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Geometric Teardrop Print Cotton Jersey Child’s Dress

geometric print cotton and elastane t-shirt dress

Frances made this dress for her grand-daughter to go to the school Oscar awards. It’s an easy pull on dress using McCall’s Pattern 7079 and made with a t-shirt weight cotton and elastane single jersey.

It’s a good idea to stay the shoulder seams with a bit of tape on t-shirts and dresses, you can use a seam tape, iron on a bit of stabilising interfacing or even sew in a bit of the jersey selvedge (if it is stable enough).

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Child’s Fur Coat with Bunny Rabbit Print Lining

Child's fur coat with bunny rabbit print lining

Jane and Elwen made this sooo sweeet fur coat using Burda 9501 pattern, They lined it in bunny rabbit print quilting cotton and used toning toggle buttons. There is no interfacing -not even on the button holes which Jane insists is fine and they didn’t need it. She can break the rules because she has been sewing for about a thousand years.

Child's fur coat with bunny rabbit print lining
Love the way even her name-tag tones!

 

Child's fur coat with bunny rabbit print lining
Child’s fur coat with bunny rabbit print lining

 

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White Dobby Cotton School Shirts

dobby cotton school blouses

Kitcat and Miaow all ready for school wearing their blouses made by Jane and Elwen in dobby weave cotton voile. The pattern is Burda 9417, there was an awful lot of ‘awwwwww! soooo sweeeeeeet!’ coming from the sewing room when they were making these, especially those cute little puff sleeves.

Kitcat has little black and white layered buttons and Miaow has hearts. The shorts are made with green and white gingham cotton and trimmed with daisy trim.

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Yellow Giraffe Circular Skirt

Tina Givens printed Cotton circular skirt

Gracie wearing her pink giraffe print circular skirt made by Lizzy, with yellow lining and fuchsia pink netting.

This was the first (clothing) sewing project Lizzy had done for years, she was really happy with the results (and Gracie loves it too). She overlocked both the skirt hem and the raggedy hem of the lining.

All you need for this skirt is:

Giraffe print cotton by Tina Givens (or any other quilting weight cotton)
Lining; a soft one such as Venezia,
Dress net; we have these in lots of colours but most are not online yet. Just ask us for what you would like,
Elastic,
Thread.

You can buy circular skirt patterns but it is just as easy to make your own, There’s a great calculator to do the Maths for you on By Hand

 

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White Cotton Dobby Flower Girl Dresses

cotton dobby lawn dresses

Kitcat and Miaow wearing their white cotton dobby flower girl dresses. (They were so excited about being flower girls I thought they might pop).

The necks were too wide (the joy of making clothes for girls who live 200 miles away) so Jane made little tucks sewn down with french knots (so not a mistake, a happy accident!), she also used the same french knots to hold up the hems.

Pattern: Simplicity 5226 (but without the buttons down the front)
Cotton dobby lawn, like these HERE

They were lined in Riviera cotton lawn

Miaow in cotton dobby lawn flower girl dress
Miaow in cotton dobby lawn flower girl dress
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Giraffe Print Quilting Weight Cotton Circular Skirt

Tina Givens printed cotton circular skirt

Mia-moo wearing the giraffe printed circular skirt using #5102 -a quilting weight cotton– made by Jane (making the pattern AND making it took less than an hour). She has a frou frou net skirt to go under here when she’s feeling more frou-frou.

You need to remember your school geometry lessons to make a circular skirt without a pattern. It’s that moment you realise your grotty teenage self was wrong when they said they’d never need to know this pi-R-squared rubbish.

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Car print three quarter sleeve T-shirt

car printed jersey T-Shirt

Car print raglan sleeve T-shirt made by Bess for Lulu.

Fabric: 4983 Cotton jersey with 8% Elastane

Adjusted from Burda pattern 6990

Because the fabric is soooooo wide Bess managed to not only get this top but also a knee length a-line skirt for Lulu, and a little tiny skirt for her daughter, Mia-moo, all out of 1.4mts.

Altogether now, Awwwwwwwwwww!

Mia-moo wearing car-print jersey mini skirt made out of a remnant
Mia-moo wearing car-print jersey mini skirt made out of a remnant
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Glow in the dark pussycat eyes applique denim dresses

denuim dresses with embroidered pussy cat faces and glow in the dark eyes

Denim dresses (Butterick B5876) made using medium weight denim with appliqued glow in the dark eyes (LOVE LOVE LOVE this glow in the dark fabric). Made by Bess for her 4 and 6 year old nieces.

Used bondaweb to fix the appliques (then machined round with a small stitch). The skirt is lined and faced with a poly spotty satin.

The pattern was supposed to have patch pockets (view C) but Bess put them in the dropped waist seam instead. (didn’t want packets distracting from the pussycat).

Sooooooooo CUTE.

Get your glow in the dark fabric HERE and denim HERE

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Heart Quilted Fairy Dresses

Kitcat and Miaow wearing their heart quilted dresses with chiffon wings. All made by Bess

Fabrics and Notions:

Kitcat: (sugar plum fairy)
Pink heart quilted polyester #3330
Pink polyester georgette #3104 (wings)
Pale pink nylon tulle (underskirt)
Dusky pink grey nylon tulle (underskirt)
White satin (lining)
Pale pink satin elastic (to attach wings to wrists)
Pale pink bias binding

Miaow: (water baby)
Cream heart quilted polyester #3380
Cream polyester georgette (wings)
Pale green nylon net (underskirt)
Pale grey nylon net (underskirt)
Ivory nylon tulle (underskirt)
White satin (lining)
Ivory satin elastic (to attach wings to wrists)
Pale green bias binding

Patterns: Made up. Circular skirt plus a basic block bodice.

Lesson learned: back openings have to go beyond the waist – I thought as the waist was elasticated slightly that there would be enough give to get in and out, but it is a right palaver! Now all have to be unpicked (dammit) and bodged altered.

 

heart quilted poly fairy dress
heart quilted poly fairy dress
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Velour and Printed Soft Net Christmas Dresses

red velvet and tulle party dresses with yeti fur waistcoats

Kitcat and Miaow at Chatsworth house wearing their matching red velour and pink spotty soft net dresses, with yeti fur waistcoats. Made by Jane.

Fabrics and Notions:
Dresses:
Red stretch velour.
Pink and Orange spotty print soft dress net.
Pink, orange and red dress net.
Cotton voile (lining).
Spotty Bias Binding.
Red Satin Ribbon (Sash).
Waistcoats:
Off-white Yeti fur
Cream brushed cotton (lining)
Pompoms made with wool.

Waistcoats made due to a nostalgic memory of Bess wearing hers as a little girl (also made by Jane)

1978 yeti waistcoat
1978 yeti waistcoat
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Ditsy Floral Needlecord Cotton Baby Dress and Blue Cotton Twill Romper

cotton corduroy romper and dress and leggings

Floral printed needlecord cotton dress with pink marl jersey, and blue twill cotton romper with contrast pockets.

Fabrics and Notions:
Ditsy floral printed needlecord cotton
Polka dot lawn (lining)
Pink marl cotton elastane jersey
Blue twill cotton
Spotty cotton
Elastic
Poppers
Piping
Rickrack trim
Bias Binding

Pattern: Ottobre magazine

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Pink and Yellow Cupcake Outfit

tina givens cupcake dress in pink and yellow spotty bubble cotton

KitCat with her Tina Givens cupcake ensemble in pink and yellow bubble cotton

Fabrics and Notions:
Pink and yellow spotty bubble cotton
Lightweight knitted iron-on interfacing
Button
Elastic
Pattern: Tina Givens Cupcakes

Bubble cotton, like the rest of the seersucker cotton family, is a great choice of fabric for children as there is minimal ironing required whilst still retaining the natural fibre content.