Monday, March 03, 2008

Factory Sewing pt 1

I've got like a million nieces, and I haven't sewed for them in ages, so I am playing a little bit of catchup...except the niece that hasn't even arrived yet is getting the biggest haul, cause well, baby girl clothes are FUN to make! :p I have 17 oufits (okay, not complete outfits..some are just a skirt, or just a top, but then I also have a bunch of 2 piece sets....whatever, I have a lot of stuff cut out!) sitting around...I think I am avoiding 40 cloth diapers I promised for the aforementioned baby *cough*.

I used one pattern for most of the baby clothes: Ottobre 2/2005 #3. For reference, this is what that one is supposed to look like:



Okay, on to mine now!


Lessee...what did I change. Dropped the zipper, made the shoulder a lapped button, instead. Dropped the neck lining, and bound it. Redrew the armscye, extended the bodice down, added a band around the waist, and then added a skirt. The pants are the bloomers from the pattern, but redrawn and extended down into pants. I wanted them to taper in a little, instead of just sticking out at the bottom, so I added 2 darts on the front and backs of each leg at the ankle, to give a little shape. I took a pic on the next outfit to show what the heck I am talking about. I THINK that was all for this one!


Same pattern again. Dropped the zipper, obviously. Dropped the sleeves, too. Extended the bodice down and flared it into a top, redrew the armscye, redrew the neckline into a crossfront. Dropped the necklining again, bound the neck and arm edges, ending in ties. On the inside, I forgot to take a pic, but I added a little tab attached to the seam allowance, and put a button on it; and then on the crossfront to meet it, I ended the binding in a loop to hook onto it. I messed up on the crossfront, and one of the panels got cut backwards...luckily it's almost impossible to pick the right side anyway!! :p


The pants were made the same as the first outfit, except instead of hemming, I just bound the edges at the ankles. Oh, a closeup of what I was talking about with the darts. The pic kind of sucks, but you can still see what's happening, vaguely (I swear the binding is even..I don't know why it looks all wobbly!)


Last outfit for today: Same pattern as the other two. I had this fabric for AGES, and didn't know what to do with it. I bought it for like $1 a meter, and then realized I would never stick pink strawberries on my dd again, and I hated it, anyway, so it just sat there for a couple years, and I finally busted it out. It's super loosely woven, too, which is a total PITA!

Anyway...changes...Dropped zipper, bound neck, added lapped shoulder, redrew armscye, dropped bodice, added waistband, added skirt, added bottom ruffle, left out elastic in arms (the fabric is so lightweight, that it doesn't leave that stiff sci-fi soldier look you usually get when you do that without alterations :p ), attached the skirt in pleats rather than gathers, umm..I think that was it. The pants are almost like above, except, since it had that border, I couldn't do the little darts, and instead, redrew the side leg seams curving in a little, to give it shape again.

Wait, I lied, I had a couple more random things I made for another little girl...just a basic elastic waist skirt:



....and a batch of headbands from the Starleigh pattern. I changed that one, too....I gathered a panel of fabric in, and hemmed the edges, and then put it together with the elastic the same way as the normal way:


Nothing special, but I liked them, and I made them, so I am sticking them here! :p


Oh...our local resident lizard. He lives in the storm drain next to our house, but today he was out on our front step, til we scared him off it, accidently:


He's about 2-2.5 feet long from nose to tail. Very cool. :p

2 comments:

Elizabeth said...

That lizard was in your yard?!? (And I get excited if I see a little tree frog on my porch.)

Your baby clothes are adorable. I wish I had a reason to make baby girl clothes -- not badly enough to actually, you know, have a baby, but it looks like a lot of fun. :)

Lilli in Vancouver said...

These outfits are so darling!! The blouse/pant outfits actually remind me of some that I had when I was little. Good work You!

Lizard? Gulp.

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