Tutorial 3 - knit dresses

Today I want to show you a velveteen or velour t-shirt type dress with a feminine touch.

I love these effortless dresses that are warm and so comfortable to wear. And an easy make on top of that!

  Materials needed:

70 cm or 27,5 inches of knit fabric - I used velour because it's nice and warm(size 6 yr)

15 cm or 6 inches cut in two of elastic

Cutting the fabric:

Lay your fabric double, take a shirt and lay it over - double. Cut around it, make it as long as you desire. Do the same front and back.

Sleeves: lay the t-shirt sleeve over, cut around it, but make the top part taller than the shirt sleeve - look at picture three above.

 Lay your front and your back pieces on the fabric, cut along the edge, remove the piece and cut out pieces one inch wide - pictures above.

 Sew shoulder seams of the dress and the neck lining. Put the neck lining inside the dress, right sides together. Sew around the neck. Flip the neck lining over to the wrong side of the fabrid, sew two seams around the neck.

 Sleeves: Take one piece of elastic, place it in the middle of the sleeve on the top - sew, while you're pulling on the elastic. It will look like the above pictures - front and back.

 Fasten the sleeve to the dress. Make pleats with pins as shown above, to make the sleeve and the dress sleeve hole fit together.

The sleeve is a little narrow at the bottom, so hem, then sew the seam from the end of the sleeve to the bottom of the dress.

Hem the dress.

 Fun photo shoot - if she can do what she wants, and not me....

Serious posing....

Now - come back tomorrow for another tutorial - three done, 27 to go....

Getting ready for kcwc

 I'm getting ready for this fall's kcwc - kids clothes week challenge, at Elsie Marley's - I'm so excited this season, I just HAD to make a run to the fabric store today to get ready.

 And thiese are the fabrics I bought - all warm, cozy fabrics for fall and winter. I can't wait to get started. Most of them will turn into long sweaters and dresses - the black ribbed fabric has wool in it and will be leggings.

 Most of the fabrics are some sort of velveteen, one is jeans fabric, one cotton to go with the green velveteen - I'm picturing it as the lining to a hood.

 this year I'm really doing the kcw-challenge - and I'm pinning all kinds of dresses, tunics, skirts and sweatshirts I like over at Pinterest

My girls are very busy today, making memories of long Saturdays filled with playing mommy with the dolls and the neighbor girl. They love playing like this so much - and I know this is one of the things they will think about growing up. Yesterday we went to the movie theater, and I wanted to go to McD afterwards, they didn't have time, they had to go home to play...Gotta love it. 

What's your Saturday looking like?

First day of school -

Wednesday was the big day the three of us have been waiting for all summer - the very first day of school. The girls had such a good time, Angel came home exclaiming - I made a new friend today. I love their teacher (so far) - I'm a teacher myself, so impressing me is hard, I have a lot of opinions about how school should be. Just saying.

I love this picture of Princess and her friend, holding hands while waiting for their names to be called. Angel was a little more hesitant.

Princess wore her skirt. I made three skirts for Angel - she chose this one, not the one she designed. I made her design into a skirt and top - she likes her skirt, but hates the top. Princess likes both, but daddy came visiting from NY with new t-shirts and they decided to wear those. They're shiny....

It was a rainy, cold morning and they had to wear leggings.

I am getting the tutorial ready for the pleat bubble skirt. Things just kind of pile up when vacation is over and mom is back at work and Princess and Angel started school. Can't wait for my au pair to handle some of the things at home.... Not too long now, I think.

Showing off thier back-packs, they are so proud of them. I am so proud of my little school girls - they come home, eat dinner and then do homework before they head out to play. They love school so far, they are happy, pleasant girls.

I loove making their lunch boxes - yesterday I put a note in their box, with mommy - heart - their name - the first thing Princess told me when I picked them up was thank you for the note - so I had to make another one today. It is a drawing of a butterfly - and you are beautiful written on it.

Today I discovered these - I think I will print some of these - or make similar ones in Norwegian. Then they will now that I think about them when they eat their lunches.

Project Back-to-School clothes part 4 - the skirt

So the skirt is done - and I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of Princess wearing it - it will come, with the t-shirt (when it's all done... ) I am SO happy with how the skirt turned out - it's a pleat bubble skirt. I lined it with a thinner fabric, and chose a green - the t-shirt will have the same green color in it. This is Princess' response when she tried it: "I think I will wear this a lot" I guess it's a success.

I've also made som tunics and a pair of bloomers for my self.

The back of the black tunic. i made the patterns my self. The two tunics are pretty much the same, but the black one has a different neckline and sleeves than the pink one. I don't really know what color the pink is, sometimes it looks nude and sometimes it looks pinkish - I'm claiming it's pink. I have to get the rest of the school clothes ready today or tomorrow - they start school on Wednesday, and I have to have time to make or buy something else if they should not like it.... like that will ever happen... picky 6-year olds..

I'm also guest blogging this weekend, and will show you how to make a really beautiful (I think it is) dress for yourself. See you then. - and See Kate Sew has a pleat week this week - goes well with my skirt.