Family reunion with Alice

Recently, while looking through the Spoonflower Flickr group I spied a beautiful dress made up in this fabric

 

 I had to have some!  But for some reason I only ordered one yard.  Was I mad?!? At first, I wasn't sure how I could make the most of such a teeny, tiny piece of fabric but in the end I decided I would use the Oliver + S family reunion dress pattern to make a little top

size 4

It took quite a while to cut out the fabric and even then I goofed the back pieces. I should have cut the fabric so that the pattern at the centre back overlapped but I didn't think of it until I had finishing cutting out. Then there really wasn't enough fabric to cut out another back piece.... Oh well...

I made my own covered buttons (11mm) and added a thin blue piping around the neckline.  I fussy cut the neck piece so that there were no "off with their heads" moments

And I basted the pintucks and then removed the basting thread once the neckline was sewn to leave little pleats.   I like the way these turned out and may do it again the next time I use this pattern.

Overall, I am pleased with this little top and it is close to what I imagined when I saw the fabric....just gotta get that back pattern matching sorted!!


I have used this pattern before:

a liberty print in size 12-18 months

A Michael Miller print, Children at play, in size 4

...and I wasn't clever enough to match the pattern at the back on this one either....

The blue corduroy coat

Lincraft was having a sale and it would have been wrong not to go in, fondle the fabric, and take some home with me.  The navy corduroy reminded me of a coat pattern in Australian Smocking and Embroidery from 1994 that I have always liked

I didn't want to do any smocking (because I knew if I did, this coat would have ended up with the two smocked dresses I haven't yet finished - the first started in 2000 and the other, more recently, in 2007) so I hunted the pattern collection.

In this Japanese pattern book 

I found this coat 

So, I made the 110cm size and added pink velvet piping between the yoke and front and back pieces

pleated front panels

pleated back panel

The facings were finished with matching pink bias binding. I was going to finish all of the seams with bias binding but I am lazy, and the seams were just too bulky and didn't look as tidy as the overlocker edge finish.

And yet more pink....

Side seam pocket.  The corduroy is a deep navy, not grey like this photo.

After I attached the collar and the facings I realised that I had placed the collar all the way around the neckline and beyond the centre front marking (although if these were indicated on the pattern when I traced off the pieces, I wouldn't know!).  Because of my boo boo I wasn't able to close the coat with a decorative button at the neckline because the collar pieces overlapped.   So I sewed 3 hidden snaps to the facings instead.  

this photo is a better colour match

and 2 snaps were added to the cuffs

And when this coat was finished, I started working on a jacket for a friend's 10 year old daughter.  It is still a work in progress 

"Paris" short wool jacket 

No. 30 Ottobre 6/2007

although here is another field trip t-shirt I recently completed

Just a little something I whipped up tonight

Size 18-24 months

The pattern is the Oliver + S Field Trip top and the Fabric is from the Ottobre etsy store .