An overalls-dress and fancy-sleeve t-shirt

Life's been challenging lately - sick relatives, financial troubles and toothache. Desperate for some sewing therapy, I did something a little out of character: I made something for R just because I wanted to. After much flicking through my Japanese pattern books I settled on an overalls-dress from this book (I have no idea if there's a 'proper' name for this style) and a t-shirt with decorative sleeve details from this magazine. I really can't pretend R needs another dress or another t-shirt, but since they served a therapeutic purpose I'm telling myself it's OK! What's more, both were made from stash fabric - even the buttons were from my little collection.

The dress is made from a lightweight black denim and was a pretty straightforward sew. I ran into a bit of trouble attaching the straps to the back waistband, but serendipitously my sewing friend Jing had just made the pants version of the same pattern and was able to set me straight.

The t-shirt is made from some interlock-ish jersey (previously used to make this top). It's a really nice, loose style with a pretty sleeve detail. I will use this pattern again I'm sure.

How annoying is that loose bit of hair??! R loves the dress and was pleased to find not only inseam pockets, but a pocket on the top section as well. It took me days to get her to model this outfit, but once she got it on it was clear that she really loved it. Turns out this dress is quite twirly, too!

Pintucked dress with collar

This pintucked dress caught my eye in A Sunny Spot: Girls' Simple Clothes, so when R flicked through the book and announced that she wanted one, I was thrilled! Had I remembered how useless I am at pintucks I might have chosen something else, because I really don't have the knack of lining them up and spacing them perfectly. Luckily I did the back sections first, which gave me a bit of practice before I got to the front. They worked out OK in the end, but I've resolved to buy myself some kind of precision fabric-marking tool (as opposed to chunky bits of tailor's chalk) before tackling anything like this again. Recommendations, people?

If not for the dreaded pintucks (which are on front AND  back sections of the dress) this would be a super-simple sew. The book includes an extensive photographed 'lesson' on how to sew the dress and its adult version, but really the pintucks are the only remotely difficult bit, because the dress is just one piece for the front and two for the back, plus collar and facings. I added in-seam pockets - a lesson for this is included in the book, too - and made an extra-long button loop at the back in order to place the button right under the collar so R's long fine hair won't get tangled in it.

The fabrics are linen-cotton for the dress and a thicker linen for the collar. I spent ages in Spotlight looking at fabrics and fell in love with an overpriced teal linen. Sanity prevailed and I ended up with a much cheaper linen-cotton in this gentle lavender shade, then spent a further half-hour agonising over the choice of fabric for the collar, finally settling on a very light, subtle pink. This colour combination has really grown on me, and I'm so pleased with the way the colours look together in the dress that it's actually going to be hard to let R wear it (ie spill things on it, wipe oily hands on it and go down filthy playground slides on it). But if you love something you should set it free, right? So, into the wardrobe it goes...

A dip-dyed dress and a kitty bag

First day of summer holidays - yay! Unfortunately it's a stinking hot day - over 40 degrees as I write this - and we're all staying inside with just the odd foray outdoors to hang up washing, rescue wilting plants, retrieve cats etc. I dragged R away from her cubby-house building and persuaded (ie bribed) her to try on this somewhat experimental dress.

Inspired by Toya's stunning dip-dyed dress I had a go at dying some cotton lawn before cutting out the dress pieces. As you can see the results are somewhat stripy and not nearly as amazing as Toya's, but I do love the shades of purple (Dylon intense violet, in case anyone wants to know). The pattern is from this book, which was part of a thoughtful and generous Christmas gift I received from... me. The book has some great patterns, but I am mystified by the use of American food products in the photographs. Was the stylist perhaps a huge fan of Lays chips and Hershey bars? Or is there some uniquely Japanese logic to their inclusion that I don't understand? Anyway, this is top #6, lengthened. I added a few centimetres' width to the front and back pieces for extra body, and the fit is pretty good except that the armholes turned out surprisingly wide. The pattern is almost identical to the Citronille Marie that I made a couple of months ago. It looks cute worn as is, or tied around the waist with some hastily-made tassels on a string. Probably loose will be the way to go, especially given the hot and sticky weather at the moment and the fact that Morry thinks the tassels are a cat-toy and has already had a good chew on them.

Some time ago I saw this fantastic cheetah bag on the Kids Clothes Week site. I checked out the original tutorial and made one for R, using linen for the outside and synthetic fleece for the inside. The fleece gives the bag a good, substantial structure and it feels soft and appropriately cat-like when you put your hand in it. I added press-studs at the ear-tips so the bag can be (kind of) closed, which also prevents the ears from flopping. Despite my less-than-professional embroidery skills, I really do adore this bag and R loves it, too. I made it a few months back and haven't blogged it til now, but what do you know, the purple embroidery makes it a perfect match with the dress!

I have another outfit ready to be photographed, but it's too hot to do anything right now, so I'm going to have to close this hot laptop and retreat to the airconditioned comfort of the loungeroom, which I have been avoiding so as not to have to listen to the sounds of Return of the Jedi being screened at full volume. Melbournians, I hope you're keeping cool today!