Bringing home guest post from PR&P + winner of Girl Charlee Fabrics giveaway.

Today I am bringing home the guest post I did on Project Run & Play last week.

 I really love to make every day clothes with a little twist because lets face it that is quite a big part of life. And sewing with knits for kids is just perfect. It is comfortable for them to wear and it washes easily. Peeerfect!

So here we are with another summer version of the My Inner Grandma Dress - this time even in summer colors. Another version you think? Check out HERE, HERE and HERE. The pattern is self drafted and it might be one of my favorites. One of those you have in your head for a while and then it almost comes out better than you imagined.

The navy/ballet pink stripy fabric is this gorgeous super soft light weight cotton jersey blend from Girl Charlee. And if you after this post is inspired to make your own knit dress you should make the jump to their web shop because that is amaaaazing. But please stay here for a bit first so you don't miss the tutorial.

I am not going to give you a full tutorial because I just don't see the point when the pattern so far is only hanging out in my sewing room. SO I would rather focus on one part of the dress. In this case the double layered front- and back-in-one shoulder yoke and then a few snapshots of the rest of the sewing process. I hope that is okay with you ladies!

First I wanted to show you the parts that go into the dress. I was not able to get it all in one photo so I divided it in top part and bottom part. The parts involved in the tutorial is in this photo. Notice the 'front top'. I have made it with a fold over/build in front facing. In the end buttons/snaps will run along the CF (center front) purple line. Then there is the yoke which is cut on fold TWO times - so there is actually four layers in this photo. This way we can use to the second yoke to cover up seam allowance on the inside of the dress. And that is what this tutorial is about.

Just a quick look at the bottom skirt parts. As you can see does the front and back pieces have different curves for a better fit.

Okay, back to yoke tutorial. Sew the gathering threads and sew front and back top pieces to the outer yoke - right side against right side of fabric. 
Btw as you can see have I chosen not to have the gathering go all the way to the sleeve opening (it stops like one inch before) simply because...well, gathering adds fabric/volume and this is all good and kind of the point but I don't want it near the side of the sleeve seams where it can almost look like a bad fit.

Now you take the inside yoke and sew the front part of yoke to the top of the front facing (right against right). See inside those 'round' yellow circles - should we just pretend my three year old helped me make these?! Drawing course up next, jeeez! The rest of the front yoke seam towards the sleeve opening is free for now. I just folded the seam allowance up into the yoke with the iron. This is a look on the inside of the dress. You can still see the seam allowance where the back top and back yoke has been sewed together....but not for long - uhh the suspense!

Now to the fun part. You add your neck rib to your neck opening (right against right) and then you fold the front top/front facing in that folding line I showed on an earlier photo. Basically you wrap your inside and outside neck opening around the neck rib and sew it all in one go. See photo above.

And when you fold it out again it looks like this. This is a photo of the inside of the dress. Next step is to sew the back inside yoke to the back top and outside yoke seam so that that seam is hidden too. First you fold the seam allowance on the back yoke inside the yoke and then lie it down and cover the seam that is already there (back top to outside yoke). Then you reach your hand from the side (sleeve opening) into the middle of the seam (this is easiest to do with two rounds of sewing because of the narrow space in the back yoke) and grab the seam allowance from the inside yoke and the seam already there (back top to outside yoke) pull out and sew from CB and out to the sleeve opening. This you do from each sleeve opening and also on the rest of both front yoke seams too (the part that is not sewed to the front facing). WHY in the world did I not take more photos of these steps, sorry!!

I found this photo from another project but the same technique. Your seam allowances end up hidden inside a double yoke. Make more sense now?

And here you can see the final result - again seen from the inside of the dress. Now that I see this photo I am kind of annoyed I just overlocked those front facing edges....bias tape next time.

Here you see a photo of the rest of the sewing. Side seams of top, waist and skirt has been sewed as well as the sleeves and hemming of skirt and sleeves with a narrow rib. Next is sewing the dress' three main parts together horizontal and sew on the sleeves. Apparently I did not feel like standing on a chair photographing that day so I had to overlap the parts a bit to make it fit in the photo. After drawing course comes photo course, promise!

One of the things I hate when I sew this dress is getting the lines from the yoke and the top part of the sleeve to match. But I know that if I rush and tell myself it is good enough even though they don't meet up then that is all I am going to see when my kids are wearing this. Ehhh, I think that is being called an (annoying) perfectionist but I can't help it and I have decided just to accept it. Does that photo with the YES! also makes you feel good or is it just me being crazy, huh?!

Dress is almost done and, well, I think the photos says it all: shirring next!

I have shared this shirring tip before but in case someone missed it. When you are done sewing the shirring use your steam iron to blow steam on the seams (from inside or outside it does not matter). Don't touch the dress - keep iron like 1-2 inches above and the elastic will gather a bit more. You can also give it a whirl in your tumble dryer - yes you got it - it is the heat that does the magic trick. Above you can see the difference.



Pheeew is anyone still with me here?
Because now it is time to announce the winner of two yards knit of your choice:
Lindsey Somerville.
Big congrats!!
And thank you everyone for playing along!

Please click HERE to see which link parties this post is (going to) participating in.

Winner of the cotton voile skirt is.....

Michelle Smith.

CONGRATULATIONS!

You should already have received the email. Please send me your address within 4 days so I can send the skirt to you.

To the rest of you who did not win....THANK YOU so much for entering ! It really meant a lot to me to read all the comments and the answers to the question about what you liked and disliked about Sewing Like Mad. SO many sweet comments, thank you thank you!

Now if you are a little sad you did not win anything you can either hope for one of the other 514 (yes, fivehundredandfourteen) giveaways that was uploaded to Sew, Mama, Sew!'s giveaway week - I mean I am sure you entered another one, two or hundred of those, right? Or you can jump to my second ever giveaway that is already in full swing HERE. You can win 2 yards of knit fabric of your choice from the fabulous webshop Girl Charlee Fabrics.

Tomorrow I will pick up a good friend in the airport who is visiting me for a couple of days (yay yay yay) so I will take a completely blogger vacation. But just for a couple of days then it is back to finishing up my post for Elegance & Elephant's great series Knock if Off that I am so lucky to have been invited back to.  AND of course find the winner for the next  giveaway. 

Take care and Happy Mother's Day this sunday to the Moms.

Giveaway with Girl Charlee Fabrics.

Are you ready for another giveaway? Gah, stupid question right!
Like I mentioned the other day I am having my first guest post on a blog that is a bit of a phenomenon in the sewing blog world. Yes, it is of course Project Run & Play. If you don't know it you should definitely check it out - well you have to go there to check out my guest post anyway, right (there is a tutorial and all)! 
And if you are here on my blog because you read my guest post 'over there' and now want to participate in the giveaway or just check out some more of my stuff (well, I can always hope, right!) then very much welcome.

Yes, I am sure you my loyal readers (I definitely have at least like 5-10 of those) will recognize this dress. The summer version of My Inner Grandma. It is made with this really lovely light weight cotton jersey from Girl Charlee Fabrics. And when I decided I wanted to make this for the PR&P guest post I asked them if they were up for a little giveaway....and luckily for you they said yes.

I have picked out a few of my favorites but there are lots and lots more. And seriously (and I am not saying this because we are doing this giveaway) I can't believe how low the prices are and how high the quality is. Biggest problem I have there is controlling myself that is for sure. 

Soooo you know the drill....log into the PunchTab with your email or Facebook account and knock yourself out earning entries so those 2 yards can be yours.

A whole lot of shirring, dots and a dress.

Sometimes I really don't use my patterns enough. I made the kids shirt version of this pattern for season 4 of Project Run & Play - signature style back in May 2012 and the month after I made it into this shirt dress and then.......nothing. And I mean I really really like it so there is absolutely no reason for not sewing some more items with this pattern.

Not long ago I tested E&E Pattern's Bubble Pocket Shorts and for the photos I styled them with the shirt and Justine (Sew Country Chick) left me a comment saying that she liked the shorts but WHERE was that shirt from and that made me finally dig out that pattern again.....it had made it quite a long way down in pattern box, as you can probably imagine.

This time around I fixed the way too long top part that I am mentioning in the first shirt dress post - so yes waist seam is actually placed in the waist area this time - and I added pockets (which is kind of obvious in this model, right!)

I also added another things that was 100% random but a detail I am sooooo happy for. 

When I did the final fitting on Wilma (as in it was done and I was just checking things looked they way I expected them to look) I noticed that yes the dress was too big on her waist - because it was always intended to be worn with a belt so it was supposed to be big - but it kind of fitted her front and all the extra was on her back. And ding a light bulb went off in my head and I got the idea to add shirring just on the back waist like you can see on the next photo. 

What do you think? Is the dress missing its belt or you prefer this model?

Btw did you notice that everything in the background is wet in these photos - incl. Wilma's hair? Well, it has been a bit of a crazy weather day here in North Carolina. It has been pouring down all afternoon and Wilma was out having fun in the rain (until the thunder came and I called her in) and suddenly we literally went from rain directly to sun. I don't remember ever seeing anything like it. But it was just what I needed to take these photos.

Now that you are here you should check out my first ever giveaway HERE. You can win a woman cotton voile skirt that I have made.

Please click HERE to see which link parties this post is (going to) participating in.

Who wants this skirt? It's GIVE AWAY time!!

Okay people this is seriously exciting for me.....and hopefully also for you.

My first give away!

I was actually planning that my first give away was going to be in the end of next week with the aaaamazing knit webshop Girl Charlee when I am doing my first guest post on Project Run & Play as one of their sew-along-friends. 

I know!!! 

That previous sentence contains so much exciting news for my little blog here that I can barely take it. I mean give aways with an external amazing sponsor AND guest posting on one of the blogs that I have been following since I discovered this amazing world of sewing blogs. Friday the 10th of May is the day so please don't miss that. 

BUT before we get to that I realized I needed to test this give away thing. More precisely I needed to test The PunchTab that will help you earn entries and me to (hopefully) keep track of everything. It is not set up directly for Bloglovin (like it is with Facebook and Pinterest) so I am kind of curious if that will work. Cross fingers!

And it is actually so lucky that I have made this skirt a couple of months ago and when I was finished I decided to either try to sell it or give it away here on the blog. I never came around to the selling part sooooooo who want to win this skirt?

The skirt is made in this beautiful 100% cotton voile from Victoria & Albert Museum for Westminster/Rowan Fabrics. Collection: Bromley Voile. Color: navy. Because this fabric is slightly sheer I have lined it with a simple navy 100% cotton voile. The lace is a drop crochet lace in 100% polyester. It is sometimes super hard to photograph neon colors....but the lace is totally classic pink neon. You can see the color better in THIS post.

The skirt has an elastic waist and is measuring: 73 cm / 28.7 inch when not stretched out. Which means you at least have to have that measurement where you normally wear your skirts to fit it. But is can for sure be stretched to at least 80 cm / 31.5 inch and still be comfortable to wear.
BUT I also wants to add that since this is a skirt with an elastic gathered waist you can VERY easily and I would almost say with minimum sewing skills either tighten the three narrow elastics that runs in the three casings or change them to longer ones. All you need is access to a sewing machine and I have a feeling quite a lot who reads this blogs has that, right!?

The full length of the skirt is: 60.5 cm / 23.8 inch.

My guess is that with this current elastic length it is a size 38 (euro) / 8 (US).

I just want to show you a photo of the skirt on the inside because I managed to make it with no visible seams and you know that always makes me happy.

Log in to the PunchTab below using your Facebook account or email.
So knock yourself out and for the sake of my desire to get more followers please try to earn as many entries as you can. Please don't hesitate to ask me if you have any questions.

The winner will be announced here on the blog saturday the 11th of May 2013 so make sure to check back in.

KCW: (Day 2, 3, 4 & 5) Top and Shorts.

Seriously there are people out there who sew an outfit a day during KCW. What? I am ehhhhhh not one of them. This top and shorts took me four days...and we were even stuck in the house tue- and wednesday because Evelyn had a fever, ha I guess I am taking a break from that super fast sewing I used to do. Well, at least I am super happy with the result. 

The top is a bit of a remix. Two Japanese patterns both from THIS book. Most of the top is from pattern D but the sleeves are from pattern K and since both D and K are made from the same bodice you don't have to change a thing. Score!

Love those little pockets.

The shorts are the newly released Bubble Pocket Shorts from E&E Patterns (I tested them HERE). This time in the classic version (I tested the sailor version).
Since I already made them in same type of fabric only in green I had no intentions of making another pair in same fabric. BUT after sewing the top my eyes fell on that blue fabric and it was just oh so perfect for it. AND Wilma complained that the green ones were scratching her so I don't have much hope for her wearing them. The fabric is quite soft and I have no idea what she is talking about but you all know that when a child has that opinion about some clothes then that's the way it is. Argh!

So I decided to fully line them which was actually super easy. Simply cut the shorts pattern pieces twice and of course skip the pockets for the lining fabric part and you can also skip the waistband facing all together because you can simply just sew the outer and lining fabric together at the waist. Agreed it would of course be even prettier if the waistband facing was there and the lining shortened to start under the facing but since the whole point of this lining was no outer fabric touching the skin I skipped it.
I had to change the leg cuffs a bit because they originally just are double height folded and again that would mean outer fabric against the skin. So I folded the leg cuff pattern piece in half lengthwise added seam allowance and cut two in outer fabric and two in lining fabric and voila the shorts are fully lined.

And I am happy to report that she has worn them all day since the photo shoot this afternoon so I think they are approved, phew!

Check HERE to see the link parties this post is participating in.

KCW: Summer version of My Inner Grandma dress.

As you probably know KCW (Kids Clothes Week) is here. To give a super short introduction: Meg from the great blog Elsie Marley came up with an idea to get of the sofa and into the sewing room: creating momentum by getting all interested to sign up to sew kids clothes 1 hour a day for 7 days straight. I think the success even surprised herself and it has turned into a seasonal sewing challenge with literally hundreds sewing along. In other words lots of fun!

My little distracted girl....at least she stood still!

I started with a summer version of my self drafted My Inner Grandma dress. Short sleeves and some thin sooooft jersey from the amazing knit only webshop Girl Charlee Fabrics. I love that leopard (but okay I kind of love all leopard so no surprise there).

Now we just need the summer to come back to North Carolina because the last couple of days has been so cold I had to turn the heating back on.
Oh and just in case you wondered....no, this dress did not just take one hour to make, ha!

You can check out my Instagram for my next project. (See sidebar).

Check HERE to see the link parties this post is participating in.