Sewing School Clothes (with tutorials)
Hello friends! Its been much too long. Things have been incredibly busy since Kevin has been on TDY to Ft. Knox. We have been busy decluttering the house in preparation for the move, which has been such an encouraging thing for me. I love looking around and feeling less burdened by the clutter, disorganization and an overwhelming amount of stuff. Don't get me wrong, I can clutter-bug along with the best of them, but it is really refreshing to feel like things are where they should be and its less that I have to worry about. *whew*.
We have been doing a decluttering challenge over at the Ravelry version of Reclaiming The Home. If you are not a member of ravelry (or even if you are) feel free to to join us over at the Proboards forums for RTH as well for a decluttering challenge, or just write about your decluttering pursuits on your blog, and link it here so we can see what you're up to. Photos of my decluttering successes to come soon. :)
A big part of getting everything ready for the busy upcoming months, as well as decluttering the stash, has been sewing up clothes in preparation for the girls to start school in the fall.
Those of you who know me, know that I much prefer an open-ended tutorial to a rigid pattern, so that is generally what I work from. I find that they allow me a lot more freedom in interpreting things to my own design, and I feel less like I can fail at it, as well, since the instructions are usually pretty open and fluid.
This top for Anna was made using the peasant shirt tutorial over at Just Tutes. I altered it a bit by not adding elastic to the sleeve. I figured that while things were still warm out it would give a little more ventilation, especially in this humid climate.
(excuse the wrinkles and the grass that needs to be swept. With hubby gone i've let the yard work go a bit - oops. Anna was also only sad because she couldn't find her shoes, and wouldn't believe me that they were in the car - which they were - about 2 feet away. Tears ended instantaneously.)
To go with the shirt I sewed a ruffled skirt to match, from the tutorial over at Grand Revival Design. I LOVE this tutorial. I will be making a lot more of these in different girly fabrics soon. This was my tester, and I used leftover scraps from the march quilt kit to make it. Because I sold some kits using this fabric, the proceeds more than paid for the fabric so I'm considering the materials for this outfit "free."
Abbi's outfit started with the same peasant blouse tutorial, only I added the elastic to the sleeves this time. It worked well with this particular fabric (an old, white sheet that I found at a thrift store for 75-cents!).
The skirt was INCREDIBLY simple. I bought an old valence for 99-cents. The lace came pre-attached. To create the skirt, I simply threaded elastic through the top casing and sewed the two short edges together. Easy peasy, and now she has a beautiful linen and lace skirt to wear to school. If you want to make something similar, but don't have a valence, the Twirly Skirt Tutorial over at House on Hill Road is *fabulous*. We have used that tutorial several times for super-cute skirts for the girls (and will definitely be using it again!)
Total cost of the valence outfit? $1.74.
(oops - more grass to sweep! - sorry)
This outfit was made using a Women's size L tunic that I bought at the thrift store for 75-cents. It fits about a 4T little girl (isn't she cute??). The pants were made using sleeves. Here's my tutorial for sleeve pants, as I did them.
The shirt was done without a pattern or tutorial as well. I will be working on a tute for that coming soon, using the body of the shirt for the fabric, so keep your eyes out!
I also have two other tutorials in the works for clothes I made for Abbi recently, so those will be coming over the next couple days as well. My hope is that others can feel inspired to make some clothes for the fall, and to not feel overwhelmed by the increasing prices of clothing for our kids, as school starts! All of the outfits that you see in this post cost a total of $2.49. One needn't break the bank to dress their children well.
Enjoy, and be sure to let me know if you use the sleeve pants tutorial ! I'd love to see what you do with it!
I'm of two minds about making my kids' clothes. One one hand: thrifty! crafty! cute! on the other: the other kids will tease them mercilessly! about being poor! and about their hand-made clothes!
granted, my kids are young still (4 mos & 2.5 yrs) and will be home-schooled if all goes well, but I worry anyway. Because we had hand-made and hand-me-down and boy did the other kids pick up on that.
Posted by: jen | July 13, 2008 at 02:12 AM
I think these clothes are great and if your kids are confident then they will shrug off any comments. I'd love to find some tutorials for making adults' clothes as I've tried patterns and they never seem to fit very well. Do you know of any?
Posted by: Amanda Ryan | July 13, 2008 at 02:54 AM
Those are GORGEOUS! I must get to sewing clothing for the family. I'm sure my clients won't mind a few missed deadlines, after all I have my daughter's wardobe to thing about and summer doesn't last long here in the UK.
Posted by: joanie | July 13, 2008 at 03:16 AM
cute !! I love the fabric. I wish I had more time for stuff like that. I guess I have to make more time next school year since I will be teaching tyna to sew. any ways love the outfit especially Anna's little green outfit. have a bleesed weekend.
Posted by: Crystal | July 13, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Such cute outfits!! Great ideas - thanks for the inspiration!
Posted by: Roxanne | July 13, 2008 at 01:33 PM
Really great ideas, and as we grow out of the clothes we have, I'd be so much happier recycling fabric and garments to make pretty things. Looking forward to all the tutorials, and to my kids looking so sweet!
Posted by: Jennifer | July 14, 2008 at 12:09 AM
Kristin, The top/pants outfit made from the women's tunic is inspired! The style and choice of fabric reminds me of Indian outfits for women with the slim pants under a top.
You are so productive!
I've been cranking out panels (and more panels) to cover the grids of my friend's photo display booth. Each panel involves 12 feet of hemming and a LOT of hook and loop tape.
Posted by: TE Carter | July 14, 2008 at 11:22 AM
How lovely th clothes too. I will have to check out those tuts soon. I'd say right away but motivation has escaped me as of late. Until I'm motivated I'll live through you and other bloggers. LOL
Posted by: Hunnybunny | July 14, 2008 at 02:45 PM
I am going to try the pants from the sleeves!!! My daughter doesn't fit in ready made long pants!
Posted by: Lynn | July 14, 2008 at 04:00 PM
Very cute! Especially loving the last outfit! You are so thrifty and TALENTED!
Posted by: Amanda Fuentes | July 14, 2008 at 10:16 PM
Those are really cute! Great way to repurpose things!
Posted by: Linda | July 15, 2008 at 08:52 AM
I would love to make the grand revival skirt for my daughter too. She looks about the same size as your dd would it be possible to email the measurements that you used? My pattern drafting skills are very basic!
Posted by: hutogirls | August 30, 2008 at 10:59 PM
These are to cute!! I love them
www.naturallyadorablebaby.com
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