Paperbag Shorts & Bubble Top

Pattern: MCCalls 7726 Paperbag Shorts
Fabric: Cotton Twill JoAnn
Notions: Regular zipper
Total Cost: $8
Size: 6
Age: 13

The next items in the Summer Wardrobe are the paperbag shorts and bubble top. We initially bought this fabric for capri pants but Monkey Pants became obsessed with having a pair of paperbag shorts. These require a lot more fabric than regular shorts but they did turn out really cute. I had to go back and get extra fabric to make the sash. Definitely a little more time consuming than the Burda shorts -those really come together pretty fast. But this is a really cute look. I didn't want the fold to show the side seam so I thought I was being smart by cutting a seperate piece of fabric to make the fold but ended up sewing it to the bottom of the shorts like it had been all one piece anyway. No idea how I thought that was magically going to turn out better than just doing that in the first place.

I used pink for the top stitching to make it stand out a bit. I do wish the cuff at the bottom had turned out a little wider but it's not a big deal. She LOVES the pockets! And the sash! Very happy with the results as she has been wearing pretty much nothing but stretch clothing and printed t-shirts for the last couple of years.

Pattern: Cynthia Rowley Simplicity 8124

Fabric: Cotton JoAnn

Notions: Elastic

Total Cost: ~$8

Size: XS 6-8

This off the shoulder bubble top took a little more convincing. At first, it was a hard no, but she warmed up to it and now she's worn it several times without suggestion so that is saying a lot for this very particular person. I did take it in a smidge and shortened it obviously and used about a half inch elastic instead of one inch I thought would be more in line to her size.

Here is a close up of the fabric detail, it's so cute.

Right after we got this little outfit made, we took a road trip to Canada, stopping in Calgary, and she wore the heck out of it!

Comments

Tinkerbell Cake

I made something! A friend of a friend ..... needed a cake made for her daughter's fourth birthday. I came up with a few ideas, trying to keep them uncomplicated. She opted for the more traditional nine inch round cake with decorations. I thought it would be simple enough, but it always ends up taking me way longer than I anticipate. I wish I could go to a professional cake decorating class by Debbie Brown or Rebecca Sutterby so I could learn some techniques like how to get things to stay glued on. I could never be a cake decorator -my time to money ratio is kind of ridiculous. But here it is. Monkey Pants now wants a Tinkerbell cake for her next birthday too, of course. I need to wake up early tomorrow to make sure she's not eating the mushrooms off of it. (It's happened before).

Emmeline Apron 2

Just got done with this one. Another Emmeline Apron for a Christmas gift. I wanted to try something different with my choice of fabrics this time, although not too different since they are still Amy Butler prints. I chose some darker blue fabrics from the Daisy Chain (Aquatic) line that I wouldn't normally be drawn too. But I'm glad I did. I really like the result. This time, I did a few things a bit differently. One thing about the pattern I'm not fond of is the wordy, yet poor instructions on how to place the waist straps onto the sides of the apron at the right angle. I really don't know why the correct angle isn't just printed on the pattern. So to minimize the trial and error approach encouraged in the pattern instructions, [TIP:] I laid out the fabric and the strap as it would appear once constructed and simply marked a line on the strap corresponding to the angle of the apron. Then, I flipped both apron and strap layers over together; lined up the strap wit

Face painting

For my daughter's upcoming birthday party, I decided I might try my hand at face painting. I collected some photos from the internet I liked, check out a book at the library, and bought some face paints at the party store. The face paints are not very cheap but cheaper than hiring a face painter, right. Here's a couple of the faces I've tried so far. Now if I can only get my face painting time down to ten minutes from twenty minutes a face for the party. I think I may have to enlist a volunteer to help out too. The painting part is actually much easier than it would seem. The only thing that makes it challenging is that the canvas is constantly moving around (at least my canvas). It's not too hard to wash off, but the black takes a bit more scrubbing as the paint is grease or oil based. It makes for a fun activity especially as it gets too cold to go outside. My 3-year old thought it was "amazing" when she looked in the mirror. I even talked my husband i

Search This Blog