Covered in Cats! Oliver and S After School Outfit

Finally, a pair of pants!  Camden has informed me that she pretty much won't wear pants, but I have informed HER that is just silly, as I have a few pairs I need to make her, and I'm sure she'll quickly change her mind as the weather keeps cooling down. 

I last made her this same outfit in October of 2017, it appears, but I guess I never blogged about it, though I have two photos below.  Here is my LAST blog post about the After School Outfit by Oliver and S. 

It is a fun outfit, relatively simple to sew.  The ONLY trick is in remembering which side is the front, LOL.  Labeling during sewing is fine, but I never use labels, and with this particular yoke, it is SO close, the similarity between the front and the back.  I have a secret on this version, though:  my button holes are accidentally a hair too close on the front side, so, it'll be easy for Camden to remember ;)

Other than that, I did lengthen the pants and top, as usual.  I can't recall if I always lengthen the actual pants, but it IS important to remember to lengthen ALL four pants pieces.  I don't know if I failed to lengthen the top side panel, but I had to do some trimming as I was putting the sections together.  Ah, well.  They are a nice length right now - perfect for a bit of growing room without being too long.

I did use a gorgeous fabric from Cotton and Steel, and I knew that would be the trick into convincing Camden to sometimes wear pants - use a cat fabric!

I do feel like I'm oldy moldy - often sticking to old school paper patterns by Modkid or Oliver and S, but y'all, they really are my favorites, and I still wish more people would keep designing in paper.  I am trying to catch up with the times, as you saw in yesterday's post, but it's a work in progress.  Sitting on the floor and taping things together breaks me, LOL.

Here is what we have been up to!

Drawing swords instead of working

Even bad guys and superheroes need sleep

Meeting up with dad and visiting his work

                                      

Response here and picture below of their monsters

Camden's letter to her possible monsters

Sewn Up in One Day! A Music Class Set

I'm so glad I had prepped a few projects, tracing-wise and cutting-wise.  It makes it that much easier to start sewing when I push the kids and their dad out the front door.  Last weekend, they went to Skylight Cave for a couple hours while I got my sew on.  I pulled out the fabric for the Music Class top and skirt by Oliver and S.  I feel like it's the third time I've sewn the top, but it's definitely only the second time I've sewn the skirt.

First full incarnation of this outfit...Summer 2013

Other than sewing up the twelve pintucks, LOL, the outfit goes together quite fast.  I love that the skirt is stinkin' cute but super simple.  The top takes longer, of course, as there is hand-sewing at the collar.  I'm not sure if it's my cleanest finish, but I'm always trying to get that placket/collar join better every time I sew it.

I used stash fabric for both items... The Alice in Wonderland print is something I've had for a few years, and there was only a yard, so, I was never quite sure what to do with it, but yay - a solution!  I was originally going to pair the shirt with pink corduroy, but I couldn't handle all that blinding pink in one outfit, aha!

My, my, a little homeschool girl

As always, I lengthened the top by a full size or two, and I did lengthen the sleeves this time, too, even though they're short.

I will have to WAY apologize for the disappearing ink NOT disappearing.... YIKES.  I had "washed" it out before leaving the house for Camden's Community Day, but it reappeared, of course.  And I'm not a magical faery elf creature with fancy photoshop skills ;)

Simple as that, though - easy outfit, cute results, yay for one more outfit out of the way!  I thought I'd get a chance to sew up the Zonen Jacob pants, too, but that didn't happen....maybe this weekend!

And....recent times...

Second week of Community Day

A day at Shevlin Park

Perfect Timing for September....Banyan Shorts and Tees!!!

Omigosh....does THIS ring a bell???  Woe is me, for I cannot sew up a simple pair of shorts in under three months....?  How about THIS blog post from last year?

I want to say I'm not sure WHAT could have stopped me from finishing a pair of shorts I started THREE months ago (one week short of three months, to be exact).  I would LOVE to say I have no idea, but the reason is two-fold.  One:  Matt has been working in Idaho for the past four months, and he is about to be home - YAY! - it was pretty much a sewing buzz-kill with him gone.  We were busy most days of the summer (albeit busy in a FUN way, but busy, nonetheless), and I rarely got a chance to sew in terms of daytime or weekend sewing (especially when a certain little boy is tiring me out).  Essentially, after I tossed these shorts aside, I didn't sew all summer, which is pretty ludicrous (though I DID knit; I wasn't totally lazy, aha!).  I bemoaned EVERY day that I wasn't sewing, but I just couldn't get myself to the machine.

Where are her eyes???

That neck binding gap situation is making my twitch

So.  Here we all are, almost September, and I finished one spot of summer sewing - the Banyan Shorts and the Banyan Tee (I have the paper versions, but they are now sold separately, as PDFs on-line).  That is a total bummer, too, as I honestly did have a good plan set up, with a list of patterns I'd wanted to sew the past few months.

Oh - and the second reason is the heat.  I get sluggish and hostile when it's hot out, and I just wanted to sit around and knit, whenever I had the chance.  It seemed somehow easier, LOL.

Past incarnations:

That neckline totally lies flat!

Her first-ever pair! 

Gosh - Spring of 2013!???

Really, though, let's not lie.  There IS a third reason...and it's the fly extension situation.  It has been my nemesis through two previous pairs of Banyan shorts (and one pair of Small Fry Skinny Jeans).  I knew I somehow hadn't done those correctly, but I didn't know WHY....and I have to say that, after MUCH staring and reading and staring and reading, I don't think the directions in either pattern explicitly say HOW to create the correct look for the fly.  I finally nailed it, but only because I winged it, and they turned out okay.  I folded the fly over about a half inch and pressed it - where I thought the zipper should go, and it worked out pretty well.

Will my pants always have that funny gap because of kid bellies??

Not perfect, but it works

I do realize that I shouldn't have added length to the waistband - as in, if I had added MORE length, it'd be a cool off-center/side-button tab situation, but as it is, it looks like "Does Autumn realize her waistband doesn't align with the shorts?" - LOL.  I don't really care - no biggie.  I'll hopefully remember that for next time.

Also, I misplaced the fly guard, so, I ended up finding some cotton lawn from my Violet top (pictured here), interfacing THAT and making it work.  I tried to insert the fly guard in sort of the same way that I saw in a pair of jeans I had, though it obviously doesn't work on the left side (and ignore the non-matching thread color), but I love the fly guard as a different fabric, so, it'll do.

I have to say this is my favorite version of these shorts - so, third time's a charm, eh?  The pattern itself has always been lovely, despite that I think the fly extension directions for the wearer's left side should be more detailed.  Other than that section, I don't believe I did anything differently.

My signature two lines of stitching, LOL

As for the Banyan tees....I totally sewed those before the shorts, knowing that was the smart thing to do, so, the tops have been sitting around, unused all summer, as I wouldn't let Camden wear them until the shorts were done.  I definitely still need to work on my neck binding, as it gaps.  The green knit is heavier, but both knits work for this top.  I always find this tunic/top to be a bit long, so, on previous versions, I have sliced the bottom off a bit, though I can't recall if I did that with these two.  You can see I added the pocket to only one of them.  I may have tried on the green top but found that the pocket was coming out wonky.  Camden gets a LOT of use out past Banyan tees.  They're pretty stinkin' cozy, I'm guessing :)

For real - a LOT of words to say that I love the outfit that hopefully gets a ton of use in the next month - and then next Spring and Summer, aha!

Of late....

Sad morning kid??

Happy grape time!

The beginning of the end of the river days....

Her first missing tooth!!!  FYI - that other middle tooth was noted as loose mere minutes later :O