I treated myself to the newly-released English version of Linen, Wool, Cotton Kids. It has some beautiful-looking clothes, and although summer is now over I decided to allow myself to be impractical and sew up the lovely open-backed sleeveless top to go with the yoke panel skirt.
I used swiss dot for the top and changed the pattern to make it fully lined. This was a fairly simple alteration to make, but in the process of figuring things out I stupidly managed to sew the front of the swiss dot wrong-side-out, so it's lost much of its dottiness. The back looks perfect though!
I made the skirt in Cloud 9 organic cotton in a fabric from their 'Wildwood' range that I absolutely adore (the others in the range are nice, too - tempting, tempting). I added piping at the yoke and obediently made matching fabric-covered buttons as instructed. Unfortunately the waist wound up way too big for R, and as it's a fitted yoke with a button fastening there's no elastic one can tighten. So I had to adjust the button placement and disregard the specially designed placket. This makes the skirt slightly bunchy on one side, but it's barely noticeable and I think it's a lovely style that I'll be making again - perhaps with an elastic back, though.
R picked Moriarty up as I was photographing her and I couldn't resist including this pic!
I hope we have a few more warm weekend days so R can wear her not-so-dotty top before the cooler weather sets in.
How lovely. The designs remind of the clean lines of Japanese sewing patterns. I love the skirt fabric too. My girls would adore this outfit!
ReplyDeleteThank you Masha :) The top does have classic Japanese lines, doesn't it. It was the pattern that made me buy the book, so of course I had to make it first!
DeleteI love this outfit! The swiss dot makes a beautiful delicate summer top. I really like skirts with yoke panels, I have just made one for Boo out of an Ottobre magazine and snap, my waist is ever so slightly too big. She will grow into it!
ReplyDeleteI agree, yokes on skirts are lovely. It's just hard to get the fit right - and then once you do, how long will it fit for? (in R's case, probably several years since it's definitely way too big!).
Deletesuch a delightful outfit! Love the breeziness of the top and think that swiss dot was the perfect fabric choice:)
ReplyDeleteThanks Lucinda. That swiss dot had been sitting in my cupboard for years waiting for the right garment :)
DeleteOh, I love this outfit! I'm a big fan of Wildwood too, and the top is so perfectly summery. Very nice:)
ReplyDeleteThank you! It's such a beautiful range of fabrics.
DeleteAh - I just sewed (and blogged) this skirt! And yes, the waist was way too big on my little girl too. I threaded a wide piece of elastic through the back yoke as an easy solution. It spoils the line of the back yoke a bit, but was quite easy to do. And I'm hoping that when she grows a bit I can just take the elastic out! But the sizing does seem a bit wierd in this book. I'm going to measure very carefully for my next project. http://as-it-seams.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/just-little-red-skirt-and-lessons-in.html
ReplyDeleteI read your post - the skirt is stunning. Have you made anything else from the book yet? I wonder if they are all bigger than stated. I took a little width off when I made the top - something I always do for my daughter - and I made the band at the bottom narrower, too. Maybe that's why that one fits ok!
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