Monthly Archives: February 2011

kimono pj’s: part deux

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My second set of kimono pj’s are finished, and I had to share this photo because I am so in love with this fabric… it’s called ‘kei girl on a farm’ and it’s by Megumi Sakakibara.  (I got it from Fabricworm.com- they have a great and very large supply of Japanese import fabrics.)  I really do like this Amy Butler pattern, but again noticed how off the measurements for the elastic for the waistband are.  I had to cut at least 2″ or so shorter than the given measurements.  And when we’re taking 6 month old babies, that’s a lot!

This fabric is so light and soft.  Seriously- How cute is that little farm girl???  These pj’s are going to one of my bff’s new neice, so I won’t show too much more since she’s like…one of the 3 subscribers to this little blog… and she’ll see them in a week!

- Erin

Schoolhouse Tunic

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I was a little nervous about making this.   A homemade shirt?  Ehh…. a little risky.  I didn’t want to end up looking like I belonged with these fine girls:

(No offense ladies- I definately fit into your color scheme as you’ll see below…)

I came across this Sew Liberated pattern and googled some images.  Lo and  behold, lots of girls have made these tunics and they actually look kind of cute!  (p.s. why do I not like the word ”tunic”?)

So I went to our local fabric shop armed with a birthday gift certificate from my sis, bought some really nice quality powdery blue cotton, let it sit there for 3 weeks and then got sewing….

 

I have to say that a few things went wrong here.   First, I ran out of my blue thread about halfway through.  So, I ended up using some gray instead- luckily you can’t tell.  But, that did require some seam ripping here and there.  Then, I had a major issue with the sleeves.  The directions say to gather your sleeve at the shoulder first so it will fit the armholes in the bodice when you attach it- thus giving a slight gathered look at the shoulders when finished.  Well, I found that my sleeve pieces fit the armholes perfectly and when I tried to gather them and sew them on, it totally didn’t work!  I tried twice and after the second time seam ripping… I wanted to seam rip my eyeballs!  Extremely frustrating to say the least.  When I googled this issue online, I found many people had the same problem.  Ugh. 

…Anyway, here is my “tag” as of late- a cute little piece of bird ribbon….

The last little glitch in all of this was when I sewed the skirt to the bodice.  I had to take in the skirt about 1/2″ at the center and create another pleat.  For some reason my skirt ended up a little wider than the bodice… so, that wasn’t too big of a deal, but really this shirt is only supposed to have 2 pleats on the front.  But, I’m happy with it.  See?  I’m smiling.

So, what do I think of the finished look?  Worth all the seam ripping.  I will make another one- maybe next time I’ll shorten it so it’s less of a tunic and more of  a shirt.  But, we’ll see… With these things, sometimes you kinda just have to go with the flow, cross your fingers and hope you don’t end up looking like a sisterwife!

- Erin