Bringing them home - Similar, but not the same

I just need to get it out of the way: Yoooooohoooooo, yippi, huuuurrray!!! I'm on Project Run and Play ...

I am Tone from Bless and I love to create clothes for my twins.

Okay, now we can get back to the reason why I'm here today, namely designing clothes for kids.

My twins are 7 years old.. When I first found out I was carrying twins, I just kind of knew I didn't want to dress them completely the same. They are two (very) different individuals, and they need to show that also through the way they are dressed. I think the same goes for siblings.

If you look through my blog, you will see lots of clothes made for my girls that:

1: are made from the same pattern, but different fabrics

2: are made from the same fabrics, but different patterns.

3: are really made for twins

When trying to make outfits similar, but not the same, I think it is important to take a few things into consideration.

My girls are very different, and I do want their clothes to show off their personalities, yet match.

For this Similar, but not the same, I've made two very different outfits, but they still match - the girls would still be considered as sisters, but they would not be called by each other's name.

For this outfit, there are some features that are common, like the color scheme - gray and red, and lace. 

I made a shirt and a skirt for one of the twins and a dress for the other one. (and as much as I've ranted about matching the personality, guess what, the "dress" twin doesn't like her dress, she wants it without all the lace... but she was a good sport and played along for the photo shoot)

I'll show you a mini tutorial for how I made the shirt. You'll find tutorials for the dress and the skirt at my blog.

Use a pattern with a raglan or make a pattern from an old shirt. The Sienna Dress pattern is a good pattern for this cause.

I just made my own.

1. Sew the side seams of the bodice

2. Sew the sleeve together.

 Here you can see my sleeves folded in half - measure how long you want the lace.

 Cut the lace 2-3 inches wider than the sleeves and the desired length.

 Now it's time to attach the lace and the sleeves to the bodice part. Pin the lace to the sleeve, make a couple of ruffles. Make sure the lace is around on the right side of the sleeve. Pin it on both sides.

 It will look like this when it is sewn on.

And like this ... Pin it again to the neck line, attach the neck piece like the pattern tells you to.

My fabric was very knitty (is that even a word?) and stretchy and my front piece was a little big, hence the zipper. But we like the look of it.

so if you please - attach a zipper!

I hope you will come and visit me at my blog!

I'm so happy to have visited today, thank you LiZ and Elizabeth!