More spring sewing

I haven’t felt much like cleaning lately. I mean, I’m doing the minimum – picking up toys and washing dishes and cleaning up the 8,000 messes that the two kids and husband make every day. But I haven’t felt like REALLY cleaning – scrubbing and sorting and A Place For Everything And Everything In Its Place. Instead, I’ve been reading, knitting, and sewing personal stuff. I tend to hate February. Hate it. Longest month of the year. Cold, depressing. So very winter. ugh.

So, you know, I’m hibernating.

At any rate, I made myself three more skirts and Genna two dresses. A pair of new PJ pants has been requested by Wally, so I hope to get those done next week.

(please ignore the lack of ironing, but feel free to admire my awesome socks.) These two skirts are both made from linen – the green is a nice organic linen I picked up on clearance. The tan is the same linen I use for many of my Wallypop and Boulevard Designs products. I always have a bolt or two on hand. I used my Super Easy Patternless A-Line Skirt tutorial, but actually made myself a paper pattern for a two-panel skirt (a front piece and a back piece) and then cut it out on the bias for both of these skirts. I don’t tend to do bias-cut skirts often, because they use SO MUCH fabric, and I’m cheap that way, but I love the drape of bias skirts.

The green one, I cut out a wedge from the side of the hem and inserted a little ruffle. I think this might have worked out better with a less stiff fabric, but it still looks ok. The green one is made with a zipper at the side waist. The tan one, I cut wider and bound the waist with Fold over Elastic (the elastic binding sometimes used on diapers and covers) to make an easy pull on skirt. I totally borrowed the idea from, I think, Amy Karol at Angry Chicken. I’ve used FOE to bind gathered edges of tops, and on children’s clothes, but never on a skirt waistband.

This one is another made from leftovers from ring slings. It’s a four-panel skirt, using the ideas in the Super Easy Patternless A-Line Skirt tutorial, but making the waist wider to use elastic instead of a zipper.

Genna’s dresses. The blue one is made from a McCall’s pattern (I do actually own patterns, too!). The wrap dress is from this tutorial at Tiny Happy. It would have looked way, way cuter with handmade bias tape, but I was quickly running out of naptime and decided for forgo the pretty, wide bias tape in favor of something pulled from my Bin Of Bias Tape. The dress is actually quite large, and probably won’t fit her well until next year, which is a little disappointing, particularly considering that I could have easily figured this out by just taking a minute to think about it. Ah, well.

Sundresses are my absolute favorite for Genna. They can be made appropriate for winter simply by putting a long sleeve shirt underneath, and maybe some pants or Little Leg Warmers. In spring, or cooler days in summer, they are matched with a short sleeve shirt and Little Leg Warmers if needed. And of course, they can be worn as is for hot weather. Many sundresses also last for several years, if they’re wide and drapey, which is an added bonus.

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