(like the rod stewart song)
i'm a millennial living in the bay area who loves dark beer, the environment, and sewing for the tiny humans in my life. more
All tagged matching and coordinating
this is one of two photos i know of where my sisters and i are in matching outfits. okay, there may be a few more if you include pjs, but roll with me here, the point is that by having your children over the course of a decade isn't conducive to dressing them alike.
despite this upbringing this i've made the my nieces tons of matching and coordinating outfits over the past four years. today i'll share a few of my favorites.
continuing my series of my favorite homemade gifts today with gifts for babies and new moms. (want to take revisit my past posts? you can find my favorite kid toys and accessories here, my favorite little girl apparel gifts here, and my favorite little boy apparel gifts can here.)
first off the obvious: who doesn't think of a onesie for a newborn gift? here is neela in her put a bird on it onesie from the lullaby layette pattern from oliver + s
one of my favorite gifts for new moms has become has become an infinity scarf for mom and a matching top for baby.
one snowy day back in cambridge I bundled up and headed to gather here. on the store dress form was a darling rendition of the book report dress by oliver + s. inspired i started looking for a fabric for my own version. i came across this ikat print and knew it would be perfect.
as previously mentioned nora and etta are quite girly. i, however, am not. so finding fabric that appeases them yet i can stand is often a challenge.
when i came across this rose and coral abstract print at gather here a few years back i knew immediately they would love it and bought a few yards.
last summer while in jackson hole for a friend's wedding i visited a local fabric store and picked up materials to make victor a flannel shirt, the scraps of which became the lil' man flannel.
at the same time i came across some pretty awesome snowflake flannel. so i got a few yards with every intention of making holiday pj pants for the girls. however a month before the holidays my sister abby informed me that her girls (nora and etta) didn't like to wear pants to bed, preferring nightgowns.
so like any good liberal arts graduate i had some iced coffee and came up with a plan b.
a few years ago when i was just discovering the glory that is oliver + s patterns i went to visit vic's family in pennsylvania for the weekend. now i've already talked about how i find hand sewing to be a great way to bring your sewing when you travel. but another thing is pattern tracing.
when done right pattern tracing is time consuming, especially if the pattern has a lot of pieces. add into that doing the same pattern for multiple sizes and you're looking at hours and hours of work. fun work, but work. so i brought along the croquet dress pattern and traced both versions for all three girls that weekend. not a small task.
my third oliver + s style was the music box jumper, making all three girls grey polka dot versions for thanksgivng.
the fabric is a quilting cotton from gather here. at the time I didn't know it was quilt backing (and thus 120 inches wide, more than double what normal fabric is) so i had a lot of it!
i probably should have started with this style, it's simple (a one scissor pattern) but most importantly, easy to get good results with, which is essential for beginners.
i would also recommend using snaps for this dress if you are just starting out. button holes are really tricky (i was never able to get the hang of them on my old machine). however i found snaps to be a great alternative during my first year of sewing.
nora and etta are active little girls. very active little girls. but they are also quite girly and like to wear dresses and skirts.
so a few years back i decided the badminton skort from oliver + s would be the perfect style for them and with some polka dot cotton i picked up on sale from gather here i gave it a try.
have i mentioned nora and etta are quite girly? well they are. i however am not. so it's a constant struggle to find fabrics that are sweet enough for them but not too saccharine for me.
when i saw this amy butler lark print at stonemountain & daughter i instantly knew two things: a) nora and etta would love wearing it and b) i wouldn't mind sewing it. so i picked up a few yards and waited for the right inspiration.
about a year ago i was searching for the perfect wool for maya's paddington coat. a few options online caught my eye but having never bought wool before and seeing a wide range of prices (and presumably quality) it was apparent i would need to see it in person before making a decision.
after exhausting my east bay brick and motar options, stonemountain & daughter and a verb for keeping warm, i knew a trip to the city was necessary. armed with an iPhone full of taylor swift and iced coffee from the hip local shop (exposed brick, menu written on the chalkboard wall, and light fixtures made from old bicycle parts...am i painting a mental picture for you?) i set off one saturday for my quest.
i have to admit, i wasn't in love with the hide & seek dress (available for older children here) when it first came out. (i'm willing to bet it had something to do with my deep rooted fear of making 'frumpy' dresses, caused by my sister referring to my first creations as the 'duggar dresses' and the relaxed fit of the dress.)
but then it started showing up on the blogosphere. first i saw gail's version, then this one, then this one, and i knew i had to try it.
beginners luck. that's what i had the first time i made the roller skate dress by oliver + s.
i got this chevron print at the fabric depot in portland oregon when i took nora to pick out materials for thefairy sisters dresses. i had originally planned to just dresses for nora and etta, but realized pretty quickly i couldn't exclude maya. so i planned my cutting and was able to squeeze out an additional dress from my limited fabric.
let me tell you getting the chevrons to match up was not easy, but somehow (let's give credit to the watermelon beer i was drinking and my critical thinking skills, but mostly the beer) it all came together perfectly.
while i ponder the all too quick passage of time we're gonna finish off back to school week by talking about the skirts i made nora and etta for the first day of school.
since this was etta's first year I let her call the shots. bucking tradition (she's a firecracker my bo betta) she requested a skirt as opposed to a dress. naturally i saw this as an opportunity to try a pattern i've had for a while, but haven't yet sewn: the hopscotch skirt by oliver + s.
let's continue back to school week with what nora and etta wore last year.
the instant i saw the library dress pattern by oliver + s i knew nora and etta would love the faux wrap style. however the back presented a problem as nora and etta are past the age where dresses that button up the back are practical.
at that point i was pretty confident i could alter the pattern to close with a zipper, but when i saw this tutorial post over on the oliver + s blog i had no excuse. after first making it one time as instructed for maya (will blog about that rendition next week), I tried my hand at a zippered version.
it turned out fantastic. (as have both subsequent versions, one of which was the show & tell dress in corduroy.)
let's kick off back to school week with a throwback post to the dress i made two years ago for nora's first day of kindergarten.
earlier that summer i was back in michigan visiting my family and took nora to the store to pick out fabric. we settled on this gradient sprinkle print in pink (for her) and blue (for etta) as well as some accent ribbons.
i came home to cambridge, poured myself a harpoon summer ale, and set to work on two roller skate dresses by oliver + s. since we couldn't find any accent fabric that went with the sprinkle print i made version a. lined in white cotton batiste they ended up being perfect for the first day.
sometimes it's fun to ask the girls what they want in a dress and make it. other times i ignore what they are saying and make what i want.
this is an example of the latter.
maybe it's because I've spent a lot of time in pdx (and love it!) or maybe i'm just their target demographic but i love the show portlandia. i mean 'dream of the 90s', 'she's making jewelry now', and 'dream of the 1890s' really describe my life.
when i saw this bird print at stonemountain & daughter last spring i knew it would be perfect for maya the animal lover.
last month my family rented a house on the oregon coast for a few days. we were across the street from the beach which was very conducive to photos on my then unshattered iphone.
so here are some 'artistic-but-not-really-because-every-shot-looked-amazing-due-to-the-setting' photos.
most of the time my sisters accept my creations with open arms and indulge me by sending frequent photos. on the rare occasion they make a request for something my nieces actually need i try to oblige. so when my sister abby mentioned over christmas that her girls needed more long sleeved winter dresses i knew that would be part of my january to-sew list.
having a new years resolution to sew my stash, i was struggling to come up with something i could make with the fabrics i already had. once i saw the beautiful holiday dress gail made her daughter out of corduroy i remembered the amethyst fine whale corduroy (now on sale) that had been sitting in my fabric basket for two years and decided to use it to make a library dress by oliver + s.
