Ottobre 6/2010 top and leggings
I really made this top and leggings for Stella to wear under her New Look 6926 pinafore. The fabric is a quality cotton/lycra knit called, funnily enough, Stella (from Crafty Mamas) and it was originally destined to become a top for me. But it matched the pinafore too well, and it’s destiny was altered.
These leggings have gathering down the side seam and are finished with a deep cuff. The gathering is meant to be done with shirring elastic. Unfortunately for me, my machine does not like shirring elastic. At all. It takes an enormous amount of faffing around with both the bobbin tension and top tension to get it to run smoothly, so I tend to use alternative gathering methods. For these leggings I just gathered them the old fashioned way with a couple of rows of straight stitching drawn up by hand. But I think that shirring elastic would have given a better result.
Like most leggings, these were easy to make, and were primarily constructed on the overlocker. The top is quite sweet too, with side casings for ribbon drawstrings and gathered sleeve heads. Hems are finished with a twin needle on my sewing machine.
I’m not happy with the neckline – I must have stretched the band that little bit too much when I applied it, and it is far from perfect. However, both the top and leggings work very well under her pinafore (and some of her other clothes) and she really likes them. Both the top and leggings patterns are from Ottobre 6/2010 – the top is pattern #19 and the leggings are pattern #21.
Actually, my poor darling is wearing these as pyjamas today – both she and her sister have a nasty virus and have been sick since yesterday. My girls hardly ever get ill, and it is awful watching them with their high temperatures and gastro symptoms. I’m not sure if it is better or worse to have the two of them sick at the same time rather than one at a time, or if it is better or worse to have them sick during school holidays or term time. Either way, I hope that they are better very soon (and that I don’t catch it).
I like this outfit it’s really cute and I don’t see anything wrong with the neckline. The neck looks like it’s supposed to be gathered. As far as I’m concerned it adds to the top rather than detracts.
I hope the girls get well quickly nothing worst than the stomach flu and here’s to hoping that the rest of the family doesn’t get it either.
Cute outfit. I love the sides of the top. Great colour.
Matching leggings and tops are so useful for little girls…can be worn as pjs, then throw a dress over the top and out to dinner. Or the other way around, if they fall asleep in the car on the way home.
These days I put in shirring elastic by zig-zagging over the top of a length of shirring elastic. Then I secure the elastic at one end, usually by knotting the elastic from 2 rows together. Then I pull the elastic at the other end to get the desired amount of gathering. I often do this using my narrow hem foot, so that I can sit the elastic in the loop for the hem and am less likely to get it caught in the zig-zag stitch.
Kbenco has another way shown here http://kbenco.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/shirring-with-bridging-stitch-and.html
Good luck with the sick ones…not fun for anyone.
Thank you so much Katherine! That is a terrific tip, and I’ll definitely do that next time I need to put in shirring elastic. I wonder if I have an underutilised narrow hem foot lurking in my machine accessories compartment somewhere… And thank you for your thoughts for my little ones. Both are still sick; viral gastroenteritis that required a trip to hospital today for rehydration. I think it’s going to be a long, slow haul – I’ve never seen them this sick.