Recently my daughter has been into pink. Waaaay into it. Especially when it’s paired with purple. Oh, barf. Pink has never been a color I’ve been attracted to and though I’m sometimes strangely drawn to purple, it’s not my favorite either. Together? No way! Sewing something you hate is no fun, but sewing something that will end up being hated is even worse.

So I came up with a compromise: a salmony pink paired with burnt orange. Boom! We both love it. The pink is a thrifted sweatshirt fabric that is super soft on the inside–sweatshirt fleece maybe. Is there such a thing? And the orange is an old tee shirt. The pattern is completely made up and I’m not super happy with it, but I think it’ll do.

It’s a raglan sleeve with a high-low hem. I haven’t been able to get this shirt that Brienne made out of my head. There was going to be a lot more color blocking going on, but in the end it was too much. I love the idea of striped cuffs, but I liked this shirt more with 3/4 length sleeves. My daughter did not agree, so I made the sleeve hem big enough to roll up. It’s all about compromise these days.

The gold polka dot leggings were easy peasy. The only mishap came when I went to hem the bottoms. Instead of pressing a nice crease, my iron melted the damn fabric. Luckily they melted in just the right place, so they’re not too short. I serged the bottoms and called it a day.

Stylish, comfy, pink: this outfit ticks all the boxes.

If you’d like to know more about these items, you can see all the details on their KCW page: sweatshirt and leggings.

When Stacey asked me to be a part of her Scandinavian style series, I jumped at the chance. But what is Scandiavian style? I don’t think I could have summed it up better than Mie, who is Scandinavian herself. She said Scandianavian style is clean lines and cool vibes.

And I have to add, bold prints! I have always admired how those northerly folk embrace the crazy and make it look so natural. It’s not easy to mix and match bold patterns. But I think my daughter pulled off polka dots and flowers quite well.

let’s start with the pants:

PATTERN: the skinny pants pattern is from Happy Homemade vol 5 (did you hear vol 2 is out in English?! post on that awesomesauce coming soon). I made this pattern in orange a few years ago for my middle son.

FABRIC: this floral fabric is amazing. It’s cotton with some spandex in it, not a lot, but enough to give it some weight and some give. I was hoarding it for myself, but it was too perfect for these pants and I had to cut into it.

SEWING: I muddled around with the pattern a lot trying to make sure the pants would be skinny, but not skin tight. I would actually like them to be skinnier than they are, but maybe this way they will fit until the spring. 

now for the jacket:

PATTERN: the nituna jacket pattern from Figgy’s

FABRIC: I think it is quilting cotton, which I don’t sew with very often, but the polka dot pattern was just so right.  I lined it with soft, gray fleece.

SEWING: the sewing went well until I got to the welt pockets. I usually like the super concise style of the directions in Figgy’s patterns, but I could not for the life of me figure out what they wanted me to do. The internet was, oddly, not that much help either. After much frustration, I forged my own way, which involved a fair amount of jamming through the machine and seeing what happened.

Except for my welt pocket meltdown, this outfit was a joy to sew. Polka dots have a way of making you smile. And how could crazy flower pants not make you happy? I think those Scandinavians might be on to something.

See all of the Scandinavian Sewing Series on Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy.

I totally left you hanging! Sorry! Well, the dress is done and it turned out even better than I had hoped.

I don’t think I could say any more about this dress–I mean I’ve written 6 posts about it already!

The seventh hour (in case you are wondering) was spend hand sewing the lining to the zipper and sewing a little hook and eye in the back. Oh and sewing a veil, which was very poofy and weird, but veils are poofy and weird by nature, so I think that means I got it right?

Her first communion went well. She didn’t slip and fall in her high heel (!) shoes. And multiple people said the dress fit her personality to a tee. A fantastic compliment if I ever heard one. And she loved the dress! She may not ever wear it again, but maybe her daughter will someday.

polka dot fairy tale dress

• hour 1
• hour 2
• hour 3
• hour 4
• hour 5
• hour 6

Hour #4

1. the zipper: The little strip of plastic we all dread. I knew it was coming up and the damn thing was making me nervous. I have done zippers successfully before, but this was an invisible zipper. An invisible zipper is like a regular zipper folded up weird. First you have to undo the weirdness with an iron, then you can put it in–this involves more muscle than you would expect. :)

I have to say the directions for sewing in the zipper were completely non-intuitive. But the thing that makes Olive + S directions so good is they know when you think it’s weird or you think are doing something wrong and they assure you all is well. The directions for the zipper say, “The zipper tape will seem to be twisted at the bottom if you have everything pinned and stitched properly.”  You can see how reassuring words like that are when it’s late and you don’t know what you are doing and it looks like everything is going to hell.

And everything did not go there with this zipper. Seams match! It is [almost] invisible! Good things all around!

2. the collar: How could four polka dot smiles not make you happy?

The collar went surprisingly well. Again, it’s because the directions are crazy good. They suggests drawing your stitch lines on the collar, because curves can be hard to get just right. And my polka dot smiles are almost just right. They’re not frowning at least. I even got them on the dress correctly on my first try. I did unpick the basting and fiddle with them a bit to get them in the right spot, but still, I was expecting to sew and rip many times. Collars have not been my friend in the past.

I’m going to be totally mean and not show you the dress yet. We still have 3 hours to go! Hang in there.

Have you been keeping up with the kcw blog this week? and the flickr pool? All the clothes you are making are amazing!

Hour #2

1. laying out pattern pieces: I think laying out pattern pieces to use the least amount of fabric is a lost art. I am certainly no good at it. And I find many new patterns I buy don’t even include a layout diagram!  Oliver + S does of course. I tend to use freezer paper for my patterns so I don’t have to pin anything. This photo is right before I ironed all the pattern pieces down. And right after I took this picture I thought, “wait! I should really make a muslin.”

2. making a muslin: this photo should be titled “trying to sew a muslin while carrying on a conversation with a 3 year old (about snacktime) and a 6 year old (about what a muslin is) simultaneously.” The title explains why the darts are on the outside and why one shoulder seam is right and the other so wrong.  It did fit–it may not look like it in the photo, but trust me it fit.

3. cutting the fabric: now this took me the whole hour. Every piece up there is double (either folded in half or two pieces stacked on top of each other).  This is how 6 yards of fabric comes together to make one little dress!

The fairy tale dress (view B) is mostly one color, but the collar and bow can be a contrasting color. Well, obviously you can do whatever you like, but two fabrics are suggested (and it’s a good suggestion). I was going to find a sweet floral print for the second fabric, but then I discovered this vintage sheet in my fabric stash. White swiss dot for the main fabric and multi color polka dot for the contrasting fabric? I mean come on! It’s perfect!