Emily Elizabeth Ensembles

This post originally appeared on Nap-Time Creations for the Sew Many Books series in August.

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Well, I am super excited to be a part of this sewing/reading series! As summer winds down, and thoughts of school come to mind, I turned to what I consider the perfect little school-girl look to replicate for my daughter. Clifford's best friend, Emily Elizabeth, is adorable in her simple, classic outfits. My daughter LOVES Clifford books, so picking Emily Elizabeth as my style guide was easy. But once I started looking at her outfits, I realized she had more to choose from than I originally thought (a peter-pan collar dress was going to be my plan). I found two outfits to sew that I thought would be cute AND versatile. But this was the first outfit that caught my eye:

Cute, right? I thought a jumper would be very practical for my little girl. I already had the stripy fabric, but went to Joann's and picked up the soft, blue linen along with some piping. The white buttons I found in my stash. As for the striped leggings, I decided to skip them for two reasons: 1.) my knit fabric is on the heavier side and I'm pretty sure it would've gotten saggy pretty fast; and 2.) I didn't want my daughter to look like she was wearing a costume. Ok, one more reason: I also thought too many stripes would detract from the cute factor. 

So as most of you know, there's the old-school Emily Elizabeth, and the modern-TV-one. I chose the classic Emily. Not only are the stories and drawings better, but so are the clothes.

Emily Elizabeth is a good friend/owner to Clifford. They have fun together. I like how EE is a pretty happy gal. She also is outside a lot with her dog (there aren't too many stories of her inside, are there?). So outside we went to take pictures. Living in a condo, in the city, we make sure we get out every day. But man, sometimes going down the elevator, past the concierge, outside past the fountain, around to the grassy area behind our building in handmade clothes makes me sweat! At least the day I took these pics it was hovering around 75, so not so bad. But still. (Please don't trip and skin your knees was what I was thinking. Oh, and Tiger better not jump on your dress! I'll show you the outtake soon.)

But back to the clothes. I love the fact that Emily Elizabeth owns a blue jumper! Sure, there's also a pink stripy top, but I was more than happy to sew up something blue for my girl. I started by drawing a basic jumper pattern and then cut out my front. When I couldn't decide how to fashion the back (we never see it in the book), I turned to Pinterest and found this great tutorial. Instead of printing her back pattern piece (it'd be too small), I freehanded the back design based on the photos and then followed LiEr's tutorial fairly closely. 

But rather than sewing the panel on top of the front piece like she does, I cut mine into three pieces, adding the piping to the top and bottom of the middle piece. I did use her pattern piece for the straps, but lengthened them about an inch or more. My jumper is about a size 5 (my 3.5 year old is tall). 

As we all know, Clifford's "too big," but he's so sweet. Kind of like this big dog that crashed our photo shoot...haha

(Tiger lives on our floor and is a big softie!)

Anyway, the other thing I noticed about Emily Elizabeth is that she does a lot of running in this book. A dress isn't going to stop her! (My daughter got a kick out of running around and getting her picture taken.)

Her top, by the way, is the awesome Flashback Skinny Tee, enlarged a bit from the size 5. It's a little big on her now, but won't be this winter (see? I'm thinking ahead for the colder weather. I'm all about being practical around here.)

And that's that! Now my second dress was a lot quicker and a lot easier. But still, super cute. The inspiration came from this book:

See how tattered it is? Both my kids have loved Clifford. But my daughter is the only one who actually insists on sleeping with the books. Yes. The books. Anyway, Clifford's First School Day is another classic Clifford tale, but this one goes back to his puppyhood. (I find the puppy stories rather endearing.)

In this story, Emily Elizabeth wears a simple {knit} dress with knee socks. Perfect play dress! I knew the perfect pattern to replicate it.

The Anywhere Dress. A recent sale finally helped me get my hot little hands on this pattern that I've wanted for a while. And it certainly didn't disappoint. The instructions were very easy to follow and though I sometimes scoff when people call things a "quick sew," this one really was. I added cuffs to the sleeves and an extra band for length at the bottom. This is the size 5 (which my daughter regularly wears) and it fit perfectly. I used a basic pale pink knit from Joann's to replicate Emily Elizabeth's look.

I have to hand it to my daughter. She was real amenable about going back inside, changing from the first outfit and coming back out for more pictures. 

In fact, she relished it. Thank goodness. 

Clifford might've caused Emily some trouble at school, but our Clifford behaved rather well.

Even when smooshed.

Anyway, I had a great time sewing for this series. And my daughter certainly loved "being" Emily Elizabeth for the day.

And to the real Emily of Nap-Time Creations, thanks for asking me to join this fun series. We had a blast!
~Mary Jo at All This for Them

Summer Pajamas: A Mini-Tute

 How does your sewing table look? Well, mine is a huge mess. I needed a project that was quick and that would also help me clean things up. Summer pajamas were the answer.

I have a good-sized stack of clothes I don't wear any more and that I've wanted to use for kid's clothes. Many times, I get caught up in the exciting sewing that comes with a new pattern, but I REALLY needed to reclaim some work space. I was tired of looking at these unfinished (un-started?) projects.

I took the first shirt from my pile and got to work. I loved this shirt, and it had gotten a lot of use, but then it became neglected in recent years (yeah, it's been around awhile!). So it was time for it to become something else. (It is one of the few shirts I have in my pile with a cool pattern.)

Those arms are perfect for leggings! The only problem was that they were still a little too short and narrow, so I added a bum patch and a stretchy band at the top.

I tried the pj's on my daughter this morning and now she won't take them off. They're so soft from all the washings and light enough for our warm weather. Maybe tonight I'll serge the seams. Or...maybe not.

My pajamas were inspired by Elsie Marley who recently made a few pairs for her kids. Go check them out!
And thanks for stopping by. :)
I'll be linking up with some of these fun parties!

Triceratops with Red Horns Shirt

Another prehistoric animal shirt, yes. Are you tired of them yet?? No? Good!

After I did the Allosaurus Shirt, my son said he wanted his next shirt to have a "yellow triceratops with red horns." (Finally got around to that, and posting about it!) Compared to the former, this one was easy peasy. Done in under an hour. I think I was on a caffeine kick because I never do anything that fast, but this time, I took a big shortcut.

I used an old t-shirt of mine, which meant the collar and cuffs were already done. I placed Rae's Flashback Skinny Tee pattern on my shirt and cut out the body pieces (which tailored it to my son's chest size, and basically just closed up the neck hole a bit); then I placed the arm pattern piece on the pre-existing sleeves and cut those out too. (My son likes longer sleeves, so I added a few inches.)

For the dino itself, I again used a silhouette I found on Google images ("Triceratops silhouette"). The yellow fabric is knit from an old t-shirt. I'd never used knit for an applique before, and I have to say, it doesn't look as crisp or professional as cotton (the yellow on the Pteranodon is cotton, as is the Allosaurus). But for this shirt, the upcycled knit worked just fine. Kind of lends itself to the whole upcycled theme with using my old shirt. Instead of using new knit (as with the previously posted shirts), this broken-in look of old knit on old knit works. (Follow that?)

Oh, and the eye is just a glued-on googley eye I found in my stash. I used permanent fabric glue to adhere it and it has lasted through at least two washings so far. (Sweet!)

In this picture, I told my son, "Put your hands in your pockets," not realizing the only pockets were halfway down his legs. hahaha

I used the gray thread that was already on my machine to outline the triceratops because I was too lazy to change it to yellow. I wanted this thing done fast, man. And it was. My kid loves it. He's worn it way more than the Pteranodon -- probably because the knit is so soft with that lived-in feel to it. (And I didn't make any cutting mistakes.)

Fast shirt + dinosaur = happy boy and happy mom.

Hooray!

PS: My sewing machine is fixed now, but I've hardly used it due to a sore knee that needs to be elevated. I do have a few embroidery projects to share, but haven't gotten pictures yet (again blaming the knee). This post has been waiting in the wings for a while, so thought I could get that up. And if you're wondering, I do have an ice pack on my knee at this very moment...) Thanks for reading!
PPS: I'm linking up with these parties!

Easy Undershirts

  

Well, the winter certainly isn't over as we in the Northeast are recovering from the biggest blizzard I can remember since moving here five years ago. It's been wonderful, seeing all that fluffy white stuff! But also so cold! I'd been thinking for a while that I needed to make my daughter some undershirts. She has a few, but not enough. And whenever I try to add a sweatshirt on top of her shirt, she peels it off within the hour. With undershirts? No chance of shedding layers.

So because we've been housebound pretty much all weekend, I got to work sewing.

I adapted Rae's Flashback Skinny Tee for the pattern on all but the gray/pink shirt. (Basically, I just omitted the sleeves.)

For the gray top, the first one I actually made, I winged a pattern based on one of my daughter's store-bought undershirts. I had to gather the front a little bit, but...

...it still worked out. I like the skinny straps.

Do you like the little ribbons? I thought these undershirts could use a little femininity. And I think the bows do the job. It didn't take much to add them. Seriously. Here's your 10-second tutorial:

1. Make a little bow and adjust to the size you want. Pull the ends tightly.

2. Add Fray Check to the ends (if you want) so they don't fray and start to look ugly after a few wears.

3. Adjust your machine. I put mine on a straight stitch (A) and 0 stitch length. Tension remained the same. (It's basically what you do at the end of sewing a buttonhole.)

 
4. Next, line up your needle in the center of the bow. Do 3-4 stitches in place. Then move your needle over a smidge and do it again. I actually do three separate in-place stitches. Just to be sure.

5. Then, clip your threads and you're done! (More on the project above in a later post!)

My daughter found her undershirts while I was taking pictures and snatched them up, hugging them close to her chest. She has claimed them as her own. Good! And her favorite, the cupcakes of course. Oh, and I wanted to also mention that the cupcake shirt and the green shirt were new-fabric, but the other two were upcycled t-shirts.

It feels so good to make something so useful. Sometimes, I labor away at beautiful dresses and such and they get worn once or twice. These may not be uber-pretty, but they're functional. (And they saved me a few bucks too.) Can't beat that. Let me know if you make some of your own. I'd love to see them! 
Have a great week sewing!
PS: I'll be linking to these parties.