Japanese pattern ensemble (and an improved skirt)

A comfy and practical little ensemble: a yoke-panel skirt in soft denim (pattern N from Linen Wool Cotton Kids) and the 'back ribbon tunic' - more of a top, really - from A Sunny Spot/Girls' Fashionable & Pretty Clothes, made in some sort of knit I found earlier this year at the Apollo Bay op shop.

The first time I sewed this skirt pattern it turned out way too big around the waist and I had to move the buttons right off the placket to get the thing to fit. It's a beautiful style, though, so I was keen to remake it with a few alterations. For a start, I added flat piping made from some striped jersey and cut the inside yoke from the same fabric. Most importantly, I added elastic to the waist. In case anyone else is after some ideas about how to do this, here's what I did:

• Before stitching down the inside yoke, I sewed a strip of waistband elastic to the seam allowance inside the left side of the 'outer yoke'.
• I folded the 'inside yoke' down and sewed a channel into the back part of the yoke while holding the elastic carefully inside it, making sure not to stitch it down.
• I used an unpicker to open up a 1" hole in the right side-seam of the inside yoke, then threaded the elastic out through that hole.
• I pulled the elastic out quite a bit, then cut it down and sewed some buttonhole elastic, double-folded, to the end
• I hand-stitched the inside yoke to the gathered section of the skirt and added a button for the buttonhole elastic to fasten on to.   

(Please ignore the weird reflection on the middle button - I can assure you it looks exactly like the other two!)

Because the skirt has a side opening, the elastic can only be tightened on the non-opening side, but I find that this works perfectly well, and I will definitely be adapting any future 'yoke panel skirts' in the same way. The photo on the right shows what the back of the skirt looks like:

The top was much more straightforward. I used the denimy skirt fabric for the neckline binding/tie but did away with the hem facing - that is to say, I sewed it in, then decided it made the hemline too stiff and unpicked the whole thing. FUN. I ended up hemming the top with a double needle, which made it hang much better. Oh, and I made the sleeves full-length instead of just-above-the-elbow.

To prevent R from making hideous, sullen faces while modelling, I issued a tower-building challenge. She did pretty well.

...Then they fell down.

It was kind of funny watching R look for pockets in the skirt. It took her a while to figure out that there aren't any!

The whole outfit was made with fabrics I already had lying around. I didn't even have to buy buttons! Surely this virtuous sewing behaviour entitles me to a fabric-buying binge in the near future...?

Sew Japanese series: tunic and spring coat

Shino, who writes the blog Nutta, provided me with the perfect excuse to do some sewing when she invited me to be part of her Sew Japanese series, which started on September 8. In this five-day series she is looking at the different styles of Japanese sewing book authors, accompanied by guest posts from bloggers sewing clothes from their respective books.

I chose one of my current favourites which I always think of as 'A Sunny Spot', but which turns out to be called Girls' Fashionable and Pretty Clothes (R's long cardigan and jersey/cotton dress, which I blogged about recently, are from this same book). For Shino's series I made a tunic in the loveliest blue linen, and a 'spring coat' (very apt, as spring has just begun here) in organic Cloud 9 canvas. Click on over to Nutta to check them out! I'll also be putting up some extra photos in Flickr.

Also, I have a couple of fun things coming up in the next month or two. I think I can reveal the first one, since I've already put the button on my sidebar: I'm going to be a contributor for the Kids Clothes Week blog! This season's KCW has a brilliant theme: storybook. If you haven't already, you might want to subscribe to the KCW blog just so you can see me make an ass of myself be inspired by my contributions. In the meantime I'd be interested to know - in my official capacity, of course! -  what kind of sewing does 'storybook' suggest to you?

KCW - Jersey & cotton dress, and a long cardigan

I've been sewing in little bits and pieces all this week, but - so frustrating! - haven't been able to finish up, photograph and post til now. At least I have the satisfaction of having made two things that go well together, and that I think will get a lot of wear.

The dress:
Pattern: Dress E-9 from A Sunny Spot
Size: 110, with 120 length
Fabric: cotton jersey, quilting cotton, silver ric-rac

Not much to say about this. Lovely pattern, easy sew, added the silver ric-rac to pick up the little dots of silver on the skirt part, and because I knew R would love it. A nice loose-fitting, comfy dress with a cute bias-binding tie at the back (hard to photograph, as R's hair covers it).

The cardigan:
Pattern: Long cardigan F-14 from A Sunny Spot
Size: 110, with 120 length
Fabric: cotton sweatshirt fabric

I really love the style of this cardigan, which has buttons down the top section and a slightly gathered lower section that sits open. The gathering didn't work all that well with the thickish fabric, and my machine did not like making buttonholes in it either, but the result is very pleasing nevertheless. As this is the second grey top I've made for R this winter, and as she is not exactly a huge fan of grey (what six-year-old is?) I used buttons in various shades of blue/purple. Finding identical buttons in four different colours was probably the most difficult (and time-consuming) part of making this! Luckily the staff at Darn Cheap are used to seeing me crouching in the button aisle for hours on end.

I have one more very small project planned, which I hope I can finish by tomorrow. I'm so enjoying seeing everyone's fabulous creations on the Kids Clothes week website. Keep 'em coming!