Warm weather wardrobe for Youngest

I took my two older daughters shopping a couple of weeks before the Easter break to buy bikinis and other warmer weather items for a trip to Lanzarote. Youngest opted not to come - she's not a great shopper and the thought of the other two trying on bikinis was too much!

However, since she has grown so much since last summer, almost nothing fits her any more. She ended up with some hand me downs after the shopping trip, but that still left her with not much and no time to take her shopping separately. I suggested that I make her a few things and got her to look through my patterns and the selection of fabric I had pulled out of the stash.  She took this very seriously and was soon jotting down which pattern, which view, and which fabric! Needless to say she noted down much more than I could possibly sew in the time frame, but it gave me something to work from.  In a week I made:

2 pairs of shorts: One pair used up the last of the coral sweatshirting that I was struggling with in my previous post and the other pair I used an old t-shirt of Husbands that she liked the colour of.

For the t-shirt pair I cheated a little and used the hem of the shirt for the hem of the sorts. I used the True Bias Hudson pant pattern for both and just cut them shorter.  

Mum-made combo!

I got Youngest to try on my original pair of Hudsons and much to my horror they fitted her pretty well, just a bit long in the leg - She is 10! To reduce bulk, particularly in the coral pair I used a pocket tutorial from Meg from Cookin' & Craftin'.

A shirred Sundress: This is the exact copy of a dress that I made for my friends daughter a couple of years ago, same fabric, same tutorial used, just bigger

 A flutter sleeved top: using Simplicity 4589 view B cut in a size 8 and shortened a fraction. The square yoke was tricky to get neat at the corners but nothing a good steam press couldn't fix. I think the interfacing that I used was a bit firm for the style and fabric, but she didn't notice and that's just me being picky.

and lastly, a little Colette Sorbetto top. I cut a size 8? , took the front pleat out due to fabric restrictions, didn't sew the dart in the front and shirred a panel in the back to make it fit a bit better.  I had just enough small pieces to make bias tape of the the same fabric for the neckline and armholes. This was the only one that she didn't wear on the holiday, although she said she did like it.. I am a bit concerned that it will shrink in the wash as I bought the fabric years ago on a whim and was not, at that stage, in the habit of washing any fabric I bought straight away.

So, a nice little selection of things for her to wear!

Leopard Print

A little peek at what I'm working on.

Eldest chose the fabric from one of M Rosenberg fabric sales at Trumpington village hall. She didn't know what she wanted - she just liked the fabric.  I suggested a loose tunic-y type top and she seemed happy with that so I decided on the Burdastyle Anda pattern, mainly becuase I already had the pattern printed out.

I realised that the smallest size was much too big for Eldest, so had a fair crack at grading the pattern down a couple of sizes. It is a very simple pattern, I'm not sure I'd tackle anything more complicated!  I think I went down to a 34 or 32.


The pattern pieces were super long, and as we were thinking of a tunic, I must have cut off over 30cm off the pattern piece.  When it came to laying out, I realised that this shortening of the dress/tunic left me with just enough to make a top for me - yay!

 

I have gone for a Colette patterns Sorbetto, it's free and it fitted on the piece of fabric. Having made a couple of Sorbetto's last year, I decided to lower the bust point by about 2cms. I have inverted the pleat, just for a something a bit different.  I have bought some golden lace trim to possibley go around the neck, but I think less is more on this particular print! I have finished this and was planning to wear this at New Year. When I put it on, however, I felt that it made me look somewhat matronly - When I finish the tunic I will take some pictures of both tops and you can let me know what you think!
I started these both before New Year, but still have a lot to do on the tunic so hope that it will qualify for  Pretty Grievances Jungle January

Madras Sorbetto

Along with the rest of the sewing world (or so it seems), I have made a top using the free download pattern Sorbetto from Colette Patterns. There are lots of lovely versions out there, so I thought I would follow suit:
Strangely, I quite enjoy the piecing together of the pattern before I even get to cut into my material, but I did have a problem that several other people had, in that my test square only measured 3.75cmx3.75cm. Not having the knowledge or patience to try and work this out I just decided to cut a bigger size, which seems to have worked.

Having looked at the pattern pieces, I felt that the top would probably be quite short and had resolved to cut it as long as I could, fabric permitting. Thankfully I am not the only person who didn't want a 'crop' top, as Karen very helpfully pointed out the length issue in her post about her top.

I used the scraps left from making and cutting out the girls tunic shirts to make my top. (I juggled the layout for the second tunic shirt so that I could be sure of having a reasonably sized piece left over.) None of the bias binding I had at home was suitable, nor could I find anything that would work in my local sewing shop, so I ended up making my owning bias binding out of the very last of the scraps. After initial troubles with this caused by cutting my strips too narrow, I am very pleased with the result.

I used some buttons left over from the girls tops (or stolen from the second top as it is not yet made - shhhhhh!) to embellish the pleat, which again I am very pleased with. To finish it off I used on the new labels Husband got for my birthday:
I have worn it several times since finishing it last week, but have yet to take a photo of me in it.

I was so pleased with it that I immediately set to on cutting out a second Sorbetto - which is a whole new story ....