Sydney's New Suit (George & Ginger, Patterns for Pirates Mash-Up)

 

I found this lovely plaid wool on sale at Fabricland, and knew I had to make something for my daughter.    It was difficult for me to put my ideas on paper and then find patterns for the outfit I had in my head.

 

YouTube Video of The Sydney Suit

 

As I knew I wanted to make some sort of suit, I thought the Downtown Coat from George & Ginger would be ideal for the jacket. (This is such a cute pattern, but unfortunately the pattern has been discontinued.)

Now to find the perfect skirt. After searching high and low, I could not find a pencil skirt with a flounce that didn't have a zipper.  I have a book I have called Improv Sewing.

In the book there are instructions on how to draft your own woven skirt, using knit panels. This way I didn't have to add any closures. 

 PERFECT!!! 

I thought. 

So the Sydney Skirt, as I'm calling it, it is a mashup of the Pirate Pencil Skirt, the method in the book Improv Sewing, and an added flounce.  



Pirate Pencil Skirt is a free PDF pattern, from Pattern for Pirates.  I just used the size her measurements fit. 









To make the flounce I cut off the bottom 8" of the below length skirt.  And then slit the fabric all along at 2" to create the flounce.  I followed this great tutorial on how to do it. How I create a flounce Pattern-- Sew Custom  I was pretty nervous since I'd never done anything like this before, but it all came together.  For the added fabric panels on the sides, I had to add 1.5" to each piece. I am so happy with how it turned out, my daughter loves it.

It all came together beautifully!!!! I am so pleased with this entire outfit.  It is definitely one of my more challenging outfits to date.

 

 

Finding a top to match is always tricky but thankfully my friend Heidi at Pollywoggles Patterns was doing a pattern test for some tops.  Enter Grasslands T-shirt.   Check out my next blog post for more info on the new release, but here's a sneak peak!!!

 

Just kidding ahhahaha

 

Grasslands t-shirt from Pollywoggles Patterns Blog post

We had a lot of fun taking some photos.   

Libelle Sewing Strike Round 5

 Libelle Sewing Round 5 

 

I'm so excited to announce my first ever fabric strike.  This has been so much fun, and what an awesome team she has.  Stephanie has been the greatest to work with as well, this has been just a great experience.  Now on to the fabric.  I picked the "Retro Cassette tapes" in Athletic, and my daughter fell in love with these Narwhals, which we ordered in swim.  


It's always hard to decide what patterns to use, but what do you do when you have a limited supply, and want to showcase it as well as you can, colour blocking to the rescue!

NARWHALS!!!! 

This has been such a cute suit, she wears it all the time, at least 3 times this week, she has it on now in hopes of running through the sprinkler as well ahahah.  The pattern is my new favourite swim pattern from Pollywoggles, called the Nahanni Swimsuit.  Use code "libellesewing" for 10% at her shop.

 I wanted to make a rash gaurd as well and used a raglan pattern I had on hand, this is the Aurora Raglan from Sofiona Designs.   The only modification I used was to add a band on the bottom to keep it from riding up in the water.

Retro cassette tapes. 

For my outfit, the top is a Stardust and Agnes Mashup, with the centre blocking option (both patterns are free from Halla Patterns).  I paired it with my P4P Peglegs add ons (free pattern).

My daughter's outfit is the Hey June Racer-back dress (free pattern), cut to a top length, and the Halla Knotty Pants shorts for kids, with 2" added to the hemline. 

This is my modified Calista sports bra from SUAT!  and it's so comfortable, going to be making a swim top with this pattern soon. 

I only had a wee bit of fabric left so decided these gals needed some new outfits!!!!  How fun are these, I forgot how much I enjoy making 18" doll clothes.  (I HATE making Barbie clothes!!!!)

This is her American Girl and Maplelea dolls sporting a swimsuit and yoga outfit respectively.

The doll's yoga pants are the Bonnie leggings from M4M.(free pattern)  The top is a hacked version of the swim top I used. I just extended the length of the top and flared it out a bit, and added some FOE on the hemline. 

The swimsuit pattern is from Pixie Faire "Wild waves once piece swimsuit"

Make sure to join her FB group, Libelle Sewing, to see what other people are making.  The round is open until Jul 21st, she also has  CL, FT and Bamboo solids also on pre-order. https://www.libellesewing.com/r5print