Portfolio Tunic & Square Neck Dress

I finally sewed something for myself! I'm so impressed, for many reasons. One, because I've been eyeing the portfolio tunic pattern from Sew Lisette for awhile, and I got it at sale at JoAnn fabrics when they were having a $1.99 Simplicity pattern sale.

Secondly, I went fabric shopping a few weeks ago, and I found some really nice beige linen on sale for $10/yard. I bought 3 yards to make my tunic, and it turned out to be way too much material, but I found a really cute use for the remainder.

I KNOW, RIGHT? Pretty amazeballs.

Anyway, on to the pattern. I made a size (none of your business) and it was pretty loose. Not loose in a flour-sack kind of way, but if I make it again I'll definitely size down. I made the tunic length, and used the 3/4 length sleeves without the band on it.

Trying to understand the pockets and the front section gave me fits, but once I understood the construction it was easy. Having made a muslin helped tremendously. And I love the front section. The pockets are my favorite thing about the tunic, I think.

I topstitched the pockets down to give them a little more definition, and I'm happy with it.

I don't particularly care for the back loops -- they're huge. I don't know where I went wrong, but I'm not redoing it. Although when I wear the top with my hair down it snags my hair in a really mean way. Tough.

So, with the scraps I made Phoebe another square neck dress (from Dandy Jane). I used the pockets from the Oliver & S shorts, and found some grosgrain ribbon on my stash as trim.

Truthfully, I think I've had that ribbon for upwards of 6 years, and haven't really found a use for it. It's super nice with this linen, and the hem is just adorbs, isn't it?

So, keeping in mind that I got the linen on sale, and was able to make 2 garments out of 3 yards, I'd say that not only am I magic, but I might be SUPER MAGIC.

Dresses and circle pockets

When I found this adorable kimono dress pattern from Mani Mina, I also saw this magic pocket blouse with the adorable circle pocket on the front. The pattern only goes up to a size 4 though, and I needed at least a 6 for the girls.

I had just purchased the Sweet Little Dress pattern, and decided to copycat that circle pocket on the dresses for the girls. It really is genius, isn’t it? Also check out the raspberry dress she has for sale ($20 is a steal!) — the cuteness just kills me.

I bought a few yards of some material from JoAnn fabrics — I don’t remember now what they called it. It looks like ticking but washed up like seersucker. So, go figure. I loved the simplicity of the material with the dress pattern, but wanted to spice it up a little. I think this type of pattern can quite easily look like a nightgown instead of a dress, and I didn’t want that to happen here.

I had some scraps left over from other projects, and let the girls pick what they wanted to use for their pockets. I used an 8” diameter circle, but I think I could’ve gone a little bigger on these dresses. I would’ve loved to use a solid color on their pockets, but alas I have nothing in my stash, and I wasn’t able to find any solid cottons in the remnant bin at JoAnns. I think the printed pockets look fine with the dress material, but I wish I would’ve had a larger, bolder print for Charlie’s pocket.

The pattern itself was of course really easy and simple to sew up, and I finished dresses for Thea, Charlie, and Phoebe in a few hours. Phoebe’s turned out a little short for my taste, so if (when?) I make this pattern again I will definitely lengthen it by a few inches.

Super love how they turned out, and I think they’ll be cute for school or play.

Seashore dresses

I've been meaning to write a new entry for days and days and days now, and i just realized I haven't posted for the entire month of August. GASP. THE HORROR! So, expect a few short posts over the next few days just to play catchup.

First thing are the girls' seashore dresses from Oliver + S. I made these for them for the first day of school, which is actually coming up for all of them next week. Is it wrong to admit that I'm reeeeeeeeally looking forward to them being back in school? Because that's the damn truth.

If you remember my birthday post, you'll recognize both of the fabrics that I used. Grey polyester suiting for Phoebe's dress that just hangs beautifully. It was a little fussy and slippery to work with, but the result is so nice. Because it had more of a preppy feel I grabbed some military-style buttons for it out of the button box. I love how it turned out.

Charlie's dress is made with some lighter weight quilting cotton, which was *almost* too stiff for this pattern. It does help to hold the ruffles along the bottom nicely, and since it was stiffer cotton it was a breeze to line everything up and finish it.

On Charlie's, I took a lot of care to ensure that the circle pattern didn't hit her anywhere weird on the finished product. Like, I didn't want some circles on the chest area, or around the crotch region. Call me weird, but when I see a garment that has the pattern hitting the person in an awkward way, that's ALL I NOTICE. So I did my best to avoid that here.

The girls both love the dresses (naturally) and I'm pretty pleased with them as well. Definitely a little nicer than a play dress, and they can surely wear them with long-sleeved tees and tights when the weather gets cooler.

I made them both a size 6, and it's slightly too big for Charlie. Since they're so long, the pockets hit them around the knee area, so they're not useful right now, but whatever. The girls know they're there, and that's the most important part I think.

Point Pleasant

I got tired of seeing everyone’s pool pics on Facebook, and decided to haul the entire gang of us to the beach. Plus, the godmother is out here visiting, and she’s never been to the Atlantic ocean — it was my duty to introduce the two of them.

We settled on Point Pleasant since it’s not too far away, and seemed to be family friendly. I wanted to leave the house early early, but we got a very late start. Couple that with making a few pit stops on the way, and we didn’t end up getting there until pretty late in the afternoon.

Parking was disgusting. Seriously awful. We had to park super far away from any beach entrance, and haul the kids and all our junk several thousand miles to get to the water. The cooler itself was jam-packed, so it was a nightmare.

Secondly, the beach was SO. CROWDED, and it seemed like all the assholes were out in full force. As we were trekking across the sand, trying not to DIE from exhaustion, some jerk pointed out that we were on a “private beach” and didn’t we see the ropes (half buried in the sand) to clearly illustrate this? Oh jeez, lady. Bite me.

It was beautiful weather, though, and once we finally got everything set up and arranged we were able to relax and start to have some fun. The kids immediately ran down to the water and proceeded to have an amaze-balls time. The water was colder than I remember it being — maybe because it was later in the summer than the last time we visited the ocean? The girls each came out of the water shivering, with purple lips, but they didn’t seem to mind.

It was really expensive, $50 for all of us to get our wristband-thingies, so I wanted to stay as long as possible to really get our money’s worth. I’m a cheap-ass like that, of course. By the end of about 5 hours the kids were melting down and the adults were sick of the sand, so we decided to call it a day.

I think we all had fun, but it was nothing like the vacation we took last year. We’ve decided we need to explore some and find a beach that’s a little closer.  And definitely get there earlier in the day. It seems like the beach fees are pretty standard so I doubt we’ll find a cheaper rate, but it wouldn’t hurt to scope it out. I’m glad we went, but I think many valuable lessons were learned this time around.

Aquarius swim diaper turned chonies

So. Thea and diapers. All of the other girls were potty “learned” by this age and Thea… well, she just isn’t there yet. I mean, maybe 75% of the time when we’re home, but not even close when we’re out in public. Just forget it.

Part of it is that I’m really busy at work, and Bryan has 3 other kids to corral. Also, we’ve been traveling a LOT, and each trip to NY really set her back in terms of pottying.

One of the biggest disconnects for her is wearing diapers when we travel anywhere, because that’s just a really confusing concept. We want you to pee in the potty, unless we put a diaper on you, and then you can just go whenever. So which is it, crazy people?

I saw the Aquarius swim diaper on Sew Mama Sew, and a light went on: this would be perfect for some training chonies for Thea.

I modified the pattern so it’s only two layers: a PUL outer layer (with the PUL side in) and a flannel inner layer with a small soaker layer sewn in. I freehanded the soaker shape and made it out of 2 flannel layers. I stitched these layers to the flannel inner, then followed the pattern for the rest of the “diaper.” Really easy.

I made 2 so far just to check the fit, and the Mediums are perfect on her. I didn’t want the elastic too tight so I didn’t stretch the FOE that much on the first one, and there’s a little gaping on the legs, but not too much. The second one I made the elastic a tiny bit tighter, and it’s perfect.

They’re pull on and pull off, so not like a diaper, which I hope will be a clearer message to her. Plus it’s one piece (not a diaper and cover) so it will be easy when we’re out and about to get it on and off and put her on the toilet.

I plan to make at least half a dozen total — maybe more. I’m thinking about using some hemp jersey as the inner in a few of them, but I may not — they’re very soft with just the flannel, and it suits the purpose quite well.

Now, let’s hope that these will help move the process along, and get this child out of diapers permanently, yes? Yes.