From Dress Shirt to Dress

About a month ago my husband ripped the sleeve of one of his favourite dress shirt, he asked if there was anything I could do to repair it but alas, any repair would show. A few days after the incident I was browsing through my (impressive) Ottobre stash and got the idea of turning the dress shirt into a dress for my eldest little girl.

I used pattern 13 from Ottobre 3/2012 in size 98, the front of the short became the back of the dress and the back the front of the dress. I reused the button band for the dress closure. I cut 2 pockets on the bias to keep things interesting and used a stripe for decoration in the front and back seam. There is decorative stitching on the pocket to make it more feminine.

Laying the pattern on the shirt

Front

Back

Seam and pocket detail

As usual with Ottobre, the pattern was well written and goes together well. I had to "fiddle" with the facing since I was reusing the shirt's button band, but I am very pleased with the results. My daughter get's a brand new summer dress from her dad's old shirt, that's recycling at it's best in my opinion.

Cozy toddler bathrobe

It's been a (very very) long time since my last post! Here is a project I made last winter for my niece's second birthday. I made this bathrobe while participating in a challenge which stated that I could not buy anything new, so the whole project was made from odds and ends I already had in my stash.

The exterior is made from 2 cotton print fabric, the sash had to be pieced together because I did not have enough fabric to make it in one piece. The interior fabric is a cozy cupcake printed flannel.

The pattern is #31 from Ottobre magazine 6/2011. As usual the pattern is very well made with nice detailing. The gathering and the little collar gives the robe a nice feminine touch. The pattern only had one pocket, I added a second one for symmetry (and pockets are so amusing to toddlers). I also added belt loops to keep the belt in place.

Birthday dresses

Last week it was my niece's first birthday. Her parent's wished for her to receive summer clothes for her birthday, I decided to make her two lovely handmade festive summer dress.

 

The first dress is a yellow cotton knit dress, made from Ottobre 2012/1 pattern no17 in size 86cm. As always the pattern is well made. It was my first time using a double needle, I used it for the rib knit binding as well as the hem and I am very pleased with the results, it gives a very professional look to this handmade dress.

Sleeve detail

The second dress I made is from a french book titled "Les Enfants de la droguerie tome 3" that I got in Paris last summer. The dress pattern is called "Cogolin". I made the dress from two different quilting cotton that I bought at my local fabric store. The pattern is very simple, I was able to complete the dress in one day. Even though it is a simple pattern, I think that the final result is lovely and I hope it will be appreciated.

Margot is done

I finished Margot last month, and I have been busy making all the other Christmas presents. First let see some pictures of the finished beauty.

A view of both sides at once

Dressed down

I must say I really like the finished results, and everyone was really impressed with the doll. That being said, unfortunately I must also admit that this is one of the worst pattern I have ever used, it is the first pattern I make from this book and there is a lot of errors and oddities throughout such as the finishing on the apron that leaves raw edges exposed. Some of the errors are corrected with the errata, but some still remain. Also for some strange reason, most of the dresses are hand sewed piece by piece onto the doll body when it would be easier to machine sew both dresses together and then sew it shut on the body, which is the route I decided to take. I took pictures of the process and will make a post detailing how to do this later this week.

It's a two headed monster!

 

I am working on Margot, the topsy turvy doll from Wee Wondefuls, without the dress, it looks quite strange! It will be a Christmas gift for my 10 month old niece. I changed the facial features of the doll, I like my dolls with round eyes and a smile. So one head has blue eyes and the other has green eyes. I find the process of embroidering the hair very long (and painful, I poked myself with the needle a few times), and I'm not completely pleased with the results, but now that half of the doll has hair, I will certainly not start over.

If you are planning on making this doll, there is an errata for it, it can be found here.

Santa came early this year

I just received my Fabric.com order, I love receiving packages in the mail, it always feels like Christmas morning! I had ordered a few printed knit fabric, since they are impossible to find locally or at least I never found the source of nice printed cotton knits.

From the teal heart fabric I will make a top for myself, most likely Jalie 2806. If you have never used a Jalie pattern, they are a great line of pattern, every pattern includes a wide range of sizes in one enveloppe (usually from a kid's 2 to an Adult 22) and they offer a wide variety of specialized patterns such as swiming suits, coats and underwear.

From the yellow heart fabric and yellow rib knit I will make a shirt from my daughter, I was thinking about pattern no 3 from Ottobre 6/2011, which is a nice cowl neck sweater.

The rest of the fabric does not have a project yet, but it will most likely become clothes for my daughter also.

Finished coverall

I finished my first Ottobre project, it's the Babushka coverall pattern (no. 10) from 4/2011.

The outer fabric is baby cord on which I painted stars, the inner fabric is a cotton flannel, I used the required 40g/m2 batting and the bias was handmade from a cotton fabric. I used sew in snap instead of regular snaps, I did not like the look of the white snaps I had bought besides the stars on the fabric. I have to say that Ottobre patterns are really well made, there is a great attention to details, I like the look of the topstitching and the hanging loop is really a nice touch.

I look forward to making more items from Ottobre magazines.