Over the past few weeks I’ve been assembling a quilt top, pretty much exactly the same as this one, from the leftover blocks.  This wasn’t difficult, but it was a bit slow.  To reward myself when I finished it, I made Stella a hula hoop skirt.

I knew that my girls would love this pattern as soon as I saw it. It’s a pdf pattern only, so it was quick to get, and there weren’t too many pieces of paper to tape together (I tend to avoid pdf patterns because of my dislike of the taping process). Two pieces of paper for the waistband/yoke piece, and eight pieces for the skirt flounce. I sewed size 5 for Stella.

This skirt is completely reversible – which is great on a couple of levels. It means that you don’t have to finish the seam allowances, and it give you two looks in one skirt!

Both fabrics are quilting cottons. I think that this took around an hour to sew, once the pattern was taped together and the fabric cut out. I think it could be done even more quickly if you weren’t trying to learn to use your fancy new iron at the same time! (LOVE the iron, by the way – huge thanks to my enabler who alerted me to the super special iron sale). Stella likes her new skirt because it twirls beautifully.

Clare has already chosen fabric for hers.

I’ve blogged about the Ottobre neat beat pants before (Ottobre 06/2009, patt.17).  They are my go-to pattern for easy pull-on pants for the girls, and I have now made multiple pairs for Clare for school.  I just keep re-tracing the pattern in a larger size as she grows, and sew three pairs at a time in production line style.  They tend not to make it onto the blog! The pattern is drafted for stretch wovens, but I’ve used cotton/lycra knits and fleecy-backed knits (what I always called windcheater fabric).  Clare usually wears skirts and dresses when not in school uniform, but they are not always practical.  So a new pair of pants was called for to wear on school camp.

The hot pink fleecy-backed knit came to me courtesy of Annie – thank you! Clare chose a couple of iron-on appliques that I had in stash to jazz them up a little. A sunflower on one hip, and three little girls near the hem on the opposite leg.

This pattern has a flat front and an elasticised back. It’s often interesting to see a photo of the back fit as well, so here is one!

I finish the hems with twin-needle stitching on the machine, and the elastic is attached with the machine as well, but most of the construction is done on the overlocker.  I hope that these were warm and cosy for Clare on camp. I’ll be picking her up again in just a couple of hours time!

Clare is currently away on school camp.  It is the third time that she’s been on camp with the school, so she’s an old hand at it now.  But she did need some new warm pyjamas to take with her!   Of course, I made her some.

And as you can see, I made a pair for Stella as well while I was at it. Accidentally. The last time I used this pattern was to make nighties for both the girls, and I cut out the smaller size last. So when I pulled it out of the packet, I forgot to check what size it was and just launched into cutting out. Fortunately I had loads of the fabric, so just made a pair for both. As I’ve said before, they do like to match! The fabric is a cotton/lycra, I think originally from Spotlight.

The top is the Oliver + s hopscotch top. Rather than use binding around the neckline, I used decorative elastic that was in stash. I sewed it with the right side of the elastic to the wrong side of the fabric with a zig-zag stitch, then turned it to the right side and used a zig-zag stitch again to secure it. I did the same thing around the sleeve hems. The decorative elastic was courtesy of Mum and the op-shop (thank goodness for Mum’s op-shop duty). Clare’s is edged in pink, and Stella’s in orange.  I used size 8 for Clare and size 5 for Stella.  And that pose of Stella’s in the photo above?  She has one arm around Clare and the other arm around her imaginary friend…

The pants are a long-john style, with just one pattern piece for the legs and one for the cuffs. It was incredibly quick to sew. The pattern is Ottobre 06/2009, no.35. I made size 128 for Clare and 116 for Stella, but didn’t add the seam allowances when cutting out.  This makes them a little slimmer, which fits my girls better.  Ottobre usually includes hem and waist allowances, so the length was unchanged.

I am very pleased with these – they were a highly satisfying make. Stella is insisting that I also make her a pyjama skirt to mix and match with hers, in the same fabric. Since I do have enough, I reckon that I can do that for her – although I do think that a pyjama skirt is a little unusual!

She’s looking forward to her favourite big sister getting home from camp.

My husband finally succeeded where I have repeatedly failed.  When Clare was a pre-schooler, I made her what I thought was a beautiful pinwale corduroy dress from Vogue 7926.  I wish that Vogue still did little girl’s patterns – I have a few from the early 2000s that I must have acquired just before they stopped producing them and they have all resulted in gorgeous garments.

Clare continually refused to wear this dress. I tried over and over and over. Eventually she outgrew any possibility of wearing it. So as soon as Stella approximated the appropriate size to fit into this dress, I thought that finally it would be worn and all that piping would be worth it. She refused. Over and over and over. So imagine my surprise when on Sunday morning I emerged from the shower to find that my husband had got Stella dressed ready for church – and this was what she was wearing!

She wore it happily all day, and I felt that those pintucks on the bodice, gathered sleeves, fully functional buttoned cuffs, piped plackets, pockets, cuffs and collar, buttonholes, buttons, and contrast floral binding on the inside were all worth it after all. Next time we won’t accessorise with a devil’s pitchfork and scary face.

There is still one dress hanging in the wardrobe that both girls have sadly refused to wear. I’d better get my husband onto that one next.