Pajama Day

Two posts back to back .... well I wanted to post the projects in order of completion!
Last week and this past week end was filled with dance rehearsals and dance recitals for the little MEC. Her performance was endangered by a nasty bee sting.
Well you see for the last few months MEC has lived with her hands glued to the floor doing cartwheels, hand stands etc... so when she was practicing her cartwheel in the grassy area at school the day before the big big stage she must have disturbed a bit and she stung her in retaliation!
The sad part is that there are a lot of dance moves requiring a fully functional right wrist! She did very well considering her impediment....

Back to the PJ party, every year after the big big stage the kids get to dance in their PJ to top it all it is PJ day at school tomorrow. So yesterday MEC tells me mom I need a new pair of PJ, I want some baggy one and a tee shirt like Taylor Swift in the music video of "You Belong to Me".

Luckily I have been stashing a bit by sewers standards of fabric and I had the perfect flannel! I know it is summer but you gotta do what you gotta do!

For the bottom I used the "Lazy day Pajamas" by Blank Slate Pattern. The flannel has hot pink, pink, dark gray and light gray graphic about music which is fitting since she will be wearing it at dance! I chose white flannel for the contrast bottom. I made piping with a light gray bias tape I have. This was again a quick sew. I started by cutting and taping the pattern and finished up everything in a little over 2H00. Again I screwed up the elastic which ended up twisted inside and too big! The one modification I would make to the pattern is adding 1inch to the waist piece. 

The top was made with the Field Trip Raglan Tee shirt by Oliver and S. I happen to have the pattern printed woot and I just had to cut the right size. I up-cycled an Eddie Bauer tee shirt that had gotten the boot from my husband's closet because the bottom rolls up! I had some pink cotton jersey purchased a while back at Fabrics.com and the neck band was a light gray ribbed cotton.
This took me a little over an hour to sew. I am proud to say that for once there is not white thread dangling off that tee shirt! It is probably the best tee I sewed and was able to adjust the tension of my serger so the white thread does not show too much :)

Here is the PJ in action.... Hip Hop move baby!

I need to go scrounge some XXXL tee shirt or jersey dresses on sale at Old Navy Marshall or maybe even Target! These are sometimes the best source of knit fabric!

"Beau comme un camion rouge"

From the french expression "Handsome like a red truck!" I won't attempt to explain where this expression comes from but it is often used when talking to a boy.
I try to be fair and sew something for my girl followed by something for my boy.

I have to admit that I feel I am afraid I'm reaching the boundaries of using PDF pattern straight out of the box. Most patterns I bought a while back have a max age between 8yrs and 12yrs. This means I have to master a new skillset pattern grading!

Back to our "red truck", MAC chose a bright red twill and blue stripe searsucker for his new pair of short! I used the  for a pair of shorts in a bright red twill and blue stripe searsucker pockets.

The pattern used for this pair of shorts was the Clean Slate Pant from Blank Slate Pattern. I used the size 8 tried to make it a tad more baggy and slightly longer. Every seam besides the outside edge of the pants were double top stitched in white contrast. I did not sew the zipper and button but opted for the faux zip using the technique learned while sewing MEC and MAX Oliver and S short. I did opt for a flat front.
However as usual I did underestimate the size of the elastic and the shorts are a little too big at the waist.

It was an easy sew and was whipped in a couple of hours.
The shorts a little narrower than I would like and for the next pair I have attempted to grade the pattern to size 10 and 12. However I totally went with my gut and my scientific approach to things.

However I think it is about time for me to learn a bit more about the science of grading pattern and this online class by Melly Sew may be just the thing .....

Lets try again

Let's give another go at this blogging thing! As you may have noticed I have been MIA most of this year, a little bit because well I have been super duper busy with things not really worth blogging about, and a little bit because well I have been struggling with what I want to blog about.

So I think this place will be to post things that I like in general but not so much about me if that makes sense. Things I like - Crafts, Decoration, Fashion, Food and pretty things in general.

So let's try this again shall we....

We have moved at the end of last August and most of my creative energy has been spent turning this house of ours into a home! We have still quite a long ways to go but our home is slowly emerging. I will try to post before and after pictures....

In this house I do have a sewing room/guest room and after clearing up the mess a bit I started sewing again after a 6 months hiatus.

I fell in love with this fabric and debated on using it for a PJ set or a skirt!

I remembered the Market Skirt by "Dana Made It" that I always wanted to make but never found the time to. I rummaged through my stash of fabric and found some blue twill, some red bias tape and whipped this skirt for MEC

I love how a very simple sew turned out so nice and very JCrew like. I may even make one for myself!

Of course I had to tweak the pattern a bit to fit my fabric and thus the bottom layer is much higher than what Dana has in her pattern. Besides that I kept the same width ratio.

Layer 1 - 1.4 * waist

Layer 2 - 1.6 * layer 1

Layer 3 - 1.2 * layer 2

Next time I would probably increase the ratio of layer 3 in order to have a fuller third tier if I keep it that high. 

I really like the bias tape at the bottom I find it ties the skirt. I have a small rectangle left to be used to make a cute pocket on a skirt or an accent for a dress.

Next up some fire red shorts based on the Clean Slate Pants by Blank Slate Pattern