Knit Panic: Summer Garment Sewing

As I try to catch up on recording my sewing here, this post will showcase the clothing items I made for Charlotte this summer and fall.  It all started when I had a little bit of a panicked feeling, realizing that I had a few one yard cuts of knit fabric stowed away- fabric intended to be dresses for Charlotte.  My days of being able to just buy one yard of fabric for my growing daughter are nearly over.  She's growing so fast.  

So I started with this one yard of Ann Kelle flower knit.  I started on to cut the fabric for a Me Hearties dress (Patterns for Pirates), after cutting the large circle skirt, I soon realized that I did not have enough fabric to cut out the bodice pieces for the dress.  It did not help that this particular fabric seriously had a 3-4" selvedge!  I ran to the computer to see if I could buy more of the fabric somewhere and I did find a source quickly.  But I really didn't like the idea of spending at least $13 more to make up for my mistake- especially when I was really trying to use up the fabric I already had and not buy more!

So I decided I'd try my hand at making Charlotte a skirt.  I don't think I've ever made her a skirt before- dresses are just so satisfying to make....  I clumsily handled the upper part of the circle skirt piece and tried to see if I could simply fold it over to make an elastic channel.  That did not work.  I returned to the internet and found a tutorial that taught me how to put an elastic waistband on the circle skirt piece and I had it done in less than an hour.  (I think I used this tutorial on Pretty Providence.)

Within the same week, I was able to make a Me Hearties dress with another one yard cut of knit fabric (cutting much more carefully this time and it helped a lot that the selvedge for this fabric was much thinner):

As much as I love the Me Hearties dress, I really wanted to try another knit dress pattern.  Happily, I already had one in my stash: the Hopscotch dress pattern by Oliver and S.  This pattern was a total game changer in using up stash- you only need one yard (or less!) to make a size 6 and I whipped up this hot air balloon dress in less than an hour.  It honestly is the EASIEST garment I have ever made in my life.  I made it just in time for our favorite Colorado Springs event - Labor Day Liftoff.  Poor Charlotte is being a good sport but she was cold when I had her take off her jacket for this picture.  

  I soon made another Hopscotch dress for a visit to the Denver aquarium- we love to be corny and theme our wardrobe choices with fun destinations:

So I was definitely happy to use up about four yards of stashed knit fabric.  I've decided it's definitely a little stressful to stash garment fabrics- the intended recipient might eventually outgrow the yardage you've acquired!  Lesson learned.

Finally, just before the craft fair craziness descended on my life, I made Charlotte an Oliver and S Apple Picking dress.

Here she is posed in front of a sneak peak of a recently finished quilt top I still need to document on the blog:

In the early days after Charlotte's birth, I put her in a cute little yellow sleeper and my mom and I agreed that "yellow was not her color."  Haha!  Fashion choices for a newborn.......  But I think she pulls this dress off rather well.  The fabric was a bargain find when I stumbled upon the Keepsake Quilting clearance sale last summer. 

Thanks for reading!

Craft Fair Preparations: Seventy Zip Pouches

I've been sewing so much lately but having a hard time fitting in blogging too. I want to share a big recent finish: 70 zip pouches I completed for some upcoming craft fairs.  These took me just under two weeks to make.  All the fabric is from my stash, about half the zippers were thrifted (from some awesome yard sale scores!) and I ordered some zippers from Zipit on Etsy and I ordered some hardware from Amazon.  

I did NO craft fair sewing this past summer simply because I didn't have a lot of time and I had been wait-listed for the two shows I had applied to- I really had minimal motivation.  But within a few weeks, I got off of the wait lists and accepted to a third show.  That third show happens to conflict with one of the shows I'd disregarded - thinking I had no hope of getting in.... - so now I am double booked for November 11.  I worked it out to have my husband run one show for me and a kind friend agreed to watch my kids (in exchange for some handmade goodies).  But I basically feel like I need to have DOUBLE the inventory that I might otherwise try to carry... hence 70 zip pouches!  I spent one full weekend cutting the fabrics and interfacing and matching zippers to each pouch.  After that, I had a goal of making eight pouches per day and I pretty much stuck to that except for Sundays and one busy Saturday.  

Elm Street Quilts is running an awesome Bag It event, encouraging crafters and sewists to make bags and learn new bag making skills.  I am going to submit this post to their link-up but only count these as "6" bags because I think it would be pretty obnoxious to claim 70 entries and I seriously don't even have time to photograph all of these in small-ish groups.  Go check out the other bags people are making at the linkup!