothy" shoes, of course.

By the end of the photo shoot, she was just ready to get dirty. Hooray for easy clean polyester!

So the boys won't be left out, I got some snapshots of them in their matching red, white, and blue as well. 

And I decided to coordinate myself with them as well. I bought this vintage dress at a local thrift store for $8. That's usually more than I'd pay for a piece of clothing from there- but I LOVE the cool chevron pattern and the colors! You just don't see this stuff anymore in the big box retail stores! And if you do, it's waaaay over-priced.

Happy 4th of July from our little family to yours! 

The Scrappy Chic Summer Dress

My big project this week was to make something out of the scrap fabric that I had sorted through last weekend. I basically just separated all of it into color groups and I ended up with EIGHT different piles of fabric! Crazy, huh? I needed to do something with all of them so I decided that over the next eight weeks, I'll take one pile and create something. 

This week, I decided to start with this pastel pile above. It just screamed summer dress to me and I'd always wanted to try piecing different fabrics together to make a quilt-like effect. I'm not so crazy about actually wearing a quilt but the idea of piecing different patterned fabrics together in the same color group was very appealing.

And this is what it turned into:

I'm calling it the Scrappy Chic dress- it's shabby chic looking with scraps! 

My daughter is obsessed with pink so this was right up her alley. Wonder what she'll think when I delve into the no-pink scrap pile? I'll have to make something for myself with those, I think!

I even used the scraps from making this dress to create a rosette with shabby strips to pin to the bodice. This was probably her favorite feature, other than the pink ruffle at the bottom hem.

Notice the yellow ric rac on the straps? I love ric rac so I'll always try to sneak them in somehow, some way, hehe. 

The bodice is ruched on both sides and the front is pieced. It was such a pain installing the back zipper! But I was not going to attempt buttons on the thin pink voile fabric!

The layered skirt is my favorite part. I love all the different fabrics working together to create a fun, sweet look that reflects my daughter's personality quite a bit. She likes the longer length too because it makes her feel like a princess. =) 

The fabric rosette and strips just makes the dress though. It's shabby chic and sweet.

She's pretending to be a prairie princess.

Her new favorite dress...until the next one, of course! I think my next scrappy project will have to be for the boys though. Gotta be fair to my two boys! They're not as good at modeling as my daughter, but  they still deserve some homemades, right?

Come see what else I made with these same scraps in my newest post! Includes a cute vintage-inspired boy's outfit!