Living Large in the Little Girl's Skater Dress by Kitschy Coo

This is a new favorite for Camden - the Little Girl's Skater Dress by Kitschy Coo.  She so far has two, and I have plans to make ONE more for the season!  This is the third knit dress pattern I have tried in the past six months.  The first was the Sew Straight Patterns Uptown/Downtown dress, and I love that one, then I sewed the VFT Kensley, which I wasn't a fan of - maybe because of the gathered skirt???  Anyway, I love the Skater!

I used a recent-ish purchase from Joann Fabrics - another Doodles Line knit.  It isn't my favorite knit to work with, and you DO need to wash and dry it a good three times, but it works, and Camden clearly loves it.  She wore it today for her birthday party, too!  The other version was a good use of stash - albeit a nerve-wracking one!  I totally checked to make sure I wasn't playing fabric chicken, but that turned out to be a lie.  There was definitely a flattening-out and an ironing of the rolled edge to eek out enough room for the front bodice piece, but I made it!  It makes me happy to use this remnant, too, because I first used it in a Modkid Penny dress for Camden years ago (and which I can't find a photo of).

I don't have anything earth-shattering to say about the pattern, except that I printed out the pdf and traced the pieces onto my usual Swedish tracing paper.... in the largest size, which almost seems silly.  I'm crazy bummed that this pattern doesn't go up to at least a size 10.  I'll have to see if I feel bold enough next year to try and grade it up.  The Lady Skater seems to skip a few sizes, so, I don't think I could make her the smallest version of that, sadly.

Anyway, I did lengthen this pattern - only the skirt portion and only by an inch, but it's a great fit for now.  The directions may or may not be great, LOL.  I'll assume they are fine, but it's a straight-forward pattern, so, I didn't use them, and I did make the cuff at the sleeves a bit wider, as I like that look better - and thought I'd prefer sewing it on if it was bigger, LOL.

A cute, simple pattern - and I did short sleeves on both, but I could totally make a version this fall, before she's too big for the pattern, hopefully, with long sleeves.

And some time in the life of....

Such a good dental patient!

Little guy never stays in his own space, LOL

Paperbag Dress for a School Girl: Modkid Claudia

Remind me again why I have NOT made the Modkid Claudia since Camden was 3??????????  (Naturally, because I want to find it SO BADLY, I cannot find a photo of her first version.)

My bad, as I love the pattern.  I need to make sure to make one more before she sizes out of this pattern.  It is so cute, and for this one in particular, I put in quite a bit of work.

I had help from my ladies at Modern Domestic in picking the coordinating fabric, as I hadn't, for whatever reason, purchased any from the same line as the main fabric.  The coordinating fabric is perfect!

Because it has been so long since I last made it, I can be sure I probably did a much better job this time around.  For example, I likely sewed it up per pattern instructions last time, but this time, I went the extra mile.  The bodice lining is first sewn to the zipper, then bodice outer is attached and top-stitched down to the zipper.  I did NOT want top-stitching, as it isn't as class on a zipper, on my opinion, and I wanted the inside finished, rather than having exposed, serged edges.  So, I had to stare at it a bit in trying to make it all work.  I sewed the lining to the skirt first, then I had to later hand-stitch the bodice outer to the skirt and the zipper - AND hand-stitch the bodice lining to the seam of the sleeve and bodice.  In making up this crazy plan, I hadn't accounted for the gap at the bottom of the zipper - on the OUTside of the dress.  YIKES.  There went the idea of being classy, aha.  I ended up ironing a small bit of fabric and hand-stitching that into the space.  I think it turned out well enough, though it clearly isn't idea.

See the bit of fabric under the zipper, to cover up the raw edge??

I will say the tie is incredibly too long for this dress.  I get the idea of wrapping it around a few times, but I actually cut the width of the fabric three times to get the length, which was still technically 14 inches shorter than what the pattern called for.  I personally would have even preferred cutting the width of fabric twice - and saved fabric.

I just think in its simplicity, it's such a fancy dress, and Camden loves it - yay!!!  She will likely wear this on her third day of school this Wednesday.  Such a fancy kid ;)

Some updates and what's happening:

First day of school!!!

How the bathroom looks so far

Yikes!!!  Need things OUT of this room!

Summer Prep! Two Modkid Patterns

Dudes.

I accomplished a lot over the past three-ish weeks!  I whipped out three dresses, one pair of shorts and one pair of capris!  One dress, the Roller Skate, is already blogged up.

Top #2 for the day...the first one was immediately stained

The two dresses will be written about later, but for today, I am featuring two Modkid patterns - the Grace and the Hannah.  Sadly, for both version, I only did the bottoms.  I didn't have enough of any shirt fabric to match ANYthing I was able to use for the shorts, and I didn't want to make the top for the Grace, because the last time I made it, I had a horrible fit on Camden, though it may have been that I used a heavy fabric in the top portion.

So!  Nothing too grand to say about the Grace pattern.  I have made the capris once before, though I had wanted to make them last year and never got around to it.  There are only TWO pattern pieces, peeps.  I LOVE that.  I mean, there IS a ruffle, but I'm not into ruffles, so, no, thanks ;)  This pattern doesn't require much fabric, which is also great!  I may have lengthened the size I made, just to get a bit more wear out of them, but otherwise, they're great!!!  I am awesome, too (LOL), and used stash left-overs from Camden's Sunday Brunch outfit I sewed two Christmases ago.  Yay me!  These'll work great with any camisoles or tees.

She LOVES these Princess in Black books!

As for the Hannah shorts - I am so excited about what I did with them to jazz up the pattern.  I didn't use buttons at the cuffs, but I knew they'd be pretty lame if I added NO interest.  So, the easy way for me to do that, in this case, was to cut against the grain for the inner pocket piece and the back pockets.  As for the back pocket trim, I then cut on the bias - and made sure to use interfacing to get a crisp finish! - to add extra spice.  They fit super well, and I smile every time I see Camden wear them, aha!  I used a blue shot cotton for the cuff facings and the pocket lining, and that's important to ME, though nobody else can see that, LOL.

Those pockets!!

That blue shot cotton!

As for the Hannah shorts - I am so excited about what I did with them to jazz up the pattern.  I didn't use buttons at the cuffs, but I knew they'd be pretty lame if I added NO interest.  So, the easy way for me to do that, in this case, was to cut against the grain for the inner pocket piece and the back pockets.  As for the back pocket trim, I then cut on the bias - and made sure to use interfacing to get a crisp finish! - to add extra spice.  They fit super well, and I smile every time I see Camden wear them, aha!  I used a blue shot cotton for the cuff facings and the pocket lining, and that's important to ME, though nobody else can see that, LOL.

Anyway, I am getting closer to finishing summer projects for Camden.  She is crazy lacking in dresses, though, and I hope to sew up a few of those after I complete a shorts outfit for her.

Family times of recent....

Watching Camden at BMX

Silly dad, making the wrapping paper....

Camden's birthday books!

What she made at the Art Station