Sunday 2 February 2014

KCW - pompom tutu and spotty linen top



My final projects for Kids Clothes Week, although I almost gave up finishing them as my sewing room is so incredibly hot. 


I half-made the skirt a few weeks ago, inspired by this tutorial (in Dutch) and finished it off today. The skirt in the tutorial is basically a giant tulle rectangle, folded in half to make a bubble skirt, then filled with pompoms and stitched onto an elastic waistband. For my version I added a satin underskirt (without this the skirt would be transparent, which is fine for dress-ups, but not so good for going out) and used satin bias binding to sew a casing for the waistband. The instructions said 'soft tulle', and I used white bridal tulle (ie the expensive kind) that I had bought ages ago when I was planning to make the Oliver + S tutu but baulked at the cost of buying several more metres! As R insisted on wearing her pompom tutu after our photoshoot, even though it was way too hot to wear any skirt at all, I think I can consider it a success.


The top is a simple little self-drafted tank in very light linen. Despite my less-than-wonderful photos (37 degree day, too sweaty to redo them) it looks lovely on R. I painted the spots onto the fabric last night using a little round stamp and some fabric paints. I had intended to use one of those round rubbers on top of a pencil, but even though my children have ridiculously enormous collections of stationery all I could find was a pencil that had once had a rubber - and it had all been used up. So, to my great irritation, I had to carve a little circle out of rubber... a wonky little circle, as it turned out, but I was too hot and sweaty to redo it. Are you noticing the theme here?


Weirdly, the two things almost look like they should go together, and they probably could have if I weren't working with such a limited palette of fabric paints...

So that's it for Kids Clothes Week, summer edition. I've made a nightie, a dress, a skirt and a top - all for my daughter, because my son is increasingly particular about his clothes and I can't seem to come up with any ideas cool enough for him... cool patterns for this age-group (9) are few and far between. If anyone has any ideas for me, I would love to hear them! In the meantime, I'm turning up the cooling and pouring myself a G&T.




12 comments:

  1. This outfit is so lovely and whimsical with the pompoms and the floaty top. I have trouble sewing for my oldest son too! He turns 10 soon, but is rather stout! So even though he should still fit in the older size range of Oliver and S, the proportions are all wrong because it's too long!

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    1. Thanks Fiona :) Yes the older boys are really difficult to sew for...

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  2. Soooo cute! That pompom tutu will definitely tickle A's fancy! And good job on stamping those tiny dots! I tried to find a pencil with round rubber from A's pencil collection and couldn't find any either! What happened to those rubbers..?

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    1. Thanks Shino. The tutus are super-simple to make. I saw another in the KCW projects, made using the tutorial I mentioned.

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  3. I love both the linen top and the tutu. This is my favourite outfit this KCW :) Enjoy the G&T!

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  4. Oh that is so beautiful. I hope you're enjoying the cool change today.
    the skirt is genius. Do the pom poms roam free in the folded hem of the skirt? that reminds me of spokey dokes in a wheel!
    love the spotty top. that's a real less-is-more decoration with just the border painted. nicely done!

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    1. Thanks! Yes the pom poms are free-ranging, which means you need to redistribute them from time to time. It's a bit of a pain, and I thought of stitching them down in some way but decided I prefer them loose.

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  5. oh wow, marisa, this is amazing! i actually almost commented on this on Flickr, but my kids were calling for me, so i logged off before doing so. great work. so fun!

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    1. Thanks Rachel! It was fun sewing it, too.

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  6. This is just so beautiful. I want that top for myself. And my daughter would love such a fun skirt!

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    1. You should make a pompom skirt Annika - they're fun and easy to sew. I just hope I never have to wash it because I have no idea what will happen to those pompoms in the washing machine!

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