Library Wednesday

This past fall, when the list for library themes was posted online I could hardly wait for today to come.  I knew immediately what Piper would wear because today's library theme was "Rescue Heroes."  Of course, I know they meant police, fire, ambulance personnel but I couldn't help it.  Piper had to be...

Wonder Woman!

I bought the Wonder Woman shirt some time in December from here.  It has been hanging in her closet in anticipation of today.  My original plan was to make a tutu.  I bought the tulle and had what felt like miles and miles of it laid out across my living room floor.  I despise working with tulle.  It's more hassle than it's worth, so I abandoned my original idea and went for plan B.  In the end, I think I am happier with plan B.

The skirt is a reverse Oliver + S Swing Set skirt just like the one I did here.  This is really becoming one of my favorite skirts to sew.  It's so quick and full of possibilities.  I may have to sew it the correct way some day just to see which I like better but for now this works for me.

On the skirt I added some gold detail around the waist band as a nod to Wonder Woman.

The gold thread was very difficult to work with.  I was having trouble setting the tension and the thread kept breaking.  My poor machine just did not like the gold thread.  I like the detail because it's fun but I doubt I'll use it again.

In addition to the skirt, I also made Piper some fancy new hair ties.

The free pattern for the hair ties can be found here.  I see a lot more hair ties in our future.  These were so quick and easy to put together and a great way to use up some of those precious pieces of fabric scraps that you just don't have the heart to throw away.

Piper got sooooo many compliments on her outfit.  The ladies at the coffee shop couldn't get enough of her.  The best part about this outfit is, the skirt and hair ties will be perfect for Memorial Day and 4th of July picnics.  

Check out my little ham in action:

Rainy Day Project: Swing Set Skirt

The weather here has been yucky the past few days.  It's been warmer than normal but also very cloudy and wet.  It has me in a bit of a funk.  Yesterday I was looking for a cute, fun, quick project to help lift my mood.  This is what I came up with:

 

Oliver + S Swingset Skirt

It's a modified version of the Oliver + S Swingset skirt.  I love sewing skirts, they are quick and easy and Piper loves to wear them.  In the mornings when I get her dressed I give her options, 9 times out of 10 she wants to wear a skirt.  This skirt was no exception to quick and easy.  I did modify it a bit.

I wanted the lining to hang out a bit at the bottom so I switched the top skirt and lining skirt pieces.  Did that make sense?  Essentially the lining is on top and the skirt is on the bottom according to the pattern pieces.

The pattern uses a drawstring at the waist.  I didn't feel like making button holes and wanted something simple and easy to wear so I opted to eliminate the drawstring.  At the waist, I sewed the lining and top skirt together opposite the directions, then turned them right sides out.  I then top stitched the two.  Then I sewed 3/8" from the top and 1 3/8" below (leaving a 2" opening for adding the elastic) to create a casing.  This sort of gave the skirt a paper bag waist.  You can kind of see here what I did:

For one final touch, I added a little bling.

I was able to almost finish the entire skirt from first cut to last stitch during nap time.  Unfortunately someone in our house is taking shorter naps than she used to so I am getting less done during nap time.  

Piper's been watching the Tinkerbell series of movies a lot lately so I was pretty excited when I found some Tinkerbell fabric at WalMart recently.  Have you seen the Tinkerbell movies?  I have to admit, when DH first brought one home I was a little annoyed.  He knows my position on princess-culture.  (I know what you are thinking, we had a Brave birthday party.  Merida is different, she's strong and independent and gets dirty).  Turns out the Tinkerbell movies are not so bad either.  Tinkerbell is also a strong female character (a little hot headed) but she's a "tinker" fairy.  More or less, Tinkerbell is an engineer of the fairy world.  She builds things to solve every day problems the fairies have.  I guess I can't complain about that.  

Anyway, hopefully the weather will improve soon.  If not, I've got plenty more fabric for sewing quick, cute skirts for Piper to wear. :)