Uptown/Downtown Dress Expansion Tour

This story starts with me making a rash fabric purchase (is there any other kind?).  I grabbed some Frozen themed cotton lycra knit for Miss M on a destash page.  Then of course I needed to find the perfect pattern.  I knew I wanted a dress, and I also knew that due to the larger print I wanted the front and back cut in one piece each, rather than a separate bodice and skirt, easy right?  Well actually I had to d a bit of searching but then someone pointed me towards the Uptown/Downtown dress by Sew Straight and Gather.  I was just getting around to buying it when Terri released the free expansion pack and then I HAD to have it.
So lets start with the original, you get a choice of 3 sleeve options (sleeveless, cap sleeves or 3/4 sleeves), lovely clean lines with just enough twirl to be perfect, a lined bodice (meaning a nice clean neckline) and even the option of lining the sleeves (or a fully reversible option for the sleeveless dress).  All this comes in sizes 2-10y as well, I told you it was perfect!
So here is my version of the original Uptown/Downtown dress with cap sleeves, it is so perfect for all those knits that you have with larger prints.

 I love the nice clean neckline.

And a certain small child was pretty pleased with this one too given her current Frozen obsession :-)  I made a size 3 with 4 length and added about 4cm to the hem just to be sure this would last us through summer.  The fit is fabulous.

 Following the success of this dress I had to jump at the opportunity to join in the blog tour and try out the expansion pack.  So what is included int hat you ask?  There are 5 expansions including a cowl neck, maxi option, pockets, long sleeves and a tank version.  I love them all but since we are heading into summer I decided to try the tank version.  I even had the perfect fabric in stash (now that's surprising), again a nice large print cotton/spandex mix that is really shown off beautifully in this pattern.

Front

Back

 I hadn't actually done a tank with binding like this before but the instructions were fantastic and I had no issues.  I stitched this on with my standard machine and then used my twin needle to give a nice finish.  I used a white cotton/lycra for the binding the straps and cut this to the length of the armhole of the original dress and got a perfect length strap - whew.  This will depend a lot on the fabric you use for the binding however.

Binding

 I also twin needles the hem :-)

 And decided to add in pockets this time too.

 Again this is the size 3 with 4 length (plus 4cm) and the fit is spot on. I'm really pleased with how well teh straps and binding sit as I was a bit worried they might bag a wee bit but no!  Woohoo.

Please check out the other amazing creations for this blog tour during this week :-)

You can grab your copy of the Uptown/Downtown Dress pattern including the expansion pack here.  And even better than that until Saturday you can get 25% off with the coupon code UPTOWNEXPANSION25, or you can try your luck and enter the giveaway below :-)
a Rafflecopter giveaway

FO: You Can Never Have Too Many Skinny Legs

This post is woefully late but a few weeks ago I was once again lucky enough to test a new pattern from Little Kiwis Closet.  This time it is the Skinny Legs leggings pattern.  Yes you know another leggings pattern to add to the hundreds already available, but NO!  This is THE ONLY leggings pattern you will probably ever need.

 Do you want to know why?  Because in one pattern you get sizes 12m to 14y (that is 15 sizes), 4 different leg lengths and the options of a ruches or plain side panel.  But I think most importantly for me is that this pattern is completely customisable.  With an extensive measurement chart you can tailor the leggings to fit your child no matter how awkward they are to fit.
Take my child for instance, the last pair of successful leggings I made took about 4 attempts and the morphing of 2 patterns and 3 different sizes.  I was asked to pretest these and cut size 3 width with 2 length and they are spot on!

Of course after that I had to have a bit of a play.  Luckily we needed new black 3/4 leggings for Miss M's upcoming dancing concert so that was easy, again cut straight to the 3/4 length size and they are perfect (excuse the rubbish photos of this pair).

Then I had a play with the shorts version with ruches sides (sorry she wanted to pose).

Another point to note is that the tutorial is excellent.  I have made loads of leggings but even if you have never sewn knits you could sew up a pair of these quickly using the very clear tutorial.  Yes I have a serger but you don't need one.  I must say that with one though I whipped up the black pair in 20 mins including cutting time.

So there you go, another fantastic pattern, well done Lydia.

FO: Jemma Cowl

Last month (I think) the fabulous Hannah of Red Riding Hood Yarns had a knit-a-long on ravelry.  I was in a bit of a knitting funk and may have had one or two skeins of RRHY tucked away so I dragged one out and got to knitting.
The yarn I chose was this one that I actually blogged about here.

This is a super scrummy merino/cashmere/nylon yarn and I think at the moment, maybe with the exception of merino silk, this is my favourite yarn base.  It is lovely and soft to knit up and when you wear it, it feels like a light fluffy hug.  

I knew I wanted to make it into something for me, that wasn't socks, so I started trawling ravelry for 4ply cowl patterns and found the Jemma Cowl.  This is a lovely simple lace cowl with a picot edge top and bottom and it's shaped simply by changing needle sizes, so no increasing or decreasing required.  

I'm in love with how this knitted up and can see it getting a lot of wear.

 And a wee monkey stole it to take some photos ;-)

I think my two favourite things about this pattern are it's simplicity and the finished shape, it sits so nicely on.  I would really recommend it to anyone looking for a 4ply cowl pattern with a touch of lace :-)

Tutorial: My Hybrid Binding Technique

There are loads of fantastic tutorials available online for different methods of doing a bound edge with knit fabrics.  I think over time I've tried nearly all of them and I use two or three different methods depending on the situation.  In my mind the methods generally can fit into one of two categories either worked flat or worked in the round.  I LOVE doing my binding flat (i.e with one shoulder seam of a neckline still open), because this opens up the possibilities of using a wider variety of fabrics for the binding.  If you bind flat then you can simply cut the binding longer than required and then stretch as you stitch it on, later cutting the binding to length.  This means the amount of stretch a fabric has isn't as important (you can even cut your binding on the bias if need be), and you don't have to do some fancy guesswork or complicated maths to work out the binding length.  If you bind in the round you need to know the exact length of the binding before starting as the first step is to join the binding into a circle, and this length will vary hugely depending on the stretch and recovery of the knit used.  

BUT when working flat the final step after completing the binding is to stitch the second shoulder seam and therefore close the neckline, which results in a serged seam exposed at the neck edge.  This is usually stitched down with a few straight stitches across the width of the binding but my machine HATES doing this so it drives me crazy.  This is avoided totally when binding in the round.

So...... as I was sewing in a sleep deprived state the other day, in my overly cramped sewing space where I have to keep changing my machines over between my standard machine and my serger, I was struck with a flash of brilliance (or something) so I thought I'd share.  (For all those of you who already do your binding like this feel free to burst my brilliance bubble but why oh why haven't you told me about it!).

Here you go (note I used a cotton/lycra as my binding and it does curl slightly which shows in some of the photos, this doesn't happen with many other knit fabrics).

Step 1: Stitch one shoulder seam

 Step 2: Pin you length of binding (I cut my the length of the neckline by 4cm in width) to the neck edge right sides together, stretching it as you go.

 This shows the fabric relaxed so you can see the binding will stretch out as you sew.

 Step 3: Serge (or stitch the binding to the neck edge) to give a neck edge that looks like this.

 Step 4:  There will be extra binding hanging off the end of the neck edge so this can now be trimmed back.

 Step 5:  Now pin the other shoulder seam including through the neck binding, when doing this step you need to make sure that the seam allowance of the binding is pointing towards the binding NOT the garment.

 Step 6: Serge or stitch the second shoulder seam.   So now what started as flat binding is suddenly binding worked in the round!

 NOTE:  If you are lazy like me or have little sewing space you can now continue to serge all the other seams of the garment and put in sleeves, do side seams and attach any sleeve or hem bands.  If you sew our knits on a serger you can get to this point without even turning on your sewing machine, neat eh?

Step 7:  Now fold the binding over to the wrong side, covering the neck edge seam allowance and folding this towards the binding (so it is encased by the binding).  Pin in place carefully putting pins on the right side of the garment.

 Step 8: Carefully stitch in place, I use the inside of the left prong of the foot as a guide for stitching (it probably has a technical name but you know what I mean).  I also try and hold the binding firmly underneath as I come to each pin and remove it, especially if the fabric tends to curl as this one did.

 Step 9: Sit back and admire your lovely bound neck edge and if you are feeling really good give it a press :-)

 See the nicely encased seam at the second shoulder seam.

So I hope some of you might find this helpful, if you do I'd love to hear about it or to see pics of what you make :-)

KCW Day 6: Library Lion Tee

One of my favourite children's stories to read to my two children is The Library Lion.  I'm not sure what makes it so special to us but we all love it, and I knew I had to make something inspired by it for this KCW.  Unfortunately I couldn't find any lion fabric that looked more like The Library Lion so I had to go with what I had in stash.

I got this yellow jersey fabric some time ago and Miss M loves yellow so that decision was made quickly.  I've gone back to my favourite tee pattern of the moment, the Raindrop Tee by Gracious Threads and made the same mods that I outlined here.

I think this is possibly my favourite one so far.  I finally got the sleeves to gather as I wanted them too, although they look a little uneven in the photo they aren't really.  And the fussy cut pocket is cute.

Once again I used the Lattice Hem stitch for the sleeves and bottom hem.  On this fabric, or possibly because I was stitching a curve, I got some wrinkling within the hem stitch but I still like it.

And the all important opinion of the owner? She wouldn't take it off so I guess that means she likes it :-)

KCW Day 5: Quick Stripey Shorts

These wee shorts really don't fit in with the theme for KCW at all but Miss M needed more for the summer so I whipped some up in amongst the other sewing this week.
I went back to my trusty Ottobre mags for these wee shorts and used pattern #10 from issue 3/2010.  As usual for leggings I needed to cut a much smaller size around than in length so I double checked Miss M's measurements and traced and size 86 with 98 length in leg and rise.

These went together well and were quick as expected.  I'm pleased with the fit too which is huge since I find it hard to get leggings to fit Miss M nicely.

And just because I could I tried out a new stitch on the hem, a lattice hem stitch.  It seems to have god stretch, is a bit more interesting than a zig-zag and doesn't require installing a twin needle or setting up my coverseamer.  WIN!