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Monday, September 23, 2013

All in a whirl...

We have taken a break from toy sewing here at the little house. Big has suddenly shot up an entire size overnight, it seems, and so she has needed a new wardrobe.

That also means that Little needed some compesatory outfits as well. Fortunately, circle skirts are ridiculously easy to make and so much fun to wear!

In fact, we are circle skirt mad at our house!


To make a skirt for my girls, I only use one metre of fabric per skirt - so cheap if you can get awesome fabric on sale, like all of the above fabrics, which are just a sample of what we have recently made!

Using the full metre also means no seams! All I have to do is edge the waist circle and add elastic and then I do a rolled hem on the overlocker. Once you work out a pattern for the sizes you need, it can take as little as 20 minutes to produce a completed skirt!!

But I must confess that I have a secret weapon! To make a circle skirt pattern involves a lot of maths - definitely not my strong point! Enter The Snugbug! I stumbled across their blog post on ciricle skirts that contains a lot of information. But right down the bottom, in the last paragraph of the post is a link to a spreadsheet that works it all out for you!!

I saved it on my computer and have not looked back. Neither have the girls. And what little girl wouldn't want to have twirling fun?!


 I also bought a copy of Five and Ten Designs, a pattern book that sounded awesome: 1 dress block, five designers and ten options for dresses. The block is supposed to fit ages 1 to 10. The pictures on the website are so professional and beautiful. I wanted all of the dresses immediately!

Unfortunately, my first go was not so awesome. I picked the flapper inspired dress, followed all of the instructions, and could not get it over Big's head. It was too small everywhere, despite measuring. Fortunately, I was able to expand the added panel (I think I had to quadruple it) and I added a zip to make getting it on and off easier. But it still will not fit her for very long and the waist tie is nowhere near long enough to have a lovely bow at the front like the picture. Hopefully the next pattern I choose works out a little better...


She is such a photo loving poser! She will sit for a couple of serious photos before pulling weird faces and cracking herself up. But I seem to love those photos more than the serious ones!

We are currently on holidays visiting the girls' Gran and Poppy in Perth, but I have some new designs that I am hoping to get prototypes completed when I get back. What are you up to these school holidays?

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