Library Wednesday / Lola Inspired Dress

This is our last library story time for the season, so there wasn't a theme today but I made Piper a special outfit anyway.  Let me give you a little back story before I show you what she wore.  A while back Piper picked out a Charlie and Lola book to check out from the library.  At the time, I didn't really know much about Charlie and Lola but it was love at first "read" for Piper (and myself).  Each story starts out "I have this little sister, Lola.  She is small and very funny."  Piper likes for us to replace Charlie and Lola's names with Zachary and Piper when we read the stories.  Ever since that first book came home, each week Piper asks for another "Lola" book.  There is also a BBC cartoon series for Charlie and Lola that we've watched on YouTube a few times.  Needless to say, Lola is one of Piper's favorites and I enjoy it too.

Lola wears these adorable shirt dresses in her stories.  I had seen a few of them pop up in the Oliver+S Flickr group in the past and was truly inspired to make Piper her own Lola dress.  It took a bit before I found the perfect fabric but once I did, I couldn't wait to get started.  The fabric is Cold Springs Dreams Floral in Cream:

Look how cute the finished dress is:

Oliver + S Jump Rope Dress

I am thrilled with the finished product.  This is the Oliver + S Jump Rope Dress (View B w/ View A sleeves).  I made a standard size 3 without any modifications.  While I was making the dress I kept thinking to myself that I should have added some length and in hindsight, I wish I had. Piper is 39 inches tall so it's just perfect right now but if she grows at all I'm afraid it will be too short.  

The Jump Rope dress has a few details that require a little extra time, like the placket, which I put on backwards.  I could have done it correctly, as I caught my mistake early but out of shear laziness just left it as is.  There is a great Sew-A-Long found here, that has pictures to help with things like finishing the placket correctly.

The collar also requires a little time, but the end result is a nicely finished collar.  I would highly recommend taking the time to hand baste the collar before sewing it on.  By doing so I was able to avoid any puckers or tucks and had a nice finish on the first try (something that rarely happens for me).

The sleeves have this adorable cuff, that I also did incorrectly.  I was in a hurry to get finished so Piper could wear her dress today and did a quick scan of the pictures and directions without truly reading what to do.  The result is a finished sleeve that is wrong.  It wasn't really a big deal, or so I thought, until I got her dress out of the dryer and went to do a final pressing.  It took me nearly 5 minutes to fiddle w/ the cuff and get it looking decent enough to press.  I will likely go back and fix it.

I have learned from the past few dresses I did that didn't have pockets that they are a requirement.  When you are 3 you have lots of things to carry that require pockets like; lego's, rocks, sticks, etc.  So far I have found no living creatures in pockets but it's only a matter of time.  I have a big pet peeve about "unmatching" pockets so I did my best to fabric match, but this type of pocket doesn't really lend itself to matching very well.

Piper was so excited to have her own "Lola" dress.  What do you think?  Good likeness?

Oliver + S Jump Rope Dress

I just finished the Oliver + S Jump Rope dress. I have to say, I am really pleased with how it turned out.  I did have to step out of my comfort zone for this one.  I usually avoid things like sleeves, collars and plackets because they take time and require some thought.  I like to sew things that come together quickly and don't require much thought.  This wasn't necessarily one of those projects.  Don't let that scare you though, the instructions are so well written that it wasn't terribly difficult to work through.  I did use this Sew-A-Long  from the SewMamaSew Blog. I am a visual learner so the extra pictures on the SewMamaSew sight really helped.

A few tips/notes that I will add/emphasize.

1.) When adding the collar, it really does help to hand baste it.  Hand basting is also one of those things I avoid, again it's a time thing.  But, I took the time and did it on the collar so that when I sewed it down it didn't go all wonky.  I didn't have to pick out any of the stitching from the collar, it went on so much easier by basting it first. (I might change the buttons, I didn't have any colored ones on hand that matched so I went with white but I'm not digging them.)

2.) When sewing the sleeve tabs, use tissue under the tabs as a stabilizer.  It really does work.  I didn't have any of the little points get caught under my presser foot or down under the needle.

3.) I followed the directions for the belt loops but I think I would make them a little shorter next time.  My belt doesn't quite fill the loops.  Might be something you double check before sewing them down.  In the Sew-A-Long it was mentioned that the belt loops were difficult and they weren't wrong.  There is something about those tiny loops and getting them just right that was challenging.  If anyone has a tip or suggestion for making it easier, please share.

You might notice that the buttons are pulling across the chest a little on my model, that is because the dress form is about an 1 1/2 inches larger than Piper.  I sewed the size 18-24 month pattern and it fits her just right (she's 2 1/2).  The fabric used is called Sweet Shop by Springs Creative.  I really adore the fabric and am considering getting some more.  It is nice and light for summer and the colors are bright and fun.  

This dress was just a practice run for the one I intended to have finished for my nieces birthday next week.  Needless to say her gift will be late, unless I do some serious sewing over the weekend.  It's unlikely though because I've got 2 dozen cupcakes to make for said niece and then she and my sister are going to join me on Sunday to see Brave and maybe do something else special which I will report on later. ;)