I am about halfway through constructing Anya’s art smock using the pattern I found on thediymommy.com.  I had quite a bit of the laminated fabric from making her backpack, and searched for something that would use it. We happened across this smock and it looked like it would use almost all of the remaining fabric. (Wasn’t wrong – from the one yard of fabric, I have a 16″square).

Other than my inability to machine-stitch bias tape, this is a really quick project. Couple hours – even with a tiny helper. I find it easier to cut fabric to a pattern if the paper pattern isn’t cut right along the line, so I leave a half inch overhang around the pattern. It works just as well, though, to have overhang that continually varies from 1/8″ up to an inch. And Anya loves that she can do some of the cutting for our crafts.

Once we printed and cut the paper pattern, I cut the two pieces of laminated cotton. Sewed the two pieces together at the shoulder – since laminate does not seem fray, I used a simple straight stitch instead of the serger. I had cut quite a lot of bias strips to make piping for the bag. Double folded the strips to create bias tape for the edging and started pinning it in place.

The front of the bias tape is stitched on, and now I’m hand-stitching the back of the bias tape. Some day I’ll learn this “stitch in the ditch” technique 🙂

Halloween Circle Skirt – Completed! Circle skirts are *super* quick projects. I have a circle pattern that I re-use each time. Double-fold the bottom hem (pressing after each fold) and stitch the hem in place. Cut a 5″ wide strip of fabric a few inches longer than the inner circle circumference.  Serge it along both long sides. Placing wrong sides together, I sew the rectangular strip to the inner circle (this stitch ends up being right along the serger threads). Once the two ends meet, I serge them together. I then cut a 2″ wide strip of non-roll elastic to Anya’s waist size, overlap the ends by 1/2″ and stitch it together along the edges of the overlap and then sew an X inside the rectangle. Insert the elastic into the waistband fabric, fold the fabric over, and stitch the three layers (outer waistband fabric, circle skirt, inner waistband fabric) together. About 3/4 of the way through, I gather the already sewed part of the waistband on the elastic so the 1/4 that has not yet been sewed is straight and flat. Voila, one circle skirt.

Halloween bag – Almost done! I’m still stitching the letters onto the bag.

Halloween costume – I had to re-do the bodice (it was too wide), but should be able to finish off the back hook-and-loop closure this weekend. Need to make a hoop skirt and add some embellishment to the skirt.

I purchased a really interesting book called the Building Block Dress. Ever notice a designer sells ten different patterns that are all tweaks of the same dress? Evidently that’s actually a thing in fashion design — you really do have a base pattern and all of your “looks” are modifications of this base. Makes sense from both a manufacturing and a design standpoint. Cars are designed the same way — there’s an underlying chassis upon which a lot of different variations are bolted. This book teaches you to make your own modifications. Which means you don’t need to buy the three different almost-the-same patterns, but rather you can purchase one and modify components as needed.

The book includes a “dress planning” template — for me, “planning” has generally been an e-mail to a few friends or a blog post about the pattern I’m using and the fabrics I am considering. Selecting different components and drawing the dress is new for me … but I’ve got my first dress planned! Now I just need to get Anya’s Halloween costume sorted so I can work on other projects 🙂

Making progress! We printed the pattern pieces for Anya’s top last night, and we got all of the pieces cut this evening. I stitched it up after Anya fell asleep, so it still needs to be sized.

I think we’re going to make a hoop skirt for under her skirt too – should produce a nice ballgown silhouette.

I just started working on Anya’s Halloween costume. The circle skirt is cut, and I am starting to pin up the hemline. I found a really interesting tutorial on making your own hoop skirt. Seriously considering making one of these for her costume.

Early this year, I purchased a kit to make a Halloween tote bag for Anya. I had tried piecing it together several times, but stitching a straight line at exactly 1/4″ is not my forte. My last attempt, though, used a sewing machine foot that has a guide for a seam allowance of exactly 1/4″. WooHoo! I was able to get the little blocks pieced together. I want to get some of the rainbow spider web fabric to make a Halloween skirt next year too.

Now I’m almost finished with the bag — just need to stitch the letters. I didn’t quite follow the instructions. Or maybe I just didn’t understand the instructions. It seemed to me like the exterior and the fusible fleece were quilted, but the bag interior was not. I sandwiched all three layers and did my quilting. I also used my serger to make the side seams. That seemed like a more durable solution.

Front (oops, I still need to remove the chalk lines I used to quilt the bottom portion!)

And back:

I decided to make Anya a quick (not pieced and not really quilted) blanket since it’s starting to get a little cold at night. I purchased 2.5 yards of a border print fabric (the stars continue up to the top selvage edge). It is folded in half along its length, so the front and back are more or less the same.

I used a thicker polyester batting to make a nice warm snuggly blanket. I am always surprised by how thin polyester batting is. I’d had feather and wool blankets throughout my life, and I think there is some psychological effect by having a thick, heavy blanket. But the polyester is actually warmer, so practicality won out over impression … so I looked for the thickest polyester batting I could find.

Anya has gotten infatuated with princesses and doctors — so it was a bit of a toss-up which one she’d want to make for this year’s Halloween costume. But princess costumes are shiny and sparkly, whereas doctor costumes are … well, scrubs and maybe a white lab coat if you are feeling fancy. Sure there’s a stethoscope and maybe a bag. But I really should have been able to guess which would be more appealing in the end.

We’ll be making a Belle-like costume this year. I found a yellow/gold jacquard fabric that I’ll use for the dress:

And I picked up a sparkly net fabric to use for accents.

I want to research the difference between using a lot of panels individually gathered and making a long circle skirt gathered along radial lines. The circle skirt would eliminate a LOT of seams, but I don’t know how the panels will look. Might have to take a little circle and see how it looks when it is gathered.

I am planning to use the same bodice from her Easter dress – it fit well, and I already have the pattern printed. I may make a long-sleeved version to be more seasonally appropriate.