I saw a really cute dress in Ottobre and decided to make it, but I didn’t want to use a nice fabric since I wanted to test it out first. It’s made with a really cute babycord and binded with babycord of a different print.

This is what it’s supposed to look like. It’s from the Ottobre magazine 4/2007 issue.

I came across some cute vintage corduroy in eBay and thought that it looked cute. It was cheap and no one seemed to want it. I wonder why… What was I thinking? It ended up sitting there and I couldn’t find anything I could make with this. Ideally the garment should be a simple design since the print is so busy and colorful. Then I decided to use this to test out the Ottobre pinafore dress.

Here’s my dizzy sailor girl version. I get dizzy just looking at it:

I couldn’t find anything to coordinate with this print so I ended up using the same fabric to do the binding for the neck and armholes. In addition, this is a medium weight corduroy, not a fine babycord, hence it’s permanently flaring out and does not fall smoothly. I will try to get a picture with R in it.

However, this was a good practice since it was the first time I put in an invisible zipper and it came out really nice too.

I definitely chose the wrong fabric for the project. A busy print is better for a simpler design. However it did a very good job hiding my mistakes…

I’m actually getting productive in the sewing department. Now I wish I could be as good with cleaning up the house, but there will always be time left for that, right?

Here’s the 2nd play dress I sewed up for R. It’s a Baby Lulu ribbed knit using the same Ottobre 1/2009 Muru Jersey Tunic altered to look like a Hanna play dress. Sorry, I have to work on taking better pictures.

A very good friend of ours gave us a few used and loved Hanna Andersson Play Dresses and I fell in love with these dresses right away. They’re the most comfortable dresses a baby girl can own. I decided that this would make a great winter stable and checked the website for more. Of course, like many other good things in life, they come with a high price tag.

It’s good to know how to sew, even not very well. Here’s plan B. I found the perfect(well, almost perfect) Ottobre pattern for this dress - the Ottobre Muru jersey tunic from the Spring 2009 issue. I shortened the upper body and lengthened the lower body to make the skirt. I also make the skirt panels a lot wider to increase the puffiness and the sleeves more narrow.
The fabric is a very soft cotton ribbed knit that I purchase a while ago. I think this print comes in different colors and at the time this was the only available option, so I decided to use this to test out the pattern. I cut out size 92 as the top and size 86 as the length.

Here’s the dress in action. R seems to like it. I paired the dress with a pair of off-white tights and boots. They’re big on R so hopefully she can wear this again next winter. This dress is actually very easy to sew up. I’m surprised how nice it came out. I think the busy print probably helps cover a lot of mistakes. I’m already working on a second one with a prettier print and will post once it’s finished and I can get R to model on a nice day with good lighting.

The boys have always worn sweatpants or knit pants with elastic waist. I always think that no kids would want to wear jeans or dress pants because sweatpants or knit pants are just so much more comfortable. Yes, my boys even wear sweatpants to school on picture day, to a restaurant when we eat out, and even weddings.

Now that M is getting older, I’m starting to think that maybe sometimes he needs a pair of nice khaki pants. Okay, who am I kidding? Of course he’ll never need a pair of nice khaki pants. He’ll do fine with his sweatpants. However, E has a pair of khaki pants with a hole in front of one of the pockets. It was too wasteful to throw out. Charities now have pretty high standards so I don’t even bring them anything with stains on, so forget about pants with a hole on. The next best solution is a pair of pants for M.

I used the pattern from Ottobre 01/2009 Taku linen pants, two back pockets and several pockets in the front. I was able to get enough fabric to make the two back pockets. The best thing about these pants is that they have an elastic waist, which I think M would appreciate, since he never owned a pair of pants with a button and zipper… He was very pschyed to see his new pants. “Wow, they look like they’re hard to make,” he commented and was very willing to try out the pants for me.